Snape: Severus Snape in the Harry Potter Films

Snape is Severus Snape, a stern teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Alan Rickman plays him in all eight main films. His run starts with harry potter and the sorcerers stone (2001), directed by Chris Columbus, and ends with harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2 (2011), directed by David Yates. Rickman is billed sixth in the first film and fifth in the last, which gives a fair idea of how the role grew as the story went on.

Snape is a person, not a spell, a house or a creature, so anyone asking what a Snape is in Harry Potter is asking about this teacher.

In the first film Harry comes to suspect that Snape wants to steal the Philosopher's Stone, the object that can give its owner endless life. That early suspicion sets the tone for how the series presents him: Harry judges quickly, and the later films keep asking whether the judgment was fair.

If you are new to the series, the harry potter movies in order guide shows where each appearance falls, and the harry potter characters index places him beside the rest of the ensemble.

Snape moves from suspected thief to double agent over eight films, and his story only becomes clear in the last one. He appears in harry potter and the chamber of secrets (2002, Chris Columbus), harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban (2004, Alfonso Cuarón) and harry potter and the goblet of fire (2005, Mike Newell), where the plots belong mainly to others.

His role grows in harry potter and the order of the phoenix (2007, David Yates). Dumbledore arranges for Snape to teach Harry Occlumency, the skill of shielding the mind from Voldemort, at a time when the Ministry of Magic denies that Voldemort has returned and Dolores Umbridge is taking control of the school.

In harry potter and the half blood prince (2009, David Yates), Snape promises Draco Malfoy's mother that he will protect her son. Draco is given a secret task at Hogwarts, and when he corners the weakened Dumbledore and cannot bring himself to kill him, Snape arrives and kills Dumbledore instead. He escapes with the Death Eaters, and he is then revealed as the Half-Blood Prince, the author of the handwritten notes that made Harry a star in Slughorn's potions class.

In harry potter and the deathly hallows part 1 (2010, David Yates), Snape tells Voldemort at Malfoy Manor when the Order of the Phoenix plans to move Harry, which leads to the attack that costs Harry his owl Hedwig and the Order member Mad-Eye Moody. In the final film he is driven out of Hogwarts by Professor McGonagall before the battle begins, and the truth about him arrives only at his death.

Snape is defined by four relationships: Lily Potter, Albus Dumbledore, Voldemort and Harry himself. The last film settles the first question people ask about him, which is whether he was in love with Harry. He was not. In the memories Harry sees in the Pensieve, Snape loved Lily Potter, Harry's mother, all his life, and secretly served Dumbledore.

That answers a second common question, which is why Snape betrayed Voldemort. The memories show that he secretly served dumbledore, which is where his real allegiance lay. Whether he came to care for Harry himself is left more open, though he hands over the memories that tell Harry what he must do.

He appears to serve Voldemort, and the scene at Malfoy Manor in the seventh film, where he reports when the Order plans to move Harry, is the clearest example. His promise to protect draco malfoy in the sixth film connects him to the Malfoy family, and in the last film mcgonagall drives him out of Hogwarts. Harry is covered on the harry potter character page, and Voldemort on the voldemort page.

Snape dies in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, killed by Voldemort's snake Nagini. Before he dies he gives Harry his memories, which Harry views in the Pensieve. They show that Snape loved Lily Potter all his life and secretly served Dumbledore, and they tell Harry that he must die for Voldemort to be beaten.

The death follows his expulsion from Hogwarts by McGonagall, as the school prepares for battle with Voldemort's army. Harry has just realized that Nagini is the last Horcrux apart from the piece of soul inside himself, so the memories reach him at the point where the war turns on that knowledge. Harry then uses the Resurrection Stone, walks into the Forbidden Forest, and the plot moves to Voldemort's own defeat.

Snape does not survive to the epilogue, which is set nineteen years later at King's Cross. The events around the battle are laid out on the harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2 page and in the harry potter timeline.

In my opinion, Snape's finest moment is the Pensieve sequence in Deathly Hallows: Part 2, because it asks the audience to reread seven films of his behavior in a few minutes. It could be argued that the series earns that payoff slowly, since the early films let him be a petty and frightening teacher without apology.

The Occlumency lessons in Order of the Phoenix come second for me. Dumbledore arranges them so that Harry can shield his mind from Voldemort, and the discomfort between the two characters carries the scene without any need for a set piece. By contrast, the promise to Draco's mother in Half-Blood Prince is easy to overlook: the audience sees a promise made, and its weight only shows once the later events play out.

The killing of Dumbledore is the hardest scene to rank. It is the series' sharpest betrayal, and Rickman plays it without any visible relief. Paradoxically, it is also the scene that makes the last film land, since it is the act the Pensieve then recasts. If you want to see the whole arc with the least effort, watch Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows: Part 2 back to back.