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ladyknight33 · 28 days

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Severus Snape, The Lost Lily, and A Certain Kind of Courage

Not enough credit is given for the type of courage that allows an insecure boy to stand in enemy territory and apologize. It is the same type of courage that has allowed him to behave as a spy in the most dangerous situations of the story. The books inform us that Severus has insulted Lily multiple times, perhaps indirectly, when in conversation because of his constant acquaintance with Slytherins who referred to her as a Mudblood. In order to maintain relations with his Housemates, he needed to use the same vocabulary otherwise they would ostracize him along side the rest of the school. The books also say that Lily forgave him frequently for these transgresses and even defended him to her friends. Because of these references, she might not have had the slur directed at her from Severus’s own mouth. Only in passing in referring to the Muggleborn population. This could explain her outrage at the callous behavior Severus gave her following the “Worst Memory” incident and why she never forgave him.

To better understand why Lily took the derogatory slur so harshly, one needs to understand why Severus would have lashed out in such a horrid manner. Many readers insist that there is no forgiveness for this behavior, but circumstances pushed him into a no win situation.

First of all, the Marauders attacked Severus unprovoked. (This isn’t say that Severus never attacked first, but in this instance he was the victim) James Potter’s attacks were less harmful in the physical sense, but emotionally they caused embarrassment and lasting mental damage to Severus from the inability to defend himself. Second, Lily attempted to call James’s off no less than six times (HP OotP, Ch. 28). Fueling Severus’s embarrassment to have a girl defend him yet again when James actually relented.

“There you go,” he said, as Snape struggled to his feet again, “you’re lucky Evans was here, Snivellus –“

“I don’t need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!”

Lily blinked. “Fine,” she said cooly. “I won’t bother in the future. And I’d wash your pants if I were you Snivellus.” (HP OotP Ch. 28)

There was a moment hesitation in Lily’s response that suggests surprise and shock, inferring that Severus had never referred to her directly as a Mudblood. Lily not one to be insulted returned in kind which no doubt destroyed Severus’s heart. His one friend and defender had abandoned him. This was likely the moment when Severus knew he had made the most grievous error of his life.

This error was fueled by years of influence by Slytherins such as Malfoy, Nott, and Mulciber. Severus had grown accustom to the slur’s constant use in casual reference and was expected to use the term without hesitation. By this point in his schooling years he was probably having to hide his interest in having Lily as a friend publicly in order to stay friends with his Housemates.

The stress and embarrassment of the situation in such a public manner likely did cause Severus’s vocabulary to slip out the insult. He needed to appear as the consummate Slytherin in the eyes of his racially bigoted friends and he had to appear self reliant in terms of the stereotypical male who does not seek protection from women. Most all cultures have this image of a strong male and seem to indicate that needing a female to fight his battles is considered weak. Given the home life of Severus Snape he likely learned this behavior from a strong willed Tobias Snape.

While no one is free from fault, circumstances, stress, embarrassment, shame and anger do cause people to say and do things they would otherwise not do. This combination of emotions does cause people to act irrationally. Teenagers are the best examples of people making irrational decisions. Everything from trying illegal drugs, drinking and driving, and defying a parent because of a simple misunderstanding are examples from real life. Granting another chance to people who do make horrible decisions while stressed is up to the victim of the attack. In this case, Lily decided that there could be no more chances.

Now with the emotional state of Severus Snape explained, it is time to talk about the courage it took to stand in front of the Gryffindor Common Room demanding to see Lily. He threatened to sleep there which meant he did not care about the rules or how the students of Slytherin would laugh at his decision. At that moment in his life Severus cared about nothing more than apologizing and seeking forgiveness for what he had done. Admitting fault is a difficult thing to do at the best of times, carrying with it the shame and humiliation all its own. Doing so publicly takes great courage. This is the courage of doing what must be done.

Severus Snape, who is not like by many people, influenced by hatred and bigotry, and faces ridicule for his choices, is able to swallow his pride and do what he knows is right. Argue that this is only because he does not want to loose Lily Evans and that would be correct. At this point in his life he has very little support in the social structure. He needs all the friends he can find. At this point in his life sexual interests have not been revealed. There is no evidence that he sought after Lily for anything other than a friend.

