please remember to direct all blame for this to Severus Snape considering he’s the asshole who ruined everything for Remus.

Even worse, he didn’t even do it for a decent reason. He was butthurt at Sirius escaping the Dementor’s Kiss and that he didn’t get an award for that happening.

Look, I enjoy hating Snape as much as the next person, but I think there’s more to it than that. I can even see his point (not that I’m happy about his actions). While obviously the events of that night were so extremely out of the ordinary that the chances of it ever happening again are barely there, the fact is still that Remus forgot to take his Wolfsbane and endangered students (and Snape). I am completely sympathetic towards Remus in this situation, but this does illustrate that, yes, things can go wrong. Also bear in mind that Snape was genuinely afraid. At least that’s what it seemed like to me. In PoA there are moments where he seems more scared than just hateful. In the scene where he brings Remus his potion (while Harry is in his office) he’s very tense and very insistent that Remus drink it immediately. It’s like he needs to make sure because he’s actually terrified. And given his experience with the Prank, that’s completely understandable.

No, Remus couldn’t be blamed for that and yes, Snape probably is very prejudiced and likely would have been without that trauma, but it’s not just him hating Remus or being pissy over Sirius getting away or him not getting an award. I think that definitely played a large part, but more in a last drop sort of way. (Also, since when is character A stating what they think are character B’s feelings a reliable way of analyzing character B’s actual feelings?) Just look at the emotional rollercoaster that was that night.

Not only did he think he was faced with someone who played a role in Lily’s death, he was humiliated and defied and faced with a berserk werewolf again. And then brutally proven wrong. Ouch. Can you imagine how desperate he must be to be able to blame someone else, to alleviate the weight of his own guilt? (It would be an illusion, of course) Especially if it was someone he hated, ESPECIALLY especially if that someone was part of the friend group Lily put her faith in over him? He was forced to let go of probably his sole tiny consolation, spiteful as it may be, of that one instance of him being right for once. But that was taken from him.

And on top of it all, he know, he just KNOWS, that this other person he hates, despite withholding crucial information that could potentially have saved lives, despite directly endangering several people and causing everything to get completely out of hand, will remain in Dumbledore’s favor. He will let him off (seemingly to Snape) AGAIN.

And that’s where he took matters into his own hands.

That said, Remus only being able to teach for a single year is a crying shame. He was fan-fucking-tastic with the students. I do think that, even if Snape hadn’t outed him, Remus likely would’ve resigned anyway, out of a sense of responsibility and guilt.

I’m glad you’ve said this, because it makes some important points that need to be discussed.

Yes, Remus fucked up massively by forgetting his Wolfsbane (though I’d like to point out that in extreme situations, it’s entirely normal for people forget to take their meds), and fucked up morally by not telling Dumbledore how Sirius might be getting into the castle. Here’s my question - how does outing him as a werewolf - something that in and of itself he is in no way to blame for - address either his carelessness or his selfishness?

It doesn’t. Furthermore, Remus’ wrongdoings (at least in the form of forgetting his meds) did get addressed - Dumbledore and Fudge discuss it, according to Remus. As Remus’ employer and the guy who literally runs the society Remus lives in, they get to make that decision between them. Snape doesn’t have to like it, but as someone who has himself benefitted from Dumbledore’s defense in the past, he does have to accept it. As Remus’ colleague, not employer, the matter was never in his hands and didn’t belong there, and as someone who received Dumbledore’s defense after Death Eating, he doesn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to ‘but I was worried you would defend him’. (he also doesn’t have a leg to stand on to accuse someone else of attempting to assist Voldemort’s supposed right hand man, but that’s a discussion for another time)

Also, you really think Snape himself doesn’t benefit from Dumbledore’s defense and favour? Plenty of people question Snape’s allegiences and behaviour in the books, and Dumbledore basically tells them ‘I trust him, no I won’t tell you why because it’s not your business (even when it is, in fact, Harry’s business), that will have to be enough for you’. Why doesn’t Remus deserve the same?

Aside from the fact that Remus seemed eager to leave anyway, Snape didn’t all of a sudden decide a werewolf was too dangerous to be a teacher after that night. Him deliberately changing up Remus’ curriculum to study werewolves happened back around November - when he had no proof of any wrongdoing on Remus’ part at all. He’d been trying to get other people’s bigotry to work against Remus for months. Worst of it is? He’s a Legilimens and a Potions Master. If he really, honestly believed Remus was actively helping Lily’s supposed betrayer, it’s within his power to use those things to find the confirmation he seeks. Seems to me he was more afraid of being proven wrong than proven right.

