it seems like Dumbledore was trying to get Lily to have feelings for [Snape] so she could pull him away from the Death Eaters
I doubt it. Eliezer originally thought that Lily was dating Snape, the passage was changed to refer to her “one of her friends” after readers pointed out that they’d never dated. And if they were originally assumed to be dating then Lily would have already had feelings for him—no need to meddle like that.
You’re totally right; I had forgotten about that. So I retracted my above comment, only to realize that it doesn’t necessarily ruin my theory. Whether they were dating or merely friends, Lily and Snape would have fought over his Death Eater tendencies, and they are what would have ruined the relationship. Dumbledore could have seen their relationship falling apart and tried to reconcile it any way he could.
But yeah, that seems a lot more far-fetched when you take Eliezer’s prior mistake into consideration.
I doubt it. Eliezer originally thought that Lily was dating Snape, the passage was changed to refer to her “one of her friends” after readers pointed out that they’d never dated. And if they were originally assumed to be dating then Lily would have already had feelings for him—no need to meddle like that.
You’re totally right; I had forgotten about that. So I retracted my above comment, only to realize that it doesn’t necessarily ruin my theory. Whether they were dating or merely friends, Lily and Snape would have fought over his Death Eater tendencies, and they are what would have ruined the relationship. Dumbledore could have seen their relationship falling apart and tried to reconcile it any way he could.
But yeah, that seems a lot more far-fetched when you take Eliezer’s prior mistake into consideration.