they/them a-spec queer autistic because my current special interest is harry potter, i want to clarify that i hate jkr and terfs and that trans rights are human rights - i dont interact monetarily with this interest and limit it to fandom spaces happy to chat but am awful at friendships :3 main is @treasureguardingdragon, i just use this blog when im scared of being perceived (anyone can still interact – it’s just my brain being silly)
Here’s the original image and the image I almost posted. The only difference is that it says “bi” instead of “gay”, but I decided to keep it as “gay” because the flags would not match otherwise.
very underrated moment in the series is when snape (with karkaroff following him around) is walking through the rosebushes, blasting them apart, having a go at all the couples he finds, and then he sees ron and harry together too and has a go at them, and it’s like. from his perspective. what’s he supposed to think two inseparable students were doing together at a ball, separate from the third member of their trio, in a rose garden which, other than him and karkaroff, is entirely filled with couples.
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?)
"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"
The only time we ever see him walking around in his nightshirt is once in GoF. Every other time he's fully clothed. In GoF he's responding to the wailing of Harry's Champion egg (emphases mine):
Snape climbed up the stairs quickly and stopped beside Filch. Harry gritted his teeth, convinced his loudly thumping heart would give him away at any second …
‘Peeves?’ said Snape softly, staring at the egg in Filch’s hands. ‘But Peeves couldn’t get into my office …’
‘This egg was in your office, Professor?’
‘Of course not,’ Snape snapped, ‘I heard banging and wailing -’
‘Yes, Professor, that was the egg -’
‘- I was coming to investigate -’
‘- Peeves threw it, Professor -’
‘- and when I passed my office, I saw that the torches were lit and a cupboard door was ajar! Somebody has been searching it!’
Goblet of Fire, Ch. 25
The sound the egg makes when opened is described clearly (emphases mine):
It was hollow and completely empty - but the moment Harry opened it, the most horrible noise, a loud and screechy wailing, filled the room. The nearest thing to it Harry had ever heard was the ghost orchestra at Nearly Headless Nick’s Deathday Party, who had all been playing the musical saw.
‘Shut it!’ Fred bellowed, his hands over his ears.
‘What was that?’ said Seamus Finnigan, staring at the egg as Harry slammed it shut again. ‘Sounded like a banshee … maybe you’ve got to get past one of those next, Harry!’
‘It was someone being tortured!’ said Neville, who had gone very white, and spilled sausage rolls over the floor. ‘You’re going to have to fight the Cruciatus Curse!’
Goblet of Fire, Ch. 21
From the first excerpt it's clear that Snape is walking around in his nightshirt only because he heard a disturbance, not because he knew his office was broken into - he only noticed that because he had already gone out to investigate the noise.
From the second excerpt we see that the noise in question is described as wailing, like a banshee, or someone being tortured. While we eventually learn that it's the sound of Merpeople singing above the surface of the water, Snape has no reason to recognize the sound. His expertise is in the Dark Arts and Potions, not in magcal creatures, so to him the noise would be as described - a horrible wailing, that sounds like a banshee or someone being tortured, combined with a strange banging. That, combined with this being the only time Snape is out in the corridors in his nightshirt, exposed, implies urgency. Which tracks, because we see it's a character trait in OoTP (emphases):
‘Can you tell me something, sir?’ said Harry, firing up again. ‘Why do you call Voldemort the Dark Lord? I’ve only ever heard Death Eaters call him that.’
Snape opened his mouth in a snarl - and a woman screamed from somewhere outside the room.
Snape’s head jerked upwards; he was gazing at the ceiling.
‘What the -?’ he muttered.
Harry could hear a muffled commotion coming from what he thought might be the Entrance Hall. Snape looked round at him, frowning.
‘Did you see anything unusual on your way down here, Potter?’
Harry shook his head. Somewhere above them, the woman screamed again. Snape strode to his office door, his wand still held at the ready, and swept out of sight. Harry hesitated for a moment, then followed.
Order of the Phoenix, Ch. 26
Snape "opened his mouth with a snarl" to respond to Harry's question, already shot at him in anger and frustration as a challenge. He rarely misses an opportunity to put Harry in his place, and their Occlumency lessons are tense and often hostile, but as soon as he hears a scream from upstairs Snape's demeanor changes completely. His snarl turns into a mutter. His attention has been completely diverted. (I think Rowling - boo, hiss - chose this specific moment for Trelawney to scream in agony as Umbridge tries to throw her out. Not only because this kind of tone shift is great for pacing, but because she meant to illustrate Snape's priorities and that it's not antagonizing Harry, but saving others.) When another scream sounds from upstairs, Snape ignores Harry fully and sweeps out of his own office, where he leaves Harry alone (uncharacteristically, as he's such a private person and has already had his private stores broken into by students, so he's not just leaving Harry in his office but with no instructions to lock and secure it if Harry should leave too. Which is predictable, given Harry's hero complex which has already been evidenced numerous times, and as we know Snape is a good judge of character and has been keeping a sharp eye on Harry since he arrived at Hogwarts). The sound of someone in distress distracts and absorbs Snape completely and his only concern becomes investigating the sound, presumably to help.
