Snape: There are four seats at a table and we need to figure out where each person sits. There’s mary, will, you, and me. In which order should we sit?
Lily: Me, Mary, you, and Will.
Snape: Try again.
Lily: Me, Will, you, and Mary.
Snape:No…
Lily: As long as I’m as far from you as possible, I think the order is correct.
Am I the only one who hates Snape so fucking much- like I came across a Snape fan account accidentally the other day and my blood started boiling and I got so angry just by seeing his picture. Like wtaf is up with that?
i still can’t get over the fact that the apparent conclusion of snape’s arc in the harry potter books is that abusing your position of power over children is forgiveable if you stalked one of their parents when you were a teen
“Remus is better than severus bc he could have been bitter and let the past ruin his life uwu”
Severus was preparing for war since he was around 17. First w V, then with D. When V poofed, D specifically said that they couldnt be sure that V was dead, and they kept preparing for a war they weren’t sure was going to happen. Thats 24/7 hypervigilence and hyperawareness and plans a thru z of failsafes, active defense for 20-ish years while being a full time teacher to an army of civilian puberty machines.
I’m NOT saying lupin had it easy, as a werewolf in a culture that wants him dead. I’m saying that he has been violently domesticated to be obedient and quiet in a perpetual state of fear, living with and depending on the kindness of people who could kill him at any time, ever since sirius lured a child into the shrieking shack while he wasn’t lucid and could have murdered someone and gotten killed executed.
I’m saying that i interpret this chain of events and remus’ primary defense for almost 20 years to be meek and submissive and as non-threatening as he can, to avoid being put down.
I’m saying that there is a vast difference in mindset and conditioning, over a period of 20 odd years, between aggressively and quietly preparing to fight and win a war in the shadows, and leading a quiet unassuming civilian life with citizens who can legally murder you at any moment.
I’m saying that severus had to cultivate controlled aggression and ruthlessness, and sacrifice everything at the drop of a hat, and remus had to stomp down every single natural mammalian survival and self-defense instinct. Being territorial or angry or god forbid resentful at being treated like a walking time bomb, that served no purpose.
Remus seems to some like a coward, and it’s true, bc he’s a CIVILIAN. We’re all cowards, and it’s not a bad thing bc we want to live our lives in a community and fit in and be safe. Severus is a soldier first and a teacher last; his first priority is that his charges are Not Dead, not Happy And Stable.
(Unlike mcgonagall, now there’s a professor with rotten perspective, but that’s a story for another day)
Im saying there is nothing about remus that you should dare romanticize. He’s not a perfect boo with a tragic life who remained pure and sweet despite his hardships. He’s a fucking 35 year old (ish when introduced) grown ass man with a severe but manageable condition in a world who wants him exterminated. He had shitty roommates as a kid that did more harm than good with his self esteem and moral compass.
He is what i would call “pathetic” in that his entire life is a fucking inescapable tragedy and instead of giving him the compassion he deserves, 90% of remus fans will coo at how he “isn’t bitter or mean or angry and got over his problems” dont make me laugh
I have a controversial opinion and that’s that Snape being horrible to his students and incredibly biased in favor of Slytherins was actually a bad cover. Because if I was a death eater, I might be wondering why the fuck Dumbledore was keeping a former death eater favoring Slytherins and abusing his favorite Gryffindors around? Like, I’m sure there are other potions teachers around. If snape wasn’t a spy for Dumbledore, he wouldn’t be potions master. So if I saw a terrible teacher who was a former death eater retaining his job despite his horrid behavior, I might just believe that Dumbledore had reasons for it and get suspicious.
If anything, Snape should’ve been an overwhelmingly neutral teacher telling Slytherins he wished he could favor them in private but would be fired if he did. Or even treating all of his students with strictness but favoring Slytherins slightly. That way it would appear like Snape was having to walk a tight line and the true reasoning for Dumbledore keeping him around really was that he was great at potions and a decent Professor.
In conclusion, being an abusive bully to non Slytherin students was actually bad for his cover.
