Skip to main content

harry potter - If it wasn't for his love for Lily, would Snape have a Patronus?


If Snape didn't fall in love with Lily, or "got over" it, would he still be able to summon a Patronus or would he then become a run of the mill Death Eater?


According to J. K. Rowling, Snape is the only Death Eater with a Patronus.



Samantha: Was snape the only death eater who could produce a full patronus



J.K. Rowling: Yes, because a Patronus is used against things that the Death Eaters generally generate, or fight alongside. They would not need Patronuses.



Source


Snape's Patronus is a doe, explained as being because of his love for Lily, which may very well be his happy memory to generate the Patronus. If this was no longer the case, would the consistent presence of the Dementors on his supposed side mean he's no longer able to summon a corporeal Patronus?



Answer




Jaclyn: Did lily ever have feelings back for Snape?

J.K. Rowling: Yes. She might even have grown to love him romantically (she certainly loved him as a friend) if he had not loved Dark Magic so much, and been drawn to such loathesome people and acts.

Mugglenet - Deathly Hallows Webchat - July 2007



I think that had Lily not been in the picture, Snape would have continued down the path of becoming a full-fledged Death Eater. As J.K. Rowling has explained, Snape wanted to be part of something important, something big, because he felt insecure about himself (which was probably exacerbated by the bullying he endured from James Potter and Sirius Black). Further, the Death Eaters were compatible with his inherent attraction to the Dark Arts.




Nithya: Lily detested Mulciber and Avery. If Snape really loved her, why didn't he sacrifice their company for her sake?

J.K. Rowling: Well, that is Snape's tragedy. Given his time over again he would not have become a Death Eater, but like many insecure, vulnerable people (like Wormtail) he craved membership of something big and powerful, something impressive. He wanted Lily and he wanted Mulciber too. He never really understood Lily's aversion; he was so blinded by his attraction to the dark side he thought she would find him impressive if he became a real Death Eater.

Mugglenet - Deathly Hallows Webchat - July 2007



Lily was Snape's moral compass; without her, I think he would have become like Draco Malfoy: Able to shut down the good parts of himself and compartmentalize his emotions to allow himself to brutalize others without emotional trauma. Snape grew up with an alcoholic father and a possibly domestically violent home; without Lily, Snape didn't have a lot to be happy about.


As dlanod mentioned in his question:



J.K. Rowling: [A] Patronus is used against things that the Death Eaters generally generate, or fight alongside. They would not need Patronuses.

Mugglenet - Deathly Hallows Webchat - July 2007



I don't know how long Snape would have remained a bonafide Death Eater, but during the time that he was, I don't think he would have been able to produce a corporeal Patronus, regardless of the status of the Dementors.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...