Snape an unlikely sex symbol
Potter fans swoon over sadistic teacher
His appeal isn’t immediately apparent. A sallow-faced, sadistic teacher with lank hair and thin lips, Prof. Severus Snape’s sole aim in life, up until book seven in the Harry Potter series, appeared to be the downfall of J.K. Rowling’s daring young wizard.
Among his many despicable acts (spoiler alert!), he kills Hogwarts’ kindly headmaster Albus Dumbledore. But to everyone’s surprise, not least the author herself, Snape has become the most popular character in the Harry Potter universe.
In countries all over the world, from China to Mexico (the books have been translated into 68 languages), readers have become obsessed with the miserable, middleaged teacher, writing heartfelt tributes to his tortured soul and tens of thousands of short stories and novels about their hero online (some of them decidedly X-rated).
On one website alone, there are 47,000 pieces of fiction about Snape. Another hosts 28,000 artistic interpretations, including one brooding picture of the character, as portrayed by Alan Rickman in the films, with the caption: “I think he’s given us all a love potion.”
When Bloomsbury conducted a worldwide poll to find fans’ favourite character in 2011, Snape romped home with 13,000 votes.
And now we have the first ever official illustration of Snape in a new edition of Rowling’s series opener, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, along with drawings of Harry, Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, Dumbledore and dozens of others.
Jim Kay, the award-winning artist given the daunting task of reinterpreting Rowling’s well-known characters, has been commissioned to illustrate all seven books and Rowling has praised him for his “moving” creations.
But Kay’s Snape looks different from the Rickman interpretation. Shrouded in darkness, he has a hook nose and resembles a goblin. This is actually more faithful to Rowling’s original description of Snape.
“I don’t think most Snape fans will be put off by a more Rowlingstyle image,” says Dr. Eleanor Spencer-Regan, who teaches English at Durham University.
“In fact, I’d say the fact that he’s not conventionally good-looking is probably part of the appeal.”
More spoilers to come: Snape starts as Potter’s nemesis — a villain in cahoots with Lord Voldemort, the murderer of Harry’s parents — but is revealed in the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, as a double agent who has been guarding Harry’s life as compensation for the death of the boy’s mother, Lily Evans, the unrequited love of his life. During the climactic Battle of Hogwarts, Snape makes the ultimate sacrifice so Harry can live.
Rowling hooked her 450 million readers on cliffhangers that grew steeper with each passing publication. And this, together with the mystery surrounding Snape’s real motives, made the character so fascinating. Fans, especially female ones, started to flesh out Snape through online fiction just two years after he appeared on Rowling’s pages, many of them imagining he had a softer side.
As Laura Jones of fan site Mugglenet says, “By the end, all Snape fans felt vindicated. He was good — and we knew it all along.”