by Maria Miaoulis

Created on: December 12, 2008

The thing I love about the Harry Potter series is that despite the fact that we're talking about wizards and magic, we can relate to the characters and situations, often forgetting that we're talking about a fantasy world. With that being said, it's easy to imagine Severus Snape walking among us. The boy who is persistently teased by all the popular guys in school, with a lifelong crush that doesn't reciprocate his feelings choosing instead to marry his sworn enemy. So he becomes bitter, carrying this rejection and humiliation with him every day of his adult life, trying to forget his past which is stirred up with the arrival of Harry Potter, the legacy of his pain, to Hogwarts.

Now, by no means am I condoning his behavior towards Harry. As an adult and a teacher, Snape should have been the bigger, more mature person and not punished Potter for whatever torture James and company unleashed on him as a child. In some way though, one can see that Snape actually kept Harry grounded. While the rest of the wizarding world knelt at his feet, Snape was hard on Harry, making sure that he kept up with his Potions homework, did not break curfew or meddle in things he shouldn't be involved in, etc. But before everyone reading this sends me hate mail, I want to make clear that this still doesn't excuse Snape for belittling Potter for seven years while always finding some opportunity to reward an antagonist like Draco.

In life, actions speak louder than words. The fact remains that although Snape was vindictive, he did what he could to protect Harry from Voldemort. When he learned about the prophecy, Snape immediately went to Dumbledore to warn the Potters and keep baby Harry safe. At Hogwarts, he cast protective spells to keep Harry on his broomstick during the Quidditch match in The Sorcerer's Stone, and he followed Potter into the Shrieking Shack where he believed that Sirius Black was luring him in The Prisoner of Azkaban. Throughout, Dumbledore never once doubted Snape's loyalty. One could argue that Snape betrayed Dumbledore by murdering him. But in his weakened state that night on top of the astronomy tower, would it have better if Voldemort or one of the Death Eaters killed him? Snape was in a pickle- if he defended Dumbledore, chances are he and the Headmaster would have died right there, but he also could not stand by like a coward and let the others take advantage like that. In killing Dumbledore, he also saved Draco's life, something Harry and Ron would later do in the Deathly Hallows.

Speaking of the last book, in the scene where Snape is lying in a heap on the floor with memories oozing out of him, he makes sure that Harry gathers enough of the substance to guide him in his quest to kill Voldemort. Why not just send him off to get killed right then and there? No, despite his shadiness, his unrequited love for Lily Potter remained with him to the end, and like she, he did what he could in his dying moments to make sure that her sacrifice was not in vain.

So in short, he may not have handled himself with the most integrity, but there was a method to Snape's madness. And Harry realized this after all was said and done- he named one of his children after Severus, not something you'd do if you don't want to be reminded of that person for the rest of your life.

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