What about Snape?, Let's try and figure him out Options

[WickedWitchOfThe...]

Hey guys! Well, I know I've been saying that I was going to start something on Snape, and now I have finally gotten around to starting it. What I am doing is going through the books and finding all instances I can of Snape that I think may have some kind of insight into who he is and help us figure out what side he really is on. Some things are omitted from paragraphs. Sentences that I felt were not relevant, though if anybody thinks they are, let me know and I'll edit out my post to insert it into the right place. I have just started this, so it will be some time till I complete it. In the meantime, I will put up what I have found and then close the topic. When I have finished going through all the six books we have thus far, I will open it up and the discussion can commence. Please be patient with me for I do not have all the time in the World to do this, nor does my back like to be sitting at the computer for any length of time. Also, these things appear to be quite lengthy. In typing up these instances with Snape, I have about 6 pages long in a Microsoft Word Document and that is just from SS. Oh yeah, speaking of SS, all of these excerpts will be from the US versions of the books, therefore page numbers will refer to the US versions only. Sorry, but that's all I've got. 32:sorry: I think that's about it, so I hope you all will really enjoy this and that it will help us all in our quest to figure out which side Snape is truly on. 02:D

[WickedWitchOfThe...]

Sorcerer’s Stone

Pg. 126

It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell’s turban straight into Harry’s eyes – and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry’s forehead.

Harder to shake off was the feeling Harry had gotten from the teacher’s look – a feeling that he didn’t like Harry at all.

“He teaches Potions, but he doesn’t want to – everyone knows he’s after Quirrell’s job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape.” –Percy

Harry watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn’t look at him again.

Pg. 130

Harry told the turban he didn’t want to be in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully – and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it – then Malfoy turned into the hook-nosed teacher, Snape, whose laugh became high and cold – there was a burst of green light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking.

Pgs. 135-142

At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end if the first Potions lesson, he knew he’s been wrong. Snape didn’t dislike Harry – he hated him.

Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry’s name.
“Ah, yes,” he said softly, “Harry Potter. Our new – celebrity.”

Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid’s, but they had none of Hagrid’s warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.
“You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making,” he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word – like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. “As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses…. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory , even stopper death – if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.”
“Potter!” said Snape suddenly. “What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”
“I don’t know, sir,” said Harry.
Snape’s lip curled into a sneer.
“Tut, tut – fame clearly isn’t everything.”
“Let’s try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Thought you wouldn’t open a book before coming, eh, Potter?”
Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. He had looked through his books at the Dursleys’, but did Snape expect him to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi?
“What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?”
“I don’t know,” said Harry quietly. “I think Hermione does, though, why don’t you try her?”
Snape, however, was not pleased.
“For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren’t you all copying that down?”
Over the noise, Snape said, “And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter.”
He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like.
Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.
“You – Potter – why didn’t you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he’d make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That’s another point you’ve lost for Gryffindor.”
“I’ve heard Snape can turn very nasty.” –Ron
He’d lost two points for Gryffindor in his very first week – why did Snape hate him so much?

Harry told Hagrid about Snape’s lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.
“But he seemed to really hate me.”
Yet Harry couldn’t help thinking that Hagrid didn’t quite meet his eyes when he said that.

And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn’t want to tell Harry?

Pg. 177

A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear.

Snape gave Harry a swift, piercing look.

Pgs. 181-183

They were standing with their backs to it, getting warm, when Snape crossed the yard. Harry noticed at once that Snape was limping.
Unfortunately, something about their guilty faces caught Snape’s eye. He limped over. He hadn’t seen the fire, but he seemed to be looking for a reason to tell them off anyway.
“What’s that you’ve got there, Potter?”
“Library books are not to be taken outside the school,” said Snape. “Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor.”
“He’s just made that rule up,” Harry muttered angrily as Snape limped away. “Wonder what’s wrong with his leg?”

Why should he be afraid of Snape?

“Better you than me,” they said together, but Harry had an idea that Snape wouldn’t refuse if there were other teachers listening.
He made his way down to the staffroom and knocked. There was no answer. He knocked again. Nothing.
Perhaps Snape had left the book in there? It was worth a try. He pushed the door ajar and peered inside – and a horrible scene met his eyes.
Snape and Filch were inside, alone. Snape was holding his robes above his knees. One of his legs was bloody and mangled. Filch was handing Snape bandages.
“Blasted thing,” Snape was saying. “How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?”
Harry tried to shut the door quietly, but-
“POTTER!”
Snape’s face was twisted with fury as he dropped his robes quickly to hide his leg.
“I just wondered if I could have my book back.”
“GET OUT! OUT!”
Harry left, before Snape could take any more points from Gryffindor.

In a low whisper, Harry told them what he’d seen.
“You know what this means?” he finished breathlessly. “He tried to get past that three-headed dog at Halloween! That’s where he was going when we saw him – he’s after whatever it’s guarding! And I’d bet my broomstick he let that troll in, to make a diversion!”
“No – he wouldn’t,” she said. “I know he’s not very nice, but he wouldn’t try and steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe.” –Hermione
“Honestly, Hermione, you think all teachers are saints or something,” snapped Ron. “I’m with Harry. I wouldn’t put anything past Snape. But what’s he after? What’s that dog guarding?”
Harry went to bed with his head buzzing with the same question.
He tried to empty his mind – he needed to sleep, he had to, he had his first Quidditch match in a few hours – but the expression on Snape’s face when Harry had seen his leg wasn’t easy to forget.

Pgs. 190-193

“I knew it,” Hermione gasped, “Snape – look.”
Snape was in the middle of the stands opposite them. He had his eyes fixed on Harry and was muttering nonstop under his breath.
“He’s doing something – jinxing the broom,” said Hermione.

It took perhaps thirty seconds for Snape to realize that he was on fire. A sudden yelp told her she had done her job. Scooping the fire off him into a little jar in her pocket, she scrambled back along the row – Snape would never know what had happened.

“It was Snape,” Ron was explaining, “Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn’t take his eyes off you.”
“Rubbish,” said Hagrid, who hadn’t heard a word of what had gone on next to him in the stands. “Why would Snape do somethin’ like that?”

“I found out something about him,” he told Hagrid. “He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it’s guarding.”

“But Snape’s trying to steal it.”
“Rubbish,” said Hagrid again. “Snape’s a Hogwarts teacher, he’d do nothin’ of the sort.”
“So why did he just try and kill Harry?” cried Hermione.
The afternoon’s events certainly seemed to have changed her mind about Snape.
“You’ve got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn’t blinking at all, I saw him!” –Hermione
“I’m tellin’ yeh, yer wrong!” said Hagrid hotly. “I don’ know why Harry’s broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn’ try and’ kill a student!”

Pgs. 196-198

“Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid,” said Snape silkily. “Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn’t more.”
“I hate them both,” said Harry, “Malfoy and Snape.”

They had indeed been searching books for Flamel’s name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to find out what Snape was trying to steal?

They were sure she’d be able to tell them, but they couldn’t risk Snape hearing what they were up to.

Pg. 216-217

“We’ve just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn’t got an excuse to pick on us.” –Wood
Which was all very well, thought Harry, but he had another reason for not wanting Snape near him while he was playing Quidditch….

Speaking quietly so that no one else would hear, Harry told the other two about Snape’s sudden, sinister desire to be a Quidditch referee.

Pgs 220-228

“No wonder Snape’s after it! Anyone would want it.”-Harry
“If I don’t, all the Slytherins will think I’m just too scared to face Snape. I’ll show them… it’ll really wipe the smiles off their faces if we win.” –Harry

Harry didn’t know whether he was imagining it or not, bur he seemed to keep running into Snape wherever he went. At times, he even wondered whether Snape was following him, trying to catch him on his own. Potions lessons were turning into a sort of weekly torture, Snape was so horrible to Harry. Could Snape possibly know they’d found out about the Sorcerer’s Stone? Harry didn’t see how he could – yet he sometimes had the horrible feeling that Snape could read minds.

They’d gotten the idea from Malfoy using it on Neville, and were ready to use it on Snape if he showed any sign of wanting to hurt Harry.

“Finish the game before Snape can favor Hufflepuff too much.” –Wood

He was safe. There was simply no way that Snape would dare try to hurt him if Dumbledore was watching.
Perhaps that was why Snape was looking so angry as the teams marched onto the field, something that Ron noticed, too.
“I’ve never seen Snape look so mean,” he told Hermione.

“You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team?” said Malfoy loudly a few minutes later, as Snape awarded Hufflepuff another penalty for no reason at all.

“Come on, Harry!” Hermione screamed, leaping onto her seat to watch as Harry sped straight at Snape – she didn’t even notice Malfoy and Ron rolling around under her seat, or the scuffles and yelps coming from the whirl of fists that was Neville, Crabbe and, Goyle.
Up in the air, Snape turned on his broomstick just in time to see something scarlet shoot past him, missing him by inches – the next second, Harry had pulled out of the dive, his arm raised in triumph, the Snitch clasped in his hand.

As Gryffindors cam spilling onto the field, he saw Snape land nearby white-faced and tight-lipped – then Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up into Dumbledore’s smiling face.

Snape spat bitterly on the ground.

He’d done it, he’d shown Snape….
And speaking of Snape…
A hooded figure came swiftly down the front steps of the castle. Clearly not wanting to be seen, it walked as fast as possible toward the forbidden forest.
He recognized the figure’s prowling walk. Snape, sneaking into the forest while everyone else was at dinner – what was going on?
Gliding silently over the castle he saw Snape enter the forest at a run. He followed.
The trees were so thick he couldn’t see where Snape had gone. He flew in circles, lower and lower, brushing the top of branches of trees until he heard voices.
Below, in a shadowy clearing, stood Snape, but he wasn’t alone.
“…d-don’t know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus…” –Quirrell
“Oh, I thought we’d keep this private,” said Snape, his voice icy. “Students aren’t supposed to know about the Sorcerer’s stone, after all.”
Quirrell was mumbling something. Snape interrupted him.
“Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid’s yet?”
“B-b-but Severus, I-“
“You don’t want me as your enemy, Quirrell,” said Snape, taking a step toward him.
“I-I don’t know what you-“
“You know perfectly well what I mean.”
He steadied himself in time to hear Snape say, “–your little bit of hocus-pocus. I’m waiting.”
“B-but I d-d-don’t-“
“Very well,” Snape cut in. “We’ll have another little chat soon, when you’ve had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie.”

“So we were right, it is the sorcerer’s Stone, and Snape’s trying to force Quirrell to help him get it. He asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy – and he said something about Quirrell’s ‘hocus-pocus’ – I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from Fluffy, loads of enchantments, probably, and Quirrell would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell that Snape needs to break through-“
“So you mean the Stone’s only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?” said Hermione in alarm.
“It’ll be gone by next Tuesday,” said Ron.

Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe.

Pg. 232

“Oh yeah, Professor Snape.” –Hagrid
“Snape?”
“Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he’s not about ter steal it.”
If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. He probably knew everything – except, it seemed, Quirrell’s spell and how to get past fluffy.

Pgs. 246-247

All the same, he’d have gambled twelve Sorcerer’s Stones that Snape had just left the room, and from what Harry had just heard, Snape would be walking with a new spring in his step – Quirrell seemed to have given in at last.

“Snape’s done it, then!” said Ron. “If Quirrell’s told him how to break his Anti-Dark Force spell-"
“Snape’s only got to say he doesn’t know how the troll got in at Halloween and that he was nowhere near the third floor – who do you think they’ll believe, him or us? It’s not exactly a secret we hate him, Dumbledore’ll think we made it up to get him sacked. Filch wouldn’t help us if his life depended on it, he’s too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the better, he’ll think.

Pg. 260

“Snape wants the stone for Voldemort… and Voldemort’s waiting in the forest… and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich….” –Harry
“So all I’ve got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone,” Harry went on feverishly, “Then Voldemort will be able to come and finish me off….”

Pg. 268-270

“Professor, I think – I know – that Sn – that someone’s going to try and steal the Stone.” –Harry

“Snape’s going through the trapdoor tonight. He’s found out everything he needs, and now he’s got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that note, I bet the Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up.”

Snape was standing there.
“Good afternoon,” he said smoothly.
They stared at him.
“You shouldn’t be inside on a day like this,” he said, with an odd, twisted smile.
“You want to be more careful,” said Snape. “Hanging around like this, people will think you’re up to something. And Gryffindor really can’t afford to lose any more points, can it?”
They turned to go outside, but Snape called them back.
“Be warned, Potter – any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you.”

Harry had just said, “At least Hermione’s on Snape’s tail,” when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and Hermione came in.
“Snape came out and asked me what I was doing, so I said I was waiting for Flitwick, and Snape went to get him, and I’ve only just got away, I don’t know where Snape went.”

“If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort’s coming back!” –Harry

Pgs. 286-290

“I might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I’m no match for him, really.”

There was already someone there – but it wasn’t Snape. It wasn’t even Voldemort.

“But I thought – Snape-“
“Severus?” Quirrell laughed, and it wasn’t his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. “Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn’t he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?”

“But Snape tried to kill me!”
“No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Snape at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I’d have got you off that broom. I’d have managed it before then if Snape hadn’t been muttering a countercurse, trying to save you.”
“Snape was trying to save me?”
“Of course,” said Quirrell coolly.
“All the other teaches thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning, he did make himself unpopular… and what a waste of time, when after all that, I’m going to kill you tonight.”

“Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off – and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn’t even mange to bite Snape’s leg off properly.”

Pgs. 299-300

“Quirrell said Snape-“
“Professor Snape, Harry.”
“Yes, him – Quirrell said he hates me because he hated my father. Is that true?”
“Well, they did rather detest each other. And then, your father did something Snape could never forgive.”
“What?”
“He saved his life.”
“What?”
“Yes…” said Dumbledore dreamily. “Funny, the way people’s minds work, isn’t it? Professor Snape couldn’t bear being in your father’s debt…. I do believe he worked so hard to protect you this year because he felt that would make him and your father even. Then he could go back to hating your father’s memory in peace….”

Pgs. 306-307

Snape was shaking Professor McGonagall’s hand, with a horrible, forced smile. He caught Harry’s eye and Harry knew at once that Snape’s feelings toward him hadn’t changed one jot.

[WickedWitchOfThe...]

Chamber of Secrets

Pgs. 77-82

Harry also happened to be Snape’s least favorite student. Cruel, sarcastic, and disliked by everybody except the students from is own house, Snape taught potions.

“Or he might have been sacked!” said Ron enthusiastically. “I mean, everyone hates him-“
“Or maybe,” said a very cold voice right behind them,” he’s waiting to hear why you two didn’t arrive on the school train.”
He was a thin man with sallow skin, a hooked nose, and greasy, shoulder-length black hair, and at this moment, he was smiling in a way that told Harry he and Ron were in very deep trouble.
“Follow me,” said Snape.
Not daring to even look at each other, Harry and Ron followed Snape up the steps into the vast, echoing entrance hall, which was lit with flaming torches.
“In!” he said, opening a door halfway down the cold passageway and pointing.
They entered Snape’s office, shivering.
Snape closed the door and turned to look at them.
“So,” he said softly, “the train isn’t good enough for the famous Harry Potter and his faithful sidekick Weasley. Wanted to arrive with a bang, did we, boys?”
“No, sir, it was the barrier at King’s Cross, it-“
“Silence!” said Snape coldly. “What have you done with the car?”
This wasn’t the first time Snape had given harry the impression of being able to read minds.
“You were seen,” he hissed, showing them the headline: FLYING FORD ANGLIA MYSTIFIES MUGGLES. He began to read aloud: “Two Muggles in London, convinced they saw an old car flying over the Post Office tower… at noon in Norfolk, Mrs. Hetty Bayliss, while hanging out her washing… Mr. Angus Fleet, of Peebles, reported to police… Six or seven Muggles in all. I believe your father works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office?” he said, looking up at Ron and smiling still more nastily. “Dear, dear… his own son…”
“I noticed, in my search of the park, that considerable damage seems to have been done to a very valuable Whomping Willow,” Snape went on.
“That tree did more damage to us than we-“ Ron blurted out.
“Silence!” snapped Snape again. “Most unfortunately, you are not in my House and decision to expel you does not rest with me. I shall go and fetch the people who do have that happy power.”

There was a knock on the office door and Snape, now looking happier than ever, opened it.

Snape looked as though Christmas had been canceled. He cleared his throat and said, “Professor Dumbledore, these boys have flouted the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry, caused serious damage to an old and valuable tree – surely acts of this nature-“

Snape shot a look of pure venom at Harry and Ron as he allowed himself to be swept out of his office, leaving them alone with Professor McGonagall, who was still eyeing them like a wrathful eagle.

Pg. 141

Lockhart, looking excited and important, hurried after Dumbledore; so did Professors McGonagall and Snape.

Snape loomed behind them, half in shadow, wearing a most peculiar expression: It was as though he was trying hard not to smile.

Pgs. 143-144

“If I might speak, Headmaster,” said Snape from the shadows, and Harry’s sense of forboding increased; he was sure nothing Snape had to say was going to do him any good.
“Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said, a slight sneer curling his mouth as though he doubted it. “But we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why was he in the upstairs corridor at all? Why wasn’t he at the Halloween feast?”

“But why not join the feast afterward?” said Snape, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight. “Why go up to that corridor?”

“Without any supper?” said Snape, a triumphant smile flickering across his gaunt face. “I didn’t think ghosts provided food fit for living people at their parties.”
“We weren’t hungry,” said Ron loudly as his stomach gave a huge rumble.
Snape’s nasty smile widened.
“It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel he should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until he is ready to be honest.”

Snape looked furious.

“Excuse me,” said Snape icily. “But I believe I am the potions master at this school.”

Pgs. 186-195

Deliberately causing mayhem in Snape’s Potions class was about as safe as poking a sleeping dragon in the eye.

Snape prowled through the fumes, making waspish remarks about the Gryffindors’ work while the Slytherins sniggered appreciatively. Draco Malfoy, who was Snape’s favorite student, kept flicking puffer-fish eyes at Ron and Harry, who knew that if they retaliated they would get detention faster that you could say "Unfair."

He was waiting for Hermione’s signal, and he hardly listened as Snape paused to sneer at his watery potion.

“Silence! SILENCE!” Snape roared. “Anyone who has been splashed, come here for a Deflating Draft – when I find out who did this-“

“If I ever find out who threw this,” Snape whispered, “I shall make sure that person is expelled.”
Harry arranged his face into what he hoped was a puzzled expression. Snape was looking right at him, and the bell that rang ten minutes later could not have been more welcome.
“He knew it was me,” Harry told Ron and Hermione as they hurried back to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. “I could tell.”

“Snape can’t prove it was you,” said Ron reassuringly to Harry. “What can he do?”
“Knowing Snape, something foul,” said Harry as the potion frothed and bubbled.

“He tells me he knows a tiny bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin.”-Lockhart
“Wouldn’t it be good if they finished each other off?” Ron muttered in Harry’s ear.
Snape’s upper lip was curling. Harry wondered why Lockhart was still smiling; if Snape had been looking at him like that he’d have been running as fast as he could in the opposite direction.
Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.

“I wouldn’t bet on that,” Harry murmured, watching Snape baring his teeth.

Snape was looking murderous.

“Time to split up the dream team, I think,” he sneered. –Snape

“I don’t think so,” said Snape, smiling coldly. “Mr. Malfoy, come over here. Let’s see what you make of the famous Potter.”

“Stop! Stop!” screamed Lockhart, but Snape took charge.
“Finite Incantatum!” he shouted.

He (Lockhart) glanced at Snape, whose black eyes glinted, and looked quickly away.

“A bad idea, Professor Lockhart,” said Snape, gliding over like a large and malevolent bat.
“How about Malfoy and Potter?” said Snape with a twisted smile.

Snape smirked as Lockhart quickly picked it up, saying, “Whoops – my wand is a little overexcited-“
Snape moved closer to Malfoy, bent down, and whispered something in his ear. Malfoy smirked, too.

“Don’t move, Potter,” said Snape lazily, clearly enjoying the sight of Harry standing motionles, eye to eye with the angry snake.

Snape stepped forward, waved his wand, and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke. Snape, too, was looking at Harry is an unexpected way: It was a shrewd and calculating look, and Harry didn’t like it.

Pgs. 236-237

Snape looked as though someone had just fed him a large beaker of Skele-Gro.

Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a love Potion would be force-fed poison.

Pg. 259

Their Invisibility Cloak didn’t stop them making any noise, and there was a particularly tense moment when Ron stubbed his toe only yards from the spot where Snape stood standing guard. Thankfully, Snape sneezed at almost exactly the same moment Ron swore.

Pgs. 267-268

Snape swept past Harry, making no comment about Hermione’s empty seat and cauldron.

“Now, now, Malfoy,” said Snape, though he couldn’t suppress a thin-lipped smile. “Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I daresay he’ll be back with us soon enough.”
“Yeah, right,” said Malfoy, smirking. “I expect you’d have Father’s vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job – I’ll tell Father you’re the best teacher here, sir-"
Snape smirked as he swept off around the dungeon, fortunately not spotting Seamus Finnigan, who was pretending to vomit into his cauldron.

“Hurry up, I’ve got to take you all to Herbology,” barked Snape over the class’s heads, and off they marched, with Harry, Ron, and Dean bringing up the rear, Ron still trying to get loose. It was only safe to let go of him when Snape had seen them out of the castle and they were making their way across the vegetable patch toward the greenhouses.

Pgs. 293-294

Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said, “How can you be sure?”

Snape stepped forward.
“Just the man,” he said. “The very man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last.”

“I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn’t had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested,” said Snape. “Didn’t you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given free rein form the first?”

[WickedWitchOfThe...]

Prisoner of Azkaban

Pg. 93

Professor Snape, the Potions master, was staring along the staff table at Professor Lupin. It was common knowledge that Snape wanted the Defense Against the Dark Arts job, but even Harry, who hated Snape, was startled at the expression twisting his thin, sallow face. It was beyond anger: it was loathing. Harry knew that expression only too well; it was the look Snape wore every time he set eyes on Harry.

