can we just talk about the time that Lupin was recovering from a full moon and Snape taught the DADA class and made all the students write essays on how to kill werewolves for Lupin to read when he got back I hate Snape so much it’s not funny
Lupin gets back and he feels like crap and suddenly his best friend’s son is writing an essay about how to kill him like that is so fucked up
Bear in mind that an ex-Death Eater does this to someone who was in the Order, risked his life fighting against said Death Eaters and lost his best friends to the Death Eater’s genocidal leader, for the sole purpose of screwing him over, and as far as we know he experiences no consequences whatsoever for doing so.
And if that wasn’t enough, he made them write those essays hoping some of them would realize Lupin’s a werewolf. And one did, but Hermione is a fucking DECENT HUMAN BEING and said nothing. Apparently the ‘insufferable know-it-all' can keep her mouth closed, when it’s for something important. Just like Snape didn’t do at the end of the book.
I’m getting mad, so here’s something I’ve realized while reading The Order of the Phoenix again. (Please keep in mind that my books are in Italian and some concepts might be hard to explain, I apologize for my English mistakes)
In chapter 14, when The Trio talked with Sirius, he said that two years before Dolores Umbridge had written a law against werewolves that made it almost impossible for Lupin to find a job.
Now ask yourself this question. Why two years?
What had happened two years before? During Harry’s third year? Oh, right. The Magical World had discovered that one of Hogwarts’ teachers (someone who was in constant conctat with their children) was a werewolf. Does that ring any bell?
But that’s not all! If we take a look at chapter 15, in the Daily Prophet article we can see a familiar name: Remus Lupin. In a newspaper. Where everyone can read it. “The werewolf Remus Lupin”. No wonder he couldn’t find a job! And it’s not the first time the Daily Prophet has written about him, as it’s stated in the article itself. There must have been a huge scandal when it had all come out.
So basically, when Snape decided he couldn’t bear not having what he wanted (for example, SIRIUS BLACK GETTING KISSED BY A DEMENTOR) and spilled the secret, he didn’t only tell the whole school. He didn’t only tell the kids’ parents. The told the whole Magical World.
He told the whole Magical World that a man who had kept his condition secret all his life was a werewolf.
And the Magical World responded with a law against werewolves.
So, basically, Snape didn’t only ruin Remus Lupin’s life. He ruined the life of every single werewolf in the UK.
But, you know. Bravest man I ever knew.
FUCKING HIT THAT REBLOG SO FAST THANK YOU
Gonna play Devil’s Advocate here, but let’s not forget that Snape was tormented relentlessly by James and Sirius and both Peter AND Lupin STOOD BY AND WATCHED. And the worst part is that people both in the story and in the fanbase just expect him to brush off being horribly bullied and humiliated almost every day of his student life. Yes, he did something horrible by telling, but chances are that he told the parents and one of the parents told the papers so he only indirectly caused this misery. And I think Lupin was actually sour at Snape about that in the book, so it’s not like they’re ignoring it. Snape had to deal with seeing James’ face every day on Harry, and I think his eyes were the only thing keeping him from being absolutely vicious. Then again, you could say Harry’s eyes are a constant reminder that Snape’s CHILDHOOD BULLY got the girl of his dreams. And yet, despite Sirius bullying him and Lupin enabling it, Snape managed to WORK with them, even though it probably tore him apart to do it. How many people can bear to work with their childhood bully, to see their face every day? And Sirius never changed, he was being a bully when he met Snape again when all Snape was doing was making sure the students were okay because of the WEREWOLF in their class, who could change at ANY FUCKING MOMENT, and the psychotic, albeit framed, convicted murderer. And let’s not forget that Snape made the Wolfsbane potion for Lupin. He may have wanted the students, at least Hermione, to realize what Lupin really was, but he’s not heartless. I doubt he would be helping him hide if he was planning to tell the press. No, I repeat my statement that it was more likely to be one of the parents, who was told by Snape or even their kid that figured it out. Snape only ever did what he did to protect the students. Imagine if Lupin had missed a dose, just once, and they found out because he changed when facing the Boggart and badly hurt every student in there?
Right, I’m going to go ahead and just take this apart piece by piece.
