Lol.

Alright, who came up with this shit?

No. 

There's this theory about Snape and Narcissa Malfoy that has been floating around the internet for a while.

Narcissa married Lucius because she loves him. She wasn't forced into the marriage. If she liked Snape, then err... idk. Would she have gone after him like Andromeda did with Ted and risk losing everything she has? No. I doubt it. Snape is more of a family friend that a romantic partner to Narcissa. 

The only reason I see people shipping Snape and Narcissa is this one scene in Deathly Hallows Part 1, and in the book where Bellatrix and Narcissa go ask for Severus to look after Draco and make sure Draco succeeds in killing Dumbledore. In the book and the movie: Narcissa is the only other woman in the series for whom he has some remote affection, and she clearly has some affection for him. That much is apparent in both the book and the film.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean anything, as Snape is a friend of the Malfoy family. Still, it does open up some tantalizing possibilities for fanfiction.

Though, in some fanfics, both characters are tweaked slightly to resemble their film portrayals more than they do the book versions of the characters, and Narcissa is in the process of divorcing Lucius (because she no longer believed in Pureblood Supremacy). So, they're a bit OoC by book standards, but by film standards, it seems much more plausible.

It's all juicy drama, this pairing. Narcissa is a married woman. The possibilities for conflict are endless. What if Lucius finds out? What if Draco finds out? The Spinner's End scene has a very taboo feeling about it. "I shouldn't be here, I shouldn't be saying this." It also comes across as something they've done a few times before (Narcissa already knows the way to his house, for example, when the other Death Eaters clearly don't). I'm not sure if all this subtext was intentional but it sure made for a memorable scene.

Out-of-story, I like this pairing because it makes the characters feel more realistic to me.

On Snape's side, it feels very unrealistic to me that a grown adult would be pining over a failed romance from childhood, and then NEVER become involved with anyone else ever again. What feels more realistic to me, is that Snape probably had some hookups in his adult life that made him realize Lily was the real deal. This makes the story more tragic to me, that his own relationships might've crumbled while Lily and James were truly in love. It makes it seem more like mid-life bitterness and less like...well...stalker-ness.

On Narcissa's side, without going into too much detail, I think it's pretty realistic for someone like Narcissa to have an affair based on all the Narcissas I've met in real life. She's idle rich, a little older than Snape, etc etc. She's also, apparently, very comfortable with lying. All we see her do in the books is either lie, or give away other people's information. She seems to be on nobody's side but Draco's and her own. Wouldn't surprise me if she has like 30 affairs...she just doesn't strike me as a person of great integrity or honesty.

Personally, I don't know if I'd say I "ship" the two of them, at least not in the time when the books take place. The vibe I got was that they probably hooked up before she was married, and maybe for a little bit after. Heck, maybe that's why Snape acts so strangely paternal towards Draco.

Do I think it's necessarily what JKR intended? Probably not. But it adds some colour to the characters and implies they have lives going on beyond Harry's adventure-of-the-year. And I imagine Snape has many secrets he keeps hidden, even from the book's narrator.

The points I see raised most often in support of Snarcissa are:

Narcissa knows how to get to Snape's houseNarcissa holds Snape's hands and cries into his chest when asking him to protect and assist Draco in his (not yet revealed) Dumbledore killing assignmentSnape, they say, must have moved on from loving Lily

It's pretty thin, you have to admit, which is why it irritates me when people act like it's a done deal, essentially canon. You can ship who you want, but don't act like people who disagree aren't seeing the obvious or whatever. You can see ex-lovers if you want, but I see a desperate and emotional woman who's scared for the life of her son and is going to the only person who will be in a position to help him.

I don't know why they're shipped as a couple, but I can see people wanting them to be together mainly for Draco. When you think about it, they were really the only two people who cared about Draco- pansy, maybe, but he didn't have a healthy father figure. Severus could've provided that, I guess. Narcissa did her best.

Snape and Narcissa suddenly seem VERY familiar with each other compared to the other books. Besides their general interaction, she seems to know the layout of his house, as well as the magical way to enter it. This is in spite of him living in a muggle-dense area, which Narcissa would probably avoid unless she has a good reason. Also, there seems to be another layer of resentment from Malfoy besides being angry at Snape for helping him with the "special task." This is also the book where Lucius is in Azkaban and she has reason to believe that he'll be rotting there for a while since Voldemort is pissed at him.

These points have been brought up in discussions about the possibility that Narcissa was having an affair with Snape while Lucius was in prison. I'd be curious if anyone thought the same thing, or if this is just people overanalyzing a youth book through an adult lens. 

Personally, I read it as Snape was a close family friend and genuinely cares about Narcissa and family, but not romantically. I think Narcissa was pretty dedicated to Lucius. I can see why it looks fishy though.

Yeah, I think she vented her fear of losing Draco to Snape. A romantic relationship, in my opinion, is not likely. It would have damaged Snape's integrity as a spy, first by creating tension in his death eater circle which might make Voldemort push him away. The bit of dialogue we get from snape speaking to fellow death eaters seems to be full of divisive power-seeking remarks. Neither he nor Dumbledore would have allowed that. Dumbledore tried to save Draco and his parents(book 6) - he knew the Malfoys were terrified of Voldemort which is most likely because Snape tells him. The Malfoys were Voldemort's hostages from the moment Voldemort was reborn.

Draco was trying to save his family. He probably feared that Snape would take credit for any success in the VOLDY@HOGWARTS missions- reasonable. But why would Narcissa Malfoy go to Snape's house, other than to have a fling? Not sure.

Rating: 3/10