You may think you know the meaning of professor Snape's Patronus, but even Potterheads don't realize the whole story
The Secret Behind Professor Snape’s Patronus in Harry Potter
Updated Sep. 24, 2024
Expecto Patronum! One of the most beloved spells from one of the most beloved books of all time, the Patronus charm in Harry Potter not only repels evil beings like Dementors but also comes in the form of an animal protector that represents something about the wizard who cast it. Once we find out what a character’s Patronus is, we can learn more about them—which is especially important in the case of professor Snape’s Patronus because he’s such a complex character whose true loyalty remains in question throughout the whole series.
One of the most poignant moments in both the Harry Potter book series and films is when Snape reveals his Patronus (a doe) to headmaster Albus Dumbledore. “After all this time?” Dumbledore asks. “Always,” Snape replies. If you’re tearing up, it’s probably because you know what professor Snape’s Patronus represents—but there’s so much more to it. Did Snape change his Patronus? How did learning about Snape’s Patronus impact Harry? Why was Dumbledore surprised to see what form the Patronus took?
Read on for more about the hidden meaning behind professor Snape’s Patronus. It’s bound to surprise you, whether you read the fantasy book series only once years ago or have dog-eared pretty much every page. (Word of warning: Spoilers ahead!)
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What’s the significance of Patronuses in Harry Potter?
Conjured by the incantation “Expecto Patronum!” (and really, you need to yell it), the Patronus charm is a positive force of hope and happiness that fights against dark magic, specifically Dementors. As Harry learns when professor Lupin teaches him the spell in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, you need to focus on a very happy memory—perhaps your happiest ever—to produce it, which only very talented wizards can do. It can appear as a “shield” of silvery vapor or mist, but the most powerful is a corporeal Patronus, which takes the shape of an animal guardian.
But a witch or wizard can’t choose what animal their Patronus is, and you won’t know what form it will take until you successfully produce it. The animal shape your Patronus takes is a product of your personality, your character and your core self. In some cases, it can even change form after a major life event like falling in love or experiencing a death.
Most dark wizards—including Harry’s nemesis, Draco Malfoy—don’t use Patronuses. That’s because they seek out dark magic instead of fighting against it.
Here’s what some Patronuses reveal about their conjurers:
Harry’s stag
As almost every fan knows, Harry’s Patronus is a stag because his murdered father, James, was an Animangus (a wizard who can turn into an animal) who could transform into a stag, earning him the nickname Prongs. As Dumbledore explains to Harry after he first produces his stag, “Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him. How else could you produce that particular Patronus? Prongs rode again last night.”
So did Harry share a Patronus with his dad? While the books don’t tell us that James Potter’s Patronus was a stag—noting only that it was his Animangus form—author J.K. Rowling later said that was the case. Another curious connection: When Harry first sees his Patronus, he thinks it’s a horse. Interestingly, in the book-to-movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, a horse is the Patronus of his future wife, Ginny Weasley. (We don’t actually see Ginny’s Patronus in the books.)
Hermione’s otter
In Order of the Phoenix, when Harry teaches his fellow students how to do the charm, readers learn that Hermione’s Patronus is an otter. The playful animal is a somewhat unusual choice for serious Hermione, one of the strongest female characters in literature. This may reveal that, deep down, she’s more fun than she lets on.
It also might be a reference to her future husband, Ron Weasley, whose name is similar to weasel, a relative of the otter. (Ron’s dad, Arthur, actually has a weasel for a Patronus, as we see in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.)
Ron’s terrier
Readers don’t learn Ron’s Patronus until the Battle of Hogwarts at the end of Deathly Hallows: Harry “saw Ron’s silver terrier burst into the air.” Like man’s best friend, Ron is a very loyal companion to Harry. And curiously, terriers were bred to hunt rodents and small animals like … otter.
Tonks’s wolf
One of the most interesting Patronuses in the Harry Potter books is Auror Nymphadora Tonks’s—because hers changes. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry sees her conjure her Patronus, describing it as “an immense silvery four-legged creature.”
Snape, being Snape, snidely says to Tonks, “I was interested to see your new Patronus … I think you were better off with the old one.”
When Harry says he didn’t know Patronuses could change, Lupin tells him it can happen due to “a great shock … an emotional upheaval.” The books don’t say what Tonks’s Patronus was originally (although the official Harry Potter site, Wizarding World, says it was a jackrabbit), but Harry discovers at the end of Half-Blood Prince that it changed to a wolf after she fell in love with Lupin, a werewolf.
