Dinarosie

That moment, when he finally got the upper hand against one of his abusers and said *It's your turn to be afraid*

Can't help but see a parallel to the start of the story when Harry aims his wand at Vernon and says "Try me."

The same man he believes betrayed and got Lily killed, the bully who tormented him for years ends up helpless, injured and completely at his mercy. And what does Snape do? He levitates him onto a stretcher and brings him back to Hogwarts alive. Despite the hatred. Despite the memories. Despite believing Sirius is a murderer.

That’s Severus Snape. Complex, contradictory, and deeply human.

Harry: How about...James Sirius?

Draco: Your dad and your uncle?

Harry: Yeah.

Draco: That's sweet, yeah.

Harry: What about...Lily Luna?

Draco: I kind of like the way it flows, honestly.

Harry: I know, what about Albus Severus--

Draco: *smacks Harry upside the head*

Draco: Are you out of your damn mind?

Draco: One man raised you to die and the other one bullied you for seven years.

Draco: He creeped on your mom.

Draco: He stepped over her husband, ignored her crying son, and held her body when she never wanted anything to do with him in life.

Draco: He never heard of shampoo or conditioner.

Harry: But he--

Draco: *smacks him upside the head again*

Draco: His name is Remus Arthur Potter.

Draco: We're naming him after the two men who actually cared for you like a son, not a pawn.

Draco: You idiot.

Harry:

Harry:

Harry: Okay.

A reminder that Severus Snape’s sacrifices were not meaningless. They gave Harry the chance to live, to grow up, to mature, and to see the world with the depth and complexity it truly has.

They taught him that life isn’t black and white, that no one is innocent or perfect, and that what matters most are the people who, despite their flaws and their mistakes, still choose the harder path, the path of humanity. The ones who stay loyal to what’s right even when it’s painful, even when it costs them everything, even when no one ever thanks them for it.

They taught him that some people carry wounds so deep and so unfair that they could easily fall into bitterness and hate and yet, there are still those who keep caring anyway. Who keep trying to make amends. Who keep saving others. Who stay faithful to their ideals. Who continue to love, even when life has given them every reason not to. Those people are rare. And precious.

But I forgot — another old man’s mistake — that some wounds run too deep for the healing. I thought Professor Snape could overcome his feelings about your father — I was wrong.”

“Some wounds run too deeply for the healing” is an indirect acknowledgment that Snape’s inability to get over what was done to him is not a show of pettiness; rather it speaks of something much deeper that could not be simply sorted through.

When Harry - angry that Dumbledore’s defending Snape - asks “so it’s okay for Snape to hate my father but not for Sirius to hate Kreacher”, Dumbledore only addresses the question of Sirius. Remark:

Sirius did not hate Kreacher,” said Dumbledore. “He regarded him as a servant unworthy of much interest or notice. Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike... The fountain we destroyed tonight told a lie. We wizards have mistreated and abused our fellows for too long, and we are now reaping our reward…Sirius was not a cruel man, he was kind to house-elves in general. He had no love for Kreacher, because Kreacher was a living reminder of the home Sirius had hated.”

This is fascinating for many reasons. First, Dumbledore never answers the first part of Harry’s question. Is it okay for Snape to hate James? Dumbledore doesn’t answer.  But it is not okay for Sirius to be so dismissive of Kreacher only because Kreacher reminded him of the home Sirius hated.

Dumbledore saying “indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike” is a direct comparison between Sirius and Snape. Snape hated James (and as a consequence he hates Harry). However, Dumbledore knows that despite hating Harry, Snape is still protecting him. Dumbledore knows, in fact, that although Snape asked for Lily’s protection and didn’t care for James and Harry, when called out on it, he asked Dumbledore to protect them all. Snape’s love for Lily was more important than his hatred of James - he accepts turning on Voldemort in exchange for Lily’s protection, a deal that necessarily carried the protection of James and Harry. In this sense, Dumbledore is subtly contrasting Sirius’s and Snape’s attitudes. At the end, Sirius’s indifference towards Kreacher does more damage than Snape’s hatred of James because it produces nothing good. Snape’s hatred of James doesn’t stop him from protecting Harry.

Links to my meta, headcanons, observations and discussions about HP characters, mainly Snape. Not comprehensive, but somewhere to start!

I also reblog other users’ meta under #hp meta or #hp thoughts.

Vocal Descriptor Analyses:

Said Snape

Said Malfoy

Said Voldemort

Snape:

Snape’s first appearance in COS

Felix Felicis hints at Snape's loyalties

Perspective-taking: POA Snape

Snape's feelings about the Half-Blood Prince are complicated

Snape's fear of Voldemort

Snape probably wasn't in the Slug Club

Snape's other Pensieve Memories (@sideprince's original post)

Snape rejects his past blood prejudice

Teaching DADA in potions

Snape's work for the Order

Thoughts on Snape's personal vs professional relationship with Order members (@severus-snaps's original post)

Snape and drink: canon mentions + headcanon

Snape & Dumbledore:

How Dumbledore's death speaks to Snape's moral evolution

Snape kills Dumbledore knowing it will result in his own death / Dumbledore asking Snape to kill him reflects Dumbledore's faith in his redemption

Snape and Dumbledore weren't feuding in GOF

Snape & Harry:

Clashing communication styles (@lines-in-limbo's original post)

Occlumency, projection, and connection (@seriousbrat's original post)

Occlumency lessons mark a shift in Snape's attitude towards Harry

Snape & Sirius:

Grimmauld Place & Spinner's End parallels

Barty Crouch Jr:

Master of Manipulation Part 1: The Four Champions

Master of Manipulation Part 2: The Egg & The Eye 1

Barty was not openly rebellious as a teen

Voldemort:

Voldemort's first line in The Dark Lord Ascending

Musings about Peter Pettigrew's defection

Why did Voldemort agree to spare Lily's life?

