Snape: A Definitive Reading

by Lorrie Kim

He has presented them in seven bottles, that magic number, to make the allegorical point that the treasure under guard is about human dreams and choices.

Ask anyone who was singled out in adolescence by a crowd of 13-year-olds and mocked in a sexist, homophobic, or transphobic manner for being unattractive and sexually invalid. It can feel extraordinarily unpleasant to be subjected to the same experience in adulthood, long after one had hoped to leave such experiences in the past, especially when one of the original bullies is resuscitating the ordeal by introducing it into classroom instruction

especially given the sexual nature of James' attack as seen in ootp

Lupin is straight-up afraid of Hermione. Perhaps he avoided giving her classroom instruction because he was afraid she would see his secrets. This girl is as sharp as Snape in putting clues together. Their minds work the same way. The only thing we see Hermione learning in Defense Against the Dark Arts this year is from Snape, not Lupin.

Harry suggests Azkaban for Pettigrew instead of the vigilante execution that Sirius and Lupin planned. Harry’s form of justice aligns with James and Snape, not with Sirius and Lupin.

Because of Hermione’s vigilance, Harry gets a glimpse of how his nemesis behaves when he thinks nobody’s looking. Snape is not acting here. He is careful even with the unconscious Sirius Black, in contrast to Sirius bumping Snape’s head intentionally when Snape was unconscious. (HP/PoA, 378) It may be that the private Snape is a better man than the public persona Harry usually sees.

Did Dumbledore perhaps think it better to let Lupin’s lycanthropy be known, rather than risk discovery and outrage if Lupin resigned without explanation? Did Dumbledore think it better to leak the news through his tactic of unofficial rumor, rather than through an official school announcement or Leaving Feast speech? Did he perhaps take advantage of Snape’s well-known animosity against Lupin and ask the undoubtedly cooperative Snape to break the news in a spiteful manner, drawing attention away from Lupin’s and Dumbledore’s failures and inciting popular sympathy for Lupin because of Snape’s disclosure?

As Harry found when he blew up Aunt Marge, it can be easier to withstand attacks on the self than threatened attacks upon others. Snape is dedicated to protecting every student against attack, even the ones he can’t stand.

Death Eater Barty Crouch, Jr., impersonating the intimidating Mad-Eye Moody, reminds Snape all year that there’s no such thing as a former Death Eater.

At the end of this book, Harry, Ron, and Hermione watch as a resolute Snape openly declares himself convinced of Voldemort’s return, baring his Dark Mark to the Minister of Magic, and goes alone to Voldemort to start the long mission that will likely end in his death. It is one of the few times they, and we, see him absolutely as he is. Prepared or not, it is time, and he is afraid.

Harry hopes that he’ll be vindicated in the end and the public understanding of him will mirror his true self, but under Dolores Umbridge’s regime, he has to learn to suppress his urge to contradict lies about himself, a skill that Snape has been struggling with for years.

The sadistic Umbridge punishes Harry by forcing him to cut the words “I must not tell lies” into his own skin every night for a week.

parallel with snape's mark burning every time Voldemort calls

A dozen students were present for this exchange. Snape didn’t need to let them know that Umbridge found it reasonable to use an entire bottle of a highly regulated concentrate to interrogate one child. Umbridge shrieks at him, “You are being deliberately unhelpful!” (HP/OotP, 745) Yes. Yes, he is. Even Harry must have noted and enjoyed Snape’s resistance to Umbridge.

Slughorn’s genial classroom manner is an improvement over Snape’s, but his standards are lower. He has lower requirements for students to qualify for N.E.W.T.-level classes and he teaches from the textbook rather than providing custom-written lessons on the board, as Snape used to do.

“More talented friends”: so this is how he talks about Hermione when she’s not around! It’s a clever tactical move to shift credit for Harry’s gifts to his Muggle-born friend, as Bellatrix and Voldemort are unable to believe that a Muggle-born can have any talent.

Just shove a bezoar down their throats. Even as a teen, Snape could infuse all his irritable genius into seven grumpy words, his aggrieved impatience with the stupidity of the world at large and the dunderheads in particular who managed to get themselves poisoned.

This gifted misanthrope might have been happier in a career as a trailblazing inventor who didn’t have to deal with people all day long.

Rowling confirms the connection between Snape and Machiavelli by naming her character after this book not once, but twice. Not only does Snape call himself the Half-Blood “Prince,” but in The Prince, Machiavelli praises a “ferocious,” “shrewd” emperor named Severus who killed a rival named Albinus (Machiavelli, 67).

At different points in his life, Snape is each of the brothers in the tale. In youth, he was combative. After Lily died, he wanted to join her in death. But for his second chance in life, he has been keeping his true self hidden, not for personal gain but in order to protect others. According to Dumbledore, that is the essence of the Cloak of Invisibility, “the true magic of which, of course, is that it can be used to protect and shield others as well as its owner.” (HP/DH, 716)

snape as master of death, by the very fact that he didn't want or need ANY of the hallows at any time he didn't need the resurrection stone, the only person hed call back is with him every time he casts his Patronus he doesn't need the invisibility cloak, hes the spy, he knows how to hide himself until the perfect moment he doesn't need the wand, he never wanted power for himself but always acted defensively maybe Snape was so sensitive about being called coward was part of that, he acted defensively, he didn't attack like James when it was 4 on 1, or like his father who would be violent and that's what he called cowardly so to be judged that way burned him....??

He knew he could trust Snape to be a good custodian of the Elder Wand, since Snape’s signature magic is purely defensive: when he has to force himself to attack or use Dark Magic, it’s only in order to protect others, then immediately dropped.

three times, he asks permission to do so and is denied.

St Peter, inversion, Snape asks to go to Harry (risking his life to do so) and is denied

Sexualized humiliation always enrages Snape. Perhaps Tobias Snape was disappointed in his bookish, unmanly son, and frequently said so. We have seen Snape’s response to James revealing his underwear and to students laughing at the thought of him dressed as an old lady. We see now that Lily knew this about him, which means that when he called her a Mudblood, her rejoinder about washing his pants was a pointed renunciation of her steadfast defenses of his appearance. If he was going to see her as the outside world did, instead of for her true self, she would make sure he understood that he broke something with this betrayal.

According to Dumbledore, “Maybe a man in a million could unite the Hallows”—a rare quality, then, but not unique. In every way, on his second chance in life, Snape proved himself a worthy Master of Death.