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janiedean · 4 years

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I know your anti-HP but the Kylo discourse reminds me of that time a group of people tried to argue to me that if I thought Snape didnt deserve redemption then Dudley (a child that was raised in an abusive/neglectful household, was raised to believe/act in certain things/ways, grew up to realise his parents were wrong and started to attempt to make changes to his behaviour and be nicer) didnt deserve it either. Characters that show regret and remorse deserve a chance at redemption. Others dont.

... anon, idk if I understood the last two things right (i mean if it’s what you think or what the ppl discoursing with you think), but as far as I’m concerned, distancing myself from any hp related implication here because idk idc and if I never hear snape discourse in my life again it can’t be too late so idc about this specific discourse, tldr:

irl people who fucked up and want to do better should be given a chance to. not necessarily by the people they hurt and if they committed a crime they should pay appropriately before, but if they want to? they should have the chance. not being written off as lost causes;

people who aren’t Good Victims ™️ shouldn’t be refused help or compassion just because they don’t react the way they were supposed to;

this thing about whether redemption is deserved or not is a wording that is... weird because like, you get that if you want to do better but like it’s not a question of deserving or not, you don’t do better out of wanting to get the good place points, you just do it and if you do then welcome to the club;

narratively, obviously it depends on author decision - if the author wants X redeemed then they will be and it most likely will have a narrative where X feels remorse for his actions or has a chance to make up for his wrongdoings, if the author wants Y to just be a negative character who doesn’t redeem themselves then Y won’t have that narrative;

now, I think people should be objective about things, in the sense: you can like a character that the narrative had decided is not redeemable or is written as such (let’s go for someone that won’t cause me drama, idk, RAMSAY BOLTON): you can write your fanfic about how that person gets redeemed if you want to, but if you tell people they’re idiots for not wanting ramsay to be redeemed you’re not going to look that great because 99,9% of the audience won’t want ramsay to be redeemed as he’s not written as such. on the other side, if you hate a character (kylo ren FOR ONE) who is blatantly written to be redeemed because he was and it was obvious since tlj at least, you can write your fic or do your hc where he never redeems himself but saying that he’s the worst objectively or that kylo fans suck because they like a horrid character that you don’t want redeemed is useless and just digging yourself into a grave because canon is going there and you can’t do shit about it. like, if you don’t enjoy where canon is going you’re better off making peace with it and writing your au instead of being an ass to people who disagree with you;

now this also goes with the ‘please for the love of god look at the narrative’ angle because honestly denying what the narrative is blatantly telling is not paying anyone any favors and again, you can 100% choose to ignore it but twisting it won’t work (example: I don’t gaf about jon/erys and I wasn’t too big on its canonization but the moment it happened I didn’t spend months twisting the narrative so that it would say what I wanted it to say ie that jon/erys was doomed - it was canon, I just didn’t write it in fanfic nor thought about it beyond what I had to see and ignored its existence when I could and I didn’t go to ppl shipping jon/erys informing them of why I thought S7 was written like trash - why would I?). you can do whatever you want with the characters but like try to keep a healthy divide between what the narrative says and what you want for them and be an adult about it.

now: i haven’t read hp and idc for reading it nor watching the movies but if both s/nape and the kid in question were written to be redeemed because she wanted them to then they were because it was her story and she wanted them to be and idg why people are still arguing about that twenty years later but that’s another problem entirely. if person X doesn’t think kylo ren deserved redemption too bad the narrative had decided he was getting that since the beginning and it’s not about whether he deserves it or not, it’s about what the story is saying. as far as I’m concerned as long as you want to be a good person/better person/do good things in life you should be given a chance to prove it. in literature it’s up to the author. but like one thing is what you want for the character and what the author wants and how the author writes it bc if they’re good it will leave readers satisfied or at least not feeling like they were taken for idiots, if they’re not it’s going to be bad writing. that’s literally it. and I wish this redemption discourse didn’t feel like we think you buy it at the supermarket and/or there are standards for it and if you don’t meet them then whatever.

