Did Severus Snape care about Harry Potter at the end of the series?

Answer 1

No, Snape never cared about Harry. He hated him. Snape did care about Harry's mother and attempted to protect him simply because he was the woman he loved's child.

Although his motivation at first was to protect Harry because he felt in debt to Lily, he knew he needed to keep his emotions in check for the sake of staying on task with the ultimate mission; thereby kept his distance from the boy and developed an unjust hate for him for the sake of protecting not only the mission and himself, but Harry as well. He didn't care for him at first as a baby, knowing he was the offspring of the woman he loved and the man he loathed; however as time went on, he found himself becoming more involved with the boy in indirect ways. He grew more and more hard on him to make sure that Harry stayed alive. But it was his final scene between he and Harry that gave the true nature of his feelings for Harry away, the scene he gives Harry his memories. He wanted Harry to comprehend why he was so hard on him, how much his mother meant to him and so much more, it was all to protect him. He obviously didn't need to show him these extra memories besides the conversation between him and Dumbledore, and surely Snape wouldn't bother explaining himself and his actions to someone he truly loathed; however he wanted to show them to Harry anyway because he cared about what he thought about him, and wanted understanding and forgiveness for all that has happened between them and why it was so important that he kept his distance from him, giving his position as a spy for Dumbledore. He knew that Harry was going to die in the end, so all of the memories that he gave him had no part in the mission; he assumed that Harry wouldn't be able to 'redeem' him in any way, it was all a plea coming from the real Severus, once again wearing his heart on his sleeve. In the end, Snape showed Harry how much he did care, even if it was in an unorthodox way.