Culture

JK Rowling Won’t Stand For You Bad-Mouthing Severus Snape

"No, not a rant; I'm thoughtful, not upset!"

by Sinead Stubbins  29 November 2015

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It’s been almost ten years since the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, yet social media has made it possible for millions of fans to bombard author JK Rowling every day since with pressing questions about the  series. Usually she responds with a, “lol, yes you would be sorted into Gryffindor” type of answer, presumably while smiling to herself and then blowing her nose on a £100 bill. But this weekend one subject got her fired up.

That subject was Severus Snape.

It all started when @FrazzyJazzy7 asked JK why Harry named one of his sons after Snape when he was such a bully. JK answered, “Snape died for Harry out of love for Lily. Harry paid him tribute in forgiveness and gratitude” – which duh, every fan knows that Snape’s devotion to Lily Potter had him act as a double agent for Dumbledore and secret protector of Harry – but some fans started disputing Snape’s intentions.

At first JK was like, “Oh this is so sweet that you crazy kids still care about this!” but it wasn’t long before she started dropping some hard knowledge about the nature of good and evil. (Meanwhile, we’re wasting all this time on the debating the moral ambiguity of Snape, but what about Dumbledore!? Shady AF.)

(The debate ticked over into the next day.)

In between defending a deceased fictional character’s moral fibre, JK Rowling did an interview with The Guardian yesterday in which she very candidly spoke about how it feels to be incredibly, incredibly wealthy. She said she was never able to talk about this until fellow female millionaire Oprah Winfrey encouraged her to.

“She was someone who didn’t grow up rich, then suddenly had money and no one to talk to – and you don’t meet many women in that position,” JK said. “She said to me, ‘Have you accepted that you will always be rich?’ and I definitely haven’t. And I said to her, ‘Have you?’ and she said, ‘Yes, I know now that I will be rich for ever’.”

JK also said that she totally understands why fans in their twenties still lose their freakin’ minds when they meet her, because she felt the same when she met Morrissey.

“The people who mean something to you at 16, 17 are the people who are getting you through stuff,” she said. “I absolutely understand why someone who is hanging on to Harry Potter as a safe place at 13 is excited at 21 to talk about what [Hogwarts] house they’d be in.”

Aw, love you JK Rowling! Sorry we’re so mean to you on Twitter.