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At the end of her seven part series of children's books about Harry Potter, The Boy Wizard, J. K. Rowling finally confirmed that, despite all evidence to the contrary, Dumbledore had been right all along and Professor Serverus Snape was one of the good guys. Does this mean that Harry should have considered him a friend all along? Certainly not! Snape and Potter may have been on the same side of the battle against evil, but they were most definitely foes from Harry's first days at Hogwarts in The Sorcerer's Stone up until the closing chapters of The Deathly Hallows.

The first evidence is in Professor Snape's unfair treatment of Harry in his classroom and around the school. Snape showed obvious favouritism, openly expressing his preference for the students of Slytherin house over those of Gryffindor. He consistently gave Harry low marks on all his potions assignments, jeopardizing his dream of becoming an Auror after leaving school. When it came time for fifth year OWL examinations in The Order of the Phoenix Harry proved that Professor Snape's negative assessment of his performance was unfounded when he achieved an "Exceeds Expectations" on the exam. Among his other behaviours Snape was known for punishing Harry, Ron and Hermione more than any other students at the school and especially more than those in his own house. He would never believe the trio when they were trying to warn him or other teachers about dangers to the school or other students. In one circumstance Snape tried to prevent Harry from seeing Dumbledore to tell him about the mysterious reappearance of Bartimus Crouch Sr. in The Goblet of Fire and because of this delay he would inadvertently allow time for Barty Crouch Jr. to murder his father. While Serverus Snape never intended for his actions to negatively affect the fight against Voldemort and his Deatheaters, but they did. From helping cause the death of Crouch to cutting off George Weasley's ear his actions often had a devastating affect on Harry and his cohorts.

Snape saw Harry as a constant reminder of his having lost the woman he loves, Lilly Evans, to another man and he allowed himself to be blinded by his hatred and jealousy of Harry's father, James. The pain of the loss of Lilly caused him to unfairly discriminate against her son, which prevented him from ever becoming Harry's friend. While these emotions provide an explanation for his actions towards Harry, they can not be considered an excuse. For the six years that he was Harry Potter's

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