#snaps-meta

[severus-snaps]

"There are no Wizarding princes": a tinfoil hat analysis of the naming conventions of Eileen Prince and Severus Snape

Off the back of my post about how wild it is to call a baby "Severus", here's a few other things I've been thinking about re: the name Severus, and what it can maybe tell us about Eileen.

TL;DR

JKR used names for a bunch of reasons including intended humour and world-building, but names also sometimes carry meaning

naming conventions across families in HP also tend to follow certain patterns, sticking with either normal-sounding names or 'wizard-y' names across generations. A parent with a 'normal' sounding name (e.g. Eileen) rarely then has a child with an unusual, wizard-y name (e.g. Severus)

based on some very tenuous and convoluted name lists and some other rambling, I've drawn the conclusion that Eileen was potentially half-blood herself

for example, if the Prince family were Purebloods, they likely would've left more of a trace in wizarding history; no other characters recognise "Prince" as a known or even vaguely familiar Pureblood name; they do not feature (as far as we know) in the Black family tapestry which dates back to the middle ages; it is typically in half-blood families where the naming conventions reverse like this

I've also included some headcanons about Eileen, Severus, and Tobias (the ramble starts with those, below the cut)

If Tobias didn't like magic (or anything much) I struggle to imagine that he'd be 100% on board with such an unusual name as Severus (unusual by Muggle standards, at least)

But it's not that unusual a name in the wizarding world - given the normalcy of names like Albus, Argus, Lucius, Dedalus, Rubeus, and other unusual names like Narcissa, Bellatrix, Andromeda, Pomona, etc - so I suspect that Eileen, being a witch, picked the name

I think it's potentially a clue that Tobias either didn't care about the baby, its name, or Eileen - or on the flip side that their relationship was a lot better when Snape was a baby, and he accepted it whether he knew she was a witch or not at that stage. Maybe it was a Seamus situation: "Me dad’s a Muggle. Mum didn’t tell him she was a witch ’til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him."

as @austrinemuniz pointed out to me, Severus could also refer to religious figures like Pope Severinus or St Severus of Antioch, so perhaps Eileen was religious or came from a religious family

googling also suggests that other prominent figures with the name includes Roman Emperor (Lucius) Septimius Severus. I'm not sure what this suggests about further connections between Lucius and Snape, who are off-screen friends throughout the series (or if it suggests anything at all). As we already know, the wizarding world adores a Romanesque/Latin name (perhaps because so many spells are also in Latin?) so it fits with wizarding tradition

Potentially, it was a family name, i.e. Eileen's father or grandfather, as is also wizarding tradition

Next thought: why is Eileen her name, and why does she name her son Severus?

By this I mean that names in HP, and the wizarding world, tend to be rather stylised

Family names in wizarding families also tend to fall into one of two categories: you have "normal" names like Ron, Neville, Marcus, Gregory, Ernie, Vincent, or Molly

Caveat here that when I say "normal" or unusual/uncommon etc I mean in the context of being widely used/common/familiar given names from the pov of Average Joe Muggle living in Britain in like the last fifty years, which is the point - JKR used names as a method of worldbuilding almost, with certain families and characters having these wizard-y names both for the sake of fun and also to communicate a bit about them.

The 'normal' names listed above are sometimes a bit unusual for Muggles, slightly weird or old-fashioned - but largely they wouldn't be unusual enough to comment on.

By contrast, you have your names like Draco, Dedalus, Albus, Bellatrix, Rubeus, Rastaban, etc, which would certainly raise some eyebrows in a Muggle context - but these sorts of names aren't too unusual in the wizarding world

They also serve to communicate a tie through family traditions (e.g. the Blacks being named after stars/constellations like Sirius, Regulus, Andromeda, Draco, Scorpius, etc)

But... given names tend to "match" throughout generations:

Molly, Arthur >> William(Bill), Ronald, Percy, Fred, George, Charles, Ginevra (Ginny) (earlier generation to Molly/Arthur also includes Muriel, which is also pretty normal by Muggle standards; unusual or more stylized names, i.e. Ronald Bilius Weasley, are saved for middle names, or perhaps names able to be easily shortened, like Ginny. But she's also supposedly the first girl in however long, so maybe she got a special name as a result)

see also: Alice, Frank >> Neville

Lily, James >> Harry >> we'll temporarily ignore Harry's naming of his children loool, though James and Lily certainly also fit the pattern by reinforcing through another generation this 'normal name' trend

All of these would be considered 'normal' by Muggle standards at every generation until you get to the fact that Molly's siblings were called Fabian and Gideon, which aren't that Muggle-like; but perhaps they were named for older relatives, which is pretty typical in the wizarding world, and by no means are they as unusual in a Muggle context as Draco/Dedalus/Albus/Argus/Rastaban might be

But then! Compare any of those names to the more stylized Malfoy/Black/Gaunt/Lestrange family naming conventions (where they are listed in the text/I am familiar with them; going through the entire wiki would be a drag and with the usual caveat that Cursed Child might not be considered canon):

Abraxus >> Lucius + Narcissa >> Draco >> Scorpius

Cygnus/Druella >> Bellatrix >> Delphini

Cygnus/Druella >> Andromeda >> Nymphadora

Rodolphus, Rabastan (siblings; I think it's safe to assume at this point their parents were equally creatively named)

Walburga >> Sirius, Regulus

Bartemius Crouch Sr >> Bartemius Crouch Jr

So, even if they don't follow strict rules, the given names that we are most familiar with in the wizarding world are either fairly normal by Muggle standards (Molly, Arthur), even within strict Pureblood circles (e.g. Pansy Parkinson, Gregory Goyle) or stylised according to family/wizarding tradition (Draco/Lucius, Narcissa/Andromeda/Sirius, Percival/Albus/Aberforth/Arianna, etc), and thus would be considered very unusual (by Muggle standards), and typically they stay that way across generations.

But what about Eileen?

By this I mean that "Eileen" is a distinctly un-magical name by wizarding standards, especially when compared to "Severus", i.e. her given name doesn't align with the Latin/stylised types of names we see in the HP universe, and then she chose to name her only child "Severus", which very firmly does

It's rather odd to get a "mix" of these stylised names, doubly so that it happens in this order, i.e. that the parent has a 'normal' name and then the more 'traditional' or unusual wizarding name was revived in a younger generation. It would be like if the naming convention for the Malfoy family went Abraxus >> Lucius >> Dave >> Scorpius, or if Kendra and Percival Dumbledore named Albus 'Brian' instead

I think it's especially notable when it comes to characters important enough to get named in the books, rather late in the game, when conventions and characters are firmly established, and even more especially when JKR likes to insert meaning through the names she chooses

These characters - Severus, and to a lesser extent Eileen - are even sort of important enough to Harry and the overall plot to get a whole HP book about them (and their shared Prince potions textbook).

Theories:

Maybe stylised names were falling out of fashion, which is why there's this mix of Latin/wizarding names in some families, and fairly mundane/Muggle names in others (e.g. Augusta Longbottom named her child Frank, and he named his child Neville; see also Fleamont and Euphemia, and their son James)

Or perhaps it does sometimes happen, even when falling out of fashion - for example, in slight contrast to the rest of her family's names, Ginny's 'real name' is 'Ginevra' - so sometimes unusual names remain even in more 'Muggle-normal' name families

Similarly, perhaps Eileen was part of a wizarding family who moved toward 'Muggle-normal' names, and Severus was potentially named for a deceased relative or something, which is why the use of traditional names was revived in him after Eileen - perhaps Severus Snape's maternal grandfather was called Severus Prince, for example

or maybe Eileen is like Molly Weasley, in that the rest of her family had more 'wizard-like' names and she was sort of the odd one out (e.g. Molly's brothers were called Fabian and Gideon, which whilst not as unusual as something like Bellatrix, Lucius, or Nymphadora, for example, are still slightly more unusual/uncommon names to come across - or at least more old-fashioned, though Molly is a little bit too. Anyone else remember reading Milly-Molly-Mandy?)

But!

As part of my apparent series of tinfoil hat posts [X, X], I'm not going to be taking the easy route here - as I pointed out above, the move from "traditional" to "Muggle" names tends to happen in a direction where older generations have the more unusual names and then make the switch to more common/Muggle names; this is even more apparent when trawling through the various family trees on the Wiki page, where you'll find names like Septimus Weasley (Ron's grandfather, Arthur's father), Ignatius Prewett (some relation of Molly's), Harfang and Augusta Longbottom (Augusta being Frank Longbottom's mother), and Fleamont and Euphemia Potter (parents to James Potter).

Mixed naming conventions wherein the naming convention changes back to traditional/Latin/otherwise stylised names does happen elsewhere in the series - often in the context of the family being of mixed wizarding and Muggle heritage - aka, being half-blood.

Could Eileen have been another half-blood Prince?

First of all, definitions. As I saw on a reddit thread somewhere, there's more than one way to be Half-Blood.

"Half-blood was the term commonly given to wizards and witches who had known Muggle or Muggle-born parents or grandparents".

So that certainly encapsulates Severus Snape either way, whether Eileen was Muggle-born or half-blood or Pureblood, because Snape's father was a Muggle; there's some other stuff on the Wiki about differing ideas of halfblood/Pureblood, because of different beliefs. For example, for the Gaunts or Blacks, anyone with any Muggle heritage at all - no matter how far back - would likely be considered too 'impure' to be Pureblood. Sirius Black's mother's portrait potentially equates half-bloods to "filthy half-breeds" and "children of filth", and Marvolo Gaunt has a whole thing with Ogden about his being impure also. By contrast, the Malfoys apparently would also marry half-bloods - though I expect they'd still want the Muggle heritage to be a few generations removed, for the sake of appearances.

Lots of people assume Eileen was Pureblood, and although I agree it's implied, it's never confirmed 100%. Harry tends to assume whatever best suits him at the time he thinks it, and it's never confirmed either way:

“If he’d been a budding Death Eater he wouldn’t have been boasting about being ‘half-blood,’ would he?”

“He’d play up the pure-blood side so he could get in with Lucius Malfoy and the rest of them. ... He’s just like Voldemort. Pure- blood mother, Muggle father . . . ashamed of his parentage, trying to make himself feared using the Dark Arts, gave himself an impressive new name — Lord Voldemort — the Half-Blood Prince — how could Dumbledore have missed — ?”

Meanwhile, Hermione was - by and large - consistently right about the Prince - with the exception of thinking that Snape/the Prince himself was a girl or had girly handwriting. She points out that the spells were potentially dangerous (and Sectumsempra certainly was); that the "Prince" character was a bit dodgy (which... fair); that Levicorpus was potentially used at the Quidditch World Cup by Death Eaters, suggesting the Prince was a potential DE; that "Prince" was a name, and not a title; that the book originally belonged to a woman, ultimately - and most likely - Eileen Prince. At the same time, Harry had a different view (one that was also correct at times, but influenced the opposite direction by his admiration for the book and its notes). For example, Harry thought that the Prince was smart, and funny, and creative, that his spells were just a laugh, and that the Prince was maybe even his own father, and that Eileen Prince had "nothing to do with it" - and he also thought that the Prince didn't invent Sectumsempra at all, and just wrote it down (which is an interpretation I also enjoy, though I'm not certain how likely that was to be the intended reading). Overall though, even though they were both right about certain things, and even though I think Ron and Harry were right to assume that Hermione was jealous of the book (as well as being put off by how none of the spells were proven safe or Ministry-approved), I think Hermione had a slightly better (or more objective) grasp on the situation than Harry did - which makes her stance stand out to me all the more:

No, listen! If, say, her father was a wizard whose surname was Prince, and her mother was a Muggle, then that would make her a 'half-blood Prince'!

But on to the actual overanalysis. Below, I've listed a few families where the naming conventions move from parents with normal names (e.g. Eileen) back to children with 'traditional' wizarding names (e.g. Severus):

Key: Pureblood | Half-blood | Muggle(born)

Andromeda Black (Pureblood, unusual wizarding name) + (Edward) Ted Tonks (Muggle-born, normal Muggle name) >> Nymphadora Tonks (half-blood, unusual given name, in the wizarding tradition)

...who married Remus Lupin. The books give no clues as to his heritage if I remember, but extracanon suggests that Lupin's father Lyall (Pureblood, unusual wizarding name) + Hope Lupin (Muggle, nee Howell, normal Muggle name) >> Remus Lupin (half-blood, unusual given name, in the wizarding tradition)

But THEN, Remus (half-blood) + Nymphadora (half-blood) >> Teddy (half-blood, named for grandfather Edward/Ted Tonks, Muggle-born, Muggle-normal name).

Plus the Gaunts are, until Tom Riddle, an entirely Pureblood family with unusual names

Marvolo Gaunt >> Merope Gaunt + Tom Riddle Sr >> Tom Riddle Jr (named for his Muggle father) >> Delphini

Kendra (Muggle, normal Muggle name) + Percival Dumbledore (Pureblood?) >> Albus, Aberforth, Arianna

Now we return also to Harry's children. Euphemia + Fleamont >> James + Lily >> Harry >> Albus Severus, James, Lily

If following this pattern, Eileen may have been Muggle-born (thus having a Muggle-given name like Kendra, Ted, Hope, Tom Riddle Sr) and chosen the name 'Severus' for her child to help him assimilate into wizarding society, as she had no wizarding lineage or surname (and, as the wizarding world is so small, and 'Snape' an uncommon surname, everyone would know 'Snape' was not a 'proper' wizarding surname).

But I think it's more likely that Eileen herself was half-blood, having Muggle heritage elsewhere influencing her naming, and wizarding heritage influencing Severus' naming. If Eileen were from a half-blood family, then she would be akin to Harry/Teddy/Tom Riddle Jr meanwhile Severus would be akin to Nymphadora, Delphini, or Albus Severus Potter, named 'traditionally' or for someone else - I suggest again that Eileen may have chosen to name "Severus" for someone else in her family, like her father or grandfather, as wizarding families are prone to do.

Further 'evidence':

Witches and wizards just don't really associate with Muggles. Life is almost entirely segregated, the Ministry's main goal is to make sure they stay separate and secret, and even "pro-Muggle" families (like the Weasleys) and people with Muggle heritage (not explicitly in the books, but people like McGonagall, and even Tonks) will act as though Muggles are stupid, inconvenient, or Other.

Even witches/wizards with Muggle relatives don't know anything about Muggles, and tend not to associate with them. Hermione distances herself from her parents as the books go on. Tonks, whose father was Muggle-born and who presumably had Muggle grandparents, asks "I suppose it varies, just like with wizards?" about Muggle cleanliness, illustrating just how little she knew about/associated with Muggles. It's as though they're a different species, not just another bunch of humans. Like, did Tonks' dad just never have any Muggle mates once he found out he was a wizard, as well as Tonks's Muggle grandparents being dead, and also never hang out with any Muggles ever? Even the Weasleys live in what's supposed to be a mixed Muggle and magical area, and Arthur seems baffled by Muggles and Muggle technology at every turn

Given that that is the case, and it's unlikely to have been substantially different in the past, I can't imagine how a Pureblood witch without Muggle relatives would find herself socialising in a Muggle neighbourhood, meeting a Muggle man, presumably dating him for a bit, and then marrying him - especially if she were Pureblood. Wizards "formed their own small communities within a community" and kept themselves to themselves even in areas where they lived with "tolerant and sometimes Confunded Muggles" (DH). But there's clearly not an established magical community near Cokeworth (since Severus as a child was so starved of magical company). But perhaps Tobias originally lived in/near a mixed Muggle-magical community too, and they moved to Cokeworth so he could find work? Maybe Eileen's family were from that area and kept to themselves? Idk

The Princes are not in the Sacred 28 - and if that's too extracanon, nor are they at any point referenced in the Black tapestry, at a point at which only a book ago Sirius says "pure-blood families are all interrelated". Of course, the Prince family could have existed only as recent female descendants whose name changed after marriage, or be Pureblood and blood traitors, which is why they never made it to the list or the tapestry - but even the Weasleys and presumably other "pro-Muggle" families like the Potters and Longbottoms still managed to make it countless generations exclusively marrying other Purebloods, so at some point Harry may have seen "Prince" on the Black family tapestry - y'know, the same boy who remembered Flamel (eventually) from a Chocolate Frog card - only this was more important to him personally, since he wished the Prince was his father. Also, Hermione searched multiple sources for the name "Prince" in HBP, later in the series reads an entire book on wizarding genealogy, and it never comes up - likely because it wasn't plot-relevant at that point, but also them hating Snape for being a DE and running Hogwarts was RIGHT THERE. 4.5 Further, JKR has never expanded on the Prince family either, despite expanding on several things nobody asked to know - and did not even touch on it in her fairly detailed (if, obviously, incomplete) Black family tree which includes similarly lesser-known (and less relevant) character names like the Gamps, MacMillans, Flints, Bullstrodes, etc. The tree was released in 2006, HBP finished being written in late 2004 and published in 2005, so potentially there was some overlap between her writing HBP/the final books of the series and drawing the tree, especially since the name "Gamp" only appears during DH. And if the Princes were Pureblood - and if all families did end up interconnected - they can't all have been women whose names changed, or the name "Prince" wouldn't have lasted until Eileen, and I do think Harry would've noticed or remembered at some point during HBP and DH that "Prince" was on the tapestry, despite all that was going on. Maybe Eileen was struck from the tapestry (similar to Andromeda) for marrying a Muggle, or for the family being blood traitors, but maybe not. More likely, I think, that the Prince family was already mixing with Muggles, which was why they were not related to the Blacks, and outside of the books have also not been named amongst any of the Pureblood families in the Sacred 28.

