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In the Snake Pit

We have only had small glimpses into Severus Snape's past. However these are highly significant glimpses and will hopefully allow us to piece together the enigma of Severus Snape.

We know that Snape was a half-blood and, from my earlier deductions, raised in a muggle environment. However he did manage to land himself in Slytherin, a house reputed to only accept those "whose ancestry was purest".

However as Hermione says about Death Eaters in HBP,

"…they can't all be purebloods, there just aren't enough of them…"

"…I suspect that most Death Eaters are really half-bloods…"

Therefore if we assume that Voldemort mainly recruits from Slytherin, then Slytherin must accept a fair amount of half bloods, although favouring those with a long wizardring ancestry from one side of the family. Hence we see that Tom Riddle's case was not entirely unique.

From the Sorting Hat's song in OotP it is important to note that the past tense is used,

"…took those whose ancestry was purest,"

Slytherin may have only applied this policy when the situation allowed, but now the meaning of "purity" has been degraded to mean anyone who isn't muggleborn. However we don't know for certain whether there are any muggleborns in Slytherin, as of yet, but I believe it will take an exception muggleborn to enter Slytherin.

Now that pure bloods are in short supply, (and have been for a while) Slytherin must have a large proportion of non-pureblood students. They are termed "non-purebloods" simply because while technically people like Harry Potter are purebloods, they are not considered as such by the wider community. Therefore it is likely that Snape would not have been particularly unpopular in Slytherin due to his muggle ancestry. However it is quite clear from what we see in HBP that Snape was all too eager to shed his muggle side.

I have long suspected that Slytherin House has a rigid hierarchy, with the rich and influential pureblood families at the top, which would explain the status of Draco Malfoy. Malfoy is able to gain unprecedented influence in Slytherin as early on as his first year. We have seen that Malfoy is appreciated, even respected by people who are older than he is.

"… group of fifth year Slytherins laughed at his [Malfoy's] joke," - CoS

Draco Malfoy is a good organiser of people. He has managed to pull together many anti-Potter movements throughout canon, including the "Potter Stinks" badges and the "Weasley is Our King" song.

Therefore, if my assumptions of the Prince family are correct, Snape would have been somewhere in the middle in terms of the hierarchy. Promoted by his relation to the Princes but pulled down by his muggle father. Snape would have been proud to be the Half-Blood Prince. He wanted people to know that he was "half a Prince". When he thought up this nickname is debatable but we know that by his sixth year the nickname was already well established.

Clearly Snape wanted to be known as Half a Prince, so even if the Princes were not well known in general society, it would be possible that people would have known his mother. After all she did seem to have gained plenty of personal publicity in the Daily Prophet.

Snape's attempt at abandoning his muggle identity shows that even with some muggle influence in Slytherin, the old pure blood prejudices still run deep and everything muggle is considered inferior. Like Tom Riddle, Snape forged a new name for himself to elevate his status within the House.

Snape writes in his potions book,

"This Book is the Property of the Half-Blood Prince"

This shows us that his nickname may have been very well known, in Slytherin at least. Unlike the term "Lord Voldemort", which was only used by Tom Riddle in his inner circle.

Snape clearly feels confident enough that if he did lose the book people would be able to identify the owner by the nickname. However Remus Lupin did not know about Snape's nickname, but then again, since when has Lupin paid that much attention to Snape? After all he spent most of his school years steadfastly ignoring Severus' existence.

The nickname was both something fun (for Snape) and an attempt to remind people of his more glamorous wizard origin. From Sirius' list of Snape's "friends" we can see that Snape clearly managed to make his way in with the top-notches of Slytherin society.

"'Rosier and Wilkes - they were both killed by Aurors the year before Lord Voldemort fell. The Lestranges - they're a married couple - they're in Azbakan. Avery - from what I've heard he wormed his way out of trouble by saying he'd been acting under the Imperius Curse - he's still at large'".

So from Sirius's monologue we can see that the group consisted of at least six people including Snape.

However Sirius also says,

"…he [Snape] was part of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters."