also: you can hate a thing and recognize it’s well written. like guys ian tregillis’s milkweed tryptich had a last book that took each single choice I didn’t want it to take and I hated what happened to all of the characters......... but that trilogy was actually so well-plotted, tight-knit and well thought and thematically sound that even if I hated everything it chose to be I still can recognize that it was good writing because it made sense, the plot held up and my personal dislike for it and for the protagonist as a person didn’t make it a bad book. or you can like a thing and recognize it’s terribly written or trash or a guilty pleasure. it happens. it’s fine. and when it comes to kylo discourse... it was an obvious redemption narrative with a character that was written to be sympathetic which resonated with some people and not with others which was eventually written badly because it didn’t pay off and 85% of this movie was an insult to the viewer. that’s literally it. and it’s 2019. like... it’s time to let it die especially when he redeemed himself. XD

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thelegendofclarke · 7 years

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@themiddleliddle replied to your post “Severus Snape”

"Do you really want that on your conscience?" Um, YES.

kariomgaksdjhflakjshg **lays forehead on table** gdi fiiinnneee fine FINE! You and @tesadoraofphaedra‘s tags on this post have convinced me. But like I promise you, you are going to regret this!

Warning: Anti-Snape Opinions and Reflections under the cut...

To me, it comes down to the distinction between good people who do shitty things, and shitty people who do good things. In this case, try as I might, I just can’t see Severus Snape as anything but a shitty person who did a good, brave thing.

Ok so first things first: I honestly think Snape is a fascinating character with a really interestingly done arc. But this is also one of the most frustrating things about him for me… It’s almost as if Rowling purposefully put all the elements in his narrative and his background that would garner empathy and support and love for him, but then deliberately stopped just short of giving him a full redemption. There are so many narrative devices in Snape’s background that are designed to pull at your heart strings:

It’s stated that he grew up in the poverty-stricken neighborhood of Spinner’s End and was depicted as being unwashed and wearing ill-fitting clothes in a flashback, very heavily implying that he was on low socio-economic status.

He had a very unhappy home life. It’s heavily implied that he was neglected by his parents, that his parents often fought, and that his father was possibly abusive.

It’s also narratively implied that this lack of care largely shaped Severus's bitter disposition and cruel behavior later in his life.

He was lonely and friendless as a child until he met Lily (which makes his later betrayal of her even more tragic imo).

Information from Severus's own memories of his first interactions with Lily and Petunia suggests that he was an awkward child with poor social skills.

He was mercilessly bullied, esp. by the Marauders. Like this post mentions, Sirius even tries to get Snape killed (or at the very least turned into a werewolf) by sending him to the Shrieking Shack while Remus is there during a full moon.

It’s clear that Snape loves Lily deeply and that he is heartbroken by loosing her as a friend. His worst memory is of the day he lost Lily’s friendship, worse even than the memory of the day she died.

It’s also clear that Snape is remorseful and absolutely devastated after her death.

He risks his own life to protect Harry and spy on Voldemort for Dumbledore.

But, despite all this, it’s like his character development doesn’t quite come full circle, and that really annoys me. I want to be able to like him, I want to believe that at his core he was good, I want to think that when it comes down to it he had the best of intentions, but I just can’t. IT DRIVES ME CRAZY JOANNE YOU DID THIS ON PURPOSE I KNOW YOU DID!

So moving on from my salty frustration with Joanne Kathleen Rowling, here, generally, are the reasons why I just can’t board The Snape Train:

1) (This first one is a little random, so I am just going to get it out of the way here at the beginning...) The Sectumsempra curse just really fucking creeps me out.

Its effect is basically the equivalent of an invisible sword used to slash the victim from a distance, and is said to have the power to cause never-healing deep wounds. If it’s not instantly fatal, it’s meant for causing maximum pain and a prolonged death from bleeding out. If the damage is only minor a healing spell may heal the wounds and essence of dittany may prevent scars, but any body parts that have been severed by this curse cannot be grown back (see George Weasley’s left ear).

