Some people like other people, but they just don't show it because they are too afraid. You are also forgetting that Harry was also Lilly's son too. Even though Snape was "only protecting Harry for Lilly", Harry had to at least grow on Snape even a little bit.

Bullying can also leave mental scars on people. Snape probably disliked Gryffindors because of the bullying that Snape received from James and his group of friends. Snape probably felt some form of pain when he sees a Gryffindor. Even though he had a hard past, was it still right to favor every house over Gryffindor? No, but it explains a lot why he is not fond of Gryffindors. I kind of felt sorry for him, even though he was pretty mean.

Most of it probably has to do with speculation too. The books don't have everything that happened in the Potter universe.

I have to agree with not liking Ginny. She was there to just marry Harry, and I wish she had more importance than that. I don't like Lavender very much since she rushed up to Ron just because of Gryffindor's win in quidditch. She also was a bit overly attached.

This post has me feeling some kind of way. And as a disclaimer, just because I hate a character doesn't mean that I wish they never existed you know? I know that they were all necessary for the sake of the book and plot, but they just get on my nerves. So without further ado, here I go! This is my Severus Snape rant.

Snape: I have a huge list of reasons as to why Snape is number one on my list. The first reason being, him as a teacher. A teacher acts as a rolemodel in a sense. Especially in a child's early years, a teacher can shape them into who they become and how they see things. Well let's start with the fact that he always gave unfair advantages to Slytherins. They were always the favorites. Yes, teachers often do have favorites, but that doesn't make it just! He doesn't even give others a fighting chance. That's definitely the case with Hermione at least. Every time she answered a question he'd belittle her. The way he put down a student who truly cared about learning? Disgusting. A teacher is supposed to help you and bring you up, not put you down for actually giving an effort. Then let's look at Neville. Neville Longbottom who constantly tried his best even though he struggled. Snape was A BULLY to Neville. To the point where Neville's Boggart was Snape. Let me say that again, NEVILLE'S GREATEST FEAR WAS HIS POTIONS PROFESSOR. Neville never did anything to Snape to deserve any sort of torment. There must be something seriously wrong if his boggart is of his teacher.

Okay. I know what everyone's thinking. "Oh but he changed" or "Oh he loved Lily". But this really bothers me. Snape never did anything for Harry's sake. He bullied the kid because he resembled his father. Yes, James Potter and Sirius Black were horrible to Snape. Yes, Snape had a horrible childhood. No, this does not give him the right to make Harry's life a living hell just because he looks like his father. Harry had no control over how James treated Snape. For goodness sakes, James died before Harry even got to know him. Then moving on from that, the only reason why Snape helped Harry in the end was for Lily. "Oh he LOVED Lily". In my opinion, Snape didn't love Lily. He was not in love, he was in lust. He was infatuated with her. If he really loved Lily he would've accepted the fact that she found happiness with someone else. Yes, it would hurt. But he would come to accept the fact that as long as she's happy that's what matters. But even if he didn't accept it, he held on to this grudge for his entire life. He didn't even consider seeing other people. He just let himself well inside of his own sorrow because he didn't end up with Lily in the end. Furthermore, all of the things that he did to "save" Harry was just for Lily. It wasn't because he cared for Harry. It was out of his own selfish desire to find a sense of redemption for how he hurt Lily. Snape was even willing to let Harry and James die if it meant that Lily would be saved. Even if you say that letting James die is justified because of the way James bullied him, when James had the opportunity to let Snape die he didn't. James went and saved Snape.

And lastly, I know that Snape grew up in a terrible situation. His family life was not good. His life at Hogwarts was filled with endless torment. But that doesn't justify how he treated others particularly in his adult years. Because he had a choice. He didn’t have to treat students (and specifically Neville for example) the way he did. He could have chosen to make sure other kids who were bullied didn’t go through the same childhood that he did, yet he took the other route and became what he hated the most.

And that is what I have against Snape. *Deep Breath*

Ginny for me was one of the more annoying characters, she lacked personality for a lot of the books, and it was probably only the last one that I was really able to stand her. Still, I found the pairing with Harry annoying... and slightly weird.

