It's funny, I expected Snape to die from the moment in book four when we learned that he had been a Death Eater -- that's the usual cliched literary punishment for such a big transgression, so from that standpoint it didn't bother me. What bothered me was that, at the same moment, I said to myself, I bet anything the reason he changed is because he was in love with Harry's mother, because I could not think of a single other reason Dumbledore would have believed so thoroughly...and even that was all right with me to some extent, but I did not expect the revelation to be such a big clonking cliche-ridden mess, and what a letdown to have Harry see it in Snape's memories only after Snape is dead rather than hearing it from Snape's mouth! So if feels like she tossed him aside, and then elevated someone like Ginny who's an EXTREMELY minor character with very little personality of her own and we're supposed to simply swallow her as the perfect partner for Harry because the author said so...gaaah.