Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
discussion
Am I the only person who didn't really like Snape?
Some teachers just don't see eye to eye with all of their students.
I really liked Snape. He was, to me, the most complex and well-written character. As for his behaviors, well, I always perceived him as "in character" as Voldemort's loyal servant. Imagine the fallout if he had broken that cover to anyone but Dumbledore!If you have 25 years perspective on High School, as I do, you will realize EVERYONE is idiotic at that age. James, Lupin, and Sirius were just as obnoxious as Snape was. Even moreso, in my humble opinion.
As for why he disliked Harry? I think he disliked the fact that he blew his chance with Lily and Harry was a reminder of the child he would never have with the woman he always loved. His regret was projected as malice, but he never stopped protecting Harry because of the love he bore Lily.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are. I LOVE SNAPE. AWESOME GUY
I didn't like Snape much and I thought the actor was dead on when he played him. At the end of the books after all was found out, I was surprised and pitied Snape. I didn't like him more, but I felt I understood him more. And understanding his modivations made what he did more tolerable. Knowing I'm not one for forgiveness easily - it made me like Harry Potter more at the end. For his ability to forgive and even honor the love that Snape had for his mother.
Nasseem wrote: "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..."totally agree,a character with a great depth
snape was kind of a shady character and you usually can't figure out which side he's working for, but he was loyal to dumbledore and also turned out to be good in the end. not my favorite hp character, though.
Tyler wrote: "snape was kind of a shady character and you usually can't figure out which side he's working for, but he was loyal to dumbledore and also turned out to be good in the end. not my favorite hp charac..."
Exactly. I felt terrible when he died. :(
Exactly. I felt terrible when he died. :(
i didn't really like him, ever. what happened to him in his past didn't justify being such a dickhead towards harry and his friends. my feelings regarding snape didn't change, even after the last book.
Lots of kids were teased in school, but while Snape wasn't the worse of the worse, I didn't 'like' him or Sirius really. Neither one of them got over being little boys. Of the three knuckle heads, James seems to be the only one that did grow up (mentally as well as physically). There's far to many incidents of Snape just being a jerk to Harry and his friends for good reason, from the MOMENT the poor boy showed his face on campus. Do I 'understand' what he went through, take away 'magic school' and I was Snape in many notable ways. I totally respect the complex character JK drew out for him by the end and it's noble that Harry admired what he went through in the end, and that's what makes him (Harry) the hero. However, Snape himself was a selfish whinny child til nearly the end of his life. I mean look at the fit he threw in Prisoner of Azkaban over Lupin, ridiculous over reaction because of Snape's poor bruised childhood ego. Nah, don't like him. Respect what he did in the end, but don't like him.
Dawn wrote: "Of the three knuckle heads, James seems to be the only one that did grow up (mentally as well as physically)"I'm curious as to what makes you think that James grew out of his bullying.
Can't be entirely sure, but the fact James thought sending Snape to meet a full grown werewolf wasn't a funny joke and Sirius seemed to think the exact opposite, makes me think James began to develop a better head on his shoulders as time went on. I'm also giving Lily some credit in her changed opinion on him in this particular character perception.
SarahO wrote: "I have many friends who love Snape but I just don't see it. The only time I might have like/felt sorry for Snape was in the 7th book after we found out about him, other then that I'm bordering on i..."i think he really wanted to like harry but he only liked half of him basically the LILY half and thats totally understandable because JAMES was pretty horrible to SNAPE... but in the end he was always looking out for the best interest of harry and trying to keep him in line whenever he was getting to ahead of himself and acting like his father... but overall just the simply fact that dumboldore loved and trusted Snape clearly makes everyone see there was a reason behind it.
Mitali wrote: "That's nonsense. At the beginning of Philospher's/Sorcerer's Stone, Voldemort had been gone for 10 years, and pretty much no one thought he would ever be back. Do you really mean to say that Snape spent a decade being cruel to his students on the off-chance that his dead boss may not be dead after all, and even if he was alive, may be interested in how Snape ran his Potions classes?!!"Thank you. For most of the series, Snape was just mad at a little boy who did nothing to him with no reason to believe he'd ever have to play double agent again. And everyone brings up James being the reason he was such a jerk to Harry. Then what was the excuse for the absolutely cruel treatment of Neville? Or any other student he was just a random bastard to?
