Snape's patronus being a doe because he's "obsessed" with Lily: too JKR of a take, I hate her

Snape's patronus being a doe because Lily was his closest friend and is associated with all of his happiest memories: much more wholesome and realistic, let us remember that platonic love is just as important as romantic love

Snape's patronus being a doe because it matches him personally, its everything he wished he could show he was, its an image his own wasted potential and shows the way he thrive to be someone better, purer, and actually acknowledge how hurt and scared he was as a child, and how brave he was to try and makeup for his terrible mistakes: my favourite take.

“Mum….?”

This is the piece that got me teary eyed. Snape has been put in timeout by my muses for his crimes against my emotions.

Have a close up of these two cause I’m proud as all hell of Snape’s eyes. -chef’s kiss- 👌

In a happier AU where Snape is Harriet's mentor figure

For my friend @chipartwork !

Day 21/31 of Inktober! Severus Snape for the prompt "Raven"

(This is based on a (non-hp) "draw this in your style" I found on IG, originally by peony_illustrations, and I based the composition for this on emoly_ttch's take.)

When people try to make it seem like the Marauders and Severus relationship was a shared rivalry instead of outright harassment. They were 4 to 1 ! That's not à rivality !

Also, I'm tired of people saying things like :

"Yes, James and his friends harassed Severus, that's not good. But it says in the text that Severus had a disproportionate hatred for James, and cast spells on him too."

Yes. So what ? It's basically victim blaming. As if the fact that Severus defends himself wasn't normal ?! As if hating James who bullied him from the moment he met him, just for his simple existence wasn't normal ?!

I would like to understand what is going on in people's heads when they say sentences like that.

Severus scorning James is justified. Severus attacking James back is fucking justified, especially when the harassment is daily !

What is this ridiculous logic ? "Yes, James bullied Severus, but Severus wasn't any better because he hated him and retaliated."

WHAT ?!

People speaking like that should never have been harassed. It's like those hating Severus / finding it unforgivable that Severus called Lily a mudblood after being publicly humiliated by James.

Translation ; suspended in the air upside down, underwear revealed and soap in his mouth...

I think your mood, your temperament, and your control over yourself and your words would take a hit too !

I was the victim of harassment almost throughout my schooling. From my first year of kindergarten until my second year of high school ! Do you think I loved my harassers ? Do you think that after a while I didn't fight back ? Do you think that after being publicly humiliated / harassed I didn't insult even innocent people ? (And again, Lily smiled seeing her so-called friend go through this, so for me the insult was deserved, I have no regrets in saying that...) But wake up the fuc ! Go live in the real world !

There is no excuse for what James put Severus through and there never will be ! Damn, he was doing it for fun ! Pure and simple !

Also, I'm tired of seeing this bullshit like if Harry had been a girl, Severus would have had inappropriate attitudes towards him... That it would even have gone completely like in the film Swenney Todd ! But what ?! And again, I saw a very intelligent film-loving woman, or so I thought, spouting this bullshit ! FOR WHAT ?! Where does this shit come from ?! Ginny is described as looking a lot like Lily from what I remember and Severus never went after her ?!

I've seen people like Snape say this types of shit and argue that it apparently made him complex !

Why is a man grieving his former best friend trying to be better in honor of her memory considered an obsession ? Why do people say Snape was obsessed with Lily, rather than James who literally pursued her throughout school and even blackmailed her into trying to date her, and never taking no for an answer ?! Why ?!

And why is Severus' patronus taking the same form as Lily's seen as proof of obsession ?! Didn't Thnks do the same thing for Lupin ?! I don't remember anyone seeing this as obsession on his part !

In fact, when a patronus changes depending on the author, for the person we love, it is specifically to match them, and is proof of eternal love.

No but seriously why is Lily’s patronus so unnecessarily gendered?

JKR said this in a interview in 2007:

Question: James patronus is a stag and lilys a doe is that a coincidence? J.K. Rowling: No, the Patronus often mutates to take the image of the love of one's life (because they so often become the 'happy thought' that generates a Patronus).

I’m assuming it was Lily’s patronus that changed not James because he already had a stag animagus at 15 and the only other person we know both their patronus and animagus form is Mcgonagall and they are both cats. So if Lily's patronus changed to be “the image of the love of her life” why is it a doe not a stag? How is a doe the image of James? Snape's patronus is apparently the "image of lily" and it appears as a doe instead of a stag to match his respective gender. What is going on?

(also guys im looking for a watsonian reason. I know the real answer is JKR's adherence to the gender binary)

going insane and i need to infodump about severus snape’s patronus being a doe for a second. i personally don’t think it changed, or lily necessarily influenced it- i think it’s always been a doe, casting the charm in dumbledore’s office was meant to show that he and lily were supposed to be viscerally aligned with each other and he knows he fucked it up and that’s why he’s spent almost two decades trying to atone for what he did. on a representative level, the doe symbolizes peace, protection, and innocence, and no three words could possibly represent severus snape more.

all he wants is peace: a peaceful life for himself, a peaceful world, a peaceful school. everything he’s ever done has been to create as much peace as possible. some of it can be considered misguided from a black and white moral standpoint, but it’s what created peace for himself. for example, aligning himself with the purist views of his housemates made him less of a target for bullying- he’s not a pure blood, and they’d know, and having powerful ambitious students on your side instead of alienating yourself from everyone means you have at least a semblance of protection from harm some of the time. he becomes a double agent for dumbledore to help bring about peace from voldemort’s reign. it might not have been peaceful for him per se, but it was still with the intention of peace in some form. he tries to give other people peace- he takes a vow with narcissa to protect her son because she’s crying and scared for him, and it gives her peace. he doesn’t throw draco under the bus to save his skin when voldemort accuses him of being the elder wands owner, giving draco and narcissa peace even if they weren’t aware. it’s either for himself, or for others.

