From Hogwarts, With Love 🖤💚🖤

Huh! This description of the young spy’s composure, though of course filtered through Trelawney’s perspective, isn’t very far removed from how he is described in his younger teen years (sputtering, protesting, becoming incoherent when emotional — far from socially deft). It’s markedly different from how we see him operating during the course of the HP timeline; intimidating Quirrell in Philosopher’s Stone, talking his way out of a death sentence in Goblet of Fire, and having the time of his life running circles around Bellatrix in Half-Blood Prince. I’m certainly not the first to note that at some point, Snape had to put quite bit of effort into this transformation. I had always envisioned a 90s-movie makeover/training montage during years 6/7 and into his first years of service with the Death Eaters in which he cultivates a more aristocratic and confident facade, learns skills like Occlumency, and develops the social aptitude which seemed to elude him as a younger teen; I always had a hard time imagining Snape trying to establish credibility with the Death Eaters without quite a bit of work on his end to conform.

But this description from Trelawney has made me consider that Snape might have picked up a lot of these skills later than I originally thought — towards the end of the war and into his first years as a professor. Interesting possibility. While I’d always considered his sink-or-swim brand of instruction to be borne of his own brilliance and lack of a safety net while he was in school, this could add some more color as to why his instruction (particularly of Occlumency) is so focused on self-preservation; perhaps learning the skill quickly was literally life or death for him once he defected and began working as a double agent for the Order. 

Of course, it could be that he did indeed develop these skills before or shortly upon joining the Death Eaters, but Dumbledore’s presence has a way of making Snape’s hard work evaporate. After all, Dumbledore — and his trust — have the ability to get under Snape’s skin even years later when he’s fully accustomed to his role as a spy...!

The scene above shows him trying to prove himself, I'd say, although I'm a bit on the fence about whether he was there of his own accord or Voldemort sent him there. I can see both options; Voldemort being slightly annoyed by Severus and sending him to apply for a job at Hogwarts, promising him to make him his spy in the castle, just to get him out of his hair for a while, and Severus going there to prove he can be useful and stumbling upon what had to feel like the holy grail for him back then by pure accident. I do headcanon him delivering the prophecy as the event that finally got him the Dark Mark, though. It seems to be the only notable thing he did during the first war.

And as Harry hurtled toward the door, a jar of dead cockroaches exploded above his head.

As far as the book is concerned, the jar explodes over Harry's head. Snape's collection of slimy unpleasant things line the walls, and the Pensieve is on the desk, or on an empty shelf behind/beside the desk. It is, ofc, entirely possible that Snape reached for a random jar and launched it at Harry, who was beneath the door, and it shattered above/around the doorway.

However, @sideprince suggested the much more interesting theory that Snape accidentally exploded a jar because he lost control, a display of accidental magic similar to the one we saw with Petunia and the branch in The Prince's Tale because he felt vulnerable and overwhelmed.

In this scenario the jar just happened to be on a shelf somewhere above Harry or flew off the shelf somehow and exploded if Harry was still in the process of crossing the room.

Obviously Snape using physical violence is unusual for him in the books, except in the case of self defence (i.e. in SWM where he's being ganged up on by James and Sirius) or the defence of others (i.e. using Sectumsempra to defend Lupin but accidentally hitting George).

And anyway I just ADORE the idea of Snape being overwhelmed and accidentally losing control of his magic (amidst a lesson where he's previously told Harry off for his supposed lack of emotional self control, God love him).

At some stage I'll try and ponder whether there's any other similarities on other occasions when Snape sort of loses it

He said it would be fun.

Severus goes to the quidditch cup with Harry and the Weasleys. Harry never gets almost blamed for the conjuration of the Dark Mark. Snape does. Harry just about kills Fudge for it.

When Harry’s name comes out of the Goblet of Fire, Snape has a heart attack. He tried everything he can to get Harry out of having to participate in the event, even revealing to the world that he had adopted Harry and that Harry’s name is legally and magically Harry Snape (or Harry Snape-Potter or Harry Prince. Whatever you want to go with) (post-Severitus means after Snape adopted Harry).

Before the first task, Snape coordinates with Hagrid to clue Harry in on the dragons. He’s also the one who tutors Harry on Unrelated But Generally Useful Spells (like accio)

Harry is instilled in a general distrust of Moody when Snape reveals his past with the auror. Harry reports Moody to Snape after the whole “Unforgivable Curses” lesson. Dumbledore takes neither of them seriously of course.

Then the first task comes. Snape is on the edge of his seat the whole time, terrified that his son was going to be burnt to a crisp. Harry wins in his own way and gets the egg.

When Cedric gives Harry the hint, Snape gives Harry special access to the Prefect Bathroom so he can check it out.