I can't remember who said it, but I'm pretty sure a character in the book said Snape was an unpopular and unfair teacher long before James' son got there. And all because he didn't feel he had the teaching position he rightly 'deserved'. Snape was as much as bully as his bullies and it was as unnecessary for him to be so. He was a smart, talented man, who wasted his power bullying little children, because he couldn't get over being bullied.
What snape did, ultimately helped harry kill voldemort. I despised him in the initial volumes but when i came to know about what he actually was in the deathly hallows, I became his fan. What he did was really dangerous and selfless. Whatever he did was for the love of harry's mother...........
Jeanie wrote: "Snape was a complex character and very interesting, but not likable to me--even by the end. I understood him better and felt some pity, but I'll never like him. It wasn't just Harry that Snape to..."You took the words out of my mouth. I completely agree. I never liked Snape, ever. Obviously not, considering how J.K. Rowling wrote him. Yes, in the 7th book he 'redeemed himself', but I can't get over the fact that he was so cruel all those years.
I have a love/hate relationship with Snape's character. He was brave and he was lonely and his life wasn't exactly amazing. He loved Lily a lot but he was never happy. He has a lot of depth and a touching background. But on the other side, I can't help hating him because of how little he cared about anything but Lily. He was awful to Harry. He was downright nasty to the son of the woman he had always loved. But he couldn't be happy for her. He should have moved on and told himself to be happy that Lily was happy. He should have accepted that she would be happier with James than with him. No, I am not a big fan of him as a person. But I do like how Rowling created him. He is a very complex character.
I respected the thought put into the character however I feel about the character, putting 'liking' him aside, I think he's extrodinarily complex and interesting as a character.
I still hate Snape. I think that everybody forgets the fact that he killed people just because he loved Lily. And I believe that if he was truly loyal to Dumbledore, he wouldn't killed him. I don't he was ever loyal to Dumbledore nor Voldemort, he was just playing for the winning team. I think that the only reason he joined the Order and left the Death Eaters is just a bit like a revenge from Voldemort. Like Voldemort killed Lily, even when Snape asked him to protect her, at that moment he was like 'Oh, you killed her, now I'm going with the goodies.'
And even if he actually wanted to leave the Death Eaters, you just can't forget the fact that he killed people, not just Dumbledore.
And if you say that he killed Dumbledore so he could still be a Double-Spy, and get information from the Death Eaters to the Order, I'd like to ask: Who the hell he gave that information to? Because nobody in the Order trusted him after he killed Dumbledore.
I don't say he was loyal to Voldemort. I'm saying that he's worse than that, and was only loyal to himself.
(excuse any possible grammar/coherency mistakes)
From the first HP, i admit i really hate Snape, but at the end of it, he was really the person who helped Harry even if he risk his own life.
At first, I thought Snape was a horrible person who should not have treated a child so rashly. Then, as I got older and finally reached Deathly Hallows, I finally understood his actions. What made me totally fall in love with this character is just how much of sacrifice he made--in my eyes. He felt guilty after what happened to Lily, so he felt his duty to safeguard her son's life. But, how can you do it so easily when he shares a striking resemblance to James, a man who had bullied him. I admire this man's strength and courage, and I feel like people should give him more credit for what he did. Maybe that's why I love him so much is because there is more than meets the eye with this guy. He's a hero, in my eyes. And that final moment with Harry--when he finally tells him subtly that he knew Lily--that always makes me teary-eyed. Although I loved Lily and James together, I can't help but feel sympathetic towards Snape. So, that's my reasoning for not only liking Snape, but loving him as well. And, he is a rather intriguing character right when he's first introduced--in my opinion. ;)
We have to remember several things here:He was bullied by James. Yes. That gives him a reason to hate Gryffindors and Harry.
That's it. Simply a reason. He has no right whatsoever to use that twenty-year-old grudge and make others miserable with it. He is a grown man; why should he get the benefit of the doubt? Why should he be judged with different standards?
The wizarding world is whimsical and the rules are either more lenient or just more wacky. His attitude is clearly something that all the adults are all fine with; it's a different culture that he's in. Still, in real life, Snape can't be excused for his treatment of kids.
His character is complex and interesting. This guy has a backstory, he's got grudges, he's got a whole mood thing going on. In short, he is cool to have in a scene. In real life, he'd most likely have no friends and probably live by himself and grow thorny vines all over his house, but in the story, he's just a great character who makes things happen.