"Nearly all" suggests that Sirius only listed the convicted of Snape's friends, but that is pure speculation. Conversely, it is interesting to note that Lucius Malfoy is not mentioned as being part of the Slytherin gang. This may lead some to believe that Snape only hung around with people from his own year group. However this would make Bellatrix, the eldest Black daughter, 36 or 37 in HBP and a problem with timing is created.

To become an Auror you need a further three years of training after Hogwarts. In OotP Tonks is a newly qualified Auror so she must be at least 5 years older than Harry. According to this, in HBP Tonks would be at least 21. Therefore her mother Andromeda must be 38 if she had Tonks at 17 (the legal age of maturity). Hence there is a conflict of timing in this theory because the Black Tapestry states that Andromeda is younger than Bellatrix.

If Bellatrix and her husband were in different years to Snape, then how did he manage to befriend two of the most influential people in Slytherin (judging by their family backgrounds)? Taking the age differences into consideration, why is Lucius Malfoy not mentioned as being Snape's friend? After all Narcissa says in HBP,

"…you are Lucius' old friend,"

Old friend implies that Snape must have known Lucius for a long time now, possible from school.

The former question is answered in "Snape and the Dark Arts". It is entirely possible that Severus' flair for the Dark Arts allowed him to gain a certain status in Slytherin. Snape's willingness to join the group of future Death Eaters can have many different explanations. For one, Snape is no fool when it comes to house politics, getting in with the right crowd is essential to survival, particularly in the cutthroat environment that exists in Slytherin.

We do not know when he became a prime target for the Gryffindors and neither do we know whether any of the Slytherins ever targeted him. Snape, as I have said before, is no charming beauty. He possesses a revolting complexion and next to no charisma. Added to that, Snape is too proud to try and charm anyone (even if he had the ability to do so). Unlike Tom Riddle, he does not try to win over his teachers (or his colleagues), which would, no doubt, have made his life easier. His social skills are surprisingly undeveloped even at 37, so it is most likely that Snape is not a late-bloomer but a none-bloomer. Therefore it is probable that Snape was never very popular with any house. Only his intellect and powers stop him from being trampled on by his own peers.

Snape seems to have thrown all of his energies into clamouring for respect from his Slytherin peers. While this is pure speculation, I believe that in his eagerness to prove himself a worthy Slytherin, he could have easily made dangerous enemies in Gryffindor. Therefore on this point I will have to disagree with critics that claim Snape was singled out by the Marauders because he liked the Dark Arts or acted like a nerd. Gryffindors are, by nature, very self-absorbed. Think about how much Harry knows about the other Slytherins in his year apart from Malfoy. He clearly hasn't got a clue about their names, let alone anything else about them. The only reason Harry even took an interest in Malfoy was because he provoked him. Therefore it is more likely Snape made the first move towards war with the Marauders. Although I cannot say with all certainty he intended to provoke James & Co. Snape obvious did many things that aggravated the Gryffindors' consciences.

With Snape's eagerness to fit into Slytherin society and prove himself worthy of the attention of the powers that be in other years, he may have adopted a very active approach to the House Rivalry. As we have seen from canon Snape enjoys unleashing his sarcasm on victims. He cannot pass a single opportunity to insult and humiliate those whom have been unfortunate enough to incur his wrath. It is most probable that he did not treat Gryffindors any better in his own school years. However the difference is that the Gryffindors back then could fight back, and they did so with enthusiasm.

Whether he was particularly successful at fending off the attacks of the Marauders is questionable but we can deduce that he would have had potential backup, at least in the beginning. If Bellatrix and the Lestrange brothers were indeed at Hogwarts with Severus than it is plausible that he might have managed to obtain some sort of support from them.

On the other hand, the type of friends one is likely to make in Slytherin would not support the above theory.

The fact that Snape is completely alone in the pensieve scene gives a good insight into what kind of friends he had. Clearly Slytherins are not renown for their valiant defence of their companions. The rule in the snake pit stands as "I come first, everyone else can get stuffed". Therefore the term "friendship" in Slytherin can mean anything from allegiance to mere tolerance. Slytherins are "cunning folk who use every means to achieve their ends" according to the Sorting Hat. Friendships are a conveniently and effective "means" to achieve certain "ends".

