Snapedom

Snape's animagus form

The World of Severus Snape

********************
Anonymous users, remember that you must sign all your comments with your name or nick! Comments left unsigned may be screened without notice.

********************

Welcome to Snapedom!
If you want to see snapedom entries on your LJ flist, add snapedom_syn feed. But please remember to come here to the post to comment.

This community is mostly unmoderated. Read the rules and more in "About Snapedom."

No fanfic or art posts, but you can promote your fanfic and fanart, or post recommendations, every Friday.

Snape's animagus form

[info]torino10154
10/15/08 08:13 am
Previous Entry Add to Memories Tell a Friend Next Entry
Why yes, I did think yesterday was Monday. *facepalm* Thank you to [info]xnevillelovingx for reminding me by posting their question of the week and for inspiring me (which is to say I shamelessly stole theirs).

So my question this week is what Snape's animagus form would be? And do you believe he had the ability to become one? ETA: I don't mean skill level. I mean was he an animagus.
Previous Entry Add to Memories Tell a Friend Next Entry

  • [info]blpaintchart
    10/15/08 10:46 am (UTC)
    Well, there are so many obvious candidates for his animagus form: bat, raven, snake, cat, spider, chameleon.

    So I'm going to choose my favourite animal instead.
    *points to icon*
    Awww!

    And of course he'd have the ability, I mean if the likes of Potter & Pettigrew were capable of it. Whether he'd have the incentive for becoming one is another matter.

    Especially once he learned how to fly anyway.
    WTF??? SNAPE CAN FLY??? WHY DOES HE DO THAT??? SO WEIRD!!!!
    (I'm paraphrasing Cedar there, but still)

  • [info]melusin
    10/15/08 10:56 am (UTC)
    I certainly believe he could have if he'd wanted to (or found the time). If pettigrew could do it, why not him?
    I always thought a fox or a spider myself.

  • [info]persevero
    10/15/08 11:11 am (UTC)
    I came over here to find out if you'd ever asked what Snape's boggart would be (Voldemort? Nagini? Tobias Snape?) - I haven't come across many fics/essays where anyone has dealt with this. There are many wonderful suggestions about his animagus form, from the delightful (but impractical) polar bear in (the G-rated not the NC-17 of the same name) Teacher's Pet, through various snakes and a hedgehog, to a scorpion. Personally I'm all for Snape-as-crow - black, glossy, intelligent, smartly-dressed, big beak. And if the Marauders could do it, even Pettigrew, surely Severus had the capacity and the determination.

    • [info]torino10154
      10/15/08 11:14 am (UTC)
      I have considered asking about his boggart-someone said it was related to his Patronus so I've opted so far not to bother.

      • [info]persevero
        10/15/08 11:47 am (UTC)
        One's boggart could be a lot more revealing than one's animagus form, I suspect. JKR said, when asked what her animagus form would be, 'I'd like to be an otter - that's my favourite animal. It would be depressing if I turned out to be a slug or something' which seems to imply that it is a bit random.

        • [info]torino10154
          10/15/08 11:51 am (UTC)
          I agree. But since it was the lady herself that said Snape's was related to his Patronus, and we know what that is, I figured his boggart wasn't going to be very different (probably either Lily dead or telling him to piss off. :P ) But yes, sometime we certainly could discuss other possibilities. It's not as if JKR knows anything anyway. *g*

  • [info]mary_j_59
    10/15/08 12:44 pm (UTC)
    Okay, I'll bite! From the end of HBP, I was absolutely convinced that his animagus form, if he had one, would be a higgpgriff. One can also make a strong case for a thestral. Either way (my siister and I both though) he would be winged, and the creature would be graceful, powerful, intensely loyal and (to those who don't look beyond appearance) rather threatening.

    Of course, this assumes that one's animagus has something to do with one's essential character. Based on Pettigrew's and Sirius Black's, it does seem to.

    I also imagined a raven for him - or possibly a crow - and my siister thought a wolf was a strong possibility, if his form were without wings.

    As to whether he HAS an animagus form - well, not anymore, if he ever did! (He's not dead!) Based on the evidence of the text, he is not weak in transfiguration, and could certainly have learned how to transform, but I don't think he ever did. Just my two cents.

    • [info]oryx_leucoryx
      10/15/08 02:42 pm (UTC)
      As to whether he HAS an animagus form - well, not anymore, if he ever did! (He's not dead!)
      Well, since we agree he is not dead, then he is probably in some form of hiding. He has all the time in the world to learn to be an Animagus, after he is done rewriting the Potions and DADA texts under a pseudonym.

