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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
He was Rowling's personal choice, and she told him Snape's secret long before the last book was published.
Q 02Who was cast as Snape in the HBO television adaptation, as announced in 2025?
Paapa Essiedu
Paapa Essiedu was announced as Snape in April 2025. Rowling's own description of the character is an "antihero" drawn from a disliked teacher of her childhood.
Q 03Snape was reportedly based in part on which figure from Rowling's schooldays?
Her chemistry teacher
John Nettleship taught Rowling chemistry at Wyedean School near Chepstow and employed her mother as an assistant.
Q 04Rowling took Snape's first name from a road in which part of London?
Clapham
His surname is borrowed from an English village.
Q 05Which character did Rowling say is the only one she deliberately based on a real person?
Gilderoy Lockhart
Snape nonetheless has a widely reported real-life model in her old chemistry teacher.
Q 06Who turns out to be the real villain of book one, the man Snape was actually watching?
Professor Quirrell
Harry spends the whole book convinced Snape is plotting to steal the Philosopher's Stone.
Q 07Which spell does Harry learn by watching Snape use it at the Duelling Club?
Expelliarmus
The disarming charm becomes Harry's signature move in the later books.
Q 08Which complex potion does Snape brew for Remus Lupin in book three?
Wolfsbane
He later forces Lupin to resign by telling the school he is a werewolf.
Q 09Who tricked the schoolboy Snape into nearly entering the Shrieking Shack on a full moon?
Sirius Black
James stopped him and saved his life, though Snape believed James only acted to avoid expulsion.
Q 10Who names Snape as a Death Eater in the Pensieve trial Harry witnesses?
Igor Karkaroff
Dumbledore defends him, saying Snape changed sides before Voldemort's downfall and turned spy.
Q 11What does Snape show Cornelius Fudge as proof that Voldemort has returned?
The Dark Mark on his arm
Fudge refuses to believe it, and Dumbledore sends Snape on his secret mission to rejoin the Death Eaters.
Q 12What discipline does Dumbledore have Snape teach Harry in Order of the Phoenix?
Occlumency
The lessons end 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
In the same memory Snape calls Lily a Mudblood, the moment that ended their friendship.
Q 21Which Death Eater siblings join the Hogwarts staff under Headmaster Snape?
The Carrows
Alecto and Amycus Carrow are the pair Snape quietly works to contain.
Q 22Where does Snape send the Sword of Gryffindor after students try to steal it?
Gringotts
That sword was only a copy; a silver doe later leads Harry to the real one.
Q 23What form does Snape's Patronus take?
A doe
It matches Lily's, and Rowling says he is the only Death Eater capable of producing a full Patronus at all.
Q 24Why does Voldemort decide Snape must die in the Shrieking Shack?
Q 14What had Snape secretly given Umbridge instead of real truth serum?
Fake Veritaserum
When she demands more, he claims his supplies are exhausted and carries Harry's warning to the Order.
Q 15Where is Snape's home, visited by Bellatrix and Narcissa at the start of book six?
Spinner's End
It is the small house where he spent a neglected childhood with his quarrelling parents.
Q 16What does Narcissa Malfoy swear Snape to in book six?
An Unbreakable Vow
He promises to protect Draco and to finish Voldemort's task himself if the boy fails.
Q 17Who replaces Snape as Potions Master when he finally gets the Defence job?
Horace Slughorn
Slughorn was Snape's own former teacher, coaxed out of retirement by Dumbledore.
Q 18Whose textbook does Harry hand over when Snape demands to see his Potions book?
Ron's
Snape knows he is lying and gives Harry detention every weekend until the end of the year.
Q 19Who tells Harry that it was Snape who overheard the prophecy and carried it to Voldemort?
Sybill Trelawney
Dumbledore still insists on his trust in Snape, which makes the tower scene that follows even harder to read.
Q 20What was the maiden name of Snape's witch mother?
Eileen Prince
With a Muggle father, Tobias, that makes him a half-blood and explains the name in his old textbook.
He believes he masters the Elder Wand
The reasoning is wrong: Draco had disarmed Dumbledore, so the wand's allegiance never passed to Snape.
Q 25Why does the dying Snape ask Harry to look at him?
To see Lily's eyes
He also releases a cloud of memories for Harry to view in the Pensieve.
Q 26Into which Houses were Snape and Lily sorted on arrival at Hogwarts?
Slytherin and Gryffindor
They had been childhood friends who lived near each other, and stayed close for several years despite the split.
Q 27Which other family could the prophecy have referred to, besides the Potters?
The Longbottoms
Snape realised too late that Voldemort had read it as pointing at Lily's family and begged for her life.
Q 28Which cursed object left Dumbledore with less than a year to live?
The Gaunt ring
Snape's Dark Arts knowledge slowed the curse in his hand, which is why Dumbledore asked Snape to end it on his own terms.
Q 29Why does Snape's portrait not immediately appear in the Headmaster's office?
He abandoned his post
Rowling likes to think Harry lobbied to have one installed once the truth was known.
Q 30What does Harry call Snape when reassuring his son Albus in the epilogue?
The bravest man he knew
Albus Severus is named for two headmasters, one of them a Slytherin.