Severus Snape

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Harry Potter character
Image:Severus snape.jpg
Alan Rickman as Snape in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Severus Snape
Gender Unknown}}}
Hair colour Unknown}}}
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Parentage Unknown}}}
Allegiance {{{allegiance|Unknown}}}}}}
Film portrayer None}}}
First appearance Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Severus Snape (born January 9, c. 1959) is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling. He was appointed Potions master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1981, after completing his education there c. 1977, and became Head of Slytherin house.

Snape's physical appearance is that of the classic villain: thin, "hook-nosed" and "long, greasy hair," and clad in forbidding black robes "like an overgrown bat" Template:HP1. Harry Potter intensely dislikes and distrusts Snape for his chequered past and the animosity Snape displays toward him.

In the Harry Potter films, the character is played by actor Alan Rickman.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

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Background

Severus Snape was born to Tobias Snape, a Muggle, and Eileen Prince, a witch. The youthful Snape is described as having a "stringy, pallid look," being "round-shouldered yet angular," and having a "twitchy" walk "like a spider" and "long oily hair that jumped about his face." As a first-year student at Hogwarts, he knew more hexes and curses than most seventh-years, while his bookish demeanour and unattractive appearance made him an outsider and an object of scorn. Harry learns that Snape was extremely unpopular and lonely in his teens, resulting from, or perhaps fueling, his interest in the Dark Arts. Snape's classmates included Harry's father and mother James and Lily Potter, Harry's godfather Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew.

Details of his early life are incomplete, but Harry comes to suspect that Snape suffered neglect by his parents and may have been abused by his father. He comes to these conclusions through his botched lessons in Occlumency, when he sees three scenes from Snape's memory. In the first, a boy is crying in a corner while a hook-nosed man shouts at a cowering woman. In the second, a teenager is sitting alone in a dark bedroom shooting down flies, and in the third a girl is laughing while a scrawny boy tries to get on a bucking broomstick. Template:HP5

Snape suffered relentless and vicious teasing and bullying at the hands of Sirius Black and James Potter, much as Dudley Dursley and Draco Malfoy persecuted Harry. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry learns that, while they were still students at Hogwarts, Sirius Black - one of James Potter's best friends and later Harry's godfather - lured Snape to the Shrieking Shack where he could have been killed or seriously injured by Remus Lupin in his werewolf form. James warned Snape of the danger and thereby saved his life, but Snape believed that James was involved in the plot and only intervened out of fear of expulsion from Hogwarts. However, Snape feels indebted to James for this favor.

Much of Snape's disdain for Harry seems to stem from the rivalry between him and Harry's father James while they were students together at Hogwarts. Snape invented a number of spells, one of which James Potter used against him - causing Snape to hang upside down in mid-air. Harry's mother Lily defended Snape against James while James was tormenting him, professing her detestation of the boy she was later to marry. Harry illicitly watches these memories in Snape's Pensieve, where they have been placed to keep them hidden from Harry during the Occlumency lessons.

Sirius tells Harry later that Snape belonged to a gang of Slytherins at school, including Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange, Avery, Wilkes and Evan Rosier. It is however unclear if this piece of information can be trusted given that Snape seemed to be lonesome and unpopular in the memories in the Pensieve.

Snape became a Death Eater, but at some point before Voldemort's first defeat also became a member of the Order of the Phoenix. His motivation for joining either side is unclear; both Voldemort and Dumbledore appear to trust him and believe that he is spying on the other, but few seem certain which side he is on.

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Role in the series

There is a mutual feeling of enmity between Snape and Harry from the moment that they first meet at Hogwarts. In his first year, Harry mistakenly suspects Snape of trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone. Snape appears to be muttering a curse to harm Harry, when Harry is shaken wildly about on his broom during a Quidditch game. In fact it was Professor Quirrell (in league with Voldemort) who was working the curse on Harry, while Snape was attempting to protect Harry with a counter-curse. Harry retains lingering suspicions of Snape even after Quirrell is revealed as the real culprit, and their relationship remains fraught.

Image:Severus-Snape-fighting.png Snape relentlessly antagonizes Harry, calling him "a nasty little boy who considers rules to be beneath him" Template:HP4. He taunts Harry during lessons, ridiculing his work and giving him frequent, and often unjustified, detentions and other penalties. On several occasions, Snape tries to have Harry expelled from the school. Yet in spite of these attempts to sabotage Harry's school career, Snape also saves Harry's life on more than one occasion.