Pgs. 123-128

“Settle down, settle down,” said Professor Snape idly.
Harry and Ron scowled at each other; Snape wouldn’t have said “settle down” if they’d walked in late, he’d have given them detention.But Malfoy had always been able to get away with anything in Snape’s classes; Snape was head of Slytherin House, and generally favored his own students above all others.

“Weasley, cut up Malfoy’s roots for him,” said Snape without looking up.

Snape approached their table, stared down his hooked nose at the roots, then gave Ron an unpleasant smile from beneath his long, greasy black hair.
“Change roots with Malfoy, Weasley.”
“But, sir-!”

“Now,” said Snape in his most dangerous voice.

“Potter, you can skin Malfoy’s shrivelfig,” said Snape, giving Harry the look of loathing he always reserved just for him.

“Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours?”-Snape
“What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?” –Snape

“Please, sir,” said Hermione, “please, I could help Neville put it right-“
“I don’t remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger,” said Snape coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville. “Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this poition to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly.”

The end of the lesson in sight, Snape strode over to Neville, who was cowering by his cauldron.
“Everyone gather ‘round,” said Snape, his black eyes glittering, “and watch what happens to Longbottom’s toad.”
“If, as I don’t doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned.” –Snape

Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor, and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown.
“Five points from Gryffindor,” said Snape, which wiped the smiles from eveyr face. “I told you not to help him, Miss Granger.”

Harry was still thinking about what Malfoy had said, while Ron was seething about Snape.

Pg. 132

His eyes were glittering and there was a nasty smile playing around his mouth. As Professor Lupin came in and made to close the door behind him, Snape said,” Leave it open, Lupin. I’d rather not witness this.”
He got to his feet and strode past the class, his black robes billowing behind him. At the doorway he turned on his heel and said,” “Possibly no one’s warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear.”

Harry glared at Snape; it was bad enough that he bullied Neville in his own classes, let alone doing it in front of other teachers.

Snape’s lip curled, but he left, shutting the door with a snap.

Pg. 142

Snape didn’t seem to find it funny. His eyes flashed menacingly at the very mention of Professor Lupin’s name, and he was bullying Neville worse than ever.

Pgs. 156-160

He was carrying a goblet, which was smoking faintly, and stopped at the sight of Harry, his black eyes narrowing.

Snape set down the smoking goblet, his eyes wandering between Harry and Lupin.

“Fascinating,” said Snape, without looking at it. “You should drink that directly, Lupin.”

“I made an entire cauldronful,” Snape continued. “If you need more.”
“I should probably take some more again tomorrow. Thanks very much, Severus.”
“Not at all,” said Snape, but there was a look in his eye Harry didn’t like. He backed out of the room, unsmiling and watchful.

“I am very lucky to be working alongside Professor Snape; there aren’t many wizards who are up to making it.” –Lupin
Professor Lupin took another sip and Harry had a crazy urge to knock the goblet out of his hands.
“Professor Snape’s very interested in the Dark Arts,” he blurted out.
“Really?” said Lupin, looking only mildly interested as he took another gulp of potion.
“Some people reckon-“ Harry hesitated, then plunged recklessly on,” some people reckon he’d do anything to get the Defense Against the Dark Arts job.”

They hurried through the portrait hole and into the crowd, still discussing Snape.
“But if he – you know” –Hermione dropped her voice, glancing nervously around- “if he was trying to – to poison Lupin – he wouldn’t have done it in front of Harry.”
“Yeah, maybe,” said Harry as they reached the entrance hall and crossed into the Great Hall.

Was he imagining it, or were Snape’s eyes flickering toward Lupin more often than was natural?

Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes somber, to see Professors McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape hurrying toward him.

Pgs. 165-166

Harry opened his eyes a fraction and squinted up to where they stood; Dumbledore’s back was to him, but he could see Percy’s face, rapt with attention, and Snape’s profile, which looked angry.
“You remember the conversation we had, Headmaster, just before – ah – the start of term?” said Snmape, who was barely opening his lips, as though trying to block Percy out of the conversation.
“I do, Severus,” said Dumbledore, and there was something like warning in his voice.
“It seems – almost impossible – that Black could have entered the school without inside help. I did express my concerns when you appointed-“
“I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Black enter it,” said Dumbledore, and his tone made is so clear that the subject was closed that Snape didn’t reply.

Snape stood for a moment, watching the headmaster with an expression of deep resentment on his face; then he too left.

Pgs. 170-173

“He says he is feeling too ill to teach today,” said Snape with a twisted smile. “I believe I told you to sit down?”

Snape’s black eyes glittered.
“Nothing life-threatening,” he said, looking as though he wished it were.

“Be quiet,” said Snape coldly. “I did not ask for information. I was merely commenting on Professor Lupin’s lack of organization.”
“He’s the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we’ve ever had,” said Dean Thomas boldly, and there was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the class. Snape looked more menacing than ever.
“You are easily satisfied.” –Snape

Harry watched him flick through the textbook, to the very back chapter, which he must know they hadn’t covered.
“-werewolves,” said Snape.

“Miss Granger,” said Snape is a voice of deadly calm. “I was under the impression that I am teaching this lesson, not you. And I am telling you all to turn to page 394.” He glanced around again. “All of you! Now!”

“Anyone?” Snape said, ignoring Hermione. His twisted smile was back.

“Silence!” snarled Snape. “Well, well, well, I never thought I’d meet a third-year class who wouldn’t even recognize a werewolf when they saw one. I shall make a point of informing Professor Dumbledore how very behind you all are….”

“That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger,” said Snape coolly. “Five more points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all.”

It was a mark of how much the class loathed Snape that they were all glaring at him, because every one of them had called Hermione a know-it-all at least once, and Ron, who told Hermione she was a know-it-all at least twice a week, said loudly, “You asked us a question and she knows the answer! Why ask if you don’t want to be told?”
The class knew instantly he’d gone too far. Snape advanced on Ron slowly, and the room held its breath.
“Detention, Weasley,” Snape said silkily, his face very close to Ron’s. “And if I ever hear you criticize the way I teach a class again, you will be very sorry indeed.”

Harry and Hermione left the room with the rest of the class, who waited until they were well out of earshot, then burst into a furious tirade about Snape.
“Snape’s never been like that with any of out other Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, even if he did want the job,” Harry said to Hermione. “Why’s he got it in for Lupin? D’you think this is all because of the boggart?”
“I don’t know,” said Hermione pensively.

Ron caught up with them five minutes later, in a towering rage.
“D’you know what that-“ (he called Snape something that made Hermione say “Ron!”) “-is making me do?”
“Why couldn’t Black have hidden in Snape’s office, eh? He could have finished him off for us!” –Ron

Pgs. 227-228

“Crackers!” said Dumbledore enthusiastically, offering the end of a large silver noisemaker to Snape, who took it reluctantly and tugged.

Snape’s mouth thinned and he pushed the hat towards Dumbledore, who swapped it for his wizard’s hat at once.

Pg. 277

To Harry’s immense disquiet, Snape’s black eyes flicked to the doorways on either side of them, and then to the one-eyed witch.

“You have a habit of turning up in unexpected places, Potter, and you are very rarely there for no good reason…. I suggest the pair of you return to Gryffindor Tower, where you belong.”

Pgs. 282-290

There was a look of suppressed triumph about him.

Snape’s eyes were boring into Harry’s. It was exactly like trying to stare down a hippogriff. Harry tried not to blink.

“What would your head have been doing in Hogsmeade, Potter?” said Snape softly. “Your head is not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of your body has permission to be in Hogsmeade.”

“Malfoy is not having hallucinations,” snarled Snape, and he bent down, a hand on each arm of Harry’s chair, so that their faces were a foot apart. “If your head was in Hogsmeade, so was the rest of you.”

Snape’s thin mouth curled into a horrible smile.

Snape was trying to provoke him into telling the truth. He wasn’t going to do it. Snape had no proof – yet.
“How extraordinarily like your father you are, Potter,” Snape said suddenly, his eyes glinting. “He too was exceedingly arrogant.”
“Strutting around the place with his friends and admirers… The resemblance between you is uncanny.” –Snape

“Your father didn’t set much store by rules either,” Snape went on, pressing his advantage, his thin face full of malice.
“His head was so swollen-“ –Snape

He (Harry) didn’t care that Snape’s face had gone rigid, the black eyes flashing dangerously.
“What did you say to me, Potter?”
“I told you to shut up about my dad!” Harry yelled.

Snape’s sallow skin had gone the color of sour milk.
“And did the headmaster tell you the circumstances in which your father saved my life?” he whispered.

He didn’t know what had happened and didn’t want to admit it – but Snape seemed to have guessed the truth.
“I would hate for you to run away with a false idea of your father, Potter,” he said, a terrible grin twisting his face.
Snape’s uneven, yellowish teeth were bared.
“Turn out your pockets, Potter!” he spat suddenly.
Harry didn’t move. There was a pounding in his ears.
“Turn out your pockets, or we go straight to the headmaster! Pull them out, Potter!”
Cold with dread, Harry slowly pulled out the bag of Zonko’s tricks and the Marauder’s Map.

“Indeed? And you’ve been carrying them around ever since? How very touching… and what is this?”

Snape turned it over, his eyes on Harry.
“Surely you don’t need such a very old piece of parchment?” he said. “Why don’t I just – throw this away?”
His hand moved toward the fire.
“No!” Harry said quickly.
“So!” said Snape, his long nostrils quivering.

Snape’s eyes gleamed.

“Show yourself!” Snape said, tapping the map sharply.

“Professor Severus Snape, master of this school commands you to yield the information you conceal!” Snape said, hitting the map with his wand.

Snape froze. Harry stared, dumbstruck, at the message.

Harry closed his eyes in horror.

Harry waited for the blow to fall.
“So…,” said Snape softly. “We’ll see about this….”

“Lupin!” Snape called into the fire. “I want a word.”

“You called, Severus?” said Lupin mildly.
“I certainly did,” said Snape, his face contorted with fury as he strode back to his desk. “I have just asked Potter to empty his pockets. He was carrying this.”
Snape pointed at the parchment, on which the words of Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs were still shining. An odd, closed expression appeared on Lupin’s face.

“Well?” said Snape again.

“Where do you imagine Potter got such a thing?” –Snape

“Indeed?” said Snape. His jaw had gone rigid with anger.

“You don’t think it more likely that he got it directly from the manufacturers?” –Snape

Harry didn’t dare look at Snape as they left his office.

Pg. 305

Behind the Slytheirn goal posts, however, two hundred people were wearing green; the silver serpent of Slytherin glittered on their flags, and Professor Snape sat in the very front row, wearing green like everyone else, and a very grim smile.

Pg. 318

Try as Harry might, he couldn’t get his Confusing Concoction to thicken, and Snape, standing watch with an air of vindictive pleasure, scribbled something that looked suspiciously like a zero onto his notes before moving away.

Pg. 346

“He assigned that essay hoping someone would realize what my symptoms meant….” –Lupin

Pgs. 356-362

“He (Snape) has been telling Professor Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted.” –Lupin

“That’s right,” sneered a cold voice from the wall behind Lupin.

“Very useful, Potter, I thank you….” –Snape
Snape was slightly breathless, but is face was full of suppressed triumph. “You’re wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?” he said, his eyes glittering.

“Severus-“ Lupin began, but Snape overrode him.
“I’ve told the headmaster again and again that you’re helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here’s the proof.”

“Two more for Azkaban tonight,” said Snape, his eyes now gleaming fanatically. “I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this….”

“You fool,” said Lupin softly. “Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?”
BANG! Thin, snakelike cords burst from the end of Snape’s wand and twisted themselves around Lupin’s mouth, wrists, and ankles; he overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move. With a roar of rage, Black started toward Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Black’s eyes.
“Give me a reason,” he whispered. “Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will.”
Black stopped dead. It would have been impossible to say which face showed more hatred.

“Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school,” Snape spat. “You, Potter, and Weasley are out-of-bounds in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf. For once in your life, hold your tongue.”

“KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!” Snape shouted, looking suddenly quiet deranged.

A few sparks shot out of the end of his wand, which was still pointed at Black’s face.

“Vengeance is very sweet,” Snape breathed at Black. “How I hoped I would be the one to catch you….”
“The joke’s on you again, Severus,” Black snarled.

“Up to the castle?” said Snape silkily.

“They’ll be very pleased to see you, Black… pleased enough to give you little kiss, I daresay.…”

But there was a mad glint in Snape’s eyes that Harry had never seen before. He seemed beyond reason.
“Come on, all of you,” he said.
“I’ll drag the werewolf. Perhaps the dementors will have a kiss for him too-“

“Get out of the way, Potter, you’re in enough troible already,” snarled Snape. “If I hadn’t been here to save your skin-“

“Don’t ask me to fathom the way a werewolf’s mind works,” hissed Snape. “Get out of the way, Potter.”
“YOU’RE PATHETIC!” Harry yelled. “JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL YOU WON’T EVEN LISTEN-“
“SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!” Snape shrieked, looking madder than ever. “Like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on bended knee! You would have been well served if he’d killed you! You’d have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black – now get out of the way, or I will make you. GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!”

Before Snape could even take one step toward him, he had raised his wand.
“Expelliarmus!” he yelled – except that his wasn’t the only voice that shouted. There was a blast that made the door rattle on its hinges; Snape was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall, then slid down it to the floor, a trickle of blood oozing out from under his hair. He had been knocked out.
Harry looked around. Both Ron and Hermione had tried to disarm Snape at exactly the same moment.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” said Black, looking at Harry. “You should have left him to me….”

“We attacked a teacher…. We attacked a teacher….,” Hermione whimpered, staring at the lifeless Snape with frightened eyes. “Oh, we’re going to be in so much trouble-“

Pg. 377

“There’s nothing seriously wrong with him,” said Lupin, bending over Snape and checking his pulse. “You were just a little – overenthusiastic. Still out cold. Er – perhaps it will be best if we don’t revive him until we’re safely back in the castle.”

Pgs. 386-392

“… by thunder, it was lucky you were there, Snape….” –Fudge
“Thank you, Minister.”
“Order of Merlin, Second Class, I’d say. First Class, if I can wangle it!”
“Thank you very much indeed, Minister.”

“As a matter of fact, it was Potter, Weasley, and Granger, Minister….”
“No!”
“Black had bewitched them, I saw it immediately. A Confundus Charm, to judge by their behavior.”
“They weren’t responsible for their actions. On the other hand, their interference might have permitted Black to escape…. They obviously thought they were going to catch Black single-handed. They’ve got away with a great deal before now…. I’m afraid it’s given them a rather high opinion of themselves… and of course Potter has always been allowed an extraordinary amount of license by the headmaster-“
“Ah, well, Snape… Harry Potter, you know… we’ve all got a bit of a blind spot where he’s concerned.”
“And yet – is it good for him to be given so much special treatment? Personally, I try to treat him like any other student. And any other student would be suspended – at the very least – for leading his friends into such danger. Consider, Minister – against all school rules – after all the precautions put in place for his protection – out-of-bounds, at night, consorting with a werewolf and a murderer – and I have reason to believe he has been visiting Hogsmeade illegally too-“
“Well, well… we shall see, Snape, we shall see…. The boy has undoubtedly been foolish….”

“What amazes me the most is the behavior of the dementors… you’ve really no idea what made them retreat, Snape?”
“No, Minister… by the time I had come ‘round they were heading back to their positions at the entrances….”
“Extraordinary. And yet Black, and Harry, and the girl-“
“All unconscious by the time I reached them. I bound and gagged Black, naturally, conjured stretchers, and brought them all straight back to the castle.”

“You see, Minister?” said Snape. “Confunded, both of them…. Black’s done a very good job on them….”

“I suppose he’s told you the same fairy tale he’s planted in Potter’s mind?” spat Snape. “Something about a rat, and Pettigrew being alive-“
“That, indeed, is Black’s story,” said Dumbledore, surveying Snape closely through his half-moon spectacles.
“And does my evidence count for nothing?” snarled Snape. “Peter Pettigrew was not in the Shrieking Shack, nor did I see any sign of him on the grounds.”
“That was because you were knocked out, Professor!” said Hermione earnestly. “You didn’t arrive in time to hear-“
“Miss Granger, HOLD YOUR TONGUE!”
“Now, Snape,” said Fudge, startled, “the young lady is disturbed in her mind, we must make allowances-“

He (Fudge) crossed to the door and held it open for Snape, but Snape hadn’t moved.
“You surely don’t believe a word of Black’s story?” Snape whispered, his eyes fixed on Dumbledore’s face.
“I wish to speak to Harry and Hermione alone,” Dumbledore repeated.
Snape took a step toward Dumbledore.
“Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen,” he breathed. “You haven’t forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven’t forgotten that he once tried to kill me?”
“My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus,” said Dumbledore quietly.
Snape turned on his heel and marched through the door Fudge was still holding.

“You must see that Professor Snape’s version of events is far more convincing than yours.”
“He hates Sirius,” Hermione said desperately. “All because of some stupid trick Sirius played on him-“

Pgs. 405-406

Barely two minutes later, the castle doors flew open yet again, and Snape came charging out of them, running toward the Willow.
Harry’s fists clenched as they watched Snape skid to a halt next to the tree, looking around. He grabbed the cloak and held it up.
“Get our filthy hands off it,” Harry snarled under his breath.

Snape seized the branch Lupin had used to freeze the tree, prodding the knot, and vanished from view as he put on the cloak.

Pg. 412

Snape had regained consciousness. He was conjuring stretchers and lifting the limp forms of Harry, Hermione and Black onto them.
Then, wand held out in front of him, he moved them away toward the castle.

Pgs. 416-417

“…only hope Dumbledore’s not going to make difficulties,” Snape was saying. “The Kiss will be performed immediately?”

“I daresay they’ll want to interview you, Snape… and once young Harry’s back in his right mind, I expect he’ll want to tell the Prophet exactly how you saved him….” -Fudge
Harry clenched his teeth. He caught a glimpse of Snape’s smirk as he and Fudge passed Harry and Hermione’s hiding place.

Pgs. 419-420

“HE DIDN’T DISAPPARATE!” Snape roared, now very close at hand. “YOU CAN’T APPARATE OR DISAPPARATE INSIDE THIS CASTLE! THIS – HAS – SOMETHING – TO – DO – WITH – POTTER!”
“Severus – be reasonable – Harry has been locked up-“
BAM.
The door of the hospital wing burst open.
Fudge, Snape and Dumbledore came striding into the ward. Dumbledore looked calm. Undeed, he looked as though he was quite enjoying himself. Fudge appeared angry. But Snape was beside himself.
“OUT WITH IT, POTTER!” he bellowed. “WHAT DID YOU DO?”
“Professor Snape!” shrieked Madam Pomfrey. “Control yourself!”
“See here, Snape, be reasonable,” said Fudge. “This door’s been locked, we just saw-“
“THEY HELPED HIM ESCAPE, I KNOW IT!” Snape howled, pointing at Harry and Hermione. His face twisted; spit was flying from his mouth.
“Calm down, man!” Fudge barked. “You’re talking nonsense!”
“YOU DON’T KNOW POTTER!” shrieked snape. “HE DID IT, I KNOW HE DID IT-“
“That will do, Severus,” said Dumbledore quietly.

Snape stood there, seething, staring from Fudge, who looked thoroughly shocked at his behavior, to Dumbledore, whose eyes were twinkling behind his glasses. Snape whirled about, robes swishing behind him, and stormed out of the ward.
“Fellow seems quite unbalanced,” said Fudge, staring after him. “I’d watch out for him if I were you, Dumbledore.”
“Oh, he’s not unbalanced,” said Dumbledore quietly. “He’s just suffered a severe disappointment.”

Pg. 423

“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.”

Pgs. 429-430

Harry was amazed that he had got through Potions. He had a shrewd suspicion that Dumbledore might have stepped in to stop Snape failing him on purpose. Snape’s behavior toward Harry over the past week had been quite alarming. Harry wouldn’t have thought it possible that Snape’s dislike for him could increase, but it certainly had. A muscle twitched unpleasantly at the corner of Snape’s thin mouth every time he looked at Harry, and he was constantly flexing his fingers, as though itching to place them around Harry’s throat.

[WickedWitchOfThe...]

Goblet of Fire

Pg. 175

On Professor Sinistra’s other side was the sallow-faced, hook-nosed, greasy-haired Potions master, Snape – Harry’s least favorite person at Hogwarts. Harry’s loathing of Snape was matched only by Snape’s hatred of him, a hatred which had, if possible, intensified last year, when Harry had helped Sirius escape right under Snape’s overlarge nose – Snape and Sirius had been enemies since their own school days.

Pgs. 209-210

Professor Snape, who seemed to have attained new levels of vindictiveness over the summer, gave Neville detention, and Neville returned from it in a state of nervous collapse, having been made to disembowel a barrel full of horned toads.
“You know why Snape’s in such a foul mood, don’t you?” said Ron to Harry as they watched Hermione teaching Neville a Scouring Charm to remove the frog guts from under his fingernails.
“Yeah,” said Harry. “Moody.”
It was common knowledge that Snape really wanted the Dark Arts job, and he had now failed to get it for the fourth year running. Snape had disliked all of their previous Dark Arts teachers, and shown it – but he seemed strangely wary of displaying overt animosity to Mad-Eye Moody. Indeed, whenever Harry saw the two of them together – at mealtimes, or when they passed in the corridors – he had the distinct impression that Snape was avoiding Moody’s eye, whether magical or normal.
“I reckon Snape’s a bit scared of him, you know,” Harry said thoughtfully.
“Imagine if Moody turned Snape into a horned toad,” said Ron, his eyes misting over, “and bounced him all around his dungeon….”