he’s the most protective teacher at the school- would mcgonagall have thrown herself in front of three kids facing a wolfsbane-less werewolf? would flitwick take the burden of an unbreakable vow to protect draco malfoy from voldemort? would any of the DADA teachers have run towards the sound of a screaming woman? he consistently vows to protect everyone and everything he can. and, leading into his innocence, when he realizes he’s only been protecting harry for him to die, it breaks him.

he’s not necessarily innocent in that his hands are clean and he’s never done anything wrong in his life, but he’s innocent in that he’s naive. he trusted voldemort enough to be drawn into the death eaters, he trusted dumbledore enough to be manipulated into his bidding. it feels like he forgets that dumbledore screws him over constantly, dangles things in front of him and takes them away, makes crude assumptions, and has left him to fend for himself essentially their entire relationship. the times that dumbledore abandons him- physically, mentally, metaphorically- he gets very upset. like it’s new information to him that dumbledore treats him like shit. from an abuse perspective, he probably had to spend his childhood mentally erasing what his parents and home were like so he could feel safe and normal, so the constant ebb and flow/back and forth of his and dumbledore’s relationship is familiar to him. when dumbledore draws him back in with whatever method, he’s right back to behaving as dumbledore wants, doing what dumbledore wants, and believing what dumbledore believes. the times that he remembers that dumbledore doesn’t care that he let the guy who’s tried to kill him or assault go, or that dumbledore thinks he wants only lily saved because he desires her romantically or sexually, or that dumbledore has only been using harry and, by extension, him (as he’s been the one protecting harry) to play the long game of destroying voldemort are the times that he’s emotional in the books. he cries, he’s vulnerable, he raises his voice, he begs and he pleads and he defers. he doesn’t do that any other time, other than when he found harry watching his memories. he trusts and he forgives (or he forgets, or he feels safer pretending he doesn’t care what’s been done to him/how he’s been treated.) a doe is perfect for him. reducing it to something like tonk’s patronus being changed as soon as she’s in a relationship with lupin or that it’s only a doe because of lily evans completely erases his entire way of thinking and behaving and being.

also, in a self indulgent addendum, it’s a very feminine animal, and severus is consistently aligned with femininity. hermione calls the half-blood prince’s writing feminine. he wears his mother’s clothes as a child, and lupin encourages neville to dress his boggart as his grandmother. he’s quiet and docile and tries to be non-violent unless he’s pushed to his breaking point, and even then it’s screaming or crying or getting animated. he’s emotional and frequently painted as hysterical. he gets the “woman character treatment”: to the average viewer who doesn’t think about him long enough to understand otherwise, he only desires lily. the consensus is that he chases her, he only thinks about her in the context of attraction. the line about looking at her greedily is constantly understood to be lust, and not a desire for love or a desire for a peaceful relationship for once in his life (and a relationship that only ever seems to be platonic at that). he even backs off and all but disappears from her life when he’s asked to, while james (the one with the stag patronus, the classic triumphant male character) harasses her and pursues her and behaves in a way that makes his son decades later wonder if he forced lily into a relationship. he’s behaviorally aligned with what femininity in the eyes of misogyny is supposed to be. he keeps to himself, he’s quiet, he sacrifices every bit of himself for students and coworkers and superiors and expects nothing in return, he pushes his students to be the best they can. (i’d say nurtures with my whole chest, but as the narrative comes from harry, we can’t really be sure. in my view, his house won the house cup for several years in a row which was only interrupted by dumbledore awarding a fuck ton of points to his gryffindor prize pony, his classes are seen as high performing and advanced by even dolores umbridge of all people, he only tries to punish students albeit a bit violently after several attempts of getting them to understand why what they did was wrong, which seems to be pretty nurturing in comparison to what other teachers allow and do). whether he’s trans, or had been influenced more by eileen, or he was intended to be deeply complex and contradictory and that meant that he had to have these traits, or any other of the multitude of reasons for snape being an inherently feminine character, it’s there. his patronus wouldn’t be a stag, he wouldn’t be anything overbearing and he wouldn’t be anything aggressive. it doesn’t make sense with his soul and his personality and his life. the peaceful protective innocent/naive doe, however, does.

Tears

~ links and commissions ~

It was the only thing he had left of her.

An animal made from the light itself.

Here now, gone in a short while.

The light in the darkness.

Drawn in 2022

A couple of my favorite close-ups from The Bravest Man, Chapter 6 (ao3, tumblr). The backgrounds and the faces are way too inconsistent, but hey, I do love the way these two panels fit in with one another.

“Did you see what form your Patronus had?” Snape asks. She shakes her head. “Cast it.” “I can’t-” “Of course you can. You did then too.” She needs three attempts for the Luna Moth to fly through the sitting room. His arms around her, her back against his chest and his chin resting on her head he watches it with her.  “Do you know what Luna Moths stand for? They represent the ability to leave behind old ways and embrace new beginnings, the pursuit of happiness and love - especially true love. Some say they stand for regeneration and healing. They can eat leaves that are poisonous without suffering harm - I think it’s no coincidence you managed to cast your first proper Patronus Charm when you did.”

I dusted off my watercolours and drew Dove's patronus from "Your tears are of no relevance to me". I think it turned out pretty good but I need to invest in some better watercolour paper 😅 The stuff I have is a pain when layering thin washes of colour over each other.

Commission piece for @sanctuary-angel (love this angst hooligan)

Of their angsty fic

Please go give it a read! It's the perfect amount of hurt. Thank you for commissioning me! ❤️

Expecto Patronum

If Lily and James are perfect for each other because of their patronus, then James and Snape are perfect for each other too.

Inktober day 19, Severus Snape - Magic