When Harry figured it out, Snape gives Harry enough Gillyweed to allow him to breathe underwater for a week. Gives? Did I say gives? I meant that some very kind soul left a whole jar of the stuff on a book about magical plants with a bookmark in the page about gillyweed.

When Harry wakes up on the day of the second task, he expects either Ron (even if they are fighting) or Hermione to be gone (he had figured out the cryptic clue about losing something important). When he sees that Hermione is gone, he assumes that it’s her. He notices that Snape is absent from the staff table, but just assumes that he’s busy.

So during the task, Harry is taken completely off guard to see his dad floating at the bottom of the lake. Of course, it seems obvious to him afterwards, but he is still taken off guard. He watches the other competitors take their hostages, but Fleur never comes for her sister. So he grabs both Snape and the smaller girl.

The grindylows attack Harry and Harry fights as hard as he can, but he eventually decides it’s best to send the two hostages up before him. In the chaos, he forgets to take another bite of gillyweed. Once both of the hostages break the surface, the spells are broken and they wake up. Snape looks around for Harry, knowing that he should have surfaced beside them. Harry isn’t there. Without hesitation, Snape dives back under to get Harry.

Once Snape resurfaces, all three of them are fished out of the water. Harry is docked points for needing to be rescued, but given extra for saving Fleur’s sister. Neither Snape nor Harry care even a speck. Harry is recovering from almost drowning and Snape is holding onto Harry so tightly as he orders people around. He calls for his wand so he can put a drying and warming charm on Harry. He helps Harry knock the water loose from his lungs. He glares daggers at Dumbledore.

Before the final task, Snape does something sneaky. He puts a tracking charm on Harry’s glasses. He knows that the games will have some way to track the players while they are in the maze, but he doesn’t trust that. So when he checks his tracking charm minutes after something strange happened with Harry and the Diggory boy and finds that Harry is nowhere near Hogwarts in the slightest, he knows something is terribly wrong. Then, his arm starts burning. He didn’t look at the dark mark. He didn’t need to to know that it was as vivid and black as it had been the day he had taken it. He just apparated to the location it was calling him to. The same place Harry was.

When Snape gets there, he doesn’t hesitate. He knows that his spy position is absolutely cooked after his public claiming of Harry as his son at the beginning of the school year. So he just starts cursing everyone around him. Lucius Malfoy? Fried (that’s for trying to murder Harry two years ago). Peter Pettigrew? Petrified (not getting away this time, rat). Any death eater that was able to come soon found themselves at the business end of Snape’s wand. He only stops when he hears screaming. Harry, under the red light of the cruciatus curse, is writhing in pain. Snape turns his full force on Voldemort.

unfortunately, Voldemort is still stronger. As Voldy is about to overpower Snape, Snape releases Harry from the statue and tells him to run. Voldemort takes the opening and casts the killing curse. But before he can get all the words out, his arm is whipped to the side as it lock in to Harry’s. The word “expelliarmus” spills out of Harry’s mouth and the spells lock. Spirits of those Voldemort’s wand has killed come flooding out. James cheers Harry on. Cedric asks him to take back his body. Lily faces Snape. She thanks him for keeping Harry safe, and tells him to please get her boy home. So Snape quite literally tackles Voldemort, tells Harry to run, then escapes himself when the ghosts start attacking Voldemort.

The immediate aftermath is still terrible. Everyone in the stands is panicking. Harry is sobbing uncontrollably as Amos Diggory cries over his son. Snape is hurt from his death water scuffle, but he practically carries Harry off anyways. Once they’re in the quiet, Snape goes to get his medical supplies. That’s when “Moody” comes. He drags Harry off and that scene plays out pretty much the same. But Snape gets to Harry way faster than Dumbledore (glasses tracking charm) and curses Moody. The polyjuice wears off and Snape dumps a full bottle of Veritaserum down Crouch’s throat (I headcanon that taking more than the necessary amount makes answering the questions downright painful and can even turn the victim’s brain into mush if they try to resist the desire to tell the truth). They find the real moody blah blah blah

Harry and Snape recover in the hospital wing (which has been sealed off to prevent rubberneckers). Snape signs Harry up to see a mind healer almost immediately because Harry literally watched a boy he was friends with get murdered and then watched the resurrection of Voldemort. Harry doesn’t have to suffer alone that summer. He has his dad to help him with his nightmares and he has his magical therapist to help him with the survivor’s guilt.

They cannot get through a single thing without bitc- arguing..the whole way through. The task at hand probably isn’t getting completed, or atleast in the way it needed to be. On the high chance they end up failing, expect whatever project it is to be set ablaze and flying around the room. On the chance they end up succeeding, expect something else to be flying around the room whilst set ablaze, just instead of grumbling characters you get two full of bitter triumph.

