Okay so I had yet another argument with someone about Severus Snape and I think there is one point everyone forgets: If the prophecy hadn’t targeted Lily and her son, Snape would not have cared about it. He would’ve continued living as a faithful death eater for the rest of his life. That is why Snape is not redeemed. He didn’t regret it because he felt what he was doing was wrong, he did it because he loved the woman that it ended up being about.
Not saying that if you like him you’re wrong, you can like him all you want, but acknowledge that he is not a good person for the sake of being good.
I don’t think anyone forgets this. On the contrary, it makes for a rather compelling AU.
You cannot state absolutely that Snape would’ve continued living as a faithful Death Eater for the rest of his life, because such commentary is not written in canon. It is impossible to know whether Snape was a wholly committed, loyal, dedicated Death Eater and the shock of the prophecy made him do a complete 180, or whether Snape was already feeling unsure about the path he had taken, and was looking for an exit when the prophecy came along, and Lily being threatened was the final straw.
We have no idea which extreme of the scale is true, or whether he was at another point on the scale entirely - because there is no information about Snape’s time as a young Death Eater.
You cannot credibly claim that Snape is not redeemed based upon what he may or may not have done in an alternate universe.
Furthermore, your claim that Snape didn’t regret his time as a Death Eater has very little weight - not only because very little is written about his time as a Death Eater, and his beliefs, and his behaviour, but predominantly because he carried through with Dumbledore’s plan.
It appears that some people are happy to proclaim that Snape was only behaving the way he did due to Lily, but forget that he gained relatively little out of his deal with Dumbledore: he defected, at great risk, to save Lily - but Lily died. He then aligned himself with Dumbledore and continued to spy, at great risk, to save Harry - but he was then told Harry had to die. Snape himself died believing that both Lily and Harry had/would perish.
If he had been a fully aligned Death Eater who reluctantly stood to one side because Lily (and later, Harry) was more important to him, then upon learning that both would die, he could’ve defected back to Voldemort. Indeed, he was in a fantastic position to do so - having just proven himself utterly loyal to Voldemort by murdering Dumbledore.
Instead, he not only continued with Dumbledore’s plan, but we were given several key moments which hinted at his changed behaviour, such as the contrast between his plea to save Lily and his admission of ‘lately, only those whom I could not save’, or the juxtaposition of his slur towards Lily and his refusal to hear it repeated by Phineas, or his success at remaining at Hogwarts and keeping the rest of the staff alive.
Snape’s success is that he rejects the Death Eater movement, despite appearing to be aligned with people within it (such as the Malfoys). His justification for doing so, just like Regulus turning his back because of his affection towards his house elf, is immaterial - what counts is his dedication to his new affiliation, and his success in his role.
I hesitate to quote Cursed Child, because I realise some do not accept it as canonical, and this version of Snape is an AU himself - but it actively spells out, and answers your statement, perfectly:
One person. All it takes is one person. I couldn’t save Harry for Lily. So now I give my allegiance to the cause she believed in. And it’s possible — that along the way I started believing in it myself.
It is unfortunate that people are obsessed with others behaving solely for altruistic reasons, and reducing the achievements of those who have a change of heart. Such a stance sees people trapped in gangs or cults, because they fear that there is no way back for them - that they will be shunned by society for their actions at a young age, with no means for redemption.
Hi guys! Sorry for not posting for so long. Also, thanks to the anon who inspired and motivated me to write and finish this. You wanted pure fluff and well, it got much angstier than I intended to. Sorry about that.
Imagine: Snape taking care of you after hours of torture and being anxious about you breaking up with him. (Part 2 of this)
Warnings: Angst, mentions of pain/torture
Words: 1,636
Severus apparated home with you in his arms. You unconsciously nuzzled closer to him, making his heart ache. Would you still do that, even after remembering today's events?
He silently shook his head, dismissing his thoughts. Right now, his top priority was tending to your wounds and nursing you back to health.
After he entered your shared house, he went straight to the bathroom. He always found that a hot bath was relaxing, especially after hours and hours of torture.
While Severus was running the bath, he carefully undressed you. He didn't want to hurt you even more, after all. The smell of Epsom Salt wafted over to him and made him nauseous as he remembered all the times, he needed a bath like this. But he would endure them any time as long as you were unharmed.
Carefully, he placed you in the bathtub and flinched when you let out a pained groan at your contact with the hot water. However, after the pain subsided, you relaxed and sighed contentedly.
Seeing that, Severus began to wash your body gently, also hoping to wash away your memories of this day. But of course, he couldn't. He could only hope that you would allow him to paint over your painful memories with better ones.