I get what you’re saying, really I do, but my pity for Snape’s emotional turmoil ends the moment he chooses to soothe that turmoil by exposing someone he hates and tried to murder the night before to bigotry based on the one thing Remus isn’t actually to blame for either that night or that year - being a werewolf in the first place. There’s a big, BIG difference between ‘Remus Lupin did nothing to be held accountable for’ and ‘Severus Snape did not have the right to hold him accountable, particularly by exposing his stigmatized condition’

There were ways that Snape could have registered his anger and concerns about Remus’ behaviour and held him accountable for his bad choices without relying on other people’s bigotry to do the job for him. The fact that that’s what he chose indicates to me that that’s the part of Remus that he ultimately can’t handle - that he’s a werewolf and, as you say, was part of Lily’s friend group once he himself was not. Remember, JKR explicitly lays Snape’s motivation on his ‘resentment’. Let’s not attribute a noble intention he clearly didn’t have.

Basically I agree on everything you just said — literally everything. I’m not sure where you got the idea that I thought Snape’s actions were justified in any way. My problem was with  Snape’s reaction being simplified to “butt hurt”. He may be a dick about it, as usual, but that doesn’t mean his pain isn’t real and complex.

Also, everything you said about him having the same (+more) perks as Remus, yes! Definitely. I don’t think I implied that he didn’t. But we all know that emotions aren’t rational (much less Snape’s!). Same thing for him outing Remus. Not his place. And it’s legit one of the worst things you can do (and yes, he’d been trying all year, but I mean that the last drop — or all these last drops — meant that he just straight up said it, fuck subtlety. That’s pretty fucking desperate for Snape).

I definitely never thought he was more concerned with the school’s safety than with his brutally hurt pride (though I do maintain that he was legitimately afraid for himself). The fact that Remus “fucked up” and get away with it (not that Remus could ever really get away with anything, but Snape doesn’t (want to) see that) wouldn’t offend him out of concern but because in his mind, the Marauders always get away with everything (most notably when he is involved). Of course this also means that he probably thinks any talking to Remus got was way too mild. I don’t even think he can see when he has perks that others do not (like when he accuses Dumbledore of not telling him anything despite saying he trusts him, in the Prince’s tale. Even though he is the one person who gets the most information out of the entire Order).

I do think that he was perfectly aware that he has no leg to stand on when it comes to the blame of Lily’s death. That’s exactly my point — it’s why he’s so desperate to cling to blaming Sirius; if he can’t do that, he has to focus on his own very real guilt.

So, my response was not meant to point out where Remus fucked up (because I don’t think they should need to be pointed out to anyone) and how that gives Snape ‘rational’ reasons to do any of the shit he does, but rather to illustrate how he might have experienced the whole thing as being, yet again, completely unfair to him. I wanted to point out that this is indeed how he registers his anger — that he isn’t just being pissy for some small petty reason. To him it’s anything but small, as we can tell by how he completely loses his cool.

The fact that all his bullshit comes from pain means that it is absolutely resentment. Oh hell is it ever. If it were out of some noble (ooc) concern for the students or whatever, it wouldn’t come out in the way it did (him completely losing his shit in front of important people, for example).

I think our levels of pity for Snape are at pretty much the same level. But empathy is not sympathy.

(And let’s face it: fandom in general often seems to just not WANT to empathize with whomever is easy to dislike. I haven’t seen this on your blog yet per se, but it’s everywhere. Even(/especially) assholes have real, deep feelings and not even attempting to understand how those can coexist with shitty actions just makes for poor reflection, frankly)

Oh sure, I didn’t think you disagreed, but I’ve seen far too many people take your points about Snape’s felings and use them to argue that what Snape did was justified, he was just holding Remus accountable, he had a right to interfere because Dumbledore, etc. I addressed those arguments not because I thought you were making them but rather that so many others do and I feel it’s really important to point out that it isn’t actually so. As you said earlier, just because a character thinks something does not make it true, and that applies to Snape, both in this instance and many others in the books. Maybe I shouldn’t have written it off as butthurt, I’ll grant that was a bit flippant of me, but as I said, there’s only so far that Snape’s emotions can excuse him. id write more, but my computer’s turned off and I’m on a tablet, so it’s a bit tricky. I wasn’t actually trying to diminish your points at all.