Snape's mother

[Berit Jakobsen]

No: HPFGUIDX 89885

Carol wrote:

We did have an Agnes thread some time back--in November or December.
It started with someone thinking that Snape wearing his traveling
cloak and being in a hurry to go somewhere important after he tells
Harry about the occlumency lessons might mean that he was going to
visit his mother on the closed ward. When we realized that the son was
scheduled to visit his mother on the evening of Christmas Day and that
the traveling cloak incident occurred at the end of Christmas
vacation, we dropped the thread. 
Interesting theory about the importance of potions to Snape, Berit. It
could also tie in with his reasons for leaving the DEs. If they tried
to turn his mother into a dog! And if there's a Dark Wizard in that 
family (before Severus joined the DEs), it's the father.

Berit replies:

Come to think of it: Yes, I do recall a thread discussing whether 
Snape could have been the son visiting Agnes that evening. Thank you 
Carol for pointing that out. But as you say that particular 
speculation was a dead end. The fact that we don't see any direct 
canon evidence that Snape was draped in his travelling cloak the very 
same night is however no proof Snape couldn't still be Agnes's son. 
I'm looking at other clues; the fact that she is stated as having a 
son who visits her from time to time; + we conveniently don't know 
her surname (and Rowling rarely throws any characters into the story 
unless she wishes to tie them up to someone or something later 
on...). And Agnes's condition coppled with Snape's interest and above 
average skills in potions... I've also got a third point which I left 
out in my original post:

Snape's cruelty to Neville! If Agnes is Snape's mother, and he has 
been visiting her from time to time at the ward; how likely do you 
think it is that Neville has stumbled across his humiliating secret? 
Neville is most probably visiting his parents every holiday. I 
believe it is unavoidable that he sooner or later would have run into 
Snape sitting at his mother's bedside. Even forgetful, fumbling 
Neville wouldn't fail to put two and two together and guess rightly 
about the connection between Snape and barking Agnes. I believe Snape 
is punishing Neville for knowing about his secret, like he is 
punishing Harry for being his father's son... It would be just in 
character for Snape! Also, his cruelty to Neville might be two-fold: 
Punishing him for knowing, but also being cruel just to frighten 
Neville into silence so he won't forget and slip the little secret of 
Snape's mother at St. Mungo's...

As to how Agnes ended up at St. Mungo's I have no idea. But based on 
the abusive scene of Snape's father shouting at his cowering wife, 
I'd say it might be his father that hurt his wife so much the damage 
was permanent...

Berit
http://home.no.net/berjakob/snape.html