#Everyone is going to think I do not condemn Sirius and James for bullying

[neverenoughmarauders]

The annoying thing is that I am going to come across as disagreeing with the OP's post, because I disagree with the arguments made. So let's start with the obvious and what I agree with: I don't think people should blindly defend Sirius and James bullying Snape - and certainly not idolize them for it. I think it's especially problematic as the defenders of the bullying often either minimizes Snape's sufferings, point to Snape's later behaviour (which is completely unfair on that young boy!) or otherwise seem to emphasise with Sirius and James ('they were just kids') but forget to apply the standard to Snape (when he was also just a kid).

However, some of us love the Marauders DESPITE the bullying, because we focus on the good aspects of the Marauders, such as their determination to help Remus, their willingness to join the Order of the Phoenix and do what is right. Remember that when Peter asks what could be gained by fighting against Voldemort when he was winning, Sirius and Remus answers to fight against what is wrong. Everyone in the Order was being slaughtered, but these boys would rather fight a losing battle for what is right, than live in a world that was wrong.

They were all children - and we need to either make allowances for both sides or none of them

I think it's okay to try to understand both sides, but I wouldn't want to idolize either - not even as children.

Snape wanted to be in Slytherin, the house of a blood supremacists - that's not the values of someone I would support. Especially as Snape shows us the values of all four houses: he is brave, he's loyal and hard working, he is clever, and he's cunning. He could have been anywhere yet already on the Hogwarts express, it's Slytherin that appeals to him. Problematic? Yes! Evil? No!('sometimes we sort too soon'). Reason for being bullied? Definitely not!

But I also will defend the fact that James and Sirius were also children. I hate the double standards in this debate, where one side is allowed to make mistakes and not the other.

Sirius spends his adolescence escaping a household that holds the same believes as Snape. I completely understand why Snape rubs him the wrong way. There is so little Sirius can control at home, but at school he has a more equal footing to those around him (yes, arguably it's unequal because Sirius is privileged and Snape is not, but I am arguing from Sirius' POV and I don't think he saw it that way). James is raised in a household that is marked by people Snape hold high as blood traitors, because of their (insane...) belief that they are not better than anyone else because they are purebloods. James detests the dark arts, and Snape we are told was fascinated by them. I don't know... I just - I get it? I get that children who see someone as evil try to fight that. ('Snape wasn't evil' - well, quite, but as children the world is a lot more antagonistic, which I think is reflected in children books with fights of good vs evil - so to Sirius and James, I think he was. Just as they were evil in his eyes). I don't agree with the means - I just... I can understand it.

I think a part of the discussion that is missing is that all this happened during the beginning of a war. Would we be having this discussion if we were reading about eg a school in Austria in the late 1930s and you had a group of boys that believed the country should be taken over by a Nazi Germany and a group that didn't, and the latter group excessively bullied the former? I'd argue it's still not okay - children often only reflect the a more limited set of views based on their upbringing - but to me it makes it understandable. I am not idolizing it.

And I won't hear the argument that James and Sirius bullied Snape because he was poor. James and Sirius completely ignored Snape until he started expressing the views about being in Slytherin. Again, it doesn't make it right, but this was a fight about ideology, handled by kids.

What gets me with this post and Snape apologists is when we start ignoring post-school Snape

This doesn't give Sirius or James any right in having bullied Snape, but since the OP mentions how Snape is redeemed by saving Harry, Snape post-school feels relevant too.

Snape was a Death Eater and people seem to forget what that implied: muggle torture, muggle murders, muggle sport/fun (as we saw during the World Cup in GOF) as well as the persecution of muggle-borns and Order members. Unlike Regulus, who barely made it to become Death Eater before he immediately wanted out (and this is a man who grew up idolizing Voldemort), Snape DIDN'T want out until Lily was about to die (and even then he hedged his bets). Snape gave up a prophesy that would condemn a family - including a baby boy - to their deaths. Like - it must be okay for us to say: that's terrible!!! And that is objectively worse than being a bully at 16 when the male brain isn't even fully developed yet?!

And I want to point out that Snape didn't turn in or give evidence (or at least not successful evidence) against Lucius Malfoy who he must have known was a Death Eater because they were good friends (and it's hinted at them being DEs together throughout the series).

Counter argument I can see here: Snape was playing the long game being a spy for when Voldemort came back. But I think Snape himself explains to us that he could have told Voldemort: 'I had to give evidence against Lucius - I was already discovered and it was the only way to win Albus' full trust'. Snape taunts Bella that his ability to play Albus' faithful servant has been far more appreciated and valued by their master than Bella's prison sentence - for all her loyalty.

The OP is wrong to say Snape didn't have friends - or at least people he hung out with. Sirius lists a whole bunch of them in GOF, Lily mentions he hangs out with Avery and Mulciber and Harry even witnesses how a much older Lucius extends a literal and metaphorical hand to Snape. JKR herself talks about that fact that Snape's downfall is wanting to belong. In Slytherin he found a gang. A gang he wasn't able to let go of, even when his best friend asked him to (and Lily's ask is for very valid reason!)

The argument I don't understand with the OP is that Snape 'repays' the mistreatment of Harry by saving him

Firstly, because what about Neville, Hermione, Colin Creevey (another muggle-born btw) and all the other people we see or it's implied Snape bullies. Also, if we're going to go down that route: James saved Snape's life. I don't think it's fair to say that the horrible treatment James gave Snape is wiped clean by saving his life, and I think most people who support Snape would agree with this. So why is this different? Because Snape save Harry multiple times? Harry is a child - and the child that's being targeted by a mass murderer. Snape is his teacher - I think keeping Harry on that broom for example, is really the least he could do (rather I wonder what the other teachers were doing...)

There are plenty of characters in the series who saves Harry's life or are willing to sacrifice their lives for him to stay alive - including all of the teachers at the Battle of Hogwarts. Keeping Harry alive is important for the future of the entire wizarding world.

We can't have it both ways. Either bullying is bad (I think it is) regardless of the good actions you do later (eg join the Order of the Phoenix for no other reason than 'it's the right thing to do' - cough - James and Sirius); or the good actions you do later clear you of the bad ones. In which case, you can idolize James and Sirius to your hearts desire because they do plenty of good stuff!

Snape is a complex character who despite being a hero in the story isn't good

This is what the author herself tells us about Snape: 'It's fun to write about Snape because he's a deeply horrible person' and she talks about how as a teacher, the 'worst, shabbiest thing you can do' is to bully children (draws parallel to Snape).

To minimise Snape's bullying is at minimum just as bad as to minimise James' and Sirius' bullying. Personally, I think it's worse. Snape is a teacher and thus undermining authority figures in general. Plus, except from Harry, I cannot understand why Snape choses to bully those he does. Whereas at least for Sirius and James, I will give them the fact that Snape represented the worst of wizard-kind with blood purity ideas and an interest in dark magic. Of course, WE know as readers that Snape was far more complex and pitiable.

I am not attempting to hate, but I am attempting to hate.

I would just like to voice my opinion, is all.

The Marauders Fandom, especially a concerning amount of fans, are deliberately being obtuse as to completely hate and bash on a victim of bullying [Severus Snape] and just idolize said bullies [The Mauraders, mostly James and Sirius] purely because of popularity and 'coolness' if one might say.

Yes, I do agree Severus has gone overboard on his mistreatment and unfairness to Harry but he has already repaid all his debts by SAVING mentioned CHILD again and again, and it was all because of his pure and immaculate love for Lily. His ONE and ONLY friend since childhood.

So, you all may continue to rave on about your favorite Marauder, but PLEASE don't view Severus as a constant villain and enemy.

The man just wants peace after being in a state of calculated chaos for so long. T-T

Thank you for reading! ^^

[This was brought on because of some TikTokers insane breach of behavior, stating Severus was and will 'always' be a villain in both Potters' lives. 💀]

[jmagnabo92]

Saw this and immediately had to show you.

This is from someone talking about Snape.

“He was a bright kid from a poor and dysfunctional home who got bullied by kids from well-to-do families, so he joined up with people who could help protect him from those bullies. At the age of 17 or 18, he and his school pals joined up for a cause they didn't fully understand (but believed it would improve their station), working as basically a slave for a crime lord and he got in way over his head. Once he recognized how much it would cost him, he did everything he could do make amends.

Would you like to be judged forever for the beliefs you had before you were 20?”

Well... this sounds exactly what they say about Regulus or Malfoy (Draco that is). I wonder if they say the same about all DE teens.

Personally, I think it's BS.

First of all, do we have any evidence that it was obvious or the reason behind the dislike from James/Sirius, that Snape was poor? Because I don't see that. It wasn't even obvious to them that he was poor, was it? Just by looking at him, you can't tell.

James/Sirius literally befriend the poorest person in class - Remus (which admittedly is a popular HC), but they've NEVER shown any elitism that the Purebloods in Slytherin do. There's no evidence, even grown up Sirius shows no elitism whatsoever towards Remus, the Weasleys or anyone else.

So, I don't think they targeted him because he was poor.

Secondly, he hated muggles as a child. He hated muggleborns throughout his teen years and DID NOT JOIN THE DEATH EATERS because of J/S. He literally joined them because he wanted to. He shared their ideals and he shared their desire to put wizards first because of his father - it had nothing to do with J/S or he wouldn't have joined pureblood that are far more elitist than they are.

Thirdly, there's A) no evidence about 'improving their station' - consider most that joined V were purebloods and already on top, and B) they all knew EXACTLY what was going on - everyone did. They were perfectly capable of knowing WTF was going on, what they were dealing with, and what the cause was - Voldemort never hid his goals for everything. The same teen that is intelligent enough to basically re-write potions and make spells that can kill with the intention to kill is intelligent enough to understand V's plainly laid out plans to rule over muggles. (It's not like V didn't make things obvious).

Lastly, he never would've changed sides if Lily's son wasn't targeted and she died. There's nothing to suggest that he stopped believing in pureblood elitism - in fact, his treatment of Hermione (a muggleborn) and Harry (a halfblood) show otherwise. But that's HC, as is anything that say 'he realizes the error of his ways' - just like Regulus he turned because someone HE CARED ABOUT was killed (or maimed in Reg's case). It literally nothing to do with realizing the error of his ways. In fact, if Lily dying hadn't happened - who's to say he would ever change sides. The fact that he gleefully passed on the prophecy and didn't care about condemning a child says he never would've.

As for the question at the end, I fully believe people can change but they have to change because they realize they were wrong and want to change because it's the right thing to do. I fully don't believe that's the case with Snape, just like it wasn't for Regulus. His treatment of his students -not just Gryffindors, not just Hermione, not just Harry (but that's a big reason) is not evidence that he didn't change, didn't want to change, and never believed he was wrong. He was just sorry it cost him Lily.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanks for the ask :)

[lilytakeharryandgo]

STOP ROMANTICISING SEVERUS SNAPE - A MANIFESTO

“Albus Severus Potter, you were named after two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a great strategist, the other one was a racist, hateful, bitter, scary bastard. Voldemort must have damaged some brain cells when killing the Horcrux inside of me.”

Now that I have Snape fans raging and screaming for blood, here’s my show of evidence:

If the boring, same argument brought up by Marauders stans is Snape being a Death Eater, I know it’s basic, but it’s basic for a reason: it’s true. Supporting Voldemort doesn’t mean you support his ideas? I’m sorry, what did he support? The Dark Lord’s contouring skills? It is a truth universally acknowledged that joining a group of racists and following them in perpetrating crimes does make you a racist and a criminal.

JK Rowling herself said that Death Eaters are an analogy to Nazis, Marauders stans are not making this up. Are you questioning what JK ROWLING said? Because you know, she is JK ROWLING.

We know it was Snivellus that created the Levicorpus. He must have used it against the Marauders in order for them to learn it. And let’s just remember that “Snape’s worst memory” takes place after the Shrieking Shack’s incident, when dear, lovely Severus tried to unmask Remus so that he could be expelled for being a Werewolf. He went down to the Whomping Willow of his own free will, no one forced him, and he supposedly knew what was happening there: he risked his own life only to get Remus expelled. Yes, it was Sirius who thought it would have been funny to lure him to the Shrieking Shack where Lupin was due for his transformation, and that was wrong. However, why did he do that? Because Snape was constantly spying on them. Was it wrong? Definitely, no one is trying to get Sirius out of this one. Still, James saved Snape in time. Did James do that just because he wanted to protect Remus? Most likely: James gave them all a family and he loved his friends and would have done everything for them, and he did. But also, he wouldn’t have let an “innocent” (if we want to call him that) die. So James saved Snape’s life, which dear Half Blood Price seemed deeply ungrateful for later, and yet, Snape constantly tried to get the Marauders expelled from Hogwarts time and time again while using Dark Magic and creating his own dark spells (see the irony?). Stop saying that the Marauders’ actions pushed him to become a Death Eater. As if “Snape never missed an opportunity to curse James” was a lie. As if Snape wasn’t on his way to being a buddying Death Eater by his 5th year. As if Snape hadn’t came up with a curse that slices your body open by his 6th year. As if the Marauders had nothing to do but ruthlessly bully Snape all day and all night, when they actually are described as the brightest as some of the brightest students of their year despite being engaged in loads of other things like the creation of the Marauders Map, becoming Animagus, dealing with Remus’ monthly transformations (because those demonic guys didn’t leave him alone and didn’t report him to get him expelled as someone else was willing to do), James and Remus being responsible enough to be Head Boy and Prefect. Oh, and training for a war and joining the Order once they graduated. Minor things, right? Things they were busy doing in their personal lives such as surviving, living and being happy? Nah, that never happened, their entire life consisted of bullying innocent, poor service teenagers, that was their goal. Snape experienced one side of the Marauders (and we read that from his own pov, so it’s a little biased too): that is not a deciding factor of whether or not they (and especially James) are good people. He was so fascinated with the Dark Arts, even after Lily’s death and hence his presumed redemption, that Dumbledore did not appoint him as Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Snape’s apologetics make it sound like the Marauders made Snape’s life hell every minute of everyday and he was the poor victim who was not capable of standing up to himself against those horrible demonic creatures, but he was the one inventing the Sectumsempra and using it against James, against George. Only a truly tormented person could have invented such a bloody spell. 

