Born to die

[🗝️]

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The Marauders: *nearly get Snape killed*

The Marauders: *choke Snape with soap*

The Marauders: *hang Snape upside down in mid-air and reveal his bare legs and underwear (which was described as “muggle torture” by none other than Voldemort btw)*

The Marauders: *threaten to (and most definitely did) take off Snape’s underwear in front of an entire crowd*

33 year old Lupin:

" The fact that Snape is the only one who despises James while the rest of the cast speak highly of him really tells you about the kind of person James was "

First off, NO

Secondly, ABSOLUTELY NOT

Idk how many of u have actually seen/ experienced bullying, but I always thought it was pretty well known that not all bullies look like ur typically intimidating roadside gangsters. Most bullies, at least the ones I've seen, tend to have a pretty solid relationship with authority figures, even being the ones most trusted/ favoured by them. They're often popular and very well liked by the general masses because they've found confidence in their abilities earlier than most teenagers, and fit into the conventional standards of beauty or being cool.

Now, because they tend to be well accepted by their peers, they make the victim of their tactics to be the oddball, something inherently unlikable coz they're different, while in reality, they're just not there yet (which is why they alone see the worst side of the bullies, they're the only ones who know what it's like to be prey to the bullies' most cruel tendencies.)

This perception of the victim is accepted by the rest of the peers, who are either trying to fit in themselves, or saving themselves from similar treatment, or just happen to believe in this too, because well, why wouldn't it be true if it's coming from the 'IT' group.

In my view this is exactly what happened with Snape and the marauders. Was his ambition to become a death eater and his interest in the dark arts a reason for the bullying? Yes, we have canonical evidence for it. Was that the only reason for the bullying? Absolutely not, we have canonical evidence for that too.

And besides, making such claims is literally gaslighting the victim, aka Snape. This is another thing which typically happens, PPL go 'oh it's no big deal, it's just a joke!' while only the victim knows the true depth of their pain, and the fact that entertainment gained from their humiliation certainly wasn't very funny for them.

he doesn’t make excuses for joining the death eaters, he doesn’t try to hide away or scrub over the heinous shit he did in his past. he never makes even justifiable excuses for the things he perceives as being “his fault” - like not saving people even when saving them would put his own life in jeopardy, or not being able to keep voldemort from killing lily. 

the marauders - or, at the very least, sirius and remus - make a ton of excuses for the bad shit they did in the past, and not even just the stuff they did to snape himself. (thinking about sirius never facing up to just straight-up abandoning baby harry for revenge or lupin trying to abandon his wife and child out of fear, or the way he didn’t tell dumbledore about the secret passageways when he thought sirius was still murderous.) we never really see them show remorse or atonement for the bad shit they do or try to make up for it; the narrative or the characters themselves convince us that they somehow don’t have to make up for it. 

and that makes me tired; i am so very tired of characters who just skip over atonement or regret for any bad action they pull. part of what attracts me to snape is that he doesn’t; he is very aware of the shitty mistakes he’s made and how they’ve affected not only his life but the people around him. and his entire arc is focused on making up for that in any way that he can. he never shirks that duty or says that it isn’t his burden to bear or makes excuses for why he doesn’t actually need to atone. he does his duty because he sees it as a necessary burden to fix the mistakes he’s made in the past. 

For A) he is a genius immensely skilled at magic and is hyper competent, inventing spells and potions as a teenager, is self sacrificing and brave to ridiculous extremes, over and over again, more than any other character bar the protagonist himself, is a spy that constantly makes the main villain look like a fool, is so virtuous he risks himself to save people he hates because it's the right thing to do, has tons of sarcastic one liners and witty jokes, is intimidating and smooth and has presence, I could go on. All these are traits you give to the Harry Potters of the world.

For B) he's ugly in a very visceral way, he bullies children who did nothing to him and makes them cry, he's bullied and never truly gets his revenge, in fact the girl he's in love with gets together with his bully, he's constantly humiliated (i.e. the Neville boggart scene where he's made to dress in an old woman's clothes, Dumbledore telling him that he disgusts him, the SWM scene). All this is stuff you give to the Filch's of the world.

Severus

Trying to improve traditionally

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