Why Did Snape STUPEFY Flitwick? - Harry Potter Explained

Hey guys,

Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’re going to be discussing Severus Snape, Filius Flitwick, and an interesting incident where Flitwick was on the receiving end of one of Snape’s stunning spells- and this was BEFORE he killed Dumbledore. This incident of course occurred on the night that the dark mark was cast upon the astronomy tower. The following excerpt from the text depicts the scene:

“Outside Snape’s office, yes,” whispered Hermione, her eyes sparkling with tears, “with Luna. [. . . .] It was nearly midnight when Professor Flitwick came sprinting down into the dungeons. He was shouting about Death Eaters in the castle, I don’t think he really registered that Luna and I were there at all, he just burst his way into Snape’s office and we heard him saying that Snape had to go back with him and help and then we heard a loud thump and Snape came hurtling out of his room and he saw us and — and — [. . . .] “I was so stupid, Harry!” said Hermione in a high- pitched whisper. “He said Professor Flitwick had collapsed and that we should go and take care of him while he— while he went to help fight the Death Eaters —” [. . . .] “We went into his office to see if we could help Professor Flitwick and found him unconscious on the floor . . . and oh, it’s so obvious now, Snape must have Stupefied Flitwick, but we didn’t realize, Harry, we didn’t realize, we just let Snape go!”

This whole scenario was a bit confusing, because Snape and Flitwick were behind closed doors. No death eaters were present. Sure, maybe he was trying to protect Flitwick by keeping him away from a potential fight- but if that was the case why wouldn’t have stunned Hermione or Luna?

Some have speculated that Snape did it because he knew that he would need to fulfill his promise to Dumbledore. He knew that, on that fateful night, he would need to end Dumbledore’s life. Had Snape not stupefied Flitwick, then he would have run the risk of Flitwick following him to the Astronomy tower, which would have made his job of killing Dumbledore much more difficult. Snape wasn’t going to tell Flitwick about the plan, and there’s absolutely no way that he would be able to rationalize what was about to happen. However, the issue with this is that at this point in time Snape didn’t actually know whether or not Dumbledore had returned to Hogwarts, so, he wasn’t actually going to the astronomy tower to kill Dumbledore, he was simply going there because a dark mark had appeared.

All Snape knew at this stage, was that SOMETHING was going on - the mark of the death eaters was above the school, and that’s probably never a good thing. At this stage Snape’s loyalties were still very much unclear to many, and both sides thought that they had an ally. When the dark mark appeared, Snape knew that he would need to go and investigate, however when Flitwick appeared in front of him, it presented him with a problem. How would Snape possibly be able to go and see the Death eaters if Flitwick tagged along with him? It would be a weird, awkward situation where Snape wouldn’t be able to attack either side. If he attacked the death eaters to prove loyalty to Flitwick, he would be blowing his cover, and if he attacked Flitwick, he would be attacking a genuine ally. So, to answer the question posed at the beginning of the video: Snape did what was best for everyone. Stunning Flitwick caused him no permanent damage, and potentially saved his life. Additionally, Snape was able to investigate what was going on without risk of blowing his cover.

Why Snape decided to let Hermione and Luna go without stunning them is unclear, but I would imagine that he thought tending to Flitwick would keep them occupied for long enough. Additionally, things get a bit messy when you start firing stupefy left and right at your allies.

It can’t feel good to get hit with a stupefying spell, but it probably beats getting hit with avada kedavra.

And that’s it for this video! If you enjoy the content, please remember to like the video and subscribe to the channel. Until next time, YER A WIZARD ARRY.


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