#autistic snape

[danadiadea]

Thinking about how Hermione, who Snape "hates" and "bullies", is one of the TWO people Snape had somewhat praised in class:

"An answer copied almost word for word from The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six,” said Snape dismissively (over in the corner, Malfoy sniggered), “but correct in essentials."

Okay, maybe that's not fully a praise, but the ONLY other time when Severus tells someone they did something correct (remind me if I forgot something, but I'm not recalling anything else) in canon is to Draco, during the first PS lesson:

"He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like. He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs..."

Which isn't even necessarily a praise since we don't have the exact wording, it seems more like setting Draco (who probably had some practice in potions before, maybe even with Severus himself) as an example, so that other students can do it similarly. Since Potions is a mostly practical subject, and it's their first lesson so they didn't have a reference for stewing slugs before, this seems like a totally reasonable way of teaching to me. It's also clear that he does criticise Slytherins here.

So we have 2 explicitly said in class, very dubious praises towards Draco and Hermione, and that's kinda it, which is a thing I thought about in relation to Snape never giving ANYONE ANY House points. We don't know if it's something he never does intentionally for whatever reason, or if it's just rare, so Harry doesn't witness it/comment on it, but this man clearly doesn't believe in positive reinforcement much – probably because he doesn't know it himself.

"Typically, ten minutes into the lesson Hermione managed to repel Neville’s muttered Jelly-Legs Jinx without uttering a single word, a feat that would surely have earned her twenty points for Gryffindor from any reasonable teacher, thought Harry bitterly, but which Snape ignored." - yeah Harry, Snape doesn't fucking do that, but he doesn't do that to everyone. It's not him being prejudiced to Hermione or to Gryffindor, he's just like that.

Severus is so damn terrible at communicating with others in an amiable, likable, socially agreeable way, I literally love him.

[severus-snaps]

Snape + physical stress responses / stims

A muscle twitched unpleasantly at the corner of Snape’s thin mouth every time he looked at Harry, and he was constantly flexing his fingers, as though itching to place them around Harry’s throat.

Snape eyed Harry, tracing his mouth with one long, thin finger as he did so. ... Snape stared at Harry for a few moments, still tracing his mouth with his finger. When he spoke again, it was slowly and deliberately, as though he weighed every word.

The office dissolved but re-formed instantly. Snape was pacing up and down in front of Dumbledore.

The adult Snape was panting, turning on the spot, his wand gripped tightly in his hand, waiting for something or for someone. … Snape was wringing his hands

Snape paces when he is stressed

Snape touches his mouth when considering what to say

Snape is prone to muscle twitches when (more) stressed (than usual)

Snape wrings his hands and flexes his fingers

Headcanons (autistic snape time):

Snape would naturally stim more obviously, but between his father and being unpopular in school, he had to keep things subtle and/or internal. When he's alone he shakes/flaps his hands, or rocks. He likes to lean back to feel his hair on his back, and finds it soothing. In public he just flexes the fingers, though he'll also stretch/fold his toes if he thinks nobody can see, or rubs his fingers together inside his robe pockets

"Snape loomed behind them, half in shadow, wearing a most peculiar expression: It was as though he was trying hard not to smile." wrong, harry - he's biting the insides of his cheeks and/or tucking his inside lips/rubbing his gums with his lips because it's soothing and wtf is happening rn, mrs norris is maybe dead

random long and complicated words (usually to do with potions/ingredients) are a favourite internal stim. he'll repeat whatever word is stuck in his head so often he gets sick of it, but he can't stop. the syllables sometimes match whatever he's doing, like an internal beat matching his actions, but if he falls into this rhythm whatever he's doing has to stay matched with the 'beat' of the syllables or it feels wrong. once he got a spell stuck in his head but he had to stop letting himself repeat spells internally once he became competent in nonverbal magic, because he accidentally cast it once without actually meaning to

[half-blood-prince-throne]

Sirius: you are too weird

Snape: I am autistic

Sirius: you are too normal

[siriusremusblack]

Ok. Snape probably has RSD/Rejection sensitivity dysphoria. RSD is common in people that are neurodivergent (mainly adhd. “RSD is often associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) but can also occur in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or other mental health conditions.”) It is an extreme sensitivity to rejection either real or perceived. Which causes the person with it to react in various ways which can range from pushing people away/leaving before others can, being depressed, or manipulating people to stay with you.

