SEVERUS SNAPE, MYSTERY AND ARTS IN MAGIC

Today, The Weasleys and The Grandma have met Professor Severus Snape, who has explained to them how to defense themselves against the Dark Arts. After this meeting, the family has practised Present Perfect.

More info: Present Perfect

 

P. Perfect vs. Past Simple

Professor Severus Snape is a half-blood wizard serving as Potions Master, Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, and Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as well as a member of the Order of the Phoenix and a Death Eater. His double life played a extremely important role in both of the Wizarding Wars against Voldemort. 

The only child of Muggle lowlife Tobias Snape and Gobstones witch Eileen Snape, née Prince, Severus was raised in the Muggle dwelling of Spinner's End, which was in close proximity to the home of the Evans family, though in a poorer area. He met Lily and Petunia Evans when he was nine and fell deeply in love with Lily, becoming a close friend of hers.

More information: Pottermore

Severus Snape was a thin man with sallow skin, a large, hooked nose and yellow, uneven teeth. He usually dressed in flowing black robes which made him resemble an overgrown bat. He had shoulder-length, greasy black hair which framed his face in curtains, curling lips and dark, penetrating eyes that resembled tunnels. As a Death Eater, he bears the Dark Mark on his left inner forearm.

Snape was a repressed, solitary man with no friends. In his early life, he was insecure, vulnerable, and yearned to be part of something better. 

As a child, the bleak normality of working-class suburbia compounded with his neglectful Muggle father inspired in him a contempt for ordinariness. This urgent desire to be a part of something powerful and important was what drew him to Lord Voldemort's inner circle. The younger Snape had a stringy, pallid look, being round-shouldered yet angular and with a twitchy walk that recalled a spider, as well as long oily hair that jumped about his face.

More information: HP Lexicon

Snape had a strong, authoritative presence. He spoke in a soft, contained voice most of the time, except during the occasional instances when he lost his temper. Severus started at Hogwarts with Lily in 1971, where he was Sorted into Slytherin House. This put him in the same year as Lily but unfortunately for him in rival houses. Severus became the immediate enemy of James Potter and Sirius Black and was a frequent victim of their bullying. This led him to be irritable towards James's son Harry when he was a professor.

  

Snape, when young, developed a passion for the Dark Arts, which increased as his desire for revenge grew stronger. 

Snape became involved with the bullies in Slytherin House, many of whom were pure-blood supremacists. This put his friendship with Lily, a Muggle-born, under great strain until it was eventually broken in their fifth year. In an attempt to win back Lily's affections, Snape joined the Death Eaters along with a group of his fellow Slytherins.

Severus was made a member of the Slug Club presumably because of his talent at potion-making and Horace Slughorn kept a picture of him as a student, clutching his copy of Advanced Potion-Making. Despite this, Horace did not have many hopes for Severus's future, as his photograph was kept behind many others.

More information: Screen Rant

Shortly before Lily Evans was murdered by Lord Voldemort, Snape changed sides and became a member of the Order of the Phoenix and double agent during the Second Wizarding War. With tremendous difficulty, Snape prevented Lord Voldemort from learning the truth about his loyalties. 

Despite the opinions of most others including Harry during his early life, Albus Dumbledore trusted Snape for reasons that were kept between them both until their deaths. Despite Snape killing Dumbledore, it is learned that they had a special agreement for him to do so. 

When he died, it was revealed that his deep strong love for Lily Evans caused him to redeem himself, joining Dumbledore's cause for her protection from Lord Voldemort. The relationship between Dumbledore and Snape would be one of an unusually strong loyalty, so much so that Snape agreed to kill Dumbledore upon the latter's own request. Before Dumbledore's death, Snape promised to protect the students of Hogwarts from the Death Eaters, who would inevitably take control of the Ministry of Magic as well as the school. 

More information: Cinema Blend

Snape later participated in the Battle of Hogwarts but was murdered by Lord Voldemort who mistakenly believed that Snape was the master of the Elder Wand, an immensely strong and powerful wand that Voldemort deeply desired, one of the Deathly Hallows, when in reality, Harry Potter was the master of the Elder Wand, because Draco Malfoy had disarmed Dumbledore, on the night of Dumbledore's death on top of the Astronomy Tower and Harry had disarmed Draco at Malfoy Manor.

After Snape's death, Harry Potter ensured that his portrait remained at Hogwarts, honoring him as a hero, despite their significant personal differences. In addition, Harry later named his second son Albus Severus Potter in honor of Dumbledore and Severus, both an inspiration in Harry's life after the Battle of Hogwarts. 

