Harry Potter: Snape’s Best Decisions In The Prisoner Of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban doesn’t show Snape in the best light – and while he’s clearly one of the villains of the Harry Potter franchise, this is a book/film where he truly makes almost no good decisions. Much of the focus of this installment for Snape is in the grudge he holds against the Marauders – and this leads him to making several truly bad decisions. From refusing to listen to Lupin and Sirius, to his deep suspicions, and even to following Harry under the Whomping Willow, Snape’s decisions go from bad to worse.

Despite this, he does make at least a few good choices over the course of The Prisoner of Azkaban. And given that the Marauders did try to actually kill him as a teen, and the entire Wizarding World thinks Sirius is a mass murderer, holding a grudge can be forgiven! Snape does still spend much of the book/film trying to protect Harry in his own way, and that shouldn’t be overlooked.

5 Brewing The Wolfsbane Potion

Given their history, it can’t have been easy for Snape to brew the Wolfsbane Potion monthly for Lupin, but he chose to do it anyway. Lupin tells Harry that this is a particularly tricky potion, and he wouldn’t trust most people to make it for him – so this isn’t something another teacher (or Lupin himself) could have managed. This is also something that Snape does monthly for the entire year, despite his own suspicions.

Of course, it’s highly likely that Dumbledore essentially forced Snape to make this potion, and Dumbledore’s hold over Snape cannot be denied – so this may not have been an entirely willing decision. It’s also worth mentioning that Snape was the one to eventually out Lupin as a werewolf, leading to his resignation, which goes a way to negating the good choice that he makes here.

4 Setting The Werewolf Essay

This was certainly not a decision made with the best intentions, but Snape’s werewolf essay ended up working out for the best. When he took over Lupin’s class and told them to write a paper on werewolves, it was done so that a student would realize Lupin was a werewolf – which would, presumably, lead to him being fired.

However, Hermione was the only one to put it all together, and she was too smart to be immediately prejudiced against a great teacher because of it. More importantly, though, this essay was presumably what led Hermione to learning about the howl that she later used to draw Lupin away from them. Had she not learned this, she, Ron, and Harry may well have died in this year.

3 Confronts Harry About The Map

Once again, this decision wasn’t made with the best intentions, but actually worked out for the best. When Malfoy tells Snape that he saw Harry in Hogsmeade, Snape manages to corner him about it – and in the process, finds the Marauder’s Map. Thankfully, as Lupin comes along, he is able to confiscate it – and later give it back to Harry.

The vital part of this decision is that Snape’s choice to confront Harry and make him turn out his pockets is what leads to Harry telling Lupin about seeing Peter’s name on the map – and this, in turn, leads to Lupin realizing that Sirius had been set up. Had Snape not gone after Harry for sneaking into the village, things would have turned out very differently! It’s also worth noting that while this may have seemed like a ‘villainous’ thing to do, Snape was under the impression that a killer was after Harry, and was legitimately trying to protect him.

2 Tries To Protect Harry, Ron, and Hermione

In the film, when everything is going wrong and Lupin turns into a werewolf in front of him, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Snape actually leaps in front of the children and tries to protect them. This is a bit of a surprising choice, as Snape is so often set up as a villain who seems to hate children – and these three in particular.

However, Snape makes the brave choice here to try and protect the Golden Trio – even when he is completely incapable of standing up to a fully turned werewolf! He would have sacrificed his own life for them, and it’s a moment that really shows that Snape’s demeanor and misery might not be all there is to him.

1 Accusing Harry Of Rescuing Sirius

At the end of the school year, right as Harry and Hermione are able to save both Sirius and Buckbeack, Snape rushes into the hospital ward to wildly accuse Harry of somehow saving Sirius. This may seem like a bad decision, but it actually works in Harry’s favor.

The Minister may have actually looked a little more closely at the situation had Snape not been absolutely furious and completely wild in his accusations – something that actually led the Minister to assuming that the loss of the Order of Merlin had made Snape reach for completely impossible answers. While Snape would have hated to think that he actually helped Harry get away with saving Sirius, his emotional outburst worked in Harry’s favor here.

About The Author

Rose Graceling-Moore
(1516 Articles Published)

Rose Graceling-Moore has been writing about film, TV and comics since 2013, when she began writing for a local print magazine in Vancouver, BC. Since then, Rose has written for Horror Honeys, Moviepilot and Quirkbooks as well as Screenrant, increasingly focusing on comic books and live-action comic adaptations, as well as diversity and representation on screen. Rose also co-hosted the DC Movies Podcast, and has guested on other nerd and entertainment podcasts over the past five years.

See also  Why James Bond Movie Producer Still Doesn't Want A Female 007

Rose’s love of comics began all the way back in the early ‘90s, when she discovered the X-Men while living in Africa (where there wasn’t a whole lot to do but read!), and since then has had an on-again, off-again love affair with not just Marvel, but DC and indie comics as well. You can follow her on Twitter: RoseMooreWrites for tweets about comics, movies, and more.

More From Rose Graceling-Moore