#Snape is a hero

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Ok but has this been done yet

[ahganunba]

SNAPE WAS NOT OBSESSED WITH LILY GODDAMMIT

[a-bettik]

The big question

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about one of my favorite Harry Potter characters and it wasn't,in any way, positive. The question I'm going to try to answer is one of the by far most popular and debated ones: „Severus Snape, a hero or a villain?“.

Sadly, i can't be both convincing and brief. I am going to start this study with a seemingly unrelated question: „What are Legilimency and Occlumency, and how do they work?“. Most of the Harry Potter fans know the definition, but I think you should reconsider the implications these powers carry, and their effect on the story-line.

Legilimency is the act of magically navigating through the many layers of a person's mind and correctly interpreting one's findings. It is not simple mind reading, it's far more complex, and, as the books have shown us, the act doesn't consist of reading a persons thoughts. The Legilimens reads memories, and the feelings associated with them. Occlumency is, on the other hand, the act of magically closing one's mind against Legilimency. Not allowing access to ones mind, feelings and memories.

The second thing we should consider is that Lord Voldemort was a powerful Legilimens. He was capable of reading people, invading their minds, causing terrible visions and manipulating them.

Now lets imagine for a second that you are an Occlumens, in the presence of someone who not only can, but certainly will rummage through your mind, trying to find some discriminating detail or memory. But you have to let them. Imagine how suspicious it would be if you were blocking them entirely. You are a double agent after all, and they can't doubt your loyalty for one instant. Therefore, you have to be subtle. Tuck away the few details that make you who you really are, hide them, and put everything else out in the open. Of course, you have to have a few secrets, a few holes in your life that you are going to LET them see. Like Lilly. Because having no secrets is as unusual as having too many. The only thing that is truly important is that they don't catch you. So everything HAS to be believable.

You agree with me so far? Good, now let us piece it together, shall we?

You are Severus Snape. You have agreed to work as a double agent for Dumbledore. You have agreed to infiltrate Lord Voldemorts organization, and pose as a Death Eater for an uncertain period of time. All of this, to protect the Chosen One. So you need to maintain two major illusions to be successful. One, that you are actually a Death Eater. Two, that Dumbledore is a naive fool. And you succeeded. But how?

Simple, first of all, be a stereotypical Slytherin. Favor your house. Discriminate against everyone else. Act the way Snape acted towards Gryffindors, pretend you hate them. Pretend to hate Harry even more, because he defeated the Dark Lord. But pretend to hate Neville the most, because it could have been him in Harry's place. Because if the Dark Lord had chosen Neville your childhood love, that you oh-so-care about and that is „your only drive and motivation“ outside the stereotypical Death Eater ideals, would have been spared. So that when Draco, or any other Slytherin affiliated with Voldemort, comes home and tells their parents about school, they'll talk about Snape, and he won't be suspicious. And every-time the Dark Lord looks into Snapes mind, he'll find a petty, unworthy human being, and he'll think that he understands Snape, because it all makes sense, the hate, the prejudices and injustices. The Dark Lord will think he knows everything about Snape, because he knows a lot; he knows about Lilly, about his childhood, about the Marauders, about the prophecy, and at some point probably about Neville too. In his eyes, Snape will be a human being driven by all the wrong things. Just the kind of person he will want to work for him. You use Voldemort's arrogance against him. So you fake it. You fake it so good that even after it is all over, people still don't understand what you did or what you sacrificed, nor the reasons why you did it. And Snape did this. For years. He acted. He faked every single moment of his life to make it all believable. He chose to fight, after all, to play one of the by far most important and dangerous roles in the entire story-line. And the most painful ones. But I'll get to that later.

Second thing, you be careful, very careful about what you are supposed to appear to be. Everything you say can be found in your memories and used against you. This is why his story goes so deep, why it shows so many motives, so many reasons behind everything. This is why, at the time Dumbledore asked him for whom he was doing this, he said that it was for Lilly. I think that that was a lie. Because even his conversations with Dumbledore were a lie. A lie that Dumbledore understood perfectly, being intelligent as he was, and that he played along with. You might ask why it is that Snapes Patronus was a deer. You might say that it proves the alternative explanation for his behavior. But the deer can symbolize a lot of different things. Like the fact that he is protecting Harry, that he is trying to be something like a parent. Or something different completely.

Thirdly, you have to be truly devoted, because you are going to suffer through a lot, and face many difficulties.

Oh, and if you have, lets say, one, just ONE, tiny slip up, if you make one small mistake, you will fail. No pressure, or anything.

Now, what kind of person does it take to achieve something like this, I ask.

It takes an extremely intelligent one – like Severus, one of the few people in the entire series that I will proudly call a scientist. A person who sees magic, and doesn't just take it for granted. A person that breaks it down, understands it, and knows how to use it. A person that creates spells. A person that creates potions. A person that places a logical riddle to protect the Philosophers stone. A person that has earned my respect by doing so, and hasn't let me down since. And a person that might have been something else completely if he had been born in different circumstances.

It takes someone that understands human nature and actions very well, it takes an actor, it takes a natural.

It takes someone strong of mind, an Occlumens.

It takes someone driven by the right things.

It takes someone incomprehensibly brave.

It takes someone willing to sacrifice everything.

Severus Snape is a flawed human being. He came from a troubled family. He suffered a lot. He was an idiot when he was young. But he got his wake-up call. He had a change of heart. And he chose to suffer more. He didn't have to, but he did, because it was the right thing to do. He paid his debts. He fought bravely. He had to go through the torment of not being himself for years without end. He didn't ask for appreciation. But he asked Harry to understand, he left clues. And I like to think that Harry did understand.

What kind of person does it take to save the Wizarding world?

It takes a hero, I answer. It takes Severus Snape.