Opposites Attract: Severus Snape/ Gilderoy Lockhart (Harry Potter)
Title: Opposites Attract
Author: Elanor Isolda
Pairing: Snape/Lockhart
Fandom: Harry Potter
Spoilers: All HP books up to and including Order of the Phoenix
Notes: Thank you to ook and cadiliniel for the last-minute betas.
Please feel free to share your thoughts, even - in fact, especially - if you disagree with me.
Snape/Lockhart? You’re joking, right?
Snape/Lockhart tends to be one of those pairings that will have readers reaching instantly for their ‘back’ button. However, I have increasingly found that once people are persuaded to give the pairing a try, they are pleasantly surprised.
Severus Snape and Gilderoy Lockhart are caricatures at opposite ends of the scale. Snape is greasy, ugly, sarcastic, dark, unpopular and nasty, while the handsome, brightly-dressed Lockhart is the gorgeous darling of the Wizarding World. Yet each character is the opposite of what he appears to be: Snape may look villainous, but it is Lockhart who is the villain. Behind the facades each presents to the world lie two deeply complex characters with a startling number of similarities. The challenge in writing Snape/Lockhart is to bring out these parallels.
The Enigma of Severus Snape
We have been given enough glimpses into Snape’s mind - literally - to know that there is a complicated, troubled man behind that snarky exterior.
The childhood memories to which we are privy paint a picture of an abused child. His home life was, apparently, an unhappy one; during Occlumency lessons, we see “a hook-nosed man … shouting at a cowering woman, while a small dark-haired boy cried in a corner.” (Seen and Unforeseen, OotP) He went on to be bullied at Hogwarts by James Potter and Sirius Black, a feud which culminated in what Snape viewed as his attempted murder.
For reasons as yet not entirely known, Snape was driven towards joining the Death Eaters as a young man. However, he left “before Lord Voldemort’s downfall and turned spy for [the Order], at great personal risk.” (The Pensieve, GoF) Exactly what his reasons for doing so were, we do not yet know; however, his actions since then have shown no indication that he working for anyone but the Order.
Snape therefore presents us with a fascinating conundrum; he is an unequivocally nasty git of ambiguous morality, but he risks his life in opposing Voldemort and repeatedly demonstrates protectiveness towards Harry Potter, the son of a man he hated.
With the knowledge of his past that we glean from his memories, it is possible to view his attitude in an entirely new light. Rather than being arrogant and evil, we have a deeply insecure, bitter and resentful man who may be unpleasant but is ultimately good.
The Contradictions of Gilderoy Lockhart
The Lockhart we meet in Chamber of Secrets is even more of a caricature; he is pompous, rude, arrogant and incompetent. However, we only see him only for a brief period of time and through the eyes of a twelve year-old. We therefore have very few clues as to the inner workings of his mind.
Lockhart presents us with several contradictions. The character we see is dim-witted and inept yet exceedingly arrogant as well as clever, glib and smooth when he spies a prize he wants.
Lockhart he has successfully fooled the entire Wizarding World for many years, selling other people’s stories to acquire fame, adulation and wealth. Furthermore, there is the work involved in producing the books, which Lockhart describes as a “long hard slog.” (The Chamber of Secrets, CoS)
The witches and wizards whose stories he stole were all amongst the most powerful of the age, yet they were easily duped by Lockhart, who was able to trick them into trusting him enough that they told him the details of their accomplishments and fell foul of something as simple as a Memory Charm.
While Lockhart does not have any great magical ability, this does suggest that he knows exactly where his talents lie; in charming people so that they let down their defences. He, like Dumbledore, appreciates the importance of being underestimated.
Another contradiction is that Lockhart apparently believes himself to be a great hero. Yet, if he really believed himself to be so talented, why would he go to the effort of stealing other people’s stories?
