Purple Ocean

The difference, however, is that Harry went through so much hardships in his life, so much trauma, that it actually made him more emotionally intelligent than his parents ever were in their 20 years. He was able to relate to people around him and understand their point of view because of the fact that he had to emotionally mature faster for survival sake. That is what makes Harry. That is one of the many things that makes him the main character of his own story.

From a cognitive development perspective, it's very unlikely that a child who never knew or had any kind of reference to their parents (as is the case with Harry) would truly have things in common with them. There are certain aspects that are hereditary, such as health or mental health issues, but personality itself is not deterministic, it largely depends on the environment in which one is raised.

Both Lily and James were children who were deeply loved and cherished by their parents. Lily was the younger sibling and the golden child of the family, while James was an only child born to an older wizard couple who had spent half their lives trying to have children. Both grew up surrounded by love and attention, which really explains why, in some aspects, they were egocentric and had very little empathy for anything that didn’t directly affect them.

Harry, on the other hand, has trouble expressing his emotions and feels uncomfortable when others express theirs in front of him because he grew up in a repressive environment where affection, care, or emotional support didn’t exist. Accepting and normalizing his own feelings is something he’s not used to, nor is doing the same for others. This is a consequence of the kind of cognitive development he experienced.

Despite that, Harry is actually quite mature for his age in other ways, for example, in his ability to give second chances. Harry is capable of understanding the context behind people’s actions and being fair about it. He shows this by accepting Dudley’s apology, even though Dudley had bullied him his entire life. He shows it by learning to appreciate Severus despite so many years of hatred, recognizing what he did and the sacrifice he made. He also shows it by choosing not to condemn the Malfoys because of Narcissa’s gesture during the war.

Snape on the other hand conjured a stretch to transport him back to the castle. Despite at the moment still thinking that Sirius:

killed 12 innocent muggles and Peter Pettigrew 

betrayed the Potters to Voldemort and is therefore the reason Lily died

escaped Azkaban, which was thought to be impossible and therefore meant he must be extremely powerful/dangerous

is now trying to kill Harry (the boy Snape literally sold his life away to protect)

probably hexed/harmed (like Ron's leg) the trio to make them believe he was innocent

"OUT WITH IT, POTTER!" he bellowed. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"Professor Snape!" shrieked Madam Pomfrey. "Control yourself!"

"See here, Snape, be reasonable," said Fudge. "This door's been locked, we just saw --"

"THEY HELPED HIM ESCAPE, I KNOW IT!" Snape howled, pointing at Harry and Hermione. His face was twisted; spit was flying from his mouth.

"Calm down, man!" Fudge barked. "You're talking nonsense!"

"YOU DON'T KNOW POTTER!" shrieked Snape. "HE DID IT, I KNOW HE DID IT--"

****

Back before we knew the carefully concealed plot twist of Snape having once been friends with Lily, we thought Snape was upset about the Marauders getting their way again. We knew he took Sirius's so-called prank very personally and never forgave him for it and here was a scene of him being upset, angry for himself, for his own life being worth so little to Dumbledore and the rest of them that they think Sirius escaping *again* is funny. But just think back, with the knowledge that we now have, what he must have been thinking. He was not concerned for himself at all.

All he knows in this scene is that what he tragically believes to be James Potter's clone has in all his arrogance helped escape the murderer of Lily, snatching him right from beneath Snape's nose. Snape howls with the pain of Sirius escaping, of the presumed traitor of Lily evading justice. He doesn't care who sees him or how he looks absolutely unhinged in front of the Minister - he only cares about the traitor who turned his and Dumbledore's plan to hide the Potters upside down receiving his due punishment.

And there Snape was, just hours ago, being so good and official and taking Sirius back to Hogwarts on a stretcher so he would be comfortable just before his execution. Which Snape has no reason to believe he doesn't deserve, having been unconscious for the whole "rat in our midst" reveal.

And Dumbledore is just not taking Snape seriously here - amused by his meltdown along with the rest of the room. He's playing Snape for a complete fool, doesn't give him the information necessary, does not lift a finger to stop him from throwing a scene in front of the staff and the Minister of Magic and just lets Snape lose it thinking Sirius has escaped unpunished (and later, Dumbledore even has the gall to suggest Snape is disappointed because he did not get an Order of Merlin) ... and only a year later, this same Dumbledore matter-of-factly asks Snape to return to Voldemort and try and convince him he doesn't deserve to be killed on the spot.

Because Harry knows what it’s like to be violated. Harry knows what it’s like to be abused. Harry knows what it’s like to be cornered by a group and bullied. Harry knows what it’s like to be humiliated. Harry has been abused and mistreated his entire life by the Dursleys, and to him, Dudley is his bully. Not Draco. He sees Draco as an annoying prick he argues with at school, a rival , but Dudley is his bully.

