I just had a big slap in the face about context. When writing about school aged Severus being gay: in Scotland homosexual activity was not even legal until *1981*. In the UK it was decriminalized in 1967 but only if over age 21. Younger than that and it was still illegal/you couldn't legally give consent to homosexual activity.
Therapy is expensive, daydreaming about fictional characters is not.
Need to share this!
Narcissa: I raised a perfectly functional son
Bellatrix: You have a son I don’t know about?
Okay but when that snupin smut has remus growling with a bit of the "wolf" showing while fucking severus like OKAY DAMN 🥵🥵🥵
vote short so help me god
79% of you are dead to me
Short Snape belieber and I didn’t get the chance to vote
Snape is short but can still loom, much like my spouse.
Also he's so angry because the rage is compressed.
It's my birthday so you know what that means. I draw more Snupin.
Okay but when that snupin smut has remus growling with a bit of the "wolf" showing while fucking severus like OKAY DAMN 🥵🥵🥵
Sirius just has no fear 😂 But he’ll be okay, he has his methods of calming his sometimes quite explosive partner
Two masks - one made of iron, but still easier to break than the one made of flesh.
Drawn in June 2023
Something that annoys me a bit about how people look at the mauraders especially in connection to Snape, is the classist element in it. Now, JKR comes from a society where classism is still very ingratiated in the social tissue.
Snape obviously comes from a working class background which is proven by the place he grew up in. James and Sirius - although Sirius rebelled against his family and left - were essentially very privileged and rich boys. James left a huge inheritance to Harry. So, the question of privilege is very important here and it’s not discussed often enough. James was all-around since birth a much more privileged person than Snape. So his bullying should also be placed in that context. I think this actually gives a new dimension to it as it cannot just be reduced to a question of antipathy. Snape and James weren’t equal in any way not just personality-wise but in a very deep social way - especially if we consider that we’re talking about 60-70s Britain. And of course, they would both be very aware of this as Malfoy was aware that Ron was poor because of the clothes he wore.
Quite honestly, very very very few current internet commentators seem to really grasp what JKR was pointing at with Snape and his background, and I think it’s partly because it’s so incredibly British in its depiction. Class exists in other cultures, but it really permeates British society in a manner that’s difficult to really explain to anyone outside of the UK.
Snape’s poverty is also of its era; the deprivation alluded to is difficult for anyone who grew up in the last 15 or so years to completely appreciate. That’s not to say that people can’t read up about it, but it’s not quite the same as having that first hand experience. There’s a specificity about it which means that if your experiences are of the Blair era onwards, and/or you grew up in a different social class, you possibly won’t quite grasp it - not least because, thankfully, society has improved a lot in many areas.
So much of what JK writes about Snape’s background relies on shared culture, as opposed to being categorically spelled out within the text. Harry’s neglect and abuse is explicitly written; Snape’s is alluded to - and the disparity in how she depicts the two means that many miss what’s really being suggested when it comes to Snape.
Personally, I find her handling of Snape’s background incredibly deft. That shared culture means that many people read the passage where Tobias is shouting at Eileen, and those people nod their heads and say, “I know exactly what went on in that house.”
Snape’s background is a depiction of endemic unending poverty, domestic unrest (and implied violence), and abject neglect. It’s also why so many readers leap to the conclusion that Tobias is violent towards Eileen and towards Severus. That presumption seems to leave so many on the internet baffled at such certainty when it’s not actually written in black and white - but what they’re missing is that JK has used a social shorthand that everyone ‘in’ on the meaning understands.
Furthermore, it’s rarely discussed, but there’s a very good reason why Lily responds to Snape’s Mudblood insult by highlighting his poverty and neglect. Snape’s ‘greying’ pants aren’t about him being unclean - white clothes ‘grey’ when they’re old, and that’s what Lily’s remarking upon. (After all, it seems unlikely that the kids are responsible for their own washing - you would’ve thought Harry would’ve whined about washing his socks and pants, as opposed to his magical homework. Do we really think Snape wasn’t washing his clothes, or rather that his clothing was substandard to begin with?)
Notably, Snape highlighted her otherness in the magical world, and she threw his otherness in society right back at him.
And that’s just looking at his comparison with Lily - she was loved by her parents, and grew up in a middle class home. The only thing Snape has is his knowledge of magic…and that’s the one aspect he can bring to their friendship which impresses Lily.
James, on the other hand, has the full house - he grew up in a wealthy home, with parents who adored him, in a magical society. The situation between James and Severus could not be more unequal - and it’s got nothing to do with dark magic.
It’s also an analogy for the grammar school system - which again, is lost on a lot of people, because it’s very of its time. Snape is the kid who comes from the sink estate who passed the exams against all odds - and when he gets to the school, where he’s earned his place, he sticks out like a sore thumb. He has the talent to be at Hogwarts, but not the social background.
On the flipside, James is the depiction of a kid who was always going to get to grammar school, who belongs at the grammar school…he also has the talent, but he has everything else as well - and he can’t fathom why someone from Snape’s background is sitting next to him.