Considering this, it's likely that when Snape shows up in his grey nightshirt in GoF it's because of the sound of the egg, a sound that makes people think of tortured wailing, that he's left his room with urgency and concern at what he thinks is someone in distress. In such moments he has no concern for anything else, including his own physical exposure. So I would argue that he's not comfortable walking around in a nightshirt, it was just a one-off, and your reading of his aversion to exposure is accurate.
(note: severus refers to the teen version and snape refers to the adult professor)
au in the half blood prince, where, in the advanced potions making book, the prince replies to a note harry left in the margin.
fearing another tom riddle’s diary situation, harry begins to question the prince and ascertain his identity. he comes to realise that the prince is writing his responses in the seventies, and seems to be just as shocked that harry is from the future, when harry writes down the exact date as a response. harry continues questioning, and it’s inevitable that the prince reveals himself to be one severus snape.
past severus is all too eager to speak to his future counterpart, and harry realises that this conversation must have already happened in the past. seeing as harry revealed the current date, he could only imagine a current professor snape waiting in his office waiting for his potions book back.
harry is none too happy to give up his potions book, but he trails reluctantly to the dungeons to hand it over, as severus adamantly refuses to talk to him again unless he gets to talk to his self of the future.
professor snape, however, has no knowledge of having a conversation with the future, right up until harry mentions it to him and he manages to extract the unknown memory into a penseive, revealing to himself past experiences that he never had himself. he promptly kicks harry out of his office and begins to council his past self to make different decisions.
past severus is none to pleased to no longer be able to talk to harry, and he is far too stuck in his mindset to be swayed from his current dreadful path, especially with his future self’s elusive comments. harry too, starts to overtake snape’s office hours in the hopes of speaking to his new seventies friend, despite his professors horror.
it is only when snape learns through dumbledore that harry has a horcrux within him and is destined to die that he breaks.
the potions book is a rift in time to before the war started, to when his past self hasn’t walked an unforgivable path, to when a prophecy of doom hasn’t yet been spoken.
snape, expert in the dark arts as he is, finds a way through. harry, with the opportunity to save his parents, doesn’t hesitate.
back in the past, snape assumes the dada post under a new identity and harry joins hogwarts in the year alongside a young severus and his parents.
of course, it isnt all that easy to end a brewing war before it has begun, nor to save the lives of those most important to them, nor be an unsuspecting student and teacher in a school entrenched in memories.
severus latches onto a friend harry and harry him, which snape finds absolutely insane. snape and severus are in a constant battle of wills, where severus hates what he could have become and snape resents that severus has opportunities that he himself lacked. neither of them know how to feel about themselves or the marauders or lily or harry any longer.
harry navigates a world where his parents are alive, except theyre not really his parents, are they? he adores lily and is wary of the marauders, who have still yet to grow into the war heroes that harry had grown to admire (excluding pettigrew, of course).
severus is going to earn lily’s forgiveness for what he said after the defense owl, if its the last thing he does, even if that involves accepting james and her partnership. (he’s not going to forget the bullying, but he is beginning to understand that character growth is possible if he himself, of all people, is capable of it).
snape is reluctant to intrude into lily’s much happier life, but is surprised when he becomes her favourite teacher and mentor. it is lily that figures out that he and harry come from the future and, really, for all of his warnings to harry and severus to keep their mouths shut about the truth, it is snape that breaks first and tells lily all she wants to know. he would never deny her anything and he wants her to live out the life in this new reality that she deserves.
harry and lily come to care for each other like siblings, and snape finds he can’t summon the same hatred for harry that he used to hold, especially when james potter is available for a direct comparison (really, they are hardly alike at all). snape doesn’t want to think about how close his past self and harry have become, but he cant, in good conscience, let severus return back alone to the horrors of spinner’s end, and harry really doesn’t have any place to stay, unmoored from his timeline as he is, and so it is inevitable that they end up in his care.