Another character that I dislike is Ron actually, his stupidity and jealousy and basically half of his reactions to things drove me absolutely insane throughout the books!!!

This thread is physically hurting me. People saying they don't like Ginny?! And Ron?! Yes I'm sure people must have good reasons and I will respect their opinions but I still don't understand at all. Ginny was wonderful and fierce. She was cute with her crush on Harry first year but she grew out of that stage and he's the one who fell for her in the end. She was smart and strong - obviously being possessed by Voldemort affected her for a while after it happened, but she didn't let it get to her and learned from her experience to help others and give Harry advice in the later books. And Ron is a wonderfully sarcastic best friend who did feel jealous a lot but he had good reasons for having those feelings and he tried to overcome them. Okay sorry I'll get to the point of this thread, I just had to say that.

Snape: OF COURSE SNAPE! Ariana summed up everything perfectly I don't have anything to add just a few points to emphasize. Snape bullied his students, and that alone makes him not a nice person. He bullied Neville so much that he was his greatest fear. In this world with a lingering threat of Voldemort, and creatures like Dementors, Dragons, Giants, and many other creatures with the power to kill you easily (not to mention Death Eaters who literally tortured his parents) Neville's biggest fear was Snape.

The fact that Snape was in love with Lily did not in any way redeem him. In fact, it kind of makes him even worse. She already rejected him yet he continues to obsess over her. It's actually pretty creepy. He hasn't gotten over her even though it's been a long time (like 20 years? I'm not going to find out a more exact number). Anyway, everything bad I'd like to say about Snape Ariana already summed up nicely

Umbridge: This one is obvious so let's move on

Dumbledore: I don't like Dumbledore. I don't hate him as much as I hate Snape but I don't like him. He's not a good person. FIRST, he left Harry with the Dursley's. He knew how much they hated magic, and he knew that they didn't like Harry's parents so he had to have known they would not really like Harry or treat him like a son of their own. Yet he still left Harry in this household that would not be a good experience for him. It was bad enough to leave him there once, but he did it again and again every year. He knew how terrible the Dursley's were to Harry. Yet he left the poor child in an abusive household and made no effort to get him out. In fact, he made an effort to make sure he stayed there over the summer.

ALSO, during the fifth book and on when he kept Harry in the book. (He'd been doing it the whole time but it became obvious in Order of the Phoenix). He wouldn't respond to Harry's questions. He wouldn't tell him what was going on. He wouldn't even look at him during the school year. This was not something that he had any right to do, especially after what happened at te end of the previous year. Harry had seen Voldemort come back and KILL CEDRIC! Harry was terrified and confused and facing something similar to PTSD or some other serious mental illness. Dumbledore had to know that but he didn't make any effort to help or even answer Harry's questions.

That's all I have for now but I just started rereading the series for the 17th time or something so I may be back.

I have to agree with you that Dumbledore made some weird choices. Yeah, we know there was a spell, that protected Harry from Voldemort if he lived with his aunt and her family. But I don't understand why Dumbledore didn't do more to stop their neglect and abuse. It seems like he thought that having a bad childhood would make Harry a better person, which could have backfired really badly. And there is no excuse either for how he treated Harry in OOTP, not to mention how he did nothing to stop Snape's bullying of his students.

Agreed Snape is horrible. I've hated since the beginning and now matter how much I re-read or watch the movies I still loath him!!

Umbridge - man, never in my life have I felt such hatred towards a character!
Lockhart - he just rubbed me the wrong way. He also was incredibly arrogant
The Dursleys - no words right now
Fudge - he just couldn't be relied on
Pettigrew - darn traitor, filthy RAT!!!!
Lucius Malfoy - the man just irritated me, he seemed like a coward at the end of Deathly Hallows Part 2

Obviously I hate characters like Umbridge, Pettigrew and the Dursleys -especially Vernon.

As for protagonists that I hate - the main ones are Dumbledore, Hagrid, Dobby and Snape. Can't stand them. Their popularity among the fandom makes me hate them all the more.

Snape: I'd be here all day if I were going to list every reason I loathe Snape.

