I always kinda hated people in the Harry Potter fandom who suddenly decided that Severus Snape was their favorite character only after the last book.
It's basically the same thing for me as when someone suddenly starts telling everyone how his or here favorite sports team is just the one who won the championship or something like that. I guess I can understand the need to fit in, but let's face it - most of these kind of people have the whole wrong idea.
As I said, nowadays every person who read the Harry Potter series swears that Snape's character is the bee's knees (I can't believe I just wrote that). I'm pretty sure that their reasoning consists of "Aw, poor Severus, always bullied, always hated by everyone and look what he did".
Yes, this is true, but most of these people don't really get him. Or at least I think they don't.
You see, Severus Snape isn't the misunderstood hero of the wizarding world. Severus Snape is a mean bastard trough and trough.
What people seem to always fog over are those passages in the book that underline the fact that he wasn't always the victim. Yes, he was constantly bullied, but he gave as much as he got.
Severus Snape was just as much of a bully as the others were.
"Yes, but he had his reasons" you might say. "He was abused by his father, and later on by his classmates".
It does seem that way, doesn't it? But how much the book really says about his childhood? We only get a couple of glances at his life, and most of those go only as far as his parents screaming at each other.
What family doesn't have parents who scream at each other? Hell, even I had to listen to it a couple of times, and I never joined some crazy fanatic group who murdered people.
Let's face it, Snape was always dark. He was on his way to become a Death Eater WAY before Lily, the little cunt, decided that she was too good for him. We can see glimpses of him spending time with kids who were clearly on the "dark" side of the war.
Snape knew perfectly well who he was. He was never that cliché misunderstood person who just pretends to be a bastard, while on the inside he is all soft and cuddly.
He never wanted to be "saved, by the love of a woman" or anything equally disgusting.
Quite frankly, and as far as I understood - he was attracted mostly to power. Not ANY kind of power, like the Dark Lord, that's for sure. But as you notice in the books, Snape observes Lily using magic on the playground - and seeing that she does something he previously thought impossible, he probably deduces that Lily is particularly powerful.
He hates Petunia, right along with Lily - and probably that's the basic foundation of their relationship. I think as a child, Severus probably saw a fellow rebel in Lily. Cause let's face it, Lily wasn't that angel everyone always assumes she was.
She was just as much a teenager as everyone around her - and we all know that teenagers are probably the most hateful creatures on Earth.
I don't really blame Severus for liking her at first. After all, despite them being only children, they were probably the only one in their little world who could do magic (besides Severus' mother). That, I guess, meant that the two of them were a lot more powerful than any other person around them.
Having to respond to the more experienced adults around them while they knew that they were "superior" must have been a bitter experience.
But back to Severus.
We all know that he preferred to be left alone to attend to his studies. He was an anti-social child, who would have liked to be known for his intelligence. Instead of this most of his teachers loathed him - no matter how hard he tried.
They preferred Lily's genius, of course because let's face it - teachers always prefer the more outgoing and cheerful people over the quiet ones, even when the quiet ones have the better grades.
Although Severus was probably intelligent enough to also deduct this, it didn't make him feel any happy about it.
I guess the main reason behind him joining the Death Eaters was that he felt he was more of use for them. That his skills and intelligence were frowned upon on the other side, but here he could find answers to so many questions he wanted to know without him being ridiculed.
Also, let's face it - Severus didn't join them just because he 'wasn't loved'. As I said, Snape enjoyed cutting people up with his tongue. He knew that he was a lot more intelligent and cunning than others, and he enjoyed proving this - especially when he could also hurt with his insults.
He knew perfectly well that most of the times his mind games were a lot more effective than any physical torture the Dark Lord could came up with.
The reason behind his turning once again sides wasn't as simple as "he was in love with Lily". I think he realized that Voldemort just pretended to give a fuck about his intelligence. There is also the fact that he probably knew on some level that Voldemort will soon be gone for a long time, and he needed some kind of protection.
I mean, come on, guys. He managed to fool Voldemort, what makes you think that he didn't fool Dumbledore?
Severus had enough knowledge to assure that he won't spend his living years in Azkaban (in fact, an intelligent person like him would probably be the first one to go mad in a place like that, even without the dementors, because he was in a constant need to DO something).
Also, those people who say that he verbally tortured his students just because he knew that Voldemort had spies everywhere is probably false. As I already said, Snape enjoyed proving how superior he was to everyone, and it didn't matter to him that his victims were stupid teenagers.
So no, Snape wasn't the cuddly type.
"But what about his love for Lily?"
Well, I don't doubt that he fancied himself in love with her. It might have been true for a while too. I would instead venture ahead and say that he wasn't at all in love with her - he was more obsessed than in love.
I mean, think about it for a moment. Lily was his only childhood friend, the first person he met outside of his family who could do magic. He more than likely developed a crush. But as soon as they joined Hogwarts, things changed.
Severus' eyes opened at all the possibilities, while he probably struggled to keep his "love" for Lily. Instead of just going with the flow he clawed and screamed and tried to keep the best of both worlds: his childhood AND his future.
Since the best part of his childhood was probably the time he could spend badmouthing the adults while a pretty girl nodded at his words, it is pretty obvious that Lily was the main person he placed on a pedestal.
So why do I love him so much?
I admit, I might have romanticized his character too for a while. I hated (still do) all the other characters who bullied him. But somehow I feel like I can relate to him.
I can understand his rage and teenage angst, I know how it feels to be bullied and I also know how it feels to be in a limbo between hating everything and everyone and wanting to belong at the same time. I know what it is like to prefer sitting in a dark room in the company of a book instead of running amok with others.
I know how it feels to be obsessed.
And most of all I like his character because although he is all of these things, he managed to become SOMEONE after all.
Do you guys know the famous quote from Stephen King in Dolores Clairborne? It goes something like this: "Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman's got to hold on to."
Well, I think it can be applied to this instance too.
Sometimes being an asshole is all a person's got to hold on to.
