Severus Snape's bio

Name: Severus Snape Age: 36 House: Slytherin Distinguishing Features: A hooked nose, sallow skin and greasy black hair. He also has cold, empty black eyes. He looks, in fact, the perfect villain – sinister, terse and emotionless. Whatever Snape’s bad points are, though (and there are many), he is definitely not the villain. Heritage: Pure-Blood Family: Little known. Pure-blood offspring of an intimidating and overbearing father and a downtrodden mother. First Mention: Chapter Seven of the Sorcerer's Stone. General: Severus Snape is, on the face of it, a very unpleasant man. He uses his position as a senior teacher at Hogwarts to continually bully students he has taken a dislike to (ie those who aren’t from Slytherin), and to blatantly favour his own house. He is petty, vindictive, and able to bear grudges for enormous lengths of time. He is universally disliked (except by Slytherin students of course) mainly due to the fact that he is so fundamentally unlikeable. Yet on the other hand, he is a quite brilliant wizard and potion-maker, a tireless worker for the Order of the Phoenix in the cause against Voldemort at great risk to himself, and a man who is totally and unquestioningly trusted by Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of our time. And, let us not forget, he is the only man ever to have successfully defected from the ranks of the Death Eaters and got out alive, and having pulled off this trick he followed it up with a good stint of spying for the Order of the Phoenix right under the Dark Lord’s nose. The two sides of Severus Snape do not sit happily together, but a glimpse into his life may just start to explain it all a little better. Snape, like Sirius Black, was born into a proud pure-blood family of Muggle-haters and lovers of the Dark Arts. He already knew more curses than most seventh-years when he started at school, testimony not only to his upbringing but also to his genius. Yet his childhood was not a happy one. His father was domineering and quite possibly violent, and the young Severus was a miserable, lonely and socially inept child. When he started at Hogwarts he was easy prey for the much older Lucius Malfoy, who took him under his wing and induced him into his circle of friends, who almost all became Death Eaters. He was also easy prey for the equally talented but obnoxious James Potter, who picked on him mercilessly. Severus’ escape from his unhappy family situation into Hogwarts brought him no relief – he just went from one wretched life to another. And so he followed the only people who had ever given him any sense of belonging – his group of Dark Arts-obsessed Slytherins – far further than sense would have told him he should have done. As far, in fact, as becoming a Death Eater, one of Voldemort’s most trusted followers. Yet with his own personality and dreams belatedly starting to emerge from the depths they had been beaten down to by his succession of unhappy life experiences, even before he was 21 Snape knew he was somewhere he didn’t want to be, and in too deep at that. He took the courageous decision to defect from the Death Eaters, used his immense Occlumency skills to hide his true intentions from his former master, and spied for the Order of the Phoenix. Right up until his downfall, Voldemort never really knew the truth behind this particular follower. Following the break-up of the Death Eaters, Professor Dumbledore was moved to offer Snape a second chance in life and a position teaching at Hogwarts. Snape wished to draw on his expertise and first-hand experiences and teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. Dumbledore, fearing that this position would bring out the worst of the bad parts of Snape’s personality, offered him Potions. He accepted, although he never lost his desire to teach his first-choice subject, and still applies for the job every year (as Hogwarts get through Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers unusually rapidly). Dumbledore inexplicably even turned him down when the only alternative was to have the Ministry of Magic force their own choice of teacher upon him (and hence have the direct line into the school they’d always wanted, allowing them control over school affairs). It’s the view of this website that if you don’t trust somebody, then you don’t make them a teacher. If you trust them enough to make them a teacher, then you trust them enough to teach any subject, particularly those they have unusual expertise in. It has to be said though, however good Snape is at his subjects (and he is very good indeed), for the reasons given earlier, he is a poor teacher. On the other hand, when Voldemort returned, Snape resumed his work for the Order of the Phoenix, taking on a dangerous and secret mission that has yet to be revealed. Clearly Dumbledore and the rest of the Order trust him enough for that, and it once again illustrates the better parts of Snape’s personality – his bravery and commitment to the cause of good. Severus Snape has not had an easy path through life, and has taken some brave and difficult decisions on the way. As a teacher, however, it is hardly his duty to take out his bitterness on his students, yet this is exactly what he does. Particularly if the student in question is a certain Harry Potter.