This is an Anti Snape rant. I was to preface it by making it clear that I appreciate Severus Snape as one of the most interesting, important and well written literary figures of our time and possibly in history. I respect anyone who says that Snape is their favorite. That’s perfectly fine. Harley Quinn is one of my favorite comic book characters. She’s bubbly and funny and intelligent and strong…that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize that she’s criminally insane and that her relationship with the joker is in fact terribly abusive from both sides. These multi-dimensional characters become our favorites BECAUSE there are so many sides to them. Harry Potter happens to be a series where nearly every primary character is several layers deep. To quote my own personal problematic favorite; “The World isn’t made up of Good People and Death Eaters.” - Sirius Black, Order of the Pheonix, Chapter 15, Percy and Padfoot.
Snape is a bad person. I don’t care what he did to “redeem himself”. You can die to save the world, that doesn’t mean years of verbally and emotionally abusing children just didn’t count. I know plenty of people who served in the military and fought for the country but they abuse their families…does it not count because they fought a war?
FACT: Severus Snape was interested the dark arts from an early age.
FACT: Severus Snape had other friends besides Lily Evans.
FACT: Severus Snape provoked James Potter and Sirius Black, often spying on the Marauders to try and find out Remus Lupin’s secret and also hanging around with Slytherin Pure Blood Supremacists who bullied other students. He was not an innocent unpopular kid that the big, mean popular boys picked on. He wasn’t. Stop victimizing him. He was just as much at fault as they were.
FACT: Severus Snape created his own spell by the age of 15 that was potentially lethal and used it on James Potter…reason? Well, James pantsed him….
FACT: Lily Evans ended her friendship with Severus Snape because of his affiliation with these other students and his interest in The Dark Arts. She did not end the friendship in favor of James Potter. She didn’t even start dating James for AT LEAST another year after ending her friendship with Severus. He called her a racial slur and his friends physically attacked one of her friends.
“I never meant to call you a Mudblood. It just-”
“Slipped out? It’s too late! I’ve been making excuses for you for years! None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you! You and your precious little Death Eater friends. See? You don’t even deny it! You don’t deny that that is what you’re aiming to be! You can’t wait to join You-Know-Who, can you? I can’t pretend anymore. You’ve chosen your way and I’ve chosen mine.”
“No, listen, I didn’t mean-”
“To call me a Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth a mudblood! Why should I be any different?” - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33 The Prince’s Tale.
FACT: Severus Snape never got over his romantic feelings for Lily Evans and was angry that she married his school rival, James Potter.
“Always.” - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33, The Prince’s Tale.
This is actually creepy. One of my biggest qualms with The Harry Potter Fandom as a whole is how infatuated people are with this quote. James and Lily died at age 21, a good 6 years after Lily ended her friendship with Severus and he’s still holding a torch for her? This isn’t love, it’s obsession and it’s unhealthy. He harassed her after she ended things, too. He threatened to sleep outside the Gryffindor common room until Lily agreed to speak with him (See: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33, The Prince’s Tale). It’s not sweet that Severus was still in love with Lily after all this time. It’s scary. Severus’ patronus being a Doe is CREEPY, not a sign that they are soulmates.
FACT: Severus Snape joined the Death Eaters BECAUSE HE WANTED TO ALL ALONG. Upon learning that Lily Evans had been targeted, he ran to Dumbledore, begging him to protect her. Only Her.
“If she means so much to you, could you not ask The Dark Lord for mercy for the mother in exchange for the son?”
“You disgust me. You do not care then about the deaths of her husband and her son, as long as you get what you want?”
Snape said nothing. - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33 The Prince’s Tale
If Lily Potter hadn’t been on Voldemort’s death list, would Severus have switched sides? It didn’t have to be Lily. It could have easily been Alice Longbottom instead. Had Neville been The Chosen One, Severus Snape would have remained a Death Eater. He only became a double-agent to repay Dumbledore for protecting Lily.
After Lily dies, Dumbledore has to bribe Severus to help him keep Harry safe.
“He has her eyes, Severus. Her exact eyes. Surely you remember the shape and color of Lily Evans’s eyes.”
“DON’T!” Bellowed Snape. “Dead…gone…”
“You know how and why she died. Let it not be in vane. Help me protect her son.”
“He doesn’t need protection! The Dark Lord is gone-”
“Very well. But never tell, Dumbledore! I cannot bare it…especially Potter’s son!” - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33, The Prince’s Tale.