Pg. 276

“It’s no one’s fault but Potter’s, Karkaroff,” said Snape softly. His black eyes were alight with malice. “Don’t go blaming Dumbledore for Potter’s determination to break rules. He has been crossing lines ever since he arrived here-“
“Thank you, Severus,” said Dumbledore firmly, and Snape went quiet, though his eyes still glinted malevolently through his curtain of greasy black hair.

Snape made a soft noise of impatient disbelief in the shadows.
“Did you ask an older student to put it into the Goblet of Fire for you?” said Professor Dumbledore, ignoring Snape.

Snape was now shaking his head, his lip curling.

Pg. 280

Snape looked furious; Karkaroff livid; Bagman, however, looked rather excited.

Pg. 297

Double Potions was always a horrible experience, but these days it was nothing short of torture. Being shut in a dungeon for an hour and a half with Snape and the Slytherins, all of whom seemed determined to punish Harry as much as possible for daring to become school champion, was about the most unpleasant thing Harry could imagine.

Pgs. 299-301

“And what is all this about?” said a soft, deadly voice.
Snape had arrived.

Snape looked coldly at Hermione, then said, “I see no difference.”

“Let’s see,” he said, in his silkiest voice. “Fifty points from Gryffindor and a detention each for Potter and Weasley. Now get inside, or it’ll be a week’s worth of detentions.”
Harry’s ears were ringing. The injustice of it made him want to curse Snape into a thousand slimy pieces.

Harry sat there staring at Snape as the lesson began, picturing horrific things happening to him…. If only he knew how to do the Cruciatus Curse… he’s have Snape flat on his back like that spider, jerking and twitching….
“Antidotes!” said Snape, looking around at them all, his cold black eyes glittering unpleasantly.
“I want you to brew them carefully, and then, we will be selecting someone on whom to test one….”
Snape’s eyes met Harry’s, and Harry knew what was coming. Snape was going to poison him. Harry imagined picking up his cauldron, and sprinting to the front of the class, and bringing it down on Snape’s greasy head-

“Potter has another hour of Potions to complete,” said Snape coldly.

“Very well, very well,” Snape snapped. “Potter, leave your things here, I want you back down here later to test your antidote.”

“Very well!” said Snape. “Potter – take your bag and get out of my sight!”

Pgs. 391-392

“He’d (Snape) give her the goods on me any day. ‘Potter has been crossing lines ever since he first arrived at this school….’”

“Evil he (Snape) is,” Ron said bitterly that night in the Gryffindor common room. “Springing a test on us the last day. Ruining the last bit of term with a whole load of studying.”

Pgs. 425-426

“… don’t see what there is to fuss about, Igor.”
“Severus, you cannot pretend this isn’t happening!” Karkaroff’s voice sounded anxious and hushed, as though keen on not to be overheard. “It’s been getting clearer for months. I am becoming seriously concerned, I can’t deny it-“
“Then flee,” said Snape’s voice curtly. “Flee – I will make your excuses. I, however, am remaining at Hogwarts.”

Snape had his wand out and was blasting rosebushes apart, his expression most ill-natured.
“Ten points from Ravenclaw, Fawcett!” Snape snarled as a girl ran past him. “And ten points from Hufflepuff too, Stebbins!” as a boy went rushing after her. “And what are you two doing?” he added, catching sight of Harry and Ron on the path ahead. Karkaroff, Harry saw, looked slightly discomposed to see them standing there. His hand went nervously to his goatee, and he began winding it around his finger.
“We’re walking,” Ron told Snape shortly. “Not against the law, is it?”
“Keep walking, then!” Snape snarled, and he bruahed past them, his long black cloak billowing behind him. Karkaroff hurried away after Snape.

Pgs. 469-474

At the foot of the stairs stood the only person who could make Harry’s situation worse: Snape.

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.
Snape stopped talking very abruptly.

“Shut up!” Snape hissed to Filch.

“It is unimportant,” said Snape coldly.
“On the contrary,” growled Moody, “it is very important. Who’d want to break into your office?”
“A student, I daresay,” said Snape. Harry could see a vein flickering horribly on Snape’s greasy temple. “It has happened before. Potion ingredients have gone missing from my private store cupboard… students attempting illicit mixtures, no doubt….”
“Reckon they were after potion ingredients, eh?” said Moody. “Not hiding anything else in your office, are you?”
Harry saw the edge of Snape’s sallow face turn a nasty brick color, the vein in his temple pulsing more rapidly.
“You know I’m hiding nothing, Moody,” he said in a soft and dangerous voice, “ as you’ve searched my office pretty thoroughly yourself.”
Moody’s face twisted into a smile. “Auror’s privilege Snape. Dumbledore told me to keep an eye-“
“Dumbledore happens to trust me,” said Snape through clenched teeth. “I refuse to believe that he gave you orders to search me office!”
“’Course Dumbledore trust you,” growled Moody. “He’s a trusting man, isn’t he? Believes in second chances.”

Snape had reached out for it, a horrible expression of dawning comprehension of his face-

But Snape’s black eyes were darting from the egg in Filch’s arms to the map in Moody’s hand, and Harry could tell he was putting two and two together, as only Snape could….
“Potter,” he said quietly.

“Potter!” Snape snarled, and he actually turned his head ad stared right at the place where Harry was, as though he could suddenly see him. “That egg is Potter’s egg. That piece of parchment belongs to Potter. I have seen it before, I recognize it! Potter is here! Potter, in his Invisibility Cloak!”
Snape stretched out his hands like a blind man and began to move up the stairs; Harry could have sworn his over-large nostrils were dilating, trying to sniff Harry out – trapped, Harry leaned backward, trying to avoid Snape’s fingertips, but any moment now-

Snape was looking down at Moody, and Harry couldn’t see the expression on his face. For a moment, nobody moved or said anything. Then Snape slowly lowered his hands.
“I merely thought,” said Snape, in a voice of forced calm, “that if Potter was wandering around after hours again… it’s an unfortunate habit of his… he should be stopped. For – for his own safety.”
“Ah, I see,” said Moody softly. “Got Potter’s best interests at heart, have you?”
There was a pause. Snape and Moody were still staring at each other.

“I think I will go back to bed,” said Snape curtly.

Snape swept downstairs and passed Moody without another word.

Pgs. 489-481

“Snape said Moody’s seached his office as well?” Ron whispered, his eyes alight with interest as he Banished a cushion with a sweep of his wand. “What… d’you reckon Moody’s here to keep an eye on Snape as well as Karkaroff?”
“Well, I dunno if that’s what Dumbledore asked him to do, but he’s definitely doing it,” said Harry, waving his wand without paying much attention, so that his cushion did an odd sort of belly flop off the desk. “Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay jeer because he’s giving him a second chance or something….”

“Oh, Ron,” said Hermione, shaking her head skeptically, “we thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry’s life, remember?”

Harry looked at Hermione, thinking… it was true that Snape had saved his life once, but the odd thing was, Snape definitely loathed him, just as he’d loathed Harry’s father when they had been at school together. Snape loved taking points from Harry, and had certainly never missed an opportunity to give him punishments, or even to suggest that he should be suspended from the school.

“Dumbledore’s not stupid. He was right to trust Hagrid and Professor Lupin, even thought loads of people wouldn’t have given them jobs, so why shouldn’t he be right about Snape, even if Snape is a bit-“
“-evil,” said Ron promptly. “Come on, Hermione, why are all these Dark wizard catchers searching his office, then?”

“You just want to think Snape’s up to something,” said Hermione, sending her cushion zooming neatly into the box.
“I just want to know what Snape did with his first chance, if he’s on his second one,” said Harry grimly. And his cushion, to his very great surprise, flew straight across the room and landed neatly on top of Hermione’s.

Pgs. 514-519

“Fascinating though your social life undoubtedly is, Miss Granger,” said an icy voice right behind them, and all three of them jumped, “I must ask you not to discuss it in my class. Ten points from Gryffindor.”
Snape had glided over to their desk while they were talking.

“Ah… reading magazines under the table as well?” Snape added, snatching up the copy of Witch Weekly. “A further ten points from Gryffindor… oh but of course…” Snape’s black eyes glittered as they fell on Rita’s article. “Potter has to keep up with his press cuttings….”
The dungeons rang with the Slytherns’ laughter, and an unpleasant smile curled Snape’s thin mouth. To Harry’s fury, he began to read the article aloud.
“’Harry Potter’s Secret Heartache’... dear, dear, Potter, what’s ailing you now? ‘A boy like no other, perhaps…’”

Snape was pausing at the end of every sentence to allow the Slytherins a hearty laugh. The article sounded ten times worse when read by Snape.

“’…Harry Potter’s well-wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart upon a worthier candidate.’ How very touching,” sneered Snape, rolling up the magazine to continued gales of laughter from the Slytherins. “Well, I think I had better separate the three of you, so you can keep your minds on your potions rather than your tangled love lives. Weasley, you stay here. Miss Granger, over there, beside Miss Parkinson. Potter – that table in front of my desk. Move. Now.”
Furious, Harry threw his ingredients and his bag into his cauldron and dragged it up to the front of the dungeon to the empty table. Snape followed, sat down at his desk and watched Harry unload his cauldron. Determined not to look at Snape, Harry resumed the mashing of his scarab beetles, imagining each one to have Snape’s face.
“All this press attention seems to have inflated your already over-large head, Potter,” said Snape quietly, once the rest of the class had settled down again.
Harry didn’t answer. He knew Snape was trying to provoke him; he had done this before. No doubt he was hoping for an excuse to take a round fifty points from Gryffindor before the end of the class.
“You might be laboring under the delusion that the entire wizarding world is impressed with you,” Snape went on, so quietly that no one else could hear him, “but I don’t care how many times your picture appears in the papers. To me, Potter, you are nothing but a nasty little boy who considers the rules to be beneath him.”
His (Harry’s) hands were shaking slightly out of anger, but he kept his eyes down, as though he couldn’t hear what Snape was saying to him.
“So I give you fair warning, Potter,” Snape continued in a softer and more dangerous voice, “pint-sized celebrity or not – if I catch you breaking into my office one more time-“
“I haven’t been anywhere near your office!” said Harry angrily, forgetting his feigned deafness.
“Don’t lie to me,” Snape hissed, his fathomless black eyes boring into Harry’s. “Boomslang skin. Gillyweed. Both come from my private stores, and I know who stole them.”
Harry stared back at Snape, determined not to blink or to look guilty.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Harry lied coldly.
“You were out of bed on the night my office was broken into!” Snape hissed. “I know it, Potter! Now, Mad-Eye Moody might have joined your little fan club, but I will not tolerate your behavior! One more nighttime stroll into my office, Potter, and you will pay!”
“Right,” said Harry coolly, turning back to his ginger roots. “I’ll bear that in mind if I ever get the urge to go in there.”
Snape’s eyes flashed. He plunged a hand into the inside of his black robes. For one wild moment, Harry thought Snape was about to pull out his wand and curse him – then he saw that Snape had drawn out a small crystal bottle of a completely clear potion. Harry stared at it.
“Do you know what this is, Potter?” Snape said, his eyes glittering dangerously again.
“No,” said Harry, with complete honesty this time.
“It is Veritaserum – a Truth Potion so powerful that three drops would have you spilling your innermost secrets for this entire class to hear,” said Snape viciously. “Now, the use of this potion is controlled by very strict Ministry guidelines. But unless you watch your step, you might just find that my hand slips” –he shook the crystal bottle slightly- “right over your evening pumpkin juice. And then, Potter… then we’ll find out whether you’ve been in my office or not.”
Harry said nothing.

He didn’t like the sound of that truth potion at all, nor would he put it past Snape to slip him some.

“I’ll talk to you after my lesson, Karkaroff,” Snape muttered, but Karkaroff interrupted him.
“I want to talk now, while you can’t slip off, Severus. You’ve been avoiding me.”
“After the lesson,” Snape snapped.

Karkaroff looked extremely worried, and Snape looked angry.

“What’s so urgent?” he heard Snape hiss at Karkaroff.
“This,” said Karkaroff, and Harry, peering around the edge of his cauldron, saw Karkaroff pull up the left-hand sleeve of his robe and show Snape something on his inner forearm.
“Well?” said Karkaroff, still making every effort not to move his lips. “Do you see? It’s never been this clear, never since-“
“Put it away!” snarled Snape, his black eyes sweeping the classroom.
“But you must have noticed-“ Karkaroff began in an agitated voice.
“We can talk later, Karkaroff!” spat Snape. “Potter! What are you doing?”

Not wanting to remain alone with an exceptionally angry Snape, Harry threw his books and ingredients back into his bag and left at top speed to tell Ron and Hermione what he had just witnessed.

Pgs. 530-532

“So you think Snape could be up to something, then?” asked Harry, but Hermione broke in.
“Look, I don’t care what you say, Dumbledore trusts Snape-“
“Oh give it a rest, Hermione,” said Ron impatiently. “I know Dumbledore’s brilliant and everything, but that doesn’t mean a really clever Dark wizard couldn’t fool him-“
“Why did Snape save Harry’s life in the first year, then? Why didn’t he just let him die?”
“I dunno – maybe he thought Dumbledore would kick him out-“

“Ever since I found out Snape was teaching here, I’ve wondered why Dumbledore hired him. Snape’s always been fascinated by the Dark Arts, he was famous for it at school.” -Sirius

“Snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year, and he was part of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters.” –Sirius

“But as far as I know, Snape was never even accused of being a Death Eater – not that that mjeans much. Plenty of them were never caught. And Snape’s certainly clever and cunning enough to keep himself out of trouble.” –Sirius
“Snape knows Karkaroff pretty well, but he wants to keep that quiet,” said Ron.
“Yeah, you should’ve seen Snape’s face when Karkaroff turned up in Potions yesterday!” said Harry quickly. “Karkaroff wanted to talk to Snape, he says Snape’s been avoiding him. Karkaroff looked really worried.”

“Well, I’ve no idea what that’s about… but if Karkaroff’s genuinely worried, and he’s going to Snape for answers…” -Sirius

“There’s still the fact that Dumbledore trusts Snape, and I know Dumbledore trusts where a lot of other people wouldn’t, but I just can’t see him letting Snape teach at Hogwarts if he’d ever worked for Voldemort.” –Sirius

Pgs. 557-558

“What is this rubbish?” said Snape, his black eyes glittering. “What are you talking about?”

“The headmaster is busy, Potter,” said Snape, his thin mouth curling into an unpleasant smile.
“I’ve got to tell Dumbledore!” Harry yelled.
“Didn’t you hear me, Potter?”
Harry could tell Snape was thoroughly enjoying himself, denying Harry that thing he wanted when he was so panicky.
“Look,” said Harry angrily.

Dumbledore was standing there, wearing long green robes and a mildly curious expression. “Is there a problem?” he said, looking between Harry and Snape.
“Professor!” Harry said, sidestepping Snape before Snape could speak, “Mr. Crouch is here – he’s down in the forest, he wants to speak to you!”

“Lead the way,” he said promptly, and he swept off along the corridor behind Harry, leaving Snape standing next to the gargoyle and looking twice as ugly.

Pgs. 590-591

“Snape!” he shouted. “Severus Snape!”
“Snape had been cleared by this council,” said Crouch disdainfully. “He has been vouched for by Albus Dumbledore.”
“No!” shouted Karkaroff, straining at the chains that bound him to the chair. “I assure you! Severus Snape is a Death Eater!”
Dumbledore had gotten to his feet.
“I have given evidence already on this matter,” he said calmly. “Severus Snape was indeed a Death Eater. However, he rejoined our side before Lord Voldemort’s downfall and turned spy for us, at great personal risk. He is now no more a Death Eater than I am.”
Harry turned to look at Mad-Eye Moody. He was wearing a look of deep skepticism behind Dumbledore’s back.

Pg. 604

But the pensieve seemed to be asking his question for him. Snape’s face was swimming on the surface again. Dumbledore glanced down into it, and then up at Harry.
“No more has Professor Snape,” he said.
Harry looked into Dumbledore’s light blue eyes, and the thing he really wanted to know spilled out of his mouth before he could stop it.
“What made you think he’d really stopped supporting Voldemort, Professor?”
Dumbledore held Harry’s gaze for a few seconds, and then said, “That, Harry, is a matter between Professor Snape and myself.”

Pg. 645

“It is back,” he said softly, “they will all have noticed it… and now, we shall see… now we shall know…”

“How many will be brave enough to return when they feel it?” he whispered, his gleaming red eyes fixed upon the stars. “And how many will be foolish enough to stay away?”

Pg. 648

“And I answer myself, perhaps they believed a still greater power could exist, one that could vanquish even Lord Voldemort… perhaps they now pay allegiance to another… perhaps that champion of commoners, of Mudbloods and Muggles, Albus Dumbledore?”
At the moment of Dumbledore’s name, the members of the circle stirred, and some muttered and shook their heads. Voldemort ignored them.

Pg. 651

“One too cowardly to return… he will pay. One, who I believe has left me forever… he will be killed, of course… and one, who remains my most faithful servant, and who has already reentered my service.”

Pg. 680

If either Snape or McGonagall found these instructions peculiar, they hid their confusion. Both turned at once and left the office.

Pg. 683

“Crouch!” Snape said, stopping dead in the doorway. “Barty Crouch!”

Snape handed Dumbledore a small glass bottle of completely clear liquid: the Veritaserum with which he had threatened Harry in class.

Pg. 693

Snape nodded silently and swept out of the room.

Pgs. 702-704

“When we told Mr. Fudge that we had caught the Death Eater responsible for tonight’s events,” said Snape, in a low voice, “he seemed to feel his personal safety was in question.”

“From what Minerva and Severus have told me, he seems to have thought he was doing it all on You-Know-Who’s instructions!” –Fudge

“As Minerva and Serverus have doubtless told you,” said Dumbledore, “we heard Barty Crouch confess.”

Pgs. 709-710

Snape strode forward, past Dumbledore, pulling up the left sleeve of his robes as he went. He stuck out his forearm and showed it to Fudge, who recoiled.
“There,” said Snape harshly. “There. The Dark Mark. It is not as clear as it was an hour or so ago, when it burned black, but you can still see it. Every Death Eater had the sign burned into him by the Dark Lord. It was a means of distinguishing one another, and his means of summoning us to him. When he touched the Mark of any Death Eater, we were to Disapparate, and Apparate, instantly, at his side. This Mark has been growing clearer all year. Karkaroff’s too. Why do you think Karkaroff fled tonight? We both felt the Mark burn. We both knew he had returned. Karkaroff fears the Dark Lord’s vengeance. He betrayed too many of his fellow Death Eaters to be sure of a welcome back to the fold.”
Fudge stepped back from Snape too. He was shaking his head. He did not seem to have taken in a word Snape had said. He stared, apparently repelled by the ugly mark on Snape’s arm, then looked up at Dumbledore and whispered, “I don’t know what you and your staff are playing at, Dumbledore, but I have heard enough.”

Pgs. 712-713

Snape had not yelled or jumped backward, but the look on his face was one of mingled fury and horror.

“Him!” he snarled, staring at Sirius, whose face showed equal dislike. “What is he doing here?”
“Here is here at my invitation,” said Dumbledore, looking between them, “as are you, Severus. I trust you both. It is time for you to lay aside your old differences and trust each other.”

Very slowly – but still glaring at each other as though each wished the other nothing but ill – Sirius and Snape moved toward each other and shook hands. They let go extremely quickly.

“Severus,” said Dumbledore, turning to Snape, “you know what I must ask you to do. If you are ready… if you are prepared…”
“I am,” said Snape.
He looked slightly paler than usual, and his cold, black eyes glittered strangely.
“Then good luck,” said Dumbledore, and he watched, with a trace of apprehension on his face, as Snape swept wordlessly after Sirius.

Pgs. 720-721

Further along the table, sitting next to Professor McGonagall, was Snape. His eyes lingered on Harry for a moment as Harry looked at him. His expression was difficult to read. He looked as sour and unpleasant as ever. Harry continued to watch him, long after Snape had looked away.
What was it that Snape had done on Dumbledore’s orders, the night that Voldemort had returned? And why… why… was Dumbledore so convinced that Snape was truly on their side? He had been their spy, Dumbledore had said so in the Pensieve. Snape had turned spy against Voldemort, “at great personal risk.” Was that the job he had taken up again? Had he made contact with the Death Eaters, perhaps? Pretended that he had never really gone over to Dumbledore, that he had been, like Voldemort himself, biding his time?

[WickedWitchOfThe...]

Order of the Phoenix

Pg. 69

“I really fancied finding out what old Snape’s been up to?” –Fred
“Snape?” said Harry quickly. “Is he here?”
“Yeah,” said George. “Giving a report. Top secret.”
“Git,” said Fred idly.
“He’s on our side now,” said Hermione reprovingly.
Ron snorted. “Doesn’t stop him being a git. The way he looks at us when he sees us….”
“Bill doesn’t like him either,” said Ginny, as though that settled the matter.

Pg. 76

They were whispering excitedly together. In the very center of the group Harry saw the dark, greasy-haired head and prominent nose of his least favorite teacher at Hogwarts, Professor Snape. Harry leaned farther over the banisters. He was very interested in what Snape was doing for the Order of the Phoenix….

Pgs. 232-235

“Moronic though some of this class undoubtedly are, I expect you to scrape an ‘acceptable’ in your O.W.L., or suffer my… displeasure.” –Snape
His gaze lingered this time upon Neville, who gulped.

“I take only the very best into my N.E.W.T. Potions class, which means that some of us will certainly be saying good-bye.”
His eyes rested on Harry and his lip curled. Harry glared back, feeling a grim pleasure at the idea that he would be able to give up Potions after fifth year.
“But we have another year to go before that happy farewell,” said Snape softly, “so whether you are intending to attempt N.E.W.T. or not, I advise all of you to concentrate your efforts upon maintaining the high-pass level I have come to expect from me O.W.L. students.”

