if severus has the option/choice/drive, what would he do instead of teaching??
Oh man this is an amazing question… thank you for sending it in. I had to really think about it.
Obviously a huge component of Snape’s motivation/current position is due to two major things in his life – the death of Lily Evans and the eventual war – and the abusive environment he grew up in. If you remove just one of these factors, his life and motivations change drastically. If you remove his abusive environment, he would’ve felt safer, had much better coping mechanisms, and not felt so ostracized. This would have led to exploring different interests, I think. He probably would have never even gotten mixed up with the Death Eaters in the first place if he had a support system at home / at school. If you remove the death of Lily and/or the Wizarding War, I think he would’ve eventually left the DEs, and out of necessity, went into hiding. And then, who knows where he would’ve ended up. I’m not even sure he would’ve even remained alive.
But for the sake of keeping it simple, let’s just say he survived post Harry Potter 7 and had the option to do anything he wanted.
I don’t think he would go on to teach DAtDA, despite what he wants in book canon while at Hogwarts – or, if he did, at least not forever. Teaching is a terrible job for Snape and just makes him unhappy; he does it more for the cause and out of necessity than for himself.
So for jobs besides teaching … first of all, Snape is a genius. Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves, despite how they might feel about his character. He might not be particularly emotionally intuitive or mature, but he is incredibly intelligent. The reason he’s not able to rise to anything other than teaching at Hogwarts is due largely to the abuse around him and the circumstances of his life. Most of Snape’s mental energy went toward things for his survival, and then eventually those around him: occulumency, creating curses “for enemies,” and being interested in the Dark Arts; or, more particularly, how they worked. I also think his affinity for Potions stems in the abuse he faced (it was imo his way of taking back some control in his environment – focusing his mental energy elsewhere and creating perfection – as potions is one of the most controlled forms of magic there is … it just requires precision and mental focus). Snape dislikes social interaction and does not do well with children. He would fare best in a position that allows heavy use of his intelligence without social interaction and certainly without needing to work with children; he needs an outlet for his mental energy, though, and he needs creativity, too (he invented a curse at age 16 like? damn severus save some p*ssy for the rest of us tho)
With all of this in mind, I think the ideal position for Snape would be a renowned Alchemist. Something akin to Nicolas Flamel. He would be an amazing researcher and probably innovator, too, and since he works best with potions and/or dark arts, alchemy would be perfect. He’s not afraid to delve into the dark side of things to see how they work, and how he can change them. I can see him publishing works on his findings, inventing new ways to cure or even manipulate diseases … I can even see him, with the proper resources and support, being capable of inventing something in the same caliber that Flamel did: the elixir of life, or philospher’s stone.
