Life & Style

A black Snape is a bad idea

HBO's latest 'Harry Potter' casting has set off alarm bells

Urooba Rasool March 17, 2025

Paapa Essiedu has his work cut out for him as he fills Alan Rickman’s shoes. Photos: File

SLOUGH, ENGLAND:

What is pale, sallow, and contains enough hair-originated grease to rival an oil spill? The answer, as Harry Potter fans will be bursting to tell anyone who will listen, is Severus Snape. The answer is not Paapa Essiedu.

Essiedu, if Deadline can be believed, is the man that the big brains in HBO's casting department for the upcoming Harry Potter show have decided was the new and improved Snape. As will have escaped no one's notice, Essiedu, is a black actor, whereas the Snape in the books is as Caucasian as they come. Not only does Essiedu look as similar to Snape as Timothee Chalamet does to Maula Jatt, there is also the niggling problem that his character spends his formative years being mercilessly mocked by white students. Filmmakers may be unable to see the implications of any of this, but astute Potter fans are scratching their heads to figure out who thought this would be a good idea.

More than skin deep

In the case of Essiedu, the unhappiness of fans runs far deeper than pure aesthetics. For those who are still unaware, Snape's undiluted loathing of Harry stems from his school days, a large number of which were spent being relentlessly bullied at the hands of fellow student and resident jock James Potter, Harry's father.

In one memorable scene, a teenage James uses his wand to hoist the unpopular Snape up his ankles unprovoked and leave him dangling upside down from a tree before a crowd of braying bystanders. In doing so, James secures Snape's undying hatred. Later in life, matters are not helped by Harry inheriting most of his father's looks.

When they reach this part of the story, will HBO also include white hoods – the sartorial choice favoured by every fashionable self-respecting member of the Ku Klux Klan – as part of TV James' costume as he comes precariously close to lynching a black student? Or have they not read that far ahead? Based on the inventiveness and cluelessness of past directors, both options are a possibility. Whatever the case, it will not be a great look to see the shunned black student being bullied by the popular white boy.

Having said that, we have not yet had word on who will be playing James, so there is every chance that he, too, may also be black to get around this problem. Doing so would obliterate any hope of having a non-Daniel Radcliffe Harry who is a carbon copy of book Harry, but as we have already established, looks are of little importance to directors with a vision.

Broken promises

All of this has come as rather a shock to Potterheads, some of whom have still not forgiven the parade of film directors for ruthlessly sacrificing key plot points and washing away all personality from key characters. However, despite knowing how far from the source material ambitious directors are able to stray, the gullible fandom had fallen for HBO's promises of washing away the offences of the films and producing the most faithful adaptation of the novels known to humankind. Many have been dreaming for years about a non-wacky on-screen Dumbledore, a Ron with a brain, and a Harry and Hermione who never, ever waltz in a tent. After all, if Netflix could transform A Series of Unfortunate Events from page to screen with such regimental perfection, surely HBO could take notes and astonish us all?

To amuse themselves, a slew of eager fans had, over the past few weeks, taken to generating AI images of existing actors by giving them Snape's black curtain hair a black cloak. Among the ones to make the cut were Henry Cavill and Cillian Murphy, momentarily disregarding the fact that both of these men are far too old. They are also, sadly, far too handsome, prompting the very real hypothesis that in her teens, Lily (Harry's mother) may not have been quite so quick to dismiss Snape and switch allegiance to her eventual husband James. As a user on Facebook so thoughtfully pointed out, "There is no way Lily would have become a Potter." It is telling that even in a hypothetical situation, Cavill and Murphy – no slouches in either the acting or the looks department – are out.

Can Essiedu ever be Alan Rickman 2.0? Whatever waterfall of flaws the films may have been riddled with, Rickman's Snape was never one of them. The collective fandom assessment is that the only entity who can be Rickman 2.0 is Rickman's ghost, so poor Essiedu has a pair of very large boots to fill. He may be able to source a wig and replicate Snape's greasy unwashed hair, but will he be able to achieve the pale, sallow features Hogwarts' least loved professor is known for far and wide?

