"Wearing Masks" – A Reflection Inspired by Severus Snape (Five Minute Freewrite)

This is my response to @mariannewest's most recent freewrite prompt, 'face mask'. Disclaimer: 'Harry Potter' spoilers are involved here ... although, given the fact that 'Harry Potter' has been out for many years now, and its plot has been extensively publicised, if you don't know what happens at the end of the series by now, what have you even been doing with your life?

I recently discovered Shane Blair's amazing song Professor, which is all about Severus Snape. The song is a few years old, but I only came across it on YouTube a short while ago.

The song is completely addictive – I can't get it out of my head and can't stop listening to it. Indeed, I may or may not be blasting it out of my headphones at this very moment, rocking back and forth in my chair, singing: "Professor Severus Snape, with his long black cape, head of Slytherin, house of the snake and ..." .... send help. 😭😰

Ahem. Moving on.

Back to this "face mask" prompt: it's got me thinking about the whole idea of "wearing masks" around others (metaphorical masks, that is, though I'm all too aware that Hallowe'en is right around the corner, and plenty of literal masks will be on display at that point 🎃💀).

Whenever we speak of someone who constantly does this, it's not intended in a complimentary way: we are saying that the person is inauthentic or insincere, never allowing anyone to know how they truly feel. That brought Snape to mind: Severus Snape, the infamous triple agent of the Harry Potter, well-accustomed to concealing his true motivations and desires from almost everyone around him. Even after the big reveal at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – when we all found out that Snape and Dumbledore arranged Dumbledore's death in advance, and that Snape loved Lily, always – I've always viewed Snape with some ambivalence. I acknowledge the courage and nobility of his final acts, but for me, that didn't completely cancel out his years of verbal and psychological abuse towards the students under his care, or the fact that he became a willing servant of Voldemort's in the first place. He was an extremely complex man.

It has to be said, however, that without his decision to turn against Voldemort once his former master had threatened Lily – to constantly "wear a mask" around the deadliest wizard of the time, working hard to ensure that it never once slipped – the Wizarding War would never have been won. Sometimes, we must don our masks to ensure the safety and wellbeing of others, no matter how much it costs us, or however profoundly that decision might destroy us...

There is a lot more I could say on this subject, but my five minutes are up!

Image Source – Hello Giggles

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