Looking at this portrait is such a revelation. I know all about Snape and his tortured, complex, crushingly difficult life, but there is a difference between knowing and feeling, and this makes me feel it, understand it at a much deeper level. I can almost see why JKR would end his life. It would be almost a kindness. And it makes me really hate Dumbledore for sacrificing this man's soul for the greater good. This, to me, is Tira_nog or Mia_ugly's Snape, so there is hope and healing somewhere for him. Thank God...