Severus Snape

Families

Parents

• Family: Married
  • Birth Father: Tobias Snape
  • Birth Mother: Eileen Prince

Ancestors

Analysis

One of Mrs. Rowling great themes across the Harry Potter series is the redeeming power of love. She is absolutely right to consider love one of the most powerful forces in existence, and one of the most magical. As she is writing for children, I cannot fault her wanting to make the world more nearly black and white, with good guys and bad guys. In such a world, Severus, being one of the good guys, must be redeemed. Harry, being even more clearly one of the good guys, must not only be part of his redemption, but must recognise and champion it. This gives us the epilogue, with a child of Harry’s named Albus Severus, the two characters that Mrs. Rowling most wants the reader to forgive.

The books are, however, not really children’s books at all. I disagree with classifying the latter books as such, and am restricting my own children’s reading of them, keeping them at one book a year starting from when they turn eight. The first few books are fine; while there are some troubling things in them, it will largely go over a child’s head with little risk of influence or damage. However, as one advances through the books, there is more that requires mature judgement, because more and more, the characters are making decisions, and in the case of the adults, revealing past decisions, that require the reader to recognise that good people can make bad choices, and, yes, bad people can make good choices.

Severus Snape is a very grey character. He, like most children, starts out fallen, but essentially unformed. He comes from an abusive back- ground,¹ and apparently has very little of Harry’s extraordinary resilience. As such, he is damaged. He is given no help to recover from this damage. We have no true picture of what Hogwarts looked like while the Marauders, Lily and Severus were there, but that much we can be fairly certain of. We know that some of the Slytherins students are either openly Death Eaters, or are openly vying to become Death Eaters.² We know that at least one female student was assaulted in an unknown way by dark magic, that Severus calls it funny, and Lily calls it evidence of Mulciber being “creepy.”³ When it comes to Severus, Sirius is hardly unbiased, but I think we can trust him when he says that Severus’s interest in the Dark Arts was well known.⁴ I could go on, but you can see that, already, McGonagall and Dumbledore are allowing not just pranks, but actual evil to go unpunished. In such an environment, the needs of victims are not going to be addressed.

As I said, we know little of Severus at school, but his memories from the Deathly Hallows have a few things that are possibly suggestive. In one scene Lily reacts strongly when Severus uses the phrase “I won’t let you” in reference to her understanding of, or possibly her relationship (or lack there of) with James.⁵ A scene later we have the incident where he calls her a mudblood and she ends their friendship. Next we see her refusal to forgive him, apparently because she does not believe his protestations. Unlike Dumbledore, Lily wants repentance to be accompanied by evidence of reform. Alternately, some writers have speculated that Lily was seeing parallels between Severus’ behaviour and his father’s.⁶ The whole fifth year thing is really complicated, and ultimately worth a deeper look. Either way, if you accept statements made in interviews, we know that Severus did not really understand the depth of the disagreement. He refused to believe Lily’s aversion to the Dark Arts was real or well founded, and believed that she would find membership in the Death Eaters impressive.⁷

These interview statements give credence to statements made by Lupin and Sirius, who are in and of themselves, perhaps not the most unbiased of witnesses. Sirius states that even in school, Severus was “up to his eyes in the Dark Arts.”⁸ The man who thinks that Lily would find membership in the Death Eaters impressive, and who invented the sectumsempra curse⁹ no doubt really was using dark magic regularly - just not in front of Lily, who objected to it (for some strange irrational reason - or so Severus thinks). When he says that James used spells that Severus invented against him (Severus), how did James learn these? Only because Severus used them against James. Which of Severus’ spells do we see James use though? Not the dark slashing curse, but the prank spell. James may frequently have used superior numbers, and his pranks may certainly have crossed the line into bullying behaviour (which is deplorable), but Severus returned fire with dark magic, whenever Lily was not around.

Coming out of Hogwarts, Severus joins the Death Eaters, while continuing his studies in potions. We do not know what the balance of his time is; we do not know what (if any) atrocities he participated in. We do know that he gets the dark mark, we do not know if he had it prior to hearing the prophesy fragment or not. Was it a reward, or did he earn the mark in some other way? That answer could significantly change your view of how much evil Severus has done by commission versus omission during this phase of his life.

Dumbledore’s view is that becoming a spy balances the scales. Severus needs no punishment for his actions prior to hearing the prophesy.¹⁰ I cannot agree. He may have earned some clemency, but not full clemency, and not without a true trial. Dumbledore is not God.

