How would Snape have felt if Harry was sorted into Slytherin?

As promised, I said I would come up with a few of my own Harry Potter themed theories and here is the first one. I thought of this a few days ago, which in turn made me decide that I should start this blog to share with other people and read their opinions on the matter, along with many others. So, how do you think Snape would have felt if Harry had been sorted into his own house rather than the snake’s rival house, Gryffindor? Would he have still held a grudge against Harry because of his life-long feud with James or would he have felt more protective over him because of his love for Lily? Also, would Harry have replaced Draco as the Slytherin Prince if this was so, or would he have stuck to his original personality, going against all the pureblood beliefs and doing what Andromeda Black (Tonks) did?

I have a feeling that if Harry had been sorted into Slytherin like the Hat wanted, things would have been ever so slightly different. Even in the original novels, there is obviously that different side to Snape that you don’t realise until right at the very end, a caring side that he keeps closed up, not daring to show to a single soul. However, I believe that his caring side was really only directed at Lily; she was the only person that ever really cared for him and no one ever showed the same devotion towards him like she did, not even his own family. After one small mistake he lost her has a friend, after one grave mistake he lost her forever and he has never been able to forgive himself. Yes he’s proved himself to be on the right side, but again it’s not until the very end that you realise and it’s only because he owes his life to Dumbledore for giving him a second chance; it’s only because of Dumbledore that he says to hide all of the Potter family when Voldemort has put a price on their heads, if it were up to him, he would have only saved Lily. But even though that all his care and devotion was saved for one person, could there have possibly been a tiny molecule of care saved for Harry?

From the first day Harry entered the Wizarding World, every witch, wizard and their auntie commented on how he’s the spitting image of his father. This is just one of the many grudges he holds against Harry; obviously by looking at Harry, all he sees is James and how he made his school life a living hell. Because of this, he naturally thinks that Harry takes on the exact same personality as his father and so aims the brunt of his anger towards him. Perhaps if Harry had been in Slytherin, it would have given him a chance to treat Harry worse than he could in Gryffindor; in the second film he declared that if Harry was in his house, he would have expelled him for the treacherous display with the Ford Anglia, he could have taken advantage of this if the Sorting Hat hat gone with its original decision. But if this had happened, would guilt have consumed him for fearing what Lily would have thought of him?

Besides his looks mirroring his father’s, Harry had one feature that did not, for once the statement “you look just like your father” had been announced, it could only be followed by “except your eyes, their your mother Lily’s”. The sensitive side of Snape reveals itself right at the very end of the final book, and his life, when he asks Harry to look at him just so that he can see those emerald green eyes one last time before darkness consumes him. After this being revealed, you can only wonder how many times Snape has thought about Lily every time he sees Harry; is it the same amount of times his fury surfaces every time he thinks of James? What lies beneath is often the total opposite of what lies on the surface. If so, then he has been battling two sides of his emotions ever since Harry stepped foot through those enormous stone doors. If Harry were a member of his own house, then there could have been the slightest chance that he could have warmed up to Harry because as a wise old wizard always liked to declare, love beats war or anger (just to make it clear, I’m stating that Snape’s love for Lily would win over his hatred for Harry). If he had, then there would have been two routes Snape could have taken: given him extra protection for when Voldemort returned or turned him into some sort of “minion” for Voldemort to train him up and go against everything that Dumbledore sacrificed for him.

Giving Harry extra protection would probably have been the more realistic route Snape would have taken; Snape basically owed Dumbledore his life after he gave him a second chance, a chance to redeem himself after he made the mistake of becoming a Death Eater and putting a death warrant on Lily Potter and her family’s heads. Yes, he basically does that in the original novels anyway (hidden under a very good disguise) but with Harry in Slytherin, it would have given him better access to do so. He may have also done this in honour of Lily, to make up for all the wrongs he did her. However, what would have happened if the story had taken an even darker approach, giving Slytherin fans all over the world a field day? I’m sure there has been fanfiction written about this somewhere but if Harry had been sorted into Slytherin, there could have been a big chance that Snape would have given into temptation and gone back to his Death Eating ways, trying to rope in Harry as well; what better opportunity would there have been for world domination than The Dark Lord & The Chosen One joining forces? All the enticement was there, all it would have taken would have been a nudge and he could have been lured back to the evil he once devoted his life to. I’m sure he also would have been greatly respected by Voldemort for handing him over the boy whose abilities matched his own; yes he already is respected when he presents himself to Voldemort and deeming worthy enough to be trusted again between books four and five, but in this case he wouldn’t be  pretending for the sake of Dumbledore, he would be doing it off his own back, making the situation that much different. Additionally, it would have been the perfect opportunity to get back at the memory of James and his fellow Marauders by taking away the only hope the wizarding community had to rid their world of the most dangerous evil that they’ve ever known. The question is, would Harry have done it?

