Mostly HP meta. Mostly about Snape. Welcome to my soapbox.

(satisfy my curiosity & bold your headcanons)

1. hetero | bi | gay | pan | gray | ace

2. cis m | trans mtf | trans ftm | non-binary

3. slut | sexually experienced | barely experienced | virgin | celibate

4. dominant | switch | submissive | vanilla

5. drinks heavily | drinks occasionally | social drinker only | never drinks

6. chain smoker | on-and-off smoker | smoked at one point | never touched a cigarette in his life

7. potions addicted | sometimes self-medicates | refuses to take anything

8. short | slightly below average | average height | slightly above average | tall

9. emaciated | underweight | healthy skinny | lean muscular | dad bod | thicc

10. always robed | muggle clothes when strictly necessary | muggle clothes when in muggle society | muggle clothes at every opportunity

11. very neat & organized | a little cluttered | total slob

12. early to bed & early to rise | habitual night owl | incurable insomniac

13. heavy sleeper | light sleeper | wakes up 20 times a night

14. back sleeper | stomach sleeper | side sleeper | always switching

2. cis m | trans mtf | trans ftm | non-binary

3. slut | sexually experienced | barely experienced | virgin | celibate (somewhere in-between)

4. dominant | switch | submissive | vanilla 

5. drinks heavily | drinks occasionally | social drinker only | never drinks

6. chain smoker | on-and-off smoker | smoked at one point | never touched a cigarette in his life

7. potions addicted | sometimes self-medicates | refuses to take anything

8. short | slightly below average | average height | slightly above average | tall

9. emaciated | underweight | healthy skinny | lean muscular | dad bod | thicc

10. always robed | muggle clothes when strictly necessary | muggle clothes when in muggle society | muggle clothes at every opportunity

11. very neat & organized | a little cluttered | total slob (somewhere in-between)

12. early to bed & early to rise | habitual night owl | incurable insomniac

13. heavy sleeper | light sleeper | wakes up 20 times a night

14. back sleeper | stomach sleeper | side sleeper | always switching

Not a good person.

A few cauldrons away, Neville was in trouble. Neville regularly went to pieces in Potions lessons; it was his worst subject, and his great fear of Professor Snape made things ten times worse. His potion, which was supposed to be a bright, acid green, had turned—

“Orange, Longbottom,” said Snape, ladling some up and allowing to splash back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see.

“Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn’t you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one bat spleen was needed? Didn’t I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?"Neville was pink and trembling. He looked as though he was on the verge of tears.

"Please, sir,” said Hermione, “please, I could help Neville put it right—”

“I don’t remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger,” said Snape coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville. “Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly."Snape moved away, leaving Neville breathless with fear.

That is not a good teacher. It’s just not. You’re teaching children, and even if you’re strict and you believe that students should fear you (i think they should respect you), you don’t go and threaten to poison your students’ animals as punishment for not doing well. Nor insult your students, even if you believe they’re dumb as heck.

The end of the lesson in sight, Snape strode over to Neville, who was cowering by his cauldron."Everyone gather around,” said Snape, his black eyes glittering, “and watch what happens to Longbottom’s toad. If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don’t doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned.”…Snape picked up Trevor the toad in his left hand and dipped a small spoon into Neville’s potion, which was now green. He trickled a few drops down Trevor’s throat.There was a moment of hushed silence, in which Trevor gulped; then there was a small pop, and Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape’s palm.The Gryffindors burst into applause. Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor, and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown.

“Five points from Gryffindor,” said Snape, which wiped the smiles from every face. “I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed." 

He actually does it and then he takes points from Gryffindor even when the potion is done correctly.

You know what Snape is good at? And no, I’m not sarcastic. He’s a good Potions Master. He’s a good scholar. Hermione thrived under him as opposed to Slughorn because he was innovative with potions and found ways to do better. Of course that the students who like Potions regardless of the teacher would do well. Or, just ones that are very good at following instructions, which I imagine is the case for most students.

And actually, yes, teachers are supposed to take into consideration their students’ needs, including emotional needs. This doesn’t mean they need to bring coloring books with them, but maybe not amplify their anxiety regarding your subject by being an asshole is do-able. 

"As I was saying before Potter interrupted, Professor Lupin has not left any record of the topics you have covered so far—”

“Please, sir, we’ve done boggarts, Red Caps, kappas, and grindylows,” said Hermione quickly, “and we’re just about to start—”

“Be quiet,” said Snape coldly. “I did not ask for information. I was merely commenting on Professor Lupin’s lack of organization.”

“He’s the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we’ve ever had,” said Dean Thomas boldly, and there was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the class. Snape looked more menacing than ever.

“You are easily satisfied. Lupin is hardly overtaxing you—I would expect first years to be able to deal with Red Caps and grindylows. Today we shall discuss—”

As a teacher, it’s unprofessional to degrade other teachers and students. Because believe me “Lupin is hardly overtaxing you—I would expect first years to be able to deal with Red Caps and grindylows” is not a compliment. He means to downplay their accomplishments, saying that they’re things that even younger children should be able to do, which is just NOT the case. I’m quite sure Lupin was following a curriculum because you have to do so. That’s one of the important teacher stuff (and that’s why you have textbooks). Also, if you think they’d learn from their pureblood families, you’re ignoring the muggleborns or those who grew up in muggle born families. Which brings me to…

“Potter!” said Snape suddenly. “What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" 

"I don’t know, sir,” said Harry. Snape’s lips curled into a sneer.

“Tut, tut-fame clearly isn’t everything.” He ignored Hermione’s hand.

“Let’s try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

“Thought you wouldn’t open a bok before coming, eh, Potter?”

