death to capslock

In the case of Sirius being correct, I meant that to many it seems as if Lily and Snape's friendship never seemed that important to Lily after she got to Hogwarts, so it was already far more important to Snape. Lily no doubt did remember Snape fondly from childhood. But the relationship just seems very unequal after Snape's no longer telling her about Wizards. So Sirius may very well be correct in Snape not being a factor he had to reckon with much at school the way he was that first day on the train. Of course Sirius does tend to exaggerate situations to suit himself, though, like the way his family could never have been anything to anyone because he doesn't like them (though at this point I wouldn't be surprised if he's supposed to be mostly right about them except for the way Regulus died). Sirius does tell us about Snape's other gang of friends, though.

Anyway, totally yes to the spying. I was trying to explain that to somebody yesterday--there's a lot of 'war stuff' in the books with no actual war. So Lupin spying on the werewolevs and Snape spying on the DEs doesn't actually lead anywhere. It's like the equivalent of imagining a businessman at work just shuffling papers and signing his name to things without actually knowing what he does.