In fact, there is nothing to suggest that Lockhart does consider himself to be exceptionally talented. To back this up, we need only look at what happens to him when he loses his memory:
“Am I a Professor?” said Lockhart in mild surprise. “Goodness, I expect I was hopeless, was I?” (Dobby’s Reward, CoS)
We know, therefore, that he is aware of his incompetence. I believe that he is perfectly aware of his own strengths and weaknesses and uses them to his greatest advantage. He says himself that there is one spell he can manage competently:
“If there’s one thing I pride myself on, it’s my Memory Charms.” (The Chamber of Secrets, CoS)
This evidence all points to someone who is more aware of his failings than he would admit. In fact, I believe that Lockhart has constructed his obnoxious, celebrity façade with very deliberate intent and purposefully acts dim-witted in order that he is underestimated. As well as assisting in fooling his victims, this also serves to ensure that even those who suspect there is something dubious about him - and many do - will not consider him capable of such elaborate fraud.
The Courtship of the Serpent and the Peacock
Considering these interpretations of the two characters, we have two men with essentially the same outlook on life. They are both lacking in self-esteem and dissatisfied with their lot in life; Lockhart with his lack of outstanding magical ability and Snape with having his superior abilities wasted on 'dunderheaded' students. Both are surrounded by what they perceive as idiots - Lockhart's adoring fans to Snape's students. However, they deal with these problems in very different ways; Snape has become bitter and resentful, while Lockhart has learned to play the system to his advantage, exploiting those foolish enough to pay over the odds for his books.
Fundamentally, though, both men are manipulative and insecure and hide behind exaggerated personas. It is highlighting those common elements in an apparently diametrically opposed couple that makes the pairing both attractive and challenging.
Of course, in order for the characters themselves to appreciate their similarities, they need to learn to see past those exteriors. Snape is not exactly renowned for understanding people, which presents a problem if he is ever going to see Lockhart as anything other than a brash, pompous and obnoxious git.
However, if it is acceptable to pair Snape with Harry, Lupin or even James and Sirius, then Lockhart presents no problem at all; Lockhart certainly requires less suspension of disbelief than any of the others. Snape’s greatest weakness is his tendency to hold grudges to an absurd degree and Snape was willing to have two innocent men sent to the Dementors over a schoolboy grudge after nearly twenty years, so is he really going to forget that resentment for a quick shag?
Snape and Lockhart, on the other hand, have no history - at least, unless the author invents one. There is no deep, painful grudge there, merely a personality clash. If the author can find a means by which each character can see through the other’s façade, then the rest follows with relative ease.
As it happens, neither character accepts the other at face value even in canon, so this is far less difficult than it would seem. In the few interactions between Snape and Lockhart that we see, Lockhart completely fails to respond to Snape's insults and sarcasm. How would Snape deal with someone when his immediate defence is rendered useless?
Snape has demonstrated through his interactions with Harry that he is completely unimpressed by celebrity status. Lockhart does not, therefore, have that barrier at his disposal. Snape’s dubious morality also works to Lockhart’s advantage, for even if Snape learns of his scam, he is unlikely to judge him for it. If anything, Snape would appreciate the demonstration of Slytherin cunning. For someone who has been living a lie for so long, Snape’s ruthless honesty might be somewhat refreshing to Lockhart.
So, neither man is what he appears to others; each man holds up a facade of his own devising, and it might be refreshing not to have to hold that facade in place for a while.
Having established that there is a foundation on which to base a relationship, do we have any reason to believe that they would they be interested in warming each other’s beds?
There certainly exists subtext to support the idea of Lockhart’s lusting after Snape. The most significant interaction between the two is the Duelling Club scene in CoS. The background to this is completely unknown to us - how did Snape come to be “assisting” Lockhart in a duelling demonstration anyway? And during the duelling scene itself, the tension between the two is almost tangible:
“Now, I don’t want any of you youngsters to worry - you’ll still have your Potions master when I’m through with him, never fear!”
“Wouldn’t it be good if they finished each other off?” Ron muttered in Harry’s ear.
Snape’s upper lip was curling. Harry wondered why Lockhart was still smiling; if Snape had been looking at him like that he’d have been running as fast as he could in the opposite direction.
(The Duelling Club, CoS)
Note not only the innuendo in Lockhart’s words, but Snape’s response; is he horrified that Lockhart is flirting with him in public, or angry that he is parading their existing relationship? Fic can take this in both ways.
Incidentally, Lockhart is by no means put off - only a few pages later, he comes out with the following gem:
'[Lockhart] raised his own wand, attempted a complicated sort of wiggling action and dropped it. Snape smirked as Lockhart quickly picked it up, saying,“Whoops, my wand is a little over-excited.”' (ibid.)