The courage it took to stand there and listen to Lily reject him while trying to apologize is breathtaking. This is the courage that allows him to stand before great evil and not waver. He has already felt the guilt of being unable to save what is lost. So he tries to salvage what he can. At this turning point in his life he is crying out for help but is unable to express himself. He wants to do right but his only outlet pulls him deeper into Voldemort’s grasp. With his last bridge of friendship with Lily burned, he likely had no more strength to resist the inclusion he felt with his Death Eater friends.

He still had the strength of mind to feel concern for Lily’s safety. Keep in mind that when the prophecy was first heard and reported no one knew who the child was. Severus had made the only choice he felt was left to him by becoming a Death Eater and in his mind getting even with Dumbledore by reporting the prophecy would have been high on his list of priorities. It was not until Voldemort chose his victim did anyone know who was in danger. Severus probably felt extreme guilt at passing the information, but he could not have known that Voldemort would choose the Potters as the most dangerous.

To his credit, Severus had the courage to ask the Dark Lord to spare Lily’s life. Many people, including Dumbledore, ask why ask for only the woman’s life. The reason is clear. Voldemort had chosen his victim and if Severus Snape had ask for the family to be spared then he would appear to be a traitor and destroyed. He could get away with asking for a woman he had loved since childhood. Voldemort knew of sexual desires and assumed Severus asked for a woman because he desired her. This is where the sexual definition of love started to develop. Severus never claimed it was true only that Voldemort made that assumption. Severus allowed the assumption to stand because it shielded him from suspicion.

When he begged Dumbledore for Lily’s life, Dumbledore accused him of only caring about her. Given the known history that would be a safe assumption. Of course Lily is Severus’s first thought. She was his first and only best friend. There would be some resentment over James Potter putting her in danger. But notice that it was not Dumbledore who insisted on protecting the family. Dumbledore asked “why did you not ask Voldemort to save the whole family?” which is a ridiculous thing to ask the man trying to kill said family. Severus was the one to volunteer the request to save the family. Yes, he wanted Lily safe and understood that to do so would require saving her family. He would not see James and Harry killed for the sake of one person.

Severus made a dangerous choice in seeking out Dumbledore. He is shown to be afraid during the confrontation, starting out by begging, “Don’t kill me!” Severus knew this meeting could easily end in his death or imprisonment and Lily was more important than either. His courage was fueled by fear at this point, but he still knew what had to be done and was willing to face the consequences.

During the Voldemort’s second rise to power, Severus hung between trust and traitor. He walked in two worlds where people refused to believe he was truly on their side. Constantly having to put up with the comments and insults. He bore this as best as his bitterness allowed him. But when faced with the task of killing Dumbledore, the courage needed to complete it was overwhelming. From Severus’s own memories it is known that he did not want to do as ordered. As shown with Draco Malfoy, killing is not so easy a task when one’s heart is not evil. This again is the courage of what must be done. Not because it is right, or because it is glamorous. But because it is the only option to reach the end goal.

Traditional heroes would have balked at killing a friend who would otherwise die a horrible death. Readers curse Severus for this action, one among many. If this horrible decision had not been made, then the ability to protect the students at Hogwarts and pass along vital information to Harry at the right time would never have come to be.

No matter how furious the Order of the Phoenix was at Severus’s actions, they needed him to do the dirty work of spying for them. With the information he brought them, they could then be the heroes everyone expects.

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herbert-west-the-reanimator · 1 year

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Decided to try out polls.

#ask blog #rp blog #herbert west posts #science #mad science #mad scientist #stem #herbert west #lovecraft #lovecraftian #herbert west reanimator #hp lovecraft #classic lit #gothic lit #gothic literature #classic literature

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hungergamez · 11 months

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get to know me meme: favorite female characters • luna lovegood (the harry potter series) •

“the girl gave off an aura of distinct dottiness. perhaps it was the fact that she had stuck her wand behind her left ear for safekeeping, or that she had chosen to wear a necklace of butterbeer caps, or that she was reading a magazine upside down.”