Mainly it's the fact that he's unduly praised for having become a hero by people who don't realise or willfully ignore that he never truly defected from Voldemort's side. He didn't. He didn't leave the Death Eaters because he realised he was wrong and changed his beliefs (like Regulus, for example) he only left because Lily was in danger.

There's no evidence he ever changed his pure-blood supremacist beliefs or regretted being a Death Eater. He just regretted that Lily (his one special Muggleborn who was different to all those other Mudbloods) got killed. He only went to Dumbledore to try to save Lily - from the danger he'd put her in no less! and was perfectly willing to let James and Harry die, selfishly only wanting her to live for his sake and not caring in the slightest that she would be left devastated by her husband and baby's deaths. There was no difference between his defection and the Malfoys' in DH. He only did it for personal reasons. If Voldemort had decided to kill Neville instead of Harry, Snape would have carried on serving him without a second thought.

And then of course there's the child abuse. Especially of the son of the woman he supposedly loved. And of Neville, for not having been chosen. And everyone else, which is almost even worse because he didn't even have a reason for it.

Ew ew ew my skin is crawling just thinking about what a vile, detestable excuse for a human being Snape is.

Then there's Dumbledore. It'll take a long time to list every reason I loathe Dumbledore, but I'm going to because I love hating that an arrogant, irresponsible jerk.

He allowed the Dursleys to abuse Harry, making no effort to intervene. I understand why Harry had to stay with the Dursleys, but he wouldn't have had to put up with getting locked in cupboards and having frying pans swung at his head if Dumbledore had told the Dursleys he'd curse them if they didn't treat Harry decently.

He allowed Snape to bully children as young as eleven and unfairly favour Slytherin for seventeen years!

He allowed the Trio to go after the Philospher's Stone in their first year. What if they'd all died, genius? I realise that one's more of a plot-necessitated problem, as opposed to Dumbledore's characterization, so it doesn't bother me as much as many of his other misdeeds, but it still annoys me a little.

He tried to use the Resurrection Stone, even after his sister was killed because of his obsession with the Hallows! I could somewhat forgive him for the mistakes he made as an 18 year old, but putting on that ring proves he didn't mature and learn his lesson one bit in 96 years! Disgusting.

He knew Draco was making clumsy assassination attempts against him that were getting other people hurt and made no effort to deal with the situation. Katie and Ron could have died.

If he'd explained things to Harry sooner instead of ignoring him in OotP, Sirius wouldn't have died (I don't fully hold that one against him, since at least he did admit he screwed up, and he's allowed to make some mistakes, and Sirius and Harry did dumb things that contributed too.)

He appointed a load of unfit staff throughout his Hogwarts career - Lockhart, Hagrid, Snape, Filch, maybe Binns? though I suppose we don't really know as we only have Harry's perspective, but he sounds like a unfit teacher to me.

The biggest one that cements my pure hatred of Albus Dumbledore - He ignored Grindelwald's reign of terror, that he'd helped enable with their research on the Hallows, which was implied to be, or at least be part of the Holocaust for five years just because he didn't want to see his ex-boyfriend! Just because he might tell him if it was his curse that hit Ariana. Dumbledore was fifty five years old at that point. There are no words to describe my disgust at his cowardice.

* Now this one's just my speculation. It bothers me that Dumbledore, supposedly the wisest guy ever, never once questioned IN TWELVE YEARS the official story of Sirius' betrayal. He knew Peter was an Animagi and that they never found his body. He knew Sirius well enough that he should have at some point in twelve years, questioned his guilt. I'm not saying I think that he knew Sirius was innocent and let him go to Azkaban. But I do have a nasty suspicion that he could have suspected it and chose to ignore the doubt so he could go ahead with his blood wards plan without Sirius getting in the way with his pesky legal guardianship of Harry.

I actually don't really hold the whole 'setting Harry up to be sacrificed' thing against him, which is the most common complaint I've seen leveled against him. That one wasn't actually his fault and at least he knew it was bad, and he had no other choice. Unlike the rest of the things I've listed.

Now, onto Hagrid. I really don't understand why people like him, I really don't. He's just so stupid and annoying. His loyalty to Dumbledore is the first, and huge, mark against his character.

