Förmodligen inte - Snape växte upp i en otrolig miljö.
Den tidigaste åldern vi ser Snape, när han först träffar Lily, är han helt klart inte i ett kärleksfullt hem med glada föräldrar. Lily verkade vara vad Snape ansåg som en bra sak i sitt annars obehagliga liv.
Han verkar inte vara välskött, helst när hans utseende beskrivs är det klart att han är något försummad.
“Two girls were swinging backwards and forwards, and a skinny boy was watching them from behind a clump of bushes. His black hair was overlong and his clothes were so mismatched that it looked deliberate: too-short jeans, a shabby, overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown man, an odd smock-like shirt. Harry moved closer to the boy. Snape looked no more than nine or ten years old, sallow, small, stringy. There was undisguised greed in his thin face as he watched the younger of the two girls swinging higher and higher than her sister.”
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33 (The Prince’s Tale)
Hans föräldrar har inte ett trevligt förhållande och argumenterar ofta. Han ser tydligt fram emot att gå till Hogwarts helt enkelt så att han kunde komma ifrån sina föräldrar.
“How are things at your house?’ Lily asked.
A little crease appeared between his eyes. ‘Fine,’ he said.
‘They’re not arguing any more?’ ‘Oh, yes, they’re arguing,’ said Snape. He picked up a fistful of leaves and began tearing them apart, apparently unaware of what he was doing. ‘But it won’t be that long and I’ll be gone.’
‘Doesn’t your dad like magic?’
‘He doesn’t like anything, much,’ said Snape.”
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33 (The Prince’s Tale)
Även Harry märker att den unga Snape inte ser hand om, i motsats till Harrys pappa James.
“One of the boys sharing the compartment, who had shown no interest at all in Lily or Snape until that point, looked round at the word, and Harry, whose attention had been focused entirely on the two beside the window, saw his father: slight, black-haired like Snape, but with that indefinable air of having been well cared for, even adored, that Snape so conspicuously lacked.”
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33 (The Prince’s Tale)