2nd reply to meesha1971
It is long enough to deserve a new entry.

We do not have any evidence that Severus ever believed Muggles should die (yes, not even joining DEs is evidence for that, see what Regulus believed - he wanted to 'rule over' Muggles, not to kill them; though obviously it is easy from this point to rationalize killing Muggles who show resistance to 'teach' others their 'place'; and Severus' most important reason to join was because Dumbleodre let him know, through the mismanagement of the aftermath of the werewolf caper, that his life meant nothing to the wizarding establishment). He believed they had nothing of value to offer him, which is what every wizard believes. Ron, just like Eileen, believed Muggles can serve as sperm donors and wombs to keep wizards from dying out, but the Weasleys never talk to Molly's squib relative. Dumbledore leafs through Muggle magazines for knitting patterns, but despite supposedly liking chamber music we have no hint that he is aware of Muggle composers. Nor do we see any signs that he is aware of the superiority of Muggles in social organization and thinking (simply due to having larger and more complex societies and having had more opportunities for experimentation in these areas), understanding of human rights, justice, morality. So no, I don't see evidence for a difference in attitude towards Muggles between Severus and Dumbledore's political faction, except that Severus would actually know how to live among Muggles and use Muggle devices such as matches, as opposed to Arthur.

Nor do we have any evidence that Severus had any control of his magic before school. You may be confusing him with Lily (if anyone scared Petunia of magic it was the sister who turned cups into mice). The only magic we see him 'do' before school is that dropped branch so I don't see reason to read it as deliberate magic. As for the curses he supposedly knew (hearsay evidence from an enemy) - that's wanded magic, he probably learned them after getting his wand in the summer - we see Harry take an interest in a relevant book and we know Hermione was able to learn spells that way. In any case, it was the Muggle-raised Tom and Muggle-born Lily who had the highest level of control of their magic before school - because nobody was around to tell them not to do it. But as a magical-raised child Severus knew how to recognize a magical outbreak when it happened and to feel guilty over it (I believe his memory of the fight between his parents is exactly what happened in the Snape household when little Severus had an outbreak, probably his first). And no, I don't take Harry's interpretation of any person's behavior for granted. It is his subjective view, and he was shown to be wrong more often than not.

Severus hesitating before telling Lily it didn't matter that she was Muggle-born is him being considerate of her feelings. He knew it mattered to people his mother knew, maybe even to her, but to him it made no difference and he didn't want her to be hurt by other people's views.
As for Slytherin House - he formed the view that it was the best House for him, in the same way most wizarding-raised children make that choice, and he wanted them to be together. No, he was not particularly graceful in the way he expressed himself - but age appropriate. (That Severus convinced her to read Petunia's letter is irrelevant. She was the one who did it, it was her sister whom she knew from day zero, she knew it was wrong, she knew Petunia wouldn't like it. Severus as an only child was the less informed party.)

The conversation about Mulciber: Note that the only thing Lily accuses Severus with is that he found Mulciber's trick funny. Not that he himself did anything wrong. More evidence that at that stage he was not yet 'famous' for Dark Arts. We don't even know what Mulciber did, so I have no reason to think it was worse than the horrible stuff James and Sirius pulled, day in and day out judging by the detention files, because I have no reason to think Lily was being objective. She is parroting what she heard in the Gryffindor common room, and Gryffindors always see what Slytherins (such as Draco) do to Gryffindors as horrible while what Gryffindors (such as the twins or the trio) do to Slytherins is funny. And I'm sure the reverse is true as well. Without knowing what the acts were we have no way to judge. And yes, Severus brings the subject to him vs James. Because that is the argument: James and his friends nearly murdered him a few days previously, how does that compare to Mulciber's stupid unknown trick? But Lily doesn't care, because she already heard the Gryffindor version, what a Slytherin has to say can't change her opinion, do not confuse her with facts.

SWM: Lily *nearly laughed* when the boy who was supposedly her friend was being sexually assaulted. And then she rants to James while Severus still chokes. She pays James her full attention and pays no attention at all to Severus. This is not defense, this is flirtation. She did James the favor of telling him exactly what she did not like about his behavior, so now he knew what not to do in front of her. Lily's behavior in SWM is so centered on James rather than Severus that many readers thought she didn't know Severus and was just acting in her capacity as prefect. Others thought they did know one another but that they already had a falling out before SWM and were not talking to one another. She does not behave like a friend at all. Of course Severus was hurt by her and of course he wanted to lash out and say the worst name he could think of. That is a reason to be angry with him, but no reason not to accept his apology, unless she already wanted to dump him and was looking for an out. (Yes, people who know better when calm do indeed say unacceptable things when angry. Especially when the unacceptable words are the norm for their home environment or a subculture they spend significant time in. And Severus didn't really have the option to make enemies with kids who could curse him in his sleep - that's part of what is wrong with the Hogwarts house system in general.)

We have no reason to think James grew up at all. Sirius is wrong in saying that non-retaliation to Severus would have been taking it lying down. As Head Boy (Hagrid is not particularly reliable, but that would be a stupid thing to lie about) he could get Severus in detention while maintaining the moral upper hand. Continuing the fight while Severus was down is exactly the sign he did not grow up. As is the Muggle-baiting with Sirius during the summer between 6th and 7th year ('prequel'). Before DH I was sympathetic to James and Lily, but having SWM happen after the werewolf caper and seeing no visible signs for growth afterwards leave me with a 'where is the beef' attitude to him. (Lily was a disappointment of a different kind that does not belong in this thread.) Clearly James' focus was about how Severus' death would impact on his and his friends' futures not any recognition of Severus' humanity. (Also, James supposedly not being involved in the 'prank' makes one wonder why he would trust Sirius with his family's safety a few years later when he exposed Remus' secret: either James was insane, or Severus was right and James was in on Sirius' plans but got cold feet or James did not think much of Remus as a person and a friend, more like a pet.) Also, you may make light of his 'don't make me hex you', but when it comes after his offer to leave Severus alone if she agrees to date with James - he is being abusive to Lily there and then. Additionally consider the way he wrote Lily's initials on a drawing of a snitch - he thought of her as something to catch before his rival did. (I know a poster who reads James as a sociopath because of SWM, I won't go that far merely because I don't think Rowling is that informed.)