I mean... it’s just... I guess... This curse is pretty clearly designed to be fatal. The Latin for Sectumsempra actually translates to “sever forever.” (h a h a Joanne you think you’re SO! CLEVER!) The only other curse in the series that is specifically designed to be fatal is Avada Kedavra, and at least that kills instantaneously. Sectumsempra on the other hand is designed for a slow, painful death. And Snape created that curse sometime during or before his Fifth Year at Hogwarts.

That makes me uncomfortable.

2) Snape joining the Death Eaters while he was still in school and calling Lily a mudblood.

Ok so as this post:

and @tesadoraofphaedra‘s tags on it point out, Snape was just a teenager when the incident happened. It’s also clear that Snape used the slur in a moment of anger and humiliation, and that he obviously felt guilty about it and apologized to Lily. BUT, Snape calling Lily a mud-blood isn’t JUST about him calling her a slur, its about the entire ideology of the Death Eaters and what that word meant. To the DE’s, mud-bloods were lesser humans; the DE’s entire movement was based on eradicating mud-bloods/muggle-borns. And it’s not like the Death Eaters were a ~newfangled group for the youths~, they were a well established group with significant historical ties to House Slytherin. The group was stared back in 1940 by Tom Riddle himself during his time at Hogwarts, and were referred to as the Knights of Walpurgis. The KoW was simply a precursor to the Death Eater organization, which they transitioned to in 1945. Not only was the organization well established, it was also inherently tied to Snape’s own house, so there is no logical way he could claim that he didn’t fully know or understand the Death Eaters’ mission or purpose.

During the meeting at Malfoy Manner in The Deathly Hallows, Voldemort summarize the nexus of the Death Eater ideology:

“Many of our oldest family trees become a little diseased over time. You must prune yours, must you not, to keep it healthy? Cut away those parts that threaten the health of the rest... And in your family, so in the world... We shall cut away the cancer that infects us until only those of the true blood remain...”

By calling Lily a mud-blood, Snape was basically saying to her “I don’t view you as someone worthy of life;” it wasn’t just a slur, it was a threat. It was Snape choosing to align himself with people who, given the chance, would kill her and everyone like her. It’s him saying that, even though he was sorry he called her a filthy mud-blood, he still believes she is one and that he isn’t giving up any of his offensive views or changing his behavior, because he still plans to join the Death Eaters when he is done with school. I mean basically he is saying, “I’m sorry I said it to your face.” So yeah, that apology falls on deaf ears for me, but the underlying meaning comes through loud and clear.

Sirius was a teenager who was being a prick and made an admittedly huge and dangerous mistake. But Snape was a teenager who made a ideological, value based choice. This was a turning point; he made the conscious choice to live a life dedicated to hatred and to eradicating an entire demographic of people. And it was a choice Lily (and I) couldn’t forgive him for.

3) I don’t see Snape’s love for Lily as selfless love, I see it as selfish love.

Extremely selfish love. Yes, it is obviously possible that Snape might have started out really and truly loving Lily in a healthy way. But, at some point, that love clearly developed into an unhealthy and selfish obsession. He didn’t care about her, he cared about having her. For me, nothing makes this more clear than the fact that Snape quite literally tried to make some kind of fucked up plea deal with Voldemort in which he got Lily in exchange for James and a one-year-old baby.

