The marauders obviously did some fucked up things to Snape, but can I remind everyone that canonically, James and Severus were rivals. Not just a bully and his victim, as far too many people seem to think.
Honestly, the whole “Snape was totally a meninist” or the “Snape’s whole backstory was that he was ‘friendzoned’” posts are REALLY starting to bother me.
I don’t love Snape. I think the way he treated Neville was absolutely inexcusable. I think he did a lot of horrible things.
But:
Snape was in love with Lily Evans, but he nevertold her that.
He never made a move on her.
He never asked her out.
He never tried to kiss her.
He wasn’t “friendzoned.” Lily never knew how he felt.
He didn’t give Harry those memories so that Harry would feel sympathetic towards him.
He gave Harry those memories so that Harry could 1) Understand why Dumbledore trusted Snape and 2) So that Harry would understand he needed to die in order to defeat Voldemort.
Lily Evans was the only person (except for maybe Dumbledore) who ever actually cared about him.
It’s strongly implied that Snape was abused or, at the very least, neglected, as a very young child.
I’m not defending all of his actions. But I do wish people would understand his motivation, and I really wish people would stop making posts like “Harry! Name your child after me! I was friendzoned by your mother!”
That’s not what happened. Snape was friends with Lily as a child. He fell in love with her. He didn’t tell her. He didn’t try to get her to date him. He loved her. He became a bad friend. He betrayed her. He regretted it. He tried to save her life. He failed. He tried to protect her child. He wanted to protect Harry for Lily’s sake. He wanted to at least partially make up for the way he treated Lily. That was his motivation, not “he was friendzoned.”
He isn’t a good person. He isn’t a bad person. He’s a person. A human being. That’s why Harry named his child Albus Severus – because the world is not divided into good people and Death Eaters. That’s something Harry didn’t learn for a long time. That’s what Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape taught him. Harry wanted his children to understand something he himself struggled with: good and evil are not always easy to see. Bravery does not always equal kindness. Unkindness does not always equal cruelty. Look at J.K’s characters, like Draco, Dumbledore, Snape, Sirius, and Ron, and you will see that is a major theme. PEOPLE ARE NOT HEROES OR VILLAINS. PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE. THEY HAVE BOTH GOOD AND BAD QUALITIES. THAT IS ONE OF THE MAJOR POINTS OF THE ENTIRE SERIES.
You don’t have to like or respect Snape as a person, but please understand him as a character.
is that no teacher ever called him James by accident, or that Ron never was called “Bill-, eh Charl-, no Per-, argh!”
As a younger sister who knows this struggle all too well: THIS IS REAL. Pretty sure 70% of my past teachers still think I’m called what my sister is called in fact.
Imagine Fred being called Percy by McGonagall accidentally and then he gets so offended that he refers to her by “Professor [insert any other name but McGonagall” for the rest of the year, costing Gryffindor a considerable amount of points one at a time.
From then on, she vows to just call them all Mr Weasley.
Until Ginny comes along and she calls her Mr Weasley by accident and Ginny “accidentally’ calls her Sir and it starts again.
It’s lightly off-topic but also slightly relevant but I have long cherished this mental image of Professor Snape saying something snappish to Harry in just the wrong tone of voice and Harry absentmindedly, wearily, and completely accidentally responding with, “Yes, Aunt Petunia.”
which would have all kinds of additional ramifications when you remember snape is the only one who knew petunia personally
He asks Harry to stay after class and straight up asks him “Am I truly that unpleasant?”
Okay, okay, okay, this is probably deeplyoff-track, but all I can think of is Harry––who upon learning that Snape, ofall people, his pain in the neck potions professor knows his aunt––has now received what can only be called a psychic punch to balls.
How, how, how,is a teenage boy supposed to rectify this, mentally? Connect these strange unjoined worlds to somehow explainthatSnape––Snape!––knows his Aunt Petunia?
“It doesn’t make any sense, mate,” Harry tells Ron, blearily, desperately wishing at age thirteen years that his butter beer was a real beer. “It just––it can’t be. Why would he know Aunt Petunia?”
Ron grimaces. “Why would he wantto? I mean, I know he’s Snape, and all that, but––”
Harry writes his only letter back to #4 Privet Drive, dotted with tears, and it has one line: How do you know Severus Snape?
Petunia writes back: DO NOT MENTION THAT MAN EVER AGAIN.
And this. This. Sparks a light in Harry’s head. This is the same way Petunia talks about celebrities who have deeply, personally offended her. Usually when she fancied them and then they got married. It’s so completely clear to him, now: Snape is deeply, irrevocably, utterly in love with Aunt Petunia.
