Well, he's clearly not very nice, and he's working both sides of the street. And he killed Dumbledore. But where do his real loyalties lie? Does even he know? It's questions like this that make Snape Rowling's richest creation.
TIME book critic Lev Grossman grabs an early copy of Deathly Hallows and finds it a sad but satisfying wrap-up to J.K. Rowling's seven-novel epic
Is Snape really evil?