Snape: A Definitive Reading

by Lorrie Kim

There is a narrative to be read here about the Slytherin teacher who zealously safeguards the morale of his first-year students, who walk into a school that sees them as villains.

There must be an alternate universe somewhere in which Severus Snape is put on probation for his classroom behavior.

we see that his snickering and bullying—still absolutely wrong, still shameful from a teacher—might seem to him, and his students, to be petty retaliation in the overpowering context of a school that will not protect them.

If Snape fears that may be possible, it makes sense that he would try to teach the students how to identify and kill werewolves.

This map is evidence. It documents the poor way Lupin repaid the extraordinary efforts and trust Dumbledore extended to provide an education for him:

He put his shame above the safety of the students and above Dumbledore’s good name. This was the driving emotion behind his reproach to Harry for poor repayment of his parents’ sacrifice.

Hermione’s greatest fear is that she will repay McGonagall poorly. If she uses her Time-Turner for any other purpose, she gambles with McGonagall’s trust and reputation.

He may be a git, but the moments Snape allows himself to be seen are always a thrill.

Snape may be entering a state of post-traumatic flashback, reliving the emotions of the time he nearly died. This is a very different kind of time travel from the conscious, anchored return to the past afforded by a Time-Turner, which grants the traveler a second perspective overlaid on the first. Flashbacks return the sufferer to the old perspective without room for any new ones.

If nothing else, this explains why Snape has always been so keen to propose expulsion anytime Harry breaks a rule.

And becuse he knows this would devastate HP

In Dumbledore’s eyes, Snape has had a true self all along that is no more like that public image than Sirius Black is actually a dog.

Most people are neither Death Eaters nor active fighters; some few are one or the other; very few know how it feels to be both. There are some things that only Snape can do.

Harry has his mother’s eyes. Snape knows Harry saw the scene through his mother’s eyes, feeling empathy for the bullied Snape and then shock at the racial slur. If Snape faces Harry, it is like looking into Lily’s eyes

But Harry has seen this before. Snape sang together Draco’s wounds with words

Perhaps Draco’s acute suffering and gratitude from his near-death due to Sectumsempra and the remorse that Snape poured into him to knit his wounds make it harder for Draco to truly want to cause such pain in another person, even an enemy.

The light coming closer and closer is to welcome in Harry as well as Voldemort. Harry and Snape have closed in on Voldemort from either side. From this moment, Voldemort is doomed.

His state of high alertness has brought him to the same degree of wizardry as Dumbledore, able to sense magic that is undetectable to others.

Like the Snitch that contains the Resurrection Stone, Snape opens at the close, memories pouring out of him.

Dumbledore’s condition requires Snape to develop more understanding, more protectiveness, toward James and Harry as well as the person Snape loves: this is a magic spell.

Snape had been terrified to let himself feel the life he had really given Harry. Better to believe that Harry didn’t suffer. That Potter was so insulated by his arrogance, he could barely feel pain at all. That criticism would simply bounce off him without effect.

He is the anti-Voldemort. Whereas Voldemort is obsessed with material objects, stealing cups and rings and lockets to house shreds of his soul, Snape depends on very little outside his own mind.