And when he sees his father behaving like that, Harry compares James’s actions against Severus to what Dudley used to do to him. He doesn’t see James and Severus as rivals, or what’s happening as some dumb playground scuffle. He recognizes it as something that could’ve happened to him. Something Dudley could’ve done to him. And of course, he’s horrified, not just because of what’s happening, but because it’s his father doing it, with all the emotional weight that carries.

People keep insisting that scene “isn’t a big deal” or that James and Severus were just rivals, or that “well, Snape attacked too” and they don’t realize how ridiculous they sound, because there’s something that directly contradicts those shitty victim-blaming takes, and it’s the actual damn narration. Harry Potter himself. Because in that scene, Harry is horrified. And he’s horrified because, through Severus, he’s reliving his own trauma with Dudley, and it leaves him in shock.

And let’s be clear, a Harry is a character who shows very little external empathy for people. In that same book, he thinks Cho is annoying for crying, for example. He tends to respect people more when they don’t openly show vulnerability, because when they do, it makes him uncomfortable. But when he sees that memory of Severus and his father, he instantly empathizes. He connects completely. He takes it personally. That’s the text’s way of telling us that, yes, that scene is an absolute horror.

And here’s the thing: Harry empathizes and connects because he sees himself in that scene. Lily doesn’t. Lily has never experienced violence (which makes it absurd when people treat her like this perpetually fragile victim, because there’s literally no basis for it). On the contrary: she’s the youngest child, the only one with magic, adored by her parents, treated like she’s the most special person in the world, even above her sister, which is what actually causes problems. She gets sorted into the “cool kids’ house,” everyone considers her a catch, she supposedly has loads of friends, the teachers love her, and the most popular, wealthiest guy in school is constantly validating her socially.

Her whole life is a string of privileges. She doesn’t know what it’s like to have it hard, she doesn’t know what it’s like to survive day to day, she doesn’t know what it’s like to live in fear. The worst thing that’s ever happened to that girl is that some guy called her a Mudblood. Can you even imagine how privileged you have to be for that to be the most unforgivable thing someone’s ever done to you? The level of delusion and bubble you’d have to live in?

Don’t piss me off we both know that James has like four scenes, why are we disrespecting Harry like that.

My man did not spend every year of his life being bullied and abused, facing dangerous and potentially deadly situations while being a preteen/teenager, and then defeating the dark lord just for you to be comparing him (and implying that he is somehow lesser than in some aspects) to his father who’s only canon information we know is that he was rich, bullied a boy for being ugly, poor, and Slytherin, and harassed a girl to date him and tried to threaten her best friend to go out with her

the way sirius sniffs severus is absolutely unhinged to me. like. the metaphor is visceral: dude’s literally scenting a vulnerable prey, ready to hunt. this says a lot about sirius’ insane predatory behavior that fandom love to gloss over.

Everyone treated him like shit, not only his own father and marauders, but even Lily and Dumbledore. Not a single person really on his side.

1. Lily had the right to talk back at the slur, but the moment her ✨️best friend✨️ offends her first thing she does is calling him snivellous before the crowd and telling him to wash his pants (not to even mention that she smirked seeing him sa'ed).

Not a single thought he could have said that to protect her (for the fear of his bullies targeting her).

And turning away from your childhood friend without a shadow of doubt and public humiiation during sa is not typical of ppl their age. They were 15 in that scene, not little kids. If your friend is harrassed before everyone, even if youre at odds, a real friend will protect you, defend you and argue with you when your dignity is restored

2. And how come Dumbledore prioritises Remus' secret being kept at the cost of forcing Snape to stay quiet about his trauma of nearly losing his life 💀 the boy almost got torn to shreds by a werewolf due to the "prank" and he cant tell anyone about this.

Even if Remus isnt at guilt, forcing a victim to stay quiet to "save" another child?💀💀 Sirius didnt even pay for this, which means how little Snape meant for the headmaster.

Besides, James comes out of this scene as some kind of a hero who he's not. If it wasnt for him and his deraged friends, Snape would have never found himself in this situation, and he might never become the person who he became later in life.

In the end, despite not even an ounce of genuine care from anybody, Snape ended up protecting Harry and gave his life to deafeat voldemort.

He did wrong things, treated kids the way he had been treated all his life, but if I were him, I'd surely end up way worse, perhaps become worse than voldi.

Snape's Cat Army 🐈🐈‍⬛🐈

And so is their illiteracy

The whole point of SWM is to set the tone for the seven years we didn’t see. It’s not a matter of perception or Snape’s biased pov. That’s exactly what the marauders were, why their fans never stop to think that if the assault was an isolated incident then the crowd would be in shock, or Lily would be surprised by James asking-bribing her to go out with him?

