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I am adding a new introduction because I think it is unfair to keep what is essentially a conjectural debate active when the question it posits has been answered. I have not yet finished the book due to reasons of health, and when I looked at the first placings, I was upset to find that 2 elements of the plot had been revealed before I could stop reading the article. What's the point of debating whether Snape is friend or foe when the book has been read and JK Rowling has revealed all? There should be an alternative debate about the theme of the 7 books already read. Whereas before the book was released, deciphering the theme was a means to an answer to the question of this debate, now the theme can be discussed as a result of already knowing the answer. I find this approach rather demoralising, not because the articles have been written, but that they should be considered valid in response to this specific debate. Below is what I wrote BEFORE the book was released ...

What I think is that we cannot assess one single character in the Harry Potter Books (except caricatures like Professor Lovelace) without slowly realising that the age-old conflict between good and evil is evolving through the interaction of the major characters, as also the conflict within the single characters themselves.
Snape is accordng to me, the most interesting character in the book, and Harry's rites of passage towards adulthood and its more negative characteristics interact with Snape's passage towards his own youth. The book Harry finds and cherishes has been written by the youthful Snape, and Harry is entranced by the thoughts of the one who teaches him to hide his.
I agree that Lily's defence of Snape is central to the entire book. Her name is carefully chosen, as is Snape's which I see as a combination of Sna(ke) and (Ho)pe. In fact, if we were to look at the pattern of connection between Tom Riddel (riddle), Snape and Harry we can counterbalance it by the pattern Dumbledore, Lily, Harry where both Snape and Lily interact as mediators, and it is this that leads me to think that Dumbledore has pleaded for Snape to 'kill' him, not only to save Harry but ALSO Malfoy (he foil of evil). There are patterns within patterns, and Harry, as the protagonist is aware of the changes within himself which he finds it difficult to face.
So, yes, Snape is not only Harry's friend, but must wait for the conflict in Harry (when he finds this out), to be resolved before he himself can let go of the bitterness James has caused him. Above all, through Snape, Harry learns the tougher aspects of growing up and the self-discipline it entails. The references to Harry's and James' resemblance stop me from wondering whether Snape is Harry's real father, because it is he who feeds Harry's strength of purpose.
Snape is not only an integral part of the plot but the central thematic figure in the 7 books of the whole masterpiece.

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