“Well, Severus? What message does Lord Voldemort have for me?” “No — no message — I’m here on my own account!” Snape was wringing his hands. He looked a little mad, with his straggling black hair flying around him. “I — I come with a warning — no, a request — please —” Dumbledore flicked his wand. Though leaves and branches still flew through the night air around them, silence fell on the spot where he and Snape faced each other. “What request could a Death Eater make of me?” “The — the prophecy… the prediction… Trelawney…” “Ah, yes,” said Dumbledore. “How much did you relay to Lord Voldemort?” “Everything — everything I heard!” said Snape. “That is why — it is for that reason — he thinks it means Lily Evans!” “The prophecy did not refer to a woman,” said Dumbledore. “It spoke of a boy born at the end of July —” “You know what I mean! He thinks it means her son, he is going to hunt her down — kill them all —” “If she means so much to you,” said Dumbledore, “surely Lord Voldemort will spare her? Could you not ask for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son?” “I have — I have asked him —” “You disgust me,” said Dumbledore, and Harry had never heard so much contempt in his voice. Snape seemed to shrink a little, “You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?” Snape said nothing, but merely looked up at Dumbledore.

Snape was a Death Eater, he was one of Voldemort’s soldiers, he knew what Voldemort was capable. He knew full well that he was trying to trade two lives in order to be given Lily Potter, and no one can convince me otherwise. And it’s hard to make the argument that he did so in a moment of panic or passion or desperation, ect. and that he didn’t mean it, because he doesn’t even TRY to defend himself when Dumbledore points it out.

To me, this says that Snape doesn’t actually care about Lily’s happiness. He doesn’t care that he would be essentially trading her life for the murder of the two most important people to her in the entire world. He would be taking everything from her and not by her choice. What does he think, that Lily will thank him for making sure Voldemort spared her life in exchange for he husband and son’s? That she would be anything but devastated after such a tragedy? Did he consider the possibility that she might have never been happy again, much less happy with him? Nope, I doubt it. He wanted to possess her, not be loved by her.

And the most tragic part? Some people argue (and I generally agree) that it is implied that Snape’s request that Voldemort spare Lily was what allowed her to sacrifice herself for her son in the end. Voldemort ultimately agreed to Snape’s request as long as Lily didn’t get in his way, and offered her several chances to step aside. Her refusal to do so even though she had a choice, is what created the magic that protected Harry. Because Lily's death was a pure, selfless sacrifice, Harry was marked with the protection of her love. However, while I could buy the argument that Snape asking Voldemort to spare Lily was what allowed her to save Harry, I don’t think there is enough to support the argument that he knew she would do so and planned it that way. While Snape may have known Lily better than most, there is no way he could have predicted the situation so exactly. Also, I would make the counter argument that had Snape planned for Lily to sacrifice herself for Harry, that Snape would be less hostile toward and less resentful of him; I feel like that would be reaching nonsensical levels of Snape projecting his own guilt onto Harry. As the story stands, while Snapes treatment of Harry is inexcusable, it is somewhat understandable why he would feel this way. If Snape had planned for Lily to end up dying by sacrificing herself for Harry, his resentment of Harry’s role in her death would definitely that would definitely be moving into the realm of not only inexcusable, but incomprehensible.

4) Snape didn’t actually change as he got older.

I think @tesadoraofphaedra made the point pretty well on the post above: #i understand the feeling of this post but isnt ...#huh #i mean the things we do as 'adults are what weight more in this case #someone help me here but #because of snapes actions in all his adulthood were trash #but sirius was awful as a teenager #but grew up (and soon) to be a good person as an adult #keeping in mind that he was barely twenty when the first order? #i mean... someone please#this is so awful... #though i feel bad also because i do currently and always defend pansy and she was an awful kid too #but she didnt actively try to kill anyone that i rember? #she only was a bully and we dont know whatnhappened to her so i like to think she became a good person #but... going back to the point #snape was The Adult Who Knows tm and still bullied kids #so we hate him for more than being a bad teenager...?

