I’m sorry but the above argument in defense of Snape is so full of holes that I cannot let it slide.
Yes, it sucks when someone you love doesn’t love you back, but Snape’s inability and refusal to get over it is incredibly unhealthy and not at all how he should have handled the situation. It’s made worse by the fact that he relentlessly bullied Harry and did everything he could to act as an antagonist toward Harry. Yes, Harry was the son of someone who had bullied him and he bore more of a resemblance to his father, but he was still Lily’s son. Snape’s treatment of Harry pretty well shows that he put his hatred of James above his love of Lily for a pretty good portion of, if not all of, their interactions.
Also, I’m not going to defend bullying, because bullying is awful, but Snape became a Death Eater. There is a very good chance that prior to Lily’s death, he was either directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of many more people, which he is never shown as having remorse over in the books. He literally only cares about Lily, and wants to get back at Voldemort for killing her—the other people who have been killed by Voldemort are never shown to cross his mind and he still very obviously carries a lot of the ideals regarding Muggleborns that Voldemort had (see his treatment of Hermione), making his reasons for defecting to the Order of the Phoenix pretty selfish and self-absorbed.
Also, he could have drugged her with a love potion, but didn’t? Is that seriously being used as an argument? ”Oh, my former friend could have drugged and raped me, but didn’t, so that makes him worthy of my attention!” is pretty much exactly what was just said. That is the biggest pile of bullshit I have ever seen in defense of Snape.
So, no, he didn’t deserve Lily’s love. Being her friend does not land him an automatic place in her love life and his obsession with her for the rest of his life is a lot more creepy than it is romantic.
And again there’s also the fact that he bullied Harry, bullied Hermione, bullied Neville, and actively opposed their efforts to actually stop Voldemort a great many times just because he wanted to be a jerk. I can understand it in The Philosopher’s Stone and even in The Chamber of Secrets, but after a while I think you’d just know that if Harry Potter is up to something, he probably has a damn good reason. Snape’s grudge against James frequently trumps his love for Lily and any protection that he offers Harry is given only when his teeth are being pulled (the only time I can think of where he helped Harry without being pretty well forced to do so was the Quidditch match in Philosopher’s Stone). That’s not true love or romantic in any sense, that’s a grown man who got turned down in high school and never got over it. He’s a great character, but far from a good person.