Irritated with the latest Potter development, one fan on X propped up a picture of Adam Driver and wrote: "There's an actor who looks almost exactly like Snape, yet they chose someone with a completely different appearance for the role. What are your thoughts on this casting decision?"

Those thoughts are akin to introducing fire to oxygen. It is not a question of being irritated by Eddiedu's race. Potter fans are not racist. They are purists, which is not quite the same thing. (Ironically, actual racists in the Potter books identify as 'purebloods', but do not let the similarity in names fool you.) Ergo, to the easily hurt Potter tribe, Essiedu's casting is right up there with film Dumbledore screaming in Harry's face about whether or not he put his name in the goblet of fire.

Not just Snape

Purist fans in other franchises have railed against a black Ariel in Disney's latest live action for The Little Mermaid and the Rachel Zegler Snow White – although in the case of Snow White, it is less of a case of Zegler's heritage and more of a case of butchering an already unloved film. Cynthia Erivo became the first ever black Elphaba in the Wicked film, but because she is green throughout the film anyway, nobody cares what she looks like in real life. Thanks to Elphaba's green skin, there is no outright symbolism of a black student being bullied because she is black. A black actor also played Hermione in the stage production The Cursed Child, but other than her being irritatingly dissimilar to book Hermione, unlike a black bullied Snape, there is no danger of sending out unwanted racist messages.

Tragically, we still live in trying times where there is no one who will slap screen brainiacs when they get their hands on a book and say a sentence containing the words, 'Yes, but what if (insert brainwave not existing in source material)." Until a designated slapper is assigned we can forget about HBO taking a leaf out of Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events and watch the Harry Potter show when it arrives with our hands over our eyes.

COMMENTS (10)

