This Inconsistently Admirable was Headlined on October 2023.
“
Dumbledore: After all this time?! Snape: Always.
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~ Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape, regarding Snape's undying love for Lily.
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You have your mother's eyes....
„
~ Severus Snape's dying words to Harry, right after giving him his memories.
Professor Severus Snape, also known as The Half-Blood Prince, is one of the overarching protagonists of the Harry Potter series and a recurring antihero in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery. Although his loyalty was questioned by many during the series, he was finally revealed to be unconditionally faithful to the man who believed in him, Dumbledore, and the woman he loved, Lily, following his ugly slaughter in the Shrieking Shack at the end of The Deathly Hallows.
He was portrayed by the late Alan Rickman in his only IA role.
He might have made a cryptic reference to the Draught of Living Death to express his condolences about Lily to her son, Harry Potter. However, this is unconfirmed.
What Makes Him Admirable?
He tells Lily Evans, about her magical potential and bonds with her at Hogwarts, eventually developing romantic feelings for her.
Upon realizing Lord Voldemort means to hunt down the Potters, he begs Voldemort to spare Lily, and when she is murdered in cold blood, he is devastated.
He joins Albus Dumbledore, and works with him for years whilst making Potioneers of countless adolescents through his insightful guidance.
He helps deal with Patricia Rakepick, having been the first to see through her.
He saves Harry's life with a counter-curse when Professor Quirinus Quirrell jinxes his broom with its rider hundreds of feet in the air.
He stands between Quirrell and the Philosopher's Stone.
He reprimands Harry and Ron for risking exposure of magic and damaging a valuable tree.
He runs the Dueling Club in response to the Chamber of Secrets scandal and vaporizes a snake trying to hurt his students.
He gets onto Harry for being up past curfew, but doesn't dock down numerous house points, which is what McGonagall would've done.
He warns Dumbledore that Remus Lupin is aiding and abetting Sirius Black, and while he is ignorant to his innocence, the intention counts.
While substituting Lupin in a DADA class, he teaches the students about werewolves to let them prepared in case they need to deal with a transformed professor Lupin.
He follows the trio to ensure Harry's safety, as he believes Sirius is trying to kill Harry, which ultimately leads to their meeting at the Shrieking Shack.
In the film, he throws himself in front of the trio and shields them with his own body when Lupin unwillingly transforms into a werewolf.
He helps apprehend Barty Crouch Jr. and tries to help Minister of Magic (Cornelius Fudge) see sense about the return of Lord Voldemort by humbly exposing his Dark Mark, which is superficially reactivated.
He tries to teach Harry to protect his mind from Lord Voldemort's cruel grasp. This only fails because Harry is considerably obstinate and insolent about learning Occlumency and crosses a huge line by entering the ancient Pensieve.
He pretends that he has run out of Veritaserum so Dolores Umbridge cannot torture Harry even more than she already has. Then he alerts the Order of the Phoenix to intervene at the Department of Mysteries, resulting in six innocent lives being spared and the entire wizarding world learning Lord Voldemort really is back to begin a second vicious conquest.
He saves Dumbledore's life and ensures he will live on another year when he puts on the cursed ring of Marvolo Gaunt, which is a Horcrux. He otherwise would have died in less than a day, had Snape not interfered. He is mortified that Dumbledore was vulnerable enough to put it on at all, citing he himself wouldn't have touched it at all without protective gear.
He makes an Unbreakable Vow to protect Draco Malfoy despite Bellatrix Lestrange's repetitive and obnoxious interjections.
He later saves Draco's life, healing his wound after Harry hit him with Sectumsempra.
When Dumbledore admits that Harry's death will be necessary, Snape is mortified and protests desperately.
He gives Dumbledore a mercy killing, as he otherwise would have been tortured by Fenrir Greyback and the Carrows prior to Draco splitting his own spirit, especially considering the curse in Dumbledore's hand would have broken free and destroyed him either way.
