What Moments Made Severus Snape the Most Controversial Character?

With Harry already feeling intimidated by Snape before even meeting him, Snape was not one to waste time in welcoming young Harry. He singles out Harry before asking him questions concerning potions that few of the students besides Hermione would have been able to answer.

This is when we first learn that Snape may be up to something. With little to go off of, we follow along with Harry's suspicions. While these turn out to be wrong in the end, Snape was up to something Harry couldn't have predicted. Snape was actually working to help him.

When Snape set Neville up to fail, he was not going to let Hermione get in the way of that. When she helps Neville complete his potion, instead of being glad that his students are helping each other learn, he punishes them. One thing few people disagree with is how awful he treated his students.

The rivalry between James and Snape is one of the defining factors in Snape's adult life. They were both in love with the same girl and when this girl died, he was the one left to protect their son.

While not the best night for Snape, he was definitely not too shy to seize the opportunity when he saw it. The chance to get his old enemies caught and removed from his life was too good to miss. He may not have been thinking it all through, but that didn't seem to matter to him at the time.

After the return of Voldemort, Dumbledore needs his spy to be prepared for what is to come. When he asks Snape if he is ready, Snape replies with this. This is when we start to learn how much faith Dumbledore has in Snape and when we start to seriously wonder which side Snape is truly on.

During Harry's Christmas break, we learn that Snape will be teaching Harry Occlumency. With the bitterness between the two, this is kind of an oversight on Dumbledore's part. It also doesn't help that Harry goes to these meetings with nothing but hatred for Snape on his mind. It's hard to learn emotional control with that attitude.

Snape going through with the Unbreakable Vow not only shows how cunning and quick thinking he is, but it also shows how far he is willing to go for Dumbledore's cause. Luckily, most of what Snape swears to is what he and Dumbledore had already planned.

For a time there, before the last book came out, Snape had few fans because of this ending. He had just killed Dumbledore and fled from the castle. Harry, being the overly courageous character that he is, ran to stop him. This led to the crucial moment of finding out who had taught Harry so much in the course of one year.

Even on the verge of death, Snape wanted one last look at Lily's eyes. The book and movie might differ here, but in both cases, he needed that last reminder of what he gave up everything for.

To finish off our list, we end with the word that left audiences devastated. Despite never gaining Lily's love, he was in her corner until the end. He protected her son after her death and gave up everything to give Harry the tools he needed. Once he learned what Harry would need to do, he accepted this as a necessary sacrifice to defeat the one who took his one love from him.