There are many great, outstanding, beautifully and lovingly created fictional characters but there is one, above all others, who stands out for me.
He is a largely vindictive man. He seems filled with a hatred for the story's protagonist. He challenges the character's perceived strengths, questions his work ethic and lives with a dark sneer across his face. He shutters his office behind dark curtains and towards the end of the story, he kills one of its heroes.
The man, of course, is Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter books. An unlikely character, indeed, but, in the end, one of the most beautiful, powerful characters ever put on paper. Professor Snape is a man you, as the reader, are told to dislike. He isn't friendly, he isn't a fan of our protagonist, Harry Potter. He is one of Harry's greatest enemies. He constantly locks Harry in detention and seems to hate Harry with every ounce of his heart. And in the sixth book of the series, Professor Snape kills Professor Dumbledore at the top of the Astronomy Tower. This is a powerful, breaking moment, for Professor Snape, I believe, always had two camps of readers: those who believed he was indeed a converted Death Eater, a good guy, and those who believed he was bad to the core and had hoodwinked Dumbledore into believing he was a changed man because of Dumbledore's insistence on finding the best in everyone.
Professor Snape, it seemed at this point, was a man who embodied the worst characters traits of humanity. He was, apparently, a liar, a spy, a killer. A shameless, cowardly man. But there are hints, looking through the sixth book, that Snape is not what he seems.
As Harry chases Snape through the grounds of Hogwarts he calls Snape a coward. Snape rounds on him, a fire in his eyes, and says, pointing his wand at Harry, "Don't call me a COWARD!"
This scene seems insignificant at the time. But when one knows of Snape's goodness, only truly revealed at the end of the seventh book, it is a powerful scene.
At the end of the seventh and final book in the series, Professor Snape is killed by Lord Voldemort's snake, Nagini. As he lies on the floor of the Shrieking Shack, dying, Harry approaches him from his hiding place and Professor Snape asks Harry to take the memory now leaking out of his body. Hermone conjures a vial for Harry, who takes the memory. As Snape breathes his last breath he asks Harry to look at him, "Look...at...me."
As Harry stirs the contents of Snape's memories into the Pensieve at Hogwarts, he witnesses his mother, Lilly, and young Severus bonding. Severus, a poorly-dressed young wizard, realizes that Lilly, the object of his affection, isn't an ordinary girl, but has magical abilities, like himself. He tells her about Hogwarts and when she is called to Gryffindor house his sadness is evident on his face.
Through his memories, we see Severus' and Lilly's relationship blossom. They are friends, best friends despite living in different houses. As Lord Voldemort gains strength, Severus becomes entangled in the Death Eaters and his relationship with Lilly is severed when, in a fit of rage at being bullied by James Potter (Harry's father-to-be) and his friends, Severus calls Lilly a "mudblood," a derogatory term for a wizard or witch with regular "muggle" blood in them.
We see Severus, a few years later, listening to Professor Trewlaney proclaim that the young Harry Potter will be the one to challenge Lord Voldemort and Severus informs Voldemort of this prophecy. Suddenly, Snape realizes his mistake, for Harry is the son of Lilly, and he fears that Voldemort, in his furious power, will attempt to kill Harry and in the course of doing so, will kill Lilly as well. For Snape, though a Death Eater and a follower of dark magic, is also still madly in love with Lilly Potter. He flees to Professor Dumbledore, the head of Hogwarts and the most powerful wizard in the world, and asks him to protect Lilly. Dumbledore looks at Snape and says, "What of Lilly's husband James and their son, Harry." Snape, who was bullied by James Potter in school is reluctant to care, but in the end, says that he would rather they all be saved than have Lilly in danger.
When Lilly and James are killed, Severus Snape forever vows to Professor Dumbledore that he will work against Lord Voldemort and that he will always protect Harry Potter.
We see Severus discussing Malfoy's task, given him by Voldemort, to kill Dumbledore. Dumbledore insists that he will die within the year due to a curse he received, and suggests that Snape must be the one to kill him in order to maintain Malfoy's innocence. We see Snape as a man reluctant to do Dumbledore's insistent deed. He is a man tortured by having to kill a man who means so much to him, who offered him a home when he had none, who offered him redemption and a second chance. A man who believed in him.
Suddenly, we understand, as readers, why Severus Snape declared so fervently that he wasn't a coward. And we understand why he asks Harry to look in his eyes, for Harry has Lilly's eyes, the eyes of the woman Snape always loved unconditionally.
The strength of Professor Snape is magnified by Dumbledore's message to Harry: that some magic is more powerful than anything Voldemort could imagine. That love, the magic that protected Harry when Voldemort first tried to kill him, that inspired Severus Snape to forever repent for his deeds and serve ably as a spy against Voldemort, is the most powerful force in the world.
Snape, dark and brooding as he is, is a man madly in love with a woman long passed on because of his actions. He is a tortured soul, and a brave, brave man. His redemption, seen at the end of Harry's journey, is a beautiful thing to behold. He is the epitome of love and bravery. As a result, Professor Snape stands above all other fictional characters because of his complexity, his brooding darkness and his enlightening motivation. He is a character that reminds us of everything we fight for every day, and he is a man who Harry recognizes at the end of The Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final book of the series.
Harry's young son, Albus, is afraid that he will be in Slytherin House rather than in Gryffindor.
"'Albus Severus,' Harry said quietly, so that nobody but Ginny could hear, and she was tactful enough to pretend to be waving to Rose, who was now on the train, 'you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. one of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew.'"
The enduring message of Harry Potter is carried through Severus Snape - it isn't a story, in the end, about good over evil. It isn't about wizards and witches. It is, in the end, about love, and while Harry Potter may seem to be the protagonist of the story, the series' author, J.K. Rowling offers a differing belief: "the series is built around Dumbledore and Snape."
I agree.
