Even as a child, when Snape spoke of magic, he was spellbinding. He manifested magic so young, Snape didn’t need wand-waving or spoken words to make it real. It was in his head, and in Lily’s head, as well, and that made everything real enough. Rowling was careful to show the full intellectual range at Hogwarts, but at one level, her story is an allegory about giftedness.
