Snape, was Re: Class origins

[lee_hillman at urmc.rochester.edu]

No: HPFGUIDX 29478

Nice backstory, Margaret. It has a lot of promise.

I've been staying out of the class origin debate because, as was
stated when this thread began, we have so little information about the
adult characters.

However, I like so many have put together a picture of their early
lives for fanfiction purposes, and what I find interesting is when
other people's fic backstories resonate with my own view.

Margaret's example of Snape shares some common themes with many fanfic
versions of Snape: in a dark arts family, someone with money training
him as some kind of protege, and yet retains the equally compelling
backstory appealing to many that he comes from meager roots.

My own is complex and full of angst for our favourite curse-wielding
Slytherin first-year, but also shares some commonalities. It's my
opinion that his parents had very little money; his mother may have
worked and his father definitely earned his living on the Dark side of
Knockturn Alley. I also explain Sev's aptitude for curses by focusing
his father's attention on him. I contrast this, however, with the
abuse I feel he certainly received along the way.

We've talked about how seemingly old-fashioned the Wizarding World is
about certain aspects of society. I believe that divorce, especially
in the sixties, would have been an even greater stigma among wizards
than their Muggle contemporaries. I think that Sev's parents divorced
several years before he entered Hogwarts. Why? Because, to contrast
Sev's ability, I imagined him with a younger brother who is, horrors,
a Squib. His pureblood father can't stand the thought, and eventually,
his parents divorce. Owing to the inefficient nature of the wizarding
court system (if there is one), his mother's custody suit came to a
decision from the judge: Two children; two parents. One to each. And
left it to the parents to decide by a certain date. Dad of course
refused to raise "the Squib," and Mum had to leave Severus behind. And
Dad probably lost no time telling Severus, "She didn't love you as much."

I've piled it on a bit here to point up his (I believe) highly abusive
past and the chip on his shoulder and his trouble with relationships
and trust and all those juicy "Issues" that make Sev so fascinating. I
haven't ruled out other backstory possibilities, but so far, this
seems to amalgamate common themes others have picked up on and affords
great potential for his motivations throughout his life.

And now that I've started with one, I might as well post the rest.
I'll do it in separate threads.

Gwen