From what we see of the current batch of Slytherins, Draco Malfoy surrounds himself with useful "friends". Despite everything Crabbe and Goyle are loyal to Malfoy. Their loyalty may not be the same as the loyalty between Harry and his friends but they are nevertheless loyal. Unlike Harry's friendships, the friendship between Malfoy and his cronies is very convenient in both directions. Malfoy get bodyguards who always listen to him, thereby eliminating any disagreements. Crabbe and Goyle are able to hang around with one of the most influential people in Slytherin and thereby elevating them to a status that they could not have obtained otherwise. Being "Malfoy's Crony" is better than just being a crony.

Hence we can deduce that Severus managed to attract the attention of Bellatrix's gang by his overdeveloped skills. From canon we have seen that Snape has a flair for inventing new spells. Perhaps in first year he did not know more curses than the seventh years, but different ones. Someone in Bellatrix's (the leader although it could have been anyone) gang must have spotted his talent. Perhaps older Slytherins have a tradition of talent spotting amongst the new ranks of first years, picking out those they feel will be of use to them later on. We know for sure that Slughorn at least practises this, so it not far fetched to believe that Bellatrix welcomed Snape into her fold very early on because of his skills and talent. Her real opinion of him would be kept to a whisper.

Snape would have been fairly compliant at first, even eager. Thus inventing new and dangerous spells for use by Bellatrix and her friends. This would have been useful for attacking enemies or for the sadistic pleasure of bullying others. However we must not assume that there is only one faction in Slytherin. It is likely that being so charged with ambition many fractions would have sprung up within Slytherin house; each one looking for new blood, forging alliances and jostling for dominance. Whether Malfoy belonged to a different faction is still up for debate but considering that he was not included in the Bellatrix Gang, it is plausible that he had his own faction. (The detail of Snape's involvement with the Malfoys is documented in The Malfoy Connection.) Therefore with so many factions fighting, Snape would have proved a valuable asset to Bellatrix's Gang.

We have established that Bellatrix is older than Severus, by how much is unknown, but we know that she would have left Hogwarts before him. Whether the other members of the group were younger or older than Severus is still up for debate but I believe that Bellatrix would have at least introduced some new members after Severus's year, unless she had graduated at the end of his first year. If this is the case then all the other gang members would have left before Severus, meaning that beyond a certain point in time Snape was friendless.

It is important to remember that Snape is not by nature a social person, nor is he prepared to shelve his preferences to get friends. Therefore it is plausible that he did not make a move to forge his own gang after he found himself deserted. Whether Snape was secretly glad to see the back of Bellatrix and the other group members is still being debated.

However reason stands that Snape, even if he doesn't like to be used, knows that without Bellatrix's backing he would not have survived very long in Slytherin. The crucial first few years is when one builds a reputation, and Snape is only able gain some respect with the backing of Bellatrix. He may have been good at the Dark Arts when he first came but it is impossible that there would not have been anyone better than he was. Therefore if someone in Slytherin was able to identify Snape as a target, he would not have lasted very long. The situation would have looked like Snape's Worst Memory only ten times worse because Snape has to put up with his House peers all the time.

If, on the other hand, there were indeed younger members of the group still at Hogwarts with Snape the situation would nonetheless be similar. There is nothing to suggest that the group did not eventually disintegrate. Without the driving force behind the group it would eventually disperse with the members joining different factions. Now we don't know if any of Bellatrix successors were as skilled at reeling in the crowd but Snape certainly would not have been a potential leader. From what we have seen he prefers to be alone instead of at the helm of a group. Without charisma he would have a hard time controlling several highly ambitious and ruthless Slytherins.

At any rate by the time Snape took his OWLs he was mostly alone. Even if the original group was still there, he was not constantly present as he might have been in earlier years. The Marauders sensing that Snape was lonelier than ever before would have taken every opportunity to pay him back for all the nasty things he did before.

However we are forgetting that even if Snape was not socially appealing, this did not mean other factions were not interested in him.

It takes a cunning man to realise Snape's usefulness and Malfoy is very cunning.

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