Snape

While the Harry Potter series may follow the journey of the Boy Who Lived, if you want to know the whole story, keep your eyes fixed on Severus Snape. This greasy-haired, grumpy genius, one of J.K. Rowling's most enduring gifts to English literature, is the archetypal ill-tempered teacher: demanding, acerbic, and impossible to ignore. Over the span of seven novels, Snape's remarkable role in the series can be hard to parse: Where do his true allegiances lie? Can a former Death Eater change his spots? Why does he seem to loathe the boy he's pledged to protect?