Did Voldemort teach Snape unsupported flight?

"Only then will the Dark Lord trust you completely": a misunderstanding of Voldemort and a flattening of Dumbledore & Snape

Timeline of Voldemort hunting down the Potters

Miscellaneous:

Pensieve memories are accurate and objective

On Lily & James Potter

Questions for the fandom:

How much of Snape & Draco's relationship is genuine?

Half-Blood Prince edition differences in the Lighting Struck Tower

How does Moody's Grimmauld Place curse work?

Why does Snape block Harry in GOF?

Why was Snape the one to raise the alarm in OOTP?

Has Snape ever lied to Harry? (@severus-snaps checked! here's their response)

On fandom:

Why I like Snape: a response

Media literacy & analysis: "Bad writing" means what, exactly? | Your hot take still needs support

Snape Morality Survey: Results & Analysis

HP Podcasts: Tips for Snape Fans

Scorpius: Thank you for being my light in the darkness. Snape looks at him, every inch a hero, he softly smiles. Snape: Tell Albus - tell Albus Severus - I’m proud he carries my name. [Cursed Child - Part II Act 3, scene 9]

In every world, in every timeline, the death of Severus Snape is heavy with unsaid words and the quiet ache of an unfinished heart.

In both deaths, there are no demands. Not a name etched in gold, not a monument, Not even justice.

Lucius Malfoy, the first to welcome a lonely boy named Severus Snape at Hogwarts. Years later, in another timeline, Scorpius Malfoy the last to acknowledge his sacrifice, calling him “my light in the darkness.”

HEY!!!

so, let me be completely honest, up until about three months ago i absolutely despised snape's character. and it was for the same redundant reasons; "he's obsessed with lily" or "he's an ex-death eater" "he bullied kids" etc etc and i completely and wholly believed i was right because... well im a teenager and i thought everything that rebelled against the norm (in other words, canon) to be correct until i was forced into a position to understand it.

now, im not opposed to looking out for autistic/queer/cultural traits in characters and shipping them with whoever you want to, but the complete rewrite of canon CAN be exhausting. and it did become exhausting. it gave you so much but at the cost of completely sidelining the more important ESSENTIAL details of what made the franchise popular and culturally important in the first place.

then there was the very obvious disregard for severus snape that, for the longest time i didn't get for what it was until i actually indulged in the pro snape side of the fandom.

he was not pretty. he was not rich. he had no friends that didn't want to use him/had pure intentions and, canonically, he was sour and bitter to everyone except lily. and that apparently equated to obsession. i didn't understand how wrong that was until i actually took the time out to figure out why. they took a canonically complex character for an arse simply because everything about him was canon and therefore it was wrong.

the only part of the prank that they ever acknowledged was remus's feelings. (not that sirius disregarded two human lives)

snape's worst memory was NEVER addressed resulting in any new additions to the fandom never finding out about it (if they were in a similar position to me where they had not read the books for a while). a very VERY important part of the pre-golden trio era.

they never considered what it would mean for sirius (an emotionally stunted, anger-prone, sadist) to be locked away until he was 11, estranged at 15, sent to war at 17, and subsequently imprisoned at 21 until the age of 33.

they chalked up remus' 'shyness' to his infatuation with sirius and the alleged abuse from his father (which is not even remotely supported by canon) rather than his CANONICAL cowardice in the face of consequences.

and for some reason, they're able to have a 'pro-peter' tag without even stopping to consider how hypocritical it is to make excuses for a canonical betrayal for the sake of power-tripping and purposely endangering people's lives rather than actually indulging in a character who's backstory and ENTIRE PURPOSE is to be the morally grey antihero.

i don't even want to get into the butchering of james and lily potter.

i don't even want to talk about the slytherin skittles or the valkyries.

atp, you could find barbie dolls of them. labubus if you will.

at the end of the day it became so exhausting that i left the fandom for nine months and when i returned i was smacked in the face with incest and ships that just

didn't

make

sense.

characters that didn't even get screen time were made to be gold encrusted martyrs.

and then i read don't let the light go out by @bitterarm and my entire world spun out of control.

i was so disgusted by myself for hating on a character without any comprehensible reason other than claiming he was a power-tripping, obsessive, abuser.

that man was more traumatised than fucking harry potter and tom riddle combined and i had the gall to call him an ugly jughead. rereading the hp series only added fuel to the fire because i realised just how much i had forgotten in the last 8 years

i read harry potter at 11 so... this was a big thing for me. i don't think ive ever felt this much shame before. and what's worse, i can't even bring myself to properly hate the marauders fandom. that's where i spent my teen years. while the marauders fandom is a great escape (music, fanart, fics, etc) it is so damaging to the franchise.