Lockhart is even brazen enough to openly flirt on Valentine’s Day: “Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion!” (The Very Secret Diary, CoS)
There is no doubt that tension exists between these characters, but the need for professional conduct in front of students means that we never see a proper outlet for this tension.
So, once Snape’s had a chance to vent his frustration by taking Lockhart over his desk, is there anything for them in the long term?
Fortunately for the Snape/Lockhart shippers, it just so happens that Lockhart’s secret ambition is to “market [his] own range of hair-care potions.” (Gilderoy Lockhart, CoS) It seems that Lockhart might indeed have more than a passing interest in Snape's specialist subject, for he is no doubt familiar with cosmetics. This presents us with the wonderfully amusing image of Snape brewing hair-care potions while Lockhart markets them to the gullible, celebrity-obsessed masses.
So when and how do they get together, anyway?
The only restriction here is the writer’s imagination. One of the most appealing aspects of this pairing is that we are dealing with two non-central characters, our knowledge of whom is incomplete.
We know a great deal more about Snape than we do about Lockhart, and there are therefore innumerable ways that we might introduce him into Snape’s life. The following is just a very brief overview of the possibilities.
Firstly, we might make the assumption that their school years overlapped, or even that they were in the same year. This is a largely unexplored genre at the moment, although anyone interested might wish to look out for the novel-length Chimera, currently being written by cadiliniel and myself.
Alternatively, we know that Snape was once very much into the Dark Arts. Lockhart, before being exposed as a fraud, was an Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League. Could Snape have been among the throngs of fans at his book signings? It’s certainly a humorous image, but one I have yet to see. The closest I have found is isiscolo’s Letters with Lockhart.
By far the most common setting is during CoS, when Snape and Lockhart are both teaching at Hogwarts. Seeker’s Personal Private Perfect is one of the better known examples. Among my other favourites are occasusvenustas' With a Kiss Like That and predatrix' Photo Perfect.
Finally, there is the post-Memory Charm fic, in which Snape is sometimes seeking to find a cure for Memory Charms, and on other occasions is merely unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity of Lockhart's ward. iibnf’s Hocus Focus is one of the most in-depth of this category. Other examples can be found in cadiliniel's Gilderoy's First Christmas and Seeker's A Thing.
I would also like to give a special mention to pen_and_umbra's Spells of Vanity, which does not fit neatly into any of the above categories.
As you can see, there are far more possibilities that might immediately be supposed. And the greatest thing about dealing with a rare pairing is that many of the “obvious” plots have yet to be explored - there’s no such thing as a Snape/Lockhart cliché.
All right, but why do I want to read about this?
Harry Potter is a huge fandom. If, like me, you came from a smaller fandom (in my case, pre-movie LotR) then it can seem a little overwhelming. And if you’re new to fandom entirely, I imagine it would be even more so.
Snape/Lockhart is a relatively rare pairing, and as such the community is small for a fandom of this size. It is possible to catch up and read all the (known) fic in the pairing very quickly, and there are so few of us that all Snape/Lockhart shippers are warmly welcomed.
Furthermore, the small amount of fic means that you don’t have to reach for outlandish, far-fetched plots in order to do something original; very few of the obvious ones have been done.
A further appeal of this pairing is that Lockhart is - as yet - completely uninvolved in the war against Voldemort. If you’re bored of coming up with new and original ways to kill Red-Eyes then here’s a pairing in which it need not be an issue.
The scope for tone is also huge with this pairing. Snape tends towards the dark and angst-ridden, while Lockhart tends towards humour. Either extreme or any combination of the two can be found in Snape/Lockhart fanfiction, although the pairing tends to be dominated by the extremes of dark and humour, represented by Seeker's Potio and mortifyd's Sweets for the Vicious respectively.
Essential reading and further Snape/Lockhart resources:
painless_j recently compiled a Lockhart Slash Masterlist, which contains every known Snape/Lockhart fic. Please do let her know if any have been missed.
The HMS Snart mailing list is a small community dedicated to discussion of the pairing, the characters and the fic.
There is also an LJ community: glnssls
Finally, if you read this before 30th June 2005 and are convinced, check out the Snape/Lockhart fanfic and art contest for your chance to win some very pretty Alan Rickman fridge magnets.