“Gonna play Devil’s Advocate here”
No, you’re not. If you were going to “play the Devil’s Advocate,” you wouldn’t type such a long, passionate response in Snape’s defense. Being the Devil’s Advocate means you don’t actually agree with what you’re saying. It’s a debate tactic used specifically to help someone find holes in their argument by lobbing counters at them. So for instance, if someone was preparing a speech on why it should be illegal to text while driving (because it’s dangerous, et cetera), someone else might help them prepare by playing the Devil’s Advocate and throwing counters at them so that the anti-texting person can strengthen their argument. That is the Devil’s Advocate approach. You, on the other hand? You clearly agree with what you’re saying. You’re not playing the Devil’s advocate at all. You’re being a Snape stan and I honestly have no time for that, yet here I am, replying anyway, because I can’t stand to see something like this in my notifications without smacking the nonsense down.
“but let’s not forget that Snape was tormented relentlessly by James and Sirius”
Cry me a fucking river.
I’m so, so, so, so, so, so, SO beyond sick of the “poor wittle defenseless Snape was zomg BULLIED!1!1!1!!” defense that has been thrown around for the past, what, fourteen years now? Ever since Order of the Phoenix was published, at least. Snape was bullied by Sirius and James, yes. They picked fights with him, absolutely. But Snape gave as good as he got. He was far from defenseless. Not only did at least one of the spells that James used in the flashback come from Snape’s own mind (Levicorpus), but Snape also invented far more dangerous, dark magic curses that he fired right back at them (Sectumsempra). You may notice, if you re-read the flashback, that only one of the participants in that fight drew blood, and it wasn’t either James or Sirius. No, it was Snape, and the only reason why James wasn’t more badly wounded is because his aim wasn’t as good as it should have been. Snape was also the only one to use a slur in that scene, and he fired that slur at the supposed ~*~love of his life~*~, because he was embarrassed that she was standing up for him. What a class act.
Back to the point: Snape was already hanging out with future Death Eaters at the time (e.g. Mulciber, something Lily called him out on), and he was already buying into the Death Eater doctrine as well. After all, a slur is not something that you simply say by accident. Though he was angry, and probably wouldn’t have called Lily that had he not “lost his temper,” as Lily herself points out (and he can’t argue against), he had no problems calling others of her birth that. He only stopped after she died, and even then, we shouldn’t give him gold stars for not using slurs anymore. Being halfway decent is not something you’re rewarded for. Regardless, Snape was (and always has been) highly intelligent, and a gifted wizard. He wasn’t some poor, defenseless little boy that James and Sirius kicked around for funsies. We also know that he started some fights of his own, because even after James stopped bullying him, Snape kept going after James, as both Lupin and Sirius tell us. (“Snape never missed a chance to hex James, and you couldn’t expect James to take that lying down, could you?”) Yes, Snape was bullied, but it isn’t as if that ongoing feud was a one-way street. What James and Sirius did was wrong (and James grew out of it—more on Sirius in a minute), but Snape fired back and was under no circumstances the defenseless woobie that so many of his stans try to make him out to be.
Oh, but you know who was defenseless? Neville Longbottom, when Snape harassed and bullied him so badly that he was Neville’s worst fear, even more so than the Death Eaters who had tortured his parents into insanity. Harry Potter, when Snape singled him out on his very first day of class to ask him advanced questions that no eleven-year-old first year could have reasonably been expected to know (Hermione is the exception, not the rule). Hermione Granger, when she was hit by a stray curse and her teeth grew down to her chest, and Snape cruelly said he saw no difference. And so on and so forth, because Snape—a grown man—went out of his way to demean, belittle, and bully innocent children for “crimes” such as “Voldemort targeted the Potters instead of the Longbottoms and so I’m going to punish Neville because his parents are insane instead of dead” and “James fucked Lily and so clearly that’s Harry’s fault” and “Hermione is nice to both Neville and Harry so clearly she must suffer.” I don’t give a goddamn how much he was bullied as a child. That gives him no excuse for bullying children when he is their teacher, nor does it give him any excuse for joining the Death Eaters, nor does it give him any excuse for outing Lupin as a werewolf. He has no excuse, and I’m sick of “but zomg he was bullied” being used as one. Harry was bullied, too. So was Neville. You don’t see them joining up with the Death Eaters and bullying other defenseless children.
and both Peter AND Lupin STOOD BY AND WATCHED.