Snape is also reluctant to kill Dumbledore until the end, showing that he had grown to genuinely care for him. He only accepts Dumbledore's request after some insistence and later tries to give up on their agreement, only to Dumbledore remind him that he promised to do it. And at the end, Snape only kills Dumbledore after the Headmaster begs him to do it. This is even more evident in the films, as Snape has a pained expression while killing Dumbledore and later looks remorseful when Harry accuses him in front of the others students.
He only defends himself when Harry, ignorant of its aforementioned context, tries to avenge Dumbledore's death, not fighting back even when brashly goaded to, before revealing he is the Half-Blood Prince.
He also protects Harry when Bellatrix moves to attack him, stopping her by saying that the boy belongs to the Dark Lord.
He has a con artist feed the Order of the Phoenix the idea of using seven decoys of Harry. That way, the Death Eaters will wonder which one is the real one.
He tries to help George Weasley in a vicious sky war he himself inadvertently started, instead striking the boy himself by complete accident with a curse intended for a masked terrorist trying to dishonorably sneak up on the young shopkeeper.
In the same battle, Snape saves Lupin's life even though he despises Lupin for standing by and allowing his friends to bully him.
He watches over the students of Hogwarts following the Death Eaters' coup over the Ministry of Magic and passively undermines the influence of the thuggish Carrows. As part of this, he punishes Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley, and Luna Lovegood for trying to steal from him, but only by sending them to the forest for "punishment chores" while he relocates the Sword of Gryffindor. This spares them the typical punishment of the Carrows, who have been known to chain up older teenagers and torture preteens with black magic.
He hides the real Sword of Gryffindor and gives a copy of the sword to Bellatrix and the Death Eaters. When he finds out where Harry was camping out, Snape arranges for Harry to get the real sword without the boy knowing who guided him to it. He also stays watching from afar to make sure Harry will safely get the sword from the bottom of the lake, only leaving after Ron Weasley appears and helps Harry to get out the lake.
He is loyal to Dumbledore until the end, having grown to respect, trust and care for him as a friend. Snape follows his instructions despite complaining about the Headmaster not sharing all the information of his plans with him.
Despite hating Lord Voldemort even more than most righteous men do, he reassures him his feats of black magic are extraordinary.
During his final moments, he gives Harry his memories and asks him take them to the Penseive, in order for Harry to learn all the truth, including everything that Dumbledore had told him. With his dying breaths, he begs Harry to let him see one last time the eyes of the woman he loved until the bitter end.
In the alternate timeline, he helps Scorpius to return the world to the way it was, possibly sacrificing himself as he is attacked by the Dementors so the others can escape.
Also, when he learns Harry named one of his sons after him, he is extremely touched by this and tells Scorpius to tell Albus that he is proud of Albus carrying his name.
Despite being strict towards his students, he is never unkind to other professors at all unless it is utterly warranted, like when he confronts Quirrell, holds Lupin at wand-point (currently ignorant of his actual intent), and lies to Umbridge.
Though there was a time in which Snape was a megalomaniac and wanted to help remake the world in Lord Voldemort's image, being an accomplished lieutenant who the Dark Lord trusted immensely, Lily Potter's death profoundly impacted him, changing him in positive ways and causing him to abandon his previous thirst for malevolent global dominance. Furthermore, he has no real prejudice against wizards born of two non-magical parents.
Snape's heroism from start to finish is astounding and for this, Harry names his son after him, to commemorate how virtuous and honorable he had been. He effortlessly exceeds the admirable standard due to being the most useful agent on both sides, giving appropriate information to both sides, saving Harry's life several times, being an essential figurehead in Lord Voldemort's downfall.
In his final moments, he finally lets go of his hatred towards Harry, realizing that he is not his father by asking him to take his tears so he could see memories and let him look one last time at his mother Lily’s eyes.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?
He falls apart with Lily Evans because he hung out with bullies as a teenager and called her a "Mudblood" in front of James, making their dwindling relationship entirely his fault instead of Lily's. However, it is made clear that this is one of his worst memories and he is consumed with remorse for calling her such, making this a minor prevention.
He worked for Voldemort as a Death Eater, although he changed sides when Lily was threatened.