So now let’s talk about Remus. Remus, a hero who fought against Voldemort and joined an anti-terrorist resistance organisation when he was just 18 years old, who fought alongside Frank and Alice Longbottom in the Order, is about to start his first class with the third years. Neville is there, of course, Remus knows his parents’ fate, how they were tortured into madness, and probably guessed that Neville’s biggest fear would be similar to what he guessed Harry’s would be. He’s probably planning on stepping in before Bellatrix Lestrange shows up, but then it’s not her, it’s Snape. Snape who insults him in front of his class, Snape who tries to shame him. Can you imagine how he must have felt? Yes, they bullied him, but his best friend James grew up, and what did he get in return? Death. Instead, Snape hasn’t gotten over himself a little and most importantly he does not realise that being a teacher also means being responsible for those children. Snape never changes: he is the same petty, angry, bitter child that he had been in school, except now he’s bullying children half his age instead of yelling racial slurs at his classmates. While Snape is one of his students’ greatest fear, Remus starts off the year by letting his pupils confront their biggest fears. Remus truly, deeply cared about his students, and wait… what did Snape do? He got him fired! But even most achingly than that, just imagine… it’s 1993, Remus is coming back after a rough full moon. He’s feeling down, he’s weak, both physically and emotionally, he’s one more time without his friends by his side, one more time alone as he was before the Marauders became Animaguses to be alongside him to support him during the roughest times (horrible people, isn’t it?). So Remus is coming back to his class of Defense Against the Dark Arts, and his best friend’s son is writing an essay on how to kill him. But Snape didn’t stop there, no, he told the whole Wizarding World that a man who had struggled to keep his condition secret all his life was a Werewolf. He had to withdraw from his position as a professor because of that, and straight after that the Ministry issued a law against Werewolves which made it impossible for Remus to have a job. So, to sum it up, not only he exposed him as a Werewolf, he also condemned him to live in poverty and be persecuted for that reason. Also, quoting, when Remus was trying to explain things in PoA he attacked him and said “I’ll drag the Werewolf, perhaps the Dementors will have a kiss for him too.” James and Sirius were the kind of persons, the kind of friends and brothers, who risked their own life every month for one of his best friends. Think about this: they found out about Remus’ situation when they were just boys in their first years of school, and they didn’t leave him, they decided to help him embarking in something much bigger than themselves. Whereas dear lovely 33 year old Necrophilus told everyone about Remus’ secret and basically had him fired. Sounds angelic, why haven’t I thought about doing something like that before? That would most certainly secure me a spot in heaven!

Do we want to talk about an abusive person? Well, Snape was not just abusive as a person, he abused and took advantage of his position as a teacher (and Head of House too, to reward extra points from the other Houses) to bully his own students (even after his presumed “redemption”). He told Neville he would have given his failed potion to his toad, Trevor, so that the fatal effects of the potion would teach him a lesson. He bullied Neville to the point that he was literally his greatest fear - Neville’s parents were tortured to the point of insanity by Bellatrix, yet Snape was his greatest fear. He also condoned and took part in bullying when Draco cursed Hermione’s teeth to grow. He said he didn’t see any difference, then watched as she ran off crying. From the very start he starts bullying Harry: he perfectly knew he was raised by muggles, he knew how Petunia was and still went on to ask questions that he wouldn’t be able to answer. And after calling Neville and idiot for a mistake that anyone could have made he took points from Gryffindor because Harry didn’t tell him how to do it right - great teaching strategy, let’s nominate him for Most Valuable Teacher. Harry had nothing to do with what went on during Snape’s school years, but he physically resembled James and he was his son, so let’s bully him from the very first second! And honestly, asking an 11 years old Muggle-raised kid the difference between monskshood and wolfsbane in front of everyone on the first day? There is no difference! They are colloquial terms for the same plant. He just wanted the intellectual upper hand over a goddamn little kid. But he didn’t stop there: that resentful git always tried to blame Harry for something even without proof (as most of the time), and he physically abused Harry because he was angry (“Snape threw Harry from him with all his might. Harry fell hard onto the dungeon floor.”). He knew how important it was for Harry to learn Occlumency and he stopped giving him classes and later ignored when Lupin asked him to start them again even when he knew how poorly Harry’s progressed. And he was cruel: he knew Harry was sad about Sirius’ death, and gave him a detention in which he was going to see his and his father’s names multiple times while copying out old detention records. Yes, Harry’s deeds should have called for expulsion, as McGonagall states, but Snape chose something more painful than that. Not only he punished Harry (don’t get me wrong, he almost killed Draco, he deserved detention if not expulsion), but he chose to inflict him more pain and at the same time tried to ruin the memory of Harry’s father figures. Ordinarily, copying out old detention records wouldn’t be worse than writing lines, but Snape vindictively tailored that detention to inflict pain.  In addition to this, he could have been an awesome teacher if he wasn’t a disgusting waste of a human being. He knew from his teen years that the instructions that the textbooks were giving were not as goos as they could be so he improved the potions and recorded his own methods at 16. Harry himself states what an amazing teacher “the Prince” is. If Snape were not such a horrible person, he could have either written the entire textbooks himself, or taught his students his own alternate methods. Instead he spent his time bullying children. He could have been great and become everything a Slytherin should have been

Snape also saw his friends perform Dark Magic on Mary Macdonald and when confronted by Lily, literally didn’t see any problem with it and compared it with the Marauders’ pranks.

He called Lily, his supposed best friend, a Mudblood. Then he tried to get away with it by saying he didn’t mean it and that she (and only she) was different from the other Muggleborns. And Lily tried, she tried to tell him he was not on the right path, she tried, and she got called a racial slur from the person she trusted the most at the time. And, for the extremist Snape apologetics in the back, who even hate Lily (how can they hate on Lily I don’t know, but apparently these people exist too): Lily Evans did not owe anyone anything. She had the right to cut ties with her friends for any reason she pleased, whatever that’s because she was sick of them or because they were hanging out with a group of terrorists wannabe. She did not owe anyone her love, loyalty or energy. She tried to be Snape’s friend despite his other group of friends (“but Mulciber’s and Avery’s idea of humor is just evil. Evil, Sev. I don’t understand how you can be friends with them”), but there’s canon evidence that Snape chose his Death Eaters friends over Lily’s friendship and safety. It was her choice to cut ties with him after what he and his friends had done (and the racial slur of course, truly a touch of class), and it’s not like he was a good friend to begin with: he called all other Muggleborns “Mudblood” and was canon friends with the people who wanted Lily and other Muggleborns killed, and he even still wanted to be a Death Eater while being her friend. Like, wait here while I go out and slaughter your people, Lils! And if Snape stans are still arguing that he was suffering because he got dumped, that’s another no: he did not get dumped, she just didn’t have romantic feelings for him but was trying so hard to be his friend and he was just a whiny baby about it. Is that a crime? No, it isn’t. Is not getting over it and taking it out on countless kids who weren’t even born instead a crime? Yes, it is.

Also, from the get-go we see him drop a tree branch on Petunia. That shows that he didn’t see a problem in hurting the people Lily loved (seen later in a larger proportion, that’s his tag line). Lily loved her sister, but Petunia was an obstacle between her and Snape, hence, Snape hurt her. And no, that was not accidental underage magic, just as Lily performs magic on the flower, Snape uses magic to cause a tree branch to fall on Petunia. Even as a child he had no qualms about hurting someone Lily loved, this really serves to underscore the idea that Snape, with his so called love for Lily, was not invested in her happiness or wellbeing because he didn’t care about the people she loved. As a child he didn’t care about hurting her sister and at 20 he didn’t care about the imminent deaths of her husband and son. If he truly loved and cared for her, he would have wanted to see her happy. Not even considering how crushed she would have been if her husband and only child were dead, and she was left alone and pregnant in the middle of a war.

Okay so now let’s talk about James. Yes, James was a spoiled brat, and Lily hated him for that, then guess what? He matured, he started protecting the weaker ones and joined the Order along with Sirius, Remus and Lily to fight for a better world. He didn’t hold it against her nor did he sulk for days, he grew up and matured because he was a well adjusted human, unlike some. James Potter was many things other than an “arrogant bullying toerag” (hey, also, well done for trying to destroy a 15-year-old orphan’s memory of his heroic father): he was a friend who risked his life every month for Remus’s safety and comfort. A brother who took Sirius in and was “the best friend he ever had.” An adored friend of half-giant Hagrid, in an age when all “half-breeds” were looked upon with suspicion during the war. An all time “favourite student” of Minerva McGonagall, so much that she waited all day at his son’s future home and wept at his death. A savior of his enemies even when they were trying to expose his friends’ secrets. An activist protecting the right of existence for Muggles, Muggleborns and hybrids right out of school. A soldier who faced Voldemort three times and lived to tell about it. A caring father who went into hiding to protect his son. A loving husband who sacrificed his life for his family. A faded trace of magic still trying to guide his son when the man that killed him returned to life. A young man that inspired so much loyalty in his friends that Remus Lupin, who so feared the idea of harming people because of his condition, was 100% willing to abandon those morals to avenge his death, and would have done so, had Harry not reminded him and Sirius that James would not have wanted them to murder anyone for him. A Patronus helping Harry through his darkest moments until the very end.  James had a friend facing bigotry and he became an illegal animagus to help make that friend���s life better. Snape had a friend facing bigotry and he joined up with the bigots. No one is trying to pretend that James was an angel, but he got better and better until his last breath. And again, that spoiled brat and the love of his life joined the resistance and were martyrs. James, Lily, Sirius and Remus all died for Harry. Are you trying to blame James and Lily for sacrificing their own lives to save their infant son? What terrible parents they were! Their sacrifice was an act of love and wait… actually ended up saving the Wizarding World. The only thing James and Snape had in common was that they would have both sacrificed James’s life in order to save Lily’s. James was the hero, he was the one who faced Voldemort without his wand (pretty dumb thing but he was a Gryffindor, hence no surprise) in order to give his wife and son more time to flee. When he opened that door on Halloween, he thought he was sacrificing his life so that they could live. He literally died wandless perfectly knowing he wouldn’t survive, but facing death for those he loved, hoping he would be able to stall enough time so they could escape. He was never more dedicated in anything in his short life than he was to the loves of his life: he died for Lily and Harry, and would have happily died for Sirius, Remus and Peter. And this is absolutely canon, of course it is: we might not have some explicit description of him but all we know comes from the lives he touched, how they talked / not talked about him, the pain they felt - the seven books are a testament of James and Lily’s love. James Potter was the kind of person that would have been happy to die for love, he would have taken pride in that. How do we know that? Are we making this up? No, we are not: all we have are the words of people who knew him, from his best friends to McGonagall, and who remembered him as a hero. This, albeit indirectly, speaks volume about the kind of person he was. He might have been obnoxious and arrogant as a teenager, but at 21 he died a hero - wandless, alone, betrayed, hopeless, but also bravely and out of love - and nothing can change either of those. Yes, he bullied Snape (let’s be clear here even though I highly doubt Snape did not retaliate) and that is a disgusting attitude. But how can you forgive a 31 year old man for bullying his kids and not a 15 year old boy who bullied one of his definitely not innocent classmates? Who matured and who later died, at the young age of 21, for his wife and son? How can you hate James Potter when as soon as he graduated, he was ready to fight a war against the most powerful wizard of his age? Yes, he had a big head and I am fairly certain he did actually strut - and let’s just take a moment to remember why Harry doesn’t know anything about him… oh, right, Snape went to Voldemort and told him about the prophecy - but he was a caring person, who stood up to what he thought and stood up for his friends and his family. The spoilt boy Snape’s apologetics hate, who grew up to be a great man, who died fighting and protecting, not some emo with a crush and an ego the size of the Great Lake!  Wait, I hear somebody trying to bring up the “we have no real evidence of him becoming a better person” thing. Let me get this straight: James was mentioned to have jinxed other students, not to have bullied them. He did not pick out targets, it was implied to be done at random as it is explicitly stated that he jinxed random people in the corridors. Fred and George pranked other students in the same way, and they would have often have more disastrous effects, but no one calls them bullies. We know that on one known occasion attacks Snape with Sirius at his side and almost pantsed him with a spell of Snape’s own invention. James and Snape had a rivalry, and it was two-sided. It wasn’t James relentlessly hexing poor, innocent Snape, so if you still want to call James Potter a bully, okay, do it, he was a bully bullying a bully. The evidence speaks for itself: he was Head Boy in 7th year (hence I don’t think Dumbledore despised him that much), he was unapologetically a blood traitor, he dated Lily Evans (who hated him for how he was and would have never fallen in love with such a brat, so it’s pretty evident he did actually change), he joined the Order of the Phoenix (an anti-terrorist organisation, at the peak of the war, as a teenager, whereas someone else joins a racist dark cult), he died protecting his wife and child! And if we really, really want to bring the ‘evidence’ thing up… well, we have no evidence he bullied Snape, except for one little incident - I’m fairly certain he did, but let’s play it literally now. And since we are there, we may not have been blessed with more about the Marauders, but Sirius and Remus both tell Harry Lily changed his mind about James because he became a better person, why don’t Snape stans consider that an evidence pro James but “Snape’s worst memory” is their pro Snape pamphlet? That chapter showed us an incident where both Sirius and James were assholes but everyone that was there supported it but Lily. All the other Students supported it because of what the fandom conveniently forgets that Snape loved Dark Arts, disparagingly called Lily a Muggle twice, tried to expose Remus and run around with a group of Death Eater wannabes tormenting Muggleborns all through his school years (he literally says that torturing Mary Macdonald was funny - “That was nothing, it was a laugh, that’s all”), to the point where Lily’s friends and herself questioned their friendship: “none of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. I’ve made excuses for you for years.” And eventually, when questioned by Lily if he wanted to join Voldemort, he couldn’t find any way to lie to her: “you and your precious little Death Eater friends— you see, you don’t even deny it! You don’t even deny that’s what you’re all aiming to be! You can’t wait to join You Know Who can you?”. He literally didn’t find anything wrong with Voldemort’s political position (only the fact that he wanted to kill his obsession, he only had that so called change of heart when it personally affected him as his beloved Dark Lord wanted to kill the object of his lust). So yes, he did join the Death Eaters because he wanted to and was everything he’d always desired. Does this make him a bad person? HELL YES.  