The surface of Hermione’s potion, however, was a shimmering mist of silver vapor, and as Snape swept by he looked down his hooked nose at it without comment, which meant that he could find nothing to ctiticize. At Harry’s cauldron, however, Snape stopped, looking down at Harry with a horrible smirk on his face.
“Potter, what is this supposed to be?”
The Slytherins at the front of the class all looked up eagerly; they loved hearing Snape taunt Harry.
“The Draught of Peace,” said Harry tensely.
“Tell me, Potter,” said Snape softly, “can you read?”
Draco Malfoy laughed.
"Yes, I can,” said Harry, his fingers clenched tightly around his wand.

“I know you did, Potter, which means that this mess is utterly worthless. Evanesco.”

While everyone around him filled their flagons, Harry cleared away his things, seething. His potion had been no worse than Ron’s, which was now giving off a foul odor of bad eggs, or Neville’s, which had achieved the consistency of just-mixed cement and which Neville was now having to gouge our of his cauldron, yet it was he, Harry, who would be receiving zero marks for the day’s work.

“That was really unfair,” said Hermione consolingly, sitting down next to Harry and helping herself to shepherd’s pie.

“Yeah, well,” said Harry, glowering at his plate, “since when has Snape ever been fair to me?”
Neither of the others answered; all three of them knew that Snape and Harry’s mutual enmity had been absolute from the moment Harry had set foot in Hogwarts.
“I did think he might be a bit better this year,” said Hermione in a disappointed voice. “I mean… you know…” She looked carefully around; there were half a dozen empty seats on either side of them and nobody was passing the table. “…Now he’s in the Order and everything.”
“Poisonous toadstools don’t change their spots,” said Ron sagely. “Anyway, I’ve always thought Dumbledore was cracked trusting Snape, where’s the evidence he ever really stopped working for You-Know-Who?”
“I think Dumbledore’s probably got plenty of evidence, even if he doesn’t share it with you, Ron,” snapped Hermione.

Pgs. 309-310

But Professor Umbridge was not inspecting their History of Magic lesson, which was just as dull as the previous Monday, nor was she in Snape’s dungeon when they arrived for double Potions, where Harry’s moonstone essay was handed back to him with a large, spiky black D scrawled in an upper corner.
“I have awarded you the grades you would have received if you presented this work in your O.W.L.,” said Snape with a smirk, as he swept among them, passing back their homework. “This should give you a realistic idea of what to expect in your examination.”

He smirked as Malfoy sniggered and said in a carrying whisper, “Some people for D’s? Ha!”

Determined not to give Snape an excuse to fail him this lesson, Harry read and reread every line of the instructions on the blackboard at least three times before acting on them. His Strengthening Solution was not precisely the clear turquoise shade of Hermione’s but it was at least blue rather than pink, like Neville’s, and he delivered a flask of it to Snape’s desk at the end of the lesson with a feeling of mingled defiance and relief.

Pgs. 362-364

“Fighting, Potter, Weasley, Longbottom?” Snape said in his cold, sneering voice. “Ten points from Gryffindor. Release Longbottom, Potter, or it will be detention. Inside, all of you.”

“You will notice,” said Snape in his low, sneering voice, “that we have a guest with us today.”
He gestured toward the dim corner of the dungeon, and Harry saw Professor Umbridge sitting there, clipboard on her knee. He (Harry) glanced sideways at Ron and Hermione, his eyebrows raised. Snape and Umbridge, the two teachers he hated most… it was hard to decide which he wanted to triumph over the other.

“Well, the class seems fairly advance for their level,” she said briskly to Snape’s back. “Though I would question whether it is advisable to teach them a potion like the Strengthening Solution. I think the Ministry would prefer it if that was removed from the syllabus.”
Snape straightened up slowly and turned to look at her.

His (Snape’s) expression was unfathomable.

“You applied first for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, I believe?” Professor Umbridge asked Snape.
“Yes,” said Snape quietly.
“But you were unsuccessful?”
Snape’s lip curled.
“Obviously.”

"And you have applied regularly for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post since you first joined the school, I believe?”
“Yes,” said Snape quietly, barely moving his lips. He looked very angry.
“Do you have any idea why Dumbledore has consistently refused to appoint you?” asked Umbridge.
"I suggest you ask him,” said Snape jerkily.
“Oh I shall,” said Professor Umbridge with a sweet smile.
“I suppose this is relevant?” Snape asked, his black eyes narrowed.
“Oh yes,” said Professor Umbridge.

Snape looked around at Harry and their eyes met for a second. Harry hastily dropped his gaze to his potion, which was now congealing foully and giving off a strong smell of burned rubber.
“No marks again, then, Potter,” said Snape maliciously, emptying Harry’s cauldron with a wave of his wand. “You will write me an essay on the correct composition of this potion, indicating how and why you went wrong, to be handed in next lesson, do you understand?”
“Yes,” said Harry furiously.

Pg. 400

Snape was no less obviously partisan: He booked the Quidditch pitch for Slytherin practice so often that the Gryffindors had difficulty getting on it to play. He was also turning a deaf ear to the many reports of Slytherin attempts to hex Gryffindor players in the corridors. When Alicia Spinnet turned up in the hospital wing with her eyebrows growing so thick and fast that they obscured her vision and obstructed her mouth, Snape insisted that she mist have attempted a Hair-Thickening Charm on herself and refused to listen to the fourteen eyewitnesses who insisted that they had seen the Slytherin Keeper, Miles Bletchley, hit her from behind with a jinx while she worked in the library.

Pgs. 517-523

Harry’s mouth fell open in horror.

“Snape?” said Harry blankly.
“Professor Snape, dear,” said Mrs. Weasley, reprovingly. “Now come on, quickly, he says he can’t stay long.”
“What’s he want with you?” said Ron, looking unnerved as Mrs. Weasley withdrew from the room.
“You haven’t done anything, have you?”
“No!” said Harry indignantly, racking his brains to think what he could have done that would make Snape pursue him to Grimmauld Place.

He pushed open the kitchen door a minute or two later to find Sirius and Snape both seated at the long kitchen table, glaring in opposite directions. The silence between them was heavy with mutual dislike.

Snape looked around at him, his face framed between curtains of greasy black hair.
“Sit down, Potter.”
"You know,” said Sirius loudly, leaning back on his rear chair legs and speaking to the ceiling, “I think I’d prefer it if you didn’t give orders here, Snape. It’s my house, you see.”
An ugly flush suffused Snape’s pallid face. Harry sat down in a chair beside Sirius, facing Snape across the table.
“I was supposed to see you alone, Potter,” said Snape, the familiar sneer curling his mouth, “but Black-“
“I’m his godfather,” said Sirius, louder than ever.
"I am here on Dumbledore’s orders,” said Snape, whose voice, by contrast, was becoming more and more quietly waspish, “but by all means stay, Black, I know you like to feel… involved.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” said Sirius, letting his chair fall back onto all four legs with a loud bang.
“Merely that I am sure you must feel – ah – frustrated by the fact that you can do nothing useful,” Snape laid a delicate stress on the word, “for the Order.”
It was Sirius’s turn to flush. Snape’s lip curled in triumph as he turned to Harry.
“The headmaster has sent me to tell you, Potter, that it is his wish for you to study Occlumency this term.”
“Study what?” said Harry blankly.
Snape’s sneer became more pronounced.
“Occlumency, Potter. The magical defense of the mind against external penetration. An obscure branch of magic, but a highly useful one.”

"Why do I have to study Occlu – thing?” he blurted out.
“Because the headmaster thinks it a good idea,” said Snape smoothly. “You will receive private lessons once a week, but you will not tell anybody what you are doing, least of all Dolores Umbridge. You understand?”
“Yes,” said Harry. “Who’s going to be teaching me?”
Snape raised an eyebrow.
“I am,” he said.
Harry had the horrible sensation that his insides were melting. Extra lessons with Snape – what on earth had he done to deserve this? He looked quickly around at Sirius for support.
“Why can’t Dumbledore teach Harry?” asked Sirius aggressively. “Why you?”
“I suppose because it is a headmaster’s privilege to delegate less enjoyable tasks,” said Snape silkily. “I assure you I did not beg for the job.” He got to his feet. “I will expect you at six o’clock on Monday evening, potter. My office. If any body asks, you are taking Remedial Potions. Nobody who has seen you in my classes could deny you need them.”
He turned to leave, his black traveling cloak billowing behind him.
“Wait a moment,” said Sirius, sitting up straighter in his chair.
Snape turned to face them, sneering.
“I am rather in a hurry, Black… unlike you, I do not have unlimited leisure time….”
“I’ll get to the point then,” said Sirius, standing up. He was rather taller than Snape who, Harry noticed, had balled his fist in the pocket of his cloak over what Harry was sure was the handle of his wand. “If I hear you’re using these Occlumency lessons to give Harry a hard time, you’ll have me to answer to.”
“How touching,” Snape sneered. “But surely you have noticed that Potter is very like his father?”
“Yes, I have,” said Sirius proudly.
“Well then, you’ll know he’s so arrogant that criticism simply bounces off him,” Snape said sleekly.
Sirius pushed his chair roughly aside and strode around the table toward
Snape, pulling out his wand as he went; Snape whipped out his own. They were squaring up to each other, Sirius looking livid, Snape calculating, his eyes darting from Sirius’s wand tip to his face.
“Sirius!” Harry said loudly, but Sirius appeared not to hear him.
"I’ve warned you Snivellus,” said Sirius, his face barely a foot from Snape’s, “I don’t care if Dumbledore thinks you’ve reformed, I know better-“
“Oh, but why don’t you tell him so?” whispered Snape. “Or are you afraid he might not take the advice of a man who has been hiding inside his mother’s house for six months very seriously?”
“Tell me, how is Lucius Malfoy these days? I expect he’s delighted his lapdog’s working at Hogwarts, isn’t he?”
“Speaking of dogs,” said Snape softly, “did you know that Lucius Malfoy recognized you last time you risked a little jaunt outside? Clever idea, Black, getting yourself seen on a safe station platform… gave you a cast-iron excuse not to leave your hidey-hole in future, didn’t it?”
Sirius raised his wand.
“NO!” Harry yelled, vaulting over the table and trying to get in between them, Sirius, don’t-“
“Are you calling me a coward?” roared Sirius, trying to push Harry out of the way, but Harry would not budge.
"Why, yes, I suppose I am,” said snape.
“Harry – get – out – of - it!” snarled Sirius, pushing him out of the way with his free hand.

He (Arthur) and all the other Weasleys froze on the threshold, gazing at the scene in front of them, which was also suspended in mid-action, both Sirius and Snape looking toward the door with their wands pointing into each other’s faces and Harry immobile between them, a hand stretched out to each of them, trying to force them apart.
“Merlin’s beard,” said Mr. Weasley, the smile sliding off his face, “what’s going on here?”
Both Sirius and Snape lowered their wands. Harry looked from one to the other. Each wore an expression of utmost contempt, yet the unexpected entrance of so many witnessed seemed to have brought them to their senses. Snape pocketed his wand, turned on his heel, and swept back across the kitchen, passing the Weasleys without comment. At the door he looked back.
“Six o’clock Monday evening, Potter.”
He was gone. Sirius glared after him, his wand at his side.
“But what’s been going on?” asked Mr. Weasley again.
“Nothing, Arthur,” said Sirius, who was breathing heavily as though he had just run a long distance. “Just a friendly little chat between two old school friends….” With what looked an enormous effort, he smiled. “So… you’re cured? That’s great news, really great….”

Harry was separated from him by Mundungus and Mad-Eye, who had dropped in to offer Mr. Weasley their congratulation; he wanted to talk to Sirius, to tell him that he should not listen to a word Snape said, that Snape was goading him deliberately and that they rest of them did not think Sirius was a coward for doing as Dumbledore told him and remaining in Grimmauld Place, but he had no opportunity to do so, and wondered occasionally, eyeing the ugly look on Sirius’s face, whether he would have dared to even if he had the chance. Instead he told Ron and Hermione under his voice about having to take Occlumency lessons with Snape.

“Extra lessons with Snape?” said Ron, sounding aghast. “I’d rather have the nightmares!”

Harry was worried that Snape’s accusation of cowardice had stung Sirius so badly he might even now be planning some foolhardy trip beyond Grimmauld Place. Before he could think of hat to say, however, Sirius had beckoned him to his side.
“I want you to take this,” he said quietly, thrusting a badly wrapped package roughly the size of a paperback book into Harry’s hands.
“What is it?” Harry asked.
“A way of letting me know if Snape’s giving you a hard time. No, don’t open it here!” said Sirius, with a wary look at Mrs. Weasley, who was trying to persuade the twins to wear hand-knitted mittens. “I doubt Molly would approve – but I want you to use it if you need me, all right?”
“Okay,” said Harry, stowing the package away in the inside pocket of his jacket, but he knew he would never use whatever it was. It would not be he, Harry, who lured Sirius from his place of safety, no matter how foully Snape treated him in their forthcoming Occlumency classes.

Pg. 527

“Harry, I know you don’t like Snape, but he is a superb Occlumens and we all - Sirius included – want you to learn to protect yourself, so work hard, all right?”
“Yeah, all right,” said Harry heavily, looking up into Lupin’s prematurely lined face.

“Good Lord, you must be terrible, Snape doesn’t usually give extra lessons, does he?”

Pgs. 529-538

By six o’clock that evening, however, even the glow of having successfully asked out Cho Chang was insufficient to lighten the ominous feelings that intensified with every step Harry took toward Snape’s office.
He paused outside the door when he reached it, wishing he were almost anywhere else, then, taking a deep breath, knocked, and entered.

Wondering what on earth it was doing here, he jumped when Snape’s cold voice came out of the corner.
“Shut the door behind you, Potter.”
Harry did as he was told with the horrible feeling that he was imprisoning himself as he did so. When he turned back to face the room Snape had moved into the light and was pointing silently as the chair opposite his desk. Harry sat down and so did Snape, his cold black eyes fixed unblinkingly upon Harry, dislike etched in every line of his face.
“Well, Potter, you know why you are here,” he said. “The headmaster has asked me to teach you Occlumency. I can only hope that you prove more adept at it than Potions.”
“Right,” said Harry tersely.
"This may not be an ordinary class, Potter,” said Snape, his eyes narrowed malevolently, “but I m still your teacher and you will therefore call me ‘sir’ or ‘Professor’ at all times.”
“Yes… sir,” said Harry.
Snape continued to survey him through narrowed eyes for a moment, then said,” Now, Occlumency. As I told you in your dear godfather’s kitchen, this branch of magic seals the mind against magical intrusion and influence.”
“And why does Professor Dumbledore think I need it, sir?” said Harry, looking directly into Snape’s dark, cold eyes and wondering whether he would answer.
Snape looked back at him for a moment and then said contemptuously, “Surely even you could have worked that out by no, Potter? The Dark Lord is highly skilled at Legilimency-“
“What’s that? Sir?”
“It is the ability to extract feelings and memories from another person’s mind-“
“He can read minds?” said Harry quickly, his worst fears confirmed.
“You have no subtlety, Potter,” said Snape, his dark eyes glittering. “You do not understand fine distinctions. It is one of the shortcomings that makes you such a lamentable potion-maker.”
Snape paused for a moment, apparently to savor the pleasure of insulting Harry, before continuing.

“The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potter… or at least, most minds are….” He smirked.

“Well then, why do I have to learn Occlumency?”
Snape eyed Harry, tracing his mouth with one long, thin finger as he did so.

“The headmaster thinks it inadvisable for this to continue. He wishes me to teach you how to close your mind to the Dark Lord.”

Snape stared at Harry for a few moments, still tracing his mouth with his finger. When he spoke again, it was slowly and deliberately, as though he weighed every word.
“It appears that the Dark Lord has been unaware of the connection between you and himself until very recently. Up till now it seems that you have been experiencing his emotions and sharing his thoughts without his being any the wiser. However, the vision you had shortly before Christmas-“
“The one with the snake and Mr. Weasley?”
“Do not interrupt me, Potter,” said Snape in a dangerous voice. “As I was saying… the vision you had shortly before Christmas represented such a powerful incursion upon the Dark Lord’s thoughts-“
“I saw inside the snake’s head, not his!”
“I thought I just told you not to interrupt me, Potter?”
But Harry did not care if Snape was angry; at last he seemed to be getting to the bottom of this business.

“How come I saw through the snake’s eyes if it’s Voldemort’s thoughts I’m sharing?”
“Do not say the Dark Lord’s name!” spat Snape.
There was a nasty silence. They glared at each other across the Pensieve.
"Professor Dumbledore says his name,” said Harry quietly.
“Dumbledore is an extremely powerful wizard,” Snape muttered. “While he may feel secure enough to use the name… the rest of us…” He rubbed his left forearm, apparently unconsciously, on the spot where Harry knew the Dark Mark was burned into his skin.
“I just wanted to know,” Harry began again, forcing his voice back to politeness, “why-“
“You seem to have visited the snake’s mind because that was where the Dark Lord was at that particular moment,” snarled Snape. “He was possessing the snake at the time and so you dreamed toy were inside it too….”
“And Vol – he – realized I was there?”
“It seems so,” said Snape coolly.
“How do you know?” said Harry urgently. “Is this just Professor Dumbledore guessing or-?”
“I told you,” said Snape, rigid in his chair, his eyes like slits, “to call me ‘sir’”
“Yes, sir,” said Harry impatiently, “but how do you know-?”
“It is enough that we know,” said Snape repressively.

“And he might try and make me do things?” asked Harry. “Sir?” he added hurriedly.
“He might,” said Snape, sounding cold and unconcerned. “Which brings us back to Occlumency.”
Snape pulled out his wand from an inside pocket of his robes and Harry tensed in his chair, but Snape merely raised the wand to his temple and placed its tip into the greasy roots of his hair.

“Stand up and take out your wand, Potter.”
Harry got to his feet feeling nervous.

“You may use your wand to attempt to disarm me, or defend yourself in any other way you can think of,” said Snape.
“And what are you going to do?” Harry asked, eyeing Snape’s wand apprehensively.
“I am about to attempt to break into your mind,” said Snape softly. “We are going to see how well you resist. I have been told that you have already shown aptitude at resisting the Imperius Curse…. You will find that similar powers are needed for this…. Brace yourself, now…. Legilimens!”
Snape had struck before Harry was ready, before Harry had even begun to summon any force of resistance.

He looked up at Snape, who had lowered his wand and was rubbing his wrist. There was an angry weal there, like a scorch mark.
“Did you mean to produce a Stinging Hex?” asked Snape coolly.
“No,” said Harry bitterly, getting up from the floor.
“I thought not,” said Snape, watching him closely. “You let me get in too far. You lost control.”
“Did you see everything I saw?” Harry asked. Unsure whether he wanted to hear the answer.
“Flashes of it,” said Snape, his lip curling. “To whom did the dog belong?”
“My Aunt Marge,” Harry muttered, hating Snape.
“Well, for a first attempt that was not as poor as it might have been,” said Snape, raising his wand once more. “You managed to stop me, eventually, though you wasted time and energy shouting. You must remain focused. Repel me with your brain and you will not need to resort to your wand.”
“I’m trying,” said Harry angrily, “but you’re not telling me how!”
“Manners, Potter,” said Snape dangerously. “Now, I want you to close your eyes.”
Harry threw him a filthy look before doing as he was told. He did not like the idea of standing there with his eyes shut while Snape faced him, carrying a wand.
“Clear your mind, Potter,” said Snape’s cold voice. “Let go of all emotion….”
But Harry’s anger at Snape continued to pound through his veins like venom. Let go of his anger? He could as easily detach his legs….
“You’re not doing it, Potter…. You will need more discipline than this…. Focus, now….”
Harry tried to empty his mind, tried not to think, or remember, or feel….
“Let’s go again… on the count of three… one – two – three – Legilimens!”

“Get up!” said Snape sharply. “Get up! You are not trying, you are making no effort, you are allowing me access to memories your fear, handing me weapons!”

Snape looked paler than usual, and angrier, though not nearly as angry as Harry was.
“I – am – making – an – effort,” he said through clenched teeth.
“I told you to empty yourself of emotion!”
“Yeah? Well, I’m finding that hard at the moment,” Harry snarled.
“Then you will find yourself easy prey for the Dark Lord!” said Snape savagely. “Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked this easily – weak people, in other words – they stand no chance against his powers! He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease, Potter!”
“I am not weak,” said Harry in a low voice, fury now pumping through him so that he thought he might attack Snape in a moment.
“Then prove it! Master yourself!” spat Snape. “Control your anger, discipline your mind! We shall try again! Get ready, now! Legiimens!”

He pushed himself up again to find Snape staring ay him, his wand raised. It looked as though, this time, Snape had lifted the spell before Harry had even tried to fight back.
“What happened then, Potter?” he asked, eyeing Harry intently.
“I saw – I remembered.” Harry panted. “I’ve just realized…”
“Realized what?” asked Snape sharply.
Harry did not answer at once; he was still savoring the moment of blinding realization as he rubbed his forehead….

He looked up at Snape.
“What’s in the Department of Mysteries?”
“What did you say?” Snape asked quietly and Harry saw, with deep satisfaction, that Snape was unnerved.
“I said, what’s in the Department of Mysteries, sir?” Harry said.
“And why,” said Snape slowly, “would you ask such a thing?”
“Because,” said Harry, watching Snape’s face closely, “that corridor I’ve just seen – I’ve been dreaming about it for months – I’ve just recognized it – it leads to the Department of Mysteries… and I think Voldemort wants something from-“
“I have told you not to say the Dark Lord’s name!”
They glared at each other. Harry’s scar seared again, but he did not care. Snape looked agitated. When he spoke again he sounded as though he was trying to appear cool and unconcerned.
“There are many things in the Department of Mysteries, Potter, few of which you would understand and none of which concern you, do I make myself plain?”
"Yes,” Harry said, still rubbing his prickling scar, which was becoming more painful.
“I want you back here same time on Wednesday, and we will continue work then.”
“Fine,” said Harry. He was desperate to get out of Snape’s office and find Ron and Hermione.
“You are to rid your mind of all emotion every night before sleep – empty it, make it blank and calm, you understand?”
“Yes,” said Harry, who was barely listening.
“And be warned, Potter… I shall know if you have not practiced…”
“Right,” Harry mumbled.

