Imagine that you moved on with your life, lost touch with this friend, fell in love with another and had a child, yet this childhood friend still proclaimed his undying love for you. A love that was never reciprocated by you.
Imagine this person delivered the crucial information that lead to your brutal murder.
Imagine that decades later this person, who is still a cruel bigot, now spends his life bullying your only son and one of his friends, because he sees them both as horrible reminders of your death.
How do you feel towards this person? Awful, right?? He has behaved in a borderline stalker fashion for most of your life! Really not cool.
All pretenses of anonymity aside, we know I'm talking about Snape.
The fact that J.K. Rowling named Harry Potter's son after Severus Snape is one of the most offensive things to happen in my life time. It is something that I may never recover from.
I understand that Snape died in order to defeat Voldemort and save hundreds of Muggles and Wizards alike, but beyond that, he possesses very few redeeming qualities. Everything that he does seems to be motivated by obsession. As a young adult, his obsession with Voldemort dictates his behaviour, and from then on, his obsession with Lily Potter and the fact that he played a major hand in her murder motivates him to seek redemption.
I believe as much as anyone that redemption is a great thing, and I don't think that Snape doesn't deserve redemption - he turns from his ways and dedicates his entire life to ensure the downfall of Voldemort and his Death Eaters - however, that doesn't mean that I think he is not a bully, his obsession with Lily Evans/Potter isn't insanely creepy, or that Harry would ever name his child after him.
Sure we see over and over in the series instances where we're all like, "woah, Snape is hella evil" and then we're like, "lawl, jk, he's still a good guy," because Queen J.K. shows how we are wrong, but his personality still stands out as overly douchey at best. Neither Death Eaters or Order members are particularly comfortable around him, seeing as he seems addicted to sneering at and belittling everyone he encounters. This instance from Goblet of Fire always burned my derrière particularly strong:
"He forced Hermione to show Snape her teeth—she was doing her best to hide them with her hands, though this was difficult as they had now grown down past her collar. Pansy Parkinson and the other Slytherin girls were doubled up with silent giggles, pointing at Hermione from behind Snape's back. Snape looked coldly at Hermione, then said, "I see no difference.""
Hakuna your tatas, Snape! This is a 14 year old girl you're mocking. She has never proved to be a threat to you, nor do you have any moral reason to bully her. In fact, as a teacher, most would say it is your professional goal to be a guiding mentor to her. I guess that doesn't matter when the girl is MUGGLE BORN. *mutters* bigot.
And still there is this Lily thing we have to address. We have all had crushes at 15 years old; they are powerful and embarrassing, but we eventually move on or win the affections of the person we are pursuing. Snape fails to do either. The fact that he still harbors deep emotion for an unrequited teenage love as an adult man strikes me as deeply disturbing.
Ultimately, I find myself getting most irritated that this new wave of fandoms is ruling where readers worship Lily + Sev 5ever. In shipping Snape and Lily as a couple you are wishing that the main character of a series never came into existence. You're negating the love of a woman for her husband and assuming she would be better off with the boy she rejected for valid reasons when she was 15. The fact that J.K. works to never address the good qualities of James is something that I will weep over for years, but for now I am grateful for whatever good qualities James had because he and Lily MADE HARRY POTTER. and if you don't think that's the tightest reason to support a couple, YOU A FOOL.
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