-
You stirred in your dreamless sleep, finding that the material beneath you was oddly soft. Everything was in a blur when you opened your eyes, but you somehow realized that you were in your shared bedroom; the memories of how you got there were foggy.
Groaning loudly, you moved into a sitting position and reached for the glass of water sitting on your bedside table, but you accidentally knocked it off in the process.
Severus, who was in the room next door, heard the noise and almost burst through the door.
"Everything alright?" He asked worriedly, but after looking around the room, he noted the shards of broken glass in a little water puddle. "I'll fix it," he assured with a soft smile and instantly repaired the glass and filled it with water.
"Thanks," you croaked, your throat still dry from all the hours of torture, and reached out to take it from him. Severus attempted to give you the glass, but seeing that your hands were still shaking, he gently lifted your chin and brought the glass to your lips.
After you emptied the contents of the glass, Severus set it down on the nightstand and let his worried gaze travel over you.
"I'm fine," you mumbled and curled up again, "I just wanna sleep."
"That's it, sleep it out, love," he answered with his gaze soft and his fingers trailing over your cheek. He leaned over, kissed you on the forehead, and turned to leave when you caught his sleeve.
"Stay with me?" You asked him with the most adorable sleepy smile he'd ever seen, "please?"
"Sure," he answered and slipped under the covers, gathering you in his arms but careful as to not hurt you. Merlin, how could he ever refuse you something?
You immediately snuggled closer to him, burying your face in his chest and breathing in his scent. The pain was still there, ever-present in every fiber of your body, but his presence somehow made it all better.
-
Feeling the space next to you was cold and unoccupied, you woke up and attempted to sit up. You groaned in pain and tried calling out to him instead.
"Sev-," you called, your voice sounding better than before, but you were interrupted by him entering the room while balancing a tray in his hand. The sight caused an amused chuckle from you before you saw what was on it.
"No, please, I don't think I can get one single bite down," you protested.
He just shook his head, "It's only soup. And you need to eat something, (Y/N)." Setting the tray down, he gave you a knowing smile. "I even made your favorite."
That gesture alone was enough to make your heart melt. You glared at his triumphant smile. When you moved to get the soup, he shook his head and declared, "I'm going to feed you."
"You- what?"
"You heard correctly. Now open up." He had blown at it several times to cool it down and was now holding it in front of your mouth.
Hesitantly, you opened your mouth and swallowed the still-warm soup.
"Is it good?" He asked, while he already had the next spoon ready.
You hummed in agreement, already opening your mouth. Chuckling softly at that sight, he brought another spoon to your mouth.
And not long after, you finished the whole bowl. Severus made a noise of approval and traded the empty bowl in his hand with a vial. "Here, drink this. It should make you feel better."
You gave him a skeptical look but drank it nonetheless. "Merlin, you couldn't have made it taste better?"
He just rolled his eyes and took the vial from you. "Sleep," he instructed, "You're going to feel much better afterward. I'll be next door." He stood up and moved to the door but stopped when you called out.
"You should cook more often," you said and gave him a sleepy half-smile, the potion already working.
"I will."
"You promise?"
"I promise."
-
The next time you woke up, you decided that you could get up. Most of the pain had subsided anyways.
Carefully, you placed your foot on the ground and tried to walk. You were still a little unsteady, so you decided to take it slow and find your husband. Slowly, you made your way downstairs into the living room.
There he was, sitting in the armchair and reading a potions book. He looked up and upon seeing you, his eyes widened and he leaped out of the chair.
"What are you doing, (Y/N)?" he asked, completely bewildered.
"Just stretching my legs," you answered and got away from his grasp when he tried to guide you back to the stairs. "No, I don't want to go back to bed. Can't I stay here, with you?"
He sighed but relented. "Fine. Grab yourself a book and make yourself comfortable."
After shuffling around a bit, you turned around and watched Severus sitting in that armchair, reading, deciding you wanted to join him. So you curled up in his lap, again taking him by surprise.
"What are you doing?"
"Making myself comfortable," you answered and flashed him a grin.
He just raised an eyebrow, but inwardly he was overwhelmed and confused. Why were you still by his side? Why hadn't you taken the first chance you got, and run away?
He found that he couldn't concentrate on what he was reading anymore, so set it down and instead watched you. His hand found their way to your hair, tangling them in it, playing with your locks and lightly tugging at it. He then moved to your shoulders, working on your knots and massaging the tension out of them like you did so many times.
He did not notice you falling asleep to his relaxing movements, too lost in his thoughts while he absentmindedly continued.