Getting even more tenuous now. It's stated twice in the text that there are no wizarding princes:

Harry, there aren’t any real princes in the Wizarding world! It’s either a nickname, a made-up title somebody’s given themselves, or it could be their actual name, couldn’t it? No, listen! If, say, her father was a wizard whose surname was Prince, and her mother was a Muggle, then that would make her a 'half-blood Prince'!

“There are no Wizarding princes,” said Lupin, now smiling.

Now, this isn't 'evidence' exactly, but it's said twice that there are no wizarding Princes/no real Princes.

More to the point - and we're thinking from a Watsonian perspective now - you're telling me, in-universe, that Ron, Hermione, or Harry never once remembered hearing the name Prince, anywhere, in six years of being at Hogwarts? In the weeks/months of being in and out of Grimmauld Place? If the Princes were a Pureblood family and had been for generations, if their family name lasted until only about 30 years ago, and knowing that Pureblood families typically had a level of influence in the wizarding world greater than that of Muggle-borns or half-bloods, and not one of them (or Lupin) saw or remembered the name "Prince" anywhere? Not on a tapestry that's been in the Black family for seven centuries? Not in a book (across six years of studies in every area of magic worth knowing - especially Hermione, who took every class in PoA)? Not even a vague recollection about someone from Lupin of someone by the name of Prince who used to work in the Ministry? They had the Prince's book, a whole library, and nine months of wondering. For Ron, he had a lifetime of general wizarding knowledge to work with, not just his years at Hogwarts. Did the Prince family simply never achieve anything noteworthy? Did Hermione neglect to search any genealogy books that year whilst she was doing research on the Prince name? (That seems like it would've been a better place to start than the potions awards and newspapers, tbh, so perhaps she did and the name wasn't there - but she started to get suspicious like a month into term, so she had a fair amount of time between work and exam prep to think about it and keep an ear out).

Anyway. It just seems odd to me, from the characters' perspective, that a supposedly Pureblood family who survived to recent living memory made absolutely no waves for generations, was featured in no family histories, to the point that the only thing Hermione could find in the library - even once it became clear that Snape was the Prince, and that he'd murdered Dumbledore, upping the importance to them personally - was one reference to one girl who'd been Captain of the Gobstones team fifty years ago, and a marriage announcement. It's just not giving "last of a line of a noble Pureblood family" to me.

Obviously, the real reason is a mixture of "it's not relevant to the plot outside of this one book" and "that secret needed to be kept secret for the whole book until the reveal". But still.

Futher thoughts

JKR uses names to communicate a little about her characters, so I think the name choice of Eileen not being distinctly 'Pureblood' in nature (like the distinctive and unusual names of the prominent Pureblood supremacist Malfoys, Gaunts, and Black families) was deliberate

In this way, Eileen is more similar to the wizarding families who use 'Muggle-normal' names who were more amiable to the idea of mixing with Muggles, such as the 'normal-named' Weasley family - but even they weren't that keen on actually mixing with Muggles, despite having the motivation and opportunity to do so

I do also think it may be relevant that Eileen and Severus' names break typical wizarding naming conventions by making the reverse switch from 'normal' name to 'wizarding' name, whereas most families switch from 'unusual' names to 'normal' names and stay that way, from what we can see. But the only other place we really see this pattern is when the parent of the child with an unusual name is already 'half-blood or less' (see: Harry>>Albus Severus, Ted + Andromeda >> Nymphadora)

It doesn't quite fit the pattern of Muggleborn parent + Magical parent, because the magical children of both tend to take up 'wizarding names', perhaps under the assumption that the child will have magic as well (e.g. Kendra + Percival >> Albus; Hope + Lyall >> Remus). The main exception here would be the Tom Riddles, and I think it's fair to say that Merope wasn't in a state of mind that would be considered normal

I also just think it would be kind of cool if there was a distinction between Harry, Voldemort, and Snape in this regard. As in, they're framed as similar in certain regards (e.g. raised in neglect and/or poverty, raised in Muggle environments with either literally or figuratively absent parents, potential link as each one representing one of the three brothers, plus Harry's slightly misguided assumption that they all found a home at Hogwarts). And as with every other similarity to their situations, there's nuance; I just think it would be fun if they were all different 'types' of half-blood, with the magical parent being either Muggle-born (Harry), Pureblood (Tom Riddle), or Half-blood (Severus Snape)

Counter-arguments (aka Occam called, he wants his razor back)

it makes more sense narratively if Snape's mother was Pureblood, making him a clear half-blood child of a Muggle and a 'full' witch. This is why he clung to the name "The Half-Blood Prince", as it offered a sense of prestige However, it could also just have sounded cool, and also been a sort of wry joke with himself - especially if Prince also wasn't exactly a thriving Pureblood family

Harry is often JKR's mouthpiece, telling us what we're supposed to believe - and Harry seems to believe, or has inferred from somewhere, that Eileen was a Pureblood witch (and that is never corrected) But Harry is often wrong about Snape. Like, he really commits to the bit for seven whole books

it's entirely likely that the 'Prince' name wasn't that well-known, even if it was once a great Pureblood family. The Gaunts survived until about two generations back, and Harry didn't seem to know them from anywhere, they lived in poverty, they held no prestigious positions at the Ministry etc - plus, it was never essential to the plot to know any more about the Prince family But JKR has given us plenty of plot-irrelevant info over the years, there's Pottermore, interviews, etc - and none of it ever touches on the supposedly Pureblood Prince family. Maybe they were just a family of mixed Muggle/magical heritage and the names changed depending on who they married that generation, rather than being a household Pureblood name

Very pleased if anyone made it this far. Obviously, I'm not married to this opinion, I don't think it's the intended reading, I just enjoy playing this game of silly buggers and generating discussion - so feel free to reblog and add stuff/actively disagree with me :P

-over and out-

[severus-snaps]

Snape: Points and Punishments

Snape has something of a bad reputation when it comes to discipline at Hogwarts, and is, I think, often accused of being unfair in his treatment of his students (especially if that student is Harry).

So, I've turned to science.

Using potter-search.com, I searched the terms: "snape points", "snape detention" and "points from gryffindor". What follows is a list of instances I've identified where Snape dispenses discipline in the form of point deductions and detentions, what the detentions entail, and what causes Snape to react to the students in the first place.

I'll tally points taken by Snape in each book, and also compare some of his methods to other Hogwarts professors.

This post will cover books 1-4, since there's quite a lot I've collected for the later books, which I haven't read in a while so I couldn't remember all of the context, 1-4 are the pre-Voldemort years, JKR took a break writing them at this point, and most importantly - it was getting long.

So, to quote Ron:

"Snape’s Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favours them — we’ll be able to see if it’s true."

Favouring Slytherin

First, we never see Snape in the books awarding points - to Slytherins, or to anyone else. With that out of the way, let's see how he disciplines the students - not just Harry - including docking points, detentions, revoking privileges, expulsion, and threats of doing the same - categorised by book.

Philosopher's Stone

Points & detentions

There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, “And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter.”

One single point taken in Harry's first potions class for talking back, and telling Snape to ask Hermione a question instead of him.

“You — Potter — why didn’t you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he’d make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That’s another point you’ve lost for Gryffindor.” *

* Worth noting as well that nobody considered this particularly outrageous - Ron tells Harry not to "push it", because he's heard that "Snape can turn very nasty" and later tells Harry that Snape's always taking points from the twins. So Ron, whilst on Harry's side, clearly does not consider this incident to be especially nasty behaviour.

Unfair, sure - Snape had put everyone into pairs, but Harry had been working next to Neville with Ron, not in Neville's pair (Neville was paired with Seamus).

As we'll see as we go through, this is one of the few occasions where Snape is being petty and ignoring the rules, and one of the few occasions where Snape doesn't give a valid reason.

But then again, it's only one point - and if we're thinking in-universe, Harry's been cheeky to him already, and Snape is probably feeling all kinds of weird about having Harry in his class, as the son of his bully and his former best friend, who was supposed to have been something of a potions prodigy herself.

“Library books are not to be taken outside the school,” said Snape. “Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor.” “He’s just made that rule up,” Harry muttered angrily as Snape limped away.

We don't know whether Snape made the rule up or whether Harry's being indignant here at having Quidditch Through the Ages taken from him. It doesn't seem like an unreasonable rule not to take library books out of the building, where they have a greater chance, perhaps, of getting lost or damaged - especially if they are rare or expensive.

I personally think it's unlikely that Snape made it up, and it's definitely the sort of thing Madam Pince might insist on - she certainly seems like a real stickler for that sort of thing, spending her time polishing gilded spellbooks (e.g. CoS). However, it could be a rule Madam Pince insists on but nobody else really enforces.

Final conclusion: we can't be sure whether Snape made it up or whether it's a legitimate rule (unless someone can remember another time Harry has a library book outside near a teacher).

Contrast this to Filch in CoS (admittedly, post-petrification of Mrs Norris - though this isn't especially far from Filch's usual behaviour):

When Filch wasn’t guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking red-eyed through the corridors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like “breathing loudly” and “looking happy.”

We'll see continually that Snape tends to stick to the rules:

Ron dived at Malfoy just as Snape came up the stairs. ... “He was provoked, Professor Snape,” said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. “Malfoy was insultin’ his family.” “Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid,” said Snape silkily. “Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn’t more. Move along, all of you.”

Snape obviously didn't believe or care for Hagrid's explanation here, which is fair when you consider that even though he's just the groundskeeper, Hagrid's a 50-ish-year-old staffmember who could've stepped in before it reached Ron throwing himself at Draco. Five points also isn't too harsh, given that when Snape arrived, Ron had started the physical fight.

It's also worth noting that McGonagall doesn't listen to excuses either - it is, obviously, down to staff to resolve issues like that, without students resorting to fistfights:

“Provoked you?” shouted Professor McGonagall, slamming a fist onto her desk so that her tartan biscuit tin slid sideways off it and burst open, littering the floor with Ginger Newts. “He’d just lost, hadn’t he, of course he wanted to provoke you! But what on earth he can have said that justified what you two — ” “He insulted my parents,” snarled George. “And Harry’s mother.” “But instead of leaving it to Madam Hooch to sort out, you two decided to give an exhibition of Muggle dueling, did you?” bellowed Professor McGonagall.

And she follows it with:

"I do not care if he insulted every family member you possess, your behavior was disgusting and I am giving each of you a week’s worth of detention!"

Favouring other houses

Snape had just awarded Hufflepuff a penalty because George Weasley had hit a Bludger at him. Hermione, who had all her fingers crossed in her lap, was squinting fixedly at Harry, who was circling the game like a hawk, looking for the Snitch. "You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team?" said Malfoy loudly a few minutes later, as Snape awarded Hufflepuff another penalty for no reason at all.

"For no reason at all". Are you sure, Harry? Moments ago, he was having Bludgers hit at him.

Things didn’t improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. ... 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 when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus’s cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people’s shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs. “Idiot boy!” snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. ... “Take him up to the hospital wing,” Snape spat at Seamus.

More of an honourable mention really in terms of Snape favouring Slytherin, but I think there's a few things to note here. We never really see Snape giving out compliments, but here we do. As someone from a well-to-do family, one which in CoS it's revealed has illicit potions to get rid of, Malfoy might really have been more prepared than the others - and Snape was criticising almost everyone, which includes some of his own Slytherins. Slytherin was also not awarded any points for this. Snape also does not punish Neville for his mistake but instead sends him to the Hospital Wing (although he does punish Harry, so I'm not sure how fair it is really. Harry is a 'special case', to quote Sirius).

Moving on.

“Cheer up,” said Ron, “Snape’s always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?”

I think it's safe to assume that Fred and George are breaking rules and not quietly minding their own business, keeping their heads down at all times. Seems fair.

“Will you stop messing around!” [Oliver Wood] yelled. “That’s exactly the sort of thing that’ll lose us the match! Snape’s refereeing this time, and he’ll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!” ... “We’ve just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn’t got an excuse to pick on us.”

Probably true that Snape would take points where he could - but I (and Oliver Wood) think he'd play it like he apparently does throughout the rest of this summary, and "knock points off" by carefully adhering to the rules. I wonder what that means for the second penalty for Hufflepuff, mentioned above, in terms of Harry's biased narration.

“You want to be more careful,” said Snape. “Hanging around like this, people will think you’re up to something. And Gryffindor really can’t afford to lose any more points, can it?”

This occurs when the trio are hanging around inside on a nice day. It's post-dragon-smuggling, after McGonagall gave Harry, Hermione, Neville (and Draco) detention in the Forbidden Forest (which I'll circle back to shortly), and docked each of them 50 points. But Snape does not make up a rule here, nor does he actually dock any points.

Snape's face was twisted with fury as he dropped his robes quickly to hide his leg. Harry gulped. "I just wondered if I could have my book back." "GET OUT! OUT!" Harry left, before Snape could take any more points from Gryffindor.

Harry hasn't broken any rules by approaching the staffroom. And still, Snape is flustered and probably in pain, but he does not take points - once again, it's someone else (Harry) thinking that he would.

“You can’t!” said Hermione. “After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You’ll be expelled!”

Re: Harry going to get the stone.

Honourable mention:

“But this is servant stuff, it’s not for students to do. I thought we’d be copying lines or something, if my father knew I was doing this, he’d — ”

It's entirely possible that other teachers have given Draco lines, but it's also possible that Snape himself gives his students lines as detentions (especially if their father is both influential, on the Board of Directors, and an "old friend") - but I'll circle back to this later. Here, McGonagall deducted 20 points from Draco (and 50 points from Neville) for what she believed was Harry telling Draco a story about a dragon for the explicit purpose of getting Draco in trouble:

“Detention!” she shouted. “And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you — ” “You don’t understand, Professor. Harry Potter’s coming — he’s got a dragon!” “What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on — I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!”

Followed by:

“I think I’ve got a good idea of what’s been going on,” said Professor McGonagall. “It doesn’t take a genius to work it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and- bull story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I’ve already caught him. I suppose you think it’s funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it, too?”

Like... if anything, in her mind, Draco and Neville should be at lesser fault here; Harry and Hermione were out of bed, telling stories to get other students out of bed and into trouble for a laugh. She must think that Harry did this deliberately, and the others are caught up in it. It's giving The Prank in that she probably gave the Marauders detentions (that didn't deter them, obviously) for telling Snape stories, but then would've also punished Snape for believing the cock-and-bull story about a werewolf beneath the Willow. Also worth noting, however, that McGonagall takes 20 points from Draco and 50 each from Neville, Hermione, and Harry, and sent them all to the forest to hunt for a dangerous creature. And she thought Neville had nothing to do with this and was a victim of a prank.

But Snape gets the worst reputation.

Anyway.

Points deducted during PS: 12

Punishments given: Snape might have agreed to send the students to the Forest, or he might have been outranked by McGonagall.

Chamber of Secrets

Points & detentions

Absolutely no mention of "Snape" + "points" on potter-search.com; Harry technically does not get a detention, either. The best I could find is:

Harry had been held back in Potions, where Snape had made him stay behind to scrape tubeworms off the desks.

Not sure whether this was for a particular reason pertaining to that lesson, or whether someone had to clean the tubeworms and Harry is Snape's 'favourite' (unlikely; I'm sure Snape could've cleaned it with a lazy flick of his wand), or - because this was immediately after the scene in which it's discovered that Mrs Norris has been Petrified, which is listed below* - whether Snape knew Harry had been lying to him and wanted his own punishment where Minerva had prevented it.

Preferential treatment for Slytherins

“But I booked the field!” said Wood, positively spitting with rage. “I booked it!” “Ah,” said Flint. “But I've got a specially signed note here from Professor Snape. I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field owing to the need to train their new Seeker. ’ ”

He also allowed Lucius to buy his entire team new brooms - but then, how and why would Snape have stopped him? And what would stop Harry from doing the same for Gryffindor? And who bent the rules and probably got Harry a broom despite first-years not being allowed brooms and never making the House teams?

