Ahhhh. Darn twisty, complicated characters. I tend to be either fluffy-fluff or painful agonising angst with little in between. I also disliked Snape intensely but I bet you liked him for the same reasons I didn't! His resolution wasn't enough to excuse his previous arsiness, IMO.

("GUARDS! GUARDS!" Uther shrieks, throwing the nearest thing at hand -a fruitbowl- at Lucius' head and catching him on the ear.

"D'ya wanna go sit on the wall and heckle my servant while he mucks out the stable?" Arthur asks, and Draco shrugs, so they wander off to make fun of Merlin cos he's a servant and they're not.)