of course, there is still voldemort to stop and snape tries in futility to go about defeating him alone. at first, he uses his power of extracting severus’ current memories out of his own head to keep an eye on him and harry, but inevitably they find out about that and come up with a memory insane enough to scar snape enough to never go poking about in severus’ mind again. they work together to find the horcruxes and it is a relief for snape to be a protector not constrained to the shadows.
and maybe snape is still entrenched in self-loathing and feels he doesn’t deserve this second chance offered. and maybe severus is terrified of himself and the path he so very nearly led. and maybe harry misses his old friends and is worried he’s intruding into a life that doesn’t belong to him. maybe lily doesn’t know whether or not to forgive, or if she was deserving of such unconditional love that the others offered her. but they have each other, now, and that seems to matter more than the rest.
at the end of this story, harry finds and picks up the old advanced potions making book. inside, is the awfully familiar handwriting of ron and hermione, realising that the future they know isn’t quite what it used to be. apparently, their favourite potions professor snape didn’t used to be quite so admired, nor was their friend professor harry potter always quite so old. they had used legellimency to extract their alternate memories of harry, and were glad, no matter their ages, that he was their best friend. they wished to say hello to the current harry of the past and looked forward to him meeting them when they started school.
extra: harry is worried that professor snape will start bullying the marauders when given professorial power over them, but is bemused to find that snape is absolutely terrified of them and steers clear of the lot as much as he can (he hides it well, but even severus ends up finding it funny that his far more powerful future self is terrified of a few teens who arent even aware it was him who they bullied)
“Harry slumped in his chair. If Dumbledore thought this book would prepare him, he would be sorely disappointed. All the book had served to do so far was to discourage Harry further. It made learning Occlumency sound so hard.
Harry sneaked a glance at Snape through his lowered lashes. The man had been leafing through various books and writing notes on parchment for more than an hour. Harry tried to sit up straight enough to get a glimpse of what he was writing, but he couldn’t quite manage. Having failed, he slumped back down in his chair.”
O Mine Enemy, chapter 15 - KirbyLane
With finals week quickly approaching, I thought i’d make a little severitus study board. And of course, it’s inspired by O Mine Enemy on ao3.
Harry identified with and reluctantly admired Snape even before ‘The Prince’s Tale’
So, ‘Albus Severus’ is admittedly is a controversial name in fandom due to Snape’s own dubious morality. And people also think that Harry going from hatred to admiration of Snape so quickly is unrealistic. But, that’s not true. There’s no doubt that Harry hated Snape, but amid that hatred, there was also reluctant admiration and even identification with Snape. Let’s see a few examples:
Harry did not speak; he felt that to say anything might be dangerous. He was sure he had just broken into Snape’s memories, that he had just seen scenes from Snape’s childhood, and it was unnerving to think that the crying little boy who had watched his parents shouting was actually standing in front of him with such loathing in his eyes… .
Probably the first time Harry is looking at Snape as anything more than his hated Potions professor. But it is still significant considering Harry’s own abusive childhood.
His reaction to Snape’s Worst Memory:
What was making Harry feel so horrified and unhappy was not being shouted at or having jars thrown at him — it was that he knew how it felt to be humiliated in the middle of a circle of onlookers, knew exactly how Snape had felt as his father had taunted him, and that judging from what he had just seen, his father had been every bit as arrogant as Snape had always told him.
His immediate reaction after watching Snape’s memory is to empathise with Snape, because he knows what it’s like to be bullied in front of a crowd.
We also get hints of how similar Snape and Harry are. Even Hermione comments on it:
Did you hear him talking about the Dark Arts? He loves them! All that unfixed, indestructible stuff —” “Well,” said Hermione, “I thought he sounded a bit like you.”
“Like me?”
“Yes, when you were telling us what it’s like to face Voldemort. You said it wasn’t just memorizing a bunch of spells, you said it was just you and your brains and your guts - well, wasn’t that what Snape was saying? That it really comes down to being brave and quick-thinking?”
Hermione comments on how they both sound similar. Snape and Harry do have a lot in common as we will find out later, but this is one of the first hints of another character noticing it.
But imo, the largest culmination of Harry’s reluctant admiration is in the case Snape’s old textbook, when he called himself the Half-blood Prince. This is teen Snape; Snape as Lily knew him, Snape without all the baggage that he has with Harry. And what is Harry’s opinion of him?
Harry woke early on the morning of the trip, which was proving stormy, and whiled away the time until breakfast by reading his copy of Advanced Potion-Making. He did not usually lie in bed reading his textbooks; that sort of behavior, as Ron rightly said, was indecent in anybody except Hermione, who was simply weird that way. Harry felt, however, that the Half-Blood Princes copy of Advanced Potion-Making hardly qualified as a textbook. The more Harry pored over the book, the more he realized how much was in there, not only the handy hints and shortcuts on potions that was earning him such a glowing reputation with Slughorn, but also the imaginative little jinxes and hexes scribbled in the margins, which Harry was sure, judging by the crossings-out and revisions, that the Prince had invented himself.
