So I was re-reading (for literally over the tenth time) The Prisoner of Azkaban, and once again I was reminded of how much I hate Snape. This little shithead took over Lupin's class for a day and specifically taught the class about werewolves in order to out Lupin as one. Which is undeniably shitty considering the discrimination against werewolves in the HP world. Had the lesson had Snape's desired effect, where students connected the dots and realised that Lupin was a werewolf (as snape set an essay on how to recognise werewolves) students and parents would complain and he'd be sacked. Lupin had struggled to find a job all his life, was notably poor, and would be unlikely to find another job again. Snape wanted to cast Lupin into poverty all because he was bitter over bullying that occurred years ago, which I might mention wasn't even bullying because it wasn't one sided. His problem wasn't even primarily with Lupin, it was with his long dead friend. Seem reasonable to you? Not only that, he assigned an essay on how to kill werewolves that Lupin would have to mark. Imagine that. You suffer your entire life of a condition you had no control over, experience extreme discrimination, and have to read essays by your students on how to kill you fueled by hate for your kind? Haha no, fuck that. Fuck snape. He did eventually let slip that Lupin was a werewolf after Sirius got away resulting in Lupin losing his job and struggling for the rest of his life.
It gets worse when you consider that J.K Rowling announced post canon that werewolves were supposed to be an allegory for people with h.i.v and aids. Considering the aids crisis and the lgbt+, especially gay men and mlm in general's history with aids....I think you can understand the implications of this.
But hey, it's fine, Snape's a hero because he loved Lily Potter the whole time! Because love excuses all the shitty things you've done in your life, like bullying innocent children to the point where one child who's parents where tortured into fucking insanity by Voldemort fears you more than anything else in the world. Snape loved Lily soooo much he obsessed over her and based his entire life on her, but not enough to stop him from running around with wizard nazi's who wanted her and "her kind" dead and tortured, and not enough to stop him from calling her the wizard equivalent of the n word. Sure, he apologised after he called her a mudblood, but not because it was wrong. He had noooo problem with that word and it's implications, he just didn't think of Lily that way, no, she wasn't like the other mudbloods, she was different. Hmm. Yeah. Fuck you Snape.
Oh, but J.K Rowling loves Snape so much, she even wrote Harry to name his child after Snape. Snape, who never failed to make his life a misery, or his fellow students. You know who he should've named his kid after? Hagrid. Hagrid was one of the very few adults who never had any ulterior motives for Harry. He never saw Harry as a means to win a war, or to gain power, or as his father. He saw Harry as a boy who he cared about before he even knew him.
Hagrid was the one who walked into the Potters House to rescue Harry. Snape had also been there, but he ignored the crying baby who'd just witnessed his parents murder, and sat down crying over a corpse who didn't want anything to do with him in life. Hagrid baked Harry a cake, and bought him an owl upon meeting him. He constantly thought of Harry, hand-carving him a flute, making him a photo album of his parents, writing to all of their old friends to collect photos (AND THIS WAS ALL IN THE FIRST BOOK) to throwing himself off a motorcycle in mid-air to attack a death eater that was attacking Harry, risking his life. As far as Hagrid knew, he would die. He sacrificed himself for Harry. Hagrid brought Harry into the wizarding world, and was the one to carry him back when he "died." Hagrid has always been there for Harry and the fact that he receives no recognition makes my blood boil.
What has Snape even got going for him? A sad backstory? I'm not saying James Potter wasn't a shithead, but Snape retaliated. He was constantly trying to get them expelled. He knocked a branch down on Petunia's head at a young age. He, of his own free will, joined the death eaters at Hogwarts and only stopped after Lily was killed. Not because he saw a problem with blood purity and torturing muggleborns, but because the girl he was obsessed with was killed. Had it been Alice and Frank Longbottom, he would've have cared. Snape was no hero. He wasn't brave. He deserves nothing.
Hagrid has a sad backstory. As a half giant, he and his family experienced discrimination from a young age as his father married a giantess. His mother wasn't kind to him, described as "not very maternal." His father died when he was 13. He was expelled from Hogwarts for something he didn't do, used as Tom Riddle's scapegoat "because who would believe oafish Hagrid who raised monsters?" He was outed as a giant and received cruel notes from students and parents, was always treated poorly by students due to his connection with Harry and because he was a gamekeeper and seen as lesser. Hagrid was never given much in life, but was always kind. He never lashed out at anyone undeserving. He was loyal, and he was brave. He was actually very talented at magic, considering when Ron's wand snapped in half he could barely make it work, when Hagrid (who never competed school beyond his third year) could perform spells with the shattered pieces of his wand.
Hagrid is so underrated it hurts. If I was brave enough I'd write a post war fic where Hagrid is invited to learn magic at Hogwarts again, with Harry as the defense against the dark arts teacher (as he should've been. An auror, my ass) based off this
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