Yikes, Severus. You loved this woman so much, or so you claim, but the idea of helping to protect HER CHILD, for whom she gave her life, is so unbearable to you because his father, who died trying to protect both of them, was mean to you in grade school? That’s…pretty messed up.
FACT: 11 years later with a nice cushy job and protection at Hogwarts, Severus Snape continues to be a bitter adult man who is still not over his school yard crush, a woman who has been dead for over a decade and refused to speak to him for six years prior to that. He is in fact so bitter about it that he frequently takes it out on her prepubescent son.
Why? Because he looks a hell of a lot like James Potter.
“-Mediocre, arrogant as his father, a determined rule breaker, delighted to find himself famous, attention seeking and impertinent -”
“You see what you expect to see, Severus. Other teachers report that the boy is modest, likable and reasonably talented. Personally, I find him to be an engaging child.” - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33, The Prince’s Tale.
But Snape doesn’t only pick on Harry. He picks on many of his young students just because…well…Because he’s an asshole, really! Honestly, the man humiliated 13 year old Neville Longbottom in front of the entire class for messing up on his potions assignment and then attempted to murder the kid’s pet. (See: Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter Seven, The Boggart in the Wardrobe.)
Not to mention this lovely scene
Ron forced Hermione to show Snape her teeth. She was doing her best to hide them with her hands, though this was difficult as they had grown past her collar.
Snape looked coldly at Hermione and then said, “I see no difference.” - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, chapter 18, The Weighing Of The Wands.
I could name probably a dozen more times that Severus Snape abuses his position as a Professor and treats his students with disrespect and potentially damaging behavior, but we would be here all day and there are other points I’d like to move on to.
FACT: Severus Snape was uninterested in the possibility of Sirius Black’s innocence and overjoyed at the idea of being the one to turn him over to the Dementors.
“Two more for Azkaban tonight,” Said Snape, his eyes gleaming fanatically. I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this. He was convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin…a tame werewolf.”
“You fool.” Said Lupin softly. “Is a school boy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?” - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, chapter nineteen, The Servant of Lord Voldemort.
Okay, look, Sirius did try to kill Snape when they were kids. That’s a thing that happened…although there are not enough details of The Willow Incident known in canon to explain exactly what happened and why Sirius would do such a thing knowing that he could have potentially gotten James and Remus killed in the process…but that’s beside the point. What really gets me is that not only did Snape want to have Sirius given the Dementor’s kiss, but Remus also.
BANG! Thin, snakelike cords burst out from the end of Snape’s wand and twisted themselves around Lupin’s mouth, wrists and ankles, he overbalanced and fell to the ground unable to move. With a roar of rage, Black started towards Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Black’s eyes.
“Give me a reason and I’ll do it, I swear.”
“I’ll drag the werewolf. Perhaps the dementors will have a kiss for him too.” - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 19, The Servant of Lord Voldemort.
And it doesn’t stop there. Unable to get what he wanted and have his school rivals killed or imprisoned for absolutely no reason, Severus Butthurt Snape decides to just ruin Remus’ life instead and tells the entire school about his Lycanthropy - oh, wait, I’m sorry…did I say the entire school? I meant the world.
“Amung these ‘eccentric decisions’ are undoubtedly the controversial staff appointments previously described in this newspaper, which have included the hiring of werewolf Remus Lupin.” - Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, chapter 15, Hogwarts High Inquisitor.
“I know she’s a nasty piece of work though- you should hear Remus talk about her.”
“No, but she drafted a bit of anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that makes it almost impossible for him to get a job.” - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, chapter 14, Percy and Padfoot.
Two years ago, you say? What happened two years prior to this? Remus was working at Hogwarts and Snape outed him.
No where in canon does it say that Remus ever did anything to Severus Snape, when honestly out of all the Marauders, he had the most reason to. Snape was always spying on them to get to him, after all. There is no reason for Severus to hate Remus enough to completely destroy his life like this. Only the fact that Severus Snape is without a doubt the biggest grudge holder to have ever lived.
FACT: Severus Snape is a war hero.
Yes. He was. He was a key player in the defeat of Lord Voldemort, though not necessarily by his own choice. He was dragged into it by Dumbledore and by his own guilt, feeling this was the only way he could truly make amends for what happened between him and Lily when they were fifteen.
So does begrudgingly becoming a double agent in the war as payment for Dumbledore’s attempts to keep Lily Evans safe for his own selfish reasons really negate every awful thing this man did from the time he was a young child to his guilt-driven ‘heroic’ death?
Severus Snape is a bad person.
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