#11
Name: Severus Snape
Birthdate: 9 January 1960
House: Slytherin
Residence: (Where your character lives outside of school) Spinner's End
Classes: Potions, Herbology, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Arithmancy
Appearance:
Tall and thin with long black hair, usually lank and greasy from hours spent brewing and a lack of inclination to care for his appearance. His eyes are black and cold and he has a large hooked nose. His facial expressions tend towards scowls, sneers and glares but when he is brewing something of the man inside will sneak out. His smiles tend towards smirks, smug or otherwise. Lily was the last person to get anything remotely resembling a genuine smile out of him.
History:
Severus is the only child of Tobias and Eileen Snape (nee Prince). His father was a Muggle, his mother a witch. He grew up in Spinner's End and his family situation was fairly poor. His father became increasingly bitter about his witch wife and wizard son and became unpleasant and abusive, leading Severus to start to favour his wizarding heritage rather than his Muggle heritage out of sheer spite. When he wasn't doing his early schooling with his mother, Severus spent as much of his time as possible out of the house to avoid his father and because of that he saw and became friends with a Muggleborn witch named Lily Evans.
Severus was eager to get to Hogwarts, not just to get away from his unpleasant home situation but also because becoming a wizard was something he'd wanted for as long as he could understand. He thought it was the best way possible to rebel against his father and he also wanted the power that becoming a wizard would give him and he was convinced he would be powerful. He was Sorted into Slytherin where, if he wasn't overly popular, he did at least find like minds, eventually becoming friends with two boys in his year level – Avery and Mulciber. Unfortunately he also found himself as the prime target of the self-styled Marauders – James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew – the first two from their first trip on the train.
His best friend, Lily, was unfortunately Sorted into Gryffindor and while the two were able to maintain their friendship for some years, eventually their growing differences began to drive a wedge between them, culminating in the end of the friendship in their Fifth Year when Severus, humiliated beyond his ability to stand, lashed out blindly and called her a Mudblood. Despite his remorse, which was genuine, she refused to forgive him and turned her back on him.
Severus turned to his studies and his friends Avery and Mulciber after that as well as stepping up his retaliation against the Marauders for the incessant pranks they played on him and the other Slytherins. It was during this period that he put two and two together in regards to Remus Lupin and came up with a tentative theory as to the boy's constant disappearances. In an argument with Sirius Black, he snapped that he knew Lupin's secret but was surprised when Black told him to follow the tunnel under the Whomping Willow if he really wanted to know.
Despite his idiocy, Black was, in Severus' eyes, a perfect Gryffindor – stupid, noble and arrogant. Certainly too noble to deliberately endanger a fellow student no matter who he was. He began to suspect that his theory was wrong and tested it out by investigating the tunnel. On opening the door to the Shrieking Shack, he was attacked by the werewolf Lupin and rescued by James Potter. He was sworn to secrecy by Dumbledore and left that meeting feeling bitter and betrayed. It only enforced his opinion that the Headmaster was not trustworthy and would favour his precious Gryffindors above and beyond all others. It also confirmed to him that Gryffindors absolutely could not be trusted and that Black was a murdering fool.
It was this new attitude in combination with the influence of Avery and Mulciber and other older Slytherins, the constant harassment by the Marauders, his own interest in the Dark Arts and his skills in Potions makes him an attractive target for the Death Eaters. While he has little interest in their pureblood agenda, their interest in his skills in the Dark Arts and Potions and his overwhelming desire to gain a little revenge on those who have made his life a misery make him a plum ripe for the picking.
Personality:
Severus' personality can probably be summed up by the word unpleasant. He is very intelligent but he is also sarcastic, sardonic, sullen, defensive, nasty and occasionally foul-mouthed. He is rude, caustic, sarcastic and sardonic to almost everyone. Those who have power over him will be greeted with a bit more in the way of politeness and respect but those who don't will receive the full brunt of his personality. Those he considers friends (though he would never openly acknowledge that) are still treated more or less the same but there will be a hint of humour in it and he won't mean some of it.
He has little in the way of people skills and even less in the way of trust. He has learned over the years that he can't trust people; that the only reason people try and claim to be his friend is to hurt, betray or use him. He will lash out and drive people away first to try and avoid that, whether they intended to do such things to him or not. He uses his personality as a wall to protect himself.
In spite of all of this he is capable of the better emotions. He still cares greatly for Lily Evans but both the separation caused by being in different Houses and his own angry, thoughtless remark drove her away into the arms of one of the boys he hated the most. He knows deep down that she cared for him only as a friend and not in the way he wanted but he still had hope. Once that was destroyed, he buried the better part of him deeply.
He is an intelligent, creative and resourceful young man in his chosen fields of interest. He is an almost instinctive brewer of potions and views it as a fine art worthy of only the best of wizards and witches. He is quite proud of his skills to the point of arrogance. He experiments regularly and the larger portion of his experimentation works. (That's not to say he doesn't blow up his share of cauldrons – experimentation can be dangerous after all.) He is also capable of creating spells, having developed a few during his last years of schooling including the infamous Sectumsempra.
He does however have the ability to carry a grudge for an eternity. He is quick to judge and will rarely reverse a judgement he has made on someone else. His temper is usually a slow, simmering type but when it explodes, he will yell and rage then finally drop back into sullen anger whereupon he will start planning his revenge. Said revenge will generally be subtle and very unpleasant.
RP Entry: (Third person)
Severus slowly stirred the potion in the cauldron with a look of smug satisfaction on his face. As it slowly turned a very pale green, the expression was replaced by a nasty smirk. The smirk persisted as he removed the cauldron from the heat and set it ona heat pad on the bench to cool. He took the opportunity while he was waiting to first clean up the area he'd been using and then set out the flasks he intended to use to hold the potion.
Once that was ready he settled in at one of the benches and pulled out some of his homework. He worked quietly and diligently, occasionally pausing to test the potion. He'd finished two essays before he was satisfied it was cool enough then he set aside his homework and set to work. The potion filled three flasks and once they were stoppered, he quickly cleaned the cauldron and returned to his homework.
About fifteen minutes later, the door opened and a heavy set boy about the same age as Severus slipped into the room.
"Lock the door," Severus said without looking up from his homework.
The other boy laughed and did so. "One of these days I'm going to sneak up on you, Snape."
"Perhaps," Severus said, his lip curling into a small sneer. "But no today, Mulciber."
"Is it done?" Mulciber asked, walking over and perching on the bench. He reached out to poke one of the flasks but his hand was quickly flicked by the quill in Severus' hand before he got too close.
"It's done," Severus said, finishing the sentence he was writing then putting his quill down. He leaned back in his seat and that smug satisfaction grew on his face again.
"And it'll work?" Mulciber asked, peering at the flasks. "We don't want those moronic Gryffindors tracing this back to us."
Severus snorted. "I brewed it. Of course it'll work. Just make sure the house elves aren't going to blab."
Mulciber grinned nastily. "They won't. Come on. Let's get going before Sluggy decides to check up on you."
Severus sneered at the mention of the Potions teacher but he moved quickly enough to pack his things. Slughorn might be an idiot in his eyes but he was good enough to know what Sevrus had brewed.
</lj>