Harry also was influenced by Severus' Hogwarts house, and freely admitted that Albus could choose Slytherin if he wished.

More information: Vanity Fair

Severus Snape was born 9 January, 1960 to Eileen Prince, a pure-blood witch, and Tobias Snape, a Muggle, making him a half-blood wizard. Severus, whose father was neglectful and possibly even violent, began to identify with his mother's family and created a secret nickname from his mother's maiden name, calling himself the Half-Blood Prince. His unhappy relationship with his father may have been the origin of his disdain for Muggles. It is implied that Severus was friendless and uncared for by his parents. This lack of care largely shaped Severus's bitter disposition and cruel behaviour later in his life.

Severus grew up at Spinner's End, a shabby suburb of Cokeworth. This area of town was near a dirty river and full of dilapidated houses, disused factories and broken down street lamps. Through the rest of his life, Severus continued to return there when he was not at school. The young Severus is depicted as being unwashed and wearing ill-fitting clothes that were so mismatched that it looked deliberate. As a child, Severus was neglected and his parents often fought with one another. He could not wait to leave for Hogwarts at the end of the summer.

 

More information: Slash Film

Severus attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a student and was Sorted into Slytherin House, at that time led by Potions master Horace Slughorn. On the way to Hogwarts for his first year, Severus sat with Lily Evans on the train. While on the train they met James Potter and Sirius Black. This encounter between the three of them revolved around a disagreement regarding what Hogwarts house was the best. This hostile first encounter would set the tone for the antagonism between the three of them for the rest of his life.

According to Sirius, Severus excelled in the Dark Arts from an early age. At the age of eleven, he knew more curses and hexes than most of the seventh year students. He reportedly was friends with a gang of Slytherins who later became Death Eaters, including Avery and Mulciber. 

More information: The Telegraph

Severus was credited with creating a good number of popular spells like Levicorpus, Liberacorpus, Muffliato, and curses like Langlock, the Toenail Growth Hex, and his signature curse, Sectumsempra. Other Slytherins that Sirius mentioned as being friends with Severus included Evan Rosier and Wilkes.  

Severus also had contact with Lucius Malfoy, who was a prefect during his first year and greeted him kindly when he was Sorted into the Slytherin House. Most likely the two had good rapport at Hogwarts, which could also be a reason why Narcissa Malfoy trusted Severus to take care of Draco Malfoy and why he seemed to favour Draco during his later teaching years. Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were also classmates of Severus.

Severus suffered terrible remorse when Voldemort decided that Harry Potter was the subject of the prophecy, and that Lily Evans, the woman whom he always loved, was now in danger as a result of his actions. 

He begged Voldemort to spare her in exchange for the lives of her husband and son. But, knowing that he could not leave Lily's safety in question at the hands of someone who could turn back at his word on a mere whim, and that Lily would probably defend her child to the last breath, Snape also approached Albus Dumbledore to ask him to save Lily.

More information: Independent

He pleaded with Dumbledore to hide her, along with her husband and son if he had to. Dumbledore agreed, but insisted that Severus serve him as a spy among the Death Eaters. In fact, it was Snape's request to Voldemort which allowed Lily to let herself die in order for Harry to live, when Voldemort attempted to murder him, his curse backfired and Voldemort's body was destroyed.

When Severus Snape began his teaching career at Hogwarts, he initially applied for the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts, but was rejected multiple times. 

Many students were under the impression that this was because Dumbledore feared Snape might return to his old ways if allowed to teach his favourite subject, but in reality it was because Dumbledore was aware by that point that the job had been jinxed by Voldemort. Knowing that no Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher would last longer than a year, Dumbledore instead employed Snape in the position of Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House, following the retirement of veteran Potions Master Professor Horace Slughorn. 

Though it seemed rather uncommon for someone as young as Snape to be named Head of any House at Hogwarts, it is possible that Snape was the only Slytherin teacher left at the school, or that he was placed there to keep a watchful eye on the young Slytherins, who were frequently accused of, but not without reason, joining the Death Eaters.

More information: Cosmopolitan

 

 

The Dark Arts are many, varied, 

ever-changing, and eternal. 

Fighting them is like fighting 

a many-headed monster, 

which, each time a neck is severed, 

sprouts a head even 

fiercer and cleverer than before. 

You are fighting that 

which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible.

 Severus Snape