I was was surfing youtube and watched an interview with Lady Gaga yesterday where she was talking about the words "I want your ugly, I want your disease" in Bad Romance and how the song was about being so in love with someone that you wanted all the bits of them that they thought were unloveable. Then you wrote this and it is exactly the same theme. Really struck a chord.
I don't think I've seen a story that emphasized Snape's unpleasantness so much--well, of course this *is* from an outside POV as well.