Suggested punishments

“Silence!” snapped Snape again. “Most unfortunately, you are not in my House and the decision to expel you does not rest with me. I shall go and fetch the people who do have that happy power. You will wait here.”

Re: Harry and Ron flying to school in the enchanted car and breaking not only the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry but also the Whomping Willow. He gives them a lecture, but deducts no points, perhaps expecting them to be expelled - or perhaps waiting for McGonagall, whose decisions he tends to respect (which we see again when McGonagall returns from St. Mungo's in OotP).

“Professor Dumbledore, these boys have flouted the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry, caused serious damage to an old and valuable tree — surely acts of this nature — ”

A sad day for Snape when Harry was Sorted into Gryffindor, otherwise he'd have been out on his ear in CoS.

Snape prowled through the fumes, making waspish remarks about the Gryffindors’ work while the Slytherins sniggered appreciatively. Draco Malfoy, who was Snape’s favorite student, kept flicking puffer-fish eyes at Ron and Harry, who knew that if they retaliated they would get detention faster than you could say “Unfair.”

Some people say that Snape ignores his Slytherins taunting the trio, which is a fair accusation - he did so in PS when Ron went to fight Malfoy and again in GoF when Malfoy and Harry duel in the corridors. But one could also assume - based on some quotes I'll go through later - that Snape also punishes his Slytherins in private, because in later books especially, the Slytherins wait until his back is turned in Potions before doing any taunting, and his Slytherins do receive detentions, which Harry wouldn't ordinarily know about (i.e. Crabbe and Goyle in HBP).

I also wonder whether Snape was being intentionally waspish to the Gryffindors or whether Harry interpreted it as Snape making waspish remarks when really he was just critiquing all of the incorrect potions and Harry noticed it more because he felt it was unfair when directed at a Gryffindor. Harry can be rather indignant - but so can Snape.

“I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter is not being entirely truthful,” he said. “It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel he should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until he is ready to be honest.” *

Quickly shot down by McGonagall because she saw "no reason to stop the boy playing Quidditch", Mrs Norris "wasn’t hit over the head with a broomstick", and there was "no evidence at all that Potter has done anything wrong"... but really probably because she's competitive with Snape over Quidditch (which might also be why he suggested it lol).

BUT I was reading here that Snape is doing something else: Snape knows Harry isn't telling the truth; he wants Harry to tell the truth; he knows that points aren't as important to Harry as Quidditch, and so threatening to withhold Quidditch was Snape's attempt at getting Harry to be truthful. It's Minerva who takes it as a threat to her House's Quidditch score, not Severus. The explanation here also suggests that this is perhaps how Severus punishes his Slytherins - not with points, but by withholding things they want/enjoy.

“Midnight,” said Harry. “We’d better get to bed before Snape comes along and tries to frame us for something else.”

But...Snape asked for the truth and pointed out, correctly, that Harry was not telling the whole story. That's hardly framing Harry for Petrifying Mrs Norris.

“I think I’d better do the actual stealing,” Hermione continued in a matter-of-fact tone. “You two will be expelled if you get into any more trouble, and I’ve got a clean record. So all you need to do is cause enough mayhem to keep Snape busy for five minutes or so.”

Hermione seems to think that Snape would get his way, and that McGonagall would expell them for messing around again and stealing from a teacher for the sake of making a potion they're not supposed to be making, just to break into another House's common room. For Snape's sake, I hope that's true - stealing from a teacher to spy on other students and not being expelled would have Snape like:

“If I ever find out who threw this [firework into a cauldron],” Snape whispered, “I shall make sure that person is expelled.”

Snape's greatest dream is, as we all know, to expel Harry. I'm certain that given the events of the year Snape knew Harry/the trio had set off the firework in class, stolen from his personal stores(?), tricked Lockhart out of a signature to enter the Restricted Section to get a book, illegally brewed Polyjuice Potion, etc - but they received no punishment. Even in GoF, when Snape reasonably suspects Harry, he still waits for proof:

Hermione had taken the boomslang skin back in their second year — they had needed it for the Polyjuice Potion — and while Snape had suspected Harry at the time, he had never been able to prove it.

Points deducted during CoS: 0

Punishments given: maybe scraping tubeworms off a desk. A quiet year for Snape.

Prisoner of Azkaban

Points & detentions

“This lesson began ten minutes ago, Potter, so I think we’ll make it ten points from Gryffindor. Sit down.” “Five more points from Gryffindor, and if I have to ask you to sit down again, it will be fifty.”

Harry was late, Harry didn't sit down. Typical school rules; nothing out of the ordinary here.

“That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger,” said Snape coolly. “Five more points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all.”

Hermione spoke out of turn twice (but no points were taken the first time).

“You asked us a question and she knows the answer! Why ask if you don’t want to be told?” The class knew instantly he’d gone too far. Snape advanced on Ron slowly, and the room held its breath. “Detention, Weasley,” Snape said silkily, his face very close to Ron’s. “And if I ever hear you criticize the way I teach a class again, you will be very sorry indeed.”

Ron's detention turns out to be cleaning out bedpans in the Hospital Wing.

Snape doesn't tolerate speaking out of turn, yet both Hermione and Ron seem keen to do just that, repeatedly, despite Snape's reputation and strict classroom manner - even if your hand is up, you wait to be selected to answer, you don't just shout out. Worth noting, however:

“We told you,” said Parvati suddenly, “we haven’t got as far as werewolves yet, we’re still on — ” “Silence!” snarled Snape.

Snape doesn't deduct points for the first time speaking out of turn - but he does so immediately in response to insubordination and rudeness (especially if it is Harry).

Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor, and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown. “Five points from Gryffindor,” said Snape, which wiped the smiles from every face. “I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed.”

Ah, The Trevor Incident, favourite of Snaters the world over. I've talked about this method of teaching not being unusual for the context of Hogwarts/old schools here, but essentially giving Neville something to care about and a reason to pay attention was probably Snape's game here, not just to mess with Neville. As such, the points were taken from Gryffindor because Neville was asked to work independently, and he and Hermione disobeyed him - which Snape helpfully tells them at the time. It's only five points, Trevor was always going to be fine, and nobody in the fandom would care, except for the fact it's Snape. Nobody else cares about the other animals mistreated at Hogwarts - for example, the presumably real hedgehog that Dean was just...stabbing with pins for lessons on end:

“Miss Granger remains the only person in this class who has managed to turn a hedgehog into a satisfactory pincushion. I might remind you that your pincushion, Thomas, still curls up in fright if anyone approaches it with a pin!”

Or even when Flitwick used Trevor as an example:

Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try since they’d seen him make Neville’s toad zoom around the classroom.

Sure, Snape sounded way more menacing about it and - given that some of the ingredients in potions are, like, pickled frogs, cockroaches, and the like - Snape was probably not that bothered about a dead toad. But Snape can tell at a glance whether or not a potion is in good condition, so he knew Trevor wasn't going to die. We don't know whether Snape looked sour because Trevor got to live (unlikely), whether he was sour because Hermione and Neville had disobeyed him, or whether that's just his face.

Malfoy spent much of their next Potions class doing dementor imitations across the dungeon; Ron finally cracked and flung a large, slippery crocodile heart at Malfoy, which hit him in the face and caused Snape to take fifty points from Gryffindor.

I think in my old school if you threw something at someone's face you'd get sent out of class and possibly suspended, so... fair. However, Snape was either ignoring Malfoy's taunting (which he's done before) or Malfoy did it behind Snape's back; we're simply not told which on this occasion. And, once again, Malfoy provoking retaliation is ignored in favour of punishing an actual behaviour. McGonagall taught Snape as a student; he probably got that from her.

Suggested punishments

One of the essays, a particularly nasty one about shrinking potions, was for Harry’s least favorite teacher, Professor Snape, who would be delighted to have an excuse to give Harry detention for a month.

Probably true, but he's not actually given Harry a detention in this book.

Malfoy didn’t reappear in classes until late on Thursday morning, when the Slytherins and Gryffindors were halfway through double Potions. He swaggered into the dungeon, his right arm covered in bandages and bound up in a sling, acting, in Harry’s opinion, as though he were the heroic survivor of some dreadful battle. ... “Settle down, settle down,” said Professor Snape idly. Harry and Ron scowled at each other; Snape wouldn’t have said “settle down” if they’d walked in late, he’d have given them detention. But Malfoy had always been able to get away with anything in Snape’s classes; Snape was head of Slytherin House, and generally favored his own students above all others.

Harry does walk in late to class in this book and again in HBP - and gets 10 points deducted each time, not a detention. Harry is quite an unreliable narrator, as we've said before, and is also prone to being indignant when Snape gives him largely reasonable punishments.

The above passage is shortly after Draco was injured by Buckbeak in Hagrid's first lesson. In this book, Harry was late because of Quidditch practise, not an injury, and in HBP he was pacing in front of the Room of Requirement instead of getting to class, so there's really no excuse here. Harry can be such a drama queen (unreliable narrator) when it comes to Snape.

Further, if one were being charitable, one could say that Madam Pomfrey kept Malfoy in the hospital wing all that time, and therefore Snape would have good reason not to punish Malfoy for reappearing when Malfoy was feeling better. However, there's a very strong chance Snape let Malfoy milk it for all it was worth, and it's probably the same reason that Madam Pomfrey/the school wouldn't tell Draco to get his shit together: Lucius Malfoy, rich and influential helicopter dad, whom Draco tells every little inconvenience, and who's more trouble than it's worth to provoke.

And, some things to note here.

Snape's explains the reasons behind his threatening of punishments; he likes to stick to (and exploit) the rules

Typically, Snape goes from a proportionate punishment to threatening something more severe for continued misbehaviour

“And if I ever hear you criticise the way I teach a class again, you will be very sorry indeed.” / “Five more points from Gryffindor, and if I have to ask you to sit down again, it will be fifty.”

“Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school,” Snape spat. “You, Potter, and Weasley are out-of-bounds, in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf. For once in your life, hold your tongue.”

Snape, as already discussed in CoS, also waits for proof of an accusation - even when Draco has informed him that Harry was in Hogsmeade, and he could've easily taken Draco at his word:

Harry stayed silent. Snape was trying to provoke him into telling the truth. He wasn’t going to do it. Snape had no proof — yet.

Points deducted during PoA: 75

Punishments given: One detention for Ron, cleaning the bedpans in the Hospital Wing - and threatening a toad

Goblet of Fire

Points & detentions

“Fascinating though your social life undoubtedly is, Miss Granger,” said an icy voice right behind them, and all three of them jumped, “I must ask you not to discuss it in my class. Ten points from Gryffindor.” “Ah . . . reading magazines under the table as well?” Snape added, snatching up the copy of Witch Weekly. “A further ten points from Gryffindor … oh but of course …” Snape’s black eyes glittered as they fell on Rita Skeeter’s article. “Potter has to keep up with his press cuttings. …”

Talking in class and reading things other than the work is standard "not allowed" stuff in school. Fair enough. What follows - reading it out to the class - is no more heinous than a teacher reading the notes we all passed in class when we got caught. Not fun for the students, but hardly one of Snape's greatest crimes. Read it on your own time, guys, and this wouldn't have been an issue.

Snape and Karkaroff came around the corner. Snape had his wand out and was blasting rosebushes apart, his expression most ill-natured. Squeals issued from many of the bushes, and dark shapes emerged from them. “Ten points from Ravenclaw, Fawcett!” Snape snarled as a girl ran past him. “And ten points from Hufflepuff too, Stebbins!” as a boy went rushing after her. “And what are you two doing?” he added, catching sight of Harry and Ron on the path ahead. Karkaroff, Harry saw, looked slightly discomposed to see them standing there. His hand went nervously to his goatee, and he began winding it around his finger. “We’re walking,” Ron told Snape shortly. “Not against the law, is it?” “Keep walking, then!” Snape snarled, and he brushed past them, his long black cloak billowing out behind him.

Clearly cavorting in the bushes is not allowed at school dances, otherwise there wouldn't be chaperones and staff present at Muggle ones. Fair.

Interesting that Snape doesn't dock points for Ron talking back like he has done in the past - he simply tells them to fuck the fuck off. Perhaps it's the one-time rule we've seen with Parvati and Hermione - if Ron had spoken back again, he'd have gotten points docked. I wonder if Snape adheres to this rule with everyone (except Harry).

It was lucky, perhaps, that both Harry and Ron started shouting at Snape at the same time; lucky their voices echoed so much in the stone corridor, for in the confused din, it was impossible for him to hear exactly what they were calling him. He got the gist, however. “Let’s see,” he said, in his silkiest voice. “Fifty points from Gryffindor and a detention each for Potter and Weasley. Now get inside, or it’ll be a week’s worth of detentions.”

Post Densaugeo-gate, where Snape insulted Hermione's teeth. Their detention: forced to pickle rat brains in Snape’s dungeon (probably for potions, not just out of spite). Once again, his punishment starts reasonable (one detention for shouting/swearing at a teacher) and would escalate with further retaliation (multiple detentions).

Obviously, insulting a student's appearance was not his finest moment. It's also slightly out of character. I've written about this already. Snape doesn't seem to value appearances; every other insult he gives throughout the books are skill/character/competency based, not appearance-based; he is described as unattractive himself in ways that could presumably be magically or normally altered, i.e. with potions (or even with shampoo) but he doesn't care to alter them; and he has even been bullied on account of his appearance. Theories range from him just being spiteful/finding it funny - even though his typical M.O. is to ignore Hermione until she annoys him by speaking out of turn - to him doing it as a 'cover' because Draco is there and his Dark Mark is returning, and has been for some months; to my personal favourite - doing it so that he could punish Ron and Harry within the confines of the rules.

And also my other favourite headcanon: he's autistic as fuck, and pickling rat brains sets off his sensory issues.

The next two days passed without great incident, unless you counted Neville melting his sixth cauldron in Potions. Professor Snape, who seemed to have attained new levels of vindictiveness over the summer, gave Neville detention, and Neville returned from it in a state of nervous collapse, having been made to disembowel a barrel full of horned toads.

Another one I've seen some drama about, made worse by the fact that JKR doesn't know what a horned toad is, so she described the aftermath as Neville removing "frog guts" from beneath his nails:

The horned toad, or "horned lizards, horny toads, or horntoads" according to Wikipedia. Definitely horned; definitely not a toad (or a frog). Even assuming that horned toads are some sort of toad/frog-like creature in the Wizarding World, it's just another potion ingredient, and nobody cares when Ron was made to pickle rat brains (although it is funny to me that both Snape and Harry might have been imagining doing the same to Peter Pettigrew).

Suggested punishments

Snape loved taking points from Harry, and had certainly never missed an opportunity to give him punishments, or even to suggest that he should be suspended from the school.

True, but Harry also rarely missed giving him the opportunity to suggest it by doing things that are anywhere from against the rules (e.g. fighting, misbehaving in class) to actually illegal (i.e. flying an enchanted car, theft).

Harry didn’t answer. He knew Snape was trying to provoke him; he had done this before. No doubt he was hoping for an excuse to take a round fifty points from Gryffindor before the end of the class.

True, but even Harry/the narration now accepts that there's mostly an "excuse" (read: reason) that Snape docks the points. Harry's hardly a saint.

“You were out of bed on the night my office was broken into!” Snape hissed. “I know it, Potter! Now, Mad-Eye Moody might have joined your fan club, but I will not tolerate your behavior! One more nighttime stroll into my office, Potter, and you will pay!”

Again, Snape's waiting for proof, even though he knows (strongly suspects) that Harry was out of bed. But, even now, he's still giving a warning - only this time accompanied by the (probably very real) threat of Veritaserum:

[Harry] didn’t like the sound of that Truth Potion at all, nor would he put it past Snape to slip him some.