-
One week later, after you could resume your everyday life, it seemed like Severus was avoiding you. He was barely home anyways, but between Order meetings, Death Eater meetings and errands he had to run, he was home. But every time you tried to talk to him, he brushed you off, saying that he was busy.
"I'm home!" he called and made his way to his office. But this time you blocked his way. He barely acknowledged you and attempted to move past you but you would have none of it.
"Severus, we need to talk."
"We can talk later. I'm busy. Albus asked me to-"
"No," you interrupted, "We're going to talk. Now."
At your tone of urgency, he froze. Were you going to break up with up? Have you thought over everything and realized that everything was his fault?
"What's going on, Severus? You've been avoiding me ever since-," you began as soon as you both sat down but broke off as you pieced it together, "It's about that day, isn't it?"
Severus sighed. There was no point in denying it now, so he just made a sound of agreement, already dreading in which direction this is going to go. But you had every right to be angry or scared and leave.
"Look, Severus," you said while taking his hands in yours and searching his eyes, "I won't know what you're thinking unless you tell me. So please talk to me."
"Why are you still here?" He whispered so quietly, you barely even heard him.
"What?" You asked incredulously.
"I mean, you saw - Merlin you felt- what happens if you are close to me. So why haven't you left yet? Why are you still here? Why-" Severus was barely holding himself together by now. He didn't want to lose you, but he had to at least leave that decision to you.
"Woah, Woah, Woah - hold on. Who said anything about me leaving?" You gently took Severus' face in your hands, "I'm not going anywhere, love. I'm staying right here. I knew what I signed up for when I married you. I made a vow, remember? I'm not just gonna leave when things get rough."
That's when Severus broke down. He pulled you into a tight embrace, which you gladly returned, as choked sobs escaped him and he buried his face in your hair.
He felt loved, truly loved by you. And he was going to protect you at all costs. He was thankful that every pain he had to endure would subside because of you. And he was going to do the same for you. Come what may.
Adorable piece of art that inspires so much of my writing. How to get Snape to this place without it being jarring? I don’t know, read my stuff and tell me what you think
sorry i didnt realize literally terrorizing kids starting at age 11 was just being a strict teacher! dont forget that snape was literally nevilles greatest fear like oh yes thats just the result of a strict teacher. imagine thinking sirius being a shitty teenager and snape literally mistreating children just because hes sad are even remotely comfortable. freak.
Press F to pay respect to a freak who sees Snape as a multidimensional character rather than viewing everything in the series in terms of black and white; only favoring characters who have a hero-complex 😩🤟🤟
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Snape not only deflects McGonagall’s attack but uses it to take down Alecto and Amycus in a single armwave behind his visual field. Like they both had their wands out too but BOY they did not see that coming. Snape knew that he needed to get rid of them before being driven out of the castle so that they wouldn’t harm any of the students GOD what a badass motherfucker
I think everyone’s been so focused on hating/defending Snape, that we forget just what a motherfucking GENIUS he was (which honestly explains most of his whole attitude). The man literally rewrote the best textbook on potion making written in over a century WHEN HE WAS FUCKING 16 YEARS OLD.
Could you imagine going to your AP Chem teacher when you were in 10th grade and going “nah man, your way is ok I guess but there’s like 5 other ways to perform this titration faster and more accurately.” Because that’s pretty much what he did with the notes in HBP.
So it should be no surprise that someone of that level of intellect, who was bullied and harassed from the time their ability presented, would be a goddamn MASTER in duel-combat. You can bet your ass he’d studied that almost more than anything else. He was a master Occlumens (mental self defense and evasion), a master of Potions, a master of any and all forms of strategy, defense, combat, etc, BECAUSE HE FELT LIKE HE HAD TO BE JUST TO STAY SAFE. Why else would a flaming 16 year old come up with something like Sectumsempra? It’s def not a Potion! It’s a self defense spell of last resort. It’s fucking LETHAL. So we can assume he was heavy into combat spells and practice by that point, and given his intellect, would have had virtually unrestricted access to any books on any subject he wanted.
Love him or hate him, Snape was one HELL of a beautifully complex character, with just enough spelled out to keep us filling in the blanks for years.
Is not that she failed in giving James a redemption arc…she never even tried.
Homegirl just thew in “he got better btw” and called it a day. That´s the literary equivalent of handing in an assignment you scribbled 5 minutes before class started just so you won´t fail.
James Potter is THAT insignificant a character. He basically exists as a narrative tool in Snape´s redemption arc and as an embelishment in Lily´s tale of motherly sacrifice (which would have been the same had she married anybody else or been a single mother)