Other Patronuses
Here’s some more Harry Potter trivia: Readers see other students’ and adults’ Patronuses throughout the Harry Potter series. Those include the following.
- Professor Dumbledore’s phoenix (most of the time, Patronuses are regular animals, not magical creatures, but we all know Dumbledore is one of a kind)
- Professor McGonagall’s cat, the same as her Animangus form, which she uses at the Battle of Hogwarts
- Kingsley Shacklebolt’s lynx, which sends a crucial warning to revelers at Bill Weasley’s wedding (Patronuses are also used as a sort of wizarding text message)
- Aberforth Dumbledore’s goat
- Luna Lovegood’s “mad” hare
- Cho Chang’s graceful swan
- Seamus Finnegan’s sly fox
- Ernie MacMillan’s strong-willed boar
When do we see Snape’s Patronus?
The first time we see professor Snape’s Patronus, we don’t know whose it is—and neither does Harry. In the Deathly Hallows chapter aptly titled “The Silver Doe,” the creature appears and leads Harry to a forest pool, where he finds the sword of Gryffindor and is reunited with Ron, who he had previously argued with. Describing “her inexplicable familiarity,” Harry instinctively knows he can trust the doe because he feels safe around her.
The second and last time we see professor Snape’s Patronus is at the end of the book, when a dying Snape gives Harry his memories. In a flashback, we see Snape conjure his Patronus for Dumbledore to prove his loyalty and love for Lily as he utters that most heartbreaking of Harry Potter quotes, “Always.”
Why is Snape’s Patronus a doe?
Although the book series doesn’t explicitly say so, it implies that the doe has a connection to Harry’s mother, Lily, who was Snape’s childhood friend and unrequited love. As fans know, Snape’s love for Lily was the reason he changed sides from supporting the evil wizard Voldemort to acting as a double agent for Dumbledore after the Dark Lord killed her while she shielded baby Harry.
Was Lily’s Patronus a doe as well? Yes—Harry says so in his final conversation with Voldemort. “Snape’s Patronus was a doe,” Harry tells Voldemort, “the same as my mother’s, because he loved her for nearly all of his life, from the time when they were children.” It’s not completely clear how Harry knows this, but it seems that’s how he has (correctly) interpreted Snape’s memory.
There is an intriguing, though unproven, theory that connects Snape’s Patronus to his first question to Harry: “What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”
As fans know, an asphodel is a type of lily symbolizing death, and wormwood is a plant that represents bitterness and sorrow. So the line has been interpreted as, “I bitterly regret Lily’s death.” The real scientific name of wormwood is Artemisia absinthium, named after Artemis, the goddess of the hunt in Greek mythology whose sacred animal is … a deer. Coincidence?
Why is Snape’s Patronus the same as Lily’s?
We know that a Patronus has meaning unique to the person who conjures it and that love can impact what a person’s Patronus is. So it makes sense that Snape would have the same Patronus as Lily—that’s how great his love was for her. After all, his happiest memory, which he would need to use the spell, was probably one from his childhood with Lily.
However, unclear in the books (and a hotly contested topic among fans) is whether or not Snape’s Patronus changed to match Lily’s. Could her death, and his regret that he was unable to protect her, have so impacted him that his new form of protection became a symbol of her?
Or another question: Had Lily’s Patronus changed to a doe to complement James Potter’s stag when she fell in love with him? Or did James’s change to match Lily’s? Or could it be that no one’s Patronus changed at all but that all three Patronuses first appeared as they did because of the characters’ connection to one another in their love triangle? With the lack of info presented in the books, this last theory might be correct.
What was professor Snape’s original Patronus?
We don’t know that Snape ever had a Patronus other than the doe because the books don’t mention it. Besides, Snape and Lily (even as good at charms as she was) would not have learned the Patronus charm until they were at least teenagers, and he had loved her long before that. It’s also possible that Snape did not produce a Patronus until after Lily died; before then, as a Voldemort follower and dark wizard, he may not have had use for a Patronus. So it’s possible his Patronus expressed his feelings for her the first time he produced it.
But if Lily’s changed to match James’s, could Snape’s have also changed to match her new one? That seems a bit convoluted, even for magical children’s books. And since it’s never spelled out (see what we did there?), this series of events seems too complicated to be the case.