Points deducted during GoF: 70 from Gryffindor, 10 apiece from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff (90 total)

Punishments given: One detention for Ron and Harry pickling rat brains, disembowelling horned toads for Neville (which are not toads)

Summary (so far)

Snape never awards points - not even to his own house

Snape does sometimes reward the other houses in other ways (who aren't Gryffindor), e.g. awarding Hufflepuff two penalties when he refereed Quidditch, praise for Slytherins

He also punishes other houses, not just Gryffindor e.g. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff at the Yule Ball

He tends to follow the school rules, and will typically use/exploit them to punish students within the confines of these rules, rather than making things up/punishing for non-issues (with exceptions; the exception being Harry)

He also waits for proof of accusations against Harry - e.g. when he suspects Harry's stolen his ingredients from his personal stores in CoS, again in GoF, and even in PoA when Harry has left Hogwarts to visit Hogsmeade

Often, he will give a warning before taking points. Then, the initial point deduction/punishment is proportionate to the misdeed

He threatens further punishments if the student(s) do not listen the first time and behave after the first punishment; he threatens punishments he would give if Harry were in his house (e.g. expulsion in CoS)

Harry often thinks that Snape will punish him, and then Snape ultimately doesn't

Harry also takes things personally. If he's late to class, for example, and he gets points docked as a result, Harry believes that that is unreasonable, in the same way he assumes that the book rule in PS is made up

Snape's neutral or fair actions are overlooked, like his proportionate punishments early on in the series, not punishing Ron for being disrespectful at the Yule Ball, etc

Harry exaggerates Snape's cruelty and personal vendettas, and dismisses when Snape behaves like other strict teachers. He merely notices when Filch is threatening detentions for students breathing; Filch's threats of physical punishments on the students are normally overlooked; Harry finds it amusing when Hagrid or 'Moody' are cruel to Draco; Harry finds McGonagall's much more severe punishments acceptable because he admires her

With the Slytherins waiting until Snape's back is turned to misbehave, it's hinted that Snape deals with Slytherin discipline privately. This is also confirmed in the later books, because Crabbe and Goyle have received detentions - and, ovbiously, Harry wouldn't know about it most of the time

Snape takes far fewer points than other teachers - namely, McGonagall - and also does not use or threaten excessively harsh or unfair punishments like 'Moody' or McGonagall (e.g. turning Draco into a ferret and physically harming him, docking 50 points each in the first book and sending them to the Forest, threatening the students with chains, etc)

Snape's crimes

Snape does exhibit bias and favouritism by overlooking Slytherin cheek and misbehaviour (especially Draco's), whilst simultaneously cracking down on similar behavior from Gryffindors - especially Harry

He's more likely to praise Slytherins and criticise Gryffindors. He's even more likely to praise Draco and criticise specifically Harry and his friends

This is particularly obvious during Densaugeo-gate, where he punishes only Gryffindors, despite Slytherins being involved - and even may have provoked the students so that he could punish the Gryffindors, by upsetting Hermione, Ron, and Harry. Which leads me to...

Snape can be cruel. Sometimes I think he's just being blunt - Snape's "waspish" comments are probably just blunt feedback on their potions. Sometimes it's how Harry perceives what would otherwise be normal dialogue if delivered by another teacher (e.g. McGonagall) - but at other times, Snape resorts to cruelty to try and get a message across, or specifically to needle Harry

Snape has a tendency to assume Harry is up to something (but can this be considered a crime? Harry is usually up to something, and he also usually gets away with it). but...

Snape has a tendency to 'confuse' Harry for James, especially from PoA onwards - and this makes him also assume the worst of Harry. It also makes him more volatile, and prone to meltdowns and extreme measures like the use of Veritaserum, especially as the stakes increase for both Snape and Harry with the impending return of Voldemort

Final conclusion: Snape is a strict and blunt teacher, and although he does particularly dislike Harry and is more prone to singling him out for punishment, it is not (in his first four years at school) always the case. Harry has a tendency not only to misbehave, but to imagine punishments Snape might give him, and also to overreact and feel indignant if Snape punishes him reasonably for something he's actually done wrong. It's never really acknowledged when Snape lets things slide, either because he can't find proof or presumably when Dumbledore silences him (a notable exception being his shrieking accusation that Potter had something to do with Sirius Black's escape, but... Snape was a little bit beyond reason at that point)

At some stage, I'll finish re-reading the series so I can comment on OotP and beyond, hopefully add some more context to GoF, and pick out any further threats or punishments I've missed. In the meantime if there's anything essential that I've missed, I'd love to know.

[severus-snaps]

Just thinking about how this scene in PS:

Perhaps Snape had left the book in there? It was worth a try. He pushed the door ajar and peered inside — and a horrible scene met his eyes.Snape and Filch were inside, alone. Snape was holding his robes above his knees. One of his legs was bloody and mangled. Filch was handing Snape bandages.“Blasted thing,” Snape was saying. “How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?”Harry tried to shut the door quietly, but — "POTTER!"Snape’s face was twisted with fury as he dropped his robes quickly to hide his leg. Harry gulped.“I just wondered if I could have my book back.”“GET OUT! OUT!”Harry left, before Snape could take any more points from Gryffindor. He sprinted back upstairs.“Did you get it?” Ron asked as Harry joined them. “What’s the matter?”In a low whisper, Harry told them what he’d seen.

lowkey reminded me of SWM:

James whirled about; a second flash of light later, Snape was hanging upside down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of graying underpants. * There was another flash of light, and Snape was once again hanging upside down in the air. “Who wants to see me take off Snivelly’s pants?” * It was scary: Snape’s lips were shaking, his face was white, his teeth were bared. “Amusing man, your father, wasn’t he?” said Snape, shaking Harry so hard that his glasses slipped down his nose. “I — didn’t —” Snape threw Harry from him with all his might. Harry fell hard onto the dungeon floor. “You will not tell anybody what you saw!” Snape bellowed. “No,” said Harry, getting to his feet as far from Snape as he could. “No, of course I w — ” “Get out, get out, I don’t want to see you in this office ever again!” And as Harry hurtled toward the door, a jar of dead cockroaches exploded over his head. He wrenched the door open and flew away up the corridor, stopping only when he had put three floors between himself and Snape.

More rambling under the cut about the two scenes, Snape's potential trauma re: being physically exposed, the Marauders, SWM, and my pet theory that the Marauders used Sectumsempra.

cw for discussions of sexual assault/trauma

Scene similarities:

Harry stumbles into a scene involving Snape that is unpleasant for Harry to see (and for Snape to experience)

Snape is furious, or perhaps afraid, of what Harry has seen - and seems to know by OotP that unless told otherwise, the information will make it back to Harry's friends

Both scenes involve Snape being physically harmed - Cerberus attack vs choked with soap, immobilised, etc

Both also involve Snape's legs/general lower body being exposed to Harry (and to others) against his will

Snape's face is twisted with fury, lips shaking, and he is yelling - illustrated alternately as ALL CAPS and by "bellowing" - which, as @sideprince points out here, "He is consistently described as speaking dangerously softly when he's angry or vindictive, and there's a significant break from this only when he's triggered, like in PoA in the Shrieking Shack and when Black escapes."

Plus this incredible analysis showing how Snape is usually... well... speaking softly.

At this point, the usual caveat: the first 3 or so books are written slightly differently owing to a younger readership etc etc. But still.

One of the only other times we see Snape entirely lose it, besides when Sirius escaped, is when Harry attempts to use Levicorpus on him in HBP:

In that instant, he cared not whether he lived or died. Pushing himself to his feet again, he staggered blindly toward Snape, the man he now hated as much as he hated Voldemort himself — “Sectum —!” Snape flicked his wand and the curse was repelled yet again; but Harry was mere feet away now and he could see Snape’s face clearly at last: He was no longer sneering or jeering; the blazing flames showed a face full of rage. Mustering all his powers of concentration, Harry thought, Levi — “No, Potter!” screamed Snape. ... Snape’s pale face, illuminated by the flaming cabin, was suffused with hatred just as it had been before he had cursed Dumbledore.

So if we consider:

SWM: Impedimenta cast on Snape >> Scourgify cast on Snape >> Snape casts Sectumsempra >> James casts Levicorpus >> Snape dropped on ground (Liberacorpus) >> Petrificus Totalus cast on Snape >> Snape released >> James casts Levicorpus again >> Snape's underwear potentially removed

HBP: Snape blocks (almost*) all of the following spells that Harry casts: Crucio x2 >> Incarcerus >> Stupefy >> Impedimenta (interrupted by another DE) >> Sectumsempra >> Levicorpus

Crucially, Snape had been sneering and jeering and basically offering advice to Harry packaged in insult ("Blocked again and again and again until you learn to keep your mouth

shut and your mind closed") all the way through the twice-attempted Unforgivable "Crucio", plus several other attack/defense spells

He starts to look more upset and lose the sneering facade around Sectumsempra

But it wasn't until Levicorpus specifically that Snape switches to rage, and he is once again screaming

I don't think he was upset specifically because Harry used his spells - he was angry but did not overreact when Harry used Sectumsempra on Draco, for example, and Snape is pretty chill, all things considered, when Harry hexes him in Occlumency lessons; he makes no moves to punish the students for Disarming him (and knocking him out) in PoA - and again, Snape is fairly unbothered when Harry is hexing him at the end of HBP, even when Unforgivables are involved.

He's also not that easily riled by unexpected things generally, e.g. when the fireworks explode in CoS so Harry/Hermione/Ron can steal ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion, he initially 'roars' "SILENCE!" but this is because the class is shrieking and people's heads are blowing up, so I expect it was chaos - afterwards, he immediately turns to restoring everyone's various body parts to the normal size, and remains composed: “If I ever find out who threw this,” Snape whispered, “I shall make sure that person is expelled.”

So I think it is something else in PS that makes him yell - namely, that Snape is deeply traumatised by James' treatment of him using Levicorpus specifically, but mostly because of how it was used to (threaten to, but probably actually to) strip him, and remove his underwear in front of a crowd.

Snape has a Thing about being physically exposed (that Thing is trauma)

And it's made 100% worse when he is witnessed/it is caused by a James Potter lookalike

And that is why we see some advanced shouty Snape in PS - because his leg was injured, and Harry came in, unexpected, to see Snape vulnerable, and both physically and emotionally exposed

Counter-argument: Snape is comfortable enough to walk around Hogwarts in his nightshirt, so perhaps he's not that worried about being physically exposed? Or perhaps he knows the students wouldn't dare to pull a prank on him, or do that to him in any way... until Harry

“You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented them — I, the Half-Blood Prince! And you’d turn my inventions on me, like your filthy father, would you? I don’t think so… no!” Harry had dived for his wand; Snape shot a hex at it and it flew feet away into the darkness and out of sight. “Kill me then,” panted Harry, who felt no fear at all, but only rage and contempt. “Kill me like you killed him, you coward —” “DON’T —” screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the burning house behind them — “CALL ME COWARD!”

A couple of things to note here, specifically:

The usual plug for my theory that James & Co. knew about Sectumsempra, or found out about it - and that they used it on Snape

If I nosedive into that theory/hc a little further, we could also speculate that - just like the main interaction we see between the Marauders and Snape in SWM - they are more focused on the hunt, on the attack, the offense, whereas Snape used Sectumsempra in self-defence/retaliation

Morbid headcanon that James/Sirius used Sectumsempra on Snape in the section of SWM we didn't get to see because Adult Snape interrupted the memory

Little additional morbid hc - they slashed up his leg or something, for additional Fluffy injury parallels

"How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?" - the three heads are James, Sirius, and Peter, all of whom have a more violent streak than Lupin, who typically just pretended not to see anything (and is engaging in a life-long habit of pretending he's just a friendly little guy, distancing himself from the werewolf guilt and fear of violence that it entails)

(Lupin knew the incantation, after all - how would he know that, if it was Snape's own spell, which Snape could cast nonverbally, unless Lupin had also used/heard it?)

[severus-snaps]

Snape (and Dumbledore) in The Chamber of Secrets: conspiracy theory time

A coalescing of events meant that I saw this delightful gifset at around the point I reached one of the below sections in my sporadic reread of CoS, and I was struck by how differently the staff responded to Snape in the beginning of the book, when Harry first discovered Mrs Norris compared to how how they responded to Snape in this later scene.

TL;DR: Snape was always the black sheep of the staff, who modelled their feelings towards Snape off of Dumbledore's feelings - and Dumbledore didn't trust him until towards the end of GoF. I also lowkey think that Dumbledore suspected Snape of being involved in the Chamber opening - at least for a little while.

Included below is the section after which Harry has been found near a Petrified Mrs Norris:

Here, Snape is very much sidelined by his attitude to Harry, because although every teacher knows that Harry is not telling them the full truth, only Snape seems to want to actually get that truth out of him. The truth - the thing that Snape is after - comes second even to Quidditch.

Other key takeaways from the first interaction, for me, are some of the things I've outlined in my ramble here, which include potential parallels drawn between Snape and the Bloody Baron as pale, gaunt, staring, separate from the others owing to their intimidating and/or unsettling nature. 'Gaunt' is used to describe Snape here also, where JKR usually only uses it for ghosts - and, much more notably, Azkaban prisoners. 'Gaunt' in JKR's writing signals further that Snape is Other: outcasted, depressed, isolated, and practically sick, and trapped at Hogwarts as much as any prisoner might be in Azkaban. Whether he's trapped by his memories, his obligations, or Dumbledore himself, is up for interpretation.

Snape alone is described as standing in the shadows, apart from the other teachers, rather than alongside them. Notably, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are also apart from the teachers and sat 'outside the pool candlelight'- excluded by the fact that they are students, and Dumbledore and the others are authority figures, as professors.

The other authority figures - namely McGonagall and Dumbledore - do not have his back against Lockhart, and overall Snape's more aligned with Filch, as he (sort of) was in the first book, going to Filch instead of Madam Pomfrey following his injury at the teeth of Fluffy - the same Filch who is similarly 'othered' and not taken seriously in the wizarding world, but by virtue of being a Squib.

There also seems to be some continued dismissal of Snape and his position in Dumbledore's wording, right here, in this scene:

‘Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made which will revive Mrs Norris.’ ‘I’ll make it,’ Lockhart butted in. ‘I must have done it a hundred times, I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep –’ ‘Excuse me,’ said Snape icily, ‘but I believe I am the Potions master at this school.’ There was a very awkward pause. ‘You may go,’ Dumbledore said to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

But what I found interesting is that Snape's "I believe I am the Potions master at this school" could both refer to Snape dismissing Lockhart trying to bumble his way through a potion he's not capable or qualified to make, and refer to this moment of Dumbledore saying "I will have a potion made" where his phrasing is virtually omitting Snape from any responsibility or involvement in the process (as in why not say "Professor Snape can produce a potion to revive Mrs Norris" in the first place, since Snape's right there, and Filch is half a step away from losing his mind. To contrast, Snape even gets full credit for making the Wolfsbane potion, despite his somewhat strained relationship with Lupin in PoA).

I probably wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't busy obsessing over Snape, but something else I've picked up on during this reread of CoS is that nobody refers to Snape being involved in brewing the Mandrake Restorative Draught. Professor Sprout is credited with growing them, which is fair, and "Madam Pomfrey was pleased to report that the Mandrakes were becoming moody and secretive, meaning that they were fast leaving childhood", and Madam Pomfrey is also credited with handing out the Mandrake 'juice' to revive people at the end of the book - which is also fair, since she is the school nurse, and that's literally her job. But whose job is it to make the potion? I'd wager that normally it would be Snape, otherwise he wouldn't have been so sniffy with Lockhart about stealing his job.

Snape likes to feel useful, likes to believe that he is essential, and he likes people to know both of those things - just look at his behaviour in OotP, proud and bragging to Sirius and Harry about his job of collecting information on Voldemort. So, as usual, Snape's comment about being the potions master also plays into his characterisation as someone who's very aware of his position (and power) in relation to others, always asserting his authority as a teacher - but also constantly being reminded of the limitations of that authority, and his (often lower) position in relation to the others. We see a similar sort of thing unfold at the start of the book, when Snape is trying to expel Harry and Ron for crashing into the whomping willow. They've broken the law - not even just school rules this time - and so, they should rightly be expelled (to Snape's mind):

Instead, however, Snape is unceremoniously invited to leave his own office. Don't get me wrong, Dumbledore was very friendly about it - jocular, even - but if anything, that only served to undermine Snape's authority further. Plus, calling Snape 'Severus' (especially within the same sentence that 'Minerva' is referred to as 'Professor McGonagall') highlights Dumbledore's (and McGonagall's) more senior positions, their higher levels of authority, and Dumbledore's more paternalistic role toward Snape. By contrast, Dumbledore's use of 'Minerva' shortly after, to me at least, reflects a more equal, friendly-professional relationship - especially given that Dumbledore and McGonagall are closer peers in terms of age and authority (both having taught and held authority over Snape during his student years, and both being deputy headmistress and head of house/headmaster, where Snape is only head of house for the often-maligned Slytherin). It's almost as though it's Snape who's in trouble, not Harry and Ron.

As pointed out by this on Quora, which I agree with:

[Snape] and McGonagall have a teasing rivalry which may well be affectionate, but she and Dumbledore can’t seem to make up their minds whether to treat him as a colleague or a student.

The upshot of all of this is that Snape's authority is routinely ignored and removed entirely; far from Snape's view of justice, Harry and Ron receive one single mild detention from McGonagall - a very light slap on the wrist for breaking wizarding law, being late to school, and damaging school property - and, at the end of the book, not only are they not expelled for doing it again, putting themselves and others in danger when they could have gone to get a teacher* - but in fact they're again rewarded, with 200 points each, promising them the House Cup for the second time.

*Yes, I'm aware that if they went and got a teacher it would ruin the adventure of a kid's book - but I'm here for the Watsonian analysis, specifically Snape's pov.