It is bad cover in a way however keep in mind …. it was also more rumor than known fact. No student knew for certain what his past was. I mean, think about it …. if Snape was a known Death Eater do you honestly think rich pureblood families like the Longbottoms would just let Dumbledore keep him around? Not happening. It’s all speculation and rumor. The kids who know only do so if their parents knew and told them (i.e. Draco Malfoy).
So, yeah, part of it is likely to appease the DE parents but also ….. consider what Slytherin is about. This is a house that values fraternity, brotherhood, ambition, cunning, etc.. As a Slytherin, I can tell you right now one of the things I loathe is when you handle my shit in front of others. I get Snape not going at his snakes in public. He handled them in house though, he took care of it that way. The other Heads likely knew this but never TOLD THEIR KIDS. That’s where the problem lies, Snape knew how to best handle his kids based on their traits and qualities as he is like them.
When you consider it from the standpoint of the houses best reacting to certain correction methods better…. Slytherins will handle in house better than public shame. Gryffindors seem to be the public ones, call out their behavior WHEN it happens type (Neville being an exception to this -each house will have those). If Snape was abiding by that mindset, which add to it a whole lot of other factors (there is a wonderful post put there about his trauma and the impact of Harry’s year on that), the Slytherin/Gryffindor mix is really a poor choice for his classroom honestly. As it’s a mixed punishment system and gives kids a poor visual.
The original post leads to a great question; why would the other Death Eaters not remark upon Snape’s behaviour?
We could say that the Death Eaters remained unaware of Snape’s behaviour within Hogwarts and therefore couldn’t comment - but this seems an oddity given that a number of the Death Eaters appear to have students at the school, and we know for a fact that Draco was in keen contact with Lucius at various points in the series.
So, we have to look at the evidence of Snape’s behaviour - were his actions truly such an outlier, compared to the other staff, that the Death Eaters would suspect that something was afoot? Given the jockeying for position with the Death Eaters alluded to during the Spinner’s End chapter, it seems as if it can’t have been. Moreover, we don’t see any parent successfully complaining to the school about his behaviour - and instead of McGonagall rebuking Snape for his attitudes, she seems to trust his decision making, which suggests that his fellow staff members don’t particularly see a problem either.
There’s also the suggestion that Snape is a ‘terrible teacher’. He’s certainly abrasive, sarcastic, strict, and errs on the side of the terrifying in the classroom, but he’s not objectively terrible when it comes to performance metrics. His acceptance for NEWT level study is higher than Slughorn’s, his expectations for his students at OWL level is very high, and Umbridge comments that his class is advanced. He’s also a successful Head of House, with Slytherin winning the House Cup year on year prior to Harry’s arrival at Hogwarts.
Snape may not be nice or friendly, but with that context, he’s canonically a successful teacher - so there’s an argument that Dumbledore may permit him more latitude in his classroom behaviour given his students’ impressive exam results.
I think a key factor is that the vast majority of classes that we see Snape leading contain Harry Potter - and Harry is a very personal problem for Snape. Not only does he have past issues (with both Lily and James, for different reasons) - but Snape can’t really afford to show any grace towards Harry; if he had, then it would be reasonable for Voldemort to expect that Snape could influence Harry. Snape had advance warning that Voldemort would be returning, so it seems that the only logical stance for him to have was to be entirely opposed to Harry lest any other connection be exploited.
For me, I think the conclusion about Snape being 'strict[] but favouring Slytherins slightly’ is probably supposed to be his presentation, and his scenes with Harry et al are outliers.
I think it’s important to note that in Harry’s class, there’s also Draco Malfoy. In HBP, Narcissa details that Snape is Draco’s favourite teacher - and in CoS, Draco says similar himself and suggests Snape for Headmaster if Dumbledore is ousted. We can likely conclude that Draco’s reports back to his parents were favourable - so his behaviour was being interpreted as positive and not suspicious.
The fact that nobody raises a query about Snape’s behaviour suggests that whilst we, with modern eyes, may complain about Snape’s classroom behaviour, within the wizarding world of the 80s/90s, there’s no issue; Dumbledore doesn’t seem to notice or care, the staff members don’t seem to notice or care, the parents don’t seem to notice or care - and so, the Death Eaters have no basis to raise a warning sign to Voldemort.
