#Snape is a victim

[archie-mp3]

Do people realize that the Marauders are canonically in the wrong for bullying Snape? Or just being bullies in general? Harry James Potter himself called them out on their bad behavior and then sympathized with Snape.

[danadiadea]

Severus Snape didn't owe James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin (and Peter Pettigrew, but thank god I've never heard this one) shit.

He didn't owe them forgiveness.

He didn't owe them respect.

He didn't owe them understanding.

He didn't owe them trust.

He didn't owe them help.

He didn't owe them care for their health and lives and safety.

He didn't owe them one single thing.

Even if they apologised (they didn't tho).

Even if they changed (they still didn't tho).

Even if they made amends (guess what, they didn't).

Victims are allowed to hate their abusers. It doesn't make them petty. It doesn't make them pathetic. It doesn't make them unreasonable.

It doesn't justify abusers' hate towards their victim or their continuing mistreatment of them.

[imonthatgayshit]

'he befriended lily to use her for x horrible thing' he was a child. he wanted a friend.

'he should've never been mean to james and sirius on the train' he was a child. defending his beliefs just as those two did

'he should have never enjoyed dark arts' he was a child. a curious child.

'he was friends and sided with the slytherins' he was a child. a lonely poor halfblood child in a house filled with snobs with everything he couldnt even wish for. obviously he was easily influenced/ overpowered/possibly groomed?

'how dare he obsessively stalk lily after swm? (he was begging for forgiveness) how could he join the death eaters?(it was his only choice) how could he hold a grudge against the marauders after that many years? ( the only escape he had from his home and they made it hell for him)'

he was a child he was a child he was a child. a stupid hopeful child who was always at the edge of escaping yet always being yanked back into those pits of hell again.

he was a child who could never fully be childlike because his life was literally from the pot to the kettle to the fucking fire.

just say you like victims nice and unresentful and get over with it.

[maxdibert]

The way you know Snape is feminine coded is the fact that the narrative constantly, constantly gaslights him for the crime of demanding justice and validation of the abuse he endures from the ‘good’ guys. He never gets it, but he refuses to brush it under the carpet, and the narrative treats him for it the way society treats every woman who refuses to shut up.

PERIOOOOOD

PERIOOOOD

FUCKING PERIOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!

God, fuck, yes, please, yes, say it louder. Is there anything more feminine-coded than being gaslighted by literally everyone around you when you’re being abused, just because the abusers are rich white boys with promising futures??? IS THERE ANYTHING MORE FUCKING PATRIARCHAL THAN THAT??? God, it’s literally the story of every woman who has ever been assaulted, don’t fucking tell me otherwise.

[sneppu]

"We need more male Abuse Victims in media!" Pls. You couldnt even handle Severus Snape.

[ezkel]

ok so I've seen someone saying the boggart of Snape being made to be dressed as a grandma is humiliating him, which ok I get. but they were blaming it on Remus as if Remus knew that a students BIGGEST FEAR would be a fellow teacher.

also I honestly don't think we think hard enough about the fact that Neville Longbottoms biggest fear is Snape when: his parents were tortured until they became incapable of functioning and his remaining family put him in increasingly dangerous situations for his magic to come out because he was a "late shower".

And yet his potions teacher was his BIGGEST fear.

boggarts are a person's worst fear and I think a lot of people don't think about that when they talk about that scene.

so yes Snape being seen in woman's clothing is "embarrassing" for him but what should be more embarrassing for him is being a 13 year old's worst fear.

[fafodill]

Lupin is the only one of the Marauders who notices Snape's talents in potions and Occlumency

Well, Remus is... not the worst.

As I said, I'm conflicted about him. Some people say he's a huge hypocrite with Severus, acting all polite and everything but that it's just an act, a way of saying 'I'm better than you, look at me being all cordial.'

Or maybe he's genuinely trying to be nice and get past their history. And it's not working because Severus is extremely spiteful.

And I mean... it's nice to praise his skills, but maybe apologizing and taking accountability would have been better? -_-

[rosiecides]

saw someone say that "the snape was sexually assaulted argument is stupid and ridiculous" and the reasoning was: a) james didnt touch snape, b) there was no sexual intent, and c) snape is a man. so now ik that not only do they not know of racial frameworks in media literacy, intersectionality in power structures, and intro level social psychology they also have no understanding of rape culture.

[severussnapemylove]

When a seventeen year old Marauders fan tries telling me that Severus isn’t a victim because he reacted to being bullied and abused and that the Marauders never did anything wrong ever…

What in the victim blaming bull…

Child, get back to me in about fifteen years.

[seriousbrat]

Hi ! I don’t understand why people say Severus was bullied , I don’t think he was because there wasn’t a power imbalance between him and James, and he defended himself didn’t he? He created Sectumsempra for his enemies *aka The Marauders* so he doesn’t look like a victim to me😅! What do you think?

