If we have learned anything from Star Wars, it’s that everyone has their own perspective. Each person has their own way of viewing what happens to them. Everyone has their own motivations and beliefs that shape how they see their actions. No one necessarily sees themselves as a villain, or even an anti-hero. Each person is the hero of their own story.
How would you view Harry Potter if it was told from another point of view? Would you see the actions of him and his friends as heroic and doing their best to stop Voldemort from rising to power? Or would you see them as ignorant children sticking their noses where they don’t belong and constantly seeking the spotlight?
A recent post in Pottermore seeks to ask that very question. It gives readers a peek at what Harry Potter might look like if the story was told from the point of view of Severus Snape. The story gives brief snippets of each Harry Potter book, told as if it was Snape’s story instead of Harry’s. It also has a prologue and epilogue, detailing how he knew Harry’s parents and how hardly anyone knew Snape was a hero. The only one who truly appreciated Snape’s actions was Harry Potter, who later called Snape “the bravest man I ever knew.”
The story chronicles how he made it his mission to protect Lily Potter’s son after her death because he loved her so much, despite being bullied at Hogwarts by James Potter and disliking Harry intensely. It certainly paints Snape in a different light, asking at the very beginning, “What if Snape was actually the real hero all along?” His disdain for Harry and his friends is evident, yet credits Snape’s “excellent teaching” with leading the three students to learn potions and spells they would need later on. It also details his heroic act of agreeing to Dumbledore’s plan of becoming a double-agent by returning to the Death Eaters and then later killing the man he considered his closest ally and dearest friend, which ultimately led to his own demise.
What do you think of this story? Do you believe that Snape is truly a hero?