And wait, can somebody remind me why the Potters were forced to hide? Wow, it must have been because Snivellus dearest spilled the tea to his master. So basically it went like this: “Hey Dark Lord! Our adorable group of racists kills Mudbloods for fun, but there’s this filthy Muggle born I fancy, can you please kill her husband and baby so that I can have her?” How the hell could he think Lily could have ever forgiven him? He was totally fine with Dumbledore saving Lily but not her husband and infant son (see how deeply he cared about Lily’s happiness?) and only cared for him being the rebound. James and Harry were totally expendable but hey, bravest man ever known!  

So yes, he protected Harry (in his very own and questionable way, he did), but I’m sorry, that’s not enough. However, before someone says “in the end he cared about Harry” let me say a big, important fact: NAH HE DIDN’T. And not only he didn’t, but he also openly states that: in the Deathly Hallows chapter with the Pensieve, Snape describes Harry as selfish, self-important and arrogant - does it matter than all the other teachers like him and see none of those things? Of course not. And he’s not talking about sassy 4th-6th year Harry (who I really thank for that “there's no need to call me "sir" Professor” gem): Snape is tasing about an 11 year old who was picked on his whole life, who never had a family of his own and who lived in a cupboard under the stairs. He’s a child, an orphan (now tell me what’s that heroic about tormenting an orphan). However, Snape had decided that Harry must be bad news from the start, so he reasonably spends six years making his life as difficult as possible. That’s a great way to honour Lily’s memory, right? Do Snape stans remember what their hero answered when Dumbledore asked if he had grown to care for the boy, after all? He literally shouted “for him?” before casting a Patronus (a little over obsessive too). He felt he owed it to Lily to make sure Harry survives, and for Merlin’s sake, he did! He went to Voldemort and basically condemned the Potters. I’m not saying he is THE reason why they died, that honour goes to the lurid latrine rat, but he is one of them. Protecting Harry was the least he could do. Switching allegiances doesn’t cancel the awful actions before Lily’s death, as much as taking advantage of his position can’t be justified by his loyalty to Dumbledore. And most importantly, he cannot be redeemed by his stalkerish obsession for Lily (or by the creepy ‘look at me I want to die looking into your mother’s eyes,’ ew). All he did was made out of selfishness, even in his quest to redeem himself. Snape had a chance to honour Lily's memory, and disregarded it every single day. He claimed to regret his past, yet his cruelty to Harry was persistent and immature. Plus, loving someone doesn’t redeem terrible deeds. He aligned himself with a terrorist organisation who murdered for sport entirely of his own volition, endorsed the torture of Muggleborns, but of course, what a hero! I will never understand how people continue to use Snape’s obsession with Lily and ‘protecting’ Harry thing as an excuse for all the pain and terror that he inflicted upon small children. Does that mean you’ll excuse a father who continuously hit and emotionally abused his child and made their life a living hell if his excuse was “well I was still protecting them they had their dead mother’s eyes”? This is SICK.

And if you can still argue that “he had a terrible childhood,” that is inarguable, however, it just cannot justify him. Remus was bitten when he was 4, he had no friends until he was 11, lived in constant fear that he was going to be outed as a Werewolf, was forced to turn into a monster every month, lost everyone he loved and lived in poverty for 14 years and still managed to be a decent person. Luna watched her mother die, was picked on by almost everyone, was treated as a freak and only had one friend until she was 14 and still managed to be a decent person. Ginny was literally possessed by Voldemort himself for almost a year, guess what? Decent person too. Neville was constantly told how worthless he was, lived knowing his parents were tortured to insanity and was bullied and belittled by everyone. Decent person? Yes, right again. And do we want to talk about THE lonely kid who was abused his entire life? Sirius was raised and abused by blood supremacists, was disowned by his family, framed for murder (of his best friends, for Merlin’s sake!) and literally lost almost everyone he loved and still managed to be a decent person. He couldn't help the way he was? The environment around him conditioned him to be that way? If I remember correctly, Harry was raised by neglectful relatives, wore ill-fitting clothes, felt inadequate among his peers… Harry is proof that a terrible childhood doesn’t excuse despicable behaviour.

So, Snape hated Neville because he could have been the Chosen One instead of Harry (but it’s definitely on him for going to Voldemort and condemning the Potters), he hated Harry because he was James’s copy and he hated Hermione because she was a Mudblood and brilliant as Lily was. Makes sense, again, and again, it stresses how much of a beautiful person and teacher he was, don’t you think so? Also, had Voldemort picked Neville to kill instead of Harry, Snape would still be a Death Eater. It’s not like he thought being part of a group of supremacists and terrorists was wrong. It wasn’t until something directly affected him that he turned his back to his master - so brave, right? Snape may have done some good for the Wizarding World when he joined the Order, but while he was alive, he was horrible. He wasn't fighting the good fight because he couldn't possibly imagine a world where Voldemort was in charge (honestly, he couldn't have cared less), he was doing it to spare Lily’s life and get her for himself. James and Lily fought for the light because they believed in the light. Snape fought against the dark because the dark had offended him. Had Voldemort gone after the Longbottoms instead, Snape would have lived and died as the most loyal Death Eater in history.

Wait, I hear a “there’s no evidence that Snape voluntarily murdered anyone in his entire life” over there! He joined a group whose aim was genocide and was actually one of the few members which were part of the inner circle of Death Eaters, he didn’t get there by throwing kisses and rose petals around. It is explicitly said that not all Death Eaters actually bore the mark. Only selected wizards can be part of Voldemort’s circle, and not only Snape was part of that circle during the First Wizarding War, but it is also heavily implied that he passed messages from Voldemort more than once. Plus, he was also able to speak directly to Voldemort and even ask him to spare Lily’s life. Voldemort actually told Lily to move over three times before killing her, and he didn’t do that because he had such a kind heart and wanted to spare a Muggleborn’s life, he did that because Snape begged him. And maybe we haven’t read the same books, but it’s not like Voldemort strolled along Diagon Alley offering favours to random people. In addition to this, Snape did most certainly kill someone since Dumbledore compares Draco’s soul to his, meaning he has done remorseless acts of great evil before, hence his soul was already damaged, unlike Draco’s. So please, stop saying Snape was somehow influenced into joining the Death Eaters and never committed any crime: he fully believed in what they pledged and actually longed about being one of them for years (according to Lily). No one manipulated him into joining said group nor into perpetrating crimes. And no one manipulated him into being a horrible person even after he “switched sides.” He’s the one who willingly decides to be a terrorist, he’s the one who willingly decides to abuse children half his age, and he’s the one having the nerve to be awful to Harry when he’s the reason why Harry doesn’t have any parents.

And he was so childish and cruel! He threw a tantrum after discovered he was getting an Order of Merlin and wasn’t going to see Remus and Sirius in jail (even though he knew they were innocent).

There we go: HE KNEW SIRIUS WAS INNOCENT (don’t try to deny it, he was part of the inner circle of Death Eaters, he perfectly knew Sirius was not the one selling the Potters to Voldemort)! Did this matter for him? Of course not! And was Snape cruel and abusive to Harry because he blamed himself for Lily’s death and Harry was a constant reminder of his guilt? Yes, he was. But you know who else blamed himself for the Potters’ deaths and also was constantly reminded of them by Harry, and yet, did not abuse him because of his guilt? That’s right, Sirius. Sirius whose death was indirectly caused by Snape who kept making fun of him for being locked in Grimmauld Place. Sirius who had no problems breaking out of Azkaban, all he had to do was turn into a dog and leave. He could have left anytime he wanted to over those twelve years but he didn’t. You know why? Because he thought he deserved to be there. It was his fault his friends were dead. Everyone could blame him all they wanted with false accusations and it didn’t matter, since to him, changing Peter to the Secret Keeper, he was guilty for his friends’ death and deserved to be in Azkaban. He only broke out when he knew Harry was in danger after seeing that filthy rat on the newspaper. And when he broke into Hogwarts? Do people remember those lines: Hermione said “It’s very lucky he picked tonight, you know,” to which Ron responded “I reckon he’s lost track of time, being on the run. Didn’t realise it was Halloween.” Please, of course he realised it was Halloween, he perfectly knew that. He went after Peter on the anniversary of James and Lily’s death to revenge them and to save his godson. Sirius might have strut as much as James during his teens but again, he turned out to be a decent person.

And think about Harry, a 17-year-old grown up in an abused “family” (and still managed to be a decent person too): he has no memories of his parents, the only thing remained is a photograph. A photograph of a happy little family, showing James and Lily in love with the fruit of their love. Snape found it and ripped off and stole the half with Lily smiling so he could pretend her happiness and love were directed at him and not at her husband and son (yes, people, that disgusting moment actually existed, and it was so creepy Yates couldn’t put it in the movies). He stole Lily’s picture and Lily’s last words from Sirius, a friend she loved, the Potters’ best man, James’ brother. How nasty. What can I say, at least he waited until after Sirius’ death to go to Grimmauld Place and raid his bedroom?

Lovely Snivellus, such a cupcake, also laughed and mocked Tonks when her Patronus changed when she fell in love with Remus (let’s also remember that Tonks’s one was not the same as Remus’s, as stated by Rowling, before Snape stans can accuse me of applying double standards: Remus’s Patronus was a regular wolf, and okay Harry is oblivious at times, but he would have recognised a regular wolf) despite the fact that his own changed to match Lily’s - let’s just remember that THIS is obsessive behaviour, whilst James and Lily’s Patroni represent them being soulmates. Snape’s Patronus does not honour Lily, stop considering this the greatest romantic moment of all times, it does not show virtue nor morality, it’s just the representation of his creepy fascination with necrophilia. It’s disgusting, not noble. His so called love for Lily is creepy. She found happiness with another man, yet Snape was possessive, manipulative, and inarguably obsessive. And let’s remember that J.K. Rowling said that “he thought Lily would find him impressive if he became a real Death Eater”… was he really her best friend or was he just completely blinded by his attraction to the dark side? This is not a redemptive love, this is problematic, toxic, abusive, emotionally-stunted, obsessive.

This is because there was never a love triangle and that’s why there is simply NO Team Snape! Not winning at the genetic lottery doesn’t justify being such an awful person! Also, THIS is why the tag line should be changed from “always” to “Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! I'll hold him off!” or to “until the very end” because a father’s eternal love for his son is much more important than a racist’s obsession of a dead woman (dead because he contributed to her death, to be precise). His always and doe patrons can’t get him out of this one. Eventually, let’s remember J.K. Rowling’s dedication in Deathly Hallows: “[…] to you, if you have stuck with Harry until the very end.” Not “always” nor creepy moaning, just the pure words of a hero, of a loving father who died protecting the ones he loved most. 

Now, I don’t get why we should celebrate Snivellus as the hero of Slytherin and an example of the “not all Slytherins are evil” when Regulus Black died in a cave, drowned by reanimated corpses to bring about the downfall of Voldemort, and Narcissa Black straight up lied to Voldemort because she’s first and foremost a mother, ruthless in doing whatever it took to save her beloved son. Regulus and Narcissa were brave: despite their flaws they knew what mattered the most and they were two big key factor in Harry’s survival and Voldemort’s demise. Sure, Snape was among the three that deceived the Dark Lord, but whilst Regulus did it because he realised what was right and what wasn’t, and Narcissa did it because of love, putting her family first (plus, she wasn’t even a Death Eater, and this tells a lot about her, as her loyalties solely lie with her family), Snape did it because resentfulness. Sure, Regulus joined the Dark Eaters of his own free will and Narcissa did what she did only after having her family threatened, but since one of Snape stans’ major point in his defence is his family being abused, let’s take their family into consideration too. The Blacks were pureblood supremacist, they grew up within that establishment and yes, some members of the family rejected those arguable ‘values’ but not everyone has the courage to do that (also, every Black family member is indisputably a badass, don’t get me started on that). On the contrary, Snape was a half-blood, and still, ended up hating muggleborns - yes, don’t try to say he didn’t, he joined the Death Eaters because he believed in Voldemort’s cause. He disparages mud bloods, he joins in on their massacre as a Death Eater after having idolised them for years in school before actually joining them. Read this again: he idolised a group of pureblood supremacist, he actively helps orchestrate genocide against the muggleborns. And what is his Freudian excuse? He believed that, in so far as Halfblood, he had to ‘prove’ that he was magical and capable enough (does this remind you of somebody else who hated muggles albeit being a half-blood and eradicates his whole Muggle family?), you can see that in how he strived to highlight his maternal Prince lineage in his stupid nickname. And no, now don’t try to blame the Marauders’ behaviour for this: Severus Snape, the man you glorify, hated muggleborns and went out of his way to commit genocide against them. So, in the end, if you still deny that, despite it being clear in the books, you are being dishonest. If, on the contrary, you fully realise it and still glamorise Snape despite how horrible of a person he was, well Snape stans, you have sunk to a new low. I’m not trying to justify anyone who supported said supremacist beliefs, but at least Regulus and Narcissa were born and bred within one of the Sacred 28, those beliefs were instilled in them from the very beginning, Snape reached them all on his own (well done for embracing your nazi self Snivellus). Regulus turned his back on Voldemort as soon as he realised how wrong he had been: at age 18, he literally sacrificed himself to try and stop his master. Narcissa, on the other hand, never sworn loyalty to Voldemort: she was a pureblood elitist, yes, she was guided by pride, but she was also calm, rational and restrained where her sister was crazed and her husband was reckless. So… Regulus faced death in the hope that when when the time had come, Voldemort would have met his match and would have been mortal once more, and Cissy only wanted best for her family and did everything she could to protect her son. She perfectly knew that Voldemort could have easily killed her in a second, but she wanted to find Draco, kept a straight face as the strong woman she was and fooled the Dark Lord. And why did Snape deceive Voldemort? Oh, right, he told him the prophecy that eventually led to the killing of the woman he was obsessed with (and no, again, he did not care at all about her husband and baby), this, of course after asking him to spare her life so that he could have had her (so this is, once again, classic Snivellus holding grudges). Regulus and Narcissa are pretty much the epitome of Slytherin, and still, let’s celebrate Snape! As a Slytherin myself, I am utterly disgusted by Snape’s behaviour. He could have been an amazing teacher, he had the talent to be one of the greatest Potions masters ever, and he willingly chose to throw it away in favour of being awful for the sake of bullying his own pupils. If we have to pick characters who proved that not all Slytherins are evil, let’s look at Regulus, let’s look at Narcissa, let’s look at Slughorn and Andromeda. Slughorn fought against Voldemort during the Battle of Hogwarts and refused to become a Death Eater, Andromeda married a Muggleborn. And guess what? None of them bullied children for 15 years.

