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Hum... Would knowing certain things about Snape change my attitude towards him? Absolutely.
How much I would be willing to forgive would depend on the degree and motivation behind the acts. I truly believe that Snape committed not only murder, but some truly heinous acts during the time he spent at the service of the Dark Lord, and quite possibly while he was spying for the Order. I base this on the fact that both Draco and Bella refer to Snape as Voldemort's favorite, and in the scene at the Astronomy Tower just before Dumbledore is killed, the other DE's seem afraid of Snape when he shows up. I mean, how vicious/dangerous do you have to be before DE's start being afraid of you, especially when they outnumber you four to one? And I don't think Snape earned so much favor from Voldemort by baking him cookies – he had to be doing something to earn this favor/trust, and it probably wasn't something pleasant.
So if you tell me that Snape killed/tortured a few people in order to keep his cover as a spy and consequently save thousands of lives; that I could forgive. If you tell me that in his misguided youth he killed or participated in someone's torture in order to be accepted by the other DE's, but later saw the errors of his ways and repented; yes, I can forgive that too.
But your example is pretty extreme. Someone who can do something like what you describe for no other purpose than scientific curiosity and feel nothing while he is doing it has to by definition have a sociopathic personality, and sociopaths don't change or repent; they don't suddenly grow a conscience – any person with a degree in psychology can vouch for that.
So if Snape ever went that far, then his whole repentance and everything good he did after would have to be a sham, and then we wouldn't even be talking about the same character since there's no evidence in canon that Snape wasn't really remorseful for whatever bad acts he might have committed and that he pretended to repent as part of some hidden agenda.
So I guess I'm willing to forgive a lot, within the boundaries of sane, pathologically normal, credible behavior.
How much I would be willing to forgive would depend on the degree and motivation behind the acts. I truly believe that Snape committed not only murder, but some truly heinous acts during the time he spent at the service of the Dark Lord, and quite possibly while he was spying for the Order. I base this on the fact that both Draco and Bella refer to Snape as Voldemort's favorite, and in the scene at the Astronomy Tower just before Dumbledore is killed, the other DE's seem afraid of Snape when he shows up. I mean, how vicious/dangerous do you have to be before DE's start being afraid of you, especially when they outnumber you four to one? And I don't think Snape earned so much favor from Voldemort by baking him cookies – he had to be doing something to earn this favor/trust, and it probably wasn't something pleasant.
So if you tell me that Snape killed/tortured a few people in order to keep his cover as a spy and consequently save thousands of lives; that I could forgive. If you tell me that in his misguided youth he killed or participated in someone's torture in order to be accepted by the other DE's, but later saw the errors of his ways and repented; yes, I can forgive that too.
But your example is pretty extreme. Someone who can do something like what you describe for no other purpose than scientific curiosity and feel nothing while he is doing it has to by definition have a sociopathic personality, and sociopaths don't change or repent; they don't suddenly grow a conscience – any person with a degree in psychology can vouch for that.
So if Snape ever went that far, then his whole repentance and everything good he did after would have to be a sham, and then we wouldn't even be talking about the same character since there's no evidence in canon that Snape wasn't really remorseful for whatever bad acts he might have committed and that he pretended to repent as part of some hidden agenda.
So I guess I'm willing to forgive a lot, within the boundaries of sane, pathologically normal, credible behavior.