I mean, as if Rowling hadn’t made it crystal fucking clear that the Marauders were bullies. And not just because of what they did to Severus —which is already bad enough— but because Remus and Sirius themselves tell Harry straight up that James used to hex people in the hallways just because he felt like it. Like it was a casual hobby or something. And then, on top of that, we have official records —not biased memories, not Snape’s “perception”— actual school records stating that Sirius and James used an illegal spell on a guy called Bertrand Aubrey. Illegal. Not “questionable,” not “borderline,” not “a cheeky prank.” Fucking illegal. And if it’s illegal, it’s because it’s dangerous as hell. But of course, since they were the golden boys, the pretty ones, the teacher’s pets, they got away with everything. Always.

And the worst part? It’s the same goddamn pattern every time: two against one. Always ganging up. Always with numbers. Always with power. They knew nothing would happen to them, that no one would hold them accountable, so they just did whatever the hell they wanted. And still, even with all that evidence, people are out here saying it’s just “Snape’s biased perspective”? Are you kidding me? So what, Filch was sharing Snape’s hallucinations? Sirius and Remus just made it all up too? The school records were forged during one of Snape’s PTSD episodes? Come on. They just can’t handle the fact that the romanticized image they built around the Marauders falls apart when you actually read the damn books.

Honestly, these people either haven’t read anything properly or they’re so used to being spoon-fed by YA novels written like the audience has the cognitive level of a toddler that they can’t handle any subtlety in storytelling. It’s the literary version of the Nolan Syndrome: unless you explain something 40 times with dramatic music and a slow zoom, they just don’t get it. They don’t know how to read between the lines, they miss the tone, they completely overlook the fact that Harry’s horror when he watches that memory is the emotional core of that entire scene. They can’t seem to grasp that Rowling chose that specific moment not because it was an outlier, but because it was the norm. That wasn’t a “bad day.” That was the usual shit Snape had to endure. It was systemic.

You’re telling me that she loved him and she did less than the bare minimum to defend him and support him, then Lily sucks, there’s no way to go around it

And... please don't judge me. I'm ovulating right now tehe 🤭🙃

i would never judge you, anon. god knows i'm not in a position to point fingers lmao

before we can discuss what kinks i think severus can possibly have, first let me acknowledge that 1) whatever desires sev may or may not have, he probably doesn't have sophisticated names for them (as previously established, the wizarding world stopped evolving in the middle ages; they're conservative and repressed), and 2) this man is extremely untrusting of others, insecure and sexually inexperienced (if he was a virgin or not by the time of his death, it's still something i'm contemplating about; ask me again in a few weeks, and i'll give you an definitive answer)

so from this alone we can presume that, yes, by definition severus must be quite vanilla. he's not seeking out people to be kinky with, simply because he's not seeking out anyone at all lmao. i mean, i guess that could change if he was to enter a stable romantic relationship with someone who's into the same things as him. it's not completely out of the realm of possibility. still, it seems rather unlikely given the time period and severus' own trauma towards intimacy and just sheer sexual repression

that's not to mean he doesn't have fantasies and desires considered out of the norm though. he does, but it's something that only exists in the depths of his mind, yes? i think he would have trouble accepting any kind of loss of control over his body and mind, especially if we're talking about his sexuality. besides, not everyone is open minded and "woke" enough to understand that having depraved and perverted thoughts doesn't necessarily make you depraved and perverted

so yeah, technically, he's not very kinky at all

HOWEVER, just because severus can't name or recognize his kinks by what they are, doesn't mean they're not real. have you ever heard of linguistic relativity? it refers to the idea that the language one speaks can influence the way they think. so if you don't have the words for something, a definition, then it's not a thing. it's not a valid concept worth thinking about seriously, and that's what happens to severus in regards to his kinks

okay, so this is getting way too fucking long to such a silly goofy ask, so let's go to the list:

voyeurism. i said this before and i will say it again: you can't be a good legilimens if you're not curious about people's secret thoughts and ideas. you have to want to know, and you have to like having the knowledge even if you don't like the knowledge itself. also, the guy was a literal spy. he thrives on knowing intimate things about people. oh, prince, but what does that have to do with anything???? BITCH, don't suppress the artist. this shit has to bleed over to other parts of his life, it's what i mean—there's no fucking way it doesn't. are you telling me he never caught a stray sexual fantasy out of someone's mind? are you telling me he never jerked off to the sound of his classmates jerking off in the slytherin dorms? are you telling me that during his gig as a spy, wandering around the manors of sexually repressed dark wizards, he never got an eyeful? please