Pgs. 553-555

Harry’s sessions with Snape, which had started badly enough, were not improving; on the contrary, Harry felt he was getting worse with every lesson.

He had the horrible impression that he was slowly turning into a kind of aerial that was tuned n to tiny fluctuations in Voldemort’s mood, and he was sure he could date this increased sensitivity firmly from his first Occlumency lesson with Snape.

“It’s lessons with Snape that are making it worse,” said Harry flatly.

“You try it sometime, Snape trying to get inside your head, it’s not a bundle of laughs, you know!”
“Maybe,” said Ron slowly.
“Maybe what?” said Hermione rather snappishly.
“Maybe it’s not Harry’s fault he can’t close his mind,” said Ron darkly.
“What do you mean?” said Hermione.
"Well, maybe Snape isn’t really trying to help Harry….”
Harry and Hermione stared at him. Ron looked darkly and meaningfully from one to the other.
“Maybe,” he said again in a lower voice, “he’s actually trying to open Harry’s mind a bit wider… make it easier for You-Know-“
“Shut up, Ron,” said Hermione angrily. “How many times have you suspected Snape, and when have you ever been right? Dumbledore trusts him, he works for the Order, that ought to be enough.”
“He used to be a Death Eater,” said Ron stubbornly. “And we’ve never seen proof that he really swapped sides….”
“Dumbledore trusts him,” Hermione repeated. “And if we can’t trust Dumbledore, we can’t trust anyone.”

Pgs. 590-594

“That last memory” said Snape. “What was it?”
“I don’t know,” said Harry, getting wearily to his feet. He was finding it increasingly difficult to disentangle separate memories from the rush of images and sound that Snape kept calling forth. “You mean that one where my cousin tried to make me stand in the toilet?
“No,” said Snape softly. “I mean the one concerning a man kneeling in the middle of a darkened room….”
“It’s… nothing,” said Harry.
Snape’s dark eyes bored into Harry’s. Remembering what Snape had said about eye contact being crucial to Legilimency, Harry blinked and looked away.
“How do that man and that room come to be inside your head, Potter?” said Snape.
“It-“ said Harry, looking everywhere but at Snape, “it was – just a dream I had.”
“A dream,” repeated Sanpe.

“You do know why we are here, don’t you, Potter?” said Snape in a low, dangerous voice. “You do know why I am giving up me evenings to this tedious job?”
“Yes,” said Harry stiffly.
“Remind me why we are here, Potter.”
“So I can learn Occlumency,” said Harry, now glaring at a dead eel.
“Correct, Potter. And dim though you may be” –Harry looked back at Snape, hating him- “I would have thought that after two months’ worth of lessons you might have made some progress. How many other dreams about the Dark Lord have you had?”
“Just that one,” lied Harry.
“Perhaps,” said Snape, his dark, cold eyes narrowing slightly, “perhaps you actually enjoy having these visions and dreams, Potter. Maybe they make you feel special – important?”
“No, they don’t,” said Harry, his jaw set and his fingers clenched tightly around the handle of his wand.
“That is just as well, Potter,” said Snape coldly, “because you are neither special nor important, and it is not up to you to find out what the Dark Lord is saying to his Death Eaters.”
“No – that’s your job, isn’t it?” Harry shot at him.
He had not meant to say it; it had burst out of him in temper. For a long moment they stared at each other, Harry convinced he had gone too far. But there was a curious, almost satisfied expression on Snape’s face when he answered.
“Yes, Potter,” he said, his eyes glinting. “That is my job. Now, if you are ready, we will start again….”
He raised his wand. “One – two – three – Legilimens!”

…He could see the dark holes beneath their hoods… yet he could also see Snape standing in front of him, his eyes fixed upon Harry’s face, muttering under his breath…. And somehow, Snape was growing clearer, and the dementors were growing fainter…
Harry raised his own wand.
“Protego!”
Snape staggered; his wand flew upward, away from Harry – and suddenly Harry’s mind was teeming with memories that were not his…

“ENOUGH!”
Harry felt as though he had been pushed hard in the chest; he took several staggering steps backward, hit some of the shelves covering Snape’s walls and heard something crack. Snape was shaking slightly, very white in the face.

"Reparo!” hissed Snape, and the jar sealed itself once more. “Well, Potter… that was certainly an improvement….” Panting slightly, Snape straightened the Pensieve in which he had again stored some of his thoughts before starting the lesson, almost as though checking that they were still there. “I don’t remember telling you to use a Shield Charm… but there is no doubt that it was effective….”
Harry did not speak; he felt that to say anything might be dangerous. He was sure he had just broken into Snape’s memories, that he had just seen scenes from Snape’s childhood, and it was unnerving to think that the crying little boy who had watched his parents shouting was actually standing in front of him with such loathing on his eyes….
“Let’s try again, shall we?” said Snape.
Harry felt a thrill of dread: He was about to pay for what had just happened, he was sure of it. They moved back into position with the desk between them, Harry feeling he was going to find it much harder to empty his mind this time….
“On the count of three, then,” said Snape, raising his wand once more. “One – two “
Harry did not have tie to gather himself together and attempt to clear his mind, for Snape had already cried “Legilimens!”

“POTTER!”

“Explain yourself!” said Snape, who was standing over him, looking furious.
“I… dunno what happened,” said Harry truthfully, standing up. There was a lump on the back of his head from where he had hit the ground and he felt feverish. “I’ve never seen that before. I mean, I told you, I’ve dreamed about the door… but it’s never opened before….”
“You are not working hard enough!”
For some reason, Snape seemed even angrier than he had done two minutes before, when Harry had seen into his own memories.
“You are lazy and sloppy, Potter, it is small wonder that the Dark Lord-“
“Can you tell me something, sir?” said Harry, firing up again. “Why do you call Voldemort the Dark Lord, I’ve only ever heard Death Eaters call him that-“
Snape opened his mouth in a snarl – and a woman screamed from somewhere outside the room.
Snape’s head jerked upward; he was gazing at the ceiling.
“What the-?” he muttered.

Snape looked around at him, frowning.
“Did you see anything unusual on your way down here, Potter?”
Harry shook his head. Somewhere above them, the woman screamed again. Snape strode to his office door, his wand still held at the ready, and swept out of sight. Harry hesitated for a moment, then followed.

Pg. 636

Harry spent the whole of the next day dreading what Snape was going to say if he found out how much farther into the Department of Mysteries he had penetrated during his last dream. With a surge of guilt he realized that he had not practiced Occlumency once since their last lesson: There had been too much going on since Dumbledore had left.

He doubted, however, whether Snape would accept that excuse….

Pgs. 638-639

“You’re late, Potter,” said Snape coldly, as Harry closed the door behind him.
Snape was standing with his back to Harry, removing, as usual, certain of his thoughts and placing them carefully in Dumbledore’s Pensieve. He dropped the last silvery strand into the stone basin and turned to face Harry.
“So,” he said. “Have you been practicing?”
“Yes,” Harry lied, looking carefully at one of the legs of Snape’s desk.
“Well, we’ll find out soon, won’t we?” said Snape smoothly. “Wand out, Potter.”

“On the count of three then,” said Snape lazily. “One – two-“

Snape’s thoughts… things he did not want Harry to see if he broke through Snape’s defenses accidentally….
Harry gazed at the Pensieve, curiosity welling inside him…. What was it that Snape was so keen to hide from Harry?

Pg. 640

It would be insane to do the thing that he was so strongly tempted to do…. He was trembling…. Snape could be back at any moment… but Harry thought of Cho’s anger, of Malfoy’s jeering face, and a reckless daring seized him.

Pgs. 645-646

“Excellent,” he (Sirius) said softly. “Snivellus.”
Harry turned to see what Sirius was looking at.
Snape was on his feet again, and was stowing the O.W.L. paper in his bag. As he emerged from the shadows of the bushes and set off across the grass, Sirius and James stood up. Lupin and Wormtail remained sitting: Lupin was still staring down at his book, though his eyes were not moving and a faint frown line had appeared between his eyebrows. Wormtail was looking from Sirius and James to Snape with a look of avid anticipation on his face.
“All right, Snivellus?” said James loudly.
Snape reacted so fast it was as though he had been expecting an attack: Dropping his bag, he plunged his hand inside his robes, and his wand was halfway into the air when James shouted, “Expelliarmus!”
Snape’s wand flew twelve feet into the air and fell with a little thud in the grass behind him. Sirius let out a bark of laughter.
“Impedimenta!” he said, pointing his wand at Snape, who was knocked off his feet, halfway through a dive toward his own fallen wand.

Snape lay panting on the ground. James and Sirius advanced on him, wands up, James glancing over his shoulder at the girls at the water’s edge as he went. Wormtail was on his feet now, watching hungrily, edging around Lupin to get a clearer view.
“How’d the exam go, Snivelly?” said James.
“I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment,” said Sirius viciously. “There’ll be great grease marks all over it, they won’t be able to read a word.”
Several people watching laughed; Snape was clearly unpopular. Wormtail sniggered shrilly. Snape was trying to get up, but the jinx was still operating on him; he was struggling, as though bound by invisible ropes.
“You – wait,” he panted, staring up at James with an expression of purest loathing. “You – wait….”
“Wait for what?” said Sirius coolly. “What’re you going to do, Snivelly, wipe your nose on us?”
Snape let out a stream of mixed swearwords and hexes, but his wand being ten feet away nothing happened.
“Wash out your mouth,” said James coldly. “Scourgify!”

Pgs. 647-650

“What’s he done to you?” –Lily
“Well, said James, appearing to deliberate the point, “it’s more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean….”
Many of the surrounding watchers laughed, Sirius and Wormtail included, but Lupin, still apparently intent on his book, didn’t, and neither did Lily.

“Go on… Go out with me, and I’ll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.” –James
Behind him, the Impediment jinx was wearing off. Snape was beginning to inch toward his fallen wand, spitting out soapsuds as he crawled.

“Bad luck, Prongs,” said Sirius briskly, turning back to Snape. “OY!”
But too late; Snape had directed his wand straight at James; there was a flash of light and a gash appeared on the side of James’s face, spattering his robes with blood. James whirled about; a second flash of light later, Snape was hanging upside down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of graying underpants.
Many people in the small crowd watching cheered. Sirius, James, and Wormtail roared with laughter.
Lily, whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as though she was going to smile, said, “Let him down!”
“Certainly,” said James and he jerked his wand upward. Snape fell into a crumpled heap on the ground. Disentangling himself from his robes, he got quickly to his feet, wand up, but Sirius said, “Locomortor mortis!” and Snape keeled over again at once, rigid as a board.

James sighed deeply, then turned to Snape and muttered the countercurse.
“There you go,” he said, as Snape struggled to his feet again, “you’re lucky Evans was here, Snivellus-“
“I don’t need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!”
Lily blinked. “Fine,” she said coolly. “I won’t bother in future. And I’d wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus.”
“Apologize to Evans!” James roared at Snape, his wand pointed threateningly at him.

There was another flash of light, and Snape was once again hanging upside down in the air.
“Who wants to see me take off Snivelly’s pants?”
But whether James really did take off Snape’s pants, Harry never found out. A hand closed tight over his arm, closed with a pincerlike grip. Wincing, Harry looked around to see who had hold of him, and saw, with a thrill of horror. A fully grown, adult-sized Snape standing right beside him, white with rage.
“Having fun?”
Harry felt himself rising into the air. The summer’s day evaporated around him, he was floating upward through icy blackness, Snape’s hand still tight upon his upper arm.

“So,” said Snape, gripping Harry’s arm so tightly Harry’s hand was starting to feel numb. “So… been enjoying yourself, Potter?”
“N-no…” said Harry, trying to free his arm.
It was scary: Snape’s lips were shaking, his face was white, his teeth were bared.
“Amusing man, your father, wasn’t he?” said Snape, shaking Harry so hard that his glasses slipped down his nose.
“I – didn’t-“
Snape threw Harry from him with all his might. Harry fell hard onto the dungeon floor.
“You will not repeat what you saw to anybody!” Snape bellowed.
“No,” said Harry, getting to his feet as far from Snape as he could. “No, of course I w-“
“Get out, get out, I don’t want to see you in this office ever again!”
And as Harry hurtled toward the door, a jar of dead cockroaches exploded over his head. He wrenched the door open and flew away up the corridor, stopping only when he had put three floors between himself and Snape. There he leaned against the wall, panting, and rubbing his bruised arm.

What was making Harry feel so horrified and unhappy was not being shouted at or having jars thrown at him – it was that he knew how it felt to be humiliated in the middle of a circle of onlookers, knew exactly how Snape had felt as his father had taunted him, and that judging from what he had just seen, his father had been every bit as arrogant as Snape had always told him.

Pg. 653

He felt as though the memory of it was eating him from inside. He had been so sure that his parents had been wonderful people that he never had the slightest difficulty in disbelieving Snape’s aspersions on his father’s character.

Harry tried to make a case for Snape having deserved what he had suffered at James’s hands – but hadn’t lily asked, “What’s he done to you?” And hadn’t James replied, “It’s more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean?”

Pgs. 660-661

Snape, meanwhile, seemed to have decided to act as though Harry were invisible. Harry was, of course, well used to this tactic, as it was one of Uncle Vernon’s favorites, and on the whole grateful he had to suffer nothing worse. In fact, compared to what was grateful he had to suffer nothing worse. In fact, compared to what he usually had to endure from Snape in the way of taunts and snide remarks, he found the new approach something of an improvement and was pleased to find that when left well alone, he was able to concoct an Invigoration Draught quite easily. At the end of the lesson he scooped some of the potion into a flask, corked it, and took it up to Snape’s desk for marking, feeling that he might at last have scraped an E.
He had just turned away when he heard a smashing noise; Malfoy gave a gleeful yell of laughter. Harry whipped around again. His potion sample lay in pieces on the floor, and Snape was surveying him with a look of gloating pleasure.
“Whoops,” he said softly. “Another zero, then, Potter…”
Harry was too incensed to speak. He strode back to his cauldron, intending to fill another flask and force Snape to mark it, but saw to his horror that the rest of the contents had vanished.

Pgs. 670-672

“Look, Harry,” said Sirius placatingly, “James and Snape hated each other from the moment they set eyes on each other, it was just one of those things, you can understand that, can’t you? I think James was everything Snape wanted to be – he was popular, he was good at Quidditch, good at pretty much everything. And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts and James – whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry – always hated the Dark Arts.”
“Yeah,” said Harry, “but he just attacked Snape for no good reason, just because – well, just because you said you were bored,” he finished with a slightly apologetic note in his voice.
“I’m not proud of it,” said Sirius quickly.

“Did I ever tell you to lay off Snape?” he (Lupin) said. “Did I ever have the guts to tell you I thought you were out of order?”

“And stopped hexing people just for the fun of it,” said Lupin.
“Even Snape?” said Harry.
“Well, said Lupin slowly, “Snape was a special case. I mean he never lost an opportunity to curse James, so you couldn’t really expect James to take that lying down, could you?”

“Now you mention it,” said Lupin, a faint crease between his eyebrows, “how did Snape react when he found you’d seen all this?”
“He told me he’d never teach me Occlumency again,” said Harry indifferently, “like that’s a big disappoint-“
“He WHAT?” shouted Sirius, causing Harry to jump and inhale a mouthful of ashes.
“Are you serious, Harry?” said Lupin quickly. “He’s stopped giving you lessons?”
“Yeah,” said Harry, surprised at what he considered a great overreaction. “But it’s okay, I don’t care, it’s a bit of a relief to tell you the-“
“I’m coming up there to have a word with Snape!” said Sirius forcefully and he actually made to stand up, but Lupin wrenched him back down again.
“If anyone’s going to tell Snape it will be me!” he said firmly. “But Harry, first of all, you’re to go back to Snape and tell him that on no account is he to stop giving you lessons – when Dumbledore hears-“
“I can’t tell him that, he’d kill me!” said Harry, outraged. “You didn’t see him when we got out of the Pensieve-“
“Harry, there is nothing so important as you learning Occlumency!” said Lupin sternly. “Do you understand me? Nothing!”
“Okay, okay,” said Harry, thoroughly discomposed, not to mention annoyed. “I’ll… I’ll try and say something to him…. But it won’t be…”

Pg. 681

“As a matter of fact, I was going to ask Harry when he’s going to go back to Snape and ask for Occlumency lessons again!” –Hermione
Harry’s heart sank.

Pg. 706

The purposeful, feverish atmosphere drove nearly everything but the O.W.L.s from Harry’s mind, though he did wonder occasionally during Potions lessons whether Lupin had ever told Snape that he must continues giving Harry Occlumency tuition: If he had, then Snape had ignored Lupin as thoroughly as he was now ignoring Harry. This suited Harry very well; he was quite busy and tense enough without extra classes with Snape, and to his relief Hermione was much too preoccupied these days to badger him about Occlumency.

Pg. 716

Hermione’s bad mood persisted for most of the weekend, though Harry and Ron found it quite easy to ignore as they spent most of Saturday and Sunday studying for Potions on Monday, the exam to which Harry wad looking forward least and which he was sure would be the one that would be the downfall of his ambitions to become an Auror. Sure enough, he found the written exam difficult, though he thought he might have got full marks on the question about Polyjuice Potion: He could describe its effects extremely accurately, having taken it illegally in his second year.
The afternoon practical was not as dreadful as he had expected it to be. With Snape absent from the proceedings he found that he was much more relaxed than he usually as while making potions.

Pgs. 744-746

Harry looked back at Umbridge, who was watching him closely. He kept his face deliberately smooth and blank as footsteps were heard in the corridor outside and Draco Malfoy entered the room, closely followed by Snape.
“You wanted to see me, Headmistress?” said Snape, looking around at all the pairs of struggling students with an expression of complete indifference.
“Ah, Professor Snape,” said Umbridge, smiling widely and standing up again. “Yes, I would like another bottle of Veritaserum, as quick as you can, please.”
“You took my last bottle to interrogate Potter,” he said, surveying her coolly through his greasy curtains of black hair. “Surely you did now use it all? I told you that three drops would be sufficient.”
Umbridge flushed.
“You can make some more, can’t you?” she said, her voice becoming more sweetly girlish as it always did when she was furious.
“Certainly,” said Snape, his lip curling. “It takes a full moon cycle to mature, so I should have it ready for you in around a month.”
“A month?” squawked Umbridge, swelling toadishly. “A month? But I need it this evening, Snape! I have just found Potter using my fire to communicate with a person or persons unknown!”
“Really?” said Snape, showing his first, faint sign of interest as he looked around at Harry. “Well, it doesn’t surprise me. Potter has never shown much inclination to follow school rules.”
His cold, dark eyes were boring into Harry’s, who met his gaze unflinchingly, concentrating hard on what he had seen in his dream, willing Snape to read it in his mind, to understand…
“I wish to interrogate him!” repeated Umbridge angrily, and Snape looked away from Harry back into her furiously quivering face. “I wish you to provide me with a potion that will force him to tell me the truth!”
“I have already told you,” said Snape smoothly, “that I have no further stocks of Veritaserum. Unless you wish to poison Potter – and I assure you I would have the greatest empathy with you if you did – I cannot help you. The only trouble is that most venoms act too fast to give the victim much time for truth-telling….”
Snape looked back at Harry, who stared at him, frantic to communicate without words.
Voldemort’s got Sirius in the Department of Mysteries, he thought desperately. Voldemort’s got Sirius-
“You are on probation!” shrieked Professor Umbridge, and Snape looked back at her, his eyebrows slightly raised. “You are being deliberately unhelpful! I expected better, Lucius Malfoy always speaks most highly of you! Now get out of my office!”
Snape gave her an ironic bow and turned to leave. Harry knew his last chance of letting the Order know what was going on was walking out of the door.
“He’s got Padfoot!” he shouted. “He’s got Padfoot at the place where it’s hidden!”
Snape had stopped with his hand on Umbridge’s door handle.
“Padfoot?” cried Professor Umbridge, looking eagerly from Harry to Snape. “What is Padfoot? Where what is hidden? What does he mean, Snape?”
Snape looked around at Harry. His face was inscrutable. Harry could not tell whether he had understood or not, but he did not dare speak more plainly in front of Umbridge.
“I have no idea,” said Snape coldly. “Potter, when I want nonsense shouted at me I shall give you a Babbling Beverage. And Crabbe, loosen your hold a little, if Longbottom suffocates it will mean a lot of tedious paperwork, and I am afraid I shall have to mention it on your reference if ever you apply for a job.”
He closed the door behind him with a snap, leaving Harry in a state of worse turmoil than before: Snape had been his very last hope. He looked at Umbridge, who seemed to be feeling the same way; her chest was heaving with rage and frustration.

Pg. 827

“I am speaking, of course, of the night you witnessed the attack on Mr. Weasley.” –Dumbledore
“Yeah, Snape told me,” Harry muttered.
“Professor Snape, Harry,” Dumbledore corrected him quietly.

Pgs. 829-830

“Professor Snape discovered,” Dumbledore resumed, “that you had been dreaming about the door to the Department of Mysteries for months. Voldemort, of course, had been obsessed with the possibility of hearing the prophecy ever since he regained his body, and as he swelled on the door, so did you, though you did not know what it meant.”

“You see, when you gave Professor Snape that cryptic warning, he realized that you had had a vision of Sirius trapped in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries. He, like you, attempted to contact Sirius at once. I should explain the members of the Order of the Phoenix have more reliable methods of communicating that the fire in Dolores Umbridge’s office. Professor Snape found that Sirius was alive and safe in Grimmauld Place.
“When, however, you did not return from your trip into the forest with Dolores Umbridge, Professor Snape grew worried that you still believed Sirius to be a captive of Lord Voldemort’s. He alerted certain Order members at once.”

