Severus Snape: Hero or Villain? What the Books Say

For years, Snape protected the son of the woman he loved. A boy with the face of the man he hated most in his life. And he died on the floor of the Shrieking Shack without knowing whether anyone would ever understand why he did it.

Few characters divide readers like this. To some he's the saga's tragic hero. To others he's an adult who humiliated children for years and doesn't deserve forgiveness. The honest answer is that both are true.

The Boy in the Park

It all begins in the memories Snape leaves Harry before he dies (Deathly Hallows, ch. 33). A park in a mill town. A skinny, shabbily dressed boy who lives in a house where his parents never stop fighting. And a red-haired girl who makes flowers open in her hand.

Severus tells her what she doesn't know yet: that she's a witch. That he's a wizard too. They become inseparable. At Hogwarts the houses separate them, he to Slytherin and she to Gryffindor, but they stay friends for years.

Until the day by the lake. In Order of the Phoenix (ch. 28), Snape's worst memory: James and Sirius hang him upside down in front of half the school out of sheer boredom. Lily steps in to defend him. And he, humiliated, screams "Mudblood" at her. Lily never forgives him. Years later she marries James.

The Prophecy

Snape joins the Death Eaters. One night, hidden behind a door at the Hog's Head, he overhears the first part of a prophecy: a boy is going to be born who can defeat the Dark Lord. He tells Voldemort (Half-Blood Prince, ch. 25).

He didn't know Voldemort would decide that boy was Lily's son. When he finds out, he goes to Dumbledore and begs him to protect her.

Dumbledore answers with a disgust you can feel on the page: what about her husband and her son? Can they die, as long as you get what you want? Snape begs him to protect them all. Dumbledore asks what he'll give in return. And Snape answers: anything.

"Anything"

That "anything" turned out to be seventeen years. Lily died anyway. Snape stayed at Hogwarts as a teacher, and when Voldemort returned, he went back to his side as Dumbledore's spy. The Order didn't trust him. The Death Eaters didn't fully trust him either. He never had anyone to talk to except the man who gave him orders.

In that same chapter 33 there's a conversation that changes everything. Dumbledore confesses that when the time comes, Harry will have to let Voldemort kill him. Snape is furious. They've protected him all these years, he says, like a pig raised for slaughter.

Dumbledore asks whether he has grown fond of the boy. Snape answers by conjuring his Patronus: a silver doe. The same shape as Lily's Patronus.

"After all this time?"

"Always."

What Snape Wasn't

Now the uncomfortable part. Snape was a cruel teacher. Neville was so afraid of him that his boggart took Snape's shape (Prisoner of Azkaban, ch. 7). When Hermione's teeth grew from a hex, Snape looked at her and said he saw no difference (Goblet of Fire, ch. 18). He hated Harry for looking like James and made him pay for it every class.

His protection of Harry came from Lily, not from affection for him. And both simple readings fail. "Snape is a saint" erases everything he did to his students. "Snape is a villain" erases that he risked his life for years for the boy he couldn't stand.

The Death

In Half-Blood Prince (ch. 27), Snape kills Dumbledore on the tower. Everyone sees it as the ultimate betrayal. In chapter 33 of Deathly Hallows we learn the truth: Dumbledore was already dying from the ring's curse and asked Snape to do it, so Draco wouldn't have to become a murderer.

At the end, Voldemort believes Snape is the master of the Elder Wand, and to claim it he orders Nagini to kill him (Deathly Hallows, ch. 32). Harry watches it all from hiding. Snape, bleeding out, gives him his memories and asks for just one thing: that Harry look at him. He dies seeing Lily's green eyes in her son's face.

Book vs. Movie

The order of the reveal. In the books, Snape's worst memory in Order of the Phoenix makes you feel sorry for him years before you know the truth. The movies cut it down a lot, and the whole story lands at once in the last installment.
His cruelty. In the movies Snape comes across as cold more than cruel. The "I see no difference" line to Hermione, for example, isn't there.
"Look at me." In the book it's the last thing he says, and you understand why once you see the memories. The movie changes the line and adds that Harry has his mother's eyes, something the book only implies.

What Almost Nobody Notices

Snape saved Harry from the first book. At the Quidditch match in Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone in the US), ch. 11, he mutters a countercurse so Harry won't fall off his broom. Hermione thinks he's the one jinxing Harry and sets his robes on fire.
The doe was his. In Deathly Hallows (ch. 19), a silver Patronus guides Harry to Gryffindor's sword in the Forest of Dean. Harry doesn't know whose it is. It's Snape's.
Harry doesn't canonize him. In the epilogue he says he was "probably the bravest man I ever knew." Brave. Not good. It's a carefully chosen phrase.

And You?

If the quiz says Slytherin, in Slytherin House: Why It Isn't the House of the Villains we explain why that isn't a sentence. Snape is the proof and the warning at once: someone brilliant, capable of enormous loyalty and everyday cruelty. Find your house in the house quiz.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Snape love Lily?

Yes. His memories in Deathly Hallows (ch. 33) show he loved her from childhood and that everything he did afterward came from that love. Lily never returned it that way.

Why did Snape kill Dumbledore?

Because Dumbledore asked him to. He was already doomed by the ring's curse, he wanted to keep Draco from becoming a murderer and he needed Voldemort to trust Snape completely.

Why did Harry name his son Albus Severus?

After the two Hogwarts headmasters who mattered most to him. In the epilogue he tells his son that one of them was a Slytherin and probably the bravest man he ever knew.

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