His character shows that he was a bad person right there in the middle of his life. He was susceptible to the power offered by the dark lord. He took it. He was wrong. He caused innocent people literally to die, and he can't just be forgiven for that.
He loved Lily. We all know that. The reason we say he was selfish was because he only "woke up" and went back to the good side after she died. It's okay that he loved her. But before that he did the equivalent of cover his ears and hum while his boss killed other people around him; He didn't care so long as he didn't really know them.
He tried to fix his wrongs, but I wouldn't ever completely trust the man who went to the dark side once. He's still that guy, but he just learned a little. What he did afterward was great...
But the good and the bad don't really cancel out like that.
pretty sure you aren't
Jeanie wrote: "Snape was a complex character and very interesting, but not likable to me--even by the end. I understood him better and felt some pity, but I'll never like him. It wasn't just Harry that Snape to..."So well put. I agree.
I never liked Snape. Everything that was revealed about his character helped me understand him more, but it didn't make me like him.
Mitali wrote: "I dislike Snape thoroughly as a person, and while I do find him a moderately interesting character, I think that people who think of him as some sort of misunderstood genius or even the anti-hero o..."Completely agree! Very good point about Umbridge.
One's past experiences, while sad, don't excuse bad behavior. We're all responsible for our own actions. Many of you have pointed out that Snape was an adult that should have known better than to take out a grudge on schoolchildren. Which is absolutely right. In no way am I discounting what Snape went through as a child. Bad family, being bullied, losing Lily (twice, if you count him choosing his creepy friends over her), etc. But bad experiences in life don't make bad people. Unless they choose to be bad people. There comes a point where we need to accept that life can be bad, but we don't need to punish other people who were not even involved because our lives were bad. That's not right and it's not fair.
Jeanie wrote: "Snape was a complex character and very interesting, but not likable to me--even by the end. I understood him better and felt some pity, but I'll never like him. It wasn't just Harry that Snape to..."I completely agree, even with the complex backstory he was clearly a cruel man and his treatment of young, impressionable children shows that regardless of his love for Lily, he was at heart a bad person with no empathy or care for anyone else.
Rebecca wrote: "I thought he was emotionally immature."I completely agree
Wynter wrote: "No, you're not the only one... my God, I hate that man... Snape just... doesn’t care, he does what he’s told to do, all the while carrying within an unhealthy obsession with a dead woman, and hat..."
Thank you! This is so perfect he is not a good man
I only reason I do hate him anymore is because of the seventh book. I know only dislike him
I think he did his best in this impossible situation, and he dealt with all his issues completely alone
I can appreciate some of what he's done but I don't think he ended up being a good person. Yes, James and his friends were awful to him but as Remus told Harry, he grew out of that phase and matured at least a bit as a person. I don't think Lily would've gone for James if he stayed the way he was when he bullied Snape. Making the assumption that this was how James was, I do not think that he would ever willingly agree for people to be murdered in order to save one for his selfish needs. Snape openly admits that he asked the dark lord to kill James and BABY Harry in exchange for Lily. That makes me sick, and that's why I don't think Snape is a good person. The only reason he did anything for Albus was to keep Lily safe, he never cared what happened to Harry, even if he hadn't done anything to Snape. The way Snape treated Harry was awful, and I think the reason he does treat him so badly is because all he can think of when he sees Harry is the reason Lily died, and how Harry could've died instead of Lily. In my book, Snape is not a good person.
It may sound STRANGE but we can all tell our points of view.Snape is my role model!!!!!
In my personal opinion, if he really loved Lily he would have to some extent taken care of Harry. After all, he has "Lily's eyes". There is no excuse for an adult to treat children this way, the most he could have done would have been to be indifferent towards Harry.So to answer the question, I don't like Snape. Never did.
Damaris wrote: "In my personal opinion, if he really loved Lily he would have to some extent taken care of Harry. After all, he has "Lily's eyes". There is no excuse for an adult to treat children this way, the mo..."
Me, too.
Me, too.
