Severus Snape

"...he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."

- Harry Potter on Severus Snape

Severus Tobias Snape (January 9, 1960 - May 23 1998) was Potions master (1981-96), Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher (1996-97), and Headmaster (1997-98) of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is described as a thoroughly unpleasant person, and a persistent antagonist to Harry Potter and his friends, but his role in the series is central and causes both good and bad. J.K. Rowling refers to him as an anti-hero. Harry's second child is named after him and Albus Dumbledore.

Childhood
Severus Snape is the son of Eileen Prince, a witch, and Tobias Snape, a Muggle. He was born January 9, 1960. It is implied that Severus was a loner, and a victim of abuse by his father Tobias. Because of his only partial wizard heritage, he secretly gave himself the nickname of "The Half-Blood Prince", signifying that he was a half wizard through his mother's family, the Princes.

Severus Snape was later revealed to have had an ongoing romantic interest in Lily Evans, although never fully reciprocated, and much less appreciated when he called her a mudblood.

Life at Hogwarts
Severus attended Hogwarts and was implied to be an extremely educated young wizard, knowing more curses and hexes in his first year than most of the seventh year students. Severus attended Hogwarts from 1971 to 1978.

Severus was sorted into Slytherin house, which at that time was led by Professor of Potions, Horace Slughorn. The classmate Sirius Black reported that Severus attended school at least partially at the same time as Sirius' cousin, Bellatrix Black, as well as Lucius Malfoy who, at the time, was a prefect, as well as a "gang of Slytherins", who "later went on to become Death Eaters". Other classmates included the muggle-born witch who had been his long time friend named Lily Evans, as well as his rivals, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

There was considerable friction between Severus and James Potter throughout their school career. Reportedly, James instantly distrusted Severus because of his interest in the the Dark Arts. James's best friend was Sirius Black, who fell out with his own parents, who were 'aristocratic' pureblood supremacists and looked down on any other kind of wizard. Sirius rebelled against this, and it may be that his distrust of his own family extended to Snape, who Sirius claimed kept company with his disliked cousin Bella. Sirius was the only member of his family not sorted into Slytherin house, suggesting that the split with his family did indeed exist before he started school. Sirius also reported that he believed Severus was jealous of James. However, it may be that exactly the reverse was true and this explanation given to Harry was more a reflection of James' and Sirius' interpretation of events than Snape's. The events of Snape's life suggest that he was a serious, introverted and studious individual, whereas James was popular, sporty, an extrovert and considerably spoiled by his parents. It seems likely that those things which most appealed to James would be of least interest to Severus.

Harry sees a memory which Snape had stored in Dumbledore's Pensieve during occlumency lessons. This showed Snape being bullied by James, and Lily attempting to rescue him. The chapter heading from the book suggests that this is 'Snape's Worst Memory'. It is later implied that this was Snape's Worst Memory because he had called Lily a "Mud-Blood", and she refused to forgive him for it, even after his desperate apologies. It is clearly the case that James and Severus would curse each other throughout their school career, though it is not known whether one or the other normally came out best. In this particular memory, James thoroughly humiliates Severus in front of the whole school, even using a spell (Levicorpus) which Snape had invented (and showing Snape's greying underpants). The scene is complicated because Lily intervenes, but is then insulted for her efforts and gives up the attempt. It may be this insulting of Lily which makes this the worst memory. It is not clear that Snape intended to insult Lily. Oddly, he does not address her directly, but instead makes the remark calling her a 'mudblood', to James. This may have been deliberately intended to upset James, rather than Lily, since the memory suggests that James had been making a very poor job of hiding the fact that he was in love with Lily. Lily professed her detest of James and his actions. In any event, the result was that James was indeed more angered by the remark than was Lily.

Remus reports that once James and Lily had begun to date, James told Lily he had stopped bullying everyone. Lily made it clear in the pensieve scene that she did not approve of bullying. The scene also shows James behaving poorly to Peter Pettigrew, who supposedly is his friend. However, he continued to bully Snape, though he did stop bullying others. This suggests that there was some particular reason he continued. It may be that this is entirely explained by Snape's fondness for the dark arts, but he was not unique in this. What may have been unique, was his interest in potions, where he shared advanced classes with Lily (recognised by Slughorn as a potions genius), but not with James.