When Snape saw Lily half smile while he was in a stressful situation he used the term “Mudblood” to refer to Lily (which also applies to himself as he is a Halfblood) effectively pushing her away. He felt rejected by her and the rest of the wizarding world which resulted in this reaction. Snape is already very Autistic coded (because he was based off an autistic man, who even said he was Snape/Snape was him) so it wouldn’t be too far off to say that Snape had RSD which causes him to react in a greater way to rejection than someone without it.

Autistic Snape is my Roman Empire. I’m also autistic, not trying to romanticize anything btw

[sctumsempra]

help i’m fixated on the tragic dungeon bat again

[maledictusfotum]

Happy New Year to all the Snape fans out there but especially to the OC x canon/selfshippers, Severitus fans, Snupin fans, trans/queer Snape headcanoners and the neurodivergent Snape diehard believers you guys deserve all the love

[do-u-know-this-autisticcharacter]

Do You Know This (non-canon) Autistic Character?

Severus Snape from Harry Potter series

Yes, I know him and see them as autistic

Yes, I know him, but I don't see them as autistic

I've heard of him

I don't know him, but they seem autistic

I don't know him, but they don't seem autistic

I don't know him

Voting ended onDec 28, 2024

Disclaimer - People are allowed to like fictional characters but not like the author. This does not mean we/they support JK Rowling.

Propaganda

This post which includes:

He doesn’t participate in any social meetings. He’s quite miserable during the Christmas in Harry’s third year. He patrols the corridors and the grounds instead of attending the Yule Ball. He doesn’t stay for dinner after the Order meetings. He only attends the DE meetings because he has to.

His peers at school think he’s weird. Lily’s friends from Gryffindor don’t understand why she’s friends with him. When Harry asks why the Marauders bullied him, Sirius says he was different, weird, he was an "oddball". Autistic children and teenagers are often bullied because they are perceived as not normal, awkward, weird.

He doesn’t make a normal eye contact, he stares a bit too much. It can be partly explained by Legillimency, but he stared too much even as a teenager.

There’s a difference between how he speaks as a teenager and as an adult. It doesn’t sound entirely natural, he definitely had to put effort into that. It’s partly because he doesn’t want to sound like a poor man with a northern (?) accent, but autistic struggle with fluent communication may also be a reason.

He’s quite rude. He might be just *evil*, but he may just not fully understand how cruel he actually sounds. From his point of view he’s just honest and doesn’t beat around the bush. OK, maybe he’s a little mean, but not cruel… right?

He uses sarcasm (a lot of autistics actually do), but he doesn’t really appreciate Harry’s and other people’s sass, he treats their words too seriously.

He seems a little oblivious to other people’s emotional state and seems to analyse their behavior more intellectually.

He has special interests: Dark Arts / DADA and Potions.

He has his own collection of Potions ingredients, including rare ones, collection of weird jars (I guess they may contain some Potions ingredients, but also he may like them because of visual stimming aspect) and vast collection of books at home.

His Potions ingredients must be very orderly, he knows immediately that something is missing and what it is.

He doesn’t wash his hair as often as he should. It could be partly because of his poor background (he was neglected, he wasn’t taught to take a proper care of his hair, he didn’t even have a real bathroom as a child), partly because he has no one to look nice for, partly because of the Potions fumes. Autism might make him care less about his appearance. (He does care about hygiene though. Apparently he shaves regularly and Harry would certainly notice if Snape was dirty or smelly. His sallow skin and teeth have nothing to do with hygiene, it’s a result of his poverty and malnutrition.)

He has some sensory issues. He wears the same, a little baggy robes (they flutter as he walks). He’s sensitive to light: his Potions classroom is dim (it’s in the dungeons, but he could brighten it up with magic); he makes his DADA classroom dim, even though it’s no longer in the dungeons; when Harry comes to his first Occlumency lesson, Snape waits for him in a dark room. (You know, people don’t do things like that because they’re evil, it doesn’t make sense).

[thekindslytherinn]

Me: I want to write a silly little fic with Severus Snape pov in which he’s ace and autistic and he meets someone who’s also ace and autistic, and it ends with them being happy. Ten chapters at most

Me, a year later: it’s a saga, five long fics, 150k words each, they morally adopted five kids without realising, one of them is Harry Potter—