“Professor Snape requested that Sirius remain behind, as he needed somebody to remain at headquarters to tell me what had happened, for I was due to arrive there at any moment. In the meantime he, Professor Snape, intended to search the forest for you.” –Dumbledore

Pgs. 832-833

“What about Snape?” Harry spat. “You’re not talking about him, are you? When I told him Voldemort had Sirius he just sneered at me as usual-“
“Harry, you know that Professor Snape had no choice but to pretend not to take you seriously in front of Dolores Umbridge,” said Dumbledore steadily, “but as I have explained, he informed the Order as soon as possible about what you had said. It was he who deduced where you had gone when you did not return from the forest. It was he too who gave Professor Umbridge fake Veritaserum when she was attempting to force you to tell of Sirius’s whereabouts….”
Harry disregarded this; he felt a savage pleasure in blaming Snape, it seemed to be easing his own sense of dreadful guilt, and he wanted to hear Dumbledore agree with him.
“Snape – Snape g-goaded Sirius about staying in the house – he made Sirius was a coward-“

"Snape stopped giving me Occlumency lessons!” Harry snarled. “He threw me out of his office!”
“I am aware of it,” said Dumbledore heavily. “I have already said that it was a mistake for me not to teach you myself, though I was sure, at the time, that nothing could have been more dangerous than to open your mind even further to Voldemort while in my presence-“
“Snape made it worse, my scar always hurt worse after lessons with him-“ Harry remembered Ron’s thoughts on the subject and plunged on. “How do you know he wasn’t trying to soften me up for Voldemort, make it easier for him to get inside my-“
“I trust Severus Snape,” said Dumbledore simply. “But I forgot – another old man’s mistake – that some wounds run too deep for the healing. I thought Professor Snape could overcome his feelings about your father – I was wrong.”
“But that’s okay, is it?” yelled Harry, ignoring the scandalized faces and disapproving mutterings of the portraits covering the walls. “It’s okay for Snape to hate my dad, but it’s not okay for Sirius to hate Kreacher?”

Pgs. 851-853

“Potter!”
The voice rang across the entrance hall; Snape had emerged from the staircase leading down to his office, and at the sight of him Harry felt a great rush of hatred beyond anything he felt toward Malfoy…. Whatever Dumbledore said, he would never forgive Snape… never…
“What are you doing, Potter?” said Snape coldly as ever, as he strode over to the four of them.
“I’m trying to decide what curse to use on Malfoy, sir,” said Harry fiercely.
Snape stared at him.
“Put that wand away at once,” he said curtly. “Ten points from Gryff-“
Snape looked toward the giant hourglasses on the walls and gave a sneering smile.
“Ah. I see there are no longer any points left in the Gryffindor hourglass to take away. In that case, Potter, we will simply have to-“
“Add some more?”
Professor McGonagall had just stumped up the stone steps into the castle.

“Professor McGonagall!” said Snape, striding forward. “Out of St. Mungo’s, I see!”
“Yes, Professor Snape,” said Professor McGonagall, shrugging off her traveling cloak, “I’m quite as good as new.”
“Right then,” said Professor McGonagall, looking up at the hourglasses on the wall, “well, I think potter and his friends ought to have fifty points apiece for alerting the world to the return of You-Know-Who! What say you, Professor Snape?”
“What?” snapped Snape, though Harry knew he had heard perfectly well. “Oh – well – I suppose…”

“Now, you wanted to take ten from Mr. Potter, I think, Professor Snape – so there we are….”

Harry did not need telling twice. He thrust his wand back inside his robes and headed straight for the front doors without another glance at Snape and Malfoy.

[WickedWitchOfThe...]

Half-Blood Prince

Pgs. 21-37

“Cissy, you must not do this, you can’t trust him-“
“The Dark Lord trusts him, doesn’t he?”
“The Dark Lord is…I believe…mistaken,” Bella panted, and her eyes gleamed momentarily under her hood as she looked around to check that they were indeed alone. “In any case, we were told not to speak of the plan to anyone. This is a betrayal of the Dark Lord’s-“

“Narcissa!” said the man, opening the door a little wider, so that the light fell upon her and her sister too. “What a pleasant surprise!”
“Severus,” she said in a strained whisper. “May I speak to you? It’s urgent.”
“But of course.”
He stood back to allow her to pass him into the house. Her still-hooded sister followed without invitation.
“Snape,” she said curtly as she passed him.
“Bellatrix,” he replied, his thin mouth curling into a slightly mocking smile as he closed the door with a snap behind them.
They had stepped directly into a tiny sitting room, which had the feeling of a dark, padded cell. The walls were completely covered in books, most of them bound in old black or brown leather; a threadbare sofa, an old armchair, and a rickety table stood grouped together in a pool of dim light cast by a candle-filled lamp hung from the ceiling. The place had an air of neglect, as though it was not usually inhabited.
Snape gestured Narcissa to the sofa. She threw off her cloak, cast it aside, and sat down, staring at her white trembling hands clasped in her lap. Bellatrix lowered her hood more slowly. Dark as her sister was fair, with heavily lidded eyes and a strong jaw, she did not take her gaze from Snape as she moved to stand behind Narcissa.
“So, what can I do for you?” Snape asked, settling himself in the armchair opposite the two sisters.
“We…we are alone, aren’t we?” Narcissa asked quietly.
“Yes, of course. Well, Wormtail’s here, but we’re not counting vermin, are we?”

“As you have clearly realized, Wormtail, we have guests,” said Snape lazily.

“Wormtail will get us drinks, if you’d like them,” said Snape. “And then he will return to his bedroom.”
Wormtail winced as though Snape had thrown something at him.
“I am not your servant!” he squeaked, avoiding Snape’s eyes.
“Really? I was under the impression that the Dark Lord placed you here to assist me.”
“To assist, yes-but not to make you drinks and-and clean your house.”
“I had no idea, Wormtail, that you were craving more dangerous assignments,” said Snape silkily. “This can be arranged: I shall speak to the Dark Lord-“
“I can speak to him myself if I want to!”
“Of course you can,” said Snape, sneering. “But in the meantime, bring us drinks. Some of the elf-made wine will do.”

Snape poured out the three glasses of bloodred wine and handed two of them to the sisters. Narcissa murmured a word of thanks, whilst Bellatrix said nothing, but continued to glower at Snape. This did not seem to discompose him; on the contrary, he looked rather amused.
“The Dark Lord,” he said, raising his glass and draining it.
The sisters copied him. Snape refilled their glasses. As Narcissa took her second drink she said in a rush, “Severus, I’m sorry to come here like this, but I had to see you. I think you are the only one who can help me-“
Snape held up a hand to stop her, then pointed his wand again at the concealed staircase door. There was a loud bang and a squeal, followed by the sound of Wormtail scurrying back up the stairs.
“My apologies,” said Snape. “He has lately taken to listening at doors, I don’t know what he means by it…You were saying, Narcissa?”
She took a great shuddering breath and started again.
“Severus, I know I ought not to be here, I have been told to say nothing to anyone, but-“
“Then you ought to hold your tongue!” snarled Bellatrix. “Particularly in present company!”
“’Present company’?” repeated Snape sardonically. “And what am I to understand by that, Bellatrix?”
“That I don’t trust you, Snape, as you very well know!”

Snape set his glass down upon the table and sat back again, his hands upon the arms of his chair, smiling into Bellatrix’s glowering face.
“Narcissa, I think we ought to hear what Bellatrix is bursting to say; it will save tedious interruptions. Well, continue, Bellatrix,” said Snape. “Why is it that you do not trust me?”
“A hundred reasons!” she said loudly, striding from behind the sofa to slam her glass upon the table. “Where to start! Where were you when the Dark Lord fell? Why did you never make any attempt to find him when he vanished? What have you been doing all these years that you’ve lived in Dumbledore’s pocket? Why did you stop the Dark Lord procuring the Sorcerer’s stone? Why did you not return at once when the Dark Lord was reborn? Where were you a few weeks ago when we battled to retrieve the prophecy for the Dark Lord? And why, Snape, is Harry Potter still alive when you have had him at your mercy for five years?”

Snape smiled.
“Before I answer you – oh yes, Bellatrix, I am going to answer! You can carry my words back to the others who whisper behind my back, and carry false tales of my treachery to the Dark Lord! Before I answer you, I say, let me ask you a question in turn. Do you really think that the Dark Lord has not asked me each and every one of those questions? And do you really think that, had I not been able to give satisfactory answers, I would be sitting here talking to you?”
She hesitated.
“I know he believes you, but…”
“You think he is mistaken? Or that I have somehow hoodwinked him? Fooled the Dark Lord, the greatest wizard, the most accomplished Legilimens the world has ever seen?”
Bellatrix said nothing, but looked, for the first time, a little discomfited. Snape did not press the point. He picked up his drink again, sipped it, and continued, “You ask me where I was when the Dark Lord fell. I was where he had ordered me to be, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, because he wished me to spy upon Albus Dumbledore. You know, I presume, that it was on the Dark Lord’s orders that I too up the post?”
She nodded almost imperceptibly and then opened her mouth, but Snape forestalled her.
“You ask why I did not attempt to find him when he vanished. For the same reason Avery, Yaxley, the Carrows, Greyback, Lucius” –he inclined his head slightly to Narcissa- “and many others did not attempt to find him. I believed him finished. I am not proud of it, I was wrong, but there it is….If he had not forgiven we who lost faith at that time, he would have very few followers left.”
“He’d have me!” said Bellatrix passionately. “I, who spent many years in Azkaban for him!”
"Yes, indeed, most admirable,” said Snape in a bored voice. “Of course, you weren’t a lot of use to him in prison, but the gesture was undoubtedly fine-“
“Gesture!” she shrieked; in her fury she looked slightly mad. “While I endured the dementors, you remained at Hogwarts, comfortably playing Dumbledore’s pet!”
“Not quite,” said Snape calmly. “He wouldn’t give me the Defense Against the Dark Arts job, you know. Seemed to think it might, ah, bring about a relapse…tempt me into my old ways.”
“This was your sacrifice for the Dark Lord, not to teach your favorite subject?” she jeered. “Why did you stay there all that time, Snape? Still spying on Dumbledore for a master you believed dead?”
“Hardly,” said Snape, “Although the Dark Lord is pleased that I never deserted my post: I had sixteen years of information on Dumbledore to give him when he returned, a rather more useful welcome-back present than endless reminiscences of how unpleasant Azkaban is….”
“But you stayed-“
“Yes, Bellatrix, I stayed,” said Snape, betraying a hint of impatience for the first time. “I had a comfortable job that I preferred to a stint in Azkaban. They were rounding up the Death Eaters, you know. Dumbledore’s protection kept me out of jail; it was most convenient and I used it. I repeat: The Dark Lord does not complain that I stayed, so I do not see why you do.
“I think you next wanted to know,” he pressed on, a little more loudly, for Bellatrix showed every sign of interrupting, “why I stood between the Dark Lord and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Thai is easily answered. He did not know whether he could trust me. He thought, like you, that I had turned from faithful Death Eater to Dumbledore’s stooge. He was in a pitiable condition, very weak, sharing the body of a mediocre wizard. He did not dare reveal himself to a former ally if that ally might turn him over to Dumbledore or the Ministry. I deeply regret that he did not trust me. He would have returned to power three years sooner. As it was, I saw only greedy and unworthy Quirrell attempting to steal the stone and, I admit, I did all I could to thwart him.”
Bellatrix’s mouth twisted as though she had taken an unpleasant dose of medicine.
“But you didn’t return when he came back, you didn’t fly back to him at once when you felt the Dark Mark burn-“
"Correct. I returned two hours later. I returned on Dumbledore’s orders.”
“On Dumbledore’s-?” she began, in tones of outrage.
“Think!” said Snape, impatient again. “Think! By waiting two hours, just two hours, I ensured that I could remain at Hogwarts as a spy! By allowing Dumbledore to think that I was only returning to the Dark Lord’s side because I was ordered to, I have been able to pass information on Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix ever since! Consider, Bellatrix: The Dark Mark had been growing stronger for months. I knew he must be about to return, all the Death Eaters knew! I had plenty of time to think about what I wanted to do, to plan my next move, to escape like Karkaroff, didn’t I?
“The Dark Lord’s initial displeasure at my lateness vanished entirely, I assure you, when I explained that I had remained faithful, although Dumbledore thought I was his man. Yes, the Dark Lord thought that I had left him forever, but he was wrong.”
“But what use have you been?” sneered Bellatrix. “What useful information have we had from you?”
“My information has been conveyed directly to the Dark Lord,” said Snape. “If he chooses not to share it with you-“
“He shares everything with me! Said Bellatrix, firing up at once. “He calls me his most loyal, his most faithful-“
“Does he?” said Snape, his voice delicately inflected to suggest his disbelief. “Does he still, after the fiasco at the Ministry?”
“That was not my fault!” said Bellatrix, flushing. “The Dark Lord has, in the past, entrusted me with his most precious – if Lucius hadn’t-“
“Don’t you dare – don’t you dare blame my husband!” said Narcissa, in a low and deadly voice, looking up at her sister.
“There is no point apportioning blame,” said Snape smoothly. “What is done, is done.”
“But not by you!” said Bellatrix furiously. “No, you were once again absent while the rest of us ran dangers, were you not, Snape?”
“My orders were to remain behind,” said Snape. “Perhaps you disagree with the Dark Lord, perhaps you think that Dumbledore would not have noticed if I had joined forces with the Death Eaters to fight the Order of the Phoenix? And – forgive me – you speak of dangers…you were facing six teenagers, were you not?”
“They were joined, as you well know, by half of the Order before long!” snarled Bellatrix. “And, while we are on the subject of the Order, you still claim you cannot reveal the whereabouts of their headquarters, don’t you?”
"I am not the Secret-Keeper; I cannot speak the name of the place. You understand how the enchantment works, I think? The Dark Lord is satisfied with the information I have passed him on the Order. It led, as perhaps you have guessed, to the recent capture and murder of Emmeline Vance, and it certainly helped dispose of Sirius Black, though I give you full credit for finishing him off.”
He inclined his head and toasted her. Her expression did not soften.
"You are avoiding my last question, Snape. Harry Potter. You could have killed him at any point in the past five years. You have not done it. Why?
“Have you discussed this matter with the Dark Lord?” asked Snape.
“He…lately, we…I am asking you, Snape!”
“If I had murdered Harry Potter, the Dark Lord could not have used his blood to regenerate, making him invincible-“
“You claim you foresaw his use of the boy!” she jeered.
“I do not claim it; I had no idea of his plans; I have already confessed that I thought the Dark Lord dead. I am merely trying to explain why the Dark Lord is not sorry that Potter survived, at least, until a year ago….”
“But why did you keep him alive?”
“Have you not understood me? It was only Dumbledore’s protection that was keeping me out of Azkaban! Do you disagree that murdering his favorite student might have turned him against me? But there was more to it than that. I should remind you that when Potter first arrived at Hogwarts there were still many stories circulating about him, rumors that he himself was a great Dark wizard, which was how he had survived the Dark Lord’s attack. Indeed, many of the Dark Lord’s old followers thought Potter might be a standard around which we could all rally once more. I was curious, I admit it, and not at all inclined to murder him the moment he set foot in the castle.
“Of course, it became apparent to me very quickly that he had no extraordinary talent at all. He has fought his way out of a number of tight corners by a simple combination of sheer luck and more talented friends. He is mediocre to the last degree, though as obnoxious and self-satisfied as was his father before him. I have done my utmost to have him thrown out of Hogwarts, where I believe he scarcely belongs, but kill him, or allow him to be killed in front of me? I would have been a fool to risk it with Dumbledore close at hand.”
“And through all this we are supposed to believe Dumbledore has never suspected you?” asked Bellatrix. “He has no idea of your true allegiance, he trusts you implicitly still?”
"I have played my part well,” said Snape. “And you overlook Dumbledore’s greatest weakness; He has to believe the best of people. I spun him a tale of deepest remorse when I joined his staff, fresh from my Death Eater days, and he embraced me with open arms – though, as I say, never allowing me nearer the Dark Arts than he could help. Dumbledore has been a great wizard-oh yes, he has,” (for Bellatrix had made a scathing noise), “the Dark Lord acknowledges it. I am pleased to say, however, that Dumbledore is growing old. The duel with the Dark Lord last month shook him. He has since sustained a serious injury because his reactions are slower that they once were. But through all these years, he has never stopped trusting Severus Snape, and therein lies my great value to the Dark Lord.”
Bellatrix still looked unhappy, though she appeared unsure how best to attack Snape next. Taking advantage of her silence, Snape turned to her sister.
“Now…you came to ask me for help, Narcissa?”
Narcissa looked up at him, her face eloquent with despair.
“Yes, Severus. I – I think you are the only one who can help me, I have nowhere else to turn. Lucius is in jail and…”
She closed her eyes and two large tears seeped from beneath her eyelids.
“The Dark Lord has forbidden me to speak of it,” Narcissa continued, her eyes still closed. “He wishes none to know of the plan. It is…very secret. But-“
“If he has forbidden it, you ought not to speak,” said Snape at once. “The Dark Lord’s word is law.”
Narcissa gasped as though he had doused her with cold water. Bellatrix looked satisfied for the first time since she had entered the house.
“There!” she said triumphantly to her sister. “Even Snape says so: You were told not to talk, so hold your silence!”
But Snape had gotten to his feet and strode to the small window, peered through the curtains at the deserted street, then closed them again with a jerk. He turned around to face Narcissa, frowning.
“It so happens that I know of the plan,” he said in a low voice. “I am one of the few the Dark Lord has told. Nevertheless, had I not been in on the secret, Narcissa, you would have been guilty of great treachery to the Dark Lord.”
“I thought you must know about it!” said Narcissa, breathing more freely. “He trusts you so, Severus….”
“You know about the plan?” said Bellatrix, her fleeting expression of satisfaction replaced by a look of outrage. “You know?”
“Certainly,” said Snape. “But what help do you require, Narcissa? If you are imagining I can persuade the Dark Lord to change his mind, I am afraid there is no hope, none at all.”
“Severus,” she whispered, tears sliding down her pale cheeks. “My son…my only son…”
“Draco should be proud,” said Bellatrix indifferently. “The Dark Lord is granting him a great honor. And I will say this for Draco; He isn’t shrinking away from his duty, he seems glad of a chance to prove himself, excited at the prospect-“
Narcissa began to cry in earnest, gazing beseechingly all the while at Snape.
“That’s because he is sixteen and has no idea what lies in store! Why Severus? Why my son? It is too dangerous! This is vengeance for Lucius’s mistake, I know it!”
Snape said nothing. He looked away from the sight of her tears as though that were indecent, but he could not pretend not to hear her.
“That’s why he’s chosen Draco, isn’t it?” she persisted. “To punish Lucius?”
“If Draco succeeds,” said Snape, still looking away from her, “he will be honored above all others.”
“But he won’t succeed!” sobbed Narcissa. “How can he, when the Dark Lord himself-?”
Bellatrix gasped; Narcissa seemed to lose her nerve.
“I only meant…that nobody has yet succeeded….Severus…please…You are, you have always been, Draco’s favorite teacher….You are Lucius’s old friend….I beg you….You are the Dark Lord’s favorite, his most trusted advisor….Will you speak to him, persuade him-?”
"The Dark Lord will not be persuaded, and I am not stupid enough to attempt it,” said Snape flatly. “I cannot pretend that the Dark Lord is not angry with Lucius. Lucius was supposed to be in charge. He got himself captured, along with how many others, and failed to retrieve the prophecy into the bargain. Yes, the Dark Lord is angry, Narcissa, very angry indeed.”
“Then I am right, he has chosen Draco in revenge!” choked Narcissa. “He does not mean him to succeed, he wants him to be killed trying!”
When Snape said nothing, Narcissa seemed to lose what little self-restraint she still possessed. Standing up, she staggered to Snape and seized the front of his robes. Her face close to his, her tears falling onto his chest, she gasped, “You could do it. You could do it instead of Draco, Severus. You would succeed, of course you would, and he would reward you beyond all of us-“
Snape caught hold of her wrists and removed her clutching hands. Looking down into her tearstained face he said slowly, “He intends me to do it in the end, I think. But he is determined that Draco should try first. You see, in the unlikely event that Draco succeeds, I shall be able to remain at Hogwarts a little longer, fulfilling my useful role as spy.”
“In other words, it doesn’t matter to him if Draco is killed!”
“The Dark Lord is very angry,” repeated Snape quietly. “He failed to hear the prophecy. You know as well as I do, Narcissa, that he does not forgive easily.”
She crumpled, falling at his feet, sobbing and moaning on the floor.
“My only son…my only son…”
“You should be proud!” said Bellatrix ruthlessly. “If I had sons, I would be glad to give them up to the service of the Dark Lord.”
Narcissa gave a little scream of despair and clutched at her long blonde hair. Snape stood, seized her by the arms, lifted her up, and steered her back onto the sofa. He then poured her more wine and forced the glass into her hand.
“Narcissa, that’s enough. Drink this. Listen to me.”
She quieted a little; slopping wine down herself, she took a shaky sip.
“It might be possible…for me to help Draco.”
She sat up, her face paper-white, her eyes huge.
“Severus-oh, Severus-you would help him? Would you look after him, see he comes to no harm?”
“I can try.”
She flung away her glass; it skidded across the table as she slid off the sofa into a kneeling position at Snape’s feet, seized his hand in both of hers, and pressed her lips to it.
“If you are there to protect him…Severus, will you swear it? Will you make the Unbreakable Vow?”
“The Unbreakable Vow?”
Snape’s expression was blank, unreadable. Bellatrix, however, let out a cackle of triumphant laughter.
“Aren’t you listening, Narcissa? Oh, he’ll try, I’m sure….The usual empty words, the usual slithering out of action…oh, on the Dark Lord’s orders, of course!”
Snape did not look at Bellatrix. His black eyes were fixed upon Narcissa’s tear-filled blue ones as she continued to clutch his hand.
“Certainly, Narcissa, I shall make the Unbreakable Vow,” he said quietly. “Perhaps your sister will consent to be our Bonder.”
Bellatrix’s mouth fell open. Snape lowered himself so that he was kneeling opposite Narcissa. Beneath Bellatrix’s astonished gaze, they grasped right hands.
“You will need your wand, Bellatrix,” said Snape coldly.
She drew it, still looking astonished.
“And you will need to move a little closer,” he said.
She stepped forward so that she stood over them, and placed the tip of her wand on their linked hands.
Narcissa spoke.
“Will you, Severus, watch over my son, Draco, as he attempts to fulfill the Dark Lord’s wishes?”
“I will,” said Snape.
A thin tongue of brilliant flame issued from the wand and wound its way around their hands like a red-hot wire.
“And will you, to the best of your ability, protect him from harm?”
“I will,” said Snape.
A second tongue of flame shot from the wand and interlinked with the first, making a fine, glowing chain.
“And, should it prove necessary…if it seems Draco will fail…” whispered Narcissa (Snape’s hand twitched within hers, but he did not draw away), “will you carry out the deed that the Dark Lord has ordered Draco to perform?”
There was a moment’s silence. Bellatrix watched, her wand upon their clasped hands, her eyes wide.
“I will,” said Snape.
Bellatrix’s astounded face glowed red in the blaze of a third tongue of flame, which shot from the want, twisted with the others, and bound itself thickly around their clasped hands, like a rope, like a fiery snake.

