Major spoiler warning here, but I have to ask...

In previous books I hated Snape at least as much as Harry did! But in this one, I felt sorry for him and even admired him. From the beginning I had the gut feeling he was good, even though my mind told me otherwise. Then, when the memories came up, I was surprised in a way, relieved, and I have to admit I even cried a little. I felt so bad for Snape because he lost the woman he loved--classic tragic love story there, really. I admired Snape for the way he could shut out Voldemort. But after reading all the books, I think Snape could have been nicer about everything/to people. And yet I see why he wasn't. He was hurting because it was his own fault he lost Lily, and because Harry had her eyes, but also looked like James--whom he hated. (I understand why he hated James, too.) Snape would have been easier to like if he hadn't been so openly hostile to the protagonists, but I see why he had to be that way. If he'd been nicer, Voldemort would have figured him out, and the whole story would have been different. I can't help but wonder if things would have been different between Snape and Harry if Snape had lived. Would they have understood and at least respected each other--though I suppose they did anyway? (I mean, Harry gave his child Snape's name as a middle name... That really did surprise me!) The whole Dumbledore thing made he think Dumbledore really didn't care about Harry, and I'm still not quite decided on that. And Aunt Potunia! My! My! She wanted to be a witch? No wonder she was so mad about the magical world--they essentially turned her away, slamming the door in her face! Poor kid, and she never got over it. A great book from Rowling, like all the others. But I think this one was the best. Kreature warmed my heart in this too, as did sweet Dobby, dying for his friends.

I think most of the facts about Snape has been discussed in many of the forums and it was exactly as many thought it would be. I was surprised too after George lost his ear, but I was thinking maybe JKR wanted Snape to remain evil as everybody had been shrewdly suspecting he had acted according to Dumbledore's orders :P. It was Kreacher's turn-around that completely took me by surprise because I thought he was going to be of some help to Voldemort because JKR had told that his character was important. But the way Dobby was killed is too much. She needn't have killed him at all.... maybe to show the goblin that Harry treated elves with respect too. Even then, killing Dobby was unwanted. But as she had earlier said in an interview there was going to be a lot of deaths. So, I was quite braced for it but it was brutal to kill Hedwig, Dobby, Fred and Colin Creevey. There are quite a few questions left unanswered, maybe to keep the magic alive. Like how did the sword come back to Neville? The goblin was supposed to have run off with it. They had told that the mirror of the erised would play an important part but it was just mentioned. It didn't play any important part. I think I will have to read the whole series or atleast the latter part again to understand why Harry didn't die when Avada Kedavra was used against him. And Hagrid was supposed to be taken away by a whole bunch of gigantic spiders. How did he stay alive? Maybe these questions will be answered by JKR herself during her interview this week on TV.

I always knew Snape was good. not nice, by a long shot, but essentially good.

I always kind of knew that Snape is really a good guy and in book 6, when they were talking about Snape telling Voldermort the prophecy and then feeling remorse afterwards, I thought that maybe he was in love with Harry's mother. Turned out my theory was true. I was really proud of myself when my theory panned out.

Snape's attitude toward Harry always reminded me of the RC member who was my mentor in Golden Dawn. Gruff, and slightly disapproving. So because he reminded me much of that dearly beloved Frater, I am very glad to see him redeemed.

I LOVE the way she handled Snape and redeemed him. I continued to believe that he was truly Dumbledore's man even after he killed Dumbledore. I've heard the Snape loves Lily thing before, but I wasn't sure if I believed it.

I had actually started a discussion about how I thought Snape was really good. I thought it was some kind of sgreement between him and Dumbledore, but I didn't guess that Dumbledore was already dying. I, too, liked how JK showed the good in everyone, and the bad sides, too. It sort of all goes back to when Harry wondered if he should have been sorted to Slytherin. Dumbledore told him the difference between him and Voldemort was the fact that he CHOSE to be in Gryffindor. I think she wanted to show that everyone makes the choice in the way they live their lives, to be good or evil. I'm really glad that Snape did turn out to be fighting for the good side. Too bad he didn't live to see people recognize his sacrifices. Though he probably would have made sarcastic remarks to anyone who tried to say something nice to him about it! Yeah, he wasn't evil, but he really wasn't a 'good guy' either! I saw it mentioned before about how people were cheering for Molly when she fought Bellatrix. I actually said out loud "Yeah, Molly!" Is she the one JKR meant shen she said someone would use magic later in life in a moment of desperation? I was a bit confused about that, since she already used magic really. But she's the only one I could place for that. I guess she really only did magic around the kitchen and stuff, not things like dueling. I hope that when JKR publishes the 'encyclopedia' down the road, it fills us in on Luna. I really liked that character, and was sad to ssee that she wasn't mentioned in the epilogue at all. Maybe she will be hooked up with Dean? And speaking of him, it was nice to see more of his back story there, too. Though I was sad to see Lupin, Tonks, Mad-Eye and others go, I have to say the deaths that upset me the most were Hedwig, Dobby, and Fred! It was heartwarming to 'see' the house elves come to fight under the leadership of Kreacher!

Snape was snape.. he was generally bitter and kind of a sarcastic character.. but that was the real him.. even when he was a kid.. but he loved lily.. it really kind of the-bad-boy-in-school-loved-the-nice-girl kind of type of love story.. thats the thing that made his character more intriguing.. i never doubted his loyalties even for a second.. and i liked his character from the very start...

Ok when I read about Snape and the fact that he was actually good, I nearly wet my pants. I didn't foresee Dumbledore telling Harry the story about Snape and Dumbledore talking about Snape killing Dumbledore, I found that she wrote that well. I would have never thought that Snape was actually for the side of good. At the end of book six, I truly thought that he went towards the dark side. I am kind of happy and it was nice that in his last moments alive, he was nice to Harry and gave him his bottle of memories. I also thought it was sweet that he had the hugest crush on Lily.

I knew there is more to Snape than meets the eyes and I am sure George was just an accident after all they were in the middle of a duel and Snape must play his part well. But I am glad that after all the nasty things he has to do per Dumbledore's order he at least got a decent closure when Harry saw his "real story" in the pensive. But I still how he treats Neville and the insults on Hermione is inexcusable.

I'm really torn because I never really cared for Snape much specially the way he treated the other students with so much contempt. But then the way she handled his story was well executed. In the end, Harry was right Snape was Dumbledore's man the moment Voldie set his eyes on destroying the Potter family. I have to re-read all the books to see what I missed. But Snape made the ultimate sacrifice, by allowing himself to be an outcast so that he can continue protecting Hogwarts, the way Dumbledore intended him to be. I at least respected him for that.

Yes. I felt the same way. All the while I thought that Snape is Harry's biggest biggest enemy next to Lord Voldemort. But then he is the one protecting Harry ever since.

I've always beieved in Snape's being a good guy. I expected him to be redeemed and am glad to see Harry's appreciation of him after all.

Yes! I DID breathe a huge sigh of relief. I knew that there had to be some redeeming quality about him. He was so nasty and awful all along but I knew there had to be SOME reason Dumbledore kept him around. I hated to think of Dumbledore being kind of a nutter for trusting someone like Snape and then getting burned by it. All in all, I think it turned out OK although I was a bit disappointed to see Dumbledore's weaknesses.