Agreed! I definitely dislike Snape for more than his crappy teenage bullshit, I also dislike him for his crappy adult bullshit. Snape is a teacher, in a position of power, who bullies and torments his pupils, and honestly to me this is the most reprehensible thing of all. He treated Harry like absolute shit, just because of who his parents were. On Harry's FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, as an eleven year old, Snape shamed him in front of his whole class. He gave him detention for things that weren't his fault. He automatically lowered Harry's marks. He victimized Harry and his friends. Remember when he forced Neville to feed his toad a potion that was potentially poison? Remember how Neville's boggart was Snape, because he was SO AFRAID OF HIS TEACHER? How about when he made fun of Hermione's large front teeth? I honestly can’t decide what I hate the more in this situation: that Severus Snape, a professor of Potions at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, mentor to students and responsible for turning them into successful wizards, torments Neville Longbottom throughout his Hogwarts career because he was NOT the chosen one, OR that he torments Harry Potter because he WAS the chosen one. Both of these children are innocent; they have done nothing to deserve this treatment except to simply exist.

Seriously one of the things that drives me so insane about Snape is that he could have been such an incredible teacher, HE HAD SO MUCH WASTED POTENTIAL! It’s the same thing that makes me so mad about characters like Bellatrix Lestrange (incredibly skilled in the Dark Arts and dueling, very powerful occlumens) and Narcissa Malfoy (master of apparition, possibly one of the most powerful occlumens ever), and also what just fucking kills me about Frank and Alice Longbottom (extremely talented and highly regarded aurors, were thought to be some of the best in wizarding history), THEY WERE SO GIFTED! They could have done so much with their skills. Just like the those people, Snape was not only clearly talented, but also powerful af.

At sixteen he was correcting and improving the instructions in his potions textbooks.

He was capable of unsupported flight. HE COULD FLY WITHOUT A BROOM... The only other person in ALL OF WIZARDING HISTORY who could do this was Voldemort. DUMBLEDORE COULD NOT EVEN PULL OFF THIS SHIT!

He was, like, creepily good at the Dark Arts. Even Sirius said "Snape knew more curses when he arrived at Hogwarts than half the kids in seventh year." At eleven he knew more curses that graduating students like wtf Severus for the love of GOD go outside and play bb!

He is credited with creating a good number of popular spells like Levicorpus and it’s counterpart Liberacorpus, Muffliato, and curses like Langlock and the Toenail Growth Hex, and the healing incantation Vulnera Sanentur.

By his FIFTH! YEAR! he had developed his signature (fatal) curse Sectumsempra which, as I have discussed, just absolutely give me the heebie jeebs.

As discussed a little later, Snape was an incredibly skilled occlumens, possibly even the best in history given that Voldemort was considered the post powerful legilimens, as well as a skilled legilimens. The fact that his cover was NEVER actually blown once in 17 years is honestly just kind of statistically amazing. Voldemort even ended up killing him in the end only because he mistakenly believed Snape was the Master of the Elder Wand, not because he found out Snape was a spy.

And the thing that makes me ~clench~ the most is that unlike those other characters, he was actually in a position to make a difference; HE WAS A TEACHER. He was supposed to be shaping the future leaders and active members of the wizarding community. He could have revolutionized how potion classes were taught. His improvements to and simplifications of potion brewing could have made it so that they could start teaching important shit like how to brew healing potions and antidotes, or how to identify poisons and their symptoms SO MUCH EARLIER! But instead, he just decides to be a salty dickhead who makes one of his first year students poison his own goddamn toad. Snape held a position of serious power and influence over his students, and he completely and utterly abused that.

Sirius Black grew up; he learned and he changed and he stopped being an entitled, mean spirited, punkass bitch. James Potter also grew up; he learned and he changed he took his absolutely overinflated fuckboy ego down several notches, and found some much needed chill and humility, and eventually figured out that being cruel and bullying those he perceived to be weaker wasn’t going to make other people like him or make him feel better about himself. Both James and Sirius, as well as Lily, devoted their lives to making the world a better place. During the First Wizarding War, the Order of the Phoenix knew they were fighting a loosing battle, but that didn’t stop them. They made the conscious decision to stand up and fight for what they believed; to fight for tolerance and freedom and the kind of world that they wanted to live in.