He's a really really really bad irresponsible teacher??? Why does everyone ignore this? It drives me crazy. He constantly exposed children to animals that were far too dangerous for them to handle at their age.

The Blast-Ended Skrewts were illegally bred for christ's sake! Why is he allowed to get away with breaking the law? Over and over again? Norbert/a and Fluffy - both obtained illegally and brought into a school where they could kill children (though of course Fluffy is more another strike against Dumbles.)

Aragog? A colony of Acromantula on school grounds!?!?!?! Hagrid thoroughly deserved his expulsion, and he deserved the court case over Buckbeak, only it was him who should have been banned from teaching, not poor Buckbeak blamed.

Grawp as well (not that he's an animal, but still, a dangerous being that Hagrid willfully and carelessly exposed kids to.)

And he's just so stupid? I find it so grating that the narrative has the audacity to ask us to feel sorry for him when Umbridge fires him (something that should already have happened years ago) when he's the moron who asked for it by arrogantly ignoring the Trio's warnings and picking Thestrals for the day of the inspection - something a five year would understand would antagonise Umbridge.

And a final little thing - his random racism (well, xenophobia) about Viktor Krum? What even? Like he needed any more flaws, he already has no redeeming features! Except that's he's mostly well-meaning, which is true, but that's not enough for me to forgive everything else.

I think the only reason I hate Dobby is just because he's so damn annoying. I can't remember if there's anything else I don't like him for.

As for characters I don't hate but just don't care for - Ginny and Cho bore me. Colin and Dennis are annoying.

A lot of things about Molly annoy me. She's a loving mother, but she's not always a good one.

She does ignore Ron the most, she demonstrates clear favouritism of Percy, Ginny and Bill, she's overly critical and unsupportive of Fred and George, and I really hate the overbearing, nagging way she treats Bill - trying to tell a 20 something year old to cut his hair?! Mind your own business!

Also the way she treated Fleur was immature and pathetic, as was sending Hermione that tiny Easter egg because of Rita Skeeter's article. I think that line was supposed to be funny or something, but really it left a bad taste in my mouth that a grown woman would do something so petty and mean to a 15 year old girl, whom she knew personally, based on nothing more than the word of a tabloid writer! What was JKR thinking?

I also don't really like Mad-Eye. I feel like he should be an interesting character, but I just can't summon up any interest in him. I often forget he exists.

Percy sucks too.

Okay, I will try to make my reply to your long post as short as possible.

I so agree with you about Snape, so I have nothing to add there. So let's move on...

Dumbledore though... Yeah, we sure got to see that he too had his dark sides. And I agree with you that he should have done more to stop the Dursleys and Snape. He was the one who defeated Grindelwald though, and he mostly was a good mentor to Harry and a good headmaster of Hogwarts. And as for him not investigating Sirius's guilt, well, I guess that Sirius, who was unhinged and came from a very pure-bloodist family, was a more likely suspect that the meek and "worthless" Pettigrew, who was believed to be dead anyway.

Hagrid though? Yeah, nobody ever said that he was smart or a responsible teacher. But he was the first person from the magical world, who Harry got close to, and a friend of the trio. He made Ron and Hermione become friends again in "Prisoner of Azkaban". And he was the only one except for Hermione, who had the common sense to listen to Harry and believe him in "Goblet of Fire". And he also happens to be my mother's favorite character.

And as for Dobby, I believe that most people did find him annoying until his sacrifice in "Deathly Hollows".

And as for Molly, I don't believe that she was supposed to be flawless either. She could be really unfair to Ron, and even to Hermione that once.

James Potter for sure. But this may have a lot to do with the fact that we never get to see his character growth that must have happened in his sixth and seventh years. Because before that, there certainly isn't a lot to like.

The other character I really don't like is Bellatrix, at least in the films. I thought she was much more sinister in the books. Nothing against Helena Bonham Carter but it just didn't play right for me.

As much as "hating" a character...I can't say I feel like that. But I really dislike Cho. It seems to me like she wanted to "own" Harry and would not let her have any other attatchments (like his friendship with Hermione), while on the other hand she was still strongly attatched to Cedric (I know, losing him was traumatic, but still...sorry, can't help it).