  • (Anonymous)
    10/15/08 02:30 pm (UTC)
    Hi, people, may I? In my imagination, Severus' animagus form is a wolf, a silver one, because of his loyalty, loneliness, and because according to some mythologies, wolves use to accompany the Healers and guard the gates of underworld (or Hades or how do you want to call it -- the world of the deads). And I think he could be pretty embarrassed with it when he found it out, because of Sirius' animal form and were-Remus.
    -- ioannina --

    • [info]peppercat
      10/17/08 02:51 am (UTC)
      Twas my second choice to the black cat. :)

      • (Anonymous)
        10/18/08 08:38 pm (UTC)
        Hee, a black cat was my second choice, isn't it funny? :-D
        But in fact I think he was not an Animagus. Look at his Patronus and compare it with the Patroni of Animagi we know: their animal form and their Patronus are the same. (Minerva McGonagall, James Potter.) And imagine Severus being a doe... little bit weird.
        (Of course he is not dead, so he can become an Animagus, if he will want to, and consequently, his Patronus can change. Why not? :-P)
        -- ioannina --

  • [info]alisonven
    10/15/08 03:51 pm (UTC)
    The drabble below gives my views on this topic! It's set during the holidays before OotP, when the Order was keeping watch on Harry.

    Animagus
    The raven flew over the houses, eyeing the gardens with an almost human intelligence.
    It swooped low at the sight of prey, swallowing the morsel with a click of its sharp beak.
    Flapping wildly, it tried to regain height, but its stomach began to swell alarmingly. The raven exploded.
    A man hit the turf, rolled, swiftly shrank back to spider-form and scuttled to a large hydrangea bush.
    Severus Snape would have sneered if his Animagus form had the ability; it wasn’t bad enough he had to keep watch on Potter over the holidays, birds kept trying to eat him, too.

    As to Snape's boggart, I thought it would have been a werewolf. Seeing as he almost died due to one when he was an adolescent.

    Alison

  • [info]geri_chan
    10/15/08 04:12 pm (UTC)
    I like to picture Snape being a crow or a raven if he was an animagus. They're clever, and have a rather sinister appearance and reputation, which seems appropriate for Snape. Although I must admit the idea of him being a wolf animagus appeals to the Snupin shipper in me! ^_^

    I don't think he actually was an animagus in canon, since we don't see any evidence of it in canon--except maybe for the scene in which he flees Hogwarts in DH. I don't have the book with me right now, but I seem to recall that Harry sees him as bat-like; I assume his billowing robes give the impression of wings. One could argue that it was dark and Harry couldn't see clearly, so maybe Snape really did transform into a giant bat, or perhaps a thestral. I don't really think that he did, but it's fun to imagine, and it's certainly good fodder for fanfic.

    • [info]oryx_leucoryx
      10/15/08 04:29 pm (UTC)
      A thestral wouldn't be visible to most students. A big advantage for Severus! Besides being little understood and unjustly feared.

  • Animagi

    [info]terri_testing
    10/15/08 05:27 pm (UTC)
    I don't think Snape was an Animagus, because I think there's a personality component as well as a magical component. Yes, he would have the power and the discipline to master that branch of magic--but I think one's Animagus form is one's inner animal, and that Severus was human through and through. Or to put it another way, the idea of becoming a beast probably had no appeal to him.

    (Now, if Severus had found out James was an Animagus when he was 16, then yes, he might have mastered it in pure rivalry. But the Marauders kept that well hidden.)

    As to his boggart, that's easy: for most of canon, Harry dead. His failing his duty to protect him.... Wonder if it changed after Dumbles told him Harry was doomed, to Harry's dying pointlessly?

    • Re: Animagi

      [info]mary_j_59
      10/15/08 10:48 pm (UTC)
      I don't think Snape was an Animagus, because I think there's a personality component as well as a magical component. Yes, he would have the power and the discipline to master that branch of magic--but I think one's Animagus form is one's inner animal, and that Severus was human through and through.

      That's really interesting, Terri! And, actually, I agree. Although I'm sure Rowling didn't intend it, it reminds me of Macdonald's The Princess and Curdie, where the boy Curdie is given the gift of being able to take someone's hand and feel their true nature - monkey, snake, donkey, etc. (the animals were, of course, stereotyped). Some people were simply human, and Snape would surely have been one of these.

      OTOH, if you consider that everyone has a potential animagus form, as everyone has a potential patronus, I quite like my ideas. But I don't think Severus was ever an animagus.

