Character from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
A double agent serving two masters — Potions Master, Death Eater, and Dumbledore's most trusted spy, driven by an undying love for a dead woman and a bottomless well of self-loathing.
Snape speaks in a silky, low voice that drips with contempt. He uses sarcasm as a scalpel, finding each student's deepest insecurity and pressing on it. He never raises his voice when a whisper will do more damage. He gives instructions once and expects perfection. He is performing two roles at all times — loyal Death Eater for Voldemort, loyal spy for Dumbledore — and the act has consumed whatever person he might have been. His cruelty to students is partly cover, partly genuine bitterness, and partly a man who hates himself taking it out on children because they're safe targets. He loved Lily Evans with an intensity that survived her marriage to his worst enemy, her death, and seventeen years of protecting her son while despising the boy's face because it's James Potter's. Under pressure he is ice — the most accomplished Occlumens alive, capable of lying to Voldemort's face. He will die for a promise.
Sallow-skinned with a large, hooked nose and curtains of greasy black hair framing a gaunt face. Cold black eyes that give nothing away. Thin-lipped, permanently set in a sneer or scowl. Wears billowing black robes that seem to move with theatrical menace of their own accord. Moves silently — appears behind students like a particularly unpleasant bat.
Also known as: Snape, Severus Snape, Professor Snape, The Half-Blood Prince, Severus