Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Tobias Snape

Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Character
Tobias Snape
Gender	Male
Hair color	Unknown
Eye color	Unknown
Related Family	Severus Snape, Eileen Snape
Loyalty	Unknown

Overview

Tobias Snape was a Muggle man who married pure-blood witch Eileen Prince. He is the father of Severus Snape, and in general seems to be rather abusive and unpleasant.

Role in the Books

Order of the Phoenix

We first see Tobias briefly during Harry's occlumency lessons with Snape. We get a brief look into some of Severus's memories, one of which we see a man shouting at a frightened looking woman while young Severus cries in the corner of the room. Though we don't learn their names, it is implied that these are Snape's parents.

Half-Blood Prince

At the end of the book we learn his name for the first time when Hermione shows Harry and Ron some old Daily Prophet articles talking about his marriage to Eileen Prince, and later the birth of their son Severus Snape.

Deathly Hallows

We hear a bit more about Tobias in Severus's memories. In one we see Severus telling Lily offhandedly that his father doesn't like magic, or anything, very much.

Relationships with Other Characters

Tobias seemed to be abusive towards his wife and possibly his son as well. It is implied that Severus dislikes his father as evidenced by his comments to Lily Evans.

Greater Picture

Most of what we see or hear about shows Tobias as abusive and disliking magic.

Tobias also provides us with another similarity between Severus and Lord Voldemort. Of course, both are half-blood wizards born to a Muggle father and a pure-blood mother. Both Tobias and Tom Riddle Sr. were shown to have disliked magic and mistreated their wives (though in different ways). Both fathers seem to have been the primary sources for their sons' hatred of Muggles.