Severus Snape
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50 free Severus Snape trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Severus Snape teaches Potions for five books, Defence Against the Dark Arts for one and runs Hogwarts for the last, and readers spent a decade arguing about whose side he was on. J. K. Rowling called him "a gift of a character" and planned his ending from the first book; Alan Rickman knew the secret years before anyone else on set and played every scene accordingly. Bookshops sold "Trust Snape" stickers, Borders published The Great Snape Debate, and when the films ended he topped the fan polls run by MTV, Empire and Bloomsbury. This quiz covers the man behind the sneer: the chemistry teacher and the Clapham street behind his name, the Wolfsbane potion, the Occlumency lessons, the Unbreakable Vow at Spinner's End, the Half-Blood Prince reveal, the doe, the Gaunt ring and the memories in the Shrieking Shack. It also takes in the actors who played him young, old, on stage and in parody, and the role Tim Roth chose instead. Fifty questions, four options each, with a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for a quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who plays Snape in all eight Harry Potter films?
Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman got the part only after another actor, offered it first, chose a different film. He then played Snape for a decade, from 2001 to 2011.
Q 02Who was cast as Snape in the HBO television adaptation, as announced in 2025?
Paapa Essiedu
Paapa Essiedu was 34 when HBO confirmed him in April 2025, close to the Snape of the first book, who is 31 when Harry arrives; the films' Snape was 55 when the first one came out.
Q 03Snape was reportedly based in part on which figure from Rowling's schooldays?
Her chemistry teacher
Her chemistry teacher, John Nettleship, was horrified when reporters first told him of the link, but he came to terms with the fame and ended up proud of it.
Q 04Who sets fire to Snape's robes during Harry's first Quidditch match?
Hermione Granger
Hermione Granger. She was sure Snape was jinxing Harry's broom, when in fact he was muttering the counter-curse that kept Harry in the air.
Q 05Rowling called which Harry Potter character the only one she deliberately based on a real person?
Gilderoy Lockhart
Gilderoy Lockhart. Rowling said the living model was even worse, a man who told whopping lies about his own brave deeds, so Snape's reported real-life model never counted as deliberate.
Q 06Who turns out to be the real villain of book one, the man Snape was actually watching?
Professor Quirrell
Professor Quirrell, whose turban hides Voldemort's face on the back of his head. Harry spends the whole book sure Snape is after the Philosopher's Stone, when Snape was guarding him.
Q 07Which spell does Harry learn by watching Snape use it at the Duelling Club?
Expelliarmus
Expelliarmus. Snape uses it to hurl a fellow teacher against the wall in a demonstration duel, and the Disarming Charm becomes the spell Harry trusts most, even against Voldemort.
Q 08Which complex potion does Snape brew for Remus Lupin in book three?
Wolfsbane
Wolfsbane. The potion lets Lupin keep his own mind when he transforms, yet at the end of the year Snape tells the whole school he is a werewolf and forces him to resign.
Q 09Who tricked the schoolboy Snape into nearly entering the Shrieking Shack on a full moon?
Sirius Black
Sirius Black told him how to get past the Whomping Willow as a joke. James pulled Snape back and saved his life, though Snape always believed James only did it to avoid being expelled.
Q 10Who names Snape as a Death Eater in the Pensieve trial Harry witnesses?
Igor Karkaroff
Igor Karkaroff is trading names to buy his way out of Azkaban, but Dumbledore vouches for Snape, saying he changed sides and turned spy before Voldemort fell.
Q 11What does Snape show Cornelius Fudge as proof that Voldemort has returned?
The Dark Mark on his arm
The Dark Mark on his arm, restored now that its maker is back. Fudge still refuses to believe it, so Dumbledore sends Snape off to rejoin the Death Eaters as a spy.
Q 12What discipline does Dumbledore have Snape teach Harry in Order of the Phoenix?
Occlumency
Occlumency, the art of sealing the mind, was meant to keep Voldemort out of Harry's head. The lessons end abruptly when Harry sneaks a look at Snape's worst memory in the Pensieve.
Q 13What does Harry see in Snape's worst memory?
James and Sirius bullying him
Q 21Which Death Eater siblings join the Hogwarts staff under Headmaster Snape?
The Carrows
The Carrows, Alecto and her brother Amycus, are installed to teach and to punish. Snape looks like their willing master, yet he quietly uses the headship to shield students from them.
