Eileen Prince

Eileen Snape (née Prince)
Biographical information
Born	c. 1930, Great Britain or Ireland
Blood status	Pure-blood (possibly)
Marital status	Married
Nationality	British
Title(s)	Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Team President of the Hogwarts Gobstone Club
Physical information
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Skin colour	Pale
Relationship information
Family members	Tobias Snape (husband) Severus Snape (son) †
Affiliation
House	Slytherin (possibly)
Loyalty	Prince family Snape family Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Hermione Granger: " [...] there was a tiny announcement about Eileen Prince marrying a Muggle called Tobias Snape and then later an announcement saying that she'd given birth to a —"

Harry Potter: "— murderer."

— Hermione revealing Severus Snape's parentage

Eileen Snape (née Prince) (born c. 1930) was a British witch, wife to the Muggle Tobias Snape and mother to Severus Snape.

Biography

Early life

Eileen was born into the wizarding Prince family in Great Britain, likely around 1930.

She likely began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry around 1941. Presumably, she was Sorted into Slytherin. While at school, Eileen was captain of the school Gobstones team during her fifth year. She was concurrently the President of the Hogwarts Gobstone Club.

Adulthood

After graduating, Eileen met the Muggle Tobias Snape and married him. They moved into a terraced house in Cokeworth on a street called Spinner's End. It was close to the mill and near a nasty-smelling, polluted river.

Eileen's decision to marry Tobias may have resulted in her being disowned by her family — similar to Andromeda Tonks, who was disowned by her family after she married a Muggle-born man.

On 9 January, 1960, she gave birth to a son, Severus Snape. Severus' childhood was plagued by the tumultuous, explosive atmosphere in the home, with his parents often fighting. Tobias would shout at Eileen and may have been physically abusive as well.

The couple either neglected Severus, were too poor to care for him well, or both. His clothes were mismatched and did not fit properly. When he began his first year of school at Hogwarts, he changed into his uniform quickly after getting onto the Hogwarts Express, apparently glad to be rid of his Muggle clothes.

Despite this, Severus was already talented with magic before he received his Hogwarts letter in 1971. In 1995, Sirius Black claimed that Severus knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the students in seventh year. It is possible that Eileen taught him these spells or that he taught himself from books she owned.

On 1 September, 1971, Eileen accompanied Severus to Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters at King's Cross Station and watched him leave on the Hogwarts Express. Whatever Eileen's thoughts on the matter were, Severus was exhilarated to leave for Hogwarts.

Later life

It is unknown what happened to Eileen after her son began Hogwarts. By 1996, Severus had taken over the house at Spinner's End. She might have died, or perhaps she had moved out of her marital home at some point in the twenty-four years since.

Physical appearance

At age fifteen, Eileen was skinny and unattractive, looking simultaneously cross and sullen. She had heavy brows and a long, pallid face. By 1971, not much had changed: Eileen was thin, hunched, sour-faced and sallow.

Etymology

"Eileen" is from Celtic, English and Irish roots and has a long-standing history in each culture. In Irish, it is known as a variation of "Helen". It became a more popular name in the 19th century. It is rumoured to have roots in Latin, American, French and Greek cultures, however, such claims are not backed up with much evidence. Another variation of this name is Eileene which is most commonly used in Ireland.

Other versions of Eileen; "Aileen" (Scottish), "Eibhlin" (the original source for the name), "Eila" (Celtic variant of both "Eileen" and "Aileen"), "Eireen" (Norwegian variant of "Irene" or "Eileen"), "Eleanor" (a similarly-rooted name to "Eileen" in Irish).

Eileen's maiden name was Prince. Prince is a general term for a monarch or a member of a monarch's family, and is a hereditary title of some European royalty, likely alluding to the aristocratic status of pure-blood families in the wizarding world. The word is derived from the Latin princeps, meaning "a prime", which was one of the titles of the Roman Emperor, in which case it was generally translated as "First Citizen". The Prince is also the title of a famous political treatise by Niccolò Machiavelli; an interesting point considering that the adjective derived from the author's surname, Machiavellian, is defined as "attempting to achieve goals by cunning, scheming and unscrupulous methods", which may allude to the ideal traits of Slytherin house.

Behind the scenes

• At Hogwarts, her son Severus used her surname and his blood status to make his nickname of "the Half-Blood Prince".

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Pottermore