SEVERUS SNAPE

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Severus Snape was born 9 January, 1960 to Eileen Prince, a pure-blood witch, and Tobias Snape, a Muggle, making him a half-blood wizard. Severus, ashamed of his Muggle father, began to identify with his mother's family and created a secret nickname from his mother's maiden name, calling himself "the Half Blood Prince." It is implied that Severus was a loner and was a victim of neglect by his parents. This neglect (and possible physical and/or verbal abuse by his father) contributed to Severus' unpleasant personality and cruel behavior in his adulthood. He was an extremely powerful wizard and was talented in many different branches of magic.

Some of his many abilities:

Dark Arts Mastery: Severus had a talent and passion for the Dark Arts from a young age, and was especially proficient at curses. He invented the Sectumsempra curse and it became one of his specialities. He had enough knowledge about dark magic to know how to save some people from its effects, even from the most advanced curses cast by Lord Voldemort himself. His view on the Dark Arts was so deep in fact, that when he spoke of them to his students in 1996 he made it seem like an art. Snape also used a Killing Curse to kill the great wizard Albus Dumbledore.

Master Potioneer: Severus specialized in Potion making, teaching the subject at Hogwarts as an adult and able to come up with innovative methods to achieve quicker and better results as a teenage student, as written in his old textbook. Snape was shown to have known how to brew very complicated potions as an aside like Veritaserum, the Wolfsbane Potion and an unknown golden potion that he used to save Dumbledore's life (temporarily) in 1996. He is also shown to identify Polyjuice Potion by smell.

Spell Creator: As a student at Hogwarts, Severus had a gift for creating new spells. Some of the spells he invented were Sectumsempra, healing spell Vulnera Sanentur, Langlock curse, Muffliato spell, the non-verbal Levicorpus and its counter-curse, Liberacorpus. Sectumsempra, in particular, became one of Snape's specialties.

Occlumency Master and Legilimency Expert: Severus was a master of both Occlumency and Legilimency and he was able to both protect his own thoughts and access the minds of others. In particular, his skill in Occlumency is very noteworthy, as he used it to hide his betrayal from Lord Voldemort, who was regarded as the most skilled Legilimens of all time. This implies that Snape may be the most skilled Occlumens of all time, though Gellert Grindelwald was also able to resist Voldemort's Legilimency. However since Severus was in Voldemort's presence far more often than Grindelwald, he may have had to use Occlumency more frequently, though Voldemort's trust in Snape may have caused him to feel that he didn't need to read his mind.

Patronus Charm: Severus was the only known Death Eater that was able to produce a Patronus, which, like Lily Potter's, was a doe. The most likely reason for this is that Severus was not a loyal Death Eater, and that his love for Lily was stronger even than his practice of the Dark Arts.

Master Duelist: Severus was shown to be a master duellist, as he was able to hold his own against extremely powerful witch Minerva McGonagall, though he fled after the arrival of Pomona Sprout and Filius Flitwick. He assisted in a dueling club in 1992 with Gilderoy Lockhart, defeating and humiliating him with a single spell (though Lockhart was a rather weak wizard). He also easily defeated Harry Potter during his escape from the battle of the Astronomy Tower. Severus was proficient at blocking spells and effortlessly deflected every single one of Harry's spells during their duel and reacted with incredible speed to defend himself from Minerva McGonagall. Snape was also capable of blocking the Cruciatus Curse. He had an unpredictable dueling style since he often used the spells he created to catch his opponents off guard. Additionally his skill in Legilimency gave him an advantage because he was able to anticipate other peoples spells as shown when he saw into Harry's mind and realized he was about to use Levicorpus. Severus participated in the battle over Little Whinging, still pretending to be a Death Eater, and attempted to protect Remus Lupin by severing a Death Eater's wand hand using Sectumsempra. His spell missed and severed George Weasley's ear but it should be noted that he was flying at the time and it was more difficult to aim spells whilst maneuvering a broomstick.

Transfiguration Expert: Severus was able to conjure ropes, vanish potions and Transfigure a lasso of fire that McGonagall used against him during their duel into a giant serpent.

Charms Mastery: Another of Severus' great talents was his ability to use simple and advanced charms without fail, such as levitation, disarming, shields, the Mending Charm and he was able to write instructions on a black board with a single flick of his wand.

Flight: Severus could fly without the use of a broom or any other visible materialistic support. The only other known wizards that were able to do this were Lord Voldemort and Quirinus Quirrell (though Quirrel was possessed by Voldemort when he used this ability). Voldemort most likely taught Snape the method to do so. However Snape appeared to prefer using a broom.

Non-Verbal and Wandless Magic: In a Potions class in 1991 Snape cleaned up a huge mess that Neville Longbottom had made with a wave of his wand without saying anything. During Harry Potter's first ever Quidditch match, Snape fought against a curse that was affecting Harry's broom by mouthing incantations silently and without the use of his wand. In 1994, Snape caused some binds that were holding Remus Lupin to extend to his hand with a snap of his fingers and during his duels with Harry and Minerva McGonagall it was not stated that he said any incantations. Also, in his youth before he had even purchased a wand, he caused a branch to snap loose from a tree and hit Petunia Evans on the shoulder, however, this - like the experiments of under-age magic, caused by Harry Potter - might have been an accident brought on by anger.

Counter Curses: Severus was also skilled at using counter-curses, as he helped save Katie Bell after she touched a cursed opal necklace, and Albus Dumbledore after he touched Marvolo Gaunt's Ring, though he was unable to actually stop the ring's curse, merely slow down its effects. When Harry Potter used Sectumsempra on Draco Malfoy, Snape easily healed Draco with a healing charm he invented. He also mouthed a counter-curse in an attempt to save Harry when Quirinus Quirrell tried to throw him off his broom, although it didn't seem to work very well, though it should be noted that Quirrell's power was augmented because he was possessed by Lord Voldemort. Also Severus was not using his wand at the time.

Logical Thinking: Snape devised the sixth obstacle, a logic puzzle, to guard the Philosopher's Stone.

Intellectual genius: Snape has been said to be extremely intelligent numerous times throughout the series, using logic and common sense, and rarely his emotions, to sort through problems. He speaks using a complex vocabulary. As a student he made improvements to his potions textbook and invented his own spells at the same time.



RESPECT