At the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore attempts to convince the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, that Voldemort has returned and is once again a danger. Snape tries to help by showing Fudge the renewed Dark Mark on his arm, still very clearly visible from when it burnt black at the Dark Lord's revival. Dumbledore subsequently sends Snape on a secretive mission, which is later revealed to have been to return to Voldemort as a spy.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore assigns Snape the task of giving Harry some lessons in Occlumency, the protection of one's mind from outside intrusion or influence. Snape is chosen because he is extremely skilled in both Occlumency and its companion art of Legilimency, the discerning of thoughts and feelings from another's mind, both proficiencies undoubtedly useful in his undercover work as a spy. The classes, however, are made difficult for Harry because of the mutual hostility between them, and are cut short when Harry discovers Snape's memories stored in the pensieve.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, while at his home at Spinner's End, Snape swears an Unbreakable Vow to Draco Malfoy's mother, Narcissa, that he will protect Draco and help him complete a task set by Voldemort. He is finally appointed to his coveted post as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. He is seen by Hagrid arguing with Dumbledore about an important task which Snape has agreed to carry out, saying that Dumbledore took "too much for granted," and that there was something that he was no longer willing to do. Dumbledore insists that it was agreed and must be done.

During the Battle of Hogwarts along the battlements of the school, Dumbledore, who is still suffering the effects of drinking an unknown potion, sends Harry to get Snape. At that moment, Draco Malfoy arrives. Dumbledore silences Harry (who is hidden in his invisibility cloak) with a nonverbal Petrificus Totalus paralyzing spell, and begins to reason with Malfoy. Snape arrives, but he kills Dumbledore using Avada Kedavra. Snape, Malfoy, and the Death Eaters flee the castle, pursued by Harry (now released from his magical paralysis). Harry attempts to engage Snape in magical combat, to no effect; Snape easily blocks his spells and disappears into the night with the Death Eaters.

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The Half-Blood Prince

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In the sixth book in the series, Snape is given the Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching job, and is replaced as Potions Master by Horace Slughorn, who returns out of retirement. Slughorn taught Potions for many years before his original retirement. Harry is lent an old Potions textbook from the Potions storeroom, which turns out to be filled with the jottings of a highly talented former student. The additional notes include a variety of hexes and jinxes seemingly invented by the student, as well as substantial improvements to the book's standard potion-making instructions, and is signed "Property of the Half-Blood Prince." Harry uses the notes in the book to bolster his performance in the subject during the year. His newfound abilities greatly impress Slughorn, who declares that he must have inherited his mother Lily's outstanding ability at potions. Harry decides that, whoever the prince might be, he is a better teacher than either Snape or Slughorn.

Hermione, who is outraged by Harry's easy success in the subject, investigates the possible identity of the Half-Blood Prince and suspects a former Hogwarts student, Eileen Prince. Harry remains ambivalent about the importance of discovering who the Prince really is, although he is convinced that the student in question is male. In a fight with Draco Malfoy, he tries one of the Prince's handwritten spells marked "For Enemies", and discovers to his horror that it causes vicious slashing wounds to Draco. Snape arrives and heals Draco's wounds with a spell muttered in an almost "singsong" fashion, and then interrogates Harry about the source of the Sectumsempra spell (from Latin, literally, "cut forever").

Harry is already aware that at least two of the spells were used by Snape and his father during their fifth year, and this is confirmed by Remus Lupin. The way the spells are written into the book, with many corrections, also convinces him that the writer had invented the spells himself. Eventually, when Harry confronts Snape during the latter's flight from Hogwarts after the death of Dumbledore, Snape confirms to Harry that he himself is the originator of the spells, and that he is the "Half-Blood Prince."

Eileen Prince, the student suspected originally by Hermione, was in fact Snape's mother. The nickname was derived from her maiden name of "Prince" and from Severus's father having been a Muggle, making Severus himself a "half-blood". This term is considered an insult by some in the wizarding world, especially among Voldemort's followers and in Snape's own Slytherin House. It is not clear how he came to receive the name, or whether it was in common usage during his studies. Remus Lupin, when questioned by Harry, knew nothing of the name despite being a classmate.

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Loyalty

Image:Snapejinxingbroom.jpg The question of Snape's ultimate loyalty is one of the most significant unresolved issues in the Harry Potter series. Apparently, both the followers and opponents of Voldemort think Snape is working as a double agent against the other, and it is unclear where his loyalties actually lie. Both Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort are described to be masters of Legilimency, which they can use to detect deceit, while Snape is accomplished at Occlumency, which allows him to lie undetectably. Dumbledore says on several occasions that he trusts Snape completely, while Voldemort trusts him enough to include him in in some of his most important plans.