If Harry had been accepted into Slytherin house, would he himself have become the Slytherin Prince? He certainly would have fitted in, what with the Parseltongue and the connection into Voldemort’s mind and the ability to cast dark curses if he chose to, after all, all he’d have to do is mean it; I’m sure it wouldn’t have taken much when surrounded by pureblood maniacs daily. His best friend would more than likely have been Draco Malfoy and his day to day activities would have been terrorising muggleborns; the world would be very dark indeed if he and Voldemort had combined forces. However, I doubt very much he would have given in to the dark side just like that. As James Potter’s son, it would have taken a lot to persuade him to join the man who wreaked havoc across the whole wizarding world, putting everyone in mortal peril and killing both of his parents, even if he had been sorted into Slytherin. I’m sure he would have followed the great steps of Andromeda Black and resisted the Dark Arts as much as possible. Who knows, he may still have been best friends with Ron and Hermione. But I guess this is something we will never find out and will only ever think about what if; there’s plenty theories where that came from!

A little Snape candy for everyone!

*Picture not mine, found on Google*

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Review

So after a long and anticipated wait, Deathly Hallows Part 2 hit cinemas July 15 and I definitely found it to my satisfaction. I am going to take this oppurtunity to give my truthful opinion about it.

From start to finish the film had me on edge, keeping me hooked. I also found it tremendously accurate to the book, as did Part 1. I obviously found a few bits and pieces which were either added or wrong, but obviously the film is only based on the novel and not a full replica.

The Gringotts scene was just about perfect. Helena Bonham Carter acting as Hermione was spot on; all manuerisms were practically a mirror image of Watson’s. The dragon effects were literally amazing and Warwick Davies playing a second role as Griphook was exactly how I imagined; he got the craftiness down to a tee.

Aberforth Dumbledore was also how I imagined, however I had hoped they would go into detail about his, Albus’ and Ariana’s past. This was one moment I had wanted to be kept in, for Aberforth to go into detail about how their father went to Azkaban and how Albus turnerd from the power hungry youngster into the greatest wizard of our age. Of course they had to keep the painting of Ariana in for them to get into the secret passage, but while Aberforth asks the Golden Trio if Albus had mentioned her name, you hear nothing else except for the tiniest detail Hermione informs Ron and Harry about; this was quite disappointing in my eyes.

The Battle of Hogwarts; where do I start? The huge amount of special effects that were involved from beginning to end of the battle were absolutely spectacular: the stone guards, the bridge falling, the vasts amounts of Death Eaters shooting spells in the air to break the wards of Hogwarts; everything was taken with such care and devotion to create and film properly. The Fiendfyre in the Room of Requirement was also another breathtaking scene; swirls upon swirls of cursed fire, taking the form of a dragon, chasing the trio around the cluttered room while they try and get their hands on the horcrux known as Ravenclaw’s diadem. It made me happy to notice that they kept in Ron’s hysterical line “if we die for them Harry, Im going to kill you” as all three of them vault towards Draco Malfoy & Blaise Zabini (changed from Gregory Goyle, as he was the unfortunate one to plumate into a firey death, given the fact  that Jamie Waylett who played Vincent Crabbe was cut from the film because of a drug charge stamped on his name) to save them from their unstable fortress on a junk pile. To finish the scene off outstandingly, they zoom out of the room, Harry finally stabs the horcrux and Ron kicks it back into the room, the door shutting before fiery images of Voldemort enter the hallway, proving that they are another step closer to defeating the Dark Lord forever.