Did we read the same book? haha. Joking aside, I think there are some serious misunderstandings here about bullying. Sev was definitely bullied by James and Sirius. That's just objectively and undeniably true.

First of all, I know I've talked about this recently but there was absolutely a power imbalance between James and Severus. I think you're taking 'power imbalance' to mean 'difference in skill level' perhaps but that isn't what it means necessarily. The power imbalance between them is social. James was a very popular student, Severus was very unpopular. James came from wealth, Sev came from a poor working-class family. James was pureblood, Sev was halfblood. I think the first of these differences is probably the most relevant, but all of them are at play in the dynamic.

Sometimes 'power imbalances' in situations of abuse or mistreatment aren't as clear cut as you'd think. It might be as simple as who's stronger physically, or it might just be about who is more afraid of the other or who has more emotional influence over the other rather than such clearly defined social differences. In the case of James and Severus, however, it's pretty obvious.

Victims of bullying often defend themselves. That's extremely normal, and it's pretty much victim blaming to suggest that a victim is no longer a victim if they can or do defend themselves. Similarly, victims can do bad stuff themselves, and still be victims. Victims are rarely, if ever, "perfect" in the way they respond to abuse or bullying (or in general), and the expectation that they have to be in order to be considered victims contributes to "the myth of the perfect victim", which I encourage you to read further about! Victims often don't "look like" victims when socially we expect them to be meek and harmless and well-behaved. Few people are truly meek and harmless and well-behaved 100% of the time, especially when subject to abuse, bullying, or mistreatment.

Sectumsempra was a horrible spell but that literally doesn't change the fact that Snape was a victim of bullying. Even Snape being a bully years later to Harry and Neville doesn't change the fact that he was once bullied.

[pet-genius]

I wanna try a thing. For every post I make that highlights how victimized and hard done by Snape was, I'll make one about how he was also very resilient and had agency and initiative oozing out of every pore.

Imagine a boy with no friends. From the wrong part of town. Whose family appears to have a reputation. Who has very little in common with anyone because in a couple of years, he'll be off to Hogwarts. It could have been so easy to daydream until his real life could begin. But then he thought he saw a witch. Lest he accidentally expose his secret to a muggle, he made sure. And that witch was from the better part. And yet he wanted to know her, wanted her to know him, and he put himself on the line to make that happen, risking rejection and mockery. By that age he probably knew very well it wouldn't necessarily work out in his favor. And when that risk materialized... He tried again!

[archie-mp3]

“Someone had to bully Snape—“ no they didn’t. Saying you would have bullied Snape speaks volumes of your character actually!

Him being constantly used and bullied throughout his life is what influences his later actions. The Marauders didn’t bully him for being a future Death Eater, they bullied him because they were bored.

I cannot stand the being in Marauders fandom because people continuously say shit like this.

Canon Marauders would’ve bullied the majority of the Marauders fandom. They were not the queer, feminine teenagers in canon. In canon, they bullied the easiest target: the poor, queer-coded, feminine male.

(No, Snape is not innocent. He is a morally grey person. But the Marauders are the huge part of on he came out like that.)

[iamnmbr3]

right now im thinking about how draco didn't even know who harry was the first time he tried to befriend him in madam malkin's. he saw a scraggly lonely kid and interestingly, given what we know about draco, he didn't mock or ignore him but rather tried to strike up a conversation and even shared some of his own worries about the sorting - a rare moment of vulnerability for him given that he usually hides away anything that could be seen as a weakness. of course the attitudes he espouses almost immediately turn harry against him but he doesn't realize that.

then he meets harry again on the train, now knowing who he is, and once again tries to befriend him. in his mind he probably thinks harry's hesitation is due to the fact that draco wasn't impressive enough. this time draco doesn't share any insecurities about ending up in hufflepuff. he shows off his status and his cronies and brags about his family and offers himself as a useful guide to harry in navigating what draco sees as the elite of the wizarding world.

naturally this does not improve things and in fact only succeeds in turning harry against him completely and draco spends the next 5 years smarting at this rejection. the fact that this rejection is the basis of their relationship rather than immediate hostility is fascinating to me.

[the-most-faithful]

NO ONE DESERVES TO BE BULLYED

How such a simple, and should be obvious, sentence can unleash such a disaster and reveal the true face of people

Oh poor things, the movies made the Marauders the bad guys. Poor defenseless pups. Their actions made them the bad guys. And the movies also did them a favor by not showing a lot of things.

But what, is there a hiring epidemic right now? Snape made a hufflepuff's life miserable because he was a muggle-born? But when? Where? Did they smoke?

Use what you have inside your skull every now and then, a person who is bullied severely for years by those who are supposed to be "the good guys" and gets close to the only people who accept him, in this case the Death Eaters, how could he ever think that the good guys are actually the good guys?