According to Divination Professor Sybill Trelawney, Snape was eavesdropping at her door at the Hog's Head during her interview with Dumbledore for a teaching job at Hogwarts. During the interview she fell into a trance, delivering a key prophecy regarding Voldemort and a foe who had the power to vanquish him. Dumbledore told Harry that there was an eavesdropper, but said that the eavesdropper only heard the first half of the prophecy, and only reported that part to Voldemort. This conflicts with Trelawney's account to Harry, in which Snape is only discovered after she had delivered the whole prophecy. Voldemort identified Harry as the subject of the prophecy and, seeking to kill the infant Harry, murdered Lily and James Potter. Harry believes that Snape bears responsibility for the death of his parents, which serves to amplify his hatred of Snape.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, chapter entitled "The Lost Prophecy", Albus Dumbledore explains how Snape was able to co-ordinate the rescue of Harry and his friends. This rescue was crucial to saving their lives during the fight scene in the Ministry of Magic, here they were outnumbered two-to-one by the Death Eaters. Although the question remains about whether Snape did this to save Harry or save himself from Dumbledore. Dumbledore also explains how Snape went into the Forbidden Forest to rescue Harry when he and the others failed to return when they attempted to escape Umbridge.

Snape is a respected member of the Order of the Phoenix, but attacks Dumbledore with Avada Kedavra, the killing curse, one of the three Unforgivable Curses. His actions were required by his Unbreakable Vow sworn to Narcissa Malfoy - under which he is required to aid Draco in completing an assigned task for Voldemort, protect Draco from harm as far as he is able, and complete the task should Draco fail. Draco's task was to kill Dumbledore, but as he was unable to do so, it would fall to Snape.

In the Chapter entitled "The Flight of the Prince" Snape escapes from Hogwarts with Draco and the Death Eaters. During the escape, Harry confronts Snape, and they duel. Snape blocks all of Harry's hexes and curses, and further taunts Harry about his lack of skills, notably in Occlumency. Nevertheless, he prevents the Death Eaters from harming Harry, blocking a Crucio thrown at Harry, telling the Death Eaters that "Potter belongs to the Dark Lord." The only point at which Snape loses his self control is when Harry calls him "a coward". His words and actions towards Harry may be those of an enemy, but still remain those of a schoolmaster.

Snape's actions have given rise to intense speculation that Dumbledore might have anticipated his own death. It is clear that Dumbledore was seriously weakened by the destruction of the "Gaunt Ring" Horcrux, which burned and blackened his hand. The injury was incurable by wizarding standards, but Snape is credited with halting the spread of damage to the rest of Dumbledore's body. Dumbledore was further weakened when forced to consume an unknown potion in the seaside cave. When Harry attempts to warn Dumbledore about Draco's actions, Dumbledore dismisses his worries, telling Harry that he already understands the situation much better than Harry. His ambiguous last words, "Severus...please", may be taken as pleading with Snape not to kill him, or as a request for a swift end.

Harry's distrust of Snape is in stark contrast to the views of Dumbledore, who repeatedly makes clear that Snape has his full confidence. At Igor Karkaroff's trial, as seen in Dumbledore's Pensieve, Dumbledore testified that Snape spied on the Death Eaters "at great personal risk"Template:HP4, before Voldemort's fall from power. Interestingly enough, Karkaroff insisted that this was untrue. Throughout the series, Snape's sinister personality and antagonism towards Harry have been juxtaposed with his heroic actions in Harry's defence. His history of divided loyalty to both the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix, and his actions in apparent support of both sides, make him one of the most morally complex characters in the series.

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Character origins and possible influences

Rowling says that she borrowed his surname from the village of Snape in the English county of Suffolk. Severus is Latin for "strict," "harsh," or "severe," and the name may also have origins in the name of the Imperial Roman emperor Septimus Severus, who was known for ruling with both vigor and a calculated cruelty. This would be verified by the fact that Rowling said that the Snape character was inspired by a hated teacher in her childhood. Moreover, Snape's first name could be taken to mean "sever us" (as in "divide us"). This role was fulfilled not only in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince but also in fandom itself, where Snape's ultimate loyality is the subject of fierce debate.

Alan Rickman, who plays Snape, is one of a few people to whom J.K. Rowling is said to have spoken about the future direction of his character, perhaps reflecting the importance of Snape's ultimate role in the series. [1]

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Family tree

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External links


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J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series
Philosopher's Stone book film game
Chamber of Secrets book film game
Prisoner of Azkaban book film game
Goblet of Fire book film game
Order of the Phoenix book (film)  
Half-Blood Prince book (film)  
Unnamed Seventh Book (book)    
Other books Other games
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup
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