Severus Snape
Character | |
---|---|
Name: | Severus Snape |
Occupation: | Hogwarts professor, double agent |
Relationships: | Dumbledore (professional/paternal) Lily Evans Potter (friendship, unrequited love) Harry Potter (character) (professor, protector) |
Fandom: | Harry Potter |
Other: | born 9 January 1960[1] |
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Severus Snape is the potions master at Hogwarts and one of Harry Potter's teachers in the Harry Potter books. He has been a somewhat contentious fan-favorite since the first book was published. Although Harry was always hostile to him within the books, fan speculation on Snape's true loyalties was rampant and occasioned many theories, fanworks, and flame wars.
In later books, as Snape's difficult childhood and adolescence became canon, some fans aligned themselves against characters who were hostile to Snape in canon, like James Potter. The penultimate book left Snape's status extremely unclear, and some theorists felt that the final book did not live up to their hopes. (See also EWE and Potterdämmerung.)
Tropes
- Although Snape's attractiveness is described very negatively in the book, he was often perceived as having a certain sexual magnetism, by fans. Much fanfic which pairs him with characters, see many fan comments which discuss his sex appeal, see Snapewives.
- Severitus (fics where Snape is revealed to be Harry Potter's father)
- he is considered a woobie by some fans
Shipping
The main Snape ships are somewhat controversial--Harry/Snape and Snape/Hermione, both pairings with a significant age difference. Some fans enjoy these pairings only when the younger party had graduated, or grown older, whereas other fans explored the pairing during the time-period depicted in the books. (See also chan.)
It is also common to pair Snape with characters from the Marauders' generation, such as with Lily Evans, whom he was canonically in love with, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, or James Potter.
Threesomes also very common to find for Severus, for example Lily/Remus/Severus, Hermione/Severus/Lucius, Hermione/Severus/Remus, and Hermione/Severus/Draco.
Some Dynamics
A fan in 2012 commented about her experiences in the Snape fandom:
... at that point in the fandom [2002] it was very Balkanized, and the Snape slashers were actually renowned at that point for generally being level-headed and rational grown-ups that it was fun to be around. Well, because they were grown-ups who'd been in other fandoms before and who'd come to this out of other fannish communities and knew the fucking social norms and were not a bunch of feral teenagers that had to be socialized.
And they also were not heavily invested in shipping wars because they were Snape slashers and they knew that Snape was not going to get a boyfriend in the books. Ever. So, we were not looking for textual validation. So, yeah, it was sort of its own little polite, well-mannered, sane — it sounds crazy saying this at this point now, but that's really, yeah, it was where the nice, polite, well-mannered rational grownups hung out when I first got into Harry Potter fandom. Well, remember this was also before any of the movies, so there wasn't the Alan Rickman thing going on yet either.
So, yeah, at that point, when you got into Snape you were into Snape for himself in all his ugly, nasty — greasy — horrible glory, yes.[2]
Notable Snape-centric Fanworks
Fanfiction
Gypsy Silverleaf, an early fan, has this statement at Harry Potter's Realm of Wizardry:
I write Harry Potter fan fiction. I'm actually one of the first writers ever, I got the administration over at FanFiction.net to start the Harry Potter fan fiction section, I wrote the first Severus Snape-oriented fic, and I started the Draco/Hermione ship. Scary, no? [3]
- Blood Magic by Gateway Girl (Gen)
- The Other Side of Darkness by Abby (Snape/Hermione)
- Snape: The Home Fries Nazi by Pir8fancier (Snape/Harry)
- The Tea Series by Telanu (Snape/Harry)
- Tyger! Tyger! by Bloodcult of Freud (Snape/Hermione)
- Pet Project by Caeria (Snape/Hermione)
- Third Time's the Charm by Helenish (Snape/Remus)
- Of a Linear Circle by Flamethrower (Snape/OMC)
Fanart
- Always by mioree-art
- The Prince's Tale by RandomMumble (2000, drawing animation)
- Erised by Sakata
- Hogwarts Staff on Holiday by ildi
- Professor Snape by BlackMe
- Severus Snape, Sex God by chicxulub
- More Gently the Second Time by Rex Luscus (Snape/Kingsley, NWS)[Dead link]
- Into the light... by bananacosmicgirl (Severus/Lily)
- Severus dream by tetrapercu (Severus/Lily)
- unbreakable vow by Makani (Severus & Narcissa, 2005) (archived link)
- 세베루스 스네이프 커미션 (Severus Snape Commission) Archived Link by Seoyeon (2020)
Doujinshi
- Honey Flash! (2004)
Fanvids
- In Exchange For Your Tomorrows by lim
- Maneater by jarrow, a crackalicious Snarry vid
Essays and Meta
- The Union of the Snake by arionrhod at idol_reflection
- On Snape's Evilness by Nathan Coblentz on Mugglenet (2005)
Snape-centric Communities
- SnapeNews - a LiveJournal newsletter for anything and everything to do with Severus Snape
- Snapecast - "the only podcast that is guaranteed all Snape, all the time," and the affiliated convention, Snapefest
Fansites
LiveJournal Communities
- bottomsnape (also on IJ) - bottom!Snape fanworks
- do_me_profsnape - "anything goes," but especially adult fanworks
- prof_snape - anything Snape related
- snape_fic - any Snape fanfic
- snape_rarepairs - fanworks with rare Snape pairings
- snape_the_hbp - post-Half-Blood Prince Snape fanworks
- snapesupport - Snape writers' support group
- sufferingsev - Snape Hurt/Comfort fanworks
Challenges
- The Severitus Challenge - posited a father/son relationship between Snape and Harry, and spawned the Severitus genre of HP fanworks
- Severus Big Bang (on LJ) - a Big Bang for Snape's 50th birthday
- Severus' Shorts (on LJ) - "ficlet and drabble party" for Snape's 50th birthday
- Severus Snape Fuh-Q-Fest (website) - the first Fuh-Q Fest in Harry Potter fandom, ran 2002-2003
- Snape After Deathly Hallows Fest (on LJ, on IJ) - for exploring new information about Snape's character from Deathly Hallows
- Snape Showcase (on LJ) - anonymous fest to celebrate Snape "throughout his ages"
- Snapely Holidays (on IJ) - holiday Snape art and fic exchange
Archives
- Potions and Snitches (website, LJ comm) - Snape and Harry gen relationships
- Snape Slash Fleet (index) - index of Snape slash pairings archives
- Snape Mpreg Archive (via Wayback) - Snape mpreg
- Severus Snape works on ff.net
- Severus Snape works on Ao3
Gallery
from Harry Potter and the Wizards of the East (2004), artist is Chris Moreno
Mona Snape by Perselus (2006). Inspired by da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Made for a HP Fringeart challenge.
Severus Snape by Ludmila-Cera-Foce (2017) – Snape with his Patronus.
Professor Snape by Myrkky (2019)
Snape Mourns by ShatteredSwords (2009) – Snape holding a lily, an allusion to his enduring love for Lily Evans.
Always by whateverist (2019) – Snape holding lilies with the caption "always."
Don't call me coward by snapesnogger (2005) -- HBP Scene.
References
- ^ J.K.Rowling Official Site. 9 January 2004. Archived at the Harry Potter Lexicon: Guide to jkrowling.com - Brithdays. (Accessed 20 January 2011.)
- ^ from Fan Fiction Oral History Project with Ellen Fremedon
- ^ from Webmistress Fiction: Harry Potter's Realm of Wizardry