Okay but realistically speaking: How can anyone like Severus Snape? Of all the characters in the entire series, I understand his reasoning the least.
The whole, ‘Oh, I was in love with a muggle but I joined a group of people who hate her kind. I also used a slur about her to her face, and tried to manipulate her to keep her by my side even though I was making choices against her well-being and safety and she didn’t want anything to do with me.’
Mr. ‘I’m going to constantly harass a preteen/teenager about his DEAD FATHER because him and his friends hurt my feelings when I was 15. Even though James saved my life. And James and Lily were going to make me the godfather to their unborn second child. And, you know. He was 15.’
And, keep in mind, Harry also comes from an abusive home. Snape might have been the one person to be aware of it because of his history with Petunia. And he still chose to be cruel, knowing that Harry was growing up in a similar, if not worse, situation than he had, and was in no way a reflection of his father and his father’s ideals-he chose to be cruel simply because they look alike.
A possible theme in the entire Harry Potter series is that it is not what you are given-but what you make of it. Voldemort and Harry’s childhoods reflect each other in many ways-Orphans with little information about their parents, subjected to the cruelty of muggles. Left behind/Saved, depending on how you view it, by their mother’s, and both look-alikes to their fathers.
The only difference, which is what ends up putting them against each other and lets Harry win the war? Love. Harry and Voldemort had the same childhood-but Harry chose love instead of hate. In a way, the end of Harry Potter was determined when he chose Gryffindor over Slytherin-because he chose to join his friends, rather than power, during his introduction into the magical world.
I have a lot to say about that topic, actually but. Back to Snape Slander.
‘I’m going to torment a child (I mean Neville) and threaten to kill his toad, just because he’s not in my house and I Don’t Like Him.’
‘I’m going to be a bully and use my past and the people that hurt my feelings as an excuse to terrify literal children so I can feel some kind of revenge about how small everyone else made me feel as a child.’
It is one thing to be arrogant and stupid at 15.
Most teenagers are reflections of how they were raised, as well as little hotspots of emotion and hormones and a whole lot of cockiness/insecurities, depending on where you land.
(Yes, I mean James Potter, who GREW UP and MATURED when he became an adult like most normal people, unlike the other immature and arrogant Slytherin I’m talking about.)
But it is an entirely other thing to keep those same predujices into adulthood and go and torment some more unexpecting children who expect you to be their teacher. (I’d like to remind everyone what Neville’s worst fear was-That’s right, it was Snape, The Greaselord Extraordinaire himself.)
Snape’s actions aren’t redeemed just because it turns out he was unhealthy obsessed with one girl his entire life, even though they were only really friends for a few years as preteens/teenagers, too.
If you want to say it was romantic and sweet that she was his ‘one and only love’, consider that she didn’t WANT to be his one and only. And if he really wanted to keep her around, Snape could’ve, oh, I don’t know, maybe not have joined the terrorist group that actively targeted her kind.
There’s nothing romantic about his actions. It’s creepy. He’s selfish and the epitome of ‘Self-pity’. He was obsessed with someone who grew to want nothing with him, and took actions that resulted in her death. (Including telling Voldemort about the prophecy-DIRECTLY leading to her death.) He didn’t care about anyone but himself, first and foremost, and then Lily, and gave no thought to what she actually wanted to do or be with.
He would’ve sacrificed her son (Who she sacrificed herself for without hesitation-Lily spent her last moments begging for the world’s most feared man to kill her in her baby’s place. It was brave, loyal, and the ultimate show of selfless love, in contrast to Mr. Snape.) just to keep her alive for his own selfish desire. Even Dumbledore was disgusted.
At the very least, I can somewhat understand why Harry named his son after Severus. To know that someone was actually looking out for him the entire time even though they didn’t like him-to someone who’se come from Harry’s background, it would be a very intense revelation and one Harry would want to honor.
But like...it doesn’t excuse everything else he did.
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