I've just realised that, by a most fortuitous confluence of my two biggest obsessions, the lyrics of my favourite David Sylvian song could almost have been written about Snape and Lily (they weren't - they were about the break-up of one of his own relationships that I think actually led to him having a mental breakdown. But that's by the by). If he plays this when I see him in September I'm just going to be bawling.

See what you think. I'm also interested in reading other suggestions for songs for our favourite pair..

DAMAGE

I found the way
By the sound of your voice.
So many things to say,
These are only words
Now I've only words
Once there was a choice.

Did I give you much?
Well, you gave me things -
You gave me stars to hold,
Songs to sing.
I only wanted to be loved,
I only wanted to be loved,
I only want to be loved.
And I hurt and I hurt and the damage is done.
You gave me songs to sing,
Shadow and sun
Earthbound, starblind,
Tied to someone.

Why didn't I stay?
Why couldn't I...?
So many lives to cross...
Well, I  just had to leave.
There goes everything.

Will I meet you there -
God knows the place?
And I'll touch your hands,
Kiss your face.
I only want to be loved,
I only want to be loved,
And I hurt and I hurt and the damage is done.
You gave me songs to sing,
Shadow and sun.
Earthbound, starblind,
Tied to someone.

Then of course, there's that lovely one that guad circulated to us a while back:

Artista: Jarabe De Palo
Album: La Flaca
Canción: El lado oscuro

Puede que hayas
nacido en la cara
buena del mundo.
Yo nací en la cara mala,
llevo la marca
del Lado Oscuro
(Estribillo)
No me sonrojo
si te digo que te quiero,
y que me dejes o te deje,
eso ya no me da miedo.
Tú habías sido
sin dudarlo la más bella
de entre todas las estrellas
que yo ví en el firmamento.
Cómo ganarse el cielo,
cuando uno ama
con toda el alma.
Y es que el cariño
que te tengo
no se paga con dinero.
Cómo decirte
que sin ti muero.

Oops! I went to CoS to post my answers to the 41 questions, only to find they'd shut for the DH release. I must have got the dates mixed up - I didn't think they were closing until Saturday. Typical! The first time for weeks that I've felt like posting at CoS and I can't....

So I'll just have to post my DH predictions here. these are mostly standard goodSnaper things, with just a little bit of tin foil at the end.

1. Snape has genuinely been on the side of the OotP since he realised Voldemort was targetting the Potters as a result of his leaking of the prophecy.

2.Snape cast the AK at Dumbledore's request (NOT just so he could preserve his cover as a spy - that, IMO, would be a ridiculous waste of the Order's best resource, Dumbledore, for a very small pay off  - or because he stupidly got cornered into the Unbreakable Vow and DD was prepared to die to get him out of a nasty hole - that wouldn't fit with either DD or Snape's  characterisation, as I see it, and would still be a ridiculous waste of the Order's best resource). I don't even think it's to prevent Draco becoming a killer and tearing his soul (although I do find that a much more plausible reason). i think it's for one fo the following reasons:

(a) there's something dangerous in DD that he wants to destroy in order to protect the Order (possibly he's a horcrux himself, possibly the potion he drank in the cave would turn him into something dangerous and hostile)
(b) he knows that by sacrificing himself willingly he will effect some deep magic that will help destroy Voldemort (for those who say "But that would be JKR endorsing suicide in a children's book! No way!" - how is that so different from what Ron does in the chess game in PS/SS? OK, he doesn't really die, but he thinks he will when he chooses to sacrifice his knight in order to let Harry cross the chessboard, and he's only a 12-year-old child. She's already endorsed this kind of sacrifice.)
(c) it wasn't a real AK at all - it was a fake spell, masking the real non-verbal spell which Snape cast at the same time. Non-verbals have been emphasised so much in HBP, they must be really key to the plot.

3. There is some deep history between Snape and Lily, and that is at least part of the reason why DD trusts Snape. I'm not certain what exactly that history is - I think it's been heavily hinted there is one, but the exact nature of it has been left open. I'd hazard a guess at some kind of friendship when they were in the sixth form and unrequited love on Snape's part, but it couls be anything, really. It's something we haven't been explicitly told about, though, and it's going to be very significant to the plot of DH. This relationship will be revealed to Harry, either through the photo album given to him by Hagrid (if Snape WAS a friend of Lily's, he would have been one fo the people who weer asked to donate pictures), or through Petunia, or through graffiti in APM, or through Snape's will after he dies and leaves Spinner's End to Harry.

4. Snape has some semi-formal guradianship of Harry (possibly he solemnly promised Lily he would look out for his safety)

5. Harry, Snape, Bellatrix, Neville, Ginny, Fenrir, Kingsley Shacklebolt, alastor Moody and several  DEs will die. Voldemort possibly will not (there are worse things than death) but I'm not sure about that. Hermione and Ron will live (I think it's signfiicant that the only two major character to die so far have been  single men. I don't think JKR will break up a couple waiting to happen. There won't be many bereaved widows/widowers at the end of DH - if one half of a couple dies, the other half will go with them)

6. the Big blond Death Eater is an OotP spy

7. traitors to the good side
 - McGonagall (perhaps not really - perhaps the person now calling him/herself McGonagall is a polyjuiced-up DE, but if you read what DD says about how he knew that fake Moody was fake at the end of GoF, exactly the same two things apply to McG at the end of HBP - she insists on grilling Harry aggressively when he's just seen someone die, instead of leaving it until a more tactful moment , as someone genuinely interested in Harry's welfare would do, and she asks him to disobey a direct order of Dumbledore's)
-Slughorn
-Ollivander (or thinking about it, possibly not - the fact that he appears to ahev beeen abducted by Voldemort suggets that he probably ahn't - either he went willingly, or he's actually been put in hiding by DD)

But, hey, I won't be disappointed if I'm wrong about any of this. In fact, the thing which would disappoint me most of all is if I'm 100% right about everything - I read adventure and mystery books because I want to be surprised. if it turns out that the plot was entirely predictable, I'll want my money back.