What is the practical point of bullying someone who already tends to have bad company? This does nothing but push him even more towards the Death Eaters. The author herself said in 2007 that the bullying Snape suffered was one of the reasons that pushed him to become a Death Eater.

Bullying is ALWAYS wrong. Bullying someone, even a bad person is wrong. If you don't think so then you have the mentality of a bully and let me tell you, you have no foresight or logic. A person who is bullied will become more and more resentful towards their bullies, how can you expect them to forget everything?

[maxdibert]

‘Severus didn’t care if Lily’s husband was killed—he wasn’t worried about her; he just wanted to get the girl at all costs.’

Correction: Severus couldn’t care less if the rich brat who harassed, stalked, and tormented him for seven years of his life—a privileged, possessive jerk who couldn’t stand the idea of the girl he liked having a friend who didn’t fit his idea of ‘proper masculinity’ and who was an easy target because of his looks and social class—was killed. Because no victim is required to care about what happens to their abuser. Expecting Severus to have empathy for someone who reduced him to a ‘thing’ to take out his personal frustrations on is like asking a woman who was assaulted to feel sorry for her attacker. And for the record, Severus hadn’t spoken to Lily in six years; all he wanted was to make sure she wasn’t killed.

[siriusremusblack]

Ehh..

Ok. Seriously- even if Snape wasn’t a spy for the order or even a death eater to begin with, and just a guy with unresolved traumatic issues in his childhood- why would he be expected to be nice to Harry?

I MEAN. Harry literally took one look at Snape (and Quirrell) in the great hall, felt his scar burn and immediately decided it was Snape’s fault. He didn’t consider that maybe it was another teacher or maybe a student next to him. He immediately thought that Severus Snape was the reason for his scar hurting. There was no evidence to really support that theory other than the burning of the scar.

Not only that- but this student (Harry) repeatedly got in trouble, sassed Sev/talked back, and when Harry did learn that it was really Quirrell that was the one trying to steal the stone and SEVERUS WAS LITERALLY HELPING HIM THE ENTIRE TIME FROM QUIRRELL HIMSELF- he still decided to have that unfair bias towards him.

PLUS, Harry acted similarly to that of James at times (from Sev’s perspective). Strutting around the school as one example- he was also treated similarly to James by the other staff. He’d get in trouble but he wouldn’t receive that bad of a punishment just detentions and he was even rewarded house points.. and not to mention McGonagall breaking the rule of first years not being allowed their own broom for Harry..

Harry also looked very similar to James (his father, for those that don’t know) which was likely a HUGE trigger since James not only Bullied Severus as a child but stalked, harassed, SA’D/S*xually harassed, and almost murdered him. Then there’s the fact that he also had his mother’s eyes, Lily Evans, who was a childhood friend of Sev. One of his only friends until he lost her, twice. Harry looked at Sev all the time with contempt and disdain. He basically hated the man from day one when he originally saw him in the great hall. He had lily’s eyes. Those eyes were the ones staring at Snape with hatred. Everyday. Until Harry finally realized how messed up that actually was in the end.

So yeah. Excuse me, but I don’t see any reason for Sev to even want to be nice to a kid like that. There isn’t any reason to be- especially when he’s dealing with 11-18 year olds on a daily basis, all day. They all have different maturity levels and being a teacher and teaching one grade of students is already hard enough. Imagine teaching multiple grades???? Oh and then there’s the fact he was risking his life for 14+ years (probably closer to 20+ honestly) with barely any actual recognition or appreciation. He was a spy for so long and he had no one. Everyone hated him and for what? Because he was strict? So were the other staff members.

Plus if we also take into account the other aspects of teaching instead of just the actual teaching- that is a lot more work as well. There’s planning assignments, watching over the students, grading assignments and much more- and being a professor you’re always learning the new information that comes in on the subject(s) you’re teaching. There’s also staff meetings. He also had order meetings and death eater meetings. There’s also stocking his potions store, doing detention shifts. We also see that he helps patrol school grounds after curfew so there’s that as well. This man has so many jobs and you expect him to be nice to some bratty 11 year old that immediately decided he was bad? Like what?

And this man is autistic coded (he was based off an autistic man so the likelihood he is autistic is pretty high and practically canon I’d say but that’s my own opinion and a topic for another time) OH and he is canonically extremely traumatized with zero support system and we all know prolonged childhood trauma causes multiple different kinds of disorders that will never go away (but can have symptoms lessened through therapy, which was not made available for Sev.) AND NOT TO MENTION A TEACHERS SALARY IS HORRID. This man does not get payed nearly enough to deal with Hogwarts students, order members, death eaters and the other Hogwarts staff.

GIVE SEV A BREAK ALREADY.