Severitus

Severitus/Snarry is the family/Slash ship between Harry Potter and Severus Snape from the Harry Potter fandom

Canon
From the day Harry set foot in Hogwarts, he and Snape loathed each other. Despite the fact that Snape wanted to honor Lily's sacrifice, he could not bring himself to judge the boy objectively because of his connection to James Potter, who had bullied him in his school days. Indeed, Snape felt nothing but contempt and bitterness toward Harry, who reminded him of both Lily and James. Harry served as living proof that Lily had given her love to someone else, and Snape wasted no time in comparing him to his father.

During Harry's time at Hogwarts, Snape treated Harry viciously, both in and out of class. He frequently mocked the boy's abilities, bullied him in class and punished him whenever possible. He was also resentful and even somewhat envious of Harry's popularity, which he equated with that of Harry's father. Although Snape threatened to have Harry expelled more than once, he never attempted to do so, presumably because Harry would have lost the protection that surrounded him. However, he never forgot that Harry was also Lily's child, and this led him to put the boy's safety above bureaucratic rules. When he learned that Dumbledore had intended for Harry to die all along, Severus remained horrified, seeing it as a calculated betrayal of Lily's memory.

When Harry helped Sirius Black escape, their relationship was further strained, as Snape believed at the time that Sirius had betrayed Lily to Voldemort while Harry had learned of his innocence, though Snape continued to put Harry's safety first. During the brief period when Snape gave private lessons in Occlumency, Snape enjoyed forcing Harry to relive his worst memories. In the early years, Harry associated Snape with his abusive and bullying ways, but when Sirius died, Harry took great pleasure in blaming Snape for mocking Sirius as useless, causing him to leave his hiding place and join the battle. Although Snape came to the Order's aid as quickly as possible, Harry blamed Snape mainly to assuage his own guilty conscience about the whole incident. However, this was nothing compared to the retroactive rage Harry felt when he found out that Snape was the one who gave the prophecy to Lord Voldemort, causing him to hunt down Harry and his family. When he later murdered Dumbledore, the hatred between them was almost as personal as that between Harry and Voldemort.

Only once did Snape ever truly see him as Lily's son, and that was in the moments before he died. After that, Harry was given access to all of Snape's hidden memories, which revealed his former teacher's true intentions. When Harry discovered the love Snape had for his mother, and the constant danger he put himself in to ensure his safety, his opinion of him changed completely. By adulthood, all of Harry's hatred for Snape seems to have vanished, and it appears that he never harbored it. This can be seen in his request that a portrait of Snape be hung in the Hogwarts Headmaster's office, which was not done immediately after Snape's death, as he had left his post. In addition, Harry named his youngest son "Albus Severus", telling him that his Slytherin namesake was "the bravest man I ever knew."

Books
''‘Potter!’ said Snape suddenly. ‘What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?’''

''‘Powdered root of what to an infusion of what?’ Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione’s hand had shot into the air. ‘I don’t know, sir,’ said Harry. Snape’s lips curled into a sneer.''

‘Tut, tut – fame clearly isn’t everything.’”

— Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

‘Do you remember me telling you we are practicing nonverbal spells, Potter?’

''‘Yes,’ said Harry stiffly. ‘Yes, sir’ ‘There’s no need to call me ‘sir,’ Professor."”''

— Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

 'Maybe he’s ill!’ said Ron hopefully.

''‘Maybe he’s left,’ said Harry, ‘because he missed out on the Defense Against Dark Arts job again!’ ‘Or he might have been sacked!’ said Ron enthusiastically. ‘I mean, everyone hates him —’''

‘Or maybe,’ said a very cold voice right behind them, ‘he’s waiting to hear why you two didn’t arrive on the school train'

— Harry Potter and the Chamber of Sercets

'' 'Mr Malfoy then saw an extraordinary apparition. Can you imagine what it might have been, Potter?’''

''‘No,’ said Harry, now trying to sound innocently curious. ‘It was your head, Potter. Floating in mid-air.’ There was a long silence. ‘Maybe he’d better go to Madam Pomfrey,’ said Harry.''

‘If he’s seeing things like –’

‘What would your head have been doing in Hogsmeade, Potter?’ said Snape softly.

''‘Your head is not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of your body has permission to be in Hogsmeade.’ ‘I know that,’ said Harry, striving to keep his face free of guilt or fear. ‘It sounds like Malfoy’s having hallucin — ’''

''‘Malfoy is not having hallucinations,’ snarled Snape, and he bent down, a hand on each arm of Harry’s chair, so that their faces were a foot apart. ‘If your head was in Hogsmeade, so was the rest of you.’''

— Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

 'How extraordinarily like your father you are, Potter,’ Snape said suddenly, his eyes glinting.

''‘He too was exceedingly arrogant. A small amount of talent on the Quidditch field made him think he was a cut above the rest of us too. Strutting around the place with his friends and admirers... The resemblance between you is uncanny.’''

''‘My dad didn't strut,’ said Harry, before he could stop himself. ‘And neither do I.’''

— Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

''‘I wish to interrogate him!’ shouted Umbridge angrily, and Snape looked away from Harry back into her furiously quivering face. ‘I wish you to provide me with a potion that will force him to tell me the truth!’''

''‘I have already told you,’ said Snape smoothly, ‘that I have no further stocks of Veritaserum. Unless you wish to poison Potter – and I assure you I would have the greatest sympathy with you if you did – I cannot help you. The only trouble is that most venoms act too fast to give the victim much time for truth-telling.’''

— Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

''“‘You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented them--I, the Half-Blood Prince! And you'd turn my inventions on me, like your filthy father, would you? I don't think so. . . no!’''

''Harry had dived for his wand; Snape shot a hex at it and it flew feet away into the darkness and out of sight. ‘ Kill me then,’ panted Harry, who felt no fear at all, but only rage and contempt. ‘Kill me like you killed him, you coward--’ ‘DON'T--" screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the burning house behind them, ‘--CALL ME COWARD’”''

— Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

'' 'A flask, conjured from thin air, was thrust into his shaking hands by Hermione. Harry lifted the silvery substance into it with his wand. When the flask was full to the brim, and Snape looked as though there was no blood left in him, his grip on Harry’s robes slackened.''

''‘Look ... at ... me ...’ he whispered.''

''The green eyes found the black, but after a second something in the depths of the dark pair seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, blank and empty. The hand holding Harry thudded to the floor, and Snape moved no more.’''

— Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

''“‘I have spied for you, and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Lily Potter’s son safe. Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter –’''

''‘But this is touching, Severus,’ said Dumbledore seriously. ‘Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?’''

— Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Films
Harry Potter: Sir, it's Quidditch tomorrow.

Professor Snape: Then I suggest you take extra care, Mr. Potter, loss of limb will not excuse you.Page 394. – “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2003)”

Family (Severitus)
This ship is when a fanfiction describes a situation where Snape becomes a father figure to Harry in some way; this often involves Snape being forced to adopt Harry after his parents die or something. They share a trauma from the war, and were also led into certain positions by Dumbledore, whom they had to trust, but were never given the full plan/specific information.

So they understand each other, they have a lot in common, and I don't think they would be anything but brutally honest with each other.

Romantic (Snarry)
Snarry was popular long before Lily's revelation, when the series was still running. Many of the classic Snarry fics were written between 2001 and 2005. This was when Snape's motivations were still unknown, so many writers wrote a darker, more complicated dynamic with power imbalances between the two.

On AO3 this ship is the most written ship for Snape and the second most written ship for Harry - with similar (and sometimes higher) popularity on FFN.net.

Fans of this ship love enemy-to-lover and redemption arcs, and their positions in the story and their roles in each other's lives promise an amazing potential dynamic. Snape and Harry are also mirror images of each other in many ways and have a lot in common. They were both abused, bullied, half-bloods who grew up in the Muggle world and had their lives changed by Voldemort. Snape is also pretty much responsible for everything that went wrong in Harry's life, and from Snape's point of view, Harry is the embodiment of all Snape's sins and mistakes, and a living reminder of everything that's wrong in Snape's life, a symbol of all the betrayals - his own and those inflicted upon him.

In Snarry, a lot of the postwar stories focus on the similarities between Harry and Snape and the dynamic of them working together. Both had difficult childhoods, both found a home at Hogwarts, both liked power, both played important roles in the war with Harry as the weapon and Severus as the tool. Both had survived so much danger. All that Severus had done to keep Harry alive over the years. How important he was as a spy for the DARK LORD. Both just used and seen as pawns and pushed around, Severus useful for his skills and connections, Harry useful for his destiny.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION
 * Harry/Severus on FanFiction.Net
 * Harry/Severus on FanFiction.Net
 * Harry/Severus on FanFiction.Net
 * Harry/Severus on FanFiction.Net


 * TUMBLR


 * TWITTER
 * Snarry tag on Twitter
 * HP/SS tag on Twitter