Greatest Villains: Severus Snape

For this, the 6th installment in my Greatest Villains series, I will be focussing on the wonderful Severus Snape, of Harry Potter fame. Although Snape is not the main antagonist of the books, he is one of the most well developed and deep charcters in the whole series. His motivations and internal conflicts create much drama, and it is only at the end do we truly learn who Snape was.

Ten points from Gryffindor

Severus Snape serves the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as the potions master. The greasy haired, hooked nose man always wears black robes and never seems happy. Everything about his description screams 'creep' and you aren't supposed to like him right from the very start. As soon as he is introduced, he is given a sinister aura of evil and general badness. His office is in the castle dungeons and he is head of Slytherin House, the Hogwarts house notable for producing the most dark wizards. His one-dimensional villainy is clear to us by the end of Harry Potter's first potions lesson but by the end of the series we will see so many more levels of Snape that he becomes, in my opinion, the best character in the whole franchise.

Throughout the first book we are led to believe Snape is the villain, trying to kill Harry, threatening poor Professor Quirril and attempting to steal the Philosopher's Stone. We learn, however, that he was actually saving Harry's life and trying damn hard to protect the Stone from Lord Voldemort. As the series progressed, Snape's history with Voldemort was filled in more and more. Snape was a spy, working for Voldemort during his years of terrorising Britain and, despite having the total trust of Albus Dumbledore, Snape is always reviled by the series protagonist.

Harry Potter never finds out why Dumbledore trusts Snape so much though, which makes Harry hate Snape even more when he kills Dumbledore in front of Harry. He would only find out later, after Snape himself dies and gives Harry certain memories that explain everything (they can give each other memories because magic!), the true reason why Dumbledore saw Snape as an ally.

Snape's memories reveal that he met a young girl named Lily Evans who just so happened to be a witch. He pretty much fell in love with her instantly. They were sorted into different houses when they went to Hogwarts but they remained friends. Snape was always interested in the Dark Arts and was inevitably going to fall in with Voldemort and this was causing Lily to grow apart from him. Eventually she married James Potter, which was just about the worst thing in the world to Snape. Not because she was marrying someone else but because, of all people, it was him.

James Potter had been nothing short of a bastard to Snape their entire school life. Harry, who idolised his father, saw into Snape's memory at one point and saw his father's true nature. Not only did he verbally abuse Snape for no good reason he used his magic to make a public mockery of him, laughing about it the whole time and acting very much like a bad guy. Everything Snape had ever said about Harry's father was true, which must have made Lily marrying him feel like a hot knife right in the heart.

Yes, the Dark Lord thought that I had left him forever, but he was wrong

Snape joined Voldemort and did his evil work. That evil was no doubt given more fuel by the knowledge his beloved Lily had married James Potter. When he hears a prophecy about Voldemort's downfall, he immediately informs him, not knowing the information will lead Voldemort to the Potters. It was at this point Snape betrayed Voldemort at great risk to his own life and begged Dumbledore to protect the Potters. Ultimately, they were betrayed by Peter Pettigrew and Snape blamed himself for Lily's death.

When Voldemort returned, Snape played a double agent, spying on Voldemort while pretending to spy on Dumbledore. Harry always questioned the truth in this and always believed Snape was really working for Voldemort. But the memories Snape gave Harry as he died revealed that he had been working with Dumbledore the whole time, devoted to stopping Voldemort for killing Lily and dedicated to protecting Harry to make up for his part in her death.

How hard it must have been for Snape, to even just look at Harry Potter. Everyone in the books makes a comment about how Harry looks exactly like his father, except for having his mother's eyes. Everytime Snape lays eyes on Harry he sees James Potter and he is reminded of the humiliation, the abuse and all the anger comes back to him. But he sees Lily's eyes, looking back at him and the soul-crushing guilt he feels for her death must destroy him. He watches Harry act like his father and he hates him completely but he does everything in his power to protet him because he owes Lily the life of her son.Such a conflict rages in Snape on a daily basis and it reveals that he truly was the strongest character in the entire series.

Do you know what I think, Potter?...I think that you are a liar and a cheat and that you deserve detention with me every Saturday until the end of term.

The story of Severus Snape is central to the Harry Potter series, although we never find out most of it until the last book. Although he was always working for the good guys and, barring Dumbledore himself, was the best guy, it wasn't until after Snape's death that we learnt of his heroism. Before that he was a villain who Harry hated just as much, if not more, than he hated Voldemort but there was a lot more going on beneath the surface. Snape is a truly tragic figure but in the end, he finds redemption and will remain as one of the greatest characters of all time.