Harry Potter: Severus Snape's Childhood Explained

There are so many characters in the wizarding world of "Harry Potter," but one of the most enigmatic and fascinating is Severus Snape, the taciturn and even cruel Potions master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. So, what was his childhood like? In a word: bad.

When we meet Snape in the "Harry Potter" books penned by Joanne "J.K." Rowling and the original film franchise that ran from 2001 to 2011 (where he's played by the late, great Alan Rickman), he's a deeply mysterious figure — and he pretty clearly hates Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) for some reason. As we eventually learn — decades old spoiler alert! — Snape once loved Harry's mother Lily Potter (née Evans) and became a double agent pretending to serve the Dark Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) at enormous personal risk. Aided by Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon in the later films), Snape secretly protects Harry for the boy's entire tenure at Hogwarts and in the seventh book and two final movies, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," when Harry sets out to find all of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

Though we only get glimpses at Snape's childhood and upbringing throughout the "Harry Potter" books, there are two major things that tell us about his character and his growth as a person: Snape's love for Lily and the fact that his parents had an unhappy marriage. There's no denying that Snape, despite some of his behavior, is a deeply tragic figure, and the little we know about his childhood with his parents — witch Eileen Prince and non-magical Muggle Tobias Snape, which is how he creates his secret identity as the "Half-Blood Prince" — is pretty rough. Here's what you need to know about Severus Snape's childhood in "Harry Potter."

We don't learn any backstory for Snape — aside from the fact that he's a reformed servant of Voldemort, or a Death Eater, according to Dumbledore — until we get to the fifth book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." (This particular sequence does not appear in the film adaptation.) During a lesson where Snape is supposed to teach Harry Occlumency (a difficult branch of magic meant to close off one's mind against enemy forces), Harry uses a Shield Charm against Snape's attempt to breach Harry's mind, and he gets a look at Snape's memories instead. In the book, Harry describes the flashes he experiences:

"Snape staggered; his wand flew upward, away from Harry — and suddenly Harry's mind was teeming with memories that were not his — a hook-nosed man was shouting at a cowering woman, while a small dark-haired boy cried in a corner ... A greasy-haired teenager sat alone in a dark bedroom, pointing his wand at the ceiling, shooting down flies ... A girl was laughing as a scrawny boy tried to mount a bucking broomstick —"

This paints a pretty vivid and deeply sad picture of a lonely, fraught childhood for Snape, and the memory involving Harry's father James, his friends Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin (played as adults by Gary Oldman, Timothy Spall, and David Thewlis, respectively), Lily, and Snape. We do see this in the movie, and the gist is that James bullies Snape for no real reason ... and everyone just passively watches. 

"Several people watching laughed; Snape was clearly unpopular. [Peter] sniggered shrilly," the passage reads. "Snape was trying to get up, but the jinx was still operating on him; he was struggling, as though bound by invisible ropes."

It's an understatement to say that Snape had a hard upbringing — and a hard time as a teen at Hogwarts — but it's still remarkable that he grows up to become a teacher who regularly doles out cruelty towards his students. While it makes sense that Snape has complicated feelings about Harry, a boy with Lily's green eyes who looks startlingly like James (Snape's high school bully!), it does make sense that Harry wonders about why Snape chose cruelty over kindness. As he thinks in "Order of the Phoenix:"

"Harry did not speak; he felt that to say anything might be dangerous. He was sure he had just broken into Snape's memories, that he had just seen scenes from Snape's childhood, and it was unnerving to think that the crying little boy who had watched his parents shouting was actually standing in front of him with such loathing in his eyes ..."

I might argue that Snape's childhood woes essentially translate into how he treats some of his students. If I'm offering up an armchair diagnosis of this fictional character, I'd say Snape sees someone like Harry's best friend Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint in the films), who comes from a deeply loving family, and feels resentful; he similarly resents Harry for being the product of Lily's love for James. 

Snape is the perfect example of a nuanced character in "Harry Potter" (something the franchise doesn't always do well), being a man with a troubled life who comes off as a villain for most of the narrative but turns out to be a force for good. Still, understanding his childhood is the key to the character. You can watch Snape's story in the "Harry Potter" movies on Peacock and HBO Max.