Bake a cake? Snapes trying to potioneersplain the directions while harry is passive aggressively (interrupting) reminding him that he very well knows how to bake, and has been doing so for ages. IF the batter makes it to the oven and not on the kitchen tile, that cake is either very questionable or just completely burnt. Firm believer that harry kicks snape the fuck out of the kitchen when he’s baking.

Prepare a dinner? Takeout. Don’t ask what happened to the kitchen, or to them, both mentally and physically, just know that it ended in a very competent cook and a more than competent potions master ordering 7.99 pizza.

They’re assigned to clean a space in grimmauld? It’s worse off them when they started. I mean there wasn’t dust anymore but that was because of the water damage caused. Someone wasn’t paying attention to their enchantment of refilling a mop bucket whilst also in the midst of a petty bickering and had managed to flood the room about four inches deep. Someone else wasn’t paying attention to where they were walking, while also passive aggressively arguing about cleaning and bumped into a century old bookshelf with expensive and valuable artifacts. All were lost. The curtains are torn, the couch is on the ceiling due to accidental magic, and possibly important documents were violated. There’s a cursed magical object in the corner that SOMEONE had accidentally unleashed and it had taken kreature into the VOID. Somehow Sirius’ mother got caught in the crossfire and she wasn’t even in the room they were cleaning out. A chunk of Snapes hair is missing and Harry lost his glasses…somewhere??????

Going to retrieve supplies? It takes ten hours for four items because they keep getting sidetracked and lost. They end up going all the way in the opposite direction of where they needed to retrieve whatever it it needed. It is snapes fault because harry says so , it is harry’s fault because snape claims it to be, it is lupins fault for thinking they could go out and grab what was needed in the first place. You cannot ask the most stubborn, prone to anger people to do absolutely anything of substance together.

that being said….is snape still recognized as harry’s legal guardian? yes. When it a crowd is it eachother that they first look for? also yes. and through trial and error, they’ve found they can work together pretty efficiently when it comes to the war. baking however, is not ever going to happen.

do NOT talk to me about the COCKROACH JAR scene or the fact that snape may or may have not seen harry be exposed to cruel abuse by his relatives during their occlumency lessons i do NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT.

yes i am AVOIDING the canon HORRORS of those damn books in fact i like to pretend they do NOT EXIST

but that being said let’s talk about the topic i’ve actively been avoiding bringing up online for a couple years now

As someone who has had vivid daydreams about severitus scenarios before i found out it was a legitimate trope, that fifth book was HELL ON EARTH FOR ME. I just remember reading and coming to the occu lessons and thinking “wow..what if snape finds out, that would probably change how he viewed harry and id really like to see how their relationship would change!!” And then as i read that portion in which harry had mentioned what memories had been flicked through, I had waited for that big climax of the chapter, just for his overview of the memories to end up a pretty short passage, unimportant. embarrassing. Harry’s home life definitely wasn’t the center, but it was most definitely brought up, including his bullying faced from Dudley. I read on, expecting Snape to comment on harry’s home life, asking him a barrage of questions, “Does this still happen? How long have they treated like this? Why didn’t you tell anyone? Does the headmaster know?” Despite every interaction of the two leading up to that point, I had wholeheartedly expected snape to swoop in and save him. He would drag harry off to the hospital wing, hex the dursleys senseless. That he would realize that Harry was not the spoiled prince he assumed his student to be. Yet he never did, and Harry’s memories were never brought up again. I remember this scene leaving a sickly knot that would continue to build up in my stomach. I earnestly and most embarrassingly wondered if the same would happened to me. A couple years later i stumbled onto a tumblr post providing an in depth analysis of the scene, showing that even through snapes stoic presence, he did react to what he saw. I still wish he had done something, anything.

and yeah… I’m not ready to reread book five now that I’m a severitus lover and Snape fan. My guy gets exponentially worse in the last three books, right until his death.

it screws with me so bad just how terrible Book Snape is. I always forget because movie Snape is just. A better guy. And fanfic Snape is usually even better. Sigh

is/has been an active suicide risk

like i saw a fic the other day where snape woke up as a portrait after dying and whilst it was very sweet that he got to have a closure conversation with harry, i couldn't help but think of the feeling of being trapped in one place - usually one room, if you even get a room in your background and not a plain bg - for a possible eternity, on full display, with next to no choice about who your neighbours are hanging beside you, who comes to stand in front of you, who enters your portrait, who wakes you up and when, nowhere to hide, unable to do anything or have any significant power over the real world, and yet (by all appearances) being fully sentient, needing to sleep, wanting to party and go places, wanting to defend your home and who enters it, as if you were still alive

4 years after graduation wasn’t long enough for Filch to forget the silhouette of a spidery student skulking around in the dark.

And then a comment below saying that he was so excited but it's where he ultimately died