I think Snape was a very tragic character. Throughout the series, I probably hated him just as much as Harry. Then of course, in Deathly Hallows when his real intentions were revealed, my heart was broken for him. Yet, after rereading and reflecting on his character, I overall feel that he was simply not a good person. Sure, he joined the cause to fight against Voldemort and had an incredibly hard job to do. Yet, that doesn't excuse how horrible and abusive he was toward children at Hogwarts, particularly Harry, Hermione, and Neville. I recall in OOTP when Snape made Harry's detention to sort through old files of James & Sirius. He made a CHILD, who was still mourning the very recent death of his godfather, basically go through emotional torture. At that moment, I just thought to myself, Snape is a very nasty, mean-spirited, immature, abusive person. I understand why Harry eventually became grateful toward him in the end, but overall, he just was not a good person. It's hard to have sympathy for an adult who takes his anger out on a child simply because of bad history with the parents. And I do not think all of Snape's cruelty was solely an act to appease Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Snape was just taking out an old grudge on a child. Not cool.That being said, he is one of the most brilliant and fascinating literary characters ever written, imo.
It's so hilarious how people like or dislike a character due to their own personality. Some people waste their breath on how cruel he was to Harry... Personally, mean guys I usually don't have an opinion on. I hated Umbridge, but Snape? No. In the beginning, I had no feelings. But after I even heard a rumor about that whole Snape story, BOOM! I knew I'd love him. To me, I just love complex, haunted characters. I understand them and I want to heal them. Besides, Umbridge was sweet poison while Snape was more like a bitter but harmless drink. Plus, Umbridge was far from a tortured soul; her only reason for cruelty was for the fun of it... Snape has more underlying reasons; reasons that suggest pain. However... you people are different; your personalities are different than mine and so we see things in a different light... I may dislike and disagree with it but I can't change a person, so I just let you have your surface-like thoughts.
Ria wrote: "He was brave and complex but not likable. He mistreated all the Gryffindors and was horrible to his students (one student feared him more than anything else). How can you like him? He turned out to..."Are you addressing me? If you want to see why look at the last comment I made: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I also didn't like him much... Yes, He loved Lily, and did all he could for her, but What about all the hard times that Harry had to face because of him??And I think, Snape was the reason why Sirius left Grimmauld Place on the day he died. Sirius was obviously frustrated with Snape's taunts during the OoP's meetings...!
I agree with some of the other posters. Snape was a very interesting character, and was a central element of the whole series both as a foil to Harry and as a contributor to the overall plotline. He was, however, still a bitter, petty and cruel man who was obsessed with another man's wife.
I agree with some points mentioned here, for both sides, but I think he was written specifically for hate/love reasons. Each reader chooses to either hate or love him.Mitali wrote: "Do you really mean to say that Snape spent a decade being cruel to his students on the off-chance that his dead boss may not be dead after all, and even if he was alive, may be interested in how Snape ran his Potions classes?!!"
If he was undercover for Dumbledore since Lily died, he would have known about horcruxes, thus knowing Voldemort would be back some day, and thus having to (pretend?) to be mean. With Deatheaters still all around he could hardly play nice, and risk everything. I think it was a path he chose, knowing very well what it would mean, and knowing what would be expected of him.
But was he really cruel and hateful? I really dont know. Honestly, I think he did it, because he thought he was bad anyway, and nobody would believe him anyway, so he decided to take it, and use it for the ultimate good.
If you really think about him, how complex his story was, you really cannot be sure if he was really mean or just pretending.
I remember thinking he was bad at first, but once Dumbledore said he trusts him, I knew he wasnt bad.
And as for him being mean to kids...well, surely I agree it was uncalled for many times, but dont you think he had to be this way to play the part? Wasnt it expected from all Slytherins to be mean? And as Head of the House he could not play nice, it would instantly become suspicious.
I agree with Hannah on this, he was harmless, while Umbridge was pure evil.
Personally, I think he deserves forgivness. In the end he did the right thing.
Veronika wrote: "And as for him being mean to kids...well, surely I agree it was uncalled for many times, but dont you think he had to be this way to play the part? Wasnt it expected from all Slytherins to be mean? And as Head of the House he could not play nice, it would instantly become suspicious. "He didn't need to 'play nice' - all he had to do was not to be so horrendously cruel. All Slytherins are not evil. (Slughorn certainly isn't, for example. Nor was Regulus Black.) Snape could have continued to favour his house (heck, even McGonagall played favourites with her own house at times), but without traumatizing innocent children in the process. Do you think it makes any difference to all the hundreds of children he bullied over the years whether he was 'really' evil or just pretending? He tortured them all the same. In one of the books, he threatens to poisons Neville's toad if Neville doesn't get a potion right. Neville does get it right, only because Hermione helps him. But if he hadn't, Snape would have gone through with his threat. Would it make Neville's pet any less dead if Neville knew on hindsight that Snape was 'just pretending' to be evil?
