Snapedom

Aaaaaah. Ok. Actually, your position makes even more sense to me now. Especially since you came to the books primed with the (added) comments about Lily and all from Remus, which even if you consciously discount them can still prime you to make certain interpretations over others, I think (er, make sense?) And reading the books in reverse order - yeah, that probably did have an effect of some sort.

Whereas me, I got into the books right after PoA was published. My aunt gave me the first three as a present and I read them one after another - and when I got to PoA and the Shack I fell in love with Severus' character and he never let go after that. ;) Then I did the whole waiting for the next book thing, and got into that, and saw the movies as they came out.

Oddly enough, I also started liking Sirius a lot with PoA (and loved the clue back in PP/SS), and I liked him all through OotP, to the point where I was *furious* at how JKR did away with him. I spent half of HBP searching for a reincarnated Sirius. But after HBP, I started getting into (mostly Snape) fandom and so reflecting on the series, and I started to really go off Sirius. I think part of it was that the innocently-imprisoned thing always gets me, so I was riding a wave of sympathy for him that eventually broke in a nasty fall wrt his treatment of Severus. I don't...*hate* him now. But I don't really like him either. Sad but true. :( Fanfic rehabilitates him for me a bit, though, especially sam_storyteller's Stealing Harryverse (READ if you like Remus/Sirius romance).

But I'll always have Severus. Cranky bastard that he is. :)