So, returning to the moment Mrs Norris has been Petrified, Snape already perhaps feels that his expertise and his authority are being ignored and tested by both Lockhart and by Dumbledore, in front of his colleagues (who perhaps don't like/respect him very much) and the students (who definitely don't like/respect him very much); perhaps he even feels he's being overlooked for a task that he thinks he's undoubtedly going to be a part of. After all, he's the potions professor. Of course he'd be involved in brewing the potion to cure those who have been Petrified.

Or is he?

Maybe we're supposed to believe that Dumbledore trusts Snape from the moment he's turned spy (or, at the very least, from the moment that Snape vows to protect Harry, even once Lily is dead). But more and more I'm beginning to wonder if that trust developed more slowly, and wasn't solidified until Voldemort actually returned in GoF, and Snape risked his life in returning to Voldemort. I know it is, in part, to do with the vibe of the books earlier in the series, being shorter, simpler, and generally more light-hearted for younger children, and therefore less interested in the more complex aspects of any of the adults' lives - Snape is presented as a generic mean teacher, he's wrong, the kids love getting one up on him, there's less suggestion that he's a prodigy or a redeemed hero or whatever, he's often the butt of the joke, etc etc. But stick with me here.

After all, there's no inkling in Snape's memories of Snape or Dumbledore growing substantially closer before GoF - in fact, Snape's memories make it seem as though Dumbledore is largely disinterested in Snape in PS:

The office dissolved but re-formed instantly. Snape was pacing up and down in front of Dumbledore. “ — 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,” said Dumbledore, without raising his eyes from a copy of Transfiguration Today. “Other teachers report that the boy is modest, likable, and reasonably talented. Personally, I find him an engaging child.” Dumbledore turned a page, and said, without looking up, “Keep an eye on Quirrell, won’t you?”

Dumbledore doesn't even look at him here, completely disinterested in what Snape has to say. Sure, Snape is bitching about an eleven-year-old, but there's none of the level of familiarity that we see in Snape's memories - starting from the 'you're a braver man than Karkaroff' in GoF, and moving into the later books (and even then, half of Snape's life in GoF is Snape very much believing - but not wanting to believe - that Dumbledore would doubt him). There's also an argument to be made that Dumbledore is sort of Occluding Snape here, like he did to Harry in OotP, keeping Snape out of the loop in the event that Voldemort returns, so Snape can honestly say he had no idea that Voldemort was attached to Quirrel - but surely the great and talented Dumbledore could effectively Occlude Snape for five minutes? This wasn't the strange connection that Harry shared with Voldemort, nor would Snape likely try and actively use Legilimency on Dumbledore - and even if he did, we know who holds all of the power in that relationship, so I doubt Snape would even try.

Anyway, building on the idea that Dumbledore doesn't trust Snape very much: at the point at which the Mandrake is due to be prepared, the Slytherin password has been "pureblood" (and who knows what else), Harry & co point out that no Slytherins have been attacked, it's Slytherin's monster going around targeting Muggle-borns, it's Slytherin's heir, Slytherin's secret chamber. Dumbledore strongly suspects Voldemort's influence/involvement (given the similarities to Myrtle's death), and later suspects Lucius Malfoy's involvement - two people who had a not-insignificant measure of control over Snape in the past.

But, at the beginning of the year, it may not even have been clear to Dumbledore that Lucius was involved. Still, someone had to have set everything in motion - and Dumbledore obviously didn't suspect Harry. Snape is more or less narratively excluded from any hint of involvement in the Mandrake draught, despite being an expert on potions and their ingredients, and at the time when it is first mentioned, he's lurking in the literal shadows, stood apart from the other teachers, who may or may not know or have heard rumours that he has a dodgy past as a DE (given that the trial we see in GoF was hardly a private affair):

So at this point, Dumbledore can have only theories as to who - or what - Petrified the cat, and how they went about it. All Dumbledore knows for certain is that someone with some exceptionally advanced knowledge of the Dark Arts or Dark Magic could've done it, someone in the school, with a likely history of being aligned with Voldemort - and at the same time, Snape's hardly doing himself any favours here by trying to incriminate Harry, a literal child.

Side note: it is really funny to me that Snape spends the anniversary of Lily and James's deaths this year trying to get their kid into shit for killing a cat. Snape is so bitter and I love him.

It's not until the end of the story that Dumbledore is made more clearly aware of the diary, its powers, or Ginny's involvement, and pieces together that Lucius alone would've had the motive to both remove Dumbledore from the school and to frame a Weasley. Up until that point - if we assume that Dumbledore doesn't fully trust Snape - it's just as likely that Snape is working from inside the school somehow, perhaps at Lucius'/Voldemort's behest, to frame Harry and rid the school of Muggle-borns, now that Voldemort is becoming more active.

As always, Dumbledore would have many theories, "each of them as unlikely as the next".

A part of me wonders, then, if Dumbledore wasn't just hedging his bets, keeping Snape sort of distanced from the process of making the Mandrake Draught and instead giving the responsibility to Madam Pomfrey, just in case Snape decided to go back on his word or had been influenced by Lucius (or the memory of Voldemort himself) and sabotage the Draught.

It might not even have been Dumbledore doing it on purpose (we're all susceptible to bias), and it might even have influenced by some of the other staff accidentally associating Snape with the Slytherin antics - until Ginny goes missing, that is:

And suddenly, from the reader's/Harry's perspective, Snape is not on the outskirts, but at the very front, leading the charge; far from being sidelined and ignored, he is quickly supported by the rest of the staff, including a very enthusiastic McGonagall. Granted, some of this is likely due to Lockhart's grating personality finally becoming the bigger evil than Snape's general shitty attitude when the fight has escalated, combined with the need to remove Lockhart entirely so that the staff - in Dumbledore's absence - can try and formulate a plan in peace.

But I also notice that it tends to be Dumbledore who belittles Snape first/the most, not the other teachers. McGonagall and Snape share what seems to be a friendly rivalry from as early as PS, and Quirrell tells Harry that Snape made himself unpopular with the other staff when he insisted on refereeing the match, suggesting that he hadn’t been especially unpopular before.

Returning to that Quora answer, though: "After he kills Dumbledore, though, most of them seem willing to believe him a traitor. Most of them come up with some variant of “Dumbledore trusted him and I trusted Dumbledore”. Only Slughorn speaks of his direct, personal relationship with Snape (“I thought I knew him”), and only Hagrid hangs on to the idea that Snape is doing as Dumbledore told him."

So they can't have been so close that they trusted him just on his own merits, even after working together for so long. I don't know about you, but I'd be surprised and doubtful even if my least-liked colleague ever turned out to have killed someone.

I think at this point it's also worth noting that my interpretation of this scene isn't only one of friendly rivalry over points (frenemy bffs), but also an infliction of McGonagall's authority over Snape, her assertion that he was in the wrong, in a workplace-friendly way:

Don't get me wrong, I think Snape was genuinely pleased to see her, and deep down happy to acquiesce - but it was also a power play on McGonagall's part, and they both knew it.

I've yet to do my reread of PoA, but I think it's fair to say that it's a book marked by Dumbledore's (and others') dismissive attitudes towards Snape, turned up to 11. All year Snape's warned Dumbledore about Sirius, and Lupin; he's humiliated in the eyes of his students by the Boggart incident; his experience with the 'prank' (which should be renamed 'the trick', because nobody ever called it a prank in the books) has been silenced, ignored, and diminished by Dumbledore since he was a child; despite being (almost) right, despite following the letter of the law, and despite attempting to save Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Snape is made to look as though he's absolutely insane in front of the Minister for Magic, his credibility damaged, his hope for justice or catharsis snatched away at the last moment, and his only personally satisfying moment includes making himself unpopular again by 'outing' Lupin, who appeared to be well-liked. We can gather from the ending of GoF that Dumbledore doesn't even care to explain to Snape the events of PoA in full until over a year later - despite Snape preparing to return to Voldemort's side, and already offering intel which Dumbledore doesn't seem to particularly care about, diminishing both Snape's preparedness and his sense of usefulness still further. No wonder he's got such a chip on his shoulder, come OotP.

Returning to my original point, then: it seems as though Snape was always the black sheep of the Hogwarts staff; the others were led, by and large, by Dumbledore's attitude towards him - and that attitude didn't become particularly positive until Snape began to 'prove himself' in GoF, and was quickly dashed at the end of HBP. As a result, I think it's perfectly plausible that the reason Snape is socially/professionally sidelined in CoS is because Dumbledore has yet to make up his mind about whether or not he trusts Snape, and lowkey thinks that Snape might be involved in opening the Chamber or sabotaging the Mandrake Draught. No matter what he tells Harry, or anyone else, he doesn't entirely trust Snape - and the amount that Snape is 'liked' by the other staff sort of increased when Dumbledore was briefly no longer headmaster in CoS. That sense of uselessness, and lack of social power and authority, feeds into Snape's insecurities in PoA, GoF, and beyond.

[severus-snaps]

The Life and Times of Eileen Prince

Per some of the other tinfoil hat metas I've been posting lately, especially to do with Eileen Prince, today I present what is (to me) a new theory: Eileen Prince was at Hogwarts at the same time as Tom Riddle and Walburga Black; she may also have been in school when the Chamber of Secrets first opened.

Below I go into the dates for people who may have been at the school around the same time; make some hcs about the ages and potential relationships of some of the characters; I discuss the first opening of the Chamber, Pureblood supremacy in that era, and talk some more about the school experience for Eileen specifically during those years, and also make some more hcs for how all of that may have influenced Snape - especially since she obviously told him so much about Hogwarts. I finish with a timeline (hopefully) collecting all of the events I've discussed.

A fairly long post. More under the cut.

Summarised from the Wiki: "Eileen's sixth-year Potions book was published "around" fifty years prior to 1996 (HBP, Chapter 16). Assuming she purchased it new in 1946 and assuming she was sixteen at the time, she would have been born around 1930, although she may have bought a used copy or purchased it earlier."

Personally, "around" fifty years might suggest some leeway of two or three years, perhaps even up to five. For the sake of this meta I'm just going to assume Eileen was born in 1930, since JKR is useless at maths and likes a nice round number to work from.

In that case, Eileen likely would've entered Hogwarts, aged 11, in 1941.

At this point, the Headmaster was Armando Dippet.

Albus Dumbledore served as Head of Gryffindor House and Transfiguration teacher

Horace Slughorn was Head of Slytherin House and Potions Master

The Chamber of Secrets was first opened by Tom Riddle in the summer of 1943 (the academic year running from September 1942 to July 1943), with Myrtle Warren's death occurring that June.

There were multiple attacks prior to that point, similar to the events of HP:CoS.

So, let's have some dates (with the caveat that these dates and some of the info is taken directly from the Wiki for that character, the dates are sometimes best estimates, each taken either from the Wiki itself or in one or two cases I foudn them on the Black family tapestry that JKR released for charity):

Eileen Prince (born approx. 1930) As we all know, Snape's mother. She would've joined Hogwarts in 1941, and therefore been in her second year when the Chamber was opened. I'm operating under the assumption that Eileen was a Slytherin, too, just like her son - Houses tend to be 'hereditary' in that sense, and Severus must have gotten his enthusiasm to join Slytherin from somewhere. Myrtle Warren (b. 1928-29) She would've started Hogwarts in 1939/40 and was sorted into Ravenclaw. While at Hogwarts she was unable to make friends and was teased because of this and her physical appearance. As a Muggle-born student, Myrtle died in her 4th year, at the age of 14, as a result of Tom Riddle opening the Chamber of Secrets. Haunting the toilet where she died ("I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she’d ever laughed at my glasses."), she later became known as "Moaning Myrtle".

Olive Hornby (born approx. 1928/29?) We know little about her personally, beyond that she teased Myrtle about her glasses, had a brother, and was probably reasonably close to Myrtle in age. She found Myrtle's body when Dippet asked her to look for Myrtle, and Myrtle absolutely haunted her. Presumably some time later, Olive went to the Ministry of Magic to stop Myrtle from stalking her, though she was dead by the time the events of GoF took place (the scene taking place in January of 1995), as Myrtle brags to Harry about how Olive didn't forget the sight of Myrtle's dead body until her dying day. Olive would've died before reaching her 70s, which is remarkably young for a witch, and perhaps suggests she died in the first wizarding war. Even more speculatively, "Olive" is a shade of green, so perhaps she was a Slytherin - especially since most bullies who tease people for their looks are relegated to that house in the books. See also: Pansy Parkinson, Draco Malfoy, etc. I also think it's a safe bet to assume that Olive was from a wizarding family, as Myrtle attended Olive's brother's wedding ("I remember at her brother’s wedding -"). I'm not sure what punishments the Ministry would give for a ghost breaking the Statute of Secrecy (I'm imagining like a Ghostbusters Ghost Sucker) but I think it would be wild even for Myrtle to attend a Muggle-born's wedding. I think also the teasing is likely to have come from someone half-blood or more, as they would be in a natural position of social privilege over a Muggle-born Myrtle.

Rubeus Hagrid (b. 1928) He joined Hogwarts in approx. 1940 and was Sorted into Gryffindor, possibly in the year below Myrtle. Riddle described him as: "blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls". Hagrid secretly kept a pet Acromantula named Aragog, for which he was framed by Riddle for causing the Petrifications, and murder of Myrtle Warren. Hagrid was ultimately expelled in June 1943, in his 3rd year. With his wand snapped, Dumbledore convinced Armando Dippet to have Hagrid trained for the job of Gamekeeper to allow him to remain at the school.

Lyall Lupin (b. 1929) Remus Lupin's father. Joined Hogwarts in approx. 1940. House uncertain; I would assume, however, that it was not Slytherin, and may well have been Gryffindor, the same as his son. Tom Riddle (b. 1926) Obviously, the future Lord Voldemort. Slytherin. He would've been in his 4th(?) year when Eileen joined in 1941, murdered his father and stole the ring in July 1942, and made his first Horcrux in August. Some time after starting his fifth year in September 1942, he asked Slughorn whether it was possible to make several Horcruxes following a Slug Club dinner with his gang of friends (Ootp, A Sluggish Memory). By this point he was a school Prefect, and was considered a brilliant and model student by all except Dumbledore, who had his own suspicions about him. Riddle opened the Chamber of Secrets in the summer of his 5th year, likely in late May/early June, 1943. On June 13th, Myrtle Warren was killed. Shortly after, Riddle framed Hagrid; he convinced the Headmaster Armando Dippet that the spider Aragog was the monster that had terrorised the school. Hagrid was expelled, the incident was covered up, and Riddle received an engraved Trophy for Special Services to the School. In September 1943 (start of the next academic year), Riddle turns his diary into a Horcrux, and some time later learnt about the Diadem. In his seventh year, he is made Head Boy. He graduates Hogwarts in summer 1945. After graduating, Riddle applies for the DADA post (unsuccessfully). Note: The duel between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald occurs in November 1945. Post-school: Riddle then goes to work for Borgin and Burkes, creates a Horcrux from Hufflepuff's cup using the murder of Hepzibah Smith around 1956, and disappears. A decade later, his appearance altered, he applies (unsuccessfully, again) for a job at Hogwarts in 1967, this time with newly-appointed Dumbledore as Headmaster. He hides the Diadem in the Room of Requirement. "Voldemort" begins his ascent to power in 1970.

Lestrange Sr & Avery Sr (born before 1926) * Potentially would've started Hogwarts in or before 1936, Lestrange and Avery were named in the memory of Tom Riddle attending the Slug Club dinner. Both were members of Tom Riddle's gang and potentially future Death Eaters, both were almost certainly in Slytherin. Other potential gang members from this era were Nott, Rosier, Mulciber, and Dolohov, the "friends" who accompanied Voldemort when he came to ask Dumbledore for a job in They would've been in their final year or so when Eileen arrived (if they were still there), but would have potentially graduated from Hogwarts before the Chamber was opened, seeing as they were older than Riddle, who was in his 5th year when he opened the Chamber in June of 1943. * "Harry noticed that [Tom Riddle] was by no means the eldest of the group of boys, but that they all seemed to look at him as their leader." Tom Riddle was born in 1926, so I'm assuming they were slightly older.

Walburga Black (b. 1925) Would've started Hogwarts in approx. 1936. Would later become the wife of Orion Black, and the mother of Sirius Black III and Regulus Black II. I'm operating under the assumption that all of the Black family members were in Slytherin (per Slughorn's "The whole Black family had been in my House" until Sirius). She would've been in her sixth/seventh year when the Chamber opened.

Lucretia Black (b. 1925) Born in 1925, Lucretia would've started Hogwarts in approx. 1936. Would also have been in her sixth/seventh year when the Chamber opened. She later married Ignatius Prewett, making her the aunt of Gideon, Fabian, and Molly Prewett (later Weasley).

