We talk a lot about the impact of Snape as a teacher on the Gryffindors; on Harry and Hermione and Neville.
And, to a point, I find it rather boring – we know what their outward reactions were, and we can draw a fair few conclusions by their later behaviour of what their stance would become.
What is rather more interesting to me is the fate of the Slytherin kids – the Slytherin kids who admired him, who respected him, who had somewhat befriended him. The kids who told their parents that he was the best teacher, the kids who knew he’d presided over their period of domination in the House Cup, the kids who cheered him when he gained the Defence Against the Dark Arts – the kids who knew he was respected, and valued, and favoured by the Headmaster and his peers.
And I think about two things, post-Half Blood Prince: the kids who weren’t aligned to the Death Eaters, and who felt betrayed by their Head of House being one of them – and the kids who were aligned, and who were actually betrayed by their Head of House come Deathly Hallows.
And then, I think about 1999. I think about the first years who never knew a man other than the Death Eater Headmaster. I think about Draco and his cohorts, who knew “both” presentations of Severus. I think about the kids who felt betrayed, and the kids who felt proud, and the kids who felt that being a Death Eater at any point nulled his later good deeds, and the kids who felt that his final act was what counted.
I think about the kids who knew that Severus rebuilt their house following the fall of Voldemort in 1981, and led them to rebuild their pride and success on the back of the House Cup…
…and I can’t help but feel that Slughorn, who presided over the house in the years that so many prominent Death Eaters aligned themselves to the cause, was perhaps not the man for the job.
People love to talk about Neville’s identity crisis, following Harry naming his second son – but nobody wants to mull on the fates of those unknown Slytherins, and the trauma of their favoured teacher acting in a way that undermined their own value system – no matter what that value system was…
This always makes me think about how hurt Snape was to be seen as this too. He was only playing his part as Dumbledore wanted.
listen i hate snape but yall make a valid point here
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