    • Re: Animagi

      [info]geri_chan
      10/16/08 04:07 am (UTC)
      I hadn't really thought of it that way before, but I can see how the idea of becoming a beast would have little appeal, especially after nearly being killed by Lupin in werewolf form. Even though intellectually he'd know that there's a difference between the conscious transformation of an Animagus and the involuntary transformation of a werewolf, emotionally he might want to prove that he's human and therefore superior to the bestial Lupin. And post-prank, maybe he would have scorned the other Marauders for willingly sinking to the level of beasts if he'd known about them becoming Animagi. (Before the prank, as you suggested, rivalry would probably have driven him to prove that he could become an Animagus too.)

      I once read a fic in which it was suggested that Marauders' cruelty and callousness towards Snape might have been a side-effect of the Animagus magic, some of their animal nature still lingering even after they'd transformed back to human form. It was an interesting theory, but it seems pretty clear in DH that James and Sirius had a nasty streak in them from the start.

  • [info]shyfoxling
    10/15/08 05:41 pm (UTC)
    I'm in the crow/raven camp too, as far as possible form.

    I don't think he actually was an Animagus, though. I'm pretty sure we'd have got some hint about it if he were.

  • [info]atdelphi
    10/16/08 12:14 am (UTC)
    I don't think he would have been an animagus, but if he were, I would have to go with cockroach - the ultimate survivor.

  • [info]alphadelt
    10/16/08 03:47 am (UTC)
    I've just checked the lexicon, and it doesn't say anything with regards to the possibility of an animagus form being a magical beast. But it doesn't say anything against it either.

    I had the idea in my head that says animagus forms can only take on non-magical beasts' shape, but that's probably fanon.

    So far, the ones we know are non-magical beasts (cat, dog, stag, rat, beetle) though, so...?

    Some part of my brain still insist that only non-magical forms can be assumed, it just seems logical in a funny kind of way. Magical beasts can only come about from its "parent" form? Eg: dragons, hippogriffs or thestrals.

    *shrug*

    I'll go with crow/raven/spider/porcupine/hedgehog for non-magical ones. (lol @ at last two)

    Thestral - for a magical beast's form.

    I can't decide whether Severus was an animagus or not...because on one hand, it would be useful to become one - especially if the form was conducive for spying or good for collecting potions ingredients from (if its a magical beast form).

    On the other hand, if he wanted to be an animagus, he would want it primarily for usefulness. The effort put in to become one may perhaps outweigh the risk factor of him becoming an animal that he deems "silly" - a horse maybe? Too big for spying or stealth activities, and - just overall not ideal to his situation I imagine.

    So perhaps he wanted to avoid that "waste of time" and the element of unpredictability with regard to the form, and concentrated on potions and Occlumency/Legilimency to shore up his defenses as a spy instead.

    As for post-war (Yes, he's not dead!), who knows? A wild stallion galloping around wide green fields is as good as any pastime for relaxation. :)

    • [info]smallpotato
      10/16/08 08:09 am (UTC)
      I rather love the idea of a horse, if only because of Elsa2's wonderful fanfic 'The Horse' (although it's never clear wether the horse Simon is Severus or not)

      It's more than 90 chapters long at this moment, and still WIP, but I recommend it:

      http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1785390/1/The_Horse

      • [info]alphadelt
        10/16/08 12:35 pm (UTC)
        Hmm, yes! I'm subscribed to the story, but have not yet started reading. Every time I get an email update for it, I become faintly puzzled as to why I subscribed...when it seems like Severus is not in the story. (I don't read anything without him in it~ :) )

        Thanks for the re-assurance I should!

        Btw, is it H/D? And...is the horse's identity hinted anywhere at all? I really hate to start out the story assuming the horse is Severus, then end up kind of disappointed. :)

        • [info]smallpotato
          10/16/08 03:22 pm (UTC)
          Well, it's still not clear wether Simon is actually Severus, but Severus *is* in the story. From chapter 17 until chapter 34, where Harry timetravels (yes, I know, it sounds so cliche) to the Marauders' time to find a special Golden Sickle and befriends Severus (and ends up seriously pissed off with James, Sirius and Lupin). As I said, it sounds like a cliche, but it's really well written. I'm hooked since the chapter 7, where Millicent Bulstrode totally delighted me, being calm, logical, intelligent, calm and as forceful as an avalance, telling Dumbledore off. (go Milli!)
          In fact, this is one of those fics where you wish the author had written the Potterbooks; Harry is actually a nice boy, Hermione isn't half as annoying, Luna is wonderful as is Draco... ahh.. Draco! Such promise you were!

