When I was six years old, my grandmother bought me and my brothers the first two "Harry Potter" movies. Being so young, I did not really understand the storyline, but the concept of magic was something that was too intriguing to pass up. From the first time I saw the movie though, one person that always grabbed my attention no matter what was Professor Snape. His loud and booming voice, his complete dislike for Harry Potter while everyone else fawned over him, and the constant mystery surrounding him never failed to keep my young mind occupied with questions. It was not until years later when I was able to read the books and appreciate the movies that I realized just how much Snape interested me.

Harry Potter was one of the first books that I read on my own and actually enjoyed. For the rest of my life, I will be giving J.K. Rowling credit for my passion for reading. It was characters like Snape that made me love dissecting characters from other books or movies because he convinced me that there is another side to every story. In making these books come to life though, no one was better for the job than Alan Rickman. One of the only actors that Rowling insisted on having in the movie adaptations, Rickman was a bit reluctant to play another staple bad guy. It was not until the author explained the direction she was planning on taking Snape that he agreed to play the part. Like all of the fans, he too saw how great of a character Severus Snape really was.

To this day, a lot of Harry Potter fans will argue about how things were not translated very well from the books to the movies. One thing they never complained about was the choice of Rickman playing Snape. Even those who thoroughly disliked the character would never say he did a bad job of portraying him. He could convey more in a look than other actors can in a whole scene with paragraphs of dialogue. His talent level was insane and any other actor could have had a lot to learn from him. I am sure the younger actors in those movies would agree.

This week as a fandom, we all mourn Alan Rickman’s passing at the age of 69 after a battle with cancer. Waking up to find out that he had died felt like a member of my own family had. That is probably one of the good and bad things about being a ‘Potterhead,’ it is not just the characters that we are attached to but the people that played them as well. As a fan, it is my hope that Alan Rickman knew how much he and his character meant to all of us. We did not just see him as playing another villain, we saw him as portraying a one-man representation of how the whole entire world works. Nothing is ever just black and white, nothing is ever just good or evil, often times life is not fair. It is how we come out of these situations and how we respond to them that makes us who we are. Snape and Alan Rickman have helped a whole generation of children learn that in the last decade and a half and I believe the world is a better place because of that. So from all of the peoples whose lives he touched, we are immensely grateful.