The moment I was longing for, even before knowing how it happened in the book of Deathly Hallows, was the first kiss between Ron and Hermione. It has always been noticeable since the first book that the two of them would get it together, no matter how long it took; their constant bickering was just added proof that they acted like an old married couple. I have my own theories as to when each of them started to like each other a tad more than just friends (even if it was just starting to appreciate each other more to begin with, then their feelings progressed as they got older): Hermione’s moment of relisation was at the end of the first book when Ron sacrificed himself on the chess board so Harry and her could go onwards to stop “Snape” from accessing the Philosopher’s Stone; Ron’s was in the middle of the second book when Hermione got petrified. Again, these are only my own theories, but to me they seem like the perfect moments to realise their not only best friends. Anyways, back to the point at hand. The famous kiss scene was obviously different from that in the book as it was not based outside the Room of Requirement, where Hermione leaps into Ron’s arms and kisses him passionately because of him declaring he wants to help the house elves. However, replacing it with actually showing them in the Chamber of Secrets and Hermione destroying the horcrux, with them both leaping on each other after doing so, was a bleeding good substitute. They were not kidding  when they said  in interviews that they basically went for it, even though it took six takes. They knew that people had been waiting for this for years and obviously wanted to show them that they weren’t waiting for no reason. This kiss very much beats both the Harry and Cho, and Harry and Ginny kisses; these were both hyped up to be extreme because it was the Boy Who Lived, but they turned out to be lame and cheesey. If the Ron and Hermione kiss does not win Best Kiss at the MTV Movie Awards next year, I will eat my hat, especially if they are beaten by Robert Pattinson and Kristen “the plank of wood” Stewart (haha). Nothing against Twilight, as I actually quite like it, but I am not a fan of the character of Bella or the tosspot actress who plays her; Stewart wouldn’t know emotion if it came up and smacked her in the face. Right, I’ve gone off topic once again.

There were three characters during this film which I thought stood out amongst the rest, the first is Minerva McGonagall. Throughout the whole series, in both books and films, McGonagall has been a strong character, not easily swayed. However throughout the film series, her character has been slowly reduced until she was hardly present, but thankfully Deathly Hallows Part 2 brought her back with a vengence. Duelling with Snape showed her Gryffindor courage and no matter her age, she still fought strong, even when he & the Carrows could have brought her down and with a lot more nastier curses than she was using. Then, her motherly & teacher instinct came more to the surface when protecting the school; they could not have asked for a more powerful actress to play such a forceful and well respected teacher than Maggie Smith.

Second is Severus Snape. Most scenes that contained this character were absolutely emotional. Again, the duelling scene with Mcgonagall was an epic one, particularly his exist as he took his “Death Eater form”, and smashed straight out of the window. After this scene, any that contained Snape made you feel sympathetic towards the character becuase of where his true alliegances lay. The death of Snape brought millions fans around the world to tears; even in the full screening room I sat in on opening night, I could hear a good majority of the audience sniffing and sobbing, and this included myself. This was also quite a gruesome moment, even though all you saw was Voldemort use a curse which slit his throat and Nagini leaning in for the kill; hearing the sounds of the body banginig on the wall/window of the boat house as the snake attacked him was enough for me to literally jump out of my seat and make my skin crawl. The sobbing continued as Harry entered the boathouse to try and aid Snape’s fatefull wounds but knowing it would do no good as he watched his former teacher cry out his memories, begging him to take them. I didn’t think the film could get anymore emotional after Snape’s dying wish was to look into Harry’s eyes, commenting that their his mother’s (obviously the comment didn’t mean anything to Harry at that point except for him saying something so many others had before him), however this was before I witnessed Snape’s memories. I must admit, I thought they were going to go into a tad more detail, giving the fact that they missed out the whole plot that Lily despised James before their seventh year in Hogwarts and how Lily cut Snape off as a friend from fifth year onwards because of him calling her a mudblood, however they did not disappoint me in the slightest. Showing this more tender side to Snape was exactly what the film needed to get a tear or two out of EVERYONE watching, if they hadn’t been crying already. It was emotional enough in the book when you found out that Snape had known Lily before going to Hogwarts and had always loved her, but I did not expect the added extra of Snape visiting the house after she had been killed. It definitely pulled on my heartstrings seeing such a strong character breakdown in such a way, especially when he was holding her body while he grieved for the one person who saw good in him, Harry crying in the background. This new portrayal of Snape showed just how talented of an actor Alan Rickman is and how he is the only actor alive made for playing this character; he has played villains many times before during his career, but how many of them has realised their mistakes and changed for the better? I don’t think any actor in the world could do such a magnificent job of playing the memorably character of Snape as Rickman did; if the Potter films are re-created in around 20 years time, whoever will be given the responsibility of playing the potions master will have A LOT to live up to.