Even though the books don’t say whether Snape had an original Patronus (or if he did, what form it took), it’s fun to speculate. A crow or vulture, perhaps? A bat? Maybe a snake, or is that too on the nose for the head of Slytherin?
What does Snape’s Patronus tell us about his character?
Readers have debated the good and bad aspects of Snape’s character ever since the truth about him was revealed in Deathly Hallows. Although much is still up for debate about his complex persona, here are the Harry Potter facts we know for sure from Snape’s Patronus.
It proved he was on Dumbledore’s side
Throughout the books, various characters—including Harry—question Snape’s loyalty. But Dumbledore never did. Had he really renounced the Dark Lord and turned spy? Yes: After Snape realized that information he overheard and then relayed to Voldemort put Lily in danger, he begged Dumbledore to hide her and her family. “What will you give me in return?” Dumbledore asked. “Anything,” Snape says.
That “anything” was his unswerving loyalty from that moment on, which Harry realizes at the end of Deathly Hallows when he sees Snape’s Patronus. “Severus Snape wasn’t yours,” Harry tells Voldemort. “Snape was Dumbledore’s, Dumbledore’s from the moment you started hunting down my mother.”
Plus, since dark wizards can’t, or choose not to, use Patronuses, Snape having a Patronus was evidence he had changed sides.
He loved Lily deeply
Love has many protective qualities in Harry Potter, and for Snape, his love for Lily kept him on the right path, saving him just as she saved Harry. Although Snape is still morally ambiguous—he treats Harry terribly—Lily’s goodness and purity are what ultimately redeem him. He loves her enough to protect her son, the spitting image of James, who Snape couldn’t stand.
After Harry finds out the truth about Snape through his Patronus, he realizes how deeply the man’s love for Lily ran. Harry even named his son after both Dumbledore and Snape, calling the latter “probably the bravest man I ever knew.”
His Patronus even surprised Dumbledore
Even though Dumbledore always trusted Snape, he might not have known the full reason for his unswerving steadfastness. Just before Snape conjures his Patronus for Dumbledore, the headmaster questions why Snape cares so much about what happens to Harry: “But this is touching, Severus,” he says. “Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?”
“For him?” Snape shouts, before producing his Patronus. By his reaction, it’s clear that Dumbledore didn’t realize the full extent of his devotion to Lily: “Dumbledore watched [the doe] fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears. ‘After all this time?'” he questions, one of the most famous Dumbledore quotes.
It’s odd that the usually all-knowing Dumbledore wouldn’t have already known this important info about Snape—why else would he think Snape had been so loyal all these years?—unless Snape did have an original Patronus that Dumbledore knew about. Perhaps its change to the doe is what Dumbledore didn’t know about. Or maybe Dumbledore didn’t know that Snape could produce a Patronus at all. In any case, it’s a beautiful scene that gets us every time.
Was it Snape’s Patronus that saved Harry?
There’s a fan theory that, in Prisoner of Azkaban, it’s Snape’s Patronus that saves Harry and his godfather, Sirius Black, from the Dementors—at least the first time around, when we see the scene from the perspective of Harry when he’s being attacked. While Harry creates the Patronus when he travels back in time, some fans say that another wizard must have created the Patronus first, giving time-traveling Harry the idea.
But the nature of time travel in the Harry Potter universe disproves this theory. In the series, there are no alternate timelines with time travel; it’s all one timeline seen from different perspectives. When we see the scene again from the point of view of the time-traveling Harry, we clearly see that Harry himself conjures the Patronus. Snape comes down to the lake shortly after, but it’s always Harry’s stag, not Snape’s doe, that saves Harry and Sirius. “I knew I could do it this time,’ Harry said, ‘because I’d already done it … Does that make sense?'” Only sort of, if we’re honest, Harry!
So Snape did not save Harry that time. But Snape’s Patronus did give Harry a big helping hand in Deathly Hallows by leading him to the sword of Gryffindor, which Snape left for Harry so he could destroy the pieces of Voldemort’s soul hidden in Horcruxes. And through his work to undermine Voldemort, spy for Dumbledore and protect Harry through the years, Snape really did save Harry—all because of his love for Lily.
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Sources:
- Harry Potter book series
- Wizarding World: “What is a Patronus?”
- Wizarding World: “Patronus Charm”
- Wizarding World: “Love & Patronuses: How does love impact a Patronus?”
- Wizarding World: “Six times the Patronus Charm came in handy”
Originally Published: September 06, 2017
