But personally, I would have thought Snape *does* value knowledge for its own sake - there's a certain geeky, stamp-collecting quality in a young kid who knows so very many hexes, and the way he has wallpapered Spinner's End with books to the extent of even sticking a bookcase on the back of the door suggests a positive mania for academic learning. He could easily have fitted into any of the houses - being brilliant, brave and loyal - but presumably it was ambition and deviousness which landed him in Slytherin, which must have been a very uncomfortable house for a kid who was dirt poor and at least half (probably three-quarters) Muggle to be in.

Author's Response: This was written before HBP, so his library at Spinner's End was unknown. It's possible that he values learning for its own sake but I think he's more pragmatic and values it for what he can do with it. Collecting hexes could be as much about protecting himself as about amassing information. Pity about the first glances but I wonder if it was even possible for them to get off on the right foot. Snape's memories of being bullied by Harry's dad are still so vivid and he never seems to have moved past them or put them into context. That could be because he's spent almost all the rest of his life in the same place where it all happened. He's moved up in the ranks and his former teachers are now colleagues but does he really feel that they treat him as an equal? I thought the end of HBP implied that they'd never really trustd him except provisionally, on Albus's say-so.