You know, there is this line that Sirius says to Peter in Order of the Phoenix that I honestly think sums it up perfectly:

Sirius: "What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard that ever existed? Only innocent lives, Peter!" Peter: "You don’t understand! He would have killed me, Sirius!" Sirius: "THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED! DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"

To me, this says that the Death Eaters were fighting for the benefit of themselves, while the Order was fighting for the benefit of everyone. If you think about it, a huge number of members of the Order (as well as their Allies) were actually pure bloods who could have potentially benefitted from siding with Voldemort, or even just staying out of it all together. The Longbottom’s, the Weasley’s, the Prewett’s, the Shackebolt’s, the Bones’s (whose family line was almost completely wiped out during the First War), the McKinnon’s, several members of the Black Family; all pureblood families who were identified as “blood traitors” either outright or by association. They all had everything to loose by joining the order and essentially nothing to gain. But they all made the choice to fight for their friends and their families and their futures and what they thought was right.

The Death Eaters were radical pure blood supremacists that killed and tortured people on Voldemort's behalf who chose to join Voldemort either out of fear or out of actual support for his ideologies. Which leads me into...

6) If Harry hadn’t been the Chosen One and Lily Evans hadn’t died, Severus Snape would still be a Death Eater.

Snape became a Death Eater while he was still in school as a conscious choice based on his support for their pureblood supremacy and despite his own halfblood status. He learned through eavesdropping on Dumbledore that someone with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord would be born in July. Snape told Voldemort, who in turned assumed the child would be born to Lily Evans. **THIS RIGHT HERE WAS SNAPE'S TURNING POINT.** It was Snape’s love for/obsession with Lily that lead him to double cross Voldemort and ask Dumbledore to save Lily. If Voldemort had assumed that Neville Longbottom were the Chosen One, Snape would not have given one single flying fuck and we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

Yes, Snape was heartbroken and just desperately sad about Lily's death. And perhaps the most tragic irony of all is that the only person he has to blame (besides Voldemort) is himself. But he was never sorry about what he'd done in his past. It’s out of anger and sorrow over Lily’s death that he agrees to spy on Voldemort and help protect harry. Never ONCE does he say he is doing it because its the right thing to do. He even says in The Deathly Hollows:

“I have spied for you and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Lily Potter’s son safe.”

Not because Harry was an innocent child, not because Voldemort was evil, not because it was the right thing to do... Just to keep Lily Potter’s son safe. And what does he do to honor her memory? His first friend, his supposed soul mate, the most important person to him in the world? He is a complete prick to her only child, the last piece of her left, the boy who has her eyes. Honestly, I highly doubt Lily would have thanked him for how he treated the son she died for, she probably would have kicked his ass.

This is what I mean when I say that I don’t think his development/redemption arc came full circle. All the elements were there: the depressing childhood, the tragic backstory, the broken heart catalyst (even though I ~hate~ the “woman dies so man can find himself trope more than anything in this world), the chance to make things right, the eventual turn to The Good Side, the Hero’s Death. He was this close to not being a complete douchecanoe, but he just didn’t quite get there, he never really had the necessary change of heard OR change of heart. Instead of just taking it all the way and Fighting the Good Fight, he bullied children he was in a position of power over, made other peoples’ lives miserable, and was generally a lonely, bitter, resentful, miserable old asshole... All over loosing a girl who was never even his.

But here is where we come to the part that makes my feelings on Snape so complicated, and where I think I definitely diverge from most other people who dislike him (and probably one of the more tragic things about him tbh): I don’t think any of this means that Snape wasn’t brave; and while I don’t necessarily think he was a hero, I do think some of his acts were heroic.