During Slughorn's potions lessons with Harry, he repeatedly remarks on Harry's ability and that it must have been inherited from his mother, who was truly outstanding at potions. Neither Slughorn, nor anyone else, ever comments on Snape's ability at school in potions. He was clearly good enough at the subject to take the advanced course, and later became teacher, but it was his second choice of subject. Harry's ability is due to helpful notes in an old textbook which is loaned to him from the potions storeroom. The book has an inscription that it is 'property of the Half-blood Prince', and it is finally admitted by Snape that this was his nickname. However, there is no clear explanation of why Slughorn praises Lily as his best student, yet fails to mention Snape who ends up with innovative potions tips (of exactly the sort Slughorn claims Lily invented), in his book. Harry even found in the book tips to do a potion that Slughorn remembers Lily to have performed and Snape to have failed. It is most likely that Snape gave his tricks to Lily instead of using them, because he loved Lily or to hide his strong skills, though it is also possible that Lily taught Snape the very information he copied into the book (thereby earning her reputation as a brilliant potion maker).

The potions book also contained two spells which Snape specifically claimed to have invented: Levicorpus, which grabs the victim by the ankle and dangles them upside-down, and Sectumsempra, which causes slashing cuts guided by hand gestures. There were other unusual and helpful spells such as Muffliato, which fills the ears of anyone nearby with an "unidentifiable buzzing sound", and Langlock, which glues the victim's tongue to the roof of his or her mouth. Levicorpus somehow escaped from Snape, and became very popular around the school towards the end of his fifth year at school.

Harry observes that there is a difference in the way the potions tips and the the spells are written into the books. The spells look to Harry as if someone had been working on them, making corrections in the book, whereas the potions tips were written in without corrections (possible evidence of Snape's having copied the potion tips from another source, i.e. Lily). Remus reported that Snape never used the nickname 'Half-blood Prince' at school. Hermione's researches ultimately discovered that the 'Prince' was his mothers maiden name, but the 'half blood' is something of an insult, with similar but lesser connotation to the 'mudblood' insult which Severus used against Lily. This is particularly the case for someone in Slytherin house, and who customarily kept company with purebloods conscious of their supposed superiority.

James and Sirius were in the habit of playing tricks on Snape, and in one of these Sirius decided it would be fun to trick Snape into visiting the Shrieking Shack at a time when Remus would be there, transformed into a werewolf. This would have been extremely dangerous for Severus, and in the end James warned Severus about the trick. Dumbledore argues that as a result Severus owed James a debt for saving his life. Whatever Severus felt about this, it seems clear that he was on very bad terms with James, and that his feelings about James were in some part transferred to Harry. It is repeatedly remarked that Harry looks exactly like James, except that he has Lily's eyes. The result of this seems to be that many characters react to Harry initially as if he is James, but then on closer inspection as Lily. This would clearly cause some confusion for Snape, if Harry simultaneously reminds him of one friend and love, and one enemy.

Involvement with Death Eaters
Snape eventually became a Death Eater, and was responsible for telling Lord Voldemort about the prophecy of the one who would kill the Dark Lord. Dumbledore tells Harry that Snape overheard Sybill Trelawney telling him the prophecy at the Hog's Head Inn. At that time it was not clear who was meant by the prophecy. Afterwards it became clear it referred to either Harry or Neville Longbottom (who were both born at the time predicted in the prophecy), and led to Voldemort seeking Harry's death. Dumbledore reported at the trial of Igor Karkaroff that Snape had come to him and explained that he had been the one to overhear the prophecy, and report it to Voldemort. Snape had then become a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and worked for Dumbledore. The reason he defected was due to his strong love for Lily Evans, who was his best friend and one and only love, and suffered the greatest remorse when he found out it was his own action that sent Lily to her death. At Dumbledore's persuasion, he became part of the Order to help protect Harry, who has Lily's eyes.