#hp #hpedit #lunalovegoodedit #luna lovegood #litedit #lit #palesource #paleedit #palenet #palemakers #paleresource #paletmblr #gifmakersource #fandomaestheticnet #gifset #*#*gifs #*lit #*gtkmm

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yumeurl · 8 days

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⚡️🐍⚡️ is so hard to like cuz ud wanna chill and think abt how to make them work but some of the ppl in it are so annoying that they sadly make u think of other pairs instead😭 like genuinely idc if u depict harry as the bottomest submissive omega ever or daddy dom top tom, if i have anything to say abt that ill talk abt it to my friends in private, cuz u do are allowed to rant without attacking ppl yakno. but i do have problems when they go in places they shouldnt be in (like those who like botTom or even switch ⚡️🐍⚡️ or even lit w a neighboring ship like ⚡️🍏) or annoyingly vague in twt

like bro 1. ure in hp how are u taking things so seriously for a book series w 84935 problems 2. 🐍⚡️ in particular has so many great artists and writers are u rly gonna spend ur time on things u Know u dislike and then shit on it when u discover that its still a thing u dislike

#like i dislike depictions of the couple being so devastatingly inlove w each other cuz theyre meant to be or whatever #i think even w non serious settings ill still depict them as two ppl who cant ever seem to agree on things #and fight alot #but im not gonna go and demand ppl to do that depiction instead #cuz at the end of the day the most important opinion that i value is mine LOL #and probab waifs #im ranting cuz this has been building up lately #not the anger but my tendency to yap #ive never met a group of ppl so pathetic and so insecure abt things they like #well thats a lie ive seen them in aph lmfaoo #u have such wide array of artists and writers and even fans willing to talk abt top tom and bot harry #id be lucky to get even a glimpse of switch tom much less botTom #looking for fics for this pair is lit a challenge cuz i just cant handle top tom #so wtf u complainin abt. cuz 10 ppl dont want top tom or bot harry? fmkdmgldmg #hp #rambles #if u read this godbless

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pegging-satan · 1 year

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If you’d told me that I’d be shipping a bunch of classic lit authors with each other say like, a year ago, I would’ve laughed in your face

#thank you Bungou stray dogs #normally I don’t ship real people but like this is just characters named after authors and also they’re dead so #it’s so funny hearing things out of context though like imagine being completely clueless abt this piece of media #and someone says ‘so then Nathaniel Hawthorne partnered up with fyodor Dostoyevsky and Nikolai Gogol because he was in love with #Margaret Mitchell and also at some point John Steinbeck was partners with hp lovecraft and they were in love n shit and then #f scott Fitzgerald shows up and he gathers up all the Americans because he wants to take over the Japan lit scene for his wife for whatever #reason I forgot his motives because i was too focused on everything else but the plot but anyways so then there’s this little partnership #going on between Edgar Allan Poe and his Japanese counterpart Ranpo edogawa and they’re like rivals but also quite fond of each other and #they’re very wholesome and it’s all fun and games #and then there’s the main ship of the series that’s Osamu Dazai and Chuuya Nakahara and they’re like so in love and they hate each other but #they’re also in love and then the same dynamic is shared by their mentees akutagawa and atsushi nakajima and then at some point we get clues #that the same dynamic was shared between their bosses as well and mori ougai and fukuzawa yukichi are also in love because we said so I mean #basically any ship here can and will be canon no matter what and anyways so then they all meet and then fuck shit up <3 #is fanfiction abt your favourite authors put in situations <3 #.txt #bsd #bungou stray dogs

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tophbefong · 2 years

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Or perhaps in Slytherin You'll make your real friends, Those cunning folks use any means To achieve their ends.

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krumione · 5 months

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“The very first time I saw you Harry, I recognized you immediately. Not by your scar, but by your eyes. They’re your mother, Lily’s. Yes. Oh, yes. I knew her. Your mother was there at a time for me when no one else was.”

#hpedit #lilyevansedit #hp #lit #gryffindoredit #litedit #paleedit #palemakers #paleresource #palenet #palesources #mysticalpale #fandomaestheticnet #type: graphic #ch: lily evans #house: gryffindor #era: marauders #*#*graphics

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becasketches · 2 years

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autisticarachnid · 11 months

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across the spiderverse’s spider society hq thing except it’s hogwarts mystery and all the mcs

#‘man i miss my brother’ ‘me too’ ‘really ? what’s his name’ ‘jacob’ ‘…’#‘alright who lit snape’s coat on fire again ??’ *three dozen hands raise*#slight spiderverse spoilers #hphm #hogwarts mystery #harry potter hogwarts mystery #hp hogwarts mystery #hogwarts mystery mc #shit post #hphm mc #hphm mcs