        • [info]smallpotato
          10/16/08 03:23 pm (UTC)
          Um, as I was saying, Severus is in the story, and you could read chapters 17 to 34 as a standalone...

          • [info]alphadelt
            10/16/08 03:36 pm (UTC)
            Yes, I caught that! :) Thanks for the info! I've read through some of the reviews and they've all been complimentary. Plus, I saw the names of some reviewers and that was what really convinced me that I must read the story.

            I've read the rest of the author's stories before, and have been thoroughly entertained, so this should do the same. :)

  • [info]snokat
    10/16/08 09:34 am (UTC)
    I don't think he was an animagus. But if he was, I read a fan fic "Soulplay" in which his animagus was a spider and I have to say that idea really fit him.

    • [info]alisonven
      10/16/08 03:52 pm (UTC)
      The "Snape-as-a-spider" animagus seems quite popular. Here's the link to another story by the talented Odogoddess which looks at it:
      http://www.odospadd.com/odogoddess/hp_reckon.html
      Alison

      • [info]snokat
        10/16/08 07:41 pm (UTC)
        Thanks! That was pretty interesting and creative!

        I also think that the notion that his patronus might have been a mongoose (defeater of snakes) to be interesting also!!

        • [info]shyfoxling
          10/16/08 07:55 pm (UTC)
          Duh. Sorry about the deleted comment. I just realized how silly and obvious was the thing I said, given the context of what started this thread.

  • [info]peppercat
    10/17/08 02:50 am (UTC)
    hm...I get the black cat vibe from personality. He's always independant, by himself, does what he wants normally and is pretty strict on himself as well as others.

  • [info]branquignole
    10/17/08 06:00 am (UTC)
    Well, I'd say raven or crow for non-magical beasts too. I think that a Thestral is a very interesting idea and really fitting, although I believe that turning into a magical beast would be much more complex than turning into a non-magical one, if at all possible. (But oh, the challenge! :D)

    But anyway, I'd say becoming an animagus would be something that would probably be considered rather silly by Severus, not worth putting the effort in. What with his great mastering of Occlumency/Legilimency and Potions.

  • [info]the_bitter_word
    10/17/08 12:48 pm (UTC)
    Severus could have been a goat, in all senses of the word -- from capable Capricorn to scapegoat of the "respectable" Wizarding World to dark magic-associated totem and sacrifice to love interest of Aberforth Dumbledore ... well, maybe not the latter.

    • [info]alisonven
      10/17/08 08:29 pm (UTC)
      Ooh no, plot bunnies are pricking up their little ears and jumping about at that comment! No, get down, I will *not* write you ...
      8D
      Alison

  • (Anonymous)
    10/17/08 03:31 pm (UTC)
    I always thought of Snape as being a Fox since he's cunning and tricky, and I've always thought of him as being a small animal. But when I learned that Snape lived at Spinner's end I suddenly decided that he would definetly be a spider.
    JKR tends to name things or people acording to references to other things usually having to do with the person's magic (Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, etc...). Him living at Spinner's end and being a spider would fit in with her usual writing style. Also I was always tought that spider's were good luck and wove fate, which also fit in very well with my personal view of Snape.

    • (Anonymous)
      10/14/11 04:04 am (UTC)
      I agree with fox. It makes a ton of sense.


      And I hate spiders....





  • Re:Animagus

    [info]caravaggio49
    10/19/08 08:52 am (UTC)
    After some pondering about the question I decided that Snape's animagus-form - IF he had one,but I believe he hasn't - would be a raven or crow because they are a highly cunning species,even more intelligent than primates.Though a thestral is a good option too....

  • Snape's Animagus form

    (Anonymous)
    5/17/14 07:00 am (UTC)
    I think I remember an article where a fan was going through possible animagus forms for our dear Professor. It was a very well written one but I can't find it for the life of me.

    Spider: During PoA a ton of fans grew interested in Severus, the writer of that article believe that a poem/warning in one of the tasks from GoF was a hint at Severus being one of the spiders because fans started to swoon at the sight or sound (THAT VOICE!) of Snape and one part said something along the lines of: "Is this the spider you wish to kiss". It think this would be most useful for Snape and it fits him. Repulsive and hated or feared by most and spiders remove bugs from existence. They attack with minimal provocation when they are ticked off.

    Wolf: loyalty, success, perseverance, stability, tough, path finder, teacher, intuition, shadows, tracking skill, independance.

    Bat: guardian of night, messanger, double nature, good luck, peace, melancholy, revenge, wisdom.

  • (Anonymous)
    1/10/16 05:20 pm (UTC)
    'This a bat
Powered by InsaneJournal