Then, for the “I sometimes think we Sort too soon” thing… no, just no. Before you can start yelling at me, I am not, I repeat, I am absolutely not saying this because I endorse the whole Gryffindor being saints thing. I am a Slytherin, and a proud one. I just don’t agree that Snape was brave. Is being a resentful, childish and abusive man being brave? Wow, I’ll have to refresh my vocabulary!  It is not brave to bully your pupils for years because you lost your loved one, it is not brave to refuse to accept a woman loves somebody else and moves on, it is not brave to keep a childhood grudge against that someone because they ‘stole’ the so called love of your life, it is not brave to try to destroy an orphan’s image of their heroic father. Snape was burned Lily had chosen James over him, so burned that, fuelled by jealousy and envy (and by his pretty questionable ideals too, because it’s too convenient to forget he is 100% a Death Eater and hence a supporter of Voldemort’s lovely view for the Wizarding World), he struck out and ended up getting Lily killed. I don’t consider playing the martyr by “teaching” (if we really want to call that teaching instead of child abuse) and being an occasional spy being brave. I call it feeling guilty, I call it ‘I deserve to suffer for hurting Lily but I still choose to bully her own son instead of honouring her,’ I call it ‘I keep on tormenting an orphan because I hated his father and he looks too much like him, plus, he has his mother’s eyes so I’m constantly remembered of 1) Lily choosing James over me and 2) Lily dying because of me telling my beloved Dark Lord the prophecy.’ Any protection Snape offered Harry, he did it because of his penance, not because protecting him (and hence stopping Voldemort) was the right choice. Wow, how brave of him. I don’t think Snape could have been a Gryffindor at all, and I hated how David Yates (again, very conveniently for his martyr business) placed the Gryffindor scarf hanging up in the background in Snape’s death scene as a nod to his supposed bravery. Like, really?! Even if you really want to call him brave, he’s still an awful person who shouldn’t have been allowed to teach because of how abusive he was, an awful person who was a member and supporter of a supremacist, racist and violent sect, an awful person who caused the death of innocent people - and I could go on and on. You can’t let a few good deeds outweigh all the bad! It’s not like some potion or Imperius Curse made him join the Death Eaters, spill the tea about the prophecy and terrorise those children. He willingly chooses to do that because he was an awful person until the very end. And still, Snape apologists be like “the conclusion of his arc is that abusing your position of power over children is forgivable if you stalked one of their parents when you were a teen.” Again, sick.

Snape’s portrayal in the movies is entirely fan-service throughout the whole series of films, but especially in DH part 2: they never showed Sirius arriving at the Potters the night Lily and James died, they never showed the moment his whole world collapsed when he saw the corpses of his best friends, the moment he blamed himself for what had happened. No, we got an entirely made-up (and creepy) scene of Snape getting there, holding Lily’s body and crying when that never happened! We also never got a scene with Sirius and Remus evidently struggling to hold it together while they tell Harry about James, how he changed and how Lily fell in love with him. Their pain would have shown how much James had an impact on their lives, for the better, but of course, we only got a partial rendition of Snape’s worst memory, with careful cuts of course, they couldn’t say he didn’t find anything wrong with the torture of Muggleborns, right?

You can like Snape, sure, he’s a flawed character with an interesting past, but he’s not a hero, stop portraying him as such instead of what he really was: an abusive, creepy, racist man. You are allowed to like villains (who doesn’t?) but stop praising him! You don’t have to justify his actions because you like him: he was awful, recognise it.

Do we (still) need to talk about double standards? Well, there we go: people hate Lavender Brown and Cho Chang. Fair enough, pretty annoying girls if you want to hear me, but why do they get hate? They get hate for how they handle their feelings: Lavender gets hate for how she handles her unrequited romantic feelings, and Cho gets hate for crying and grieving over the death of her boyfriend. Does this sound like a thread to you? With the sole difference that they get more hate than Snape and this is disturbing and honestly just sick. He is a terrorist, he literally moans the entire series and abuses and terrorises children because he couldn’t have Lily but hey, misunderstood hero!

Stop romanticising Snape: the only reason why people love him is Alan Rickman, and all of this hatred is just a pathetic way of trying to cover up that James grew up while Snape didn’t. How can people glorify and stand up for a man who canonically is a vindictive bully? To be honest, I’m genuinely concerned for people who over romanticise such a man. Correct me if I’m wrong: do you see anyone sticking up for the Dursley’s or Umbridge, when they do basically the same stuff to Harry as Snape? How is Necrophilus any different? I will never regard him as a hero for as long as I am alive, however, the movies conveniently cut those parts where Snivellus was the half princey of baddies, right? Also, I really wish Sirius could have found out about this lovely nickname Snape gave himself as a teenager, that alone would have cured his depression, post traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism, this is a real tragedy.

Severus Snape did not die for love. He died because Voldemort thought hew was the true Elder Wand owner. I repeat: he did not die for love. Period.

He raised a wand to McGonagall!

Avada

Kedavra

[the-most-faithful]

Thanks for tagging me, I love being part of this community.

So let's start with the obvious, we know little from the canon, we often have to read between the lines and admit that some events can be distorted by the points of view of those who experienced them. As you said James and Sirius were inseparable and the brains of the group, the two of them planned and carried out the "pranks" real acts of bullying. In the canon Sirius clearly told Snape how to get past the sycamore and get to the Shack where Lupin was transforming. Let's skip over the vile attempt to blame Snape and focus on the facts, Sirius KNEW about Remus and therefore knew perfectly well what he was sending Snape against, infection or certain death.

I report the quote from the third book (I translate from Italian)

Lupin says: "... Sirius played a prank on him that almost killed him, a prank that involved me ...". Black let out a sneer. "He deserved it," he said mockingly. "Always poking around, trying to find out what we were doing... hoping to get ourselves expelled..."

So despite those who say Sirius has matured, after years he still laughs at having almost had Snape killed, but let's move on

"Sirius thought it would be... er... funny to tell Snape that all he had to do was press the knot in the trunk with a long stick and he could follow me. Well, of course Snape did... if he had managed to get this far, he would have encountered a fully grown werewolf..."

And now we come to the point, as far as Remus knows it was Sirius who told Snape how to get in and continues

"But your father, who had found out what Sirius had done, followed Snape and made him turn back, risking his own life... Snape, however, managed to see me, at the end of the tunnel. Dumbledore forbade him to tell the others what he had seen, but from then on he knew what I was..."

So according to Remus James he only found out later what Sirius had done. From Snape's point of view, however, the story is different and he himself confirms it shortly after:

"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," Harry said slowly "because he thought you were complicit in the prank?" "That's right," said a cold voice behind Lupin. Severus Snape was taking off his Invisibility Cloak, his wand pointed at Lupin.

So according to Remus James he only found out later what Sirius had done, he doesn't give us any further details and from MY POINT OF VIEW Remus is not reliable since he wasn't in the common room that night, he was in the hovel ready to transform. So I think his friends told him later what happened.

“but your father, who had discovered what Sirius had done, followed Snape and made him go back”

Precisely making James look like the hero of the situation. On the contrary, Severus who lived the story cannot know what happened before. In his mind, all three were accomplices of the “Prank”. According to Snape, James had cold feet at the last minute, but honestly how could he have known? Canonically we cannot have a certain answer, we can only interpret.

"If it hadn’t had been for James’s last-minute change of heart, he could have been responsible for Snape’s death " Written by The Wizarding World Team

This is a very important quote because it implicitly indicates that James knew, but it is part of the Wizarding World tertiary canon, for me it seems canonical and would be enough to put an end to the discussion but if that were not enough, let’s continue.

Things could have gone in two ways:

Sirius acted impulsively seeing how he is also a character as an adult, he pushed Snape to go against the danger and then he must have told James with pride. However, his friend used a minimum of brain and understood that the situation could have become a disaster. Obviously he was not heroic, he did not do it to save Snape but to save his friends, and this is canon. If Remus had infected or killed Severus then he would have been condemned, Dumbledore would have ended up in trouble because he lied to everyone by admitting a werewolf and all the Marauders would have been discovered as illegal Animagus. So yes he did it to save his friends, not Snape.

Sirius and James thought of the "joke" together and Sirius carried it out (all behind Remus' back) but when the moment approached James had second thoughts and for the reasons listed above he intervened.

Personally it doesn't matter which of the two is the real one, James is not innocent in any case. I would also like to point out a fundamental point, unlike the fanfiction in which after the prank Remus distances himself from his friends and above all blames Sirius in the canon after a few months Lupin is peacefully with them after the OWLs and Sirius does not show the slightest regret, on the contrary He jokes about Remus being a werewolf and says he can't wait for the full moon.

None of them, even after years, shows any regret, Remus was told a version that was certainly distorted, Sirius laughs after years saying that Snape deserved it (of almost being killed) and James after a few months SA the Slytherin just out of boredom. No one took that fact seriously, there was no radical change in them, everyone played down the matter so yes in the minds of the Bullies what they did was not that serious.

But anyone who considers the bullies innocent is an accomplice

Hep

I need arguments, quotes, or something that confirms that James knew about the prank

I'm arguing with a snater convinced that James didn't know about the prank, He says James finds out about the prank at the last minute and goes quickly to save Snape.

If you answered yes, pls tell me why.

I'm convinced that he did know, James and Sirius were inseparable. It is impossible that he did not tell him. James probably thought it funny at the time, but as night drew nearer he saw the seriousness of what was gonna happen and the consequences and went to save Snape at the last moment.

I even sent him this quote

"If it hadn’t had been for James’s last-minute change of heart, he could have been responsible for Snape’s death " Written by The Wizarding World Team

And his answer was....

As I recall, there is no mention of a change of heart in the book. I don't know if he doesn't know how to read or what, but in the quote I sent him it's implied that James did know.

But he's very convinced that James is innocent and didn't know anything.....

He sent me a quote from the book, which also does not specify that he did not know. It doesn't say when James HEARD or from who he hear about the prank. "went after" it doesn't say that he went Immediately after knowing it.

Like ok he heart it and went but, it does not specify when he found out or if he went immediately after he found out about the prank to save snape

Tbh I'm very confused

Any comments will be appreciated 🥺🩷🩷

[masterthespianduchovny]

The Identity Politics of Snape

Years ago, I read an opinion that part of Snape hate is because he was largely believed to be a pure blood for years. Although we all know by now that this isn’t the case, I firmly because that, despite his half blood identity, people still subconsciously view Snape as a pureblood. 

Now, many can and will deny it, but if we knew that Snape was halfblooded from the start, would we still be talking about how he’s a wizarding nazi? Would we still loathe him because of the decision he made as a teen?

I get it, he’s a teen, he should know better than that, right?

But, it’s more complicated than someone needing to know better. People often forget how casually racist the wizarding community was on the ‘GOOD’ side. For comparison, in the USA it’s like the North v the South. Yea, at a point in time, the South was straight up blatantly racist (and, in some parts, they still are), but they North is racist in a not-in-your-face type of way. And, at times, they can be more racist than the South. They may be “kinder” about it, but it’s still there.

So, when it comes to the wizarding world, we’re simply condemning Snape for siding with the blatantly racist side opposed to the casually racist people. Hell, it’s like the U.S. TODAY. It’s wrong to say you hate minorities, but it’s okay to make stereotypical statements to be prejudicial against them.

I’m simply framing context here because this race conversation in the HP fandom is so basic and elementary that it’s laughable. Seriously. 

How so?

For many years, the muggle prejudice has been compared to the U.S. brand of racism, which is an important distinction (and nazism). As an American black person, that comparison isn’t one to take lightly or casually overlook that significance of said comparison all to shit on a character other dislike because it’s cool and trendy. That’s a serious and multilayered comparison due to the complexities and long lasting effects of racism in America beginning with slavery.

For those who don’t understand what being biracial means in America, which many do not, it’s an ugly double edged sword. Some white people will treat you better because you have white blood, but you’re still a nigger. Others will treat you like shit because you have “nigger blood.” That’s why the phrase “nigger lover” exists--proximity to blackness or the defense of it is unacceptable to some; being partially black or full white is irrelevant is you look black or you’re okay with blackness. 

To argue that since Snape is biracial he gets the full benefits of his wizarding side is fallacious, especially when comparing it to American racism. Actual biracial people have flat out said the white side of their family either treated them differently due to their blackness, including their parents, and/or said racist shit to them about black people. Some of these biracial people internalized those hateful beliefs because they didn’t have anything to counter it OR the white part of their family was more influential.

