Lusting After Snape

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 129370

>>Potioncat:
<snip> 
>First, to give credit where credit is due: I'd like to remind 
everyone that the opinions in this thread were stated by Porphyria 
in 2002. I just found them and offered them up. I think she has some 
intriguing ideas!<
<snip of quotes from post 47924)

Betsy:
Wait, there's a "tell us why you find Snape sexy" thread and I 
almost missed it?!?  Heaven forfend! :)

I love the ideas Porphyria put forth (post 47924) about Snape as the 
Id, the Yin, the Feminine.  I think she's absolutely correct that 
Snape encapsulates a lot of those mythically female attributes 
(dark, unpredictable, secretive, emotional, etc.) symbolized by his 
expertise with the cauldron side of magic.  Of course we also learn 
that Snape is pretty good with his wand too; he's got masculine 
attributes as well (logical, calculating, deductive, etc.)

Snape is JKR's other bad boy.  He's got all that mysterious feminine 
stuff going on, nicely tempered by the authoritative masculine, to 
add a little jolt to his juju.  He's the shadow of Sirius (which 
explains the sudden flood of Snupin fic out there, IMO), and I think 
JKR knew exactly what she was doing when she created this 
character.  Oh sure, she describes his sallow skin and greasy hair 
all the time, but you can't put the genie back in the bottle.  You 
don't give a character all that sex appeal and then expect a hygiene 
issue to damn the raging waters.  (A large nose is supposed to turn 
us off? Please.)

In chapter eight of PS/SS, where Snape is first fully introduced, 
JKR hits us with both barrels.  The man *knows* how to command a 
room.  His voice, his sweeping up and down the isles, his knowledge, 
his poetry!  Snape had me from his first chapter.  And he only got 
better.

By the end of PS/SS we know he's a man of honor, saving Harry's life 
to make good on a debt owed.  His logic problem, so admired by 
Hermione, tells us there's more here than just a knowledge of 
potions.  In CoS we learn he's also a good dueler and a man of 
uncommon wit.  And he has a heart.  Oh sure, he tries to hide it, 
but he's horrified that little Ginny Weasley has been taken by the 
monster.  No cold hearted bastard here.

In PoA we finally get a full display of Snape unleashed.  And he is 
passionate!  And also, in a lot of pain.  JKR, not content to just 
give Snape the Sherlock Holmes side of sex appeal, decides to throw 
ye olde Hurt/Comfort into the mix.  Snape has a past, we learn.  A 
past in which he was horribly wronged, and though he craves 
vengence, his loyalty and honor keep him from getting his way (Snape 
could have spilled the beans to Fudge, but he kept quiet for 
Dumbledore's sake).  The heart bleeds.  And also burns, just a 
little (okay, a lot <g>).

GoF piles it on even thicker.  Snape's not just a bad boy, he's a 
BAD BOY.  What Lee said about Fake!Moody?  The "He *knows, man" 
comment? (OotP p. 208)  Total bull-crap about Fake!Moody.  That man 
didn't know jack.  He's the DE's punk-ass.  But Snape?  Oh yeah, 
Snape *knows*.  He's been there, done that, and ready to go do it 
again.  Something so dangerous, even Dumbledore hesitates in giving 
him his task. The courage, the stoicism, the sexy!

In OotP we learn that Snape was his school's geek.  The punching 
bag, the scape-goat, the abused child.  His nickname gave us some 
hints.  You don't get the moniker "Snivellus" without your peers 
either catching you crying or making you cry. A lot. (As passionate 
as Snape is, I can imagine the eleven year-old version having a hard 
time not crying with rage while being picked on by a gang of 
Gryffindors.) We get more hints from Harry's little forays into 
Snape's memories.  His home life was not good.  He was laughed at in 
school.  And then, in an act of breath-taking sneakiness, Harry dips 
into Snape's worst memory.  And it is bad.  

Snape, we learn, was the Hogwarts' Longbottom of his generation.  
But without a group of peers to protect him, and with two Draco 
Malfoys to contend with.  True, this particular Longbottom had 
teeth.  He drew blood.  But he paid, and dearly.  Friendless and 
bullied Snape suffered the sort of humiliation that gave boarding 
schools a bad name.  And yet, he still had the moral integrity to 
leave those who accepted him and join with his enemies to help 
overthrow a greater evil.  Sirius *wishes* he were this tough, this 
much a mixture of tragic and cool.

And people say it's all just Alan Rickman. Pshaw, I say. Yes, his 
voice is *perfect*, but he's unfortunately a little too old (as most 
of the adult actors are) for the part.  I do like Rickman, but his 
Snape is not mine.  And despite a sad lack of Snape in the last 
film, the Snape fandom is still going strong.  So it ain't all 
Rickman. (I heard a rumor that JKR actually wanted Tim Roth for the 
role. Can't source it though, so take it as you will.)  

Seriously, JKR *has* to describe Snape as ugly.  She has to run 
around exclaiming, "Snape is just horrible!" and other such stuff.  
Otherwise Snape would completely steal the show, and the books would 
have to be renamed, "Severus Snape, The Man Who Launched A Thousand 
Fanfics". Or maybe more simply, "Severus Snape, The Man Who Is The 
Sexy." <g>

Betsy, who thanks Potioncat for looking up those really cool posts.