And so did pretty much everyone else who went to Hogwarts and was out on the grounds that day, with the exception of Lily, whom Snape then called a vile a slur for trying to help him. In case you haven’t noticed, Snape wasn’t very well-liked due to the fact that he a.) hung around future Death Eaters who used dark magic on innocent students (which he brushes off when Lily brings it up to tell him she takes issue with it), and b.) clearly lashed out at those who tried to help him. Does that mean everyone at Hogwarts is deserving of Snape ruining their lives? Does that mean that he should have free reign to do whatever he wants, because he was ~zomg bullied~? I think not.
And while it’s true that Lupin himself admits that he should have done more to rein in James and Sirius, it’s also still no excuse for Snape ruining his life all those years later, when they’re both adults. None. Peter is irredeemable for other reasons (like, say, betraying the Potters and framing Sirius for it), but Lupin falling prey to the bystander effect is no excuse for Snape ruining his life in a fit of childish temper because he’s mad that Sirius wasn’t given the Dementor’s Kiss. It really isn’t.
And the worst part is that people both in the story and in the fanbase just expect him to brush off being horribly bullied and humiliated almost every day of his student life.
Bullshit. Let me tell you something, sis: I was bullied for pretty much every day of my student life. I got kicked out of daycare when I was five for punching a girl in the face because she wouldn’t stop pushing me, had to get into physical fights with boys twice my size to get them to leave me alone when I was in elementary school, was bullied so badly in junior high that I didn’t want to go to school at all except to get away from my abusive mother (fisticuffs didn’t help in junior high), and continued to be mocked and bullied throughout high school because I was an anime nerd. I know full well what bullying can do to a person, I know how hard it is, and I also know that it’s no goddamn excuse for bullying others, ruining people’s lives, or joining goddamn hate groups, which is what people call him out on.
Would it be understandable for Snape to still not trust nor like Lupin or Sirius? Yes. No one is expecting him to be ~zomg bffs~ with them. But Snape’s actions are still far beyond the realm of excusable. Joining the Death Eaters is inexcusable. Bullying innocent children is inexcusable. Ruining a man’s life when they are years out of school and it’s clear that the man wants to just coexist as coworkers and members of the Order is inexcusable. This isn’t about “being unable to brush off bullying;” this is expecting him to be a halfway decent human being and not go out of his way to make others suffer just because he can. Being an abuse or bullying victim can explain why Snape acts the way he does, but it does not excuse it. His tragic backstory is not at all a justification for why he does the things he does and so, again, I’m rather sick of “zomg but he was bullied” being brought up time and again in an effort to excuse the horrible things he did.
Yes, he did something horrible by telling, but chances are that he told the parents and one of the parents told the papers so he only indirectly caused this misery.
Again, Snape was a highly intelligent individual. He knew exactly what he was doing. Trying to brush it off as if he was only “indirectly” responsible is nonsense. That’s like soaking a house in gasoline, handing a toddler a lit match, and then saying, “Well, I’m not the one who dropped the match on the house, the toddler did, so I’m only indirectly responsible.” You knew what you were doing in that scenario. Snape knew what he was doing, too. And for the record? He didn’t tell the parents. He told everyone at Hogwarts:
“That was the final straw for Severus. I think the loss of the Order of Merlin hit him hard. So he—er—accidentally let slip that I am a werewolf this morning at breakfast.”
He “accidentally let slip” that Lupin is a werewolf in front of a Great Hall full of students, knowing that the word would get out that way. He’s smart. He knew what he was doing. This was no accident and it is his fault.
And I think Lupin was actually sour at Snape about that in the book, so it’s not like they’re ignoring it.
First of all, if Lupin was upset with Snape about that in the book, he would be absolutely justified, since there is marked prejudice against werewolves in the wizarding world that makes it nigh impossible for him to get a job, and now he’s lost the one job he’s been able to find. Lupin is very poor because of his circumstances; it’s remarked upon in his first appearance that his robes are always shabby because he can’t afford new ones. So yes, if he was upset with Snape for telling everyone that he’s a werewolf and then condemning him to a future of even worse poverty than he’s already been living in, he would be rather justified.
However, you’re wrong, because he’s not. I have the book right here: