Eileen Snape (nee Prince)

[BrokenPromise]

I'm trying to write a fic which Eileen is in, but it is mainly about her family. I looked on the Harry Potter Wiki and couldn't find much information about her, so I was wondering if anyone around here knows:

Is it mentioned anywhere that she had any siblings?
If so, what were their names?
If not, is it plausible?
What were her parents names?
Would they have been a loving family?

Also, this is slightly off-topic but do you think that her mother could have a child from before her marriage to Eileen's father? I know they were pure-bloods so it could've been a bit scandalous but would it be possible?

[Equinox Chick]

Hello there

There's very little information about Eileen except that she was Snape's mother, married a Muggle and was very good at Potions. There's no mention of her family anywhere in the books and I can't see her or the name 'Prince' on the Black family tree. She's assumed to be pureblood, and Snape certainly seems to venerate the pureblood side of everyone. I think if she'd been a halfblood, then he'd have been more tolerant. You have free rein with her parents' names. She was at Howarts in the 1940s (the Potions book is fifty years old), and her name is pretty much in keeping with girls from that era. Her parents probably had equally old fashioned names - perhaps her dad was Severus.


Would they have been a loving family?
Snape at the age of eleven appears to have been neglected - underfed and badly dressed, and the contrast with James Potter - also skinny - is made that James is 'obviously adored.' Eileen doesn't appear to care for her son, although this could be because she's terrified of her husband. If she'd been from a 'loving family', then I think she'd have gone back to them and they wouldn't have minded about Snape being a halfblood. It's possibly that her family is dead and that's why she doesn't leave Tobias.
Mind you, the picture of her age 15 is a sullen looking girl. This picture is taken after she's won an award, and yet she's still scowling.


~Carole~

[goldensnidget92]

I agree with everything that Carole said, but thought it was of immense importance to add that Eileen was Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones team when she went to the school. Hermione finds this in an old newspaper article when she's trying to find the identity of the Half-Blood Prince.

I'm sure you will find this information exceedingly helpful in your character development

Good luck!

[BrokenPromise]

Thanks to both of you for your help. I see what you mean about a loving family...

Also, do you think that she was definitely a Slytherin? Because although I don't expect she could plausibly be placed in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff without a backstory to leave her permanently scowling, but what about Ravenclaw? She was captain of the Gobstones team, but I'm not sure if that requires much skill.

[The owl]

I too agree with Carole. If she had any siblings I don't think she could have been close to them, like with her parents. As Carole pointed out, she might have been able to get away from her husband if she had been close to her family. I think an unhappy upbringing would help make sense of her personality and if she was mistreated early in life, it might explain why she stayed in such an unhappy marriage; she didn't know different.

As for illegitimate siblings, they would probably have been born in the 1920s/30s, so there would have been a scandal regardless of the mother's blood status. The child and mother would both have been stigmatised I think. Also, I'd guess that many men would have been unwilling to marry the mother of an illegitimate child, so if you use this as part of a plotline, you may want to explain how her parents got together.

Alternatively, you could have the illegitimate child put up for adoption, making Eileen's father unware of its existence. I've done some googling, and there were no laws regarding adoption until 1926. Whether this was the same in the wizarding world is up to you of course.

Basically, yes an illegitimate sibling is a possibility, but you would have to do some explaining as to how Eileen's mother found a husband. Sorry if I'm rambling...

-Sophie-