They wanted to know (and I quote)

Why are so many people changing their views on Snape after the scene on his memories? Does he deserve to be treated nicely?

Firstly, he was a human being, and so by definition deserved to be treated “nicely”, but I didn’t say that in my original reply as I didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot with someone asking a question in good faith.

So, I responded with this:

I loved him from the first book, I loved his sense of humour, his willingness to put the golden trio in their place and his loyalty to his house. I identified with the teacher no one liked because he didn’t look ‘good’ and that only compounded when I read his memories. I saw how passionate he was about his subject and I rolled my eyes with him when Hermione quoted the textbook and expected praise. I appreciated a head of house who actually supported his students and encouraged them in the face of all the anti-Slytherin sentiment they had to put up with on a day-to-day basis from the other houses. I found the way Harry spoke to him was just entirely disrespectful and arrogant regardless of how Snape spoke to him- which wasn’t that bad initially and was a simple quiz to see if he’d read the set text. Snape proved his loyalty by the goblet of fire but time and time again he was treated like a pariah by the order and by the kids, and it irritated me.

I have a lot of shared experiences with that character, eg. Being bullied, poor background, poor social skills, isolated teenage years etc. and Sirius Black would have been lucky to leave that first conversation in Order of the Phoenix with his teeth in his head if he’d spoken to me the way he spoke to Snape. I respected Snape’s self-control and his restraint and felt bitter that he had been thrown aside for the good of Dumbledore’s precious Gryffindors time and time again.

His memories made no difference to me, it broke my heart to see him kill Dumbledore at the end of Half Blood Prince because that was the first time I ever questioned his loyalty. But then he still only ever acted defensively when duelling order members; even as he was running for his life he was still trying to make Harry learn occlumency (which he needed), and Harry completely missed the message because he was completely blind to Snape’s virtues and was so caught up in his faults.

Even if Snape had switched back to Voldemort’s side, I don’t think I’d have blamed him after the way the so-called light had treated him for years. He’s a better person than me that he still fought for those ungrateful, bigoted cretins after how they treated him. I don’t think I would have wanted to fight alongside them even against Voldemort. They may have been the lesser of two evils but for him to give them his life was an act so selfless that it makes him a great character and a better man.