Furthermore, prejudice like this especially wins out when the SOCIETY and CULTURE you live in is racist as well. Snape developed his prejudicial beliefs before he came to Hogwarts*, but the racism in his society already existed before he got there and that was even from the “good” side. It also wins out when it’s unchecked. Bullying Snape isn’t checking racism--confronting his beliefs does.

Some will argue, “Well, being half blood isn’t like being biracial--they don’t know he’s a half blood” and this is where I say, “you’re wrong.”

Chicago is a big city--like the third largest in the U.S (I’m not 100% sure). But, it’s pretty freaking huge. Those who have lived there for decades can tell you stories about their community and the history of the city. My brother told me the story about two competing grocery stores with similar names. My mother had stories--hell, my aunts and uncles too--about people from their neighborhood who went on to be famous. The details that they know and the intricate story that they can tell about a city full of millions of people is fascinating. 

The wizarding community is small--dangerously small--the idea that Snape could pretend to be a pure blood is ridiculous in a society that cares about blood purity. You think he can just say his mom is Eileen Prince and not reveal his father? You think they won’t ask about his last name and have small talk about this kid Severus Snape with the mysterious wizarding father?

Do you all honestly believe that?

Many of you probably do and that’s because you all don’t understand racism, despite trying to use this against Snape as to why you hate him and why he’s evil.

Do you know how many racist people have black spouses and black children and fuck black people, but fucking LOATHE black people? You’d be surprised. There is a severe cognitive dissonance going on with them. Hell, some fucking Neo nazi literally befriended a black man in prison and trusted him to tell his life story, then some grand wizard or some shit SIGNED a fucking KKK chapter over to said black man RECENTLY. I mean within the last year or so.

But, they’re RACIST!

Right???

Racism is illogical, so racists behave illogically.

Voldemort is a freaking HALF BLOOD and these pure blood wizards are following and worshipping him. Voldemort literally tried to recruit Lily--a FUCKING muggle into his cause. LMFAO.

Where is this going?

Wannabe DE’s befriended Snape because he was a half blood, but also, that doesn’t mean he was fully accepted. It means that he shared their beliefs to an extent, but he was also half them, so they were okay with that.

But, on Snape’s end, being a “minority” or “biracial” is a lifetime of navigating identity and the politics behind it. And people forget that he’s half muggle just because he was accepted. They could’ve easily turned on him in a heartbeat without a second thought. They had no issues with full bloods being killed--hell, even family--but, y’all think that somehow Snape is exempt because he was a half blood??? 

Snape had to live with those niggas--he literally only had himself, but we expect him to make a noble decision at 15, despite almost everyone else making selfish and fucked up decisions at his age.

People conveniently gloss over that Snape was literally fighting for his fucking life as Lily fought against an abstract threat while at Hogswarts. Lily never got bullied--”But, other muggles did.” AGAIN: Lily never got bullied OR threatened. Snape was bullied, sexually assaulted, and almost fucking killed all while being threatened into silence. You expect him to put her life over his? Seriously?

What makes this dynamic even worse is that James literally has no place telling Snape anything about race or identity and that’s on that. Especially when James is one of his bullies. Neither does Sirius or Remus. None of them motherfuckers have any right or moral ground to say shit to Snape when they could’ve easily spoke to Snape opposed to bullying him or standing by as it happened.

*Snape’s prejudice against Muggles was born from the hatred of his father, a muggle, who he was powerless against. This isn’t to excuse his behavior, but contextualize it. Abuse victims want to feel powerful (read: in control of their life). Magic gave him that power. When being in the wizarding world, he learned that having magic wasn’t enough so he sided with a group that “supported” him and would give him power. Even though people will argue that this is head canon, the text supports this better than Rowling say post books Snape joined to impress Lily. Snape was already on the path to joining unless he’d be always trying to impress Lily.

Furthermore, I’d argue that Snape’s prejudice was more complicated than “hating muggles.”

His prejudice was largely tied to hating his dad and the fight for power. Besides rumors, which it’s called rumors for a reason, there is no definitive proof that Snape actually hated muggles. If Snape was this flat out “racist” person, he would’ve been open about that. “But, but....Lily.”

Again, y'all don’t understand the nuances of racism. There was a viral story about how this white man was in a full blown relationship with a black woman and went on a racist tirade about black people TO HER. Then, in her face he said that she was “different.” Straight up racist people do not hide that they are racist. They make exceptions for the minorities who are “different” from the group that they hate. The idea that Snape would put on this whole charade to make Lily believe he isn’t racist is hilarious. 

“But, he called her a mud blood!” 

Yes, he did. Snape was complicated and had complicated and confusing feelings as a child/teen. BUT, someone who is a full blown racist doesn’t do what Snape did. Snape had prejudicial beliefs, but he, like his beliefs, were more complicated than simply hating muggles because he was half muggle himself and his relationship with muggles weren’t clear cut either.

We’re also assigning power to Snape that he didn’t and never had. 

Think about the power Omarosa had in the White House and look had easily that was taken away. For minorities, power can be taken away with a snap of a finger. Look a Brett Kavanaugh...despite his bad behavior (in school and during the hearing), he was given a lifetime position with great power as SCOTUS. That should tell you all you need to know about power.

Must we forget that many of those Death Eaters didn’t even trust Snape and he was only protected because Voldemort slightly trusted him???

Also, people’s insistence to call Snape a racist as an adult is utterly ridiculous, especially when they say James and Sirius were reformed bullies. James “magically” changed over a year, but a man who spent 18 years undercover and checking a fucking picture about using mudblood is STILL a fucking “racist?”

FrFr?

I know people like to argue that he was playing both sides to see who won, but that literally doesn’t make any sense. 

Like, AT ALL.

Why?

Because, he had the whole thing in the bag with old VOLDIE. Because of Snape’s love for Lily (however you read that), HE was the reason the war went on as long as it did. If Snape kept his mouth shut, “Happy Voldemort Day!”

If Snape had a change of heart AT ANY POINT DURING THE SERIES, “HAPPY VOLDEMORT DAY!”

I don’t think his detractors understand how pivotal Snape was in Harry’s success--all of the way to the end. Even to Snape’s dying breath he was important to Harry defeating Voldemort.

But, he was playing both sides to see who won???

Lastly: Snape was also coded as jewish.

In Snape, Rowling has created a angry villain who has a hooked nose, greasy dark hair, sallow skin and glittering dark eyes, an inscrutable, sneering, untrustworthy double agent – who hisses.  

https://sabbathmeals.typepad.com/sabbath_meals/2005/08/i_am_going_to_t.html

People have also touches on Snape’s hygiene, his lineage stemming from his mother side, and many other things people are more familiar can touch on.

The fact that he can be read and coded as marginalized and demonized groups is incredibly telling considering how demonized HE is. Snape is also very queer coded as well.

Others can go into more length about these other two identities since they aren’t my own, but it’s fascinated that someone coded in such a way is the most demonized and polarizing character--more so than the actual villain. 

I wonder if it’s representative of people who take offense to complex minority characters with complex goals who aren’t pure and good, but only serves to prop up others. White are the characters who are white can make morally grey or reprehensible decisions and behaviors be excuses, but Scape’s behavior cannot be contextualized even though it isn’t justified. People will bring up bullying, which is a valid issue, but they often steer into Fanon interpretations, which are often fabrications based on nothing and feel justified in their hate.

I wonder if these are the same people who defend Liam Neeson’s behavior from the past, yet condemn a fictional character in the same breath? 

Gosh, this isn’t touching on how fucking poor Snape is.

@halfbakedsnape

[the-black-plague1347]

Buttons and Beetles

Warnings: Beetles, kindness, mis-gendering

 Being the only person in the class without a wand is not a good time. While everyone else pulls their wand out of their robes, you stare at the desk and fiddle with the ring on your middle finger; a simple iron band with leaves curling protectively around the top of your finger.

“Did you forget your wand, ______?” Lily asks.

You fiddle more determinedly.  “It’s okay, just ask Professor McGonagall if you can go get it. I’m sure she won’t mind.” She urges.

“I don’t have one,” You blurt abruptly, still not looking at her. “It’s a medical thing.”

“Oh, um, okay. Well how are you supposed to do transfiguration?” She stumbles over her words and you can tell that she wants to say something else.

“What is it Lily?” You finally turn to look at her.

“I mean, I don’t mean to be nosy or anything…” She looks down to her hands and turns in her seat to look at you, “But what did you mean by ‘medical thing’” She makes quotation marks with her hand.  

“My magical core is too unstable for a wand.” You answer, like reading off a script.

Technically, your cover story isn’t a lie. As a vampire, your magical core is unstable. Blood stabilises it temporarily – enough to stop it from killing you. Willingly given blood is best, which is why your uncle’s hands and wrists are covered in tiny round scars. “Oh.” Lily doesn’t seem to know what to say.

When the ginger tabby sitting on the teacher’s desk turns into Professor McGonagall, you jump. Nobody else bats an eye. Giggling, Lily tells you she does this at the beginning of every class. Soon, everyone but you is waving a wand around and trying to turn a beetle into a button. You glare at the beetle. It frantically tries to escape the teacup it’s trapped in, the edges too slippery for its legs to grip. You glare harder, twisting the ring on your finger. The beetle continues attempting to escape. “Hah, that was easy!” an unfortunately familiar voice crows.

You resist the urge to look up. Lily mumbles ‘braggart’ under her breath. Rolling your eyes, you take a deep breath and resume staring the beetle into oblivion. Maybe, if you try hard enough, you can pretend it’s James Potter, about to be crushed. “Sirius, look, the weirdo doesn’t even a wand!”

Sirius looks over with pity in his eyes. You’re not sure whether he’s pitying you or James’ idiocy. Probably you. He nudges his friend, attempting to stop him harassing you, but to no avail. “What’s up mate, scared of the little weirdo? What’s she going to do anyway?”

Your fist clenches. The iron grows hot around your finger. There’s chaos as the entire class falls onto their behinds into piles of buttons. “There’s beetles in my shirt!” someone wails.

Ah, that’s why everyone is screaming. That’s why your shirt is moving. All the girls run out of the classroom with their robes wrapped impossibly tightly around their top halves. The pureblood boys, however, scream the loudest. You stand, surrounded by the anarchy. Rubbing the beetles off your torso, you struggle to push your legs through the mounds of buttons. James whips his head around and points at your face with pure anger and condemnation. “This is all your fault!” He shouts and begins to jump through the buttons and beetles.

The classroom falls into silence, everyone waiting for him to close the distance. You stand your ground as he begins to speed towards you. He stops in front of you and uses his pointing finger to prod your shoulder. “Stay out of my way. You did that just to annoy me, didn’t you?” He’s shouting by the end of the sentence, right up in your face.

“No.” You defy as you look right into his eyes, “I didn’t do it to annoy you. I did it because you mocked me for having a disability. It’s partly my own fault, but you need to come to terms with the fact that you are an immature bully who thinks the world of himself and no one else. But that’s just my opinion, excuse me.”

Brushing past him, you stroll out of the classroom after stealing a moment of eye contact from Sirius. You see a smile creep onto his face, but quickly disappear as James walks over to him. Against your inquisitive nature, you tune out the beginning of a conversation and listen to their heartbeats instead as you walk on the other side of the wall. Practice lets you single out Sirius’ heartbeat. It’s racing, but you don’t know why.  You lose his heartbeat as you continue to walk further away in search of a new shirt in your dorm.

You tip toe down the stairs and are suddenly hit with the damp, cold air from outside. Your hair is whipped into your face by the wild wind which throws stray leaves in your direction. The leaves dance and twirl like they’re having a good time. Hopefully, you’re going to have a good time. Herbology, after all, is basically gardening. The subject is practically made for you. You walk onto the grass, gilded in golden leaves. Turning to your left, you walk quickly towards the herbology classroom. Its glass casing invites the sunlight inside to meet the plants. Unfortunately for the plants, this is Scotland. The sun is nowhere to be seen. There’s fog in abundance, but no sun. You reach for the door and push it open, with a scrape off the grassy floor and a creak from the hinges. The door reveals what you can only describe as heaven. Ivy crawls up the metal frames holding the windows in place and there are plants spilling out of their pots, onto the tables and beyond. This was the scene that you could only dream of having in your own home. At home the clouds would always hide the sun and the few plants that you had would always fail to grow. But here it was like walking into a paradise.

“______?” Professor Sprout’s voice makes you jump.

Her kindly face is set into a frown, worry in her eyes. “You’re very early. Is something wrong, dear?”

She dusts herself down, pulls her gloves off, and holds her arms out for a hug. You take a moment to think about it, then step forward and let her hold you. She smells like earth and it’s comforting, so you press closer than intended. “What’s wrong, ______?” Professor Sprout asks gently.

You swallow.  “James Potter refuses to use the right pronouns.” You mumble, head down in shame for being so weak that you have to admit it.

You pull away and look down to the floor, but her calloused hand remains on your shoulder rubbing up and down. “I’m sorry to hear that, dear. Would you like me to speak with Professor McGonagall?”

Her proposition comforts you; she wants to help. However, it would only annoy James more and could put you at more risk in the future. The cons out-weight the pros. You shake your head and she frowns again. “If you’re sure, I suppose. If you need to talk, I’m always open. I understand being different to your peers.” She assures you.

Ah, that’s why she frowned. Professor Sprout was bullied, so she wants to stop others being bullied. It makes you feel less like a charity case. Less like something to pity, more like an actual ‘human being’ in a sense.

The pupils began to filter out of the castle doors and down the hill towards the greenhouse. You take a deep breath and follow Professor Sprout to the top of the greenhouse’s table and wait for the glass door to open. It scrapes open against the mud and the hinges shudder with the weight that they hold. Pupils rush in and you prepare for another lesson. This time, you leave with muddy hands and a happy heart.