Orion Black (b. 1929) Would've started Hogwarts in approx. 1940. Was in his second or third year when the Chamber opened; potentially was in the same year and House as Eileen Prince. Less certain: Alphard Black (born between 1925 to 1938) * * The Black family tree does not show Alphard's date of birth, but it does show that he was born sometime after his sister Walburga, in 1925, and before his brother Cygnus, in 1938. Included here just for the sake of argument. Potentially, he was not in school with Eileen at all, and was likely several years older than her.

Abraxas Malfoy (no birth date given; Lucius Malfoy was born in 1953 or 1954, so presumably Abraxas was born 20+ years before) Ignatius Prewett (potentially born in 1920s) Perhaps was reasonably close in age to Lucretia, and so Ignatius was potentially also in school with Eileen for a year or two, if he was within a year or two of Lucretia. Despite the Prewetts going on to produce Molly Prewett, who is reasonably tolerant of Muggles and married Muggle enthusiast Arthur Weasley, Ignatius was willing to marry a Black, suggesting that - in this generation at least - considering them scum that needed to be subjugated probably wasn't a deal-breaker. We can assume those beliefs weren't challenged by either Lucretia or Ignatius as they have not been struck from the family tree.

Included also is the Black family tree, just for the sake of clarity:

So, a few headcanons/theories:

Eileen's friends

Eileen was present at Hogwarts when Tom Riddle was there, and a student in her second year when the Chamber was opened. She would've been about twelve or thirteen years old - about the same age as Ron, Hermione, and Harry were when the Chamber opened again. As Eileen's age isn't exactly known, and her book was only "about" fifty years old, it's perfectly possible that Myrtle and Eileen may even have been in the same year, just in different Houses (unless you subscribe to the view that Eileen was in Ravenclaw, in which case they'd probably have known each other reasonably well). That could also mean that they potentially shared classes, depending on the timetables.

Like Myrtle, Eileen was also described as being not particularly attractive, with Harry going as far as to think "She was not pretty". Gobstones - the 'sport' about which Eileen was passionate enough to be captain of the school team - is described on Pottermore as a sort of loser hobby. As Myrtle and Eileen were both likely considered to be unpopular for these sorts of reasons, I wonder if they were sometimes the victims of the same bullies. A more fanciful interpretation could be that they were even friends. And if we're talking "outcast friend group" then perhaps Myrtle, Hagrid, and Eileen were all friends.

But I think that might be unlikely, otherwise we might have got a hint of that in the text (i.e. Hagrid says "It [Aragog] never killed no-one!", rather than saying anything about Myrtle, and throughout that scene Myrtle is only ever referred to as "the dead girl" (for the purposes of not revealing Moaning Myrtle was the victim yet, but strictly in-universe, there's no hint that Hagrid and Myrtle were friends). Hagrid is, as is his M.O., more worried about his giant spider than the dead girl (or himself).

Another question is whether or not Eileen was friendly with any of the Black family, like Orion or Walburga - who were later known to be very sympathetic to, and supportive of, Voldemort's cause. It's worth noting at this stage how prolific anti-Muggleborn sentiment was (which in turn might influence whether or not Eileen and Myrtle were friends), and these feelings were probably heightened in Slytherin. Although Voldemort is not yet Voldemort, and he has not become the Big Bad we know him to be, the rhetoric he would later harness was reasonably widespread - according to Sirius, "there were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true colors, who thought he had the right idea about things". Sirius reckons his parents (Orion and Walburga) "thought Voldemort had the right idea, they were all for the purification of the Wizarding race, getting rid of Muggle-borns and having purebloods in charge."

In fact, one of the few characters we hear speak for themselves from this generation is Walburga. She - or, her portrait - refers to the occupants of 'her' house in OotP as "Mudbloods, filth, stains of dishonor" and "Half-breeds, mutants, [and] freaks". There is only one Muggle-born in the house, yet she refers to all of them this way - as Mudbloods, and creatures of dirt - half-blood and Pureblood blood traitors alike. I've heard a theory that her portrait was more unhinged than the real person would've been, but by and large portraits seem to capture the sort of person they were, and there's no indication that they're substantially different to the person they depict - so I think it's safe to assume that these were views she held in life.

However, I don't think it makes much sense for Eileen to have been a Pureblood supremacist herself, or at least not in the same league as the Black family. I'm sure Walburga, for example, would rather have died a spinster (or just straight up died) than marry and have a child with a Muggle like Eileen did. But if Eileen did hold those views, it makes it all the more confusing why she didn't marry a Pureblood herself, and instead married a Muggle - especially since she was surrounded by an entire House of people with similar views, and it seems as though plenty of people meet at Hogwarts and marry afterwards. Maybe the snooty and noble Blacks and Malfoys wouldn't have wanted Eileen if the Prince family was lacking the proper appearance, upbringing, and/or financial situation - but that doesn't mean a Carrow, Crabbe or Goyle wouldn't have considered her 'a good match'. There weren't that many families left to choose from, after all.

(Unless she wasn't actually Pureblood, in which case they may not have wanted to marry her at all). Or maybe she's an offshoot of one of the members forcibly removed from the Black family tree by Walburga.

The other mystery, then, is whether or not Walburga, Orion, and Eileen were on good terms with Tom Riddle in school. Riddle's 'friends' were described as follows:

“As he moved up the school, he gathered about him a group of dedicated friends; I call them that, for want of a better term, although as I have already indicated, Riddle undoubtedly felt no affection for any of them. This group had a kind of dark glamour within the castle. They were a motley collection; a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty. In other words, they were the forerunners of the Death Eaters, and indeed some of them became the first Death Eaters after leaving Hogwarts. “Rigidly controlled by Riddle, they were never detected in open wrongdoing, although their seven years at Hogwarts were marked by a number of nasty incidents to which they were never satisfactorily linked, the most serious of which was, of course, the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, which resulted in the death of a girl. As you know, Hagrid was wrongly accused of that crime.

We see no hint that any of the 'familiar' characters to us (i.e. characters Harry has at least seen pictures of, like Walburga and Eileen) are in the Slug Club memory with Riddle, though I suppose they could've been on reasonably good terms even if Eileen (unpopular as she seems to have been) was not in the Slug Club, or they were simply not attending that day, or if Slughorn used to preferentially invite boys because of some good old-fashioned sexism. More likely, Eileen was just too young - as I say, assuming she was actually born in 1930, she was about 12 or 13 when the Chamber was opened, whereas Tom Riddle would've been about 15 or 16.

Pureblood Supremacy, Slytherin House, and the Chamber of Secrets

Anti-Muggle and -Muggleborn sentiment was probably worse than it was at any stage during the 'modern' part of the HP books, bar DH:

In the 1930s, Cantankerus Nott published the the Pureblood Directory, detailing the "Sacred Twenty-Eight". Some names that sound "too Muggle" or had pro-Muggle attitudes - like the Potters - are excluded.

Grindelwald had been steadily gaining power on the promise of subjugating Muggles for several years

Dumbledore put off stopping him for "some five years of turmoil, fatalities, and disappearances", only defeating him in 1945

Meanwhile, the Chamber of Secrets was opened and Riddle was killing/petrifying Muggleborn students in 1943

I also think the Chamber opening was a very different experience the first time around, as well. The attacks and eventual murder was not attributed to the Heir of Slytherin or his monster as it was in Harry's year. In CoS, Professor Binns (and likely the other teachers) initially remain convinced that the Chamber of Secrets was a myth, that no evidence has ever been found to support its existence, and that Dumbledore himself has looked and found nothing to support the idea (nothing that he's willing to share, anyway):

‘I tell you, the thing does not exist,’ said Professor Binns, shuffling his notes. ‘There is no Chamber and no monster.’ / ‘If a long succession of Hogwarts headmasters and headmistresses haven’t found the thing –’ / ‘I repeat, if the likes of Dumbledore –’

Even in CoS, Dumbledore only knows that Mrs Norris and the others were Petrified, but does not seem aware of how:

‘She has been Petrified,’ said Dumbledore (‘Ah! I thought so!’ said Lockhart). ‘But how, I cannot say …’ / ‘No second-year could have done this,’ said Dumbledore firmly. ‘It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced –’

The first time around then, Dumbledore hasn't linked the Petrification to the Basilisk, or the Heir of Slytherin, or even necessarily (in the first instance) the Chamber. But Dumbledore doesn't really matter - he was not yet headmaster, and I think it's safe to assume that Dippet wasn't as smart as Dumbledore, and he didn't know anything more. So, as far as anyone knows, all of that is just a myth, and the Petrifications and eventual death was just a mystery:

In my day, they told us it was a legend, that it did not exist. But this was a lie. In my fifth year, the Chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally killing one. I caught the person who’d opened the Chamber and he was expelled. But the Headmaster, Professor Dippet, ashamed that such a thing had happened at Hogwarts, forbade me to tell the truth. A story was given out that the girl had died in a freak accident. They gave me a nice, shiny, engraved trophy for my trouble and warned me to keep my mouth shut. But I knew it could happen again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to release it was not imprisoned.

By CoS, Dumbledore alone has since worked out that Tom Riddle was involved somehow:

‘What does this mean, Albus?’ Professor McGonagall asked urgently. ‘It means,’ said Dumbledore, ‘that the Chamber of Secrets is indeed open again.’ Madam Pomfrey clapped a hand to her mouth. Professor McGonagall stared at Dumbledore. ‘But Albus … surely … who?’ ‘The question is not who,’ said Dumbledore, his eyes on Colin. ‘The question is, how …’ And from what Harry could see of Professor McGonagall’s shadowy face, she didn’t understand this any better than he did.

... though I'm not sure he knew it for certain at the time, since Riddle doesn't agree that Dumbledore saw right through him and Dumbledore didn't seem to press him in Riddle's memory:

‘I bet Dumbledore saw right through you,’ said Harry, his teeth gritted. ‘Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled,’ said Riddle carelessly.

In any case, it would've been a more confusing year at Hogwarts than it was during Harry's year in CoS. As I say, the attacks and Myrtle's murder were seemingly random, thought to be a tragic accident and eventually attributed to Hagrid's careless handling of Aragog. Although presumably the Basilisk once again only targeted Muggle-borns (and later cats), it's unclear whether anyone made that connection at the time.

Side note: Can anyone find it in the text where it's confirmed that Myrtle is Muggle-born? Or that they knew they were the targets the first time around? Dippet seems to think that Tom might be at risk, despite knowing he was half-blood, and it's not only Muggle-borns who are called "mudbloods".

After framing Hagrid, Riddle apparently later tried to tell Dippet the "real reason" for the murder(?) - that the Chamber had opened - and was told to keep his mouth shut - so instead Hagrid was expelled and the Aragog narrative was never challenged, and the whole thing was hushed up.

Only other Slytherins like Eileen and the Black family members may have been privy to the rumours circulating in the Slytherin dorms about the Chamber, about the monster, and its preferred victims - especially since Riddle was shown making in-jokes for the benefit of his gang/friends at the Slug Club in front of Slughorn, and openly wearing his Horcrux ring (so he's hardly keeping things a total secret). Even in CoS we can see that the password for the dorms was "Pureblood", and there's no holds barred when it comes to Slytherins speaking their minds about blood supremacy in the common room, if Draco is anything to go by - even going so far as to make jokes about who they would like to see killed/Petrified next.

One idea I was toying with was that because Eileen was potentially surrounded by blood supremacist Black family members and Riddle/Voldemort, and because Snape later became a DE, that this aspect could be another layer to my reading that Dumbledore didn't trust Snape in CoS, because he wasn't sure where Snape's loyalties lay.

I also like to think that Eileen told Snape about the last time the Chamber opened, about the myths of Slytherin's monster, about Tom Riddle and the truth of the events, and even perhaps she (and Snape) knew the monster was a sort of snake. After all, even Lucius Malfoy knew what happened the first time the Chamber was opened, and he wasn't even there - but potentially his father was. [I recognise also that Voldemort may have bragged about it directly to Lucius and/or Snape and all of his DEs, but I'm just having fun].

This may also explain Snape's "shrewd and calculating look" when Harry is able to speak to snakes in CoS, shrewd meaning "having or based on a clear understanding and good judgment of a situation, resulting in an advantage". Snape would also have been aware that Voldemort was capable of communicating with snakes, both from his years as a DE and potentially from what his mother had said, if she were privy to that information.

Other fun things!

Riddle hid in "the very dungeon in which Harry had Potions with Snape" to ambush Hagrid and frame him for the murder of Myrtle Warren

Riddle and Hagrid were on a first-name basis, despite being in different years, and different Houses (Hagrid being a third-year Gryffindor and Riddle being a fifth-year Slytherin and Prefect): ‘Evening, Rubeus,’ said Riddle sharply. The boy [Hagrid] slammed the door shut and stood up. ‘What yer doin’ down here, Tom?’ Riddle stepped closer. ‘It’s all over,’ he said. ‘I’m going to have to turn you in, Rubeus. They’re talking about closing Hogwarts if the attacks don’t stop.’

Potentially, Riddle saw the kinds of things Hagrid got up to - like sneaking around, raising Dark creatures - and considered attempting to recruit Hagrid as muscle/Dark creature wrangler. Ultimately, however, Riddle must have decided against it - especially after he had to use Hagrid as a scapegoat to avoid being sent back to the orphanage.

I also think it would be sort of fun if Eileen and Hagrid were friends, and then that Hagrid was a bit protective over Snape.

I also like to imagine Eileen going about her day, minding her own business on her way to Gobstones or whatever, and she just sees Riddle sneaking about with a tiara.

Also, Eileen and Myrtle being friends even after Myrtle died. And then, years later, Snape going to Myrtle's bathroom to sulk and talk, like Draco did.

I think Eileen had a bit of a mean sense of humour, like Snape did. Her absolute favourite hobby - which I assume she was also rather good at - was playing "a wizarding game rather like marbles, in which the stones squirt a nasty-smelling liquid into the other player’s face when they lose a point". Imagine her smug sense of triumph when the opponent got squirted. Imagine her collection of different types of Gobstones. Imagine.

Also, Myrtle was a little bit wicked as well, taking a huge amount of joy in haunting Olive. They'd be super mean and frank to each other, and both of them would love it.

Complete Timeline

Lastly, I have included a timeline of things I've discussed here:

~1925 Lestrange Sr, Avery Sr born 1925 Walburga Black, Lucretia Black born December 1925 Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle Sr marry December 1926 Tom Riddle Jr born; Merope dies 1928 Rubeus Hagrid, Myrtle Warren born 1929 Orion Black, Lyall Lupin, Olive Hornby born (estimated) 1930 Eileen Prince born

~1936 Lestrange Sr & Avery Sr start at Hogwarts 1936 Walburga & Lucretia Black start at Hogwarts 1937 Tom Riddle terrorizes two children in the sea cave August 1938 Dumbledore visits Tom Riddle's orphanage September 1938 Tom Riddle starts at Hogwarts He makes friends. Their "seven years at Hogwarts were marked by a number of nasty incidents to which they were never satisfactorily linked", the most serious of which being the opening of the Chamber of Secrets. 1939 Myrtle Warren and Rubeus Hagrid start at Hogwarts 1940 Orion Black, Lyall Lupin, and Olive Hornby start at Hogwarts 1941 Eileen Prince starts at Hogwarts

Now, with everyone at school...

July 1942 Tom Riddle murders his father and grandparents. He is in his 4th year of school. August 1942 Tom Riddle creates his first Horcrux using the ring. September 1942 Tom Riddle begins his fifth year at Hogwarts. He is a Prefect. He is a member of the Slug Club and likely has been for some time, and this year he will ask Slughorn whether multiple Horcruxes can be made. June 1943 Chamber of Secrets opened, Myrtle Warren killed Rubeus Hagrid framed and expelled Tom Riddle receives award for Special Services to the School July 1943 Walburga Black, Lucretia Black, Lestrange Sr, and Avery Sr graduate from Hogwarts September 1943 Tom Riddle begins his sixth year and turns the diary into a Horcrux. 1944 Tom Riddle begins seventh year. He is Head boy. At some stage he learns about the diadem. Eileen was captain of the school Gobstones team during her fifth year, and was concurrently the President of the Hogwarts Gobstone Club. July 1945 Tom Riddle graduates from Hogwarts; unsuccessfully applies for the DADA post. Begins work at Borgin & Burkes. November 1945 Albus Dumbledore duels and defeats Gellert Grindelwald. 1946 [before term] Eileen Prince's Potions book published (approximately). She purchases it for her 6th year [end of term] Myrtle Warren would have graduated from Hogwarts July 1947 Orion Black, Lyall Lupin, and Olive Hornby graduate from Hogwarts. Lyall Lupin at some stage begins work at the Ministry of Magic. July 1948 Eileen Prince graduates from Hogwarts. Some time between now and 1960, she will meet and marry Tobias Snape. In appoximately April of 1959, she will fall pregnant.