And that's not even mentioning the fact that Snape is simply a terrible teacher. Harry learns more about potions from Snape's notes in his textbook in one year than he does from Snape himself in 5 years. People like Ron and Neville learnt absolutely nothing from Snape at all in years worth of potions lessons. Hogwarts classes are essentially all the skills that a witch/wizard needs to survive in the magical world. But because of Snape, an entire generation of Hogwarts students graduated with essentially no knowledge of potions at all.
No, Snape was not remotely 'harmless'. Bullying a generation of children who were entrusted to his care, and hindering their magical education - whatever his motives for the same - is anything but harmless.
Also, Snape did not know about the horcruxes. Dumbledore did not trust him enough to tell him about that. Snape's reactions in the pensieve scene in DH when he's tending to Dumbledore's injured hand make it clear that he had no idea why Dumbledore wanted to destroy the ring.
No, Snape was not remotely 'harmless'. Bullying a generation of children who were entrusted to his care, and hindering their magical education - whatever his motives for the same - is anything but harmless."I would have to re-read the books again & look for the cruelty you speak of, but I just dont see it. Was he unpleasant? Sure. Holding the grudge? Sure. Enjoying giving students hard time? Sure. But bullying generation of children? Hardly.
I don't think many people liked Snape. People understand him, tolerate him, and forgive him. I think that even if you remove all the extenuating circumstances (spying on Voldemort, his love for Lily, how much he despises James, etc) he's still a pretty nasty person.
What we learn in Deathly Hallows is that he has good qualities as well as the bad, as well as some good motivations. The good in him outweighs the bad enough to make the bad forgivable. But he's still not very likable at all.
Snape was mean even when no one who could report back to Voldemort was around--within the Order of the Phoenix, for example. And don't forget his behavior in the Shrieking Shack. Sirius had made fun of him back in school so... lets let the Dementors suck out his soul... and lets throw in Lupin for good measure. That wasn't play-acting. He remained unhinged with regard to Sirius to the very end--of Sirius's life at least. Regardless of what Dumbledore said about Sirius being an adult and beyond Snapes taunts, only a fool would think what Snape said to Sirius wasn't a huge contributing factor in his decision to go to the Ministry. As for being worthy of forgiveness, well, we all hope for that when we've messed up. But what was Snape's attitude about forgiving others? James died because of Snapes betrayal of him to Voldemort and yet Snape continued to hate him by proxy in the form of Harry. Sirius didn't behave well to Snape, but his "joke" that might have killed Snape didn't work... but Sirius is dead. And Lupin... Snape hated him and never forgave him for being a werewolf--which was beyond Lupin's ability to control. Lupin didn't hate Snape and tried to deal fairly with him, but Snape wasn't about to forgive him for being one of James and Sirius's friends.
I have no doubt JKR intended for us to forgive and even like Snape in the end--she had Harry name one of his kids after him, for Pete's sake--but I'm not buying it. How can we call any side good when mistreatment of children is part of their winning strategy?
Snape is one of literature's most interesting and complicated characters. I like what JKR was able to create in him, but I don't like him at all.
Veronika wrote: "I would have to re-read the books again & look for the cruelty you speak of, but I just dont see it. Was he unpleasant? Sure. Holding the grudge? Sure. Enjoying giving students hard time? Sure. But bullying generation of children? Hardly."Here's the scene I was talking about, the one about Neville's toad. It's from PoA. (I have removed a few irrelevant lines.)
A few cauldrons away, Neville was in trouble. Neville regularly went to pieces in Potions lessons; it was his worst subject, and his great fear of Professor Snape made things ten times worse.
Neville was pink and trembling. He looked as though he was on the verge of tears.
‘Please, sir,’ said Hermione, ‘please, I could help Neville put it right –’
‘I don’t remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger,’ said Snape coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville. ‘Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly.’
The end of the lesson in sight, Snape strode over to Neville, who was cowering by his cauldron.
‘Everyone gather round,’ said Snape, his black eyes glittering, ‘and watch what happens to Longbottom’s toad. If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don’t doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned.’
The Gryffindors watched fearfully. The Slytherins looked excited. Snape picked up Trevor the toad in his left hand, and dipped a small spoon into Neville’s potion, which was now green. He trickled a few drops down Trevor’s throat.