sarkeesia | 1 month ago | Reply Frankly when Paapa Essiedu played Hamlet surely it wouldn t have required to make his nemesis black in order to avoid the issue of racism. At the same time if one needed the victim to have Blaise Zabini s complexion in order to find the relentless assault public humiliation and dehumanization showcased by James and Sirius in the scene mentioned in the article only one in a pattern of such assaults that JKR called relentless and continued even after their victim had nearly died as a result of the plotting of one of his attackers to be a bad look it would say more about them than about the people at HBO or Paapa Essiedu for that matter who seems to want the role as is his right . I frankly don t see how this could be connected to Netflix s A Series of Unfortunate Events in any way that made any sense. The truth of the matters is that it is not at all uncommon for people of a different ethnicity than the one of the original character to be cast in the role and that this didn t prove an issue in the books when Dean Thomas black earned Harry s green monster anger for dating his white romantic prospect nor when Hermione was cast as a black character despite being described as having a white face in the book was there any implication that Draco s bad attitude towards her had been motivated by prejudice over her race or ethnicity rather than over her parents being unable to do magic as he didn t have any problem with Blaise Zabini s Slytherin hot pureblood -afaik a term used by everyone including non-purebloods to describe people with two muggle parents not merely used by people that had a problem with muggles to describe mages with two muggle parents- blood supremacist and black racial or ethnic background. Quite frankly while Draco and Blaise were both prejudiced they were self evidently not prejudiced against people s racial or ethnic background as evidenced by Draco not having a problem with Blaise and Blaise not having a probelm with himself in terms of the latter s racial and ethnic background. Quite frankly there was a lot of types of prejudice going around in the books muggles vs wizards and vice versa wizards against magical creatures and vice versa class and money house prejudice etc. And basically everyone but Hermione treated House elves as serfs by birth. Quite simply one s racial and ethnic background were never presented as posing any more of an issue or a role than their hair color in terms of the relevance they were given in the books for people like Blaise or Thomas or Chang or Patil and Parvati. Similarly we don t see anything related to discrimination over someone s religion or sexual orientation. Then again there was almost negligible ethnic diversity and even less in-book religious or sexual orientation one student was identified as Jewish though it s not clear whether he was religious and Dumbledore s sexuality was talked about more outside than inside the 7 books . All in all one s racial or ethnic background was an element that basically played no role one way or the other in the books I simply have to disagree that it was essential to anyone s character. It was in fact whether one thinks it should have been or not about as relevant to the characterization of the various non white characters as their hair color. Again if racial or ethnic background had played an important role such as it being an element in charaters being mistreated at school or characters having to struggle because of their racial or ethnic background then I would agree that it might make sense to preserve that in the casting or I might depending on how fundamental it was to the story and whether it couldn t be changed while keeping the same thematic line if you altered some other plot elements... or maybe it could be treated as a non issue as happens routinely in theater with blind casting... which again not everyone agrees with and for multiple and even opposing reasons that don t necessarily imply racism -though certanily if someone was a racist they would have a problem with a non white actor getting to play a white character s role due to blind casting- but that certainly is a thing that exists in theater I would say more prevalently than in cinema . This was most definitely not the case with any of the HP characters. Their racial or ethnic background quite simply played no part in the story. One might think that it should have but the simple fact is that it didn t. Not for Blaise not for Thomas not for Chang not for Parvati or Padma. Frankly if we ignore for a moment the fact that Hermione was described as having a white face in the book and we pretend that JKR had not simply forgotten about her own written work and casting since she was involved in the movies in her post-facto character changes which to be clear I have no issue whatsoever with we still would have had a sitaution where we went through seven books where her racial or ethnic background was so utterly irrelevant to what anyone did or said to her that it would not have been mentioned as a factor for more than half a decade at school plus the epilogue playing no part in the story one way or the other. Of course again it was mentioned but not given any relevance when her face was described as a white face . Still her racial or ethnic background was not relevant to anything it had less relevance than Harry s eyes who were mentione let alone his scar. And in the movies they even altered Harry s eyes making them blue instead of green. So good luck to Essiedu and unfortunately I have to disagree about the fan s protestations while I do believe that a part are certainly concerned with canonical purity it s simply impossible if we are to be honest and realistic to pretend that some are not irritated by the casting choice simply because they have a problem with him being black. Again he is a theater actor that literally played the Prince of Denmark Hamlet despite being black. And obviously a Danish prince at the time of Hamlet being black would make much less sense than a guy born in the 60s in a muggle town. That is all to say I would venture to say that in HP for any character it is true to say that their racial and ethnic background were less important than in virtually any work that Essiedu might have starred in and constitute less of a problem in terms of adherence to the plot than virtually any work he had ever participated in. Assuming one would even think that it could constitute a problem in principle which is not a given certainly not for someone okay with theater s blind casting rules which I know people can disagree for different and even opposing reasons not merely for racism though again if one was a racist obviously they would be against a non white actor playing a white character s role due to blind casting or with him playing a Danish prince in Hamlet. I am okay with both of the last things and even more so obviously with Essiedu playing Snape.

alicarnasso | 1 month ago | Reply I would say that if someone looked at what they did to him in terms of assaults public humiliations and dehumanization telling to his face that they were attacking him even after one of them nearly got him mauled and eaten alive and they would consider that a bad look only if the victim had Blaize Zabini s complexion that would say more about them than about the screenwriters or those responsible for casting. Frankly it would be bizarre for someone to need the victim to have Blaise Zabini s complexion for them to have a problem with the aforementioned behavior and dehumanization. The in the words of this article near lynching and the dehumanization that motivated it surely should should be the problem in and of themselves. I mean I cannot imagine any morally normal person for which the victim s pigmentation would be the deciding factor over whether the same behavior and dehumanization was a bad look or not.