~1956 Tom Riddle murders Hepzibah Smith and creates Horcruxes from Hufflepuff's cup and Slytherin's locket Tom Riddle disappears

1960 Severus Snape is born in January. In March, Remus Lupin is born.

1965 Remus Lupin is bitten by Fenrir Greyback in retaliation for anti-werewolf comments Lyall Lupin had made.

1966 Dumbledore becomes Headmaster of Hogwarts. 1967 Tom Riddle returns to Hogwarts to ask Dumbledore for the Defence Against the Dark Arts job, is refused. He has already turned Ravenclaw's diadem into a Horcrux, and he hides it now in the Room of Requirement.

1970 Voldemort begins recruiting, and his ascent to power. It starts with strange disappearances, and gradually becomes more violent. By ~1975, people are afraid to use his name. He is killed (for the first time) on Halloween in 1981, attempting to kill Harry Potter.

As always, feel free to comment/correct/argue. I'm especially bad with dates, so... take it with a pinch of salt.

[severus-snaps]

My meta masterpost

Collated here for my own benefit, as I spiral deeper into insanity.

Autistic!Snape

Making a name for myself as *that kind* of autistic Snape fan.

Severus Snape and the Possibility of Autism In which I go through the DSM-5 and ICD-11 and compare Snape's behaviour to the diagnostic criteria to speculate about whether or not he could reasonably be interpreted as autistic. 'Sister' post to Correcting autism myths and misinformation #2.

Correcting autism myths and misinformation #1 In which I correct some false, outdated, or otherwise stereotyped information about autism, go through some research, and discuss more accurate interpretations.

Correcting autism myths and misinformation #2 In which I correct some false, outdated, or otherwise stereotyped information about autism, go through some research, and discuss more accurate interpretations. - again. 'Sister' post and catalyst to Severus Snape and the Possibility of Autism.

Snape + physical stress responses / stims A collection of Snape's physical stress responses/stims from throughout the books.

Posts I've tagged with #snautism Just a collection of posts tagged #snautism.

Metas/essays

'Mudblood' and Muggle-borns A rounding up of a few examples from the books where "Mudblood" is arguably used against people who are not Muggle-born, in response to JKR's tweet that says half-bloods would also sometimes be called Mudbloods.

Snape in the eyes of Pureblood Supremacists in Slytherin Where I consider Snape's upbringing and early attitudes to blood supremacy; the timeline of Snape's school years and the War; Snape's appearance and first impressions to his housemates (and others); Slytherin 'friendships' through the lens of what we see in the books from Harry's generation, and Snape's alluded-to 'friendships' with Lucius and the 'gang of Slytherins'; and the role of blood purity in Slytherin House.

Legilimency & Occlumency & Emotion The complex and emotional skill of advanced Occlumency, and how I don't think it can be reasonably conceptualised as "shields" or a flattening/cutting off of the emotions.

Snape's friendships with the other Hogwarts staff In which I try to get a feel for how Snape might have fit in with the other staff, and the extent to which he was really friends with them.

On Sectumsempra & Levicorpus In which I argue that the Marauders used several of Snape's spells against him, not just Levicorpus, and discuss the possibility of Snape not having created Sectumsempra at all.

Snape: Points and Punishments (part I) An analysis of Snape's habits between PS and GoF when it comes to deducting points and handing out detentions, along with comparisons to other teachers, as well as how perceptions of Snape's fairness are influenced by Harry's/the narration's bias, etc. A second part will eventually materialise, covering OotP to DH. I just need to reread them first.

Snape has trauma about being physically exposed as a result of SWM Considering Snape's reaction to Harry seeing his bloodied leg in PS.

Snape and Poison Just a list of every time Snape was associated with poison in the series.

Densaugeo and Hermione and Snape A discussion on Densaugeo-gate and Snape's possible motives.

Spinner's End, Muggle Dunghill Taking a look at people's real memories and photos from the slums in Manchester, UK in the 1960s. Inspired and influenced by the brilliant post Two Up, Two Down.

Similarities between young Snape and Harry (i) Similarities between young Snape and Harry (ii)

Tinfoil hatposting (#tinfoil-hatposting)

In which I play in the sandpit that exists between an author's intent and a reader's unhinged interpretations.

"There are no Wizarding princes": a tinfoil hat analysis of the naming conventions of Eileen Prince and Severus Snape In which I argue that Eileen Prince wasn't Pureblood, based solely on the pattern of naming we see in Pureblood and half-blood children in the series.

This isn't my post but I forgot it existed when I wrote the above, and it also argues that Eileen probably wasn't Pureblood.

The Life and Times of Eileen Prince In which I very tenuously argue that Eileen Prince was at Hogwarts at the same time as Tom Riddle and Walburga Black; she may also have been in school when the Chamber of Secrets first opened.

Dumbledore didn't trust Snape until GoF Snape was always the black sheep of the staff, who modelled their feelings towards Snape off of Dumbledore's feelings - and Dumbledore didn't trust him until towards the end of GoF. I also lowkey think that Dumbledore suspected Snape of being involved in the Chamber opening - at least for a little while.

Piggybacking other people's posts with speculative rambles

Sort of coherent thoughts I have about Things, but usually Snape, and/or posts in which I piggback off of other people's ideas and waffle a bit.

Snape's "gaunt" face in CoS and Snape as an outsider

See also: "Dumbledore didn't trust Snape until GoF"

The written language of Parseltongue

What did Snape do as a Death Eater?

A ramble about Patronuses and does and stags

Occasions when Snape lies to Harry

Snape is Vindictus Viridian, author of "Curses and Counter-Curses"

Snape's possible experience of Muggle primary school

'Severus' isn't Snape's real name

Snape's purple flame spell in PS was maybe the one Dolohov used against Hermione in OotP

Snarkaroff

How insane it is that Muggleborn kids aren't contacted until they're 11

In defence of Snape (or, a reply in which I debunk some common anti-Snape arguments)

On Neville's Boggart and the Trevor Incident

Snape would never have taken the idea of Remus being a werewolf seriously prior to the Prank

Just because I want to write about this properly and haven't yet, the idea that Snape and Dumbledore switched bodies prior to the cave scene in HBP

Below the cut I'm going to add some of my favourite metas by other people just as and when I remember them. Got really into digging these up and reading them when I first got into Snape-research. Snesearch, if you will.

Snape probably didn't consider himself abusive

Two up, two down

Many of the essays listed here, but especially Sectumsempra and the nature of curses and Spinner's End: what we know or can surmise about the location of Snape's (and Lily and Tuney's) childhood home

The Dark Magic/Light Magic Dichotomy is Nonsense

The Death Eaters as a cult

Snape was a good person who went bad and then good again, and his remorse was true

The Twenty Memories of Severus Snape

Watsonian/Doylist Analysis of the Prince’s Tale

What kind of Death Eater was Snape?

The Abandoned Boy And Problematic Father: Snape with Voldemort & Dumbledore

And probably more I'll add as I come across them.

[severus-snaps]

Legilimency & Occlumency & Emotion

i was reading something somewhere (possibly on my binge of metas last night, but who knows) that Snape was very talented at Occlumency, but just about average at Legilimency - but I respectfully disagree, and here's a whole (3k word) accidental ramble about it, which started as an observation and devolved into how I think Legilimency/Occlumency works in the context of Snape and Voldemort, and why I interpret it differently than it being (entirely) magical dissociation and actually quite an emotion-based skill once it's more complex TLDR: I've often seen Occlumency described/conceptualised as a "shield" or some kind of suppressed emotionless state, but I discovered upon writing this that I think it can be quite a bit more complex and emotional, actually - just like Snape <3

Snape's Talents

The idea that got me rambling today went something like "Draco, who only had a handful of lessons from Bellatrix, was able to keep Snape out of his mind using Occlumency - so Snape can't have been a very good Legilimens, or Occlumency was easy to do"

And I do agree that Snape was probably better at Occlumency than Legilimency by sheer quantity of practice alone - and also that, outside of using it on Harry (and Draco) when they were up to mischief, and Snape likely wishing he could use it to work out what Dumbledore was hiding from him, Snape had no desire to see, hear, interpret or otherwise get the gist of what anyone at Hogwarts was thinking - but especially not a bunch of pubescent students, nor colleagues who liked him on a surface level but obviously were not close enough to think Something Was Up when he killed Dumbledore (which, fair in some ways, unfair in others, but I digress)

[side note: Snape can't have just not used Occlumency for over a decade before Voldemort's return, so I like to think of him and Dumbledore practicing to keep his skills sharp - although I expect that would be another 'fun' way for Dumbledore to hold Snape in chains which would make for an interesting fic]

I suspect that if Snape had chosen to, he could've invaded Draco's mind in that scene, broken through whatever defenses Draco used - but that's not a very Snape thing to do to a student, and especially not one he knows well, was a family friend of, has closely seen grow up, and probably has a soft spot for. It's very reminiscent of his conversation with Narcissa, to me. Throughout that entire conversation with Draco, Snape was trying to comfort Draco, empathise with him, get Draco to trust him, confide in him, offer support to Draco whether he wanted it or not - not further alienate him to a point where Snape couldn't help. And besides, invading Draco's mind aggressively doesn't sit very well with his vow "to the best of your ability, protect him from harm".

And as for Harry's lessons, Harry was using spells - which Snape seemed surprised, interested, and almost impressed to learn that were effective against Legilimency, which isn't surprising in itself as it's not a widely used area of magic. And since Harry had no idea that Snape (and probably Dumbledore) were 'reading his mind' for years before he learnt about Legi/Occlumency, I don't expect many people would know if Snape used it, or put up a fight using those methods - other Death Eaters probably stuck to Occluding, because it would hardly garner any favour if they cast a stinging hex or Protego at Voldemort or in a DE meeting Which brings me back to my other point as well, which was that "Occlumency possibly wasn't difficult to do". On a rudimentary level that might be true (at least insofar as any advanced magic was difficult to do - Harry was actually quite talented, e.g. casting a corporeal patronus at 13/14 or whatever, and Draco could do it after a few lessons with Bellatrix). Harry learnt almost despite Snape, because he didn't take instruction from him well and because Snape is (intentionally) abrasive in lessons (which I could go on about, since Snape couldn't really be nice to Harry when Voldemort was possibly looking through harry's eyes at any given moment - and as other metas have pointed out was another layer to Snape's rage when Harry looked at his memories). But Snape could do it without a wand, without an incantation, so he was reasonably skilled - imagine casting a full body Patronus or other impressive spell with neither a wand nor an incantation

Also we don't know precisely how long Draco had lessons for, it might have been loads and he was actually pretty good, or it might have been 3 and he was awful. But unlike Snape, who is not the greatest Legilimens of all time (that's apparently Voldemort?), it was glaringly obvious to him that Draco was using Occlumency - Snape had him sussed in like 3 seconds, and chose not to go any further for the reasons I outlined above - which interestingly he did not do with Harry, when faced with finding out where Harry learnt Sectumsempra (but at that point both Snape and Draco's life had been on the line - if Draco dies, presumably so does Snape?)

Which brings me back to Snape... How I think Legilimency/Occlumency works (sometimes)

You have no subtlety The mind is a complex and many-layered thing It is true, however, that those who have mastered Legilimency are able, under certain conditions, to delve into the minds of their victims and to interpret their findings correctly. The Dark Lord, for instance, almost always knows when somebody is lying to him. Only those skilled at Occlumency are able to shut down those feelings and memories that contradict the lie, and so utter falsehoods in [Voldemort's] presence without detection.

There's a lot to take in there, and also pretty ballsy to say to Voldemort-by-proxy (Harry), which might reduce the validity of my idea that Snape didn't want to be nice to Harry during their lessons in case Voldemort was watching, since Snape's pretty happy to give Voldemort (and the reader, more likely) a complete insight into what he's himself doing... although I expect that Voldemort has considered this, and also doesn't recognise the limits of his own power - or the extent of Snape's.

I also wonder whether the 'certain conditions' are something simple, like eye contact being made or the spell being cast, or whether there's something to the mental state of the 'caster' at the time as well, like there is with Occlumency walls/shields and being calm and empty-headed, or whether the conditions is the Occluder themselves presenting (or not presenting) some alternative things to interpret. One of the wizarding world (I think) pages says Snape trained a 'slight natural ability', so that makes me wonder more, as well, but i digress.

But my second point is this: Snape's talents weren't Occluding by total shutdown, or Occlumency 'shields' which always now irk me in fanfiction (this I'm definitely drawing from another meta but I have no idea where, so... apologies). Snape wasn't throwing up a wall in front of entire memories or thoughts, for the most part. Although I expect that between the Pensieve and Draco's example use of Occlumency, that was sometimes a function (e.g. some of the things Dumbledore told Snape to pass along, he'd have to entirely block out, alter, or otherwise adapt those memories to make it look as though Snape had passed information along of his own volition against Dumbledore's orders, or hide the fact that he'd helped Dumbledore when he was supposed to be helping Voldemort, etc).

So inkeeping with my own questionable metaphor, where Draco threw up a wall - metaphorically crumbling, last-minute, cowboy builder Occlumency where the wall would hold but you could see it very clearly and obviously; where with a lesser Occlumens the wall was nice enough, but you could see where the paint job didn't quite match up and the plastering wasn't done very evenly; Snape had the whole house set up so that you didn't know the wall wasn't there from the start, and probably had a few artfully chosen scuffs to make it seem real, or it was some kind of trapdoor under the carpet. (okay the metaphor died, but I've been watching a lot of remodelling shows lately, you get the point if you've read this far)

In another metaphor I imagine detecting a lie to be like running your fingertips along a smooth surface and finding a lip or a bump - you could then, pick at it, poke at it, tear it open. You could sense that something was being hidden, or withheld. But there were no lips or snags in Snape's thoughts; potentially Voldemort could simply not detect them, not even when he searched him openly, repeatedly, full eye contact, at the table at Malfoy Manor. Snape welcomed Voldemort into his (it's just occurred to me, but "mind palace") and Voldemort repeatedly, for years, could not tell that anything was amiss, and presumably Voldemort did this with much more ferocity (and skill) than Snape looking at Harry for 2 seconds and immediately summoning Harry's mental image of the Prince's copy of Advanced Potions Making

But it can't be down to detection alone. There's also a level of interpretation to Legilimency. So here I'm focusing on a more interesting aspect to me, which is how emotion is used in Legilimency/Occlumency. Obviously, Snape isn't Occluding all the time, and as much as I adore Alan Rickman, book!Snape was naturally a total petty, stuttering mess (love him for it) who only wishes he had Alan Rickman's gravitas, and could on occasion emulate it.

I told you to empty yourself of emotion! … Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked this easily — weak people, in other words — they stand no chance against his powers!

I think this quote is interesting for many reasons I probably won't be able to connect properly and are in no particular order beyond how I thought of them

Snape is emotional here when he says it, he's angry, annoyed, upset, and it's an honest feeling, and he's obviously not devoid of emotion but can still Occlude Harry

Snape is an emotional person, much as he tries to pretend not to be, and can still Occlude Voldemort just fine even on the night he thinks he's marching to his death at the end of GoF

Much like how many other kinds of magic require lots of study and a strong emotion/will/conscious thought at the start, perhaps it become easier with experience to the point where this advice is not essential (e.g. kind of like driving, I no longer have to think about changing gears like I did as a Learner)

Snape is also talking about himself here, indicative of Snape's worldview where showing 'weak' emotions is the problem - soft emotions, vulnerability, "never tell".

"Provoke" is exactly what Voldemort does to Harry

This is Occlumency 101; Snape's teaching Harry the most basic of Occlumency - to compartmentalise, to block someone out, to throw up that shoddy but sturdy-enough wall for Voldemort to come up against, like Draco did to Snape. Harry's anger and emotion is a weakness in this basic Occlumency lesson, where Voldemort is trying to look through Harry and/or trick/provoke him; thus, the wall.

But this probably isn't the kind of Legilimency Voldemort would use on Snape (which is to see if he's lying, if his information is real, if his values are aligned, etc), and it probably isn't the kind of Occlumency Snape was doing in return, to lie or deflect suspicion or ingratiate himself. In fact, throwing up a wall is the opposite of what Snape does with Voldemort; Snape lets him in, lets him stare him down in front of an audience, all the while showing Voldemort what he wants to see. I think as well there's an element of a Legilimens 'grasping' for something, searching, "provoking", like how Snape 'grasped' for Harry's memories of Advanced Potions Making, how Voldemort appears to search Snape at Malfoy Manor - so if all Snape presents is a memory, empty, devoid of any complexity, Voldemort would question it.

In my interpretation, when Occluding, Snape displays a different type of emotional control; Complex Occlumency means you control your emotions, yes, but not block them off - Snape takes his emotions where they need to go, makes them do what they need to do, to support the interpretation he wants Voldemort to reach. He chooses to some extent what Voldemort sees if he lies outright or omits details (a well made wall, basic Occlumency), and chooses how to present it (complex Occlumency). And he does it with subtlety; he doesn't often outright lie, and there's a lot left to interpretation - in both Snape's speech (with Bellatrix) and his actions throughout the books, and presumably his Occlumency.

