Tobias Snape

Tobias Snape
Biographical information
Blood status	Muggle
Marital status	Married
Physical information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Skin colour	White
Relationship information
Family members	Eileen Prince (wife) Severus Snape (son) † Snape family Prince family (in-laws)
Romances	Eileen Prince (wife)
Affiliation
Loyalty	Snape family

Lily Evans: "Doesn't your dad like magic?"

Severus Snape: "He doesn't like anything, much."

— Severus discussing his father with Lily Evans

Tobias Snape was a British Muggle and the patriarch of the Snape family in the late 20th century. He was the husband of the witch Eileen Snape (nèe Prince) and the father of Severus Snape.

Biography

Early life

Tobias was born sometime in the early 20th century, into the Muggle Snape family.

Marriage

He married the pure-blood witch Eileen Prince. As Harry Potter saw in Severus Snape's memories during an Occlumency lesson, he was abusive. Why they began a relationship and got married is currently unknown. Eileen may not have told him about the wizarding world before their wedding.

The couple lived at Spinner's End, a working-class neighbourhood in Cokeworth, England.

On 9 January 1960, Eileen gave birth to their son. Severus noted during a conversation with his friend, Lily Evans, that his parents fought often. They apparently neglected him during his childhood, or were poor, or both. His clothes were mismatched and did not fit properly.

By September 1981, when Severus became the Potions Master and a Head of House at the school, Tobias and Eileen no longer resided in the house.

Personality and traits

According to young Severus, Tobias was not fond of very much of anything, including magic. Even so, his son was a talented young wizard before even receiving the Hogwarts letter. As Sirius Black mentioned that Severus knew more curses when he arrived at school than half of the seventh-year students did,

Relationships

Family

Tobias had a very poor relationship with both his wife and his son. When Severus was younger, Tobias frequently shouted at Eileen, and possibly hit her, whilst their son crouched in a corner, crying. The unhappy memories of the Snape home would haunt Severus into adulthood.

Etymology

Tobias is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Tobiah from the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah, meaning "God is good" - which is a big irony, given Tobias's nasty demeanour towards everything in life. In the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit in the Old Testament, Tobias is assisted by the archangel in driving a demon away from Sarah, who subsequently became his wife.

J. K. Rowling has stated that "Snape" is the name of a place in England. It also is an English verb meaning "to be hard upon, rebuke or snub", derived from the Old Norse "sneypa", meaning "to outrage, dishonour, disgrace".

Behind the scenes

• It is possible that the marriage caused Eileen to be disowned by the Prince family, similar to Andromeda Tonks née Black, who was disowned by her parents and sisters after she married a Muggle-born man, and Merope Riddle née Gaunt, who was disowned by her father and brother after she bewitched a Muggle squire into marrying her.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (First appearance) (Appears in flashback(s))
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (First identified as Tobias Snape) (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (Mentioned only)