Just because Snape’s motivations for becoming a double agent for the Order and spying on Voldemort and protecting Harry were driven by selfish reasons, just because the were driven by revenge for the death of a woman he was obsessed with who didn’t reciprocate his feelings, does not objectively make them any less brave in my opinion. He may not have been a hero, he may not have even been a good person, but he still took tremendous risks. In fact, I could even argue that the risks that Snape took were second only to those taken by Harry himself. Voldemort was one of the most powerful wizards in the world, and he is considered history's greatest legilimens, and Snape was part of his inner most circle and consistently in contact with him. This means that for 17 years, Snape had to be on top of his game. Clearly he was an incredibly skilled occlumens, possibly even the best in history given that Voldemort was considered the post powerful legilimens (although I would totally make an argument for Narcissa Malfoy to hold the title of Greatest Occlumens given that she convinced Voldemort Harry was dead when she knew he wasn’t, but whatever that’s a WHOLE different convo). But this also means that if he let Voldemort in for ever a second, it would have cost him his life.

Snape essentially signed up to be a villain in the eyes of every one closest to him and to lead a lonely, largely friendless life. He had to face everything ranging from general distrust to forcible opposition from he co-workers. He had to stand by or turn away while his friends, colleagues and allies were brutally tortured and/or killed, the awfulness of which I think is really well depicted by Charity Burbage’s death scene at Malfoy Manner in Deathly Hollows:

Voldemort raised Lucius Malfoy’s wand, pointed it directly at the slowly revolving figure suspended over the table, and gave it a tiny flick. The figure came to life with a groan and began to struggle against invisible bonds. “Do you recognize our guest, Severus?” asked Voldemort. Snape raised his eyes to the upside-down face. All of the Death Eaters were looking up at the captive now, as though they had been given permission to show curiosity. As she revolved to face the firelight, the woman said in a cracked and terrified voice, “Severus! Help me!” “Ah, yes,” said Snape as the prisoner turned slowly away again. ... One of the Death Eaters spat on the floor. Charity Burbage revolved to face Snape again. “Severus . . . please . . . please . . .” “Silence,” said Voldemort, with another twitch of Malfoy’s wand, and Charity fell silent as if gagged. ... For the third time, Charity Burbage revolved to face Snape. Tears were pouring from her eyes into her hair. Snape looked back at her, quite impassive, as she turned slowly away from him again. “Avada Kedavra.” The flash of green light illuminated every corner of the room. Charity fell, with a resounding crash, onto the table below, which trembled and creaked.

How many times would Snape have to had done this in 17 years? How many times did he have someone he knew beg him to just “please, help me!” and he couldn’t do it. Because he had to appear loyal, because he was playing the long game.

He entered into an Unbreakable Vow to commit the murder of a man he had known almost his whole life. He promised to protect the students of Hogwarts from the Death Eaters who controlled both the school and the Ministry. HE HAD TO SPEND WAY TOO MUCH TIME WITH BELLATRIX LESTRANGE. He lived in a constant state of mortal danger. He saved so. many. lives. I honestly don’t know if the Second Wizarding War could have been won without him on the inside... I don’t know what else to call this besides stupid, amazing, unquestionable, unwavering bravery.

Snape knew what Voldemort was capable of, he saw it with his own eyes, yet he continued to spy for the Order even after Lily was dead. So when Harry says that Snape was probably the bravest man he ever knew, idk if I can exactly argue with that. Harry didn’t call him a good man, or a kind man, or a heroic man, or anything like that. I mean, for all we know he could have like mentally added “and he was also a fucking miserable twat who got what was coming to him.” But objectively speaking, I don’t think he’s wrong. Honestly, the only person I can really think of who was braver was Harry himself.

End Note: And now you know why I don’t ever do this, because I am physically incapable of being anything close to concise. I hope you have enjoyed this obnoxiously rambley wall of text!

End End Note: @themiddleliddle I bet you are so sorry you even asked :) And @sansapotter I just feel like, for some reason, this might be relevant to things you are interested in? Maybe?

#seriously this got ridiculous and i am SO SORRY!#really idk why i'm like this #themiddleliddle #tesadoraofphaedra #alys replies #anti-snape #anti snape #anti severus snape #harry potter for ts #alys opinions #sansapotter #this won't let me add a cut and it's DRIVING! ME! CRAZY!

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