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ethen | 1 month ago | Reply Frankly while I wouldn t suggest slapping anyone contrary to the ending of the article I have to admit that I cannot see how any one with one iota of moral seriousness could have seen the relentless and extreme assault and public humiliation they subjected their victim to even after he had already nearly died as a result of one of the ringleaders plotting for no other reason by their own admission than their desire to escape their boredom via the sadistic pleasure they got of out of hurting and humiliating someone they considered inferior and not already see this as not a good look . The discriminant between this being a good look or not surely couldn t possibly be merely the skin pigmentation. I mean if someone really saw that level of gratuitous and extreme attack and public humiliation and the clear dehumanization required to say that it was done not because of anything the victim did but just because he exists and to use his pain and suffering as a bargaining chip to threaten one s crush into a date if she want them to stop assaulting and humiliating her then-still-friend and the determining factor was whether the victim of such an assault public humiliation and dehumanization was of a given ethnic background I wouldn t call that a broken moral compass I would say their moral compass doesn t even have a needle. Surely the issue with what the article calls a near lynching of someone they considered inferior because of his mere existence would the near lynching of someone they considered inferior because of his mere existence surely the deciding factor making this a bad look or not couldn t be just whether the victim they assaulted humiliated and dehumanized for his mere existence and being told so to his face had Blaise Zabini s complexion. I mean would the victim really consider the deciding factor to determine if such assault humiliation and dehumanization was appalling be whether the people doing this to him deemed it fit to do this merely because he exists on account of him being poor of a lower social class a misfit or for his appearance or for his half muggle heritage all which are true features of his or for a billion other reasons that would make him different and the other that they could abuse as they saw fit It seems that if one saw the same assault and the same dehumanization of the victim freely admitted by the attackers and merely changing the victim s complexion was what determined to them whether this was a bad look or not their moral compass clearly doesn t have a needle. I truly cannot believe there would be someone for whom all the above would not be a bad look but a change in the victim s skin pigmentation would make it so. Surely it shouldn t require all those assaults and public humiliation and dehumanization of someone for their mere existence to be applied to someone of Blaise Zabini s complexion in order to make it a bad look .

currency | 1 month ago | Reply I mean we are talking about two rich purebloods assaulting and publicly humiliating a lower class halfblood minding his own business after one of them had already almost gotten him killed read mauled eaten alive . James clearly admits they were doing this out of boredom treating their victims as if he existed for no other purpose than to allow them to satisfy their sadistic impulses. I guess that after Lily refused him despite his threat and told him she found him sickening he was also taking out his frustrations on the victim of their ambush but fundamentally he freely admitted to be doing this because he felt entitled to hurt and humiliate someone he considered inferior and derived some sadistic pleasure from the activity. That s already not a good look nor do the book mean to suggest that it was I mean Harry himself was utterly repulsed by what he witnessed this was not behavior that the books were otherwise endorsing or pretending that was not heinous and extreme and would suddenly become so by the mere fact of the victim s change in pigmentation. It was never meant to be seen as good or acceptable behavior in the first place. Frankly it has always been a behavior and mentality that one might easily imagine Bellatrix displaying while tormenting a victim at school just as I believe her psychopathic sadism would perfectly align with her deciding that manipulating a classmate she found annoying into a face to face meeting with a transformed werewolf in an enclosed space would be an appropriate course of affair not regretting the act even as an adult decades later or for that matter using the victim s near death to brag to one s crush or enlisting the person that put that plot into motion and almost killed the guy to assault him two to one and publicly humiliate him. None of these were meant to be seen as good behaviors that the book endorsed if not for the victim s pigmentation. I mean surely the determining factor deciding between the very same behavior was appalling or not couldn t be if the victim was someone of Blaise Zabini s same ethnic background let alone Blaise Zabini himself .