There was a moment of hushed silence, in which Trevor gulped; then there was a small pop, and Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape’s palm.
The Gryffindors burst into applause. Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown.
‘Five points from Gryffindor,’ said Snape, which wiped the smiles from every face. ‘I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed.’
Note Neville's terror, and Snape's heartlessness. Not only does he threaten to kill Neville's toad, but he's disappointed that Neville got the potion right, so the toad doesn't die. He also punishes Hermione for helping Neville keep his pet from being killed. Please explain how this is not bullying of the highest degree? If a real life teacher had done anything even half as cruel, he would have been fired on the spot. Snape is not only not fired, he continues to behave like this for years.
Jeanie wrote: "Snape was mean even when no one who could report back to Voldemort was around--within the Order of the Phoenix, for example. And don't forget his behavior in the Shrieking Shack. Sirius had made ..."Excellent points. I agree completely.
Mitali wrote: Note Neville's terror, and Snape's heartlessness. Not only does he threaten to kill Neville's toad, but he's disappointed that Neville got the potion right, so the toad doesn't die. He also punishes Hermione for helping Neville keep his pet from being killed. Please explain how this is not bullying of the highest degree? If a real life teacher had done anything even half as cruel, he would have been fired on the spot. Snape is not only not fired, he continues to behave like this for years."So what you basically saying is, it is okay to disobey teachers order, just because you dont like him. He said not to help him, she did anyway and Snape is the bad one?
And he didnt want to kill the toad, he said poisioned, which means, whatever Neville would do wrong, Snape would have counter potion for recovery.
How else would he be encouraged to learn stuff if he relied on help all the time?
Do you honestly think Dumbledore would let him teach if he thought he was being cruel? Do you think he was stupid and didnt know students were afraid of Snape?
I am no saying he was exactly good, but he was not evil and he certainly doesnt deserve the hate. If you do that, you have to hate Dumbledore too. He was the one, who let Snape teach, who trusted him with help.
I think he redeemed himself enough in the end. And if that doesnt matter, then nothing does.
For instance, I think Dumbledore was more cruel to Harry at times than Snape. Keeping him in the dark, letting him suffer without explonation... Does it make me hate Dumbledore though? It doesnt. Things were just too complicated, just as were with Snape.
Two final points...Most of us suppose much of Snape's behavior can be explained by his need to keep up a façade for the benefit of the Death Eaters who may hear about how he performs at Hogwarts, and how Voldemort might react when/if he returns. But the Death Eaters--think Lucias Malfoy--are accustomed to behaving one way around people like Fudge and another around their fellow death Eaters. They all wear a mask, but it's the figurative one they wear around non-Dark wizards that is meant to conceal their true natures. Think of how Tom Riddle/Voldemort acted around others in his school days and around poor Hepsiba Smith or even when applying for a job with Dumbledore. Who would understand Snape behaving like a model teacher--preference to Slytherins being acceptable--better than Voldemort? His behavior actually should have made the Death Eaters wonder why Dumbledore kept him on and raised alarm bells that it could only mean Dumbledore had a good reason... Snape was Dumbledore's man. Actually, Bellatrix suspected exactly that.
For those who love Snape, I'm confident he is being loved in theory and from a distance, rather than for the person he is. He was described as rude and sarcastic, not traits we usually admire. And look at his behavior toward Bellatrix and Narcissa--rude, sarcastic, smug, condescending, and dispassionate even when trying to appear understanding. His treatment of Wormtail wasn't pleasant, although Voldemort's own attitude plus his history as one of James' friends makes that understandable.
Even those readers who decided to like him as a character would find it hard to abide him if they had to spend much time with him in person. Regardless of the things we know that make us understand some of the reasons Snape is the way he is, I think few people could actually say they "like" him if he was a part of their own lives. I feel certain those who "love" Snape can only do so from afar. He's certainly not the kind of person you would invite to a party, hang around with for good conversation, or want to spend any quality time with. It's lucky for Snape he's a character of fantasy because he would be intolerable in reality.
That's not a perfectly good reason, or even a slightly good reason. But it's at least understandable. What is not understandable is that Snape was just as cruel to all his (non-Syltherin) students. What was his excuse for bullying Neville so unmercifully? What kind of teacher threatens to kill a student's pet if that student does the classwork wrong? I don't see anyone offering 'a perfectly good reason' for this.