[marauders--mischief]

Stubborn Love

Request by @messrs-howler : Hiiiiii! I absolutely love your blog and I was wondering if I could request a Young! Sirius x reader where Sirius really likes Y/N so he does what James does with Lily. He asks her out constantly. But she doesn't really think too much of it until her sixth year when she begins to realise herself that she has begun to like Sirius. So naturally she tells Lily (her best friend) and they decide what to do together. (This is what brings Lily and James closer cause they call on him for help)

Pairing: Sirius x Reader

Word Count: 2482

Warnings: fluff, insecurities and dat’s it :D

A/N: I’m so sorry this took so long to write, but now I’ve found a bit more free time it shouldn’t take me this long to post a fic again. Feedback is appreciated and happy reading :)

****

Hogwarts had always been a special place to you. From the grounds to the tallest tower, you had explored every inch of the castle. You loved all the teachers and students (with the exception of only a few people), and looked forward to the end of each summer so you could return. Over the years you had spent there, Hogwarts had become your home, much like it had for many other people. Nothing was ever the same there, everyday a new adventure. Well, apart from one little thing...

Sirius Black, a mischievous, black haired boy had made it a sort of tradition to ask you out every year at least once.  

Because it was your first year at Hogwarts, the corridors of the castle were still a complex maze to you and so once again, you were late to your lesson. Wandering aimlessly around seemed to be becoming a common occurrence for you recently.

"Y/N!" A voice behind you shouts, and your head snaps around to see Sirius, running up towards you. You hadn't really spoken to Sirius much, your only encounter with him being on the train to Hogwarts. Of course, it was a brief meeting due to the fact that he and his group of friends weren't exactly being nice to your best friend, Lily and her friend, Snape.

Still, you stood and waited for him.  

"You missing lessons too, then?" He asks once he's caught up with you, the corners of his mouth curving upwards in a playful smirk. You shake your head, not really sure on what to say to him. "Oh come on, Y/N. You don't have to lie."

"No actually, Black. I'm lost," you huff, slightly annoyed at his patronizing tone already.

"Could you not call me that?"

"What, 'Black'?" You question, a bit confused as to why he turned the conversation. It sounded as though he was enjoying frustrating you.  

"Yes," he shrugs, still walking alongside you as you turn right onto a corridor that looks exactly the same.  

"I don't know, could you not act so... superior all the time?" You retort. "I'm beginning to think Lily was right about the lot of you."

"Oh. Yeah, sorry."  

You sigh, feeling sorry that you had gotten annoyed with him that quickly. "It's okay. I'll stop calling you... well, you know."

"Thanks."

The short silence that follows is slightly awkward but you're actually quite happy you were able to get him to agree with you. "So..." Your voice dragging on. "What're you missing lessons for?"

"Wha-I'm not," he fumbles. "I was... lost. Like you."

"But you asked me if I was missing lessons as well. Doesn't that mean you were missing lesson?"  

You were unaware that your steps had slowed down to an almost stand-still as Sirius dragged behind you.  "Well, I was going to," he admitted. "But now I'm not."

The truth was Sirius was out looking for you. He had noticed that you were often very late to classes and he had wanted to ask you out since he first saw you but wanted a good opportunity to do it. But he was really reluctant to tell you that.

"Well, why aren't you now?"

"I'm helping you find your way to Potions, obviously."

You jokingly shove his arm. "Hey, I do end up finding it eventually."

He looks at you, his eyebrows raised in disbelief. "Clearly."

Maybe Sirius wasn't actually as bad as you had made him out to be, he certainly seemed nice enough. Still, you pretended to be offended by his comment, giving a small "hmph," whilst pouting.

Sirius however, takes it the opposite way than what you expect him to. "One point to me, I think."

Even as you begrudgingly muttered, "fine," you couldn't helped the smile that tugged at the corners of your mouth.

As you walk, the air becomes suddenly colder and you assume that you're closer to the Potions room now as they were found in the dungeons which were never as warm as the rest of the castle.

"You know, I feel quite proud today," he announced.

"Oh yeah, why's that?" You asked, curious.

"I think I've succeeded in my mission in getting you to like me."

Eyes crinkling slightly, you let out a short laugh. "Eh, I wouldn't push it Sirius," you joke.  

He gets the sarcasm but decides to play along with the act. "So there's no chance of you going out with me then?"

And of course, you don't realise he's being completely serious –excuse the pun- and so you condemn yourself to seven years of being constantly asked out by saying just three words.

"Maybe next year."

The rest of your first year of Hogwarts was amazing. You eventually managed to remember your way around and you had made friends with Sirius and also the other three: James, Remus and Peter. Lily wasn't exactly pleased with this choice but she was your best friend and so respected your decision.

That was the only time he asked you out in the first year. But his hopes had remained high after your promise of a possibility of 'next year' and so in second year, he planted chocolates and other small surprises around the common room, each with a note attached that read: 'Y/N. Will you go out with me? -Sirius'. When it didn't work, and you were still set on the idea that he was joking, he put it down to the fact that it wasn't his idea. He had gone to his friends for advice and Peter had told him girls were meant to like chocolates and flowers. But it didn't work for him and so he began making plans of his own.

So, in your third year, it got worse.

He started asking you out whenever he saw you; on the Hogwarts Express, in Potions class, Quidditch matches and anywhere else you happened to bump into each other. At one point, you could've sworn he had some sort of tracking spell put on you, because your meetings seemed to be becoming more frequent. 

Still, every time, you said no.  

It only made Sirius more determined.

In fourth year, he went to another extreme. You and Sirius usually attended Quidditch matches together when it wasn't your house playing but as you walked out onto your usual seats, you couldn't find Sirius anywhere. You decided to sit with Lily and wait until he showed up.

It was only a few minutes that you were able to locate him.

"CAN I HAVE EVERYONES ATTENTION PLEASE?"  

Merlin's beard. Surely, he hadn't? But as you turned your head to the commentators stand, sure enough, he was there, that captivating smirk etched onto his face and he had apparently got something to announce.

"I WOULD FIRST LIKE TO TAKE A MOMENT TO THANK MINNIE FOR LETTING ME DO THIS."

Only the people close to the teachers stand could hear McGonagall's protests of disagreement, though most people didn't need to as they knew that she wouldn't have let him do it anyway.  

"AND SECONDLY, I WOULD LIKE TO ASK Y/N Y/L/N IF SHE WOULD GO OUT WITH ME AND KINDLY ACCOMPANY ME TO HOGSMEADE NEXT WEEKEND FOR A DATE."  

The people in your year had mixed reactions. You could tell some were jealous; most people found Sirius attractive. You were one of those people but it was only in a supportive best friend kind of way. At least that's what you had deluded yourself into thinking. Several of your friends 'awww'd' at his cute proposal whilst other people either sat disinterested or laughed along.  

"SO, WHAT DO YOU SAY Y/N?"

You didn't know how to respond, because one, how would he even hear you? And two, how could you answer without everyone around thinking you were serious no matter what you said? Luckily, McGonagall chooses that moment to shoo Sirius off the commentator's podium so you don't have to have to answer any of those questions.  

When he finally joins you, the match had just started and you were still laughing at the stunt he just pulled. "You know, before today I was going to say the joke was getting old, but that was pretty hilarious, Pads."

Behind you both, James leans into Remus' ear. "Can she be any more oblivious?"

By fifth year, you had become accustomed to the many extravagant ways Sirius had thought up to ask you out. Unfortunately, it had been going on so long that it had started to get to you.  

Often, you layed awake at night, staring up at the ceiling of your four-poster bed, wondering. Sirius had been your friend since that day when he helped you get to Potions. Even Lily had said to you that they weren't that bad, and it was only the face that they bullied Severus that she disapproved of. But, if he wasn't kidding, would you say yes?  

You tried to dismiss the thought from your mind, and attempted to think of reasons on why you wouldn't. Firstly, it would ruin the friendship you had. Relationships weren't usually long-lasting things anyway, especially at this age. And the possibility that you would end up hating each other would be too great for you to risk your friendship with him. Besides, you would never be good enough for Sirius Black. He could get anyone he wanted, so if you ever did go out with you, he'd soon realise he could get much better.

You told yourself all this and more to convince yourself that he really was only joking and that if he ever did mean it, you would say no.  

It didn’t work.

But you pretended it did.

So, when the inevitable finally happened, and Sirius had enchanted a banner to flash the question in multiple colours with fireworks exploding every few seconds, you couldn't appreciate the beauty or humour of it like you usually would. Instead, you put on a smile which didn't quite reach your eyes and excused yourself from the situation as soon as you could.  

Now, you were in your seventh year, and you decided you'd had enough. The inner conflict you had been dealing with for the past year was starting to become too much. The only thing you thought of was to ask the advice of Lily.  

She was hard to miss, really. You only had to walk a short distance outside onto the grounds to see her fiery red hair ruffling in the breeze.

"Lils," you sighed, sitting down on the grass next to her, "I need help."

"Finally acknowledging your feelings for Sirius?" She teased, putting down her charms book.

"Hey, I'm not the only one in denial," you say defensively. "How's that not-so-secret crush on Potter?"

She starts to blush. "I definitely do not like James Potter. He's an-"

"-arrogant toerag, yeah I know," you laugh.  

"So how do you want me to help you?"

"Nice change of subject there, Lils, but I'll allow it. Honeslty though, I don't know how you can help me. I half want you to slap me and tell me I'm being crazy but the other half wants you to help me find out if he really does like me."

Lily stares at you shocked. "Y/N, really?!" Suddenly, realisation dawns on her. "You didn't... you didn't think he was joking for six years did you?"

"Most of the time," you confess, your head hung down shamefully.

"Merlins... you are quite possibly the most infuriating person I have ever met, I hope you know that," she says. "I mean of course he bloody likes you!"

"Oh."

"Well, I guess I better help you make it up to him, then. He has spent six years, persistently trying to get you to go out with him, I think you owe him."

She stands up and holds her arms out to you to help you off the ground. It only occurs to you to ask where she was going sometime after you had entered the castle.

"Well, we're going to see James, if you must know," she responded.

"Oooo, why's that then?" You say, wiggling your eyebrows.  

"Oh, shove off, Y/N. He's practically Sirius' brother and he's good at charms. That's it."

"Good to know you'll be my sister-in-law soon then."

"I do not like James Potter!"

It's impossible to hold back your laughter. "Uh-huh. Sure."

It had taken a few days for Lily and James to get their idea to work, but finally, it was ready and James had left to get Sirius to meet you.  

You had been left alone, the dark night sky clearly visible above you. You really hoped the spell would work.  

After about five minutes, you heard Sirius' footsteps behind you. "Prongs said you wanted to talk to me?"

Merlin, why did it have to be now that you got nervous? "Err, yep. Well, no-"

"Which is it?" He grins.

"Neither. Both." You shake your head. Merlin, it shouldn't be this hard for you. "I want to ask you a question."

He looks at you quizzingly, waiting, but you don’t speak. He tries to hide it but he's getting paranoid. Luckily, he doesn’t have to wait much longer. "Okay, now I'll ask you. Look up," you whisper.

Sirius follows your request and is completely taken aback when he sees the sky. A small area of stars had rearranged to form the question, 'Will you go out with me?' Sirius' bark-like laugh echoes through the air. "Merlin, that's so cheesy, Y/N/N."

You blush, your eyes averting his gaze. "Yeah, I know." When you look up at him, he's smiling like an idiot. "Got to admit though, I think it beats all of your attempts."

He rolls his eyes. "Yeah, that's fair."

"Though, it wasn't really me who did it," you admit. Sirius raises his eyebrows at you, prompting you to continue. "You can't honestly believe I did that by myself? James and Lily helped."

"So that's why he's been looking so chipper recently."

You nod. "It was Lily's idea. She got it from the Great Hall's ceiling, but she didn't know everything about how make the stars look like they'd moved; hence, James," you explain.

"Good. It's about time Lily admitted her feelings for him.”

“I have a feeling they’ll be saying that about us, Sirius,” you giggle.

"Hey! I've known all along, it's you that kept on rejecting me!" He says. "Which reminds me..."

Immediately, you knew what he was going to say. "Nope. Not again."

"What?" He asks, mocking innocence.

"We already go out, Pads," you chuckle.

"Yeah, well. It's tradition."

"I thought you didn't follow traditions," you press. "Isn't that your whole 'thing'?"

"I wouldn't say it's my 'thing', whatever that is," he laughs. "Besides, this is the one tradition I'll be happy to keep."

"Well, I'm waiting for it," you smile cheekily. May as well let him, he'd already proven how stubborn he could be when it came to accepting your answers.

"Y/N. Will you go out with me?"

"Yes."