In the sixth book, Harry runs into Sybill Trelawney, who tells him about her job interview for Hogwarts, which was also the occasion of her prophecy to Dumbledore. Trelawney is not aware when she makes a prophecy, and only told Harry that she recalled feeling light headed. However, she also tells Harry that her interview was interrupted by Snape bursting in after her dizziness. This has been much discussed as an important contradiction between her version of events, and that told by Dumbledore. If Snape entered the room after the prophecy was complete, it suggests that he should have heard all of it, not merely the section which he reported to Voldemort. Perhaps he could not hear it, because he was involved in a scuffle with Aberforth Dumbledore, but in any event Trelawney definitely states that Snape and Aberforth entered the room. In Dumbledore's account, Snape was directly thrown out of the inn by Aberforth, without ever entering the room. If Snape heard all the prophecy, then he deliberately failed to report all of it to Voldemort. A further difficulty is the coincidence of Snape managing to lurk outside Trelawney's room at just the right moment to overhear some part of the prophecy, yet not hear exactly that part of it which might have warned Voldemort of an approaching trap. It has been suggested that a much simpler explanation is that Snape chose which part to relate to Voldemort, indeed may have been summoned to apparate to the room by Dumbledore the instant Trelawney ceased to prophecy, arriving with Aberforth just as she was becoming aware of her surroundings.

While Dumbledore had spies in the Death Eaters, it was Snape, who at that time was a Death Eater, warned that Lily (and thus the Potters) would be the next target.

Both Voldemort and Dumbledore appeared convinced that Severus was loyal to them. We are not aware of any act of murder or other 'typical' Death Eater behaviour committed by Snape before Voldemort's fall, except reporting the prophecy to Voldemort. Although this act endangered the people involved in the prophecy, the result was that Voldemort switched his attention to discovering the prophecy secrets, and resulted in his losing his body, the dispersal of his followers and a halt to his reign of terror. The Potters' deaths can be directly attributed to the actions of Peter Pettigrew, who turned out to be an effective spy for Voldemort. Looked at objectively, reporting the prophecy to Voldemort resulted in benefits for Dumbledore's side in the war.

Teaching Career at Hogwarts
Snape applied for a job teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, acting under Voldemort's instructions. It is not known why Voldemort wanted this, but it is reasonable to suppose he wished to place a spy near to Dumbledore. The fact that Snape had not comitted any overt acts as a death eater meant that he could maintain a cover as an innocent party. The timing of this application is of interest. We do not have sufficient information to be certain when specific actions happened, but Snape's application came after the prophecy, but before the Potters' deaths. It may be that Voldemort specifically sought a spy who could tell him about Hogwarts students, and might be able to report information from the magical scroll at Hogwarts which records all magical births. That Voldemort asked him to apply for a job which Voldemort had himself cursed, suggests that Voldemort did not intend him to remain in the job for more than one year.

As a teacher, Snape is a ruthless disciplinarian, who shows favouritism to some students. Nevertheless he appears to be effective in his job and seems well regarded professionally by the other teachers. He shows knowledge and a deep understanding of potions brewing, as exampled when he brews the complicated Wolfsbane Potion for Remus Lupin. Our view of him as a teacher is confused by the fact that we only see him teaching classes including Harry, and our view always concentrates on how he behaves to Harry and his friends. This may not be typical of his behaviour in other circumstances. Harry's resemblance to his father affects many other people in the books, and it is reasonable to assume that Snape reacts badly to him because of this. However, there may be deeper reasons for his behaviour. Snape is acting as a double agent, and Harry specifically is of utmost interest to both of his supposed masters. Snape is therefore constrained by his role as spy to act towards Harry in a way which will satisfy both Dumbledore and Voldemort. While he is mean to Harry, on several occasions when he might have inflicted real harm, he in fact rescues him. When Harry is attacked by Professor Quirrell, who attempts to jinx Harry's broom, Snape performs a counter curse. He defends Harry from Sirius Black, when he believes Sirius was the person who betrayed the Potters to Voldemort. While he sometimes threatens to have Harry expelled from the school, he never quite follows through. It is clear that Dumbledore has harboured suspicions that Voldemort might be able to read Harry's mind for some time. This becomes explicit in Order of the Phoenix, but it may have been a consideration for both Dumbledore and Snape for a much longer time. It may be that Snape is concerned not simply that reports of his behaviour towards Harry might reach Voldemort (via classmates Draco Malfoy and perhaps Crabbe and Goyle), but that Voldemort might actually be watching. In Philosopher's Stone it is the case that Voldemort is physically present at the school, and while Snape claims to Voldemort that he was unaware of this, it may not be the case. In Goblet of Fire there is another of Voldemort's agents loose in Hogwarts, and while Snape may not have known this precisely, it was clear that someone had used magic to make Harry a competitor in the Triwizard Tournament.