Finally last, but certainly not least, is Neville Longbottom. Neville has grown up greatly from the podgey little first year he started out to be in Philosopher’s Stone, and not just physically. Yes, he always had a certain amount of that Gryffindor courage inside of him, considering he earned that final ten points they needed to win the house cup when he bravely stood up to his friends for what he thought was right, but he more than prooved to everyone that he was placed in the right house in this final film. During the course of the Harry Potter film series, a lot of Neville’s plot lines and scenes had been cut out, the most important being that there was an enormous chance that he could have been the Chosen One and not Harry; David Yates has conveniantly missed this important piece of information out, therefore not giving the character enough screen time, only mentioning him here and there. In my opinion, this was utterly preposterous to leave such a vital plot line out of the films, considering through the book, Neville is basically a main character and you not only see the Golden Trio grow up, you watch him grow up from a little boy who was also orphaned (although for a very different reason to the Boy Who Lived) to a courageous young man who acted for all the right reasons; starting as a “loser” in the background and ending as a true leader. Despite his story being cut short, he definitely lived up to the book’s portrayal; leading the DA as best as possible, fighting like a true hero, sticking up for the way in which the wizarding world should be run and finally destroying the last remaining horcrux. I especially enjoyed him standing up against those thousands of Death Eaters, cheekily asking “you and whose army” when they aren’t permitted to cross the castle’s protection shield and then bringing down the bridge with one mis-aimed spell when the protection is broken. His courageous speech towards Voldemort was also a proud moment for the young Gryffindor, especially considering everyone thought he was joining the opposition; how wrong they were.

One portrayal that I have never been fond of throughout all of the films has been that of Voldemort. Ralph (not Rafe, there is a god-damn l in his name) Fiennes has done an appawling job of playing one of the most sinister fictional characters of our generation; in my opinion, he has not read the description of Voldy very carefully. Voldemort is supposed to speak in a deadly whisper, making his presence even more chilling and those around him feel uncomfortable and on edge, never knowing when he may attack. However, all Fiennes has ever done is shout and yell like a football hooligan at every moment which presents itself; his random outbursts of insane screaming does nothing to improve his supposedly “terrifying” image. Every other portayal of the Dark Lord throughout the film series has been spot on: the Voldemort on the back of Quirrell’s head all the way back in Philosopher’s Stone was exactly right. His voice was the perfect, bone-chilling whisper to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on edge and you even get a quick shot of the scarlet in his eyes when his “remains” fly through Harry after Quirrell has disolved into nothing. The only problem with this Voldemort was that he had a nose, other than that he was perfect and it was a shame that the actor who voiced him was not brought back for Goblet of Fire and onwards; both teenage Tom Riddles were exact to the character description, being that they were both attractive and both played the manipulative side of the sinister but charming lad to a tee; even the boy Riddle (who coincidently is Fiennes’ nephew in real life) had the same unnerving edge the kid who played Damien did in The Omen. Ralph Fiennes is the only portrayal of He Who Shall Not Be Named which has been a let down, in my eyes anyways; the only moment, for the entire time he has played the character, which was at least convincing  was in the last film when he was talking to everyone at Hogwarts but in their heads. His voice was exactly the way it should have been the whole time, unsettling and frightening, making people quiver with fear for not knowing how he will react if he is disobeyed and does happen to shout.

Another major problem with Voldemort in this film was the fact that he was more out of character than normal. For instance, there was hardly a moment in any of the books where the Dark Lord laughed in any way, so giggling and cackling like a school child when he thought that Harry was dead was definitely farfetched, what was that about? I was very much stunned when he did this, sitting in my seat with my mouth agape wondering what the hell was going on. The second time I saw the film, the whole screening room were in fits of laughter he was that ridiculous. How is an evil dark wizard supposed to keep his image when he is acting like a teenage chav? Then there was the fact that he hugged Draco…he HUGGED him!!! Voldemort does not have a heart & he certainly doesn’t have the qualities of a cuddley teddybear, so there is no way in hell that he would hug anyone. If anyone were to show any sort of affection like that towards him, he would kill them on the spot before they had a chance to get near him. Look at what he did to Bellatrix when she went to help him up from the ground after he used the killing curse on Harry in the Forbidden Forrest, he pushed her away. So why on earth would he give a teenage boy a hug? As you can tell, this out-of-character portrayal gets on my nerves just a tad.

Apart from the couple of points that I have mentioned, I very much enjoyed Deathly Hallows Part 2 and am still very sad and emotional that it is all over. However, true fans like myself will never believe it is over when we have the books and films to turn back on when we are getting withdrawal symptoms. Also, there is Pottermore & the launch of a new website, myhogwarts.co.uk; it is a website which will act as the actual Hogwarts, giving you the chance to actually be taught there but online of course; enrollment begins next June. Then there’s the opening of the Warner Brothers Studio Tour – The Making of Harry Potter at the end of March in London, giving you a chance to view the actual sets, props, costumes, creatures and much, much more. All of these are great ways to talk to other obsessive fans and discuss different theories and so on. As long as the fans stay behind Harry Potter, it will always be a known phenomenon which will never be forgotten and will always be remembered through pages, screen and everyone’s hearts.

Potter maybe be finished, but it will always stay alive to those who honour it.

*Poster does not belong to me, found it on that fascinating search engine Google*