[amorremanet]

hate meme: harry james potter, abed nadir, freddie lounds & santana lopez? ^.^

“send me literally anything and ill tell you something i hate about it”

abed nadir

sometimes got too much attention and/or narrative forgiveness

like? abed is one of my favorite male fictional characters, period, and he means a lot to me because he’s one of the only examples of GOOD autistic spectrum representation in fiction, and i know that dan harmon and the writers loved him a lot (and for that, i don’t blame them)

but look at troy’s last episode in season five (the one where they had a massive, school-wide game of, “the floor is lava” before troy left to sail around the world with levar burton, but abed tried to drag it out forever, at the expense of literally everyone else, because he didn’t want troy to go)

for one thing: on the in-universe level, abed dragged the entire population of greendale into this game and kept dragging it out without regard for the game’s effects on anyone else (and people were getting hurt, greendale’s ability to function as a school — even by greendale standards — was pretty much dead, and abed was totally fine with that)

and he massively disregarded troy’s agency in the whole matter (because he lied to troy about the purpose of the game; britta, for all her many faults, is the one who went, “uh, troy, abed is screwing with everyone to keep you at greendale”) — and this was all cast not just as sympathetic, but as ultimately more or less okay, because abed only did it because he loves troy so much and he’s terrified of both change and losing his best friend

which *is* sympathetic, and i feel abed on both counts, but that doesn’t make what he did okay???

for another thing: on the meta-level, troy’s last episode wound up being more about abed than it was about troy. like, this was going to be the last time we got to see troy at greendale and he did have an arc in the episode, but his arc was subordinated for the sake of an abed-focused ep

and if they were trying to have a “troy and abed” focused ep, then…

1. troy’s last episode was really not the time for that; abed should’ve been a secondary focus, at most

2. they did not succeed, in terms of foregrounding the troy/abed relationship, because they approached troy and abed individually, rather than looking at their relationship, and they didn’t go back to the relationship enough to make it work (like in the “pillows and blankets” two-parter)


3. there wasn’t a balance between troy and abed like the one you had in the “pillows and blankets” two-parter, or like the abed/shirley balance in “messianic myths and ancient peoples” or like the jeff/shirley balance in “foosball and nocturnal vigilantism” (or basically any jeff/shirley episode; they usually balanced pretty well, without either overtaking the other)

so, yeah. i love abed, but ffs. making him the show’s pet was really not good for anybody. to be fair, i would also say that annie suffered from this at least as much as abed did, so it’s not like abed was alone in this — but it really sticks out in a series that otherwise tried to be good about balancing its ensemble cast and challenging the typical protagonist-centered worldviews you see in most sitcoms

harry james potter

it’s less about him, exactly, and more about how tumblr fandom has taken to handling his status as a survivor of horrific childhood abuse and a few metric fuck-tons of trauma (but tbf, i think most of these answers fall into the heading of, “it’s less about the character, more about X thing in contexts surrounding them,” so)

which isn’t even exclusive to harry, because the hp fandom is totally bogus about handling abuse culture in general, and it’s rife with all kinds of double standards

—like, on the one hand, sirius attempts to commit a very premeditated murder by proxy, and even though the proxy is remus and he would’ve suffered for it more than sirius bc he’s a werewolf and the murder would have happened on the full moon, this is apparently totally 5,000% acceptable because sirius has abusive parents and the intended victim is snape

but on the other hand, you are victim-blaming, abuse apologist garbage if you think that severus is justified in never forgiving james and sirius even if his actions based on that were mostly in the wrong, or thinking that he had every right to fight back against james and sirius when they tormented him in school

(and never mind that james potter was not, at that time in his life, a victim of fucking anything. he is a wealthy, pureblooded man who came from a loving, supportive family, and is canonically regarded as both straight and white

TO BE FAIR, he is also never specified as being white, like voldemort, lucius, and draco all are — and as other readers have noted elsewhere, the way the dursleys talk about james/lily is heavily racialized, despite being about him being a wizard, in the text — so poc!james is one of the, “jkr didn’t say it’s not canon, so it could be” type of headcanons

but he’s also never said to be a poc, so that’s fanon

moreover, it can’t be treated as canon in order to make it out like james’s years of bullying snape were anything but a guy who is canonically privileged in every way that he can possibly be privileged in jkr’s universe bullying another kid who does not have most of james’s privileges [he’s male, a halfblood — less privileged than purebloods but more privileged than muggleborns — and he’s canonically regarded as straight and white; that’s it on the, “privileges that snape has in jkr’s universe” front]

—but hey, if it’s fair game to bring up all of the racialized coding in how the dursleys talk about james by way of trying to ignore the fact that jkr treats him as white in canon, then how about let’s remember all the antisemitic coding in how jkr writes about severus, even though she doesn’t outright say that he’s jewish: source (nb: this post was written in 2005, the author didn’t have dh), source, source, source, source, source

and oh, never mind how james flat-out says that he bullies severus, “more [because of] the fact that he exists, if you know what i mean” [ootp 647]

and never mind how plenty of the people who act like severus was obligated to forgive james and sirius have reblogged things about how nobody is ever obligated to forgive their abusers, and/or condemn him for fighting back while applauding when hermione punches draco [which i say without judging them bc she’s fighting back against a blood purist little snot who torments her and her friends for fun, and i love that moment too], like??

ffs, guys, you can criticize and/or condemn snape’s actions without acting like he was terrible because he saw no reason to forgive james and sirius for what they did to him, or acting like it was Totally Wrong Forever for him to fight back against the guys who meant he didn’t even get a reprieve from his abusive, neglectful home-life at school bc they decided to torment him, and they had classmates who thought it made them cool)

furthermore, it’s apparently soooo totally not sirius’s fault that he abuses kreacher because he’s stuck in grimmauld place and lashing out against his abusive parents because kreacher still loves them…… or so say people who are otherwise happy to call out the wizarding world for having this institutionalized and magically reinforced system of slavery, which i guess doesn’t matter when sirius “cinnamon roll uwu~” black is the person abusing that system to get away with his bullshit and explicitly abusive treatment of another sentient being—

which all goes back to harry because of how abuse culture ends up rearing its ugly head in how people discuss him as a survivor

like, apart from the double standards that all fandoms have toward abuse culture and survivors, there are two big sides that i’ve seen, in this trend.

on one hand, you have the people who want harry being a survivor to excuse him of things like trying to use the cruciatus curse (and successfully using it on amycus in dh!) or similar

on the other hand, there was the shit like what you saw after “cursed child” first came out, where people were going, “omg but harry is an abuse survivor, he would NEVER say/do anything like this to his kids ever” — which…… uh?

no. not how it works.

even ignoring the irl psychology parts related to abuse and survivors of it, jkr has two big models of abusers in the series:

people who are over-privileged af and bully down because they fucking can and who the fuck is really going to stop them (draco, bellatrix, the dursleys, bartemius crouch sr., umbridge, tom-mort voldingdong, albus dumbledore, and oh yeah, james and sirius);

and people who have been hurt by others before and lash out at others because of it, to the point of becoming abusers themselves (severus, sirius, barty crouch jr., peter pettigrew, arguably albus and tom-mort have shades of this as well but it’s very debatable, and if ginny, and remus actually crossed the line into abusive, rather than being, “well, they’re not abusers, but they have these examples of behaviors that could become patterns that went this way,” they’d both be on this list too, but since they don’t, they’re only getting mentioned)

(she has three big models if we include, “abusers who are not recognized as abusers in the text because she didn’t feel like it today i guess” — which mostly means the weasley parents, but other characters definitely have moments of doing shit that should’ve been called out and wasn’t, c.f. harry running around and trying to cast the cruciatus curse, hermione keeping rita skeeter in a mason jar and hexing the signup parchment at the DA, hagrid trying to attack dudley and turn him into a pig over shit that vernon said and dudley trying to eat harry’s birthday cake, fred and george full stop)

so, yeah, uh

idk guys, how about let’s NOT invalidate abuse survivors in fandom by perpetuating these ideas that survivors are and/or have to be perfect cinnamon rolls, while all abusers ever in the world are these ridiculous slobbering caricatures of all things terrible

that’s not how it works

acting like that’s how it works ends up helping police survivors and invalidate their experiences because it plays into things like the idea that all abusers are obviously abusive, which leads to real-world survivors having a harder time being believed when they try to reach out for help

which makes it all a function of abuse culture

if you really care about survivors — and if you really care about harry as a survivor — then don’t use his status as a survivor to make shit harder for irl survivors, period

freddie lounds

i guess this is more of a problem with how freddie was written tbh

but, like…… true, nbc!hannibal avoided being absolute about most things even more than hannibal himself avoids vegetarian recipes

the most absolutism you really got was, “murder is generally wrong, like. killing in self-defense is one thing, but even if you’re trying to get ingratiated with a cannibalistic serial killer again in the name of stopping him (william), murder is probably going to be wrong so you should, like…… not do that, i’m just saying” and, “eating people is wrong unless hannibal didn’t tell you that you were eating people, in which case it is still wrong but it’s his fault, not yours”

all of which is stuff that the show doesn’t really get any cookies for taking a stand on because, “in 99.999% of cases, murder is wrong and should be avoided” is…… not really a unique or groundbreaking moral sentiment

like, it’s one of the beliefs you find in, as far as i know, every human civilization all over the world, throughout history

(there are, of course, differences of opinion on how to punish murderers, and there are exceptions made for people who get around the law by being wealthy and powerful, or by virtue of having some form(s) of societal privilege [e.g., whiteness, or straightness in the case of the, “gay panic” defense], or all of the old arguments about how killing someone during a time of war isn’t a murder and therefore doesn’t count, and then there are all of the semantic debates about, “are all killings inherently murders or what”

—but still. most people tend to agree that murdering other people is generally wrong.)

but yeah, uh

one place where i would’ve liked a little less ambiguity is freddie’s relationship with and feelings toward abigail

like, i wouldn’t have needed her to suddenly develop an increased amount of sympathy toward other victims — whether in general, or even just specifically, “other victims of hannibal lecter,” and given how he treated her on multiple occasions, it’s pretty ridiculous to just expect her ever stop being a pain in will’s ass (i mean, even when she wasn’t in the right, which was most of the time, some of how will treated her was unhelpful to everyone and in the realm of, “yes, i get where you’re coming from but this still wasn’t cool”)

—but with abigail specifically, the show sort of went back and forth between, “freddie is genuinely interested in helping abigail and does have some kind of regard for her as a person” and, “freddie is just out for herself and only using abigail and her trauma to further her own career,” which was all further complicated by the fact that pretty much no one on nbc!hannibal was a reliable narrator about anything, for any number of reasons

like, beverly probably came the closest before she got totally fridged for no good reason, but even she wound up hindered by the fact that hannibal was manipulating the evidence and playing everyone around him like a really overpriced theremin

and idk

i think the best “compromise” or interpretation here would’ve been, like… “freddie starts out just trying to advance her career because that’s just how she does things in general, but eventually, she did come to genuinely care for abigail as a person and to genuinely want to help her, which would explain things like why will was open to working with freddie against hannibal in season two, since he may not have trusted her in general, but he would trust her to want to take down the man whom they thought killed abigail (even though she was secretly still alive, at that point)”

but the show itself was never really clear on that, and it’s like

okay, guys, i don’t think you need to spell out absolutely everything, and i realize that a certain degree of ambiguity in most situations and with almost all of the characters is part of your #Aesthetic

but this would be an example of you once again screwing over the characters who are not named will and/or hannibal, especially since I got a feeling like it’s less that you were leaving things vague on the, “freddie and abigail” front, and more that you just didn’t really care to figure things out about this part of freddie’s character

so……… yeah

santana lopez

okay, i don’t blame her for wanting artie out of the way when he was dating brittany back in season 2 because lmao, i did too, but for starters, artie wouldn’t have been dating brittany if santana hadn’t blown her off in the first place

—which isn’t #Problematic in terms of her character development because…… uh, well yeah, that was the point. santana created the problem by blowing brittany off and trying to convince herself that she was “totally straight, except sometimes scissoring with brittany, lmao feelings are totally pointless and should be hated and santana doesn’t have them” and it was part of the story of her coming to accept herself as a lesbian

but it was kind of, “ummm…”-inducing that she… never actually had to accept her own responsibility for brittany/artie happening, like

first, in the duets episode, she tried to meddle and break them up by going, “brittany’s just using you for the free dinner at breadstix lmao” — which she succeeded in, because brittany and artie didn’t even sing (though they both still voted for themselves in the, “who should win” bit at the end) — and santana apparently thought that was it

tbf, it’s not like she could foresee puck and artie bonding, and puck trying to ““help”” artie get back with brittany by being so thoroughly himself…… but then brittany and artie were back on, and santana’s response was to manipulate brittany into cheating on him by going, “it’s not cheating bc we’re both girls” and expecting brittany to just go along with it

then, brittany calls her on that in “sexy” — inasmuch as brittany got a chance to do back then — and santana only accepts responsibility for anything in the sense of, “okay, brittany wants me to get more in touch with my feelings and admit that i do love her because that is how i fucked up before”

she doesn’t look at brittany’s relationships with other people, or at brittany’s feelings about anything but santana and the current state of their relationship + how it might go in the future, and so on — and this is another example of a situation where santana is presented as being sympathetic but still in the wrong, and brittany calls her on it, and it’s part of her overall growth in the end

but we never really address the manipulation in telling brittany, “it’s not cheating because we’re both girls” (which, by glee standards, is not that bad, and tbf, brittany and artie weren’t perfect angels in any of this, either, since artie was pretty ableist to brittany even before the, “how can you be so stupid, brittany!” “you were the only one in this school who never said that to me!” moment in the fleetwood mac episode, and brittany had her own manipulative moments with both artie and santana

—but it still kinda bugged me that santana had an opportunity to grow and learn more about using her capacity for manipulation for good, and it…… didn’t really go anywhere?

and you can tell that she didn’t learn about manipulating brittany — at least not until way later down the line — because a few episodes later, she’s plotting to use dave to win prom queen bc she thinks she can then go on to convince britt-britt that she’d made a royal decree that brittany had to be her girlfriend)

finally, santana was really ableist toward artie throughout the entire brittany/artie arc

……and beforehand.

…………and afterward.

