The Saga of Severus Snape From One Dedicated 'Harry Potter' Fan

There were plenty of heroes in the Harry Potter movie series, but none as intriguing as Severus Snape. With an outfit as black as his mood, the Hogwarts professor was introduced as a scheming crank who seemed dedicated to making Harry’s life miserable. But as the novels — and later the movies — progressed, it became clear that Snape was much more than a prototypical screen villain.

In the video above, an enterprising YouTuber disentangled Snape’s complex story line in the eight Potter movies, giving users a chronological view of his life from his early Hogwarts days as a Slytherin student to — do we still need to say spoiler alert? — his sudden death at the fangs of Nagini. Author J.K. Rowling’s long-game revelation about Snape in The Deathly Hallows was a doozy, and perhaps her single best plotting coup. Snape wasn’t just a hero, but the hero, a deep-undercover, deeply loyal double agent who’d been protecting Harry all along, and for the most poignant reason imaginable: His unwavering devotion to Harry’s late mother. Watch and weep, Potterheads. And then cry some more by going back and reading star Alan Rickman’s public thank-you to Rowling after the series ended.