Unbreakable Vows
In about July 1996, Snape is visited by Bella and Narcissa Malfoy to beg help for Narcissa's son Draco. Snape swears an unbreakable magical vow, on pain of death should he break it, to: 'watch over my son Draco as he attempts to fulfil the Dark Lord's wishes', 'to the best of your ability, protect him from harm', and 'should it prove necesssary...if it seems Draco will fail...carry out the deed that the Dark Lord has ordered Draco to perform'.

The last clause of the vow is the most difficult for Snape. It is not stated explicitly but becomes clear through the book, that Draco's task is to kill Dumbledore. It may or may not be the case that the vow has some wriggle room for Snape to evade it in 'should it prove necessary', but otherwise it appears to present Severus with a choice of either killing Dumbledore, or dying himself, once Draco has clearly failed at the task. It is reasonable to assume (with knowledge from Deathly Hallows) that Snape knew what Draco's task is.

From the very start of the book, Dumbledore appears with a withered hand, and explains that it was only with Snape's immediate aid that he did not die from the injury. This injury never improves during the year or so timespan of the book, and as is later explained in Deathly Hallows it would have been fatal to Dumbledore within a year. It is not specified whether Dumbledore had received the injury from the ring Horcrux when the vow was made. However it is likely he did as Snape would not have been so ready to make the Vow unless he was sure of what it entailed.

Closing act of the tragedy
Dumbledore and Harry go in search of a Horcrux, which they believe to be a locket formerly the property of Salazar Slytherin and which is hidden in a cave. Dumbledore is seriously injured by being forced to drink an unknown potion before he can reach the locket. He and Harry return to Hogwarts, to discover that it is under attack from Death Eaters. Dumbledore asks Harry to fetch Snape, but before he can do so they are surprised by Draco, atop the Astronomy Tower.

Harry is already hidden under his Invisibility Cloak, but Dumbledore's first act is to use a spell to paralyse him and thus stop him taking part in events. Draco uses the moment while Dumbledore does this to launch his own spell, disarming Dumbledore. Draco and Dumbledore then talk, and Dumbledore indeed convinces Draco that what he has been doing is a terrible mistake. At this point more Death Eaters arrive, together with Snape. Snape and Dumbledore exchange a glance, before Snape takes control of the situation, and uses the unforgivable curse Avada Kedavra to kill Dumbledore.



Snape's next action is to order the Death Eaters to leave Hogwarts. Harry is freed from his spell and tries to give chase, but Snape warns the Death Eaters not to harm him, and even points out Harry's mistakes as they duel. The only time Snape becomes truly upset is when Harry calls him a coward. Snape reacts in fury, but still does no harm to Harry.

It is revealed in the final book that Dumbledore's life was limited to around a year due to the curse placed upon Gaunt's Ring. Dumbledore, tempted by his old desire to find and use the Ressurection Stone (which incidentally turned out to be the black stone set into the ring), ignored the fact that the ring was now a Horcrux and put it on. This invoked the terrible curse Lord Voldemort had placed upon it, and it quickly began to kill Dumbledore, starting with his right hand. Dumbledore used Godric Gryffindor's Sword to destroy the Horcrux and returned quickly to Hogwarts gravely injured. Snape intervened and was able to stem the curse, but only temporarily due to the curse's strength. After Snape gave an estimate of a year for Dumbledore to live, Dumbledore requested that Snape kill him when the right time came so that he could escape the painful and humiliating death the ring's curse would exact upon him. After some persuasion, Snape agreed to the plan, and thus it was put into action the night of Dumbledore's death on top of the Astronomy Tower.

