There are many fanfics where Severus dies, retains his memories joins the Order and help defeat Voldemort, which honestly doesn't intruige me as much, because his initial descent to darkness and later his guilt and redemption is what makes his character so complex and interesting.
So what if...Severus dies, goes back in time keeping all his memories to become the world's most powerful dark wizard of all time?
We know all the trauma that Severus had endured ever since he was a little kid, being born in poverty to an abusive father and a neglectful mother, Severus would've thought Hogwarts would be his only save place, only for him to have the Marauders' bullying turn his life even more miserable than it already was.
Snape was by himself, minding his own business when Sirius got bored so James decided to paralyze him, make him choke on soap, hang him upside down ans strip him naked before a crowd of cheering students..."because he exists" and this happened after the werewolf incident. He was already recovering from a near-death experience that was completely brushed off, and the faculty showed no care whatsoever.
He wasn't even allowed to talk about it, and the Marauders received literally no punishment for it.
On top of that, Snape is considered "wrong" for "holding a grudge," but first of all, he got zero justice for any of this. Second, how can anyone recover from trauma with no resources, no support, and while everyone around them is downplaying and invalidating it. Sirius held a grudge on Snape for 12 years, when he was the one that bullied Snape with his friend and almost had him mauled to death, but he's never blamed for it.
Dumbledore literally threatened Snape and silenced him to protect his "golden boys" and they walked away with bullying him and attempted murder with no consequences, when he almost died a gruesome death and had to live with the trauma of it, along with that he's forced to spy for the same man who never did anything to save him from the bullying despite being his guardian, and yet Snape let Dumbledore manupulate him into risking his life spying for the world's darkest wizard, (because he believes that's what he deserves after causing Lily's death)..for years, at the same place he had endured so much trauma... only for Dumbledore to reveal that Snape has to kill him, damaging his soul and reputation, and that too right after he confessed that had been raising the boy Snape had risked everything to protect.. as a pig for slaughter.
Not only that, but James Potter...who always had a privileged, happy life with not an ounce of Snape's trauma was hailed the hero for saving his life, was made the head boy despite being a former bully who used to hexed students for fun with illegal hexes, and Lily chose despite him relentlessly bullying her best friend for almost 7 years, even behind her back. And even in death, James dies, hailed a hero buried beside Lily with a memorial statue built for them while Severus sacrifices everything for almost 16 years, risking his life spying for Voldemort, protecting his bully's son who hated him, saved as many people as he could, constantly walked the thin line between life and death and sacrificed his life for the wizarding world that only gave him pain and cruelty.
While James died a hero, Snape died a traitor despised by the world he sacrificed his life to protect, knowing he'd be failing Lily all over again, by sending her son to his death, despite risking everything to protect him, because he ultimately chose the safety of the wizarding world over saving Harry for Lily.
So what if...after all this trauma in his past life, his life doesn't change for the better even after he goes back in time and has to face his abusive father, the Marauders' bullying and humiliation and Dumbledore's manipulation... and to make things worse, in this life he looses Lily all over again despite his desperate attempts to save her from the same fate she had in his previous life, when Dumbledore uses Lily as bait to lure Voldemort, getting her killed even after Snape switched sides, and swore his loyalty to Dumbledore for Lily's protection, only for him to find out it never even mattered in the first place and Dumbledore just used him to get Lily killed on purpose to defeat Voldemort.
That would be his absolute last straw to make him snap.
With no Lily Evans as his moral compass or redemption, no Harry to protect (let's say she didn't get with James or have a kid with James in this life yet) Snape would absolutely snap.
Snaters already see Snape as the absolute evil... devil incarnate, blaming him for everything under the sun (Longbottoms' insanity, Moody, Potters, Headwig and Emmeline Vance's death, Voldemort's return, Shrieking shack incident) so what if Snape actually becomes the very thing for real this time?
What if Snape fully embraces the dark arts and gets his revenge on his abusive and neglectful parents, Dumbledore, the James, Sirius, Wormtail (Marauders), Voldemort, the death eaters and each and every since person in this world that has ever wronged him?
Severus Snape had already surpassed Dumbledore at his knowledge of Dark Arts because there are instances in the Harry Potter series where Dumbledore acknowledges that Severus Snape possesses a deeper knowledge of the Dark Arts than he does, like when relies on Snape's knowledge and skills in handling dark magic, as seen when he asks Snape to contain the curse on his hand.
We know Snape was better at Occlumency than the world's best legillemens, Voldemort himself because he managed to fool him, while relying information to Dumbledore.
So he's better that the two most powerful wizards of the wizarding world at two things...better than Dumbledore at dark arts and better than Voldemort at Occlumency, which is a feat that 90% wizards of the wizarding world would never achieve.
And coming to his duelling skills, Snape easily dodges all of Harry's curses because he's able to read Harry's mind using Legilimency and predict what spell he'd use next (when Snape tells Harry to close his mind), with Harry's barely spell barely even scratching him, not to mention he managed to hold his own against McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick...experienced, accomplished Professors twice his age, without even aiming to attack them.
Snape is a prodigy in the potions and Dark Arts, both as a student and later as a teacher. He is knowledgeable about various jinxes, hexes, and curses, and at just the age of 15 creates the "Sectumsempra" curse, corrects his standard advanced potion making textbook to make the potions more potent as a teenager. Not to mention he's very intelligent, being able to outsmart someone as clever and ruthless as Voldemort.
Without the guilt from Lily's death, or the need for repentance, Snape would let his anger, bitterness and resentment fuel him, and he could use his Occlumency, legillemency, potions, dark arts and duelling skills to become the darkest wizard of all time, using his brains to outsmart people like he outsmarted Voldemort.
Snape could use occlumency as a warfare, where he doesn't just read minds, he implants recursive nightmares that drive targets insane.
He could create curses that makes victims relive their greatest guilt until they off themselves. And unlike Voldemort he would inculcate muggle technology with magic to make them deadlier.
His skill at Occlumency/Legilimency already surpasses most..he could become someone who enslaves minds without Imperius.
His knowledge of potions along with spell creation would make him terrifying. He'd create more Unforgivable like curses, subtle poisons impossible to detect, hexes that kill slowly.
He could brew deadly potions and enchant it to never miss his targets, and to be deadly only to the wizards he wants to kill...or a particularly dark curse that could siphon victims' life-force to heal his followers.
Voldemort's strength was in charisma, and raw power, but he was careless with human bonds, and had the fear of death which led him to create Horcruxes and that's what destroyed him.
Snape's strength is subtlety, intelligence, and innovation.Snape is intellectual, quiet, precise, and would be feared not because he commands armies, but because he always knows your weakness and would find out just the ways to manupulate them.
Snape is a master of secrecy. Unlike Voldemort he wouldn't care about grandeur...so he'd thrive as a shadow, spy, or manipulator, pulling strings behind the scenes instead of standing on battlefields.
Also Snape is very pragmatic and he wouldn't trust anyone, never giving anyone the chance to betray him.
A Dark Lord Snape wouldn't even need Horcruxes, because no one can even get close to killing him in the first place.
He'd be wizard who disappears into shadows, leaving only bodies cut open by spells no one else can even replicate.
What makes him more deadly is that he doesn't have the weaknesses Voldemort had. Voldemort feared death and loved power. Snape never feared death after Lily died...he's likely embrace death as an old friend and scorn power as a delusion.
His would be more dangerous because he'd lack the fear of death and he has nothing to loose....not even his power or mortality, unlike Voldemort.
What do you think?