I won't state obvious characters like Umbridge, Pettigrew (although oddly enough he doesn't really bother me), and Voldemort.

Ginny Weasley: The biggest nuisance in the whole series, as well as the biggest Mary Sue character I have ever seen. As someone before me pointed out, she really is nothing but a cheap knock-off of Lily Potter.

Well Dolores Umbridge is obvious as she is just awful in every way.

Cho Chang is another character that I just could never get into mostly b/c she seemed so blah to me. She seemed to have the personality of a house plant.

Lockhart, Umbridge, Pettigrew, Fudge, Snape, James Potter, Vernon, and Albus Dumbledore.

Lockhart I just never liked him.

Umbridge well she just plain sucked, but loved what she added to the story though.

I can not stand people who betray their friends so that is the main reason I do not like Pettigrew.

Fudge, I never liked at all.

Snape was a bully among other things which I can not stand. He never grew on me at all.

James Potter I never really cared for. He was better than Snape, but I never really liked him.

Vernon was awful.

Albus Dumbledore, I am not really sure why I do not like him. He has never been a favorite of mine. I just wish he would have done more for Harry, but I do understand he did the best that he could do. Magentastorm I agree with a lot about what you said about Dumbledore.

Rita Skeeter was way too nosy.

Vernon was on the verge of child abuse to Harry.

Nagini, well I have a fear of snakes.

I have to agree with you! Cho annoys me so much, partly because her name is very annoying and also her personality is bland and really a bit odd.

Lockhart i just found a bit unnecessary.

And umbridge, well even the word Umbridge sounds like a obstacle in the road! Then she was prepared to use the cruciatus curse! Merlin's Beard!!!!!!!

Anyway, that's just my opinion, i mean, flinch loved umbridge, some people could find Lockheart interesting and some people like cho (especily harry hehe)

That is because Barty crouch Jr is amazing and shoulld never have been goven the dementor's kiss. Aka why Fudge is the worest. I I willl admit that I also do not really like Umbridge either

You have to admit, all the characters that you've mentioned are good as characters, even if they're horrible. Lockhart is a narcissist and identity thief. Fudge is an egomaniac who thinks he has to be right all the time. Umbridge is a complete follower, without her own views of right or wrong that she isn't fed by those in power, but she's also pure evil. Vernon was an egomaniac who suppressed Harry and likely shaped Petunia and Dudley into something they originally weren't. Albus Dumbledore had a complex backstory and made the wrong choices because of it. None of them are good people, but they're all good characters. I would hate them in real life, but they really complete the story.

I do want to talk about Snape, though. I don't like the way he was written that much. Knowing JK Rowling's views on the political climate and feminism, I don't think it was exactly her style to have a character like Snape. He's abusive to students and it's all because of lost love, and this is what a lot of Snape fans focus on. It's not like he was written flatly, I also think he could have been written better.

On the note of characters for the sake of story, I also want to point out Sprout and Flitwick. I believe that they, as well as Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw in general, could have used a lot more representation. Charms is shown as a sort of slacker class, and we have almost no herbology scenes. I think Rowling could have, at the very least, given them some more obvious house characteristics, the way she did with McGonagall, Snape, and Slughorn.

I don't know if I allowed to say this but I kind of dislike Harry Potter, lol.

You're allowed to say it, but I would like you to elaborate a bit on why you dislike Harry.

I didn't like Lavender. She was just an obstacle to overcome for Ron and Hermione. I feel like she represents such a stereotypical teenage girl. And I have never really liked teenage girls, (especially when I was one).

Not that I'm a Ron/Hermione shipper (but that is a discussion for a different time), so I don't dislike Ron's relationship with Lavender for that reason. But it was still so painfully obvious that it was just a temporary thing, that was never going to lead to anything substantial. So it was just pointless filler.

And I also agree with you that Lavender never was anything but a stereotypical teenage girl, so she would never become an interesting character to me either.

of course *hmmm hhmmmm*.....professor umbridge

I thought I was the only one who hated Ginny!