Voldemort, realizing the only way to wield the Elder Wand is to dispatch its true master, Snape, he sets Nagini on him. Fatally injured, Snape gives up memories to Harry, and as he dies he looks into Harry's eyes, which remind him of Lily. The memories reveal that Snape was on Dumbledore's side, motivated by his lifelong love for Lily Evans. Snape was asked by Dumbledore to kill him if the situation demanded it; the curse placed on the Horcrux ring limited his life, regardless. It should also be noted that in the final book, although Snape has already taken the vow, he threatens Dumbledore with not going through with it, hence it shows that he was prepared to die rather than go through with killing Dumbledore.

Love for Lily Evans
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it was revealed to Harry through Snape's memories using Dumbledore's old pensieve, that Snape loved Lily since they were children. His interest in Lily and Petunia, who were his neighbours, started when they were about nine or ten, before Lily started at Hogwarts. His attempts to explain to Lily about her magical powers were instantly ridiculed by Petunia. It was to Snape that Petunia referred when she said "that horrible boy" told Lily that Dementors are at the wizard prison Azkaban.

As it has been noted, Snape played a major role in the Potter murders. It is stated that he was the one who told the prophecy to Voldemort, leading to the murder. But at this point, he didn't know who was the targeted family. It is revealed that Snape switched sides when he understood Lily was to be killed, and was the one who warned Dumbledore about Voldemort's project. This is Dumbledore's reason to trust Snape to the very last, since Dumbledore believes that love (in this case Snape's love for Lily) is the greatest magic of all.

Upon entering Hogwarts, Snape had hoped that he and Lily would be placed in the same house, but Lily was to be placed in Gryffindor while he was to be placed in Slytherin House. During their time in Hogwarts, they were best of friends until Snape called Lily, a "mudblood". This was to be the decline of their friendship.

When serving as a Death Eater, he found out that Voldemort had plans to kill the Potters and tried in vain to bargain for Lily's life. His love for Lily Evans became the trigger for his decision to protect Harry Potter and become loyal to Dumbledore, as well as changing his Patronus to a doe, the same as Lily's. When he discovered about Snape's Patronus, Dumbledore asked him, "After all this time?" To which Snape responded, with tears in his eyes, "Always."

As he died, Snape asked Harry to look at him, so he could look into Lily's eyes one last time.

Albus Severus Potter, the second son of Harry, is named after him. When Albus was worried that he may be sorted into Slytherin, Harry responded that Albus was named after two headmasters, one of which was a Slytherin and that "he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."

Skills
Severus Snape possibly was the most underrated yet highly skilled wizard of the books. Although we see very little of his skills, there are enough instances to suggest that he was an extremely powerful wizard possibly the most powerful after Dumbledore and some might say Voldemort. His biggest skill was occlumency and legilimency. He managed to hoodwink the "greatest legilimens" of all time Voldemort till the very end and kept the most important of secrets hidden in his mind. His talent at potions was considerable, as demonstrated with the complex Wolfsbane potion he makes for Professor Remus Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He has an extremely intelligent, quick and logical brain, this is shown time and again throughout the books. In Philosopher's Stone, he is the one to have devised the logical puzzle, in the Half Blood Prince, he immediately understands the situation when he enters the lightening struck tower and takes charge quickly, he also deals very effectively with Umbridge in the Order of the Phoenix and Bellatrix and Narcissa in the Spinner's End chapter in the Half-Blood Prince. It is suggested that he is an excellent duelist, and he is the one who teaches "Expelliarmus" to the students. While duelling McGonagall and other teachers he successfully manages to escape unscathed. Snape is also able to fly without support, as seen when he escapes from the teachers. It is hinted that Snape could have been a healer as he is the one Katie Bell is sent to when she gets cursed, also when Harry uses sectumsempra on Draco, Snape immediately cures Draco in the manner of a healer. He also prevents Dumbledore from dying immediately because of the cursed ring because of his healing skills although he is unable to save him in the end.