essiedufan | 1 month ago | Reply I mean honestly when Dean Thomas black was dating Ginny Harry s white romantic interest it s not as if there was a suggestion that the animosity was racially or ethnically motivated. By the same token when Hermione which was clearly depicted as a white character in the books explicitly referring to her face as a white face despite JKR s later apparent memory-holing of her own material was cast as black there was no suggestion that say Draco s animosity towards her was due to prejudice about her racial or ethnic background as he very clearly didn t have any problem with Blaise Zabini s racial or ethnic background Blaise being the very attractive pureblood Slytherin that was obsessed with blood purity and also happened to be black . Incidentally I didn t have any problem with a black actress being cast for Hermione s role but that was definitely not the case for a lot of other fans and while i would believe that a part of them were motivated purely by a desire for canonical purity and adherence to the source material I don t think it s possible to claim that there were zero racists having a problem with a black actress being cast for the role I mean even just statistically there are racists and black actors being cast for her role seems like the kind of thing they would get upset about . No need to whitewash this. Frankly in the theater world the change of ethnic background would have been even less controversial given that blind casting is commonly used and personally I don t see a problem with the practice . Nor frankly is it the first time this happens to a screen adaptation. I mean in the Shawshank Redemption one of the key characters Red a criminal in prison for murder is cast as black in the movie but in the book was a white Irishman the movie also doesn t go into the details of his crime which makes sense given the different medium .

keepreal | 1 month ago | Reply I mean if not all the upset fans are upset at the job going to a black man because of racism surely some are just like I believe to be the case for the Hermione casting some caring about canonical purity others purely not wanting to cast a black actress .

frederika | 1 month ago | Reply I mean frankly two popular rich purebloods routinely physically attacking and publicly humiliating an impoverished half blood misfit because they were bored and they enjoyed hurting someone they deemed inferior because of his mere existence already wasn t a good look. I doubt the victim would care if this was because they had an issue with his ethnic background religion sexual orientation looks poverty class or any of a billion other ways in which he might not fit their world view and be deemed different the other and therefore an inferior creature they could physically assault and publicly humiliate for their own sadistic enjoyment. This to me seems the key point. They were not just generally unpleasant abrasive a terrible teacher boss like say Doctor House or Steve Jobs. They were routinely physically assaulting someone that had almost died as a result to one of the ringleader s plotting and telling him to his face that they were doing this because of his mere existence. It was not done out of hate or even out of a general anger and mysantropy. It was done out of boredom becaues they felt entitled to hurt someone inferior in the same way a noble would have felt entitled abusing a peasant just the same as they would have felt entitled to hunt a fox. As an aside I do wonder how they will frame the broader muggle wizard conflict... the JKR materials outside the books painted quite a different picture where it was made out have exploded relatively recent with the Statue of Secrety being enacted when the magical world was unable to get protection under the law after an upsurge in persecution from the muggle world and had to self segregate and live in hiding. There was a split between a faction that wanted to fight despite Grindelwald Young Dumbledore and Voldemort one would guess that owuld have been a course of action unlikely to succeed given they had always been a minority living among a much larger muggle majority and you had most so called pureblood families really having contact with the muggle world until that point the Malfoys even associating with royalty etc. . From the books you don t get any of that and you assume 1 that persecution of witches etc. was not a serious problem and 2 that the muggle wizard animosity had been an important conflict forever rather than a relatively recent phenomenon that exploded after an upsurgee in death persecution enslavement of the wizarding world at the hands of the muggle world and after trying and failing to get rulers governments to provide protection under the law the subsequent self segregation of muggle society. Basically I wonder if they will go the Rings of Power route with the Orcs or kind of a Darkling Magneto angle as there was a deeper history than a mere dislike of the other for superficial characteristics in the wizard- muggle direction while a fear exploitation of the other in the muggle- wizard direction... I feel that generally TV shows tend to go for this kind of depiction .

