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Several different lines of argument are used to explain why Severus is behaving in ways that Harry takes as hostile. One is that Severus had to act this way to maintain his cover as Death Eater: That when Voldemort returned Severus could point to his treatment of Harry as evidence that he remained a true DE and was never influenced by Dumbledore's agenda (and this would be supported by the testament of sons of DEs in his class if needed). A different argument is that Severus has strict and demanding standards (both academic and behavioral) as a teacher and Harry repeatedly fails those, thus bringing upon himself sarcasm, wrath, loss of points and detentions, as the case may be. And of course the argument more common among non-fans of Severus, that from the moment Severus saw the physical resemblance between Harry and his father Severus started taking on Harry his unreconciled enmity towards James (whether consciously or unconsciously).
This relationship becomes mutually hostile and results in Harry and his friends mistrusting Severus time and again - when they thought he was cursing Harry's broom and trying to steal the Philosophers' Stone, in the Shrieking Shack in POA, when they went to the Ministry in OOTP despite having already delivered him what should have been a sufficient warning to the Order and when Harry suspects Severus is a party to Draco's plot in HBP (well, he was in a way, but not how Harry expected). Severus' outburst in the Shrieking Shack ("... I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on bended knee!...") shows that Severus was offended by this state of affairs, he really expected to be trusted by Harry.
If Severus' behavior was strategic, intending to act the DE part - why would he expect Harry to trust him? Or is it that since their relationship already had a hostile start (whether because of Harry's conduct as a student or because of Severus' unsettled account with James) Severus decided to use it as part of his justification to Voldemort and the DEs (as we see him do with Bellatrix in HBP)? Did Severus expect Harry, perhaps with the aid of more trusted authority figures such as Minerva or Albus, to see the protection beyond the wrath and snark?
How does Albus fit in? In the early books he contributes to the distrust between the two - in PS he says Severus saved Harry so he could hate James' memory in peace, in POA he blames Severus for the need to make a daring rescue of Sirius. But later Albus reassures Harry that Severus was never suspected with any Dark activity since the first war (GOF), tells him how Severus warned the Order and searched for Harry and his friends in the forest, refrains from mentioning Severus' part in the matter of the prophecy until Harry learns of it himself (OOTP vs HBP) and tells Harry again and again that he trusts Professor Snape (HBP). Yet in OOTP he also says he expected Severus to have gotten over the past enough to teach Harry Occlumency successfully. So did Albus initially think he was supporting Severus' cover story but changed gears when he saw things were going badly? Or was he deliberately preventing the reconciliation of undesired hostility because it served his own plots?
This relationship becomes mutually hostile and results in Harry and his friends mistrusting Severus time and again - when they thought he was cursing Harry's broom and trying to steal the Philosophers' Stone, in the Shrieking Shack in POA, when they went to the Ministry in OOTP despite having already delivered him what should have been a sufficient warning to the Order and when Harry suspects Severus is a party to Draco's plot in HBP (well, he was in a way, but not how Harry expected). Severus' outburst in the Shrieking Shack ("... I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on bended knee!...") shows that Severus was offended by this state of affairs, he really expected to be trusted by Harry.
If Severus' behavior was strategic, intending to act the DE part - why would he expect Harry to trust him? Or is it that since their relationship already had a hostile start (whether because of Harry's conduct as a student or because of Severus' unsettled account with James) Severus decided to use it as part of his justification to Voldemort and the DEs (as we see him do with Bellatrix in HBP)? Did Severus expect Harry, perhaps with the aid of more trusted authority figures such as Minerva or Albus, to see the protection beyond the wrath and snark?
How does Albus fit in? In the early books he contributes to the distrust between the two - in PS he says Severus saved Harry so he could hate James' memory in peace, in POA he blames Severus for the need to make a daring rescue of Sirius. But later Albus reassures Harry that Severus was never suspected with any Dark activity since the first war (GOF), tells him how Severus warned the Order and searched for Harry and his friends in the forest, refrains from mentioning Severus' part in the matter of the prophecy until Harry learns of it himself (OOTP vs HBP) and tells Harry again and again that he trusts Professor Snape (HBP). Yet in OOTP he also says he expected Severus to have gotten over the past enough to teach Harry Occlumency successfully. So did Albus initially think he was supporting Severus' cover story but changed gears when he saw things were going badly? Or was he deliberately preventing the reconciliation of undesired hostility because it served his own plots?
plans
Snape's teaching was designed to foster competence and knowledge (and it did). He didn't know trust would eventually be relevant, and he probably would have despaired if he had, because he's never had the social gifts and as far as he could see Harry hated him on sight. (Not the fault of either of them; it was Quirrellmort who made Harry's scar hurt as he caught Snape's eye for the first time. But it meant that they both entered the first lesson already convinced the other hated them.)
"consistently treated them badly"
I don't agree. Snapee was strict and even harsh, but rarely unfair. Harry was at all times a lazy, sloppy, uninterested student, and in Snape's class he was also consistently disrespectful from the very start. (And he was also best friends with a student even lazier, sloppier and less interested - "I've got better things to do in Potions class than listen to Snape," says Ron in CoS - and a swotty show-off who let both of them copy her work. That wouldn't have helped either.) I'm contemporary with Snape, and in my schooldays, Harry would have got the strap for his behaviour as a matter of course. Every lesson.
Hogwarts is, if anything, very much behind the times in pedagogic practice, and the teachers that we do see are mostly incompetent (Trelawney, Quirrell, Lockhart), sarcastic (McGonagall, Flitwick, Snape), or both (Hagrid). There is no teacher training and no managerial support; Dumbledore doesn't even look up from his magazine when Snape tries to discuss problem student Harry.
"and then actually killing a much loved and trusted authority figure in front of them foster trust ... killing him for whatever reason in front of Harry, is not going to get Harry's trust."
Can't blame Snape for that; it was Dumbledore who both required the trust and made its achievement impossible.
"Since trust is all important it does indeed generate the question, why did Snape not try to win Harry's trust?"
How exactly? If saving Harry's life at the cost of Snape's reputation and comfort in the staffroom did not engender Harry's trust - and we know it did not - what would?
And why would Snape trust Harry enough to try? He knew the Dark Lord could listen in to Harry's mind and that, far from blocking him, Harry had welcomed him in.
By the time Snape knew trust would be important, it was too late for either to trust the other.
"Why did Snape not have a plan in place to get the information to Harry in case of his death?"
He probably did. We don't have any definite information about any alternate plans and fail-safes, but we *do* have a similar situation to judge from. I'm talking about the Sword of Gryffindor, of course, where Snape's final words in the scene where he suddenly learns Harry's location are:
"Don't worry, Dumbledore. I have a plan."
So I think it's a fairly safe bet that Snape had a plan about getting the Horcrux message to Harry, too - and I wouldn't be surprised if it utilised the same method: a silver doe Patronus that Harry instantly recognised as connected to his mother.
"Why was there no backup plan in place in case Snape said black instead of white to Voldemort and Voldemort killed him because of that?"
Yes, why did *Dumbledore* have no backup plan? Especially when the plans he did make were so ridiculously unlikely to succeed? What if Voldemort had checked on his Horcruxes sooner and hidden the rest somewhere safer before Harry got to them? What if Harry hadn't escaped Malfoy Manor? (For that matter, what if he hadn't been captured and thus never deduced where the Hufflepuff cup was?) What if Voldemort found the Elder Wand sooner and killed Snape sooner too? At every point, Dumbledore's plan was weak. At every point, it defied logic and common sense.
Re: plans
Re: plans
duj