 Harry forced himself to keep looking into those cold eyes. […]Snape was still ignoring Hermione’s quivering hand.“What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?”[…]

“I don’t know,” said Harry quietly. “I think Hermione does, though, why don’t you try her?”[…]

 "Sit down,“ he snapped at Hermione. 

"For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomack of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren’t you all copying that down?”

God. His whole point here is to humiliate Harry. His student. He could be related to fucking Voldemort and it wouldn’t matter, you don’t humiliate your students like this on the first day. Especially since you know (and Snape knew) that Harry lived with the Dursleys and he didn’t exactly have time to read the whole Potions book just in case the teacher is an asshole and decides to quiz him on the first day. Because believe me if your teachers did that, you’d totally consider them assholes. And he doesn’t want the answer, because he ignores Hermione. He just wants to humiliate a student. (It doesn’t matter who it is. Could’ve been Malfoy himself and it still would have been bad.)

When I was younger I was very right-wing. I mean…very right-wing. I won’t go into detail, because I’m very deeply ashamed of it, but whatever you’re imagining, it’s probably at least that bad. I’ve taken out a lot of pain on others; I’ve acted in ignorance and waved hate like a flag; I’ve said and did things that hurt a lot of people.

There are artefacts of my past selves online – some of which I’ve locked down and keep around to remind me of my past sins, some of which I’ve scrubbed out, some of which are out of my grasp. If I were ever to become famous, people could find shit on me that would turn your stomach.

But that’s not me anymore. I’ve learned so much in the last ten years. I’ve become more open to seeing things through others’ eyes, and reforged my anger to turn on those who harm others rather than on those who simply want to exist. I’ve learned patience and compassion. I’ve learned how to recognise my privileges and listen to others’ perspectives. I’ve learned to stand up for others, how to hear, how to help, how to correct myself. And I learned some startling shit about myself along the way – with all due irony, some of the things I used to lash out at others for are intrinsic parts of myself.

You wouldn’t know what I am now from what I was then. You wouldn’t know what I was then from what I am now.

It distresses me deeply to think of someone dredging up my dark, awful past and treating me as though that furiously hateful person is still me. It distresses me to see others dredging up the past for anyone who has made efforts to become a better person, out of some sick obsession with proving they’re “problematic.”

The obsession with finding shit in someone’s past and then claiming that a questionable or even sordid past negates all possibility of a good present needs to become extinct. Gold-star activism and purity culture are bullshit and we need to collectively reject the fuck out of them.

So you have totally changed. Kudos. If that’s true, then you supposedly know just how harmful your past actions are and see how people can feel threatened or be skeptical. That’s kind of the whole “growth” process. If you have truly “changed”…then keep on keeping on. But you can’t blame people for looking into your past. You really did that shit.

What good does it fucking do? What use is it to reblog someone’s post with say “hey everyone you should be aware that OP told an ableist joke in 1993 I HAVE RECEIPTS″? 

Who does that protect? 

What purpose does that serve?

 If you see a post or article or interview somewhere advocating for justice and your first impulse is to spend your time dredging through years’ worth of that person’s past opinions to try to find something Problematic™ so that you can go “A-HA, look what you USED to say, clearly this invalidates what you’re saying now!” whom exactly do you think this is helping?

When someone does that, are they really “protecting” anyone, or are they just tearing down a progressive voice out of pettiness and spite—or are they serving a more sinister agenda, like a certain right-wing blogger who got a certain left-wing director fired for horrific jokes he’d already apologized for and completely ceased to make almost a decade ago?

Do you think it’s your job to dictate to someone you don’t know from Adam the direction of their personal growth and how they manage their guilt if they didn’t fuckin’ ask you?

Do you think every SJ post, article, and tweet out there has to be prefaced with a detailed confession of past sins?

Do you think that it’s your personal business to know the painful past experiences of every stranger before they share a progressive opinion?

Do you think it’s in any conceivable way reasonable to expect lifelong perfection, especially of people who grow up in a kyriarchal society, and to exact lifelong punishment and harassment for failing to achieve it?

Do you think maybe that purposefully digging through people’s pasts to find the Problematic™ shit they’ve left behind and then treating them like escaped serial killers carrying leprosy because they haven’t been a Perfect SJ Cinnamon Roll 100% of their lives might turn people off to the whole advocacy thing? ‘Cause again…that’s what this post is talking about.

I can’t like him. I had a music teacher like him when I was in elementary school. He bullied me, called me stupid, threatened to “nail [me] to the wall” for talking, ridiculed me, called me names (after making us listen to Cats, he started calling me Jennyanydots because of my name and the fact that I have a prominent mole on my eyebrow), and just…

Because of that teacher, I taught myself how to vomit to have a reason to sit in the nurse’s office to avoid his class. Because of that teacher, I taught myself how to dissociate. Because of that teacher, I just…

He ruined a lot of my childhood.

So the fact that Snape bullies his students—especially Neville—is the reason why I will never like him. I was a lot like Neville Longbottom when I was in elementary school. So reading about how Snape treated him was quite the trigger for me.

To me, it doesn’t matter that Snape was also bullied as a kid. It doesn’t matter that he was instrumental in bringing down Voldemort. It doesn’t matter that he was a lonely person.

He bullied children.

THIS

THIS

Basically, a lot of people are seeing in Snape traits they know are vile in real life, and the fandom is grown and conscious. Snape apologists. You know damn well if you knew a Severus Snape you wouldn’t like them, and if you honestly would, you might want to sit down— I’ve got news for you.

Pottermore just lists his full name as Severus Snape, and Google has just informed me that it was common until recently for most people in the UK to not have a middle name (so I don’t think I’ll bother with middle names unless they are canon, for my fic) but if you give him a middle name anyway or have seen some you like in fic, what is your favorite? Is it the popular Severus Tobias Snape, or something else?