………………and just in general, even without brittany needing to be involved, because to be fair, this was just one part of a larger overall pattern of ableist bullshit on glee’s part, of which artie wasn’t even the only victim (he was just one of the most notable ones because he was one of the only canonically disabled characters)

so, it’s like? yeah, santana said pretty ableist shit about artie, on a pretty regular basis — the “stubbles mc-cr*pple-pants” nickname is one example i’ll never forget

—and yeah, she said offensive things to basically everyone else on the show (c.f., calling rachel, “yentl”; calling mercedes, “wheezy”; taking her internalized homophobia out on kurt, not in the scenes like, “kurt and blarren sing about how much they love each other all over santana’s pain over being forcibly outed because that’s so what she needed to hear right now, stfu both of you” or in fairly going, “hey, shut up and quit judging MY wedding to brittany as a bad life choice just because YOU couldn’t make it work with blarren” but in all the smaller instances that you barely even notice at first; taking her internalized homophobia out on dave even while asking him to help her win prom queen/blackmailing him into it; list goes on)

but the ableist shit she said to artie sticks out to me, in particular, bc santana’s other examples of this behavior were generally cast as, “she’s witty and outrageous, yes, but you should really probably not actually say things like this, it’s asshole behavior on her part,” while the shit she said to artie…… kinda didn’t

not because the ableist shit she said to artie didn’t get called out

(bc lbr, most of the things that santana ever said didn’t get, “called out”

it got shown to be Not Cool bc it would get associated with people getting upset with her

or it would sound too much like Sue [who is almost always in the wrong, so sounding like her is something that you generally want to avoid]

or it would be used to show that santana is being selfish and rude even without it being called out [like when she called mercedes, “wheezy” before going, “we don’t have to like each other, let’s sing a duet together and win that free dinner at breadstix”]

or it would otherwise have some kind of repercussions

—but it probably wouldn’t get, “called out” as such, outside of REALLY big exceptions, like how they used, “well, but santana was bullying him” as a justification for finn getting her outed, when…… yes, her bullying him was wrong but these things are not the same

or the bit in, “silly love songs” where oher glee club kids [in order: finn, lauren, puck, quinn, tina, and rachel] bite back at santana over insulting them)

but her ableist shit toward artie sticks out because the show always kinda seemed to…… not agree with santana about it, exactly, since her saying it was still narratively seen as Not Cool?

but it seemed to give her a half-pass because plenty of the other characters who weren’t physically disabled expressed similar feelings about artie and his disability, just with less vitriol (e.g., puck, who even got to be friends with artie but still said ableist shit; he just wasn’t actively trying to be mean like santana was)

or they tried really hard to make it sound like, “well, this is just commonsense and how things are, what can you do” (e.g., MOST of them, back in season 1’s “wheels,” where rachel was pretty vitriolic in her ableist nonsense, but not directly at artie

—like, she was one of the, “but this is just how things are, don’t take it personally” when talking to him, but then lumped schue’s, “all of you will spend this week in wheelchairs to learn about accessibility!” lesson plan in with him giving kurt a fair audition for the “defying gravity” solo when she had her little diva moment of, “maybe someday, you’ll find a way to create teaching moments without RUINING MY LIFE” and then tried to storm out while still in a wheelchair)

which is all really less about santana herself, and more about how santana fit into the show’s overall patterns of ableism, but

i’m really hard-pressed to come up with something that i actually hate about santana, which is why hers is the longest answer (bc i had to dig deep and bullshit my way through it, oops)

(harry’s is closest in length but that’s because i had an actual point to make; by my standards, his answer is pretty short)

[thepinkseat-askthemoonbunny]

Well guys, back to my favorite hobby. Ball busting Fandom haters. Now there was this young lady on LJ, lovely young lady. She decided to explore other sides of the HP fandom, and there was this thread where people were talking about Snape. And she pointed out in one of her posts that Snape did join the Death Eaters and bully kids. There were fights about fandomwank and how some fans open themselves up to mockery, but I’m not gonna get into that because that’s not what this post is about. Here’s what the girl said after that whole fandom wank thing:

“Personally I can’t think of anyone who writes like that in the present day, but I could be wrong. The big problem is that Snape does say racial slurs. He did join a gang of racist criminals. Now perhaps in his heart of hearts he was not bigoted, but that’s not really important. His action speak louder than words and his words were bad enough without the actions. His later change of heart does not change what he did. Like the words from the poem,

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it – Omar Khayyam/p>

Snape’s tears cannot change his original actions. They are over and done with. He might have been as pure as driven snow in his heart, that did not change what came out of his mouth and it does not change the fact that at that time in his life he proclaimed his loyalty to a murderous madman and that madman’s cohorts. He cannot change what he did, he can only try to change his words and actions in the future. I personally think he did a lousy job at that, but that’s my opinion.”

I’m not a Snape hater and even though he was a bully I can acknowledge that he did try to fix his mistakes with the Death Eaters. Hwever one of the fans, who’s very popular on deathocapslock by the way and has some of the most vicious and vitriolic anti-JKR and anti Gryffindor, and especially anti Dumbledore sentiments I’ve ever seen, didn’t like that (I’ve seen her and I know how cruel she is). So she blew up on this girl and said this (bold are quotes from the first girl):

“Your real problem isn’t with Snape; it’s with yourself. Nine separate times you condemn a man for life for something he did wrong when he was still a teenager. The fact he later was sorry and tried to make amends, which you admit, is totally irrelevant to you. That is easily as narrow-minded and unforgiving as anything Snape ever did or said–and you’re probably older than a teenager.

he can only try to change his words and actions in the future. I personally think he did a lousy job at that, but that’s my opinion.

So the fact he spent the next twenty years making up for his youthful mistakes, even at the expense of his own life, is a “lousy job,” eh?

ust exactly what would he have to do to win your approval? Save other people’s lives? It’s canon he did that. (DH, “The Prince’s Tale”)

As for his joining the DEs, Voldemort was clearly running a racist cult. If you knew anything about cults, you would know they lie about their real beliefs and goals to suck in recruits. They also customize their sales pitch to appeal to the needs and vulnerabilities of whomever they’re trying to sign up. Anybody can become the victim of a cult if they meet the wrong people at the wrong time. Everybody has vulnerable times in their lives and vulnerabilities in their personalities that can be exploited by the ruthless and predatory.

The ultimate measure of a person’s character is whether they can acknowledge their mistakes and character deficiencies, and then try to live a better life and be a better person. Snape did that. You obviously have not.“

Wow, okay. But the only problem I have with this is I’ve seen this woman’s writings. I’ve seen them and they are absolutely disgusting. Go read her essay on Snapedom, she’s lashing out and saying that Snape tried to fix his mistakes and that all that matters is that they try to live a better life so we shouldn’t condemn him. I agree, the bullying thing not because he was still doing it, but we don’t have to throw the Death Eater thing in his face (unless you have to get into it with somebody who blames him joining on other people)

But wait ma'am. I’ve SEEN you! You condemn DUMBLEDORE for HIS mistakes every chance you get! You talk about how all that matters is that they try to change, you talk about how Snape spent twenty years trying to fix his mistakes. But you still come down on Dumbledore for mistakes he made A CENTURY PRIOR, and how he’s supposedly evil because of this! The same way you bully Sirius and Remus for what they did twenty years ago, and how you mock James for what HE did twenty years ago. THEIR changes don’t matter to you, I’ve seen you attack them on various forums and you’ve even called Dumbledore more evil than Voldemort several times, you call him a predatory narcissistic psychopathic tyrant! I CAN produce the posts to prove this, Dumbledore spending a hundred years trying to atone for what he’s done isn’t enough for YOU, but when Snape’s past is brought up, “Oh he changed!” Fuck that, you do this all the time. You’ve called Sirius a psychopathic rapist, yeah I said rapist, blamed Dumbledore for EVERYTHING bad that happened to literally everyone, and vice versa. You bash Lily for choosing James, throw Ariana’s death in Dumbledore’s face and talk about what he COULD HAVE BEEN, but when they say what Snape actually WAS, it’s a problem.

And cut the bullshit about how cults lie,Voldemort made no secret about how he operates and what his goals are. Snape’s friends were Death Eaters, he knew what he was. He knew Voldemort would KILL CHILDREN, so he was far from brainwashed. Like I said, I can pull up links and posts to prove this. This has to be some of the most hypocritical BS I have ever seen in my life, really.

[pseftisincertus]

My Take on Severus Snape

So ladies and gents, I find it necessary to state my case since I did post a pro-snape fic. I am here to answer the age long question that is, Is Severus Snape a hero?

Short answer? No. But what is he? (for purpose of categorization) He is human.

A little background for me. I became a potterhead ages late, I mean so late, in fact Cursed child has been released when I actually became a proper fan, which to this day, I regret. But its not like I haven’t heard about Harry Potter (you’d be living in a cave if you haven’t, that thing is like a plague) I know the general premise: its about magic, its about a boy savior and a bad man. I’ve watched the movies too, for the sake of entertainment and an idea of why so many people are so crazy about it. (I was a dedicated anime fan then so I was greatly protective of being the ‘better’ genre entertainment fan {later on in my life would I have known I would have been just as crazy or even more crazy about it}). I fell head over heels for this book series. My boss (in the laboratory I work in) had three of the first books of the series, as I have nothing to do most of the time, I said, “You know what? Let’s give it another chance” and so I did. Until, one book led to another, then another and before I know it, I’m devouring each book as I read it, loving every minute of it. Honestly, I hoped I haven’t watched the movies so I didn’t know all big reveals but then, the book will give you a deeper depth of the story so that was good enough for me. What differentiates me from other fans is that these fans had finished these debates long ago, they have said their sides and have set their defenses. I had equal amount of pros and cons so here I am sharing my insight.

At first, I was a pro-Snape, I think  the effect of him protecting Harry all along did it, I think well, he turned out to be a hero in the end so why are people hating on him? But when you grow up you understand the saying “ The end doesn’t justify the means”. I tried to look back and realize he was a bully and there is no explaining why he was other than the fact he chose to be. I hated bullying and would not stand for it (especially because I know how it feels), some may say “it’s just for his cover as a double agent”, no, it wasn’t. He terrorized Neville, he said hateful words to Hermione none of that was necessary. He could have kept deducting points from Gryffindor house and that was proof enough for the Slytherins he hated them but he proceeded and targeted specific students. Some would argue Neville’s boggart was just because of a childish fear of a strict teacher and its juts natural (some went as far as saying some students fears were spiders, clowns and they were normal, not that bothersome) but guys? Harry’s boggart was a dementor and Remus’ boggart was the full moon. We had a full length movie and book that showed how these two characters dealt with these fears and they were pretty much genuine fear. Others would excuse that Harry and Remus would reflect real fears because of the life they’ve led but imagine having to go to school and fear coming to a certain class because of a teacher that would stop at nothing to humiliate you (given that Neville does alot of wrong things but kindness and a little supervision would have helped than terrorize the kid). Also, some of the people happen to erase the fact that he was a Death Eater, this man killed people for a faction he knew was promoting ruthless mindsets. I hated him with a passion for a time but then let’s look back on his childhood. This man was born into a family that is not that well off (given his state of clothes when he was a child) and a father who hated wizards. We could only imagine how bad that would have been for him, magic was his solace, it was the one thing he find that is positive in him (he saw how mediocre it is to be a muggle and he had this hidden pride that he can do things muggles can’t do). Then enter Lily Evans. Lily was Severus’ friend and confidante, this girl grew up in considerable comfortable family so given she would be a better off person in regards to class and personality (nature vs nurture). He was the one good thing Severus had in life, so it wasn’t rocket science that he would fall in love with her BUT TAKE NOTE! he never confessed, when the whole “Mudblood” thing exploded on Severus face, when Lily said to him, “Don’t talk to me”/or come near me (Not verbatim but you guys get the point) he respected her wishes unlike a certain Gryffindor we know. This goes to show I don’t support the people calling Snape obsessed with Lily, he loved her yes, but he wasn’t obsessed with her. So came the whole bullying thing by James and his comrades. We can argue Lily didn’t know about that and well Severus wouldn’t tell her because its between ‘dem bois’. But no one, no one can ever ever tell me that Severus owe Sirius anything. I love Sirius, Wolfstar is my life but Sirius Orion Black died because of his own mistakes. Severus can’t save him or neither does he have the right to do anything for him. Sirius tried to kill Severus? Shrieking Shack anyone? If not kill, he tried to condemn him in a more miserable life. What did Sirius get after that? Simple detention or suspension and a warning from Dumbledore (which i hate btw) ‘Don’t do it again”. Do you expect Severus to let it go? You expect him to be okay, you tried to kill me but were all good now? What the fuck?! I’d sooner face a speeding car than to forgive a man that tried to kill me! (and that is not because I have mild suicidal thoughts, that’s out of the picture). And how did that reflect to Severus? A child like himself tried to kill him and the kid just go off with it? What kind of message was that trying to show? That he mattered less because he was from the wrong house, or he was predisposed to be a Death Eater anyway? It was hard enough for him that he didn’t grew up in a place of comfort, it was hard enough that he was bullied in school for being in the wrong house. This child like everyone in that phase of life just wanted to be part of something, to be validated, to matter so when he was given the chance to be a Death Eater and become part of a cause, he walked through it with eyes wide open. Things could have changed if Lily forgave him (but we can’t fault her on that, it is a harsh word but she could have understand where Severus was, a little bit more understanding but then again, she was just a child). So when things shattered into pieces, the boy who had no home, no friends and bitter life turned out to be a Death Eater because it was the only thing he believed he could ever be. He had to live with that, he had to take pride in that because that’s all he had. And then Lily married James for a reason I never understand (some say he changed his bullying ways and yet he still continued with Severus, is that really a good man? really?) So the prophecy came and Severus made a mistake by sharing it to Voldemort and easily changed sides because he brought Lily to danger. Here’s the thing, some say that he was obsessed with Lily because she was the only one he pleaded with Voldemort to save (which with some fanon said Voldemort actually did but Lily did not step aside) but if Severus said to spare Harry too, do you think Voldemort wouldn’t kill him then and there? Harry was the prophecy and if Severus pleaded with him, c’mon, Severus is smarter than that. I don’t care about James lying on the stairs when Severus came to the Potter house, Snape owes him nothing. But when Severus saw Lily dying and held her in his arms, can anyone blame him? Keeping the letters, Severus last memoirs of Lily doesn’t make him a stalker, it makes him a grieving man. It was his fault that they died, and he is trying to hold on to anything that he can. He paid for it didn’t he? In fact he kept paying for it for the rest of his life, playing double agent for Dumbledre and the Death Eaters. The danger he had to face to ensure the outcome was favored to the right sides. Yes, he hated Harry with a passion but he protected him didn’t he? He did what mattered more, in a general scale. We could only wished he could have been a better man, easier to sympathize with but Severus was first and foremost a human being. He was a product of his circumstances and there are alot of things he could have handled better, but he was not given the gift of better hindsight. He did what he could with his shattering heart and soulless life. Harry was right to call him a brave man but Severus wasn’t a hero, he was just a man with a troubled life and did greatly for the war but he had victims of his own. He did things selfishly and selflessly, so in the end, he was just human.