A Professor Snape Fan's Perspective

"Headmaster Dumbledore."

"No way!"

Shi Meng objected almost immediately. Who was Dumbledore? He was the protector who kept the protagonist safe until he grew up, the leader of the righteous side. If he did something like that, would Slytherin House even still exist at the school?

"When Voldemort was a child, he noticed that the boy had bad habits. He stole things, used magic to prank and frighten the other children at the orphanage, pursued power, and had no empathy. So he suppressed him, rejected him, suspected him, and feared his talent."

Lin Er twirled her pen and smiled at the look in Shi Meng's eyes, which said that was exactly how a villain should be treated.

"Then Voldemort lived up to his expectations and grew up to become the leader of the biggest terrorist organization in the Wizarding World."

Some nearby classmates heard their discussion and stopped talking to listen in secretly.

"When Snape was a child, he was gloomy too. He had an unhappy childhood, extraordinary talent, and pursued power to the point of loving Dark Magic, so he came under the same suspicion.

"The difference was that the older Dumbledore had been through more. He didn't condemn him from the start as he had before, but he still favored the little lions he considered brave, bold, chivalrous, and full of vitality.

"When the two sides fought, he never suspected that Gryffindor might have started it. All their fights and roughhousing were jokes, including throwing little hexes at their classmates."

"No way. Besides, how do you know what happened when they were kids? By the time the main story starts, Snape is already a professor, and Dumbledore is still the headmaster. If he was biased, would Snape have been able to stay at the school as a professor?"

Cheng Liang, sitting in the front row, couldn't hold back anymore. He had read it too, so how come he hadn't seen any of the things Lin Er was talking about? Gryffindor was his favorite house.

"Exactly. If Snape was bad, why would Dumbledore have made him a professor in the first place, and even a head of house?"

Cheng Liang fell silent. Lin Er knew she was biased, but who wasn't?

People were the most biased creatures to begin with.

"Snape was in the same year as Harry's parents. When they were at school, Voldemort was a huge figure. His methods of ruling weren't that terrifying yet, and following him brought glory and status. Most Pure-blood families were his followers and supporters.

"Snape's father was abusive, and his mother couldn't protect him either. School was his hope of escaping his family. He thought magic would be his salvation, but the school had factions too, and everyone was divided into camps as soon as term began.

"He was in Slytherin from the start. The house took pride in Pure-blood status, and Half-bloods had low standing. If he didn't fit in, all he could do was get bullied.

"But he had talent, ability, and ambition. He didn't want to be the one getting bullied, so he liked Dark Magic, which could give him power.

"But at the time, that was a sign of going bad, because Voldemort was taking control of the Wizarding World. They oppressed wizards who weren't Pure-bloods, and the Death Eaters he led were just like terrorists. Learning Dark Magic was like telling people he planned to join a terrorist organization after graduation.

"But what else could he do if he didn't learn it? He had no way out and no one to back him up. Only his talent could give him confidence. He loved Potions and later became the youngest Potions Master.

"He pursued power and became highly accomplished in Dark Magic too, able to create spells of his own. Only with all that could he gain standing in the house and go from being an outcast to having a gang of his own."

"Did the dragon slayer end up becoming a dragon?"

Lin Er was interrupted, but she wasn't angry. Instead, she laughed.

"Not quite. It would be more accurate to say that the bullied became a bully once he gained the ability."

"Huh!?"

And he was still her favorite character? What a terrible assessment!

"He really was bad at first. He was talented, shrewd like a Slytherin, and ambitious. He would use any means necessary to achieve his goals. So when he realized the house couldn't give him what he wanted, he made good use of the one thing he had—his talent.

"His talent for Potions drew a professor's attention and made the heirs of Pure-blood families recognize his value, raising his own standing.

"But he didn't stop his classmates and roommates from bullying others. He even taught them the little hexes he had developed, and eventually the whole school learned them.

"At the time, Slytherin had a bad reputation overall and liked to bully students. Gryffindor had a similar gang: the protagonist's father and his friends.

"Their gang was called the Marauders. There were four of them, and they bullied classmates for fun. They threw hexes at people and called it joking around, a prank.

"The only difference was that they didn't study Dark Magic, so they were still good kids.

"And they were Snape's biggest enemies. Whenever the two sides met, a sneak attack would turn into a fight-oh, a fight between the four of them and Snape alone.

"At first, it stemmed from friction between the houses. One side was a firm Slytherin, the other a firm Gryffindor. Because Voldemort and Dumbledore were opposed, the two houses were strongly opposed as well.

"That was also a major reason for the conflict between the two sides. A Pure-blood had entered Gryffindor and a Half-blood had entered Slytherin, and he and Black looked down on each other.

"Snape looked down on Black for coming from an old Pure-blood family with a deep heritage of Dark Magic, yet treating it with disdain as the family heir.

"Black looked down on Snape because, despite being only a Half-blood and having a Muggle-born friend, he was utterly obsessed with Dark Magic and actively tried to fit in with Slytherin.

"And the protagonist's father had been pursuing his mother from the start. His mother was Snape's best friend.

"The people they hated most formed a team, so their conflict had no solution from the start.

"That also made their conflict worse, because both sides wanted the protagonist's mother to see that the other side was no good.

"Oh, we can't follow their example there. They were dating too young."

"Pfft, hahaha!"

More and more people were listening nearby, and Lin Er's sudden remark made quite a few of them laugh.

"Hey, don't change the subject. What happened next? Two guys fighting over a girl-did they come to blows? So Snape lost, and that's why he disliked the protagonist so much?"

Lin Er came back to her senses, nodded, then shook her head.

"That was probably part of it. After all, the protagonist had the same face as his father, with only his eyes resembling his mother's!

"Right, I was talking about the conflict between Snape and the protagonist's father. Their fights were generally back and forth, especially after Snape got a gang of his own.

"That lasted until their fifth year, when they were both sixteen. The protagonist's mother had tried many times to talk Snape out of studying Dark Magic, but he never gave it up.

"And Snape wanted the protagonist's mother to stay away from his father, because they weren't good people either.

"So he decided to find something he could use against the protagonist's father and his gang, to show her that their secret was no better than his studying Dark Magic.

"There were four people in the protagonist's father's gang. His father, James, was a Pure-blood. His family had businesses, and he was the family heir.

"Then there was Sirius, a Pure-blood heir whose whole family had been in Slytherin and whose family supported Voldemort, but who had entered Gryffindor himself.

"The third was Lupin, the most mature and gentle member of the gang, who kept the peace between them. His father was some kind of official too, but he had been bitten by a Werewolf as a child and forced to become one himself. Originally, he had no chance of going to school, but Dumbledore made a special exception for him.

"The last was a very ordinary classmate named Peter. Because he was their roommate, he didn't dare refuse them. Perhaps he also really liked the feeling of being watched and feared, so he joined them in forming the Marauders.

"Every full moon, Werewolves transform into wolves and lose their reason. Once they lose their reason, they're like rabid dogs. They're extremely powerful attackers, and they can pass it on."