Returning to the memories that Severus would show Harry,¹¹ Severus says “he thinks it means Lily Evans!” - a curious statement considering that Lily has in fact been Lily Potter for some time.¹² It is in fact because she is Lily Potter that Riddle would be after her and her son. Severus is showing evidence of denial about the strength of the attachment between Lily and James, and a failure to understand what love really means.

Some writers have tried to give Severus a pass on this one. They rightly point out that there was no chance that Riddle would spare the entire family, and particularly no chance he would spare Harry. They miss the fact that Severus is still concerned only for Lily when talking to Dumbledore, who would be concerned for the whole family. It is perhaps a bit debatable how much we can read into the conversation on the hill, but when asked if he cares about the deaths of Lily’s husband and child, it says “Snape said nothing” then follows by Snape saying something.¹³ For that to make sense, there is a pause. The writers who want to give Severus a pass on this will point out that Severus is risking his life by making the request, and why should he for an enemy? Would James have done so had the situations been reversed?¹⁴ When looking at the conversation with Riddle this perhaps matters, but again, when looking at the conversation with Dumbledore there was no risk at trying to more perfectly preserve life. Sure enough, Harry, our hero, does risk his life to save Draco, despite the enmity between them, despite the fact that Draco has once again put everyone at risk by threatening the hunt in the Room of Requirement.

I do not expect Severus to be a saint, to risk his life for James, who he hates. But note that isn’t precisely what Dumbledore asked. He asked about Lily’s husband who happens to be James. In other words, would you save James for her sake. Even put in those terms, Severus can barely bring himself to say “them” and not just “her.” I again remind you that he cannot bring himself to think of her as actually married. Rather, she is a prize to be won, something that James has taken from him. That is the sense in which he wants her life to be saved.

Riddle might well have been willing to go along with that, but it is not just a quirk of cannon that Lily was not. We know that Tobias Snape was abusive, and that Eileen Snape failed to protect Severus, but I know of no evidence that Eileen did not love her son. Some abused women fail to protect their children because they are unable to, not because they are unwilling to do so; we do not know which category Eileen Snape falls into. This flaw in understanding is not solely attributable to his upbringing. Some will point out the way Snape was poorly dressed as proof, but this could be simply symptomatic of the same cluelessness of non-magical fashion we see in other magical characters coupled with their extreme poverty.

Regardless, Severus is now, supposedly, a spy for Dumbledore. How much does he know? Does he know that Pettigrew is a Death Eater? Does he know this before Riddle goes to Godric’s Hallow? What precisely does Severus report to Dumbledore during the 19 months or so between the prophesy stating that Harry will be born, and Halloween of 1981? The answers to these questions also play a critical part in assessing Severus Snape, and yet are unanswered.

Severus becomes a teacher in the fall of 1982, replacing Slughorn.¹⁵ It is really really hard to form an objective understanding of Severus as a teacher. Most of the time we see his class, he puts directions on the board and expects the students to brew a potion without help, while he stalks the room criticising those he dislikes (most of them). I have not end-to-end read the series in a few years now, and I cannot find with spot checking the books any examples of him doing anything else. I have this vague memory, however, of at least one example of a lecture in potions class. Is he a poor teacher because he does not know how to be better, because he has been ordered to teach poorly by Riddle, or because he has been ordered to teach poorly by Dumbledore as part of maintaining his cover? If it is because he does not know how to teach better, do either Dumbledore or McGonagall offer to mentor him, or is he left to flounder on his own? It is necessary to know the answer to these questions, because his subject is critical to several really important career paths when you are considering society’s ability to resist Riddle or any other future dark lord. It is especially critical to know the answer to these questions when Mrs. Rowling states in an interview that Dumbledore thinks that dealing with horrible teachers is part of teaching his students about life.¹⁶

Irregardless of if he does ever actually teach, his behaviour during these “lab” classes is unacceptable. The labs are unsafe, and his treatment of the students unprofessional. I suspect, however, that it would be legal in, say, 1800s England, and as the wizarding world seems to have frozen at least a century ago, Severus is probably not doing anything punishable, just something reprehensible.

