Snapedom

It has now been widely accepted that Severus was raised in a broken household, and possibly under an abusive father. Let's just take this as a given (we're talking about an aspect of fanon).

The general trend in family situations with an abusive paternal figure, and a son is that the son will begin to fight at the age of fourteen years (on average). We'll take the Snapes as a classic case of abuse and domestic violence, as it seems Eileen was the main victim in the relationship (she is the one being yelled at/etc.). When sons grow up seeing their mothers abused, there is always a sense of guilt, of low self-esteem and an utter lack of self-worth because they cannot protect their mothers from their fathers. When they reach puberty, they are physicall stronger than they were before, and this is when they begin to fight their fathers, or resist them, physically. To put it colloquially, this is when the shit hits the fan.

In most situations, this is the time battered women will attempt to divorce their husbands. They feel that the abuse inflicted upon them is something they can endure, but it is when their children become involved, that the flight instinct kicks in hard.

So if we assume this is what happened with the Snapes, we should also take into account that there could have been an element of failure. Severus is not descibed as a physicall strong boy. He is thin, un-athletic and unable to physically overpower his peers (he uses his intellect and magic instead). He does not have the physical build or structure to be able to protect his mother from his father, and this sense of failure must be all too apparent, continously compounding on his guilt and anger. And was Eileen the type of woman who had enough gumption to be able to cut and run when it concerned her boy? If not, then that's a very deep wound, and a very bitter pill to swallow.

This can also explain why the incidents of bullying he experienced at school could have affected him so deeply. Highschool's a pool of hotheaded jocks showing off their muscles, calling you a pussy and always pushing in your face that they are more of a "man" than you. (Competition of the wrong head, in my opinion.) Couple this with his domestic situation and you get a very angry, bitter, hate-filled young man.

Which then calls in the allure of power. Considering Tobias Snape was a muggle, the only way Severus could have overpowered his father was through magic. Severus slavishly devoted himself to the study of magic, to make sure he was the best and on top of everyone else. He was "the oddball, always up to his eyes in dark magic" (I'm paraphrasing). The attraction he could have found in dark magic is that is an instant solution. It is a dramatic show of power, it is all about control. With dark spells he could protect his mother, resist his father, but most importantly, make his father fear him. The Death Eaters promise him all of this, they promise him the means to be able to fight and finally win. They promise success.

Children raised by fear learn that it is the only effective means to gain respect (and love). And the Death Eaters, if anything, have power through fear.


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This could explain the Lily aspect, or at least, the twisted relationship they had.

If his mother still stayed with his father, and maybe could do nothing to protect him, then the sense of betrayal and hurt would have been crippling. He needs someone, then, to be infallible. To be perfect. To never lie, to never have any bad qualities, and to never hurt him.

And this is probably what he thought he found in Lily. We see an obsessive nature in him, as he is the one who asks them if they are friends, and is insistent that she vocally states it, he looks at her "greedily" from when they are children, and the whole gamut. He needs her to be perfect.

This is an impossible ideal for any person to live up to, so of course, she also disappoints him in the end. The greatest tragedy that comes in the dissolution of their friendship is probably in that Severus blames himself for it. It was him calling her "mudblood" that broke them apart, or at least, this is the singular event he focuses on (it is his worst memory). So, yet again, it is his fault. He is worth nothing, he can do no good, and everything he touches turns horribly wrong. Everything he does afterwards seems more like a search for absolution, under guise of unrequited love. She represented everything he could not have accomplished, everything he did wrong, and everything he wanted to have (not just romance) and was denied. So when he does something for Lily, it goes much deeper than the person.