Pg. 79

Harry waited hopefully, but Dumbledore did not elaborate, so he asked something else that had been bothering him slightly.
“If I’m having lessons with you, I won’t have to do Occlumency lessons with Snape, will I?”
“Professor Snape, Harry – and no, you will not.”
“Good,” said Harry in relief, “because they were a-“
He stopped, careful not to say what he really thought.
"I think the word ‘fiasco’ would be a good one here,” said Dumbledore, nodding.
Harry laughed.
“Well, that means I won’t see much of Professor Snape from now on,” he said, “because he won’t let me carry on with Potions unless I get ‘Outstanding’ in my O.W.L., which I know I haven’t.”

Pgs. 159-164

It was not until the glowing yellow light was ten feet away from them, and Harry had pulled off his Invisibility cloak so that he could be seen, that he recognized, with a rush of pure loathing, the uplit hooked nose and long, black, greasy hair of Severus Snape.
"Well, well, well,” sneered Snape, taking out his wand and tapping the padlock once, so that the chains snaked backward and the gates creaked open. “Nice of you to turn up, Potter, although you evidently decided that the wearing of school robes would detract from your appearance.”
“I couldn’t change, I didn’t have my –“ Harry began, but Snape cut across him.
“There is no need to wait, Nymphodora, Potter is quite – ah – safe in my hands.”
“I meant Hagrid to get the message,” said Tonks, frowning.
“Hagrid was late for the start-of-term feast, just like Potter here, so I took it instead. And incidentally,” said Snape, standing back to allow Harry to pass him, “I was interested to see your new Patronus.”
He shut the gates in her face with a loud clang and tapped the chains with his wand again, so that they slithered, clinking, back into place.
"I think you were better off with the old one,” said Snape, the malice in his voice unmistakable. “The new one looks weak.”
As Snape swung the lantern about, Harry saw, fleetingly, a lock of shock and anger on Tonks’s face. Then she was covered in darkness once more.
“Good night,” Harry called to her over his shoulder, as he began the walk up to the school with Snape. “Thanks for… everything.”
“See you, Harry.”
Snape did not speak for a minute or so. Harry felt as though his body was generating waves of hatred so powerful that it seemed incredible that Snape could not feel them burning him. He had loathed Snape from their first encounter, but Snape had placed himself forever and irrevocably beyond the possibility of Harry’s forgiveness by his attitude toward Sirius. Whatever Dumbledore said, Harry had had time to think over the summer, and had concluded that Snape’s snide remarks to Sirius about remaining safely hidden while the rest of the Order of the Phoenix were off fighting Voldemort had probably been a powerful factor in Sirius rushing off to the Ministry the night that he had died. Harry clung to this notion, because it enabled him to blame Snape, which felt satisfying, and also because he knew that if anyone was not sorry that Sirius was dead, it was the man now striding next to him in the darkness.
“Fifty points from Gryffindor for lateness, I think,” said Snape. “And, let me see, another twenty for your Muggle attire. You know, I don’t believe any House has ever been in negative figures this early in the term: We haven’t even started pudding. You might have set a record, Potter.”
The fury and hatred bubbling inside Harry seemed to blaze white-hot, but he would rather have been immobilized all the way back to London than tell Snape why he was late.
“I suppose you wanted to make an entrance, did you?” Snape continued. “And with no flying car available you decided that bursting into the Great Hall halfway through the feast ought to create a dramatic effect.”
Still Harry remained silent, though he thought his chest might explode. He knew that Snape had come to fetch him for this, for the few minutes when he could needle and torment Harry without anyone else listening.
They reached the castle steps at last and as the great oaken front doors swung open into the vast flagged entrance hall, a burst of talk and laughter and of tinkling plates and glasses greeted them through the doors standing open into the Great Hall. Harry wondered whether he could slip his Invisibility Cloak back on, thereby gaining his seat at the long Gryffindor table (which, inconveniently, was the farthest from the entrance hall) without being noticed. As though he had read Harry’ s mind, however, Snape said, “No cloak. You can walk in so that everyone sees you, which is what you wanted, I’m sure.”
Harry turned on the spot and marched straight through the open doors: anything to get away from Snape.

“Snape said Hagrid was late for the feast-“
“You’ve seen Snape? How come?” said Ron between frenzied mouthfuls of gateau.
“Bumped into him,” said Harry evasively.

Pgs. 166-167

“Professor Snape, meanwhile,” said Dumbledore, raising his voice so that it carried over all the muttering, “Will be taking over the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.”
“No!” said Harry, so loudly that many heads turned in his direction. He did not care; he was staring up at the staff table, incensed. How could Snape be given the Defense Against the Dark Arts job after all this time? Hadn’t it been widely known for years that Dumbledore did not trust him to do it?

Snape, who was sitting on Dumbledore’s right, did not stand up at the mention of his name; he merely raised a hand in lazy acknowledgement of the applause from the Slytherin table, yet Harry was sure he could detect a look of triumph on the features he loathed so much.
“Well, there’s one good thing,” he said savagely. “Snape’ll be gone by the end of the year.”
“That jobs jinxed. No one’s lasted more than a year…. Quirrell actually died doing it…. Personally, I’m going to keep my fingers crossed for another death….”
“Harry!” said Hermione, shocked and reproachful.
“He might just go back to teaching Potions at the end of the year,” said Ron reasonably. “That Slughorn bloke might now want to stay long-term. Moody didn’t.”
Dumbledore cleared his throat. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were not the only ones who had been talking; the whole Hall had erupted in a buzz of conversation at the news that Snape had finally achieved his heart’s desire.

Pgs. 176-182

“You wait,” she said resentfully. “I bet Snape gives us loads.”
The classroom door opened as she spoke, and Snape stepped into the corridor, his sallow face framed as ever by two curtains of greasy black hair. Silence fell over the queue immediately.
“Inside,” he said.
Harry looked around as they entered. Snape had imposed his personality upon the room already; it was gloomier than usual, as curtains had been drawn over the windows, and was lit by candle-light. New pictures adorned the walls, many of them showing people who appeared to be in pain, sporting grisly injuries or strangely contorted body parts. Nobody spoke as they settled down, looking around at the shadowy, gruesome pictures.
“I have not asked you to take out your books,” said Snape, closing the door and moving to face the class from behind his desk; Hermione hastily dropped her copy of Confronting the Faceless back into her bag and stowed it under her chair. “I wish to speak to you, and I want your fullest attention.”
His black eyes roved over their upturned faces, lingering for a fraction of a second longer on Harry’s than anyone else’s.
“You have had five teachers in this subject so far, I believe.”
You believe… like you haven’t watched them all come and go, Snape, hoping you’d be next, thought Harry scathingly.
“Naturally, these teachers will all have had their own methods and priorities. Given this confusion I am surprised so many of you scraped an O.W.L. in this subject. I shall be even more surprised if all of you manage to keep up with the N.E.W.T. work, which will be much more advanced.”
Snape set off around the edge of the room, speaking now in a lower voice; the class craned their necks to keep him in view.
“The Dark Arts,” said Snape, “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.”
Harry stared at Snape. It was surely one thing to respect the Dark Arts as a dangerous enemy, another to speak of them, as Snape was doing, with a loving caress in his voice?
“Your defenses,” said Snape, a little louder, “must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the arts you seek to undo. These pictures,” - he indicated a few of them as he swept past – “give a fair representation of what happens to those who suffer, for instance, the Cruciatus Curse” – he waved a hand toward a witch who was clearly shrieking in agony – “feel the Dementor’s Kiss” – a wizard lying huddled and blank-eyed, slumped against a wall – “or provoke the aggression of the Inferius” – a bloody mass upon the ground.
“Has an Inferius been seen, then?” said Parvati Patil in a high-pitched voice. “Is it definite, is he using them?”
“The Dark Lord has used Inferi in the past,” said Snape, “which means you would be well-advised to assume he might use them again. Now…”
He set off again around the other side of the classroom toward his desk, and again, they watched him as he walked, his dark robes billowing behind him.
“…you are, I believe, complete novices in the use of nonverbal spells. What is the advantage of a nonverbal spell?”
Hermione’s hand shot into the air. Snape took his time looking around at everybody else, making sure he had no choice, before saying curtly, “Very well – Miss Granger?”
“Your adversary has no warning about what kind of magic you’re about to perform,” said Hermione, “which gives you a split-second advantage.”
“An answer copied almost word for word from The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six,” said Snape dismissively (over in the corner, Malfoy sniggered), “but correct in essentials. Yes, those who progress to using magic without shouting incantation gain an element of surprise in their spell-casting. Not all wizards can do this, of course; it is a question of concentration and mind power which some” – his gaze lingered maliciously upon Harry once more – “lack.”
Harry knew Snape was thinking of their disastrous Occlumency lessons of the previous year. He refused to drop his gaze, but glowered at Snape until Snape looked away.
“You will now divide,” Snape went on, “into pairs. One partner will attempt to jinx the other without speaking. The other will attempt to repel the jinx in equal silence. Carry on.”
Although Snape did not know it, Harry had taught at least half the class (everyone who had been a member of the D.A.) how to perform a Shield Charm the previous year. None of them had ever cast the charm without speaking, however. A reasonable amount of cheating ensued; many people were merely whispering the incantation instead of saying it aloud. Typically, ten minutes into the lesson Hermione managed to repel Neville’s muttered Jelly-Legs Jinx without muttering a single word, a feat that would surely have earned her twenty points for Gryffindor from any reasonable teacher. Thought Harry bitterly, but which Snape ignored. He swept between them as they practiced, looking just as much like an overgrown bat as ever, lingering to watch Harry and Ron struggling with the task.
Ron, who was supposed to be jinxing Harry, was purple in the face, his lips tightly compressed to save himself from the temptation of muttering the incantation. Harry had his wand raised, waiting on tenterhooks to repel a jinx that seemed unlikely ever to come.
“Pathetic, Weasley,” said Snape, after a while. “Here – let me show you-“
He turned his wand on Harry so fast that Harry reacted instinctively; all thought of nonverbal spells forgotten, he yelled, “Protego!”
His Shield Charm was so strong Snape was knocked off-balance and hit a desk. The whole class had looked around and now watched as Snape righted himself, scowling.
“Do you remember me telling you we are practicing nonverbal spells, Potter?”
“Yes,” said Harry stiffly.
“Yes, sir.”
“There’s no need to call me ‘sir’, Professor.”
The words had escaped him before he knew what he was saying. Several people gasped, including Hermione. Behind Snape, however, Ron, Dean, and Seamus grinned appreciatively.
“Detention, Saturday night, my office,” said Snape. “I do not take cheek from anyone, Potter… not even ‘the Chosen One.’”

“You really shouldn’t have said it,” said Hermione, frowning at Ron. “What made you?”
“He tried to jinx me, in case you didn’t notice!” fumed Harry. “I had enough of that during those Occlumency lessons! Why doesn’t he use another guinea pig for a change? What’s Dumbledore playing at, anyway, letting him teach Defense? Did you hear him talking about the Dark Arts? He loves them!! All that unfixed, indestructible stuff-“
“Well,” said Hermione, “I thought he sounded a bit like you.”
“Like me?”
“Yes, when you were telling us what it’s like to face Voldemort. You said it wasn’t just memorizing a bunch of spells, you said it was just you and your brains and your guts – well, wasn’t that what Snape was saying? That it really comes down to being brave and quick-thinking?”
Harry was so disarmed that she had thought his words as well worth memorizing as The Standard Book of Spells that he did not argue.

“Ha! Snape’s not going to be pleased.… I won’t be able to do his detention!” –Harry

After break, she (Hermione) went off to Arithmancy while Harry and Ron returned to the common room, where they grudgingly started Snape’s homework. This turned out to be so complex that they still had not finished when Hermione joined them for their afternoon’s double Potions and they beat the familiar path down to the dungeon classroom that had, for so long, been Snape’s

Pg. 196

“I have arranged with Professor Snape that you will do your detention next Saturday instead.”
“Right,” said Harry, who had more pressing matters on his mind than Snape’s detention, and now looked around surreptitiously for some indication of what Dumbledore was planning to do with him this evening.

Pg. 233

“I can’t come, Professor,” said Harry at once. “I’ve got a detention with Professor Snape.”
“Oh dear!” said Slughorn, his face falling comically. “Dear, dear, I was counting on you, Harry! Well, now, I’ll just have to have a word with Severus and explain the situation. I’m sure I’ll be able to persuade him to postpone you detention. Yes, I’ll see you both later!”
He bustled away out of the Hall.
“He’s got no chance of persuading Snape,: said Harry, the moment Slughorn was out of earshot. “This detention’s already been postponed once; Snape did it for Dumbledore, but he won’t do it for anyone else.”

Pgs. 235-236

“No… from Professor Snape,” said Demelza. Harry’s heart sank. “He says you’re to come to his office at half past eight tonight to do your detention – er – no matter how many party invitations you’ve received. And he wanted you to know you’ll be sorting out rotten flobberworms from good ones, to use in Potions and – and he says there’s no need to bring protective gloves.”
“Right,” said Harry grimly. “Thanks a lot, Demelza.”

Pg. 241

“My dad used this spell,” said Harry. “I – Lupin told me.”
This last part was not true; in fact, Harry had seen his father use the spell on Snape, but he had never told Ron and Hermione about that particular excursion into the Pensieve.

Pg. 259

“Luckily Professor Snape was able to do enough to prevent a rapid spread of the curse-“ -Dumbledore
“Why him?” asked Harry quickly. “Why not Madam Pomfrey?”
“Impertinent,” said a soft voice from one of the portraits on the wall, and Phineas Nigellus, Sirius’s great-great-grandfather, raised his head from his arms where he had appeared to be sleeping. “I would not have permitted a student to question the way Hogwarts operated in my day.”
"Yes, thank you, Phineas,” said Dumbledore quellingly. “Professor Snape knows much more about the Dark Arts than Madam Pomfrey, Harry.”

Pgs. 319-326

“I’ve only ever taught a few with this kind of ability, I can tell you that, Sybill – why even Severus –“ -Slughorn
And to Harry’s horror, Slughorn threw out an arm and seemed to scoop Snape out of thin air toward them.
“Stop skulking and come join us, Severus!” hiccuped Slughorn happily. “I was just talking about Harry’s exceptional potion-making! Some credit must go to you, of course, you taught him for five years!”
Trapped, with Slughorn’s arm around his shoulders, Snape looked down his hooked nose at Harry, his black eyes narrowed.
“Funny, I never had the impression that I managed to teach Potter anything at all.”
“Well, then, it’s a natural ability!” shouted Slughorn. “You should have seen what he gave me, first lesson, Draught of Living Death -–never had a student produce finer on a first attempt, I don’t think even you, Severus-“
“Really?” said Snape quietly, his eyes still boring into Harry, who felt a certain disquiet. The last thing he wanted was for Snape to start investigating the source of his newfound brilliance at Potions.
“Remind me what other subjects you’re taking, Harry?” asked Slughorn.
“Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology…”
“All the subjects required, in short, for an Auror,” said Snape, with the faintest sneer.

And why was Snape looking at Malfoy as though both angry and… was it possible?… a little afraid?
But almost before Harry had registered what he had seen, Filch had turned and shuffled away, muttering under his breath; Malfoy had composed his face into a smile and was thanking Slughorn for his generosity, and Snape’s face was smoothly inscrutable again.

“I’d like a word with you, Draco,” said Snape suddenly.
“Oh, now, Severus,” said Slughorn, hiccuping again, “it’s Christmas, don’t be too hard-“
“I’m his Head of House, and I shall decide how hard, or otherwise, to be,” said Snape curtly. “Follow me, Draco.”
They left, Snape leading the way, Malfoy looking resentful.

What was more difficult was finding Snape and Malfoy. Harry ran down the corridor, the noise of his feet masked by the music and loud talk still issuing from Slughorn’s office behind him. Perhaps Snape had taken Malfoy to his office in the dungeons… or perhaps he was escorting his back to the Slytherin common room… Harry pressed his ear against door after door as he dashed down the corridor until, with a great jolt of excitement, he crouched down to the keyhole of the last classroom in the corridor and heard voices.
“…cannot afford mistakes, Draco, because if you are expelled-“
“I didn’t have anything to do with it, all right?”
“I hope you are telling me the truth, because it was both clumsy and foolish. Already you are suspected of having a hand in it.”
“Who suspects me?” said Malfoy angrily. “For the last time, I didn’t do it, okay? That Bell girl must’ve had an enemy no one knows about – don’t look at me like that! I know what you’re doing, I’m not stupid, but it won’t work – I can stop you!”
There was a pause and then Snape said quietly, “Ah.. Aunt Bellatrix has been teaching you Occlumency, I see. What thoughts are you trying to conceal from your master, Draco?”
“I’m not trying to conceal anything from him, I just don’t want you butting in!”
Harry pressed his ear still more closely against the keyhole…. What had happened to make Malfoy speak to Snape like this – Snape, toward whom he had always shown respect, even liking?
“So that is why you have been avoiding me this term? You have feared my interference? You realize that, had anybody else failed to come to my office when I had told them repeatedly to be there, Draco-“
“So put me in detention! Report me to Dumbledore!” jeered Malfoy.
There was another pause. Then Snape said, “You know perfectly well that I do not wish to do either of those things.”
“You’d better stop telling me to come to your office then!”
“Listen to me,” said Snape, his voice so low now that Harry had to push his ear very hard against the keyhole to hear. “I am trying to help you. I swore to your mother I would protect you. I made the Unbreakable Vow, Draco-“
“Looks like you’ll have to break it, then, because I don’t need your protection! It’s my job, he gave it to me and I’m doing it, I’ve got a plan and it’s going to work, it’s just taking a bit longer than I thought it would!”
“What is your plan?”
“It’s none of your business!”
“If you tell me what you are trying to do, I can assist you-“
“I’ve got all the assistance I need, thanks, I’m not alone!”
“You were certainly alone tonight, which was foolish in the extreme, wandering the corridors without lookouts or backup, these are elementary mistakes-“
“I would’ve had Crabbe and Goyle with me if you hadn’t put them in detention!”
"Keep your voice down!” spat Snape, for Malfoy’s voice had risen excitedly. “If your friends Crabbe and Goyle intend to pass their Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. this time around, they will need to work a little harder than they are doing at pres-“
“What does it matter?” said Malfoy. “Defense Against the Dark Arts – it’s all a joke, isn’t it, an act? Like any of us need protection against the Dark Arts-“
“It is an act that is crucial to success, Draco!” said Snape. “Where do you think I would have been all these years, if I had not known how to act? Now listen to me! You are being incautious, wandering around at night, getting yourself caught, and if you are placing your reliance in assistants like Crabbe and Goyle-“
“They’re not the only ones, I’ve got other people on my side, better people!”
“Then why not confide in me, and I can-“
“I know what you’re up to! You want to steal my glory!”
There was another pause, then Snape said coldly, “You are speaking like a child. I quite understand that your father’s capture and imprisonment has upset you, but-“
Harry had barely a second’s warning; he heard Malfoy’s footsteps on the other side of the door and flung himself out of the way just as it burst open; Malfoy was striding away down the corridor, past the open door of Slughorn’s office, around the distant corner, and out of sight.
Hardly daring to breathe, Harry remained crouched down as Snape emerged slowly from the classroom. His expression unfathomable, he returned to the party. Harry remained on the floor, hidden beneath his cloak, his mind racing.

“So Snape was offering to help him? He was definitely offering to help him?”
“If you ask that once more,” said Harry, “I’m going to stick this sprout-“
“I’m only checking!” said Ron. They were standing alone at the Burrow’s kitchen sink, peeling a mountain of sprouts for Mrs. Weasley. Snow was drifting past the window in front of them.
“Yes, Snape was offering to help him!” said Harry. “He said he’d promised Malfoy’s mother to protect him, that he’d made an Unbreakable Oath or something-“
“An Unbreakable Vow?” said Ron, looking stunned. “Nah, he can’t have…. Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” said Harry. “Why, what does that mean?”
“Well, you can’t break an Unbreakable Vow….”
“I’d worked that much out for myself, funnily enough. What happens if you break it, then?”
“You die,” said Ron simply.