falcones | 1 month ago | Reply I don t think that the argument presented in the article holds even based on the book material and people s past reactions. On one hand let s stop and appreciate the fact that Essiedu comes from a theatre background where it s pretty common to have blind casting and for non white actors to play white characters be them heroes villains or anything in between. On the other hand ethnicity is simply not an important part of any character in HP either for characters whose ethnicity was not specified those when it was changed post-factor or those who were from a non white background in the books themselves from the blood purity obsessed Slytherin Blaise Zabini black to Harry s first girlfriend Cho Chang east asian and anyone else in between. Their ethnicity is treated exactly as their hair color for all the relevance that it has in their characterization. When Dean Thomas black dates Harry white s romnatic prospect the white Ginny Weasley there is no undertones where Harry s animosity is due to some racism tied to misegenation. I think that in terms of changes to a character ethnic background and frankly appearance Hermione would be a perfect example. In the movies she was similarly cast as someone more attractive and less unkept than she was depicted as in the books where she didn t bother with her appearance outside of special social occasions since it took up too much time . She was also explicitly depicted as white I don t mean only in the film s casting where JKR had authorial control I mean that literally in the third book they refer to her face as a white face JKR apparently forgetting about her own depiction in her post-facto change of the character s ethnic background . At the time there were similar objections raised by by this article s estimation but frankly not necessarily by mine s canon purist fans. I personally had no issue with it though I did find it rather ridiculous to defend it based on the book material when her ethnicity was explicitly spelled out . She was a central part of the Trio so an even more key character than Harry. I think that contra this article Hermione s case would prefectly match Snape s. When Draco Malfoy bullies her at school clearly her being black wouldn t change the dynamic such that he would appear to hate her because of her black ethnicity as he very clearly doesn t feel the same way about his house mate Blaise Zabini the black Slytherin blood purist . In the book there are depictions of various prejudices from wizards hating muggles a perspective that blossomed due to muggles persecutions of wizards that forced them to exist in hiding living in well kept enclaves sort of ghettos or reservations while having to hide their true nature... ableism to muggles hating wizards because they were different from witch burnings kidnapping of wizarding children and enslavement of witches to do their bidding in the past to the Dursley s pathological hatred of anyone different today... reverse ableism Jealousy to wizards hating or at least looking down on magical creatures speciesism How to think about this in the case of werewolves to some magical creatures feeling the same way about wizards Fenrir Grayback the giant characters to pure and simple classism and looking down on people of a poorer background to prejudices between houses a chaste like system As with the other cases hard to map on a real world equivalent . In terms of James Sirius frankly they were routinely assaulting tormenting and publicly humiliating someone that had almost died Sirius manipulations almost ending up getting him killed in one of the most brutal and painful ways imaginable -mauled and eaten alive- and James freely admitted to doing this because of boredom not because of anything his victim did indeed he was minding his own business but because of his very existence. He was someone he considered inferior and that he thought he could inflict pain physical emotional etc. and humiliate for his and Sirius sadistic pleasure. The picture of two popular financially well off purebloods from pureblood families assaulting and humiliating a half blood misfit they consided inferior merely for in the ringleader s own words their own sadistic enjoyment is already not a good look. James and Sirius were clearly prejudiced and as prone to take pleasure in abusing and humiliating someone they considered inferior different not fitting their world view. But more importantly inferior. It s just that such prejudices and who they considered inferior didn t happen to land them on the bad side of a conflict years in the future. Frankly the fact that them enjoying hurting and humiliating someone they considered inferior for the mere fact that he exists shouldn t need their victim to have the same ethnic background of a Blaise Zabini in order to be considered appalling. I mean the exact same actions and the exact same motivation hurting someone you considered inferior not for their actions but for their mere existence would really be considered appalling only if the target had been Blaise Zabini Would it really matter if the near lynching to use the words in the article was agaisnt someone they considered inferior because of sexual identity or religious ideology or anything tied not to his actions but to his mere existence Because ultimately we would still be talking about them considering their victim the other someone different inferior that they could dehumanize and enjoy hurting and humiliating. To me surely what makes the near lynching of someone because they exists is the near lynching part folllowed by the fact that the victim was deemed an existentially inferior creatures that they could draw sadistic enjoyment from hurting and humiliating both of which were the case for the Marauder s actions regardless of the victim s ethnicity. This was frankly a scene reminiscent of two nobles running around the countryside and oppressing a victim from a lower social class for their own enjoyment and the class difference was in the characters background . I recall a scene in a TV series of a rich executive going around assaulting a homeless person maybe Mr. Robot . Not sure I would have considered it that much of a better look if the victim was white instead of black.