olfactophilia. scent kink, basically. it's one of my headcanons that severus has a very acute sense of smell, weirdly so. like, imagine hannibal lecter being able to literally smell out sickness, that's severus snape. he's not really into fetid smells though, it's more of a natural body smell thing. some people say it's a pheromones thing, who knows. but give him your working out clothes and he'll masturbate with them on his face. i know this dude is into licking armpits, but i just can't prove it—

underwear fetish. panty sniffer. i'm sorry, but it's true. and yeah, it's the smell thing again, but it's also the inherently intimate nature of panties in general. i mean, your underwear is constantly cupping your bits and i feel like this is a thought severus would obsess over every time he sees someone's underwear (which, admittedly, isn't very often). also, have you ever watched call me by your name? there's a scene where elio puts on oliver's shorts and masturbates while wearing them. now that's severus snape

degradation/praise kink. this one will make enemies, i know, but hear me out. do i think severus enjoys being called names during sexy times? no, absolutely not. he will get upset, angry and insecure wondering if there's an edge of truth to your words. so no calling him a "slut". but i also do think he can enjoy it in a very specific way. if you use a softly mocking and condescending tone of voice while simultaneously praising him, this man is done for. say he's desperate or pathetic, and also call him "love" or "honey" and he's putty in your hands (needless to say, this isn't something you can just throw at him or he'll hex you to hell—baby steps)

humiliation kink. again, only under very specific circumstances where there's no actual risk of being humiliated for real. probably not even involving another human being at all, just him alone. maybe he imagines himself jerking off or having sex in front of the death eaters and the dark lord or he uses a pensive to see his own performance during sex (if you know, you know lmao) and the cringe makes him hot for some fucking reason. maybe it's because he's the one in control of the narrative so that's sexy for him, who knows🤷🏾‍♀️well, i probably should know since this is my post, but sometimes i work with vibes only, guys. i do stand by this though

exhibitionism. but like, a passive sort of exhibitionism if that makes sense. a dormant sort of exhibitionism only activated when he's aware he's being watched and the person who's watching him is also aware he's watching them. it can't be a sneaky thing, or that'll turn him off

bondage. but don't think you'll be the one tying him up because that just won't happen. yes, i think he could be into the idea of tying up his partner. of just having them completely at his mercy. he probably wouldn't even know what to do at first, but that's not really the point. it's a trust thing for him. if you trust him enough to let him restrain you like this, then that must mean you really love him and is unafraid of him. which is an honor, really. hypocritical? maybe, but you try getting hanged upside down to see if you can trust anyone restraining you ever again

soft dom/domme. you asked if i thought severus would be the type of being a daddy dom and the answer is no. honestly, i can't see him being very dominant in bed at all. but i can imagine someone doing it to him. would his person be his dominant in a official way? also, no. i think it would sneak up on them; a dynamic where severus has a partner who's "bossy", assertive and decisive and severus would just let them take the wheel sometimes. and not always sexually either. they would make sure he eats, sleeps, go out etc, and he would agree with minimal grumbling because it just feels easier having someone telling you what to do. i mean, he already has two masters, what's another one?

No, tell me how it makes any sense to go to a person obviously in emotional turmoil and compound it by saying, 'Hey, you know this guy you feel bad for? He deserved everything that happened to him. Hey, you know the sexual harassment you read about? He brought it on himself.'

I saw a TikTok in which the op was mentioning how the Mauraders were smarter than Severus, and I can't help but come out here and say that that's a load of bollocks.

Their argument was them becoming Animagus while underage, as well as the creation of the Mauraders map. Along with McGonagall mentioning how they were the smartest of their year.

Now, don't scroll yet, this is where I want to object.

Turning into an Animagus is a ministry observed action. And while turning in itself without supervision and in school years is an amazing feat, it's clear that it's a manual followed process.

Rita too was an unregistered Animagus, let's not forget. And the Mauraders map?

Let's take the magical logic that was established in the books. Charmed objects are created/charmed by a wizard, by already existing spells and putting multiple spells at once.

Hermione did something similar with the DA signing form.

What does this mean? The Mauraders map is a mixture of spells and charms, maped out with the help of invisibility cloak and 4 students who explored at night.

Smart right? So what makes Snape smarter?

Snape was a creator.

He created his own spells, now would you call that smarter than putting multiple spells in a piece of paper?

Severus altered his potions book, improving already existing recipes, which were made by professional potioneers and published. He had a basic and in depth knowledge of potions, far beyond his age.

A teacher only notices students who are active participants in class, and given James and Sirius's personality (we can see in Snape's worst memories that James actively tries to engage the audience in Severus's humiliation), it isn't far off to assume that they were actively answering in class to impress others, compared to Severus, who is shown to have a much more reclusive and secretive personality. So to any teacher, this would obviously create an image that James and Sirius were just smarter than the rest of the students.