That’s not a criticism of James - it’s an understanding of where his character comes from, and why he reacts so violently towards Snape, but he doesn’t react in a similar way to Sirius. This doesn’t excuse his dislike, but it goes some way to explain it. It shows why other characters like him so much - he’s fun, and clever, and nicely dressed, and confident, and sporty, and talented…but he can’t get past his outright dislike of Snape, which grows over the years and encompasses other issues (such as being jealous of his friendship with Lily).
There is a very important parallel that James and Sirius don’t accept Severus because Severus’ background makes him other - just as the Death Eaters and their ilk don’t accept Lily because Lily’s bloodline makes her other.
Add on the fact that people see what Severus and Harry went through and view it differently, because there is like a 20 year difference between them. Being a child in the 60s was different from being a child in the 80s/90s. Severus’ situation is obvious for the those of us who lived like him. Harry’s is even more obvious because of how it was written. It was supposed to paint the Dursleys in a horrible light without making it seem too bad. Like Harry is a miracle case that managed to turn out right or something. After all, people out there still think Harry wasn’t neglected/abused and that he’s just a whiner.
There were no seatbelts on cars in the 60s. Today, if your child doesn’t wear one, it’s considered child abuse and can get your child taken away. No one cared about that kind of thing in the 50s and 60s. Your neighbors could beat your ass for anything and tell your parents some made up shit, and your parents wouldn’t even question them. And would then beat you as well. Parents didn’t consider that the child had a side of the story. No one cared.
There came a time during the mid-90s and onward, where children started to become important. People started to consider that kids suffer trauma, and actually have opinions and feelings. People started to notice that not every method of child rearing is actually safe or healthy for the child. And in this day and age, we view things done decades ago, as horrible abuse, whereas decades ago, it was ‘just good fun’.(It explains why no one who suffers trauma in HP, ever gets the help they need.)
So consider how in the 70s, the Marauders and their antics were considered just good fun and no one dared punish them for anything they did because no one cared about the affect it had on kids. Today, the Marauders and their actions would be vilified, because of how society has progressed in recognizing abuse and bullying. And no, it’s not perfect yet, but we are getting there.
Times are changing constantly. Society changes too, though not as quickly. So Severus’ abuse is understated because in the 60s, no one gave a shit about children. Harry’s is more prevalent and noticeable, because in the 90s, people started thinking about the feelings of children, and HP was written in the 90s, and looked back on different time periods frequently. The HP movies make it take place in present day, which makes Harry’s situation appear even worse in this day and age. Because that isn’t right and should not happen now. It’s wrong. It’s barbaric.
So of course people would fawn over Harry and pity him or feel righteous anger on his behalf. His situation was apparent for the viewers. Severus Snape’s wasn’t. And wasn’t meant to be.
I've been a big fan of Snape-Harry interactions recently, but there's one thing I can't figure out.
I have a soft spot for their platonic interactions but here lies one problem. As far I know, a term severitus is commonly used (and was basically made) for father-son-like relationships between the two, which also involves mentorship. But I've seen bunch of people using severitus when talking about platonic as well AND referring to platonic interactions as synonym to mentorship. And this kinda left me confused, coz those two terms, well, are kinda different and you simply can't put equal sign between those.
Some even say severitus was made as a name for platonic version of their interactions, but they usually still mean mentorship by saying this. Due to that I genuinely don't understand what I should call their platonic interactions as plenty other fans use names for romantic relationships, but with the emphasis that it's a platonic version of one. Seems partly fair to me, but saying "platonic snarry" can be a bit strange.
Moreover, AO3 eg uses & to differentiate platonic relationships, but referring to it as snarry can be confusing.. so...
I really don't know which one is better as severitus isn't really about friendships (or at least it's not commonly used in senses different than mentor-ish) and snarry in its nature is specifically a thing for non-platonic stuff. Like.. I'd be very grateful if someone brought some light to this, as.. it confuses me a lot.
Much bigger problem tho.. is when talking about queerplatonic kind of relationship. Coz this way it becomes much more obvious, that it lays neither in romantic snarry nor mentor or perhaps sometimes platonic severitus. It's basically neither. Btw, in this situation I don't even know whether to use / or &. Neither fit.
There is practically one single qpr story between them and it's tagged as slash but even tho I agree that it fits much better than gen for instance, it's still not entirely right, as.. well ships usually mean romantic/sexual stuff going on, and qpr defies those on its nature.
I actually ship Snape and Harry exclusively in qpr, but calling it snarry seems off a bit. So yeah. I know that people were suggesting using ~ for qprs, but it's not a very common move. So.. any thoughts on that?
SnapexHarry can also be used for what you're describing (I think?). The x indicates a relationship that is not romantic. At least this is what I always thought. Apologies if that's wrong. Can anyone confirm or deny? I don't think x is just used for het pairings is it? I thought I'd seen it with queer pairings before. I'm probably making myself look stupid 😂
You know what's ironic? I'm on both marauderstok and Snapetok and out of the two of them, the Snape stans tend to be less toxic