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1-8oo-wtfbro · 9 months

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i hate when they make a sequel to a series and make the characters terrible/abusive/neglectful/awful parents. no the FUCK he would NOT favor one kid over the others, why the FUCK would he even do that- did you even read your own book??? i hate it when ppl (authors) don’t even know the facts (their own work) and then try and have an opinion on a subject (making their OWN OCS terrible parents when they literally WOULDNT BE) that they know nothing ab. it’s the equivalent of if Rick wrote a series ab Percy and Annabeth’s, and made Percy Smelly Gabe 2.0??? We would be outraged bc wft, that’s so out of fucking character. Or he made Annabeth neglectful (like her stepmom and dad). we have so much textual evidence that supports that they would be nothing like that, and even if they were mediocre as parents (unlikely), they would still not turn out like that.

i just honestly hate when authors write their OWN CHARACTERS OOC. like, sorry JJKRF (girl who wrote hp idk) harry would NOT have named his son after SNAPE, the man who made his school years a LIVING HELL, turned out to be obsessed with his mom, and did like, one (1) thing out of self preservation that ended up helping him out???? (among other things, which included being one of the top guys in the wizarding kkk)

i just want to scream at them to read the goddamn source material, which you just so happened to write yourself.

i get that it’s their story or whatever, but sometimes i see stuff and just have to be like “i guess i only follow canon up until this bitch apparently lost her goddamn mind???”. if it doesn’t make sense for their character, and everything you’ve had them go through, learn and grow from… open up a new google docs sis, bc u ain’t publishing that shit

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spooky-something · 4 months

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Hey bbg, let me spoil you /sat

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thefiresofpompeii · 2 years

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imagine being so lame and stuffed full of arrogant xenophobic anthropocentrism that you invent a race of effectively immortal technologically advanced exquisitely artistic amphibians but you spend seventy two pages ignoring how objectively cool your threatening epithets make them seem, instead cowering in fear of what you’ve created eyes pop out of sockets my narrow whiteguy worldview has been compromised oh god my accursed genealogy. not a revolutionary take by any means said a million times etc etc but it’s just funny how oblivious a writer could be to the correct reading of his own text because the finale clearly intended to be a shocking twist of the protagonist’s own literal descent into supposed degeneracy becomes instead a narrative of ultimate liberation and acceptance of true identity after a lifetime of internalised hatred and bigotry which as we all know is sometimes strongest in those who bury the feared trait within themselves and shield their fragile notions of superiority with blind disgust at the other. the other was within you all along get the fuck over it embrace whatever your surroundings deemed abnormal chances are you’ll live forever

#again with the mythos hyperfixation? damn!#when i was 14 i started reading innsmouth and dropped it bc bored (no attention span) now here we are ..#complete works of lovecraft summer i guess #no more ‘separate art from the artist’ this is ‘read the art in a perpendicular way because the artist’s beliefs are ingrained into it #as in. the artist in point is an asshole with a great vocabulary #jeddie.txt #lit #media analysis #hp lovecraft #shadow over innsmouth #cthulhu mythos #monster theory

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haveyoureadthistransbook · 3 months

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Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out and Finding My Place by Jackson Bird

goodreads

An unflinching and endearing memoir from LGBTQ+ advocate Jackson Bird about how he finally sorted things out and came out as a transgender man. When Jackson Bird was twenty-five, he came out as transgender to his friends, family, and anyone in the world with an internet connection. Assigned female at birth and raised as a girl, he often wondered if he should have been born a boy. Jackson didn’t share this thought with anyone because he didn’t think he could share it with anyone. Growing up in Texas in the 1990s, he had no transgender role models. He barely remembers meeting anyone who was openly gay, let alone being taught that transgender people existed outside of punchlines. In this “soulful and heartfelt coming-of-age story” (Jamia Wilson, director and publisher of the Feminist Press), Jackson chronicles the ups and downs of growing up gender-confused. Illuminated by journal entries spanning childhood to adolescence to today, he candidly recalls the challenges and loneliness he endured as he came to terms with both his gender and his bisexual identity. With warmth and wit, Jackson also recounts how he navigated the many obstacles and quirks of his transition––like figuring out how to have a chest binder delivered to his NYU dorm room and having an emotional breakdown at a Harry Potter fan convention. From his first shot of testosterone to his eventual top surgery, Jackson lets you in on every part of his journey—taking the time to explain trans terminology and little-known facts about gender and identity along the way.

Mod opinion: I haven't read this book and I personally definitely won't because this is one trans memoir that aged very, very badly due to how entrenched in the hp fandom it is.

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