Q 22Where does Snape send the Sword of Gryffindor after students try to steal it?
Gringotts
Gringotts gets only a copy. Snape holds back the real sword and later leaves it in a frozen forest pool for Harry to find, just as Dumbledore's portrait has told him to.
Q 23What form does Snape's Patronus take?
A doe
A doe, the same shape as Lily's. Rowling said he was the only Death Eater who could cast a full Patronus, because the rest fight alongside the very creatures it drives away.
James and Sirius bullying him in front of a crowd of students. When Lily steps in to defend him, the humiliated Snape calls her a Mudblood, the insult that ends their friendship.
Q 14Which potion does Umbridge demand from Snape so that she can interrogate Harry?
Veritaserum
Veritaserum. Snape tells her his stock has run out, but the bottle he gave her earlier was a fake, and he goes straight on to pass Harry's coded warning to the Order.
Q 15Where is Snape's home, visited by Bellatrix and Narcissa at the start of book six?
Spinner's End
Spinner's End is a shabby Muggle street beside a disused mill, and Voldemort's trusted lieutenant has never left it: it is the house where he grew up with his quarrelling parents.
Q 16What does Narcissa Malfoy swear Snape to in book six?
An Unbreakable Vow
An Unbreakable Vow kills whoever breaks it. Snape swears to protect Draco and to finish Voldemort's task himself if the boy fails, which binds him to what he later does on the tower.
Q 17Who replaces Snape as Potions Master when he finally gets the Defence job?
Horace Slughorn
Horace Slughorn had taught Snape as a boy. Dumbledore tempts him out of retirement, and that frees Snape at last for the Defence post he has coveted since the first book.
Q 18Whose textbook does Harry hand over when Snape demands to see his Potions book?
Ron's
Ron's copy goes to Snape while the real book stays hidden. Snape knows Harry is lying and gives him detention every Saturday, which costs him the final Quidditch match of the year.
Q 19Who lets slip to Harry that Snape was the eavesdropper who overheard the prophecy?
Sybill Trelawney
Sybill Trelawney mentions it while chatting about the day she was hired, with no idea what she is giving away. Harry leaves her standing in the corridor and runs to confront Dumbledore.
Q 20What was the maiden name of Snape's witch mother?
Eileen Prince
Eileen Prince married a Muggle called Tobias Snape, so their son was half wizard by blood and turned her surname into a title: the Half-Blood Prince written in his school textbook.
Q 24Why does Voldemort decide Snape must die in the Shrieking Shack?
He believes he masters the Elder Wand
He believes he masters the Elder Wand: Voldemort thinks Snape won it by killing Dumbledore. He is wrong, because Draco had disarmed Dumbledore first and the wand never answered to Snape.
Q 25Why does the dying Snape ask Harry to look at him?
To see Lily's eyes
To see Lily's eyes, which Harry inherited, as the last thing he ever looks at. Before that he gives up a cloud of memories, and they show Harry which side he was really on.
Q 26Into which Houses were Snape and Lily sorted on arrival at Hogwarts?
Slytherin and Gryffindor
Slytherin and Gryffindor. Rival houses didn't end the childhood friendship at once: the two stayed close for years, until his growing taste for the Dark Arts drove them apart.
Q 27Which other family could the prophecy have referred to, besides the Potters?
The Longbottoms
The Longbottoms: Neville was born at the end of July too. Voldemort chose the Potters, and Snape, who had carried him the prophecy, was left begging him to spare Harry's mother.
Q 28Which cursed object left Dumbledore with less than a year to live?
The Gaunt ring
The Gaunt ring. Snape's skill held the curse in Dumbledore's hand and bought him about a year, and Dumbledore spent it arranging for Snape, not Draco, to be the one to end his life.
Q 29Rowling said Snape's portrait was at first missing from the Headmaster's office for what reason?
He abandoned his post
He abandoned his post by fleeing the castle before he died, so by Rowling's account he hadn't earned a place on the wall, though she likes to think Harry later saw to it that one went up.
Q 30What does Harry call Snape when reassuring his son Albus in the epilogue?
The bravest man he knew
The bravest man he knew, Harry says, and a Slytherin. Albus Severus is leaving for his first year at Hogwarts, worried he will be sorted into that house, so his father offers his namesake as reassurance.