marcella | 1 month ago | Reply Personally I see no problems with the casting. Hermione was explicitly described as white in the 3rd book and it was no problem casting her as black. Malfoy etc. being prejudiced against her still had nothing to do with their ethnicity as indicated by the fact that they didn t have a problem with Blaise a black Slytherin who was absolutely obsessed with blood purity. It did have to do with other considerations around being a mage versus a Muggle ableism If we deem magic a skill and we model this as someone looking down on blind people etc. . I see the Marauders situation as absolutely analogous it might not have to do with ethnicity but it doesn t change the fact that they thought of Snape as someone inferior that they were entitled to hurt and humiliate for their own sadistic enjoyment. Whether one thought of the other as inferior based on their sexual preference ethnicity religion physical characteristic lower social class the latter two being the case in Snape s case etc. the key fact is that they think of them as inferior and existing for them to relieve their boredom by hurtin gand humiliating the victim and I would say in James case to take out anger and frustration by abusing Snape after Lily refused him despite his threat and told him he made her sick with the way he went around assaulting with hexes anyone he found annoying . Frankly if a student gets trounced and almost lynched in front of a jeering mod the problem I would have is about them getting almost lynched not whether their abusers thought they were entitled to hurt someone they deemed inferior because of his sexuality ethnicity religion etc.. The near lynching would be the problem. I would find it an extremely sad state of affairs if people would genuinely find this unacceptable only if the victim was someone with the same skin color as Blaise Zabini.

mariangela | 1 month ago | Reply Well I would say that self evidently the situation wouldn t have been a good look regardless. I mean we are talking about two popular rich purebloods in as much as one wants to link that to ethnicity which it definitely wasn t think about Blaise Zabini the good looking and vein Slytherin pureblood obsessed with blood purity who also happened to be black ganging up and ambushing assaulting and publicly humiliating an impoverished halfblood misfit. To add insult to injury one of them had previously almost got the victim mauled and eaten by a werewolf while the other exploited the victim s near death and silence to brag to his crush while continuing to routinely torment him even his near death and moreover freely admitting that he was doing so not because of anything the victim did but because of the victim s very existence they were bored and they derived sadistic enjoyment from hurting and humiliating someone that was weaker that them socially economically in terms of class and heritage outnumbered and attacked when his back was turned and he was minding his own business etc. and which they considered inferior. The other. Someone they could dehumanize hurt and humiliate for their own enjoyment and that they had been tormenting for the past half a decade from the height of their position of superior power and priviledge. Quite frankly the attackers did hold obvious prejudices only they were not of a variety that would have put them on the wrong side of a future war. But the basic model of thinking they were entitled to hurt someone in a weaker position that they found inferior and the fact that they derived pleasure from inflicting such pain and humuliation on such a victim would not have been out of place in a Bellatrix Lestrange or in the group of Death Eaters that attacked the muggle family at the Quidditch World Cup besides the obvious similarity in mindset with only the victims perpetrators changing the nature of the attack was also quite similar between their victim being chocked levitated agaisnt their will and publicly humiliated . Again we are clearly dealing with dehumanization othering and hurting someone for the pleasure of it while treating them as if they existed merely for you to assault and humiliate as sport as a way to relieve your boredom. Personally the main issue I see with almost lynching a classmate is the fact one was almost lynching a classmate rather than the exact motivation that led them to think that they were entitled to hurt and humiliate them for their mere existence as a way to relieve their boredom. I mean would one really need the victim to be Blaise Zabini before deeming the same actions whose dehumanization and sadism were self evident to be cowardly repulsive and unacceptable One would hope not.

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