Snape's Worst Memory

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This article is about the worst memory of Severus Snape. Were you looking for Snape's Worst Memory (OP), the chapter from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in which this memory is described?

Snape's Worst Memory is a particularly painful memory of Severus Snape, presumably the worst he has. It shows the scene in which he destroys his friendship with Lily Evans by calling her a Mudblood. Snape stores this memory in Albus Dumbledore's Pensieve while he teaches Harry Potter Occlumency, but when Snape leaves the room to assist Draco Malfoy, Harry curiously investigates the Pensieve and inadvertantly ends up witnessing the memory in question.

The memory takes place after Snape's fifth year Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL. James Potter and Sirius Black bully Snape, taunting him and eventually dangling him upside down with Levicorpus, a spell of Snape's own creation. While Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin act as bystanders, Lily Evans yells at James and demands he lets Snape go. James, for the most part, ignores her seeming hatred and asks her to Hogsmeade, an invite which she refuses. Despite her help, Snape calls Lily a Mudblood, something which enrages James and causes Lily to leave Snape to defend himself. Upon Lily's departure, James immediately suspends Snape from the air again, threatening to take off his underwear.

The scene ends when the real, present Snape appears in the pensieve with Harry and drags him out, furious.

This scene is the first and only glimpse the reader and Harry have been given into Lily and James' behaviour, particularly towards each other. Immediately after Snape's Worst Memory, Harry finds himself incredibly disheartened, because it seems his father was every bit as cruel and arrogant as Snape has always implied.

Impact on Fanon

This chapter is the reason for the sudden increase in Lily/James fanfiction, particularly love/hate, after the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.