Thanks for your thoughtful feedback! This was fun to read and I hope I can share my perspectives on each of your points.
1) I love Snape as a dad- mostly this has been Severitus for me, although there is a TINY selection of wonderful fics where he parents either a biological child or another kid (sometimes in a SSxHP even Harry’s own kids from his first marriage to Ginny, of which there are a few brilliant fics). I MOSTLY want to explore him as an unwilling father outside of Severitus— so voila. This is the focus— but I’m going to give him a love interest because that’s something I have never written before I’m going for found family, slow burn, enemies to lovers, really ridiculous personal growth and happily ever after.
2) I don’t think there are inconsistencies at all. We don’t actually have any canon showing Snape as a sniveling teen. We have the Marauders CALLING him Snivellus, but every flashback we’re privy to shows us a boy who is withdrawn, perhaps, but brilliant, incredibly gifted with magic, and willing to defend himself, even if he is being outnumbered. The only memory we have of Snape looking weak is him as a child cowering in the corner while his abusive father goes on a rampage, but he’s a pretty small child here. I think that personally is VERY telling, and I think it is part of the reason that Snape detests weakness. Pathologically. To see his own son acting weak and pathetic is EXTREMELY triggering for him because he doesn’t want him to be bullied or abused. He hates it. Depending on how you want to interpret the original text, I personally infer that Snape doesn’t have anyone in his life who is willing to defend him, not his mother (who is a witch, but somehow still can’t protect herself or him from his piece of shit muggle father), and certainly not Lily. The only way he can EVER have protection is when he decides to protect himself. So he becomes fiercely independent, he learns spells ahead of his time, he creates new and powerful (and even dark) spells. And the ONE thing he hates above all is weakness and vulnerability. We can see this when he is triggered to anger every time someone calls him a coward. He loathes weakness (and I think being emotionally vulnerable or honest) above everything.
3) Grief is complex— I don’t think he has told his son here he can’t grieve. In fact, I think he’s been (or thinks he’s been) “exceptionally lenient” because he is trying to give space for that grief, because he does understand it. Even when he wants to lash out (even if it is over something small/trivial)- he holds himself back. Even if he finds the boy pathetic, carrying around a stuffed animal at 7 years old, he hasn’t laughed at him or mocked him for his feelings at any point in time. He will punish his weakness, but not his grief, if that makes sense. And by that I mean he understands that the boy may FEEL (and we see him openly admitting he doesn’t know how to deal with it but he understands it), but he doesn’t excuse acting on it.
I think he’s caught in a space where he understands the grief and is also afraid of coddling him or “indulging” him so that he encourages more weakness. He knows the world is cruel (it was for him, VERY cruel)— he cannot stand the idea of allowing space for feelings that will leave you vulnerable. When we think about what ended Snape in a position were he became a slave to Dumbledore, it was because he had feelings— because he made a devil’s deal because he was weak with love for Lily. If he had been able to suppress those feelings, he would have never spent the last 10 years of his life having to pay a debt with his life. As Snape grew up, he became increasingly powerful because he SUPPRESSED his feelings, he didn’t indulge them. He might have never gotten over Lily’s death and the love he had for her, but he rarely, if ever, indulged himself to express it. Instead he became a powerful spy, one who could block out his emotions and feelings and thoughts SO effectively (Occlumency), that he even the most powerful wizards around him could not breach it. THAT is called not dealing with your grief or emotions, and for him (in this story)- it is what allowed him to survive and outlast working as a triple agent. I think he values suppression of feelings way more than he values indulging grief. But I don’t think that means he doesn’t understand it. And I think there is a part of him that understands his son’s grief, but he doesn’t know where to draw the line. He’s in turmoil. He might be strict and unreasonable, but I don’t think he’s entirely unfeeling.
4) His parenting methods are harsh, for sure (and I do NOT agree with them, obviously, this is a work of fiction)- but I think in his mind he believes he is being fair and just. He is not lashing out without reason, he gives multiple warnings, he draws very clear boundaries (as impossible as they might be for a 7 year old who has gone through something traumatic to ever uphold), and he feels completely justified in what he is doing. He is comparing himself to the insane abuse he grew up with. It might seem slightly more cruel because it is methodical, but he is not coming in drunk and wildly beating a child within an inch of their life. He tries to avoid it, he is more bark than bite 90% of the time, but ultimately if he is challenged, he will follow through because to him, I think that is how he sees himself as dependable and honorable.
I will freely admit that I grew up at a time where I experienced corporal punishment in schools up til I was 12- I went to boarding school in the UK, where corporal punishment had just been banned in my school but the tradition and culture of it was still alive and well. It was talked about, referenced, reminisced about constantly by people in power, and even threatened on occasion despite not being the rules. My husband is a few years older than me and he experienced it full-fledged through his whole education (he went to boarding school at the age of 6). I think unless you grew up in the 80s/90s it is SO hard to imagine now what a huge part of life it was at that time. And the people Snape’s age, who grew up with it a generation before, were very much in that headspace.
