Professor Severus Snape

With one tweet, author JK Rowling apologised for killing off Professor Severus Snape in the final book of the Harry Potter series. Her apology comes on the anniversary of the fictional Battle of Hogwarts, which saw many popular characters die.

"I told Alan what lies behind the word 'Always'." J K Rowling was alluding to a scene in Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows where Professor Dumbledore asks Snape if he has "grown to care for the boy (Harry Potter), after all" and Snape then shows him his Patronus, which is a doe, a reflection of Lily Evans Potter

"A lifetime seems to have passed in minutes," reads a line from a letter Alan Rickman wrote back in 2011. He was saying farewell to his Harry Potter character Severus Snape but it couldn't hold truer now for fans across the world who are mourning the actor. Mr Rickman died at the age of 69 on January 14.

Professor Snape may have scared the bejesus out of most of his Hogwarts pupils but between takes, he couldn't have been kinder. As fans raised their wands to honour Alan Rickman, his colleagues from the franchise paid tribute to their late co-star. Here are tributes from those who took Potions lessons from the Half-Blood Prince

With one tweet, author JK Rowling apologised for killing off Professor Severus Snape in the final book of the Harry Potter series. Her apology comes on the anniversary of the fictional Battle of Hogwarts, which saw many popular characters die.

"I told Alan what lies behind the word 'Always'." J K Rowling was alluding to a scene in Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows where Professor Dumbledore asks Snape if he has "grown to care for the boy (Harry Potter), after all" and Snape then shows him his Patronus, which is a doe, a reflection of Lily Evans Potter

"A lifetime seems to have passed in minutes," reads a line from a letter Alan Rickman wrote back in 2011. He was saying farewell to his Harry Potter character Severus Snape but it couldn't hold truer now for fans across the world who are mourning the actor. Mr Rickman died at the age of 69 on January 14.

Professor Snape may have scared the bejesus out of most of his Hogwarts pupils but between takes, he couldn't have been kinder. As fans raised their wands to honour Alan Rickman, his colleagues from the franchise paid tribute to their late co-star. Here are tributes from those who took Potions lessons from the Half-Blood Prince