His behaviour as Head of House is another issue. Again, it is not something that the DMLE could take exception to, except in that if he had had a trial, and if he were on probation, this would probably violate, or at least call into question, the terms of that probation. Severus is very much furthering the atmosphere that he himself experienced as a student. How much of this is because he is allowed to, and how much is because he is instructed to? Dumbledore is never seen to use his power as Chief of the Wizengamot or Supreme Mugwump (I refuse to believe these are powerless). How much of Severus’s behaviour in the school is part of Dumbledore’s plans for setting up the final confrontation when Riddle returns? We do not know. We do have clues, Dumbledore does seem to, extremely gently, remonstrate Severus about his views of Harry. This suggests that Dumbledore is permissive, not legislative about Severus. I think that Dumbledore wants them all, Severus included, to turn away from these acts spontaneously inspired purely by example, without any influence of punishment.

Severus, as Head of House, is acting in loco parentis, I think, even more than the Headmaster does. It is his responsibility to help form his students; his failure to punish them is neglect. His covering for them is teaching them to disregard moral standards. His behaviour implicitly and sometimes explicitly rewards bad behaviour. This is a problem.

Severus’s behaviour during Harry’s third year, and particularly during the confrontation in the Shrieking Shack, is enlightening. He enters the scene “full of suppressed triumph”¹⁷, proceeds to look fanatical¹⁸, and continues on in both book description and in objective assessment of his behaviour, to be “deranged.”¹⁹ He is, in this encounter, motivated by three things. One, Severus both fears and hates werewolves, no doubt stemming from his teen-aged encounter with Lupin. Two, Snape has a rational hatred of Sirius Black taken to an irrational degree. With that Snape has an inability to separate Sirius from James, and James from Harry Potter. In Snape’s mind anything done by one is effectively done by all three. Third, Snape has an incredible desire for fame and recognition. I think this sequence, as Snape yells at Harry, looking for him to thank him “on bended knee”²⁰, and then later, with Fudge talking about the Order of Merlin, gives us a huge insight into Snape’s character.²¹

As Riddle returns, what does Snape know about his activities? What could he have told Dumbledore but chooses to hold back? What does he tell Dumbledore publicly (at least in front of other Order members) versus what he shares in private alone? What does Dumbledore know (from Severus’s reports) but refuse to act on? We do not know the answer to these questions; we cannot assess Severus as a spy. Knowing these answers is important to know if he was ever truly redeemed, or if he was putting on a show for Dumbledore. Ultimately, knowing these answers is also important to assess Dumbledore - for while he faced the classic problem of when to act on knowledge gained from a spy, his inaction cannot be wholly excused.

Severus becomes Headmaster during what would have been Harry’s seventh year. We get only a few glimpses of his tenure. We know that he catches Ginny attempting to steal the sword for Harry; he must have had access to her unprotected mind, but he assigns her detention with Hagrid. Harry is right, Ron is wrong; that was not intended as a serious detention. How much worse would Hogwarts have been had a different Death Eater been Headmaster? How much could Severus have done to curb problems that he did not do? We cannot know. We know he helped some at least.

Severus is trying to reach Harry when Riddle decides Harry must die. He (Severus) uses his the last of his strength to give Harry memories necessary for Harry to finally have a true understanding of the situation. At least some of this is because Severus is committed to following Dumbledore’s plans. The extra memories of Severus’s life are, in my opinion, necessary if Harry is to believe the final, critical memories of Severus’s interactions with Dumbledore. The extra memories are not, I think, entirely altruistic however. Remember what we saw from book 3; Severus is driven beyond reason by the twin desires of hatred for Harry’s father, and desire for recognition. This is Severus’s moment for both. Harry must believe him, for if Harry does not, then Severus will die a death eater. If Harry believes, then Severus dies a hero. This is critical not only in a moral sense, but for Severus’s self image. Harry must think well of Severus or no one will; and nothing could be more important to Severus, except, perhaps, that James’s son might suffer more. These memories can achieve both. If Lily’s son must die, then Severus was going to get everything he could out of it. I think his motivation was thus complex.

For Severus is a complex character. He was not irredeemable, and even though he is fictional, there are enough questions about his life that I cannot judge him. I can say that were I Harry, I would never have named a child after him. I hope I would forgive him, but I cannot honour him. He could have been so much greater than he was.

On a side note, it is widely speculated that Severus is Draco’s godfather. This article does not specifically talk about that, but covers the available evidence as if it were.²²

If you want a parallel but diverging view of Severus that allows for redeeming him more than this rant does, BajaB offers a fascinating take on him in Chapter 4 of her series of loosely connected one-shots Veritas Oracle.²³