So I suggest that Snape, in a situation with Voldemort, must be able to "lift up" or "lean into" an alternative emotion for interpretation - the decoration around the wall, the interior design, if you will. For example, Snape couldn't tell Voldemort that he desired Lily, in a total absence of any feelings at all, without it coming across as false and thus easily detectable as a lie. And you know that when a young Snape, who's hardly made a name for himself (Snape's likely never killed, at least, and isn't especially memorable to anyone in Azkaban and is last named by Karkaroff, and other things I won't go into here) outside of overhearing half a prophecy begs for a Mudblood Order member who's the mother of Voldemort's downfall who's thrice defied him to be spared, you can bet that Voldemort will want to thoroughly find out why, so...

To me this suggests that there was a level of desire there that Snape could 'lean into', whether that desire be for Lily or someone else he found desirable to act as a kind of substitute - though given that Legilimency seems to work on mental images and memories at least in part, a memory where he desired Lily would've been useful. And I'm just using that as an example, because Voldemort would also presumably at some stage have interrogated what Snape thought of Dumbledore and Harry, and Snape would've had to lean into feelings of hatred and loathing - which he'd manage just fine for Harry, but Snape would have leant into his feelings after Dumbledore silenced him after nearly getting eaten by a werewolf and again freeing Sirius in PoA, but I digress

When Harry finally learns Occlumency (by his own admission) in the wake of Dobby's death, it's grief that helps him master it - which, for me personally, is not a detached, clear-headed feeling in any sense. It's visceral, emotional, and painful; all-consuming. It's love/grief/loss/strong loving emotion that forces Voldemort out, after he loses Sirius and again when he loses Dobby. But it's a contrast to the emotions Voldemort uses of Harry's to draw Harry out, via his fears for Sirius. But with grief, Harry's dived headfirst into feeling what Voldemort doesn't want to feel (unlike the anger), to keep Voldemort out of his mind. Whereas Snape would do the opposite, and dive right in to the feelings Voldemort would want to sense - to the exclusion of others. Would Voldemort even think to search for Snape's love for Lily, if he was first presented with something more visceral, with more negative connotations, like desire or jealousy, hurt or betrayal? These are the emotions Voldemort thrives on and can exploit, that he's familiar with, that he understands. In the context then of 'grasping' that's how I think Snape leads Voldemort down a path of believing him - by bringing honest 'negative' emotions to the fore that Voldemort understands.

this is really where I think skilled Occlumency differs from dissociation or wall-building. I think Snape would simultaneously have to dampen his 'lie' feelings and to raise the volume on the 'fitting' feelings for his chosen interpretation. My interpretation of this all stems from my experience of writing, of getting lost in music, in using those activities to "wallow" in certain feelings. Snape does not present Voldemort with his true feelings, but they are real feelings. So in that way, I feel Snape was like an artist or writer; he felt deeply, he felt conflictingly, and dived headfirst into those wells of emotion when he needed to - diving so deeply that it cuts off and hides the conflicting evidence. I feel that when I'm writing, when I'm listening to music, when I'm wallowing. And I feel a lot of sympathy for Snape, because it can feel like a real whiplash when you're midway through writing an intense scene or listening to some excellent music that really fills you up with something, it can take you to some dark places, and it's quite shocking somehow when abruptly interrupted - which would be what his life was constantly like after Voldemort's return, leaning into and shying away from/shutting down emotions and memories he didn't necessarily feel whenever he was called, and then having to return to work or meetings in that headspace, where everything feels out of touch and you're in internal turmoil. (Granted, I can snap out of it because the music or the writing is neither here nor there, really, but he'd be doing it with his own life experiences, with his own life on the line, and to repay a debt of guilt - there's a lot more emotional baggage there, and even more once Dumbledore died). And I think it would take its toll in other ways, too, which leads me to Lily...

Far from some people's cries that possessive or obsessive attraction or desire is some huge moral failing, I'd argue that you'll find a level of it in most teenagers and indeed the regular spectrum of human emotion - I know I've certainly experienced feelings of intense jealousy and whatever 'Snaters' (I'm not a massive fan of the term, but as a shorthand) accuse Snape of, whether I acted on it or not. So I'd suggest that Snape 'leant into' that for the sake of being on the receiving end of Voldemort's Legilimency. Whether Snape regularly, or actually, felt those emotions of his own free will or not is hard to say - since there's no actual evidence he did act possessive or jealous beyond the normal teenager level (and that's without addressing the fact that we didn't know how he would've ended the sentence "I won't let you -"). And I'd also go as far as to say that Snape probably, truly, had some awful thoughts (don't we all?) and so he was able to lean into some very dark and gloomy nooks and crannies of his mind, the parts we're told healthy people steer clear of acting on but also undoubtedly experience (jealousy, possession, rage, bitterness) in much the same way as a writer, artist, or musician might, to make his 'lies' and the stories he told more 'truthful' - which was why Voldemort trusted him so much.

TLDR: Snape's a man of many contraditions and very much emotional depth, and he manipulated his own emotions (likely to the detriment of his mental health) for years. But just as I, a fanfic writer, can vicariously experience the bitter resentment for a person who doesn't love me, can imagine a world where he can think those thoughts, embody them, and still not take them on as part of his identity.

anyway i don't have a conclusion, I just had thoughts

[Side note not strictly related to ANY of the above: I find it interesting as well that Voldemort's skill is apparently specifically in working out whether people are lying to him, suggesting that you could specialise even further into different aspects of behaviour. But people do lie to Voldemort (Narcissa, Snape, off the top of my head, but there's no indication of Voldemort using Legilimency on Narcissa in that moment where Harry lives - Voldemort was too elated, once again caught up in his own glory). [side side note: Harry's treatment after his 'death' does make me wonder, briefly, about Snape's own treatment when he returned at the end of GoF - public torture and humiliation, an opportunity for the other DEs to turn on one of their own to 'increase their own standing' in Voldemort's eyes, crucio to weaken Snape's defences, to check that his information and loyalty true? i get the impression that Snape shared his information with Voldemort privately, given that Bellatrix didn't seem to know much about Snape's return, but who's to say there wasn't some 'fun' beforehand, or at other points during his time as spy]

[severus-snaps]

Densaugeo and Hermione and Snape

So, once again I find myself reading through Snape reddit threads but I don't really use reddit and they're years old so I'm importing it here. I'm tripping into Snape apologism territory here but also sort of not - yes, a teacher insulting a 14yo girl's appearance would be devastating and inexcusable irl but it's not irl - and it's these potential theories I'm interested in :P

Is it out of character for Snape, who never anywhere else in the books touches on people's appearances, to insult Hermione's appearance?

How likely is it that it's a misunderstanding or deliberate double entendre (aka he appears to be insulting Hermione's appearance but is actually saying to Harry/Ron, you just did the same thing to Goyle)?

And do we think it was part of his cover to be more cruel than usual in front of Draco, either by deliberately choosing a sentence to be interpreted either way, or intending it to sound mean?

I've covered some of my workings below the cut, but I don't reach any conclusions other than he probably was being more cruel for practical reasons, rather than for his own amusement, in this scene. As always, I just like talking to people about these things so if anyone wants to drop a comment then I'm here for it :P

I started with Snape is really at his worst in GOF but touched on a few others, too. Some of the arguments I've seen that interested me were these:

Snape has only once in seven books made a remark about anyone's appearance, which was following the teeth hex with Hermione

Snape was mocked in school for his own appearance - and mocked again in PoA by the Marauders Map for being an ugly, abnormally large-nosed slimeball etc, and mocked at home for being weird-looking (e.g. by Petunia). Harry/Sirius/others fairly regularly comment on Snape's unpleasant appearance, from his hair to his teeth to his skin. In short, he's not really set up to be in a position to be commenting on other people's appearances - and indeed, he generally doesn't

Snape tends to show his enjoyment when he enjoys an insult - he smirks, smiles, etc, when he's insulting Harry sometimes, or James, and even Umbridge for example you get the idea he's having a good time with the ironic bow - but he didn't here. He's described as looking at her 'coldly'. Usually he just ignores her until she speaks out of turn in class

It was potentially a misunderstanding? He's saying "I see no difference" to Ron's insistence that Draco did something wrong, when Goyle's just been sent to the hospital wing looking like something out of a book on poisonous fungi. Neither Slytherin nor Gryffindor get points docked until Ron and Harry start shouting (probably swear words) at him.

This post (or one of the comments in it) also argued that it's out of character; Snape insults Harry's character several times, but usually he's insulting people's abilities, intelligence, or behaviour, not their appearance (since he values those things, but not necessarily his/others' appearance)

Karkaroff says "It’s [the Dark Mark] been getting clearer and clearer for months" at the Yule Ball, and so is Snape's "Karkaroff’s Mark is becoming darker too" [emphasis mine]

Densaugeo-gate happens in mid-November, so Snape knows Voldemort is likely to return by this point, with several months' warning

The teeth incident happens in front of a few children of known DEs, most notably Draco Malfoy, whose father will hear about this - probably several times:

PS: “But this is servant stuff, it’s not for students to do. I thought we’d be copying lines or something, if my father knew I was doing this, he’d—” CoS: "… everyone thinks he’s so smart, wonderful Potter with his scar and his broomstick — ” “You have told me this at least a dozen times already,” said Mr. Malfoy, with a quelling look at his son. ... “The teachers all have favorites, that Hermione Granger — ” “I would have thought you’d be ashamed that a girl of no wizard family beat you in every exam,” snapped Mr. Malfoy. "I expect you’d have Father’s vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job - I’ll tell Father you’re the best teacher here, sir" POA: “God, this place is going to the dogs,” said Malfoy loudly. “That oaf teaching classes, my father’ll have a fit when I tell him —” GoF: Malfoy, whose pale eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation, looked malevolently up at Moody and muttered something in which the words “my father” were distinguishable.

Everything - from Hermione's grades to Harry's antics, up to and including the teachers' behaviour, punishments, and classes - is reported back to Lucius Malfoy, especially as it relates to Harry. A scenario in which Draco and Harry duel one another in the corridor and that isn't met by sufficient retaliation from Snape will make it back to Lucius, whether he cares to hear about it a dozen times or not. Lucius already knowing about all of Hermione's exam grades is interesting - how did Draco know? Did Snape tell Lucius directly when asked? I can't see Draco asking Hermione; I can see Hermione bragging talking about it. I'd love to know.

So what does it matter if Lucius hears about this incident? Well, he's widely known by Arthur Weasley and his kids, and therefore probably plenty of other people, as being in Voldemort's 'inner circle' as early as CoS:

“And when You-Know-Who disappeared,” said Fred, craning around to look at Harry, “Lucius Malfoy came back saying he’d never meant any of it. Load of dung — Dad reckons he was right in You-Know- Who’s inner circle.” (Fred, CoS)

Snape obviously knows; Lucius was probably the one who got him involved. Lucius probably had some level of influence or control over Snape even back when Snape was in school, or in his early DE days:

OotP: “Tell me, how is Lucius Malfoy these days? I expect he’s delighted his lapdog’s working at Hogwarts, isn’t he?” (Sirius)

lapdog: a small pampered pet dog | a person or organization that is influenced or controlled by another

Snape as a pampered pet:

I've seen some metas discussing this in terms of Ancient Roman society and patrons, in terms of 'fagging', and in terms of Lucius shaping Snape from a poor, jerky, twitching teen to a poor, jerky, twitching man who tried to hide it beneath a soft-spoken, well-spoken, cool air - modelling himself after Lucius. Snape was almost literally taken under the wing of Prefect Lucius Malfoy the moment he was Sorted. He probably learnt from his "old friend" to affect membership in the Pureblood/upper class - and did so well enough to shock Bellatrix when she first saw Spinner's End (and she never insults him for being half-blood, which she does to Harry, despite hating Snape).

In any case, Snape probably owed a lot to Lucius. He likely had a level of control over Snape, both through his existing personal relationship with him as a mentor-mentee ("old friend" at best) or abusive ("lapdog" at worst; see 'fagging') relationship. Until the end of CoS, Lucius had a hand in running the school on the Board of Governors, and had enough power/fear with the rest of the Board to remove Dumbledore, never mind mere mortals like Snape if he stuck a toe out of line. And even when Lucius was gone from Hogwarts, he retained strong ties in the Ministry, sharing a Quidditch box with Fudge, and evidently having at least a few conversations with Umbridge:

"I expected better, Lucius Malfoy always speaks most highly of you!"

So we can infer that Lucius thinks Snape is as dedicated to The Cause as he is. Even Draco remains convinced of this in later books, before Snape has cemented his position by killing Dumbledore, but even after Snape has usurped Lucius' position as Voldemort's right-hand man:

"[Snape's] a double agent, you stupid old man [Dumbledore], he isn’t working for you, you just think he is!"

[Draco likes/trusts Snape] “much less since his father has lost favour. Draco blames me, he thinks I have usurped Lucius’s position.”

Prior to Lucius' demotion/imprisonment era, Lucius clearly outranks Snape. Lucius is one of the most trusted DEs during VW1; only Lucius and Bellatrix are trusted enough to keep his Horcruxes safe (Lucius the diary, and Bellatrix the cup). Lucius was also supposed to be in charge of the battle for the department of mysteries, Voldemort's year-in-the-making plan, but obviously... that didn't go to plan, in the end.

But there's quite a rushed trajectory of Lucius' fall and Snape's ascent. The battle happens in late June 1996, Lucius is imprisoned, and not released for another year - during which time, Snape is rising, until he ultimately kills Dumbledore and is at the top. Still, he's not trusted with too much information; despite being at Hogwarts, he doesn't know the location or existence of the Horcruxes (unlike Lucius and Bellatrix, even if they didn't know what they were), and Voldemort doesn't allow Snape to see him enter Dumbledore's tomb.

Anyway, what with Bellatrix and other DEs not trusting Snape:

"Where were you when the Dark Lord fell? Why did you never make any attempt to find him when he vanished? What have you been doing all these years that you’ve lived in Dumbledore’s pocket? Why did you stop the Dark Lord procuring the Sorcerer’s Stone? Why did you not return at once when the Dark Lord was reborn? Where were you a few weeks ago when we battled to retrieve the prophecy for the Dark Lord? And why, Snape, is Harry Potter still alive, when you have had him at your mercy for five years?" ... "You can carry my words back to the others who whisper behind my back, and carry false tales of my treachery to the Dark Lord!"

What has Snape been doing all these years that he's lived in Dumbledore’s pocket?

Well, tormenting Gryffindors, for one. Tormenting Harry Potter and to a slightly lesser extent, his friends. Not all of it was tied to his cover - Snape was just a bitch with a bad classroom manner, no love of children, high expectations, and a short fuse. But if it helped, in the early months of his Mark darkening again, to become a bit more cruel to Muggleborns and Harry, then why wouldn't he - especially in front of Draco? He knew that soon - whether it be in a few months, a few days, or even a few hours, he was going to have to walk back into Voldemort's fold and pray to god he wasn't killed on sight for abandoning the cause. With others whispering behind his back - bold of them, since the ones left to whisper are largely people who escaped Azkaban, but it's a crab bucket being a Death Eater - he'd need a benefactor. A trusted servant, like Lucius, to back him up. "No, no, Snape's been tormenting Potter for years - Draco says so. He'll tell anyone on the Board who stands still for long enough how useless Potter is. Oh, he says he's Dumbledore's man, but when the old coot's back is turned, he insults that Mudblood Granger."

It wouldn't be much use to Snape if his Occlumency said one thing (I'm still a loyal Death Eater) but his actions said another (he's perfectly jovial to all students), especially as Snape is just not...a jovial person to begin with. He's got a nasty streak as a teen that Voldemort probably would've encouraged in the Dark Arts. Half of the Order were Gryffindors and half (or more than half) of the Death Eaters were Slytherins.

Also Lorrie Kim's books has some really nice observations about how his behaviour (in terms of his personality, loyalties, how he appears) really starts to contradict his core values in GoF especially.

Anyway, once again I don't have a conclusion, I just had thoughts, based around these again:

Is it out of character for Snape, who never anywhere else in the books touches on people's appearances, to insult Hermione's appearance?

How likely is it that it's a misunderstanding or deliberate double entendre (aka he appears to be insulting Hermione's appearance but is actually saying to Harry/Ron, you just did the same thing to Goyle)?

And do we think it was part of his cover to be more cruel than usual in front of Draco, either by deliberately choosing a sentence to be interpreted either way, or intending it to sound mean?

i feel like i've set anyone who read this far along homework :P one foot of parchment, on my desk by Friday