He is the one who told Voldemort about the prophecy regarding the child who will defeat the Dark Lord in the future, leading Voldemort to decide to hunt down the Potters (which motivates Snape's defection), resulting in the deaths of James and Lily. He also asked Lord Voldemort to spare Lily in exchange for James and Harry, something which Dumbledore rightfully calls him out on.
His biggest prevention is that his extremist and cynical personality negatively affects his relationships with his students. He enjoys bullying students that he personally dislikes, thus he is far too jerkish. Some of his jerkish acts towards his students, all of which are children and juveniles, include:
Being consistently verbally abusive to Jacob's sibling, not because they had ever wronged him but merely because he couldn't stand their brother when he had attended school.
Showing blatant favoritism to Slytherins, students grouped for being ambitious and superficially jerkish (especially Draco Malfoy) and having huge double standards with disciplining them laxly compared to Gryffindors, students grouped for being brave and superficially brutish.
Being especially cruel to Harry, whom he torments on a regular basis, including repeatedly threatening to have Harry expelled, even saying he's done his best to have him thrown out of Hogwarts because he scarcely belongs there. While this is provoked by the constant cruelty of the now defunct Marauders, Harry had nothing to do with their behavior, and it is still too excessive for him to be NPG, and it's heavily implied he did this because of James Potter being Harry's father.
Being biased against Gryffindor when refereeing a Quidditch match, awarding Hufflepuff penalties for no reason.
Criticizing Ron every chance he gets, even mocking his poor Apparition ability in front of the class.
Being consistently unkind to Hermione despite her being one of his most competent students, calling her an "insufferable know-it-all" and not caring when Draco disfigured her teeth on purpose. He even deducted five house points because she answered a question correctly when no one else could answer it.
Bullying Neville constantly, at one point poisoning Neville's insentient pet toad with a botched potion, and while it never died, the intention counts. He then deducts five points from Hermione for helping Neville with his potion. Additionally, his mistreatment towards Neville affected the latter so much that Snape became Neville’s Boggart.
He is eager to see Sirius Black get the Dementor's Kiss, a fate worse than death, and wants Lupin to get the Kiss for helping him, and refuses to listen to their attempts to explain Sirius's innocence.
He reveals Remus' condition as a werewolf, forcing Remus to leave Hogwarts.
He accuses Harry of putting his own name in the Goblet of Fire, even though there was no way Harry could have done this.
He humiliates Harry and Hermione by reading Rita Skeeter's article about them in front of the class, inviting the Slytherins to laugh at it.
He ridicules Tonks over her feelings for Lupin, telling her that her new Patronus looks weak.
He has Harry sort out records about the misdemeanors of James Potter and Sirius Black during detention, mocking their deaths to Harry's face.
When fighting Harry after he killed Dumbledore, he explodes at Harry, mocking him and his father. Despite having been under orders to kill Dumbledore, he clearly provoked Harry out of frustration and hatred rather than to maintain his cover.
He placed the Sword of Gryffindor at the bottom of a frozen pool, which put Harry in danger of drowning. While the sword had to be claimed under conditions of bravery, Rowling confirmed that he mainly did this out of spite.
Snape's aforementioned mistreatments toward Harry, which motivated by the fact that the latter was James' son as stated previously, also stressed his bitter and vengeful nature; he could never truly let go of his hatred toward Harry's father, let alone reevaluate his perspectives after seeing his prejudices, which saw him joining Voldemort and his Death Eaters, costed him greatly.
Trivia
He is the only Wizarding World character to be Inconsistently Admirable. Given how complicated, morally unique, and three-dimensional he is by that franchise's standards, this makes sense.
The film version of Severus is significantly more admirable and lacks many of the corrupting factors his book version possesses, being more akin to a strict teacher than a cynical bully. He insults Harry and his classmates far less, it is never stated that he revealed the status of Remus as a werewolf, he does not become angry with Harry after he'd killed Dumbledore, and he never asks Voldemort to save only Lily. In addition, many of his strict scenes are more played for laughs.
Live-Action Television Will Smith |
Emmet Reese (Remake)
Roger the Raccoon (Remake)
Emilithra J. Thorn (Remake)
Emma Reese |
Rosie the Raccoon |
Ethalith J. Thorn
✓