5) Again, I think Snape is just intolerant and a control freak. The Snape I imagine (and I will freely admit that this is MY interpretation)- is someone who rules his own house with an iron fist, because he grew up without control, so for him, control is the antidote to anxiety. Even in canon, we see Snape being petty AF over silly little things. He finds comfort in control and discipline and he’s often on a power trip over small things. We can see him getting INCREDIBLY angry when people disrespect him by forgetting a Sir (the famous “Yes sir” “You don’t need to call me Sir, Professor” scene that ENRAGES him). So yes, I think he’s looking for any and every chance to correct any tiny mistake. I think it is magnified for his own son because he holds himself to impossible standards, and I think he holds others to those high standards as well (which is why he is chronically disappointed with everyone else). I imagine he would be very difficult as a parent because he would see his child as a reflection of himself and have very little room for mistakes, even as tiny as they are.
6) If you’ve been around kids much, you realize that they can be VERY funny and VERY creative when they get angry. I was a nanny for a few years, and when kids get mad, they will get downright psychotic. They will draw pictures of their parents or teachers being impaled and attacked by wild animals, and write mean letters, put curses on them, and it is hilarious. It’s a real thing— I think I even did it myself a few times when I was a kid. Snape has been around kids long enough to know this is VERY normal behavior for a kid who feels like they’ve been unfairly punished or just doesn’t have any other outlet for expressing how upset they are at an authority figure who came down hard on them. It’s not that he is “excusing” it- it’s just that for 15 years, he’s probably been through some version of this 10000 times. I think he recognizes it for what it is— a juvenile way of processing big feelings of anger and disappointment and feeling powerless to do anything about it.
7) I dont think in general he expects the kid to sit there for the rest of his life, not at all. I think he doesn’t know what to do right now. Which is why he rushed to get a governess in because he is out of his depth at the moment and he’s not ready to try. AT ALL. He’s overwhelmed and this is stirring up a LOT of deep feelings (he had a LOT of issues with his own father, he never imagined or wanted to be a father himself) and he is compartmentalizing—literally. He doesn’t know what to do with this child, whom he knows has a LOT of big feelings and trauma and grief, and the easiest thing is just to shut it away. You can take it as a very literal interpretation of how he has dealt with his own feelings. Shut them away and try to forget about them. But the difference is, you can’t do that with a real person, especially a child. And this is exactly what is driving some of the conflict right now, because Soren is a REAL boy, with real emotions and needs and a mind of his own. And Snape knows it but hasn’t reached a point in his own journey where he is able to handle it effectively.
8) Thank you for your advice about my OC- i will keep this in mind. We have seen VERY little of Marie so far, so I would caution not making any assumptions about her at this point, there hasn’t been any space for character development at all with her just yet.
Thank you for all of your feedback! I really appreciate anyone who reads with this kind of critical mind, and then takes the time to share all of their wonderful thoughts. Awesome!!
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on Chapter 2
Tue 10
Sep 202412:25AM UTC
That was truly insightful and enlightening, both the comment and also your detailed answer. I really appreciated reading both of your thoughts and impressions. I'd have quite some things to say about that too but that would be so much typing. ;) I just really enjoy that people think so nuanced about Snape as a character and also the other "Harry Potter" characters. I agree with a lot of your assessments and find them extremely interesting, some were new to me and my own thoughts too. I also realise why I relate to Snape in so many ways. ;) He truly is a great character and I don't mean that as self-adulation although it's a good thing to like yourself as well. But anyways, I think both comments here are very good and helpful and I also agree about the OC, I had some thoughts about that too. But I'm just curious where it goes as I've only just started the story and it has been around for so long already. What a gift though!!! :D Writing OCs is so intriguing, it kind of makes me curious about writing something about that story that has been sitting in my inspirations for a while. Maybe I'll find a way to do more of that, it could be fun and other people's stories sometimes inspire me to do something creative as well. 😁😄😊
I hope you’ll continue to read and enjoy the story! And I am always up for great comments and questions and happy to discuss. This is one of the most fun parts of being a fanfic author to me! I live for connecting with my readers and hearing everything they are thinking!
Thanks for reading! I love writing fanfic, but one of my favorite parts about it is that I get to engage with people reading it- and I LIVE for comments, questions, thoughts, feedback (as long as it is respectful!)— because it gives me an opportunity to try to engage more deeply with my characters/ideas/story. I can say with 100% certainty that my readers and comments have been such an integral part of my writing and I’m SO appreciative.
SO thank you for stopping by, reading and for taking a moment to leave a thoughtful comment! THANK YOU! ♥️
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SnapesAngel20 on Chapter 2 Sun 12 Mar 2023 06:51AM UTC
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