Harry’s admiration is practically dripping through the pages. He’s staying up at night reading the book, admiring the boy who was so clever.
One of the most interesting lines is also this:
“My dad used this spell,” said Harry. “I — Lupin told me.” This last part was not true; in fact, Harry had seen his father use the spell on Snape, but he had never told Ron and Hermione about that particular excursion into the Pensieve. Now, however, a wonderful possibility occurred to him. Could the Half-Blood Prince possibly be —?
Harry is so attached to Snape’s old textbook that he wishes it was his father. Harry is hungry for father figures and the fact that he elevates the Prince to this kind of figure from just his textbook is significant. It shows the lost potential between Harry and Snape. Who is the Prince but a younger Snape? It shows that had Snape been a little less bitter and damaged, he could have been a mentor figure for Harry.
These two have so much in common: their lives are defined by Voldemort and they’re not truly free until he’s dead, they’re both half-bloods who grew up in the muggle world, they both suffered abusive childhoods, they were both bullied, they’re both sarcastic and dry, they both can get very vicious (Snape more so obviously), they’re both completely loyal to Dumbledore, they’re both brave and stubborn as hell. I truly believe that had Snape not been so blind, he could have been a great father figure for Harry simply because of how similar they are and how much they could relate to each other.
He felt stunned; it was as though a beloved pet had turned suddenly savage; what had the Prince been thinking to copy such a spell into his book? And what would happen when Snape saw it? Would he tell Slughorn — Harry’s stomach churned — how Harry had been achieving such good results in Potions all year? Would he confiscate or destroy the book that had taught Harry so much…the book that had become a kind of guide and friend? Harry could not let it happen…He could not…
Harry thinks of the Prince as a friend and guide.
“Will you stop harping on about the book!” snapped Harry. “The Prince only copied it out! It’s not like he was advising anyone to use it! For all we know, he was making a note of something that had been used against him!”
“I don’t believe this,” said Hermione. “You’re actually defending —“
“I’m not defending what I did!” said Harry quickly. “I wish I hadn’t done it, and not just because I’ve got about a dozen detentions. You know I wouldn’t’ve used a spell like that, not even on Malfoy, but you can’t blame the Prince, he hadn’t written ‘try this out, it’s really good’ — he was just making notes for himself, wasn’t he, not for anyone else…”
Even after 'Sectumsempra’, Harry defends the Prince like this. As a side note, I also think that Harry’s relationship with the Prince somewhat mirrors Lily’s relationship with Snape. They both admired and loved the boy who was so clever and imaginative and were willing to blind themselves as that boy went deeper into the dark side.
He broke off, looking out of the window. He could not stop himself dwelling upon Dumbledore’s inexcusable trust in Snape…but as Hermione had just inadvertently reminded him, he, Harry, had been taken in just the same…in spite of the increasing nastiness of those scribbled spells, he had refused to believe ill of the boy who had been so clever, who had helped him so much..
This is after Snape killed Dumbledore, and Harry’s primary feeling about the Prince is one of betrayal. Ultimately, I believe Harry’s relationship with the Prince is pivotal in his understanding of Snape, and I firmly believe that this also informed his decision to name his son after Snape. After watching Snape’s dying memories, Harry’s admiration of the Prince returned and merged with his feelings towards Snape. It is no coincidence that the chapter revealing Snape’s true allegiance is called 'The Prince’s Tale’, telling us that Snape truly is the same Prince Harry admired and wished was his father.
Harry’s feelings towards Snape after the Prince’s tale is obvious. Throughout Snape’s memories, he identifies with him, not James. He immediately notices that James has an air of being loved and adored while Snape conspicuously lacks it. He cannot bring himself to watch Snape’s Worst Memory again. After watching the memories, he identifies with both Snape and Tom Riddle as 'the abandoned boys’ who were outcasts and only found their home in Hogwarts.
In short, I believe Harry’s admiration of Snape was not sudden or inexplicable but something he always reluctantly felt. He identified with Snape even when he hated him. Once he saw Snape’s memories in his entirety, he understood and identified with them even more because Harry has been in Snape’s shoes. He’s been a dark-haired, abused, bullied, half-blood outcast. And he knows how hard it is to be brave in those circumstances. While the readers might have trouble understanding why Snape would have a child named after him, Harry doing so is not a surprise.
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