Pgs. 328-329

“Are you going to tell Dumbledore what you heard Snape and Malfoy saying to each other?”
“Yep,” said Harry. “I’m going to tell anyone who can put a stop to it, and Dumbledore’s top of the list. I might have another word with your dad too.”
“Pity you didn’t hear what Malfoy’s actually doing, though.”
“I couldn’t have done, could I? That was the whole point, he was refusing to tell Snape.”
There was a silence for a moment or two, then Ron said, “’Course, you know what they’ll all say? Dad and Dumbledore and all of them? They’ll say Snape isn’t really trying to help Malfoy, he was just trying to find out what Malfoy’s up to.”
“They didn’t hear him,” said Harry flatly. “No one’s that good an actor, not even Snape.”
“Yeah… I’m just saying, though,” said Ron.
Harry turned to face him, frowning. “You think I’m right, though?”
“Yeah, I do!” said Ron hastily. “Seriously, I do! But they’re all convinced Snape’s in the Order, aren’t they?”
Harry said nothing. It had already occurred to him that this would be the most likely objection to his new evidence; he could hear Hermione now: Obviously Harry, he was pretending to offer help so he could trick Malfoy into telling him what he’s doing….

Still, even Hermione would not be able to deny one thing: Malfoy was definitely up to something, and Snape knew it, so Harry felt fully justified in saying “I told you so.” Which he had done several times to Ron already.

Pgs. 331-333

And he told Mr. Weasley everything he had overheard between Malfoy and Snape. As Harry spoke, he saw Lupin’s head turn a little toward him, taking in every word. When he had finished, there was silence, except for Celestina’s crooning.


Oh, my poor heart, where has it gone?
It’s left me for a spell…

“Has it occurred to you, Harry,” said Mr. Weasley, “that Snape was simply pretending-?”
“Pretending to offer help, so that he could find out what Malfoy’s up to?” said Harry quickly. “Yeah, I thought you’d say that. But how do we know?”
“It isn’t our business to know,” said Lupin unexpectedly. He had turned his back on the fire now and faced Harry across Mr. Weasley. “It’s Dumbledore’s business. Dumbledore trusts Severus, and that ought to be good enough for all of us.”
“But,” said Harry, “just say – just say Dumbledore’s wrong about Snape-“
“People have said it, many times. It comes down to whether or not you trust Dumbledore’s judgment. I do; therefore, I trust Severus.”
“But Dumbledore can make mistakes,” argued Harry. “He says it himself. And you” –he looked Lupin straight in the eye- “do you honestly like Snape?”
“I neither like nor dislike Severus,” said Lupin. “No, Harry, I am speaking the truth,” he added, as Harry pulled a skeptical expression. “We shall never be bosom friends, perhaps; after all that happened between James and Sirius and Severus, there is too much bitterness there. But I do not forget that during the year I taught at Hogwarts, Severus made the Wolfsbane Potion for me every month, made it perfectly, so that I did not have to suffer as I usually do at the full moon.”
“But he ‘accidentally’ let it slip that you’re a werewolf, so you had to leave!” said Harry angrily.
Lupin shrugged. “The news would have leaked out anyway. We both know he wanted my job, but he could have wreaked much worse damage on me by tampering with the potion. He kept me healthy. I must be grateful.”
“Maybe he didn’t dare mess with the potion with Dumbledore watching him!” said Harry.
“You are determined to hate him, Harry,” said Lupin with a faint smile. “And I understand; with James as your father, with Sirius as your godfather, you have inherited an old prejudice. By all means tell Dumbledore what you have told Arthur and me, but do not expect him to share your view of the matter; do not even expect him to be surprised by what you tell him. It might have been on Dumbledore’s orders that Severus questioned Draco.”

Pgs. 336-337

“My dad used it,” said Harry. “I saw him in the Pensieve, he used it on Snape.”
He tried to sound casual, as though this was a throwaway comment of no real importance, but he was not sure he had achieved the right effect; Lupin’s smile was a little too understanding.
“Yes,” he said, “but he wasn’t the only one. As I say, it was very popular…. You know how these spells come and go….”
“But it sounds like it was invented while you were at school.” Harry persisted.
“Not necessarily,” said Lupin. “Jinxes go in and out of fashion like everything else.”

Feeling disappointed, Harry threw the book back into his trunk, turned off the lamp, and rolled over, thinking of werewolves and Snape, Stan Shunpike and the Half-Blood Prince, and finally falling into an uneasy sleep full of creeping shadows and the cries of bitten children….

Pgs. 352-353

She looked too fierce to argue with at that moment, so Harry dropped the subject of Ron and recounted all that he had overheard between Malfoy and Snape. When he had finished, Hermione sat in thought for a moment and then said, “Don’t you think-?”
“-he was pretending to offer help so that he could trick Malfoy into telling him what he’s doing?”
“Well, yes,” said Hermione.
“Ron’s dad and Lupin think so,” Harry said grudgingly. “But this definitely proves Malfoy’s planning something, you can’t deny that.”
“No, I can’t,” she answered slowly.
“And he’s acting on Voldemort’s orders, just like I said!”
“Hmm… did either of them actually mention Voldemort’s name?”
Harry frowned, trying to remember. “I’m not sure… Snape definitely said ‘your master’ and who else would that be?”
“I don’t know,” said Hermione, biting her lip. “Maybe his father?”

Pgs. 358-359

“There is, actually, sir,” said Harry. “It’s about Malfoy and Snape.”
“Professor Snape, Harry.”
“Yes, sir. I overheard them during Professor Slughorn’s party… well, I followed them, actually….”
Dumbledore listened to Harry’s story with an impassive face. When Harry had finished he did not speak for a few moments, then said, “Thank you for telling me this, Harry, but I suggest that you put it out of your mind. I do not think that it is of great importance.”
“Not of great importance?” repeated Harry incredulously. “Professor, did you understand-?”
“Yes, Harry, blessed as I am with extraordinary brainpower, I understood everything you told me,” said Dumbledore, a little sharply. “I think you might even consider the possibility that I understood more than you did. Again, I am glad that you have confided in me, but let me assure you that you have not told me anything that causes me disquiet.”
Harry sat in seething silence, glaring at Dumbledore. What was going on? Did this mean that Dumbledore had indeed ordered Snape to find out what Malfoy was doing, in which case he had already heard everything Harry had just told him from Snape? Or was he really worried by what he had heard, but pretending not to be?
“So, sir,” said Harry, in what he hoped was a polite, calm voice, “you definitely still trust-?”
“I have been tolerant enough to answer that question already,” said Dumbledore, but he did not sound very tolerant anymore. “My answer has not changed.”
“I should think not,” said a snide voice; Phineas Nigellus was evidently only pretending to be asleep. Dumbledore ignored him.

Pg. 377

Harry stared at these words for a moment. Hadn’t he once, long ago, heard of bezoars? Hadn’t Snape mentioned them in their first-ever Potions lesson? “A stone taken from the stomach of a goat, which will protect from most poisons.”

Pg. 382

Harry glanced quickly at Snape, who also looked annoyed, though Harry strongly suspected that this was less because of Malfoy’s rudeness than the fact that McGonagall had reprimanded one of his House.

Pgs. 405-407

“‘S’no wonder Dumbledore’s angry with Sn-“ -Hagrid
Hagrid stopped in his tracks, a familiar, guilty expression on what was visible of his face above his tangled black beard.
“What?” said Harry quickly. “Dumbledore’s angry with Snape?”
“I never said tha’” said Hagrid, though his look of panic could not have given been a bigger giveaway. “Look at the time, it’s getting’ on fer midnight, I need ter-“
“Hagrid, why is Dumbledore angry with Snape?” Harry asked loudly.
“Shhhh!” said Hagrid, looking both nervous and angry. “Don’ shout stuff like that, Harry, d’yeh wan’ me ter lose me job? Mind, I don’ suppose yeh’d care, would yeh, not now yeh’ve given up Care of Mag-“
“Don’t try and make me feel guilty, it won’t work!” said Harry forcefully. “What’s Snape done?”
“I dunno, Harry, I shouldn’ta heard it at all! I – well, I was comin’ outta the forest the other evenin’ an’ I overheard ‘em talking – well, arguin’. Didn’t like ter draw attention to meself, so I sorta skulked an’ tried not ter listen, but it was a – well, a heated discussion an’ it wasn’t easy ter block it out.”
“Well?” Harry urged him, as Hagrid shuffled his enormous feet uneasily.
"Well – I jus’ heard Snape sayin’ Dumbledore took too much fer granted an’ maybe he – Snape – didn’ wan’ ter do it anymore-“
“Do what?”
“I dunno, Harry, it sounded like Snape was feelin’ a bit overworked, tha’s all – anyway, Dumbledore told him flat out he’d agreed ter do it an’ that was all there was to it. Pretty firm with him. An’ then he said summat abou’ Snape makin’ investigations in his House, in Slytherin. Well, there’s nothin’ strange about’ that!” Hagrid added hastily, as Harry and Hermione exchanged looks full of meaning. “All the Heads o’ Houses were asked ter look inter that necklace business-“
“Yeah, but Dumbledore’s not having rows with the rest of them, is he?” said Harry.
“Look,” Hagrid twisted his crossbow uncomfortably in his hands; there was a loud splintering sound and it snapped in two. “I know what yeh’re like abou’ Snape, Harry, an’ I don’ want yeh ter go readin’ more inter this than there is.”

So Dumbledore had argued with Snape. In spite of all he had told Harry, in spite of his insistence that he trusted Snape completely, he had lost his temper with him…. He did not think that Snape had tried hard enough to investigate the Slytherins… or, perhaps, to investigate a single Slytherin: Malfoy?

Pg. 410

“Is he?” said Harry, surprised, for he had found Ron perfectly alert every time he had been up to the hospital wing, both highly interested in the news of Dumbledore and Snape’s row and keen to abuse McLaggen as much as possible.

Pgs. 447-448

“Don’t start, Hermione,” said Harry. “If it hadn’t been for the Prince, Ron wouldn’t be sitting here now.”
“He would if you’d just listened to Snape in our first year,” said Hermione dismissively.

Harry fully expected to receive low marks on his, because he had disagreed with Snape on the best way to tackle dementors, but he did not care: Slughorn’s memory was the most important thing to him now.

Pg. 456

Harry’s mind worked feverishly and his dreams, when he finally fell asleep, were broken and disturbed by images of Malfoy, who turned into Slughorn, who turned into Snape….

Pgs. 459-461

“Late again, Potter,” said Snape coldly, as Harry hurried into the candlelit classroom. “Ten points from Gryffindor.”
Harry scowled at Snape as he flung himself into the seat beside Ron; half the class was still on its feet, taking out books and organizing their things; he could not be much later than any of them.
“Before we start, I want your dementor essays,” said Snape, waving his wand carelessly, so that twenty-five scrolls of parchment soared into the air and landed in a neat pile on his desk. “And I hope for your sakes they are better than the tripe I had to endure on resisting the Imperius Curse. Now, if you will all open your books to page – what is it, Mr. Finnigan?”
“Sir,” said Seamus, “I’ve been wondering, how do you tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost? Because there was something in the paper about an Inferius-“
“No, there wasn’t,” said Snape in a bored voice.
“But sir, I heard people talking-“
“If you had actually read the article in question, Mr. Finnigan, you would have known that the so-called Inferius was nothing but a smelly sneak thief by the name of Mundungus Fletcher.”
“I thought Snape and Mundungus were on the same side,” muttered Harry to Ron and Hermione. “Shouldn’t he be upset Mundungus has been arrest-“
“But Potter seems to have a lot to say on the subject,” said Snape, pointing suddenly at the back of the room, his black eyes fixed on Harry. “Let us ask Potter how we would tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost.”
The whole class looked around at Harry, who hastily tried to recall what Dumbledore had told him the night that they had gone to visit Slughorn.
“Er – well – ghosts are transparent-” he said.
“Oh, very good,” interrupted Snape, his lip curling. “Yes, it is easy to see that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you, Potter. ‘Ghosts are transparent.’”
Pansy Parkinson let out a high-pitched giggle. Several other people were smirking. Harry took a deep breath and continued calmly, though his insides were boiling, “Yeah, ghosts are transparent, but Inferi are dead bodies, aren’t they? So they’d be solid-“
“A five-year-old could have told us as mush,” sneered Snape. “The Inferius is a corpse that has been reanimated by a Dark wizard’s spell. It is not alive, it is merely used like a puppet to do that wizard’s bidding. A ghost, as I trust that you are all aware by now, is the imprint of a departed soul left upon the earth… and of course, as Potter so wisely tells us, transparent.”
“Well, what Harry said is the most useful if we’re trying to tell them apart!” said Ron. “When we come face-to-face with one down a dark alley, we’re going to be having a shufti to see if it’s solid, aren’t we, we’re not going to be asking, ‘Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?’”
There was a ripple of laughter, instantly quelled by the look Snape gave the class.
“Another ten points from Gryffindor,” said Snape. “I would expect nothing more sophisticated from you, Ronald Weasley, the boy so solid he cannot Apparate half an inch across a room.”
“No!” whispered Hermione, grabbing Harry’s arm as he opened his mouth furiously. “There’s no point, you’ll just end up in detention again, leave it!”
"Now open your books to page two hundred and thirteen,” said Snape, smirking a little, “and read the first two paragraphs on the Cruciatus Curse….”
Ron was very subdued all through the class. When the bell sounded at the end of the lesson, Lavender caught up with Ron and Harry (Hermione mysteriously melted out of sight as she approached) and abused Snape hotly for his jibe about Ron’s Apparition, but this seemed to merely irritate Ron, and he shook her off by making a detour into the boys’ bathroom with Harry.
“Snape’s right, though, isn’t he?” said Ron, after staring into a cracked mirror for a minute or two. “I dunno whether it’s worth me taking the test. I just can’t get the hang of Apparition.”

Pg. 503

“Had it not been – forgive me the lack of seemly modesty – for my own prodigious skill, and for Professor Snape’s timely action when I returned to Hogwarts, desperately injured, I might not have lived to tell the tale.” –Dumbledore

Pgs. 523-525

The door banged open behind Harry and he looked up, terrified: Snape had burst into the room, his face livid. Pushing Harry roughly aside, he knelt over Malfoy, drew his wand, and traced it over the deep wounds Harry’s curse had made, muttering an incantation that sounded almost like song. The flow of blood seemed to ease; Snape wiped the residue from Malfoy’s face and repeated his spell. Now the wounds seemed to be knitting.
Harry was still watching, horrified by what he had done, barely aware that he too was soaked in blood and water. Moaning Myrtle was still sobbing and wailing overhead. When Snape had performed his countercurse for the third time, he half-lifted Malfoy into a standing position.
“You need the hospital wing. There may be a certain amount of scarring, but if you take dittany immediately we might avoid even that…. Come….”
He supported Malfoy across the bathroom, turning at the door to say in a voice of cold fury, “And you, Potter… You wait here for me.”
It did not occur to Harry for a second to disobey. He stood up slowly, shaking, and looked down at the wet floor. There were bloodstains floating like crimson flowers across its surface. He could not even find it in himself to tell Moaning Myrtle to be quiet, as she continued to wail and sob with increasingly evident enjoyment.
Snape returned ten minutes later. He stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
“Go,” he said to Myrtle, and she swooped back int

[WickedWitchOfThe...]

There! They are all up now and the thread is open for discussion. Hope everyone enjoys! 02:D Oh, and btw, by my own count there were approximately 86 occurences of Snape acting in a neutral manner, 141 of him acting in a positive manner and 204 of him acting in a negative manner. But that's by my own count. 02:D

[Perseus_Evans]

39:clap: 39:clap: 39:clap: 39:clap: 39:clap:

Great idea to get it all in a thread, so you can kind of peruse the history of Snape piece by piece! Thank you!

Your figures may be a bit skewed (not that I'm correcting your count), since we only see from Harry's point of view, with a very rare third person point of view here and there. Much of the time it's probably the fact that Harry is perceiving it as negative that makes us see things negatively.

We see the entire wizarding world through Harry's eyes most of the time. It's hard not to agree with his perspective.

And though sometimes he really hates Harry, it may be also part of Snape's cover... to openly hate Harry, as all loyal Voldy followers should do. No one buys that Snape didn't have any idea about the Horcruxes. He and DD both probably knew Voldy would return, so cover is important. So where it seems a negative act, perhaps it's a positive motive.

I guess what I'm trying to say is the numbers you show suggest Snape's probably evil overall, but Harry only thought he was evil right away because his scar hurt the first time while he was looking. Harry spent a year with that first impression of Snape still etched in his mind, and Snape reinforced it by transferring his hatred of James onto him. Once the smoke cleared and Harry learned that it was Voldy that caused the scar to ache, it was too late for him to get past the "Snape is evil" outlook. So from then on, Harry saw evil in EVERYTHING Snape did.

Can you tell I'm a "Snape is still good overall" kind of guy?

[WickedWitchOfThe...]

Just an FYI, I wasn't reading it from Harry's POV. I was looking at Snape's actions. If it were from Harry's POV, the number of good things would've been about 10. I was looking at it from my own POV without a biased opinion since I still don't know which side of the fence I stand on about Snape. So everything, the good and the bad, glared out to me from the page.

And with that, enjoy everybody! It was a lot of work, but I hope you all will thoroughly tear it apart and figure out what kind of guy Snape is before 7. 02:D

[chapovalverde]

Great job WWW!

I took a deep look at first three books but i need to reread them in order to jump to some conclusions.
But i'm sure that if JKR hides something, the clue must be somehwere in all you wrote.

[Hermione@13]

Well, I still believe Snape is evil 54a:darkside:. I also noticed that Jo mentioned few times about Snape looking like an overgrown bat 04:P , but I don't know if that has some significance. Also, I think that Draco and Snape still have something special about them.

[the_prisoner_of_...]

To me, whether Snape killed Dumbledore on Dumbledores orders or not, I will always, always think Snape is evil. Why?

I think Dumbledore's death, to Harry, just emphasises what he has always belived, that Snape is working for Voldemort. To Harry Snape is now the man responsible for the deaths of all those closest to him, his parents, Sirius (Harry deep down blames Snape because he tourmented Sirius about not being able to help) and now Dumbledore. Add that to his hate for many of those Harry has left (Lupin for example) and even if Snape is good, I don't think Harry will trust him enough to be of any use. His grudge was so strong already. Im sure in Harry's eyes (and to a point in mine) Snape will ALWAYS be the man who robbed Harry of all he had.

[Hermione@13]

Also, once a Death Eater always a Death Eater! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Snape already pledged his whole life to the allegiance of Voldemort, so he can never get out of that binding contract because he has the Mark.

[Cortez231]

Great work WWW you deserve a medal.

[The Death of All]

I think that it's kinda wierd how Snape is always trying to teach Harry. Even in the end of the 6th when he was running away from the castle he was telling Harry that he needed to close his mind to truly be successful in a duel. There are lots of little things like that in the books where even though Snape is really mad at Harry, he's still in the "classroom mode," trying to teach him how to get better @ things & stuff like that. I think that Snape isn't all around a good guy, and I'm not exactly sure where he stands in the whole Harry's side or Voldemort's side thing, I'm not even sure that Snape himself knows what side he really wants to be on.

[baty4potter]

I think that it's kinda wierd how Snape is always trying to teach Harry. Even in the end of the 6th when he was running away from the castle he was telling Harry that he needed to close his mind to truly be successful in a duel. There are lots of little things like that in the books where even though Snape is really mad at Harry, he's still in the "classroom mode," trying to teach him how to get better @ things & stuff like that. I think that Snape isn't all around a good guy, and I'm not exactly sure where he stands in the whole Harry's side or Voldemort's side thing, I'm not even sure that Snape himself knows what side he really wants to be on.

What you said is the only thing that puts doubt in my mind about Snape. If he was bad to the core why would he remind Harry to close his mind. But on the other hand he killed Dumbledore, and I don't care how much Dumbledore insisted Snape do it, Snape is a powerful enough wizard that he could have prevented Dumbledore from dying.

For me.... Death to Snape!!

[The Death of All]

Even though I think Snapes still pretty much good, he's gonna die in the next book. But right before he dies, Harry is gonna realize that Snape was good. Wouldn't it be awesome if Harry killed Snape himself?

[riddlemethis326]

I think he's still good. Dumbledore made him. In HBP he and Snape were arguing and Dumbledore told him that he had to do it. Then Dumbledore was pleading with him right before the inevitable. I think he's a spy for the good and he had to prove his loyalty.
I think, however, that he will die at the end. Probably to save Harry or something.

[WickedWitchOfThe...]

Thank you Perseus, Chap, and Cortez! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Now that I'm back, I've decided to say something. As of right now, I believe Snape is good. I was on the fence before, but now I think he's good. And funnily enough it has nothing to do with all the stuff I typed up and put in this thread. Well funny or sad, you choose which, lol. Taken from two different reports, one from HPP and one from Mugglenet:

The next question was asked by author Salman Rushdie and his son who were also in the VIP section.

Q: Although you have shown us throughout the series that Snape is an unlikable person, we have always truly believed that he is essentially one of the good guys. Dumbledore has vouched for him repeatedly. Our theory is that Dumbledore and Snape were working together and that Dumbledore can’t really be dead. That it is a ruse. Is Snape Good or Bad? (paraphrased)

- Author Salman Rushdie, along with his son, came to ask, after a detailed theory, if Snape is good or bad. Jo replied that "your opinion was correct." Rushdie's opinion, unfortunately, was hard to follow.

I do realize that the first one is paraphrased, but the possibility to have got it THAT turned around to make it a complete falsehood of what was really said seems a bit unrealistic to me. I'm sure it's pretty close to the mark of what was said. I also realize that Rushdie said that DD is alive and that Jo answered that his opinion was correct. But if you notice the words, Rushdie said DD was alive in a theory, but talked about Snape in an opinion way in the beginning and Jo said his opinion was correct. So I'm using that to make my judgment, for now anyway. Maybe I'll get the time to read this thread and make a judgment based off of the Q&A with Jo as well as Snape's actions.