This Is What I Call True Love...

I was rereading, (yes, rereading) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I came across my favourite part of any novel I've ever read (not that I've read many novels, maybe a dozen or so). It was the part about Snape being in love with Lily, Harry's mother.




"'Look ... at ... me ...' he (Snape) whispered. The green eyes (of Harry Potter, which is exactly the same as his mother's) found the black, but after a second something in the depths of the dark pair seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, blank and empty. The hand holding Harry thudded to the floor, and Snape moved no more." Snape wanted to see Lily's eyes before he died. He wanted it to be the last thing he saw.






"From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe (same as Lily's patronus): she landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears. 'After all this time?,' said Dumbledore. 'Always,' said Snape. He loved her so much even his patronus (which is unique to each person) took the shape of Lily's.




"'And next, Snape was kneeling in Sirius's old bedroom. Tears were dripping from the end of his hooked nose as he read the old letter from Lily. The second page carried only a few words: 'could ever have been friends with Gellert Grindelwald. I think her mind's going, personally! Lots of love, Lily'. Snape took the page bearing Lily's signature, and her love, and tucked it inside his robes. Then he ripped in two the photograph he was also holding, so that he kept the part from which Lily laughed, throwing the portion showing James and Harry back on to the floor, under the chest of drawers..." Snape wanted Lily's love; he always did but never had it.


Snape loved Lily so much that he even pleaded to Voldemort to spare her (kind of inhumane if you think about it because he didn't care about James or the baby, Harry). But she died anyway. Snape, henceforth, became mean and bitter and he didn't wear his heart on his sleeve (as most people do). Also, Snape strived to keep Harry safe from harm only because he was Lily's son. He loved her alone and he did all in his power to save the last living memory he had of her (in Harry's eyes) until his death.


To me, this kind of love is untouchable, unconditional, a little selfish but still powerful.