That said, Severus had no future with Lily no matter what. Like most childhood friendships, theirs was the result of circumstance, not any compatibility in temperament or interests. Being placed in different Houses (no matter which 2) was more likely than not to drive them apart.

Severus is the only one of that bunch who did grow up. He took responsibilities, held a job, took upon himself thankless tasks repeatedly for no reward. He protected those who needed his protection regardless of what they thought of him or his work for them, regardless how little they considered their own safety or his risks and sacrifices. And he has a very high code of honor: note that when Dumbledore tells him all his work had always been for nothing from the start, the first thing he raises is that Dumbledore made him lie, he is more concerned about sacrificing his integrity than his life.

I disagree with you he was a loner out of choice in his Muggle neighborhood. Petunia knew his name and where he lived. I bet all the neighborhood bullies did too. He was ostracized for looking and dressing funny and he could not (was not allowed to) defend himself for fear of a magical outbreak - because magical outbreaks can kill, as we see with Ariana and Kendra. (He clearly was ashamed of his clothes in front of Lily - he only opened his coat when it was getting dark, so I don't buy Harry's reading that he dressed like that on purpose.) Maybe the Evanses didn't call the police because they knew him as the harmless miserable kid that everyone was making fun of.

James' definitely could have hurt Severus. He caused him to gag - Severus could have drowned. Since James was not scarred by Severus' Sectumsempra I don't see where you are getting with your point. Whatever Severus did was treated with dittany. Harry used Sectumsempra in full force (loudly, large wand movement) and caused a large injury which Severus healed and them sent Draco to receive dittany to complete the healing. Severus by casting non-verbally and with hardly any wand movement caused a minor injury that was the equivalent of Draco after initial healing. James was in less danger than Severus. (Why do you assume he didn't share the counterspell? He cast the counter because Draco needed immediate attention. No way to know if Poppy knew it or not. That other Order members couldn't regrow George's ear is no evidence one way or the other as neither of them are healers. We know that even strong wizards and witches are not all strong all over the board - Tonks can duel decently but can't fold socks or clean magically. We have no evidence that any of the people present at the Burrow were particularly good at healing spells.)

That Remus called Sectumsempra Severus' specialty means exactly that Remus saw Severus cast that spells a couple of times. Remus is just as much a drama queen as Severus: He says that in the first war the Order was outnumbered by DEs 20 to 1 - wrong, the ratio was around 2-3 to 1. He implies Dumbledore became headmaster in the nick of time to enable him to attend school - wrong, Dumbledore had been headmaster for a while before Remus was born. (I played with the dates for a long while, but really appointments later than December 1956, while possible, provide an interesting story about Dumbledore that isn't there and doesn't look like something Rowling thought of, now that we know what is and isn't in her story.) He speculates that the James-Severus rivalry was about Quidditch when we know it was about Lily. (No, I don't expect him to say the truth at that moment, but he could have avoided untruthful speculation.) There is also the curious embellishment of the story of Regulus' death, where Remus claims to know how long Regulus survived on the run, when we now know he never was on the run, he was in Voldmeort's good books up to weeks before his (not really necessary) suicide by inferi. So while I am willing to believe him about fighting dark creatures other than werewolves I take everything else he says with several tablespoons of salt.

It is canon that Sirius did not know Severus had been a DE. While I believe that by the time the Order photo was taken in June or July 1981 Remus was no longer on friendly terms with the other Marauders I doubt he would hide from them (and the rest of the Order) that he had faced old Snivelli in battle and indeed that no-good kid turned out a Death Eater like they always expected. So the time Remus (or anyone close to Remus) could have seen Severus cast the spell and known it was him is limited to their school days. We do not know if Severus invented it or merely copied it down (no cross-outs, he only rants at Harry after Harry attempts Levicorpus), but that does not matter. After nearly dying he needed a stronger spell in his arsenal. Up until the werewolf caper he did not yet have notoriety for the Dark Arts. Maybe he needed something that also worked on werewolves. He got or invented the spell somewhere in 5th year, he most probably cast it in public for the first time in SWM, caused no lasting damage. Since the Marauders were his enemies those days I don't think he cast it on anyone else at school. So perhaps James and Sirius got hit by it a few more times, still no scars.

I don't accept Lily's interpretation of Severus' silence to her accusations as admittance. He was not that good with words as a kid, he had a tendency to get tongue-tied under stress. He may as well have been stunned by how outrageous her accusations were. That he had one Dark spell (which he felt he needed to protect himself) means nothing.

BTW if we are talking about maturity, why does Remus play passive-aggressive head games when Severus, who had seen him as a fully transformed and uncontrolled werewolf, brings him a potion that can help him maintain his sanity (and which takes no little effort to make)? For all Remus' horror at what might have happened during the *many* near misses when he got away from James and Sirius, he still doesn't take his condition seriously enough, when he is once more in a boarding school with hundreds of unaware students (plus all the unaware population of Hogsmeade). Remus only realized how inappropriate this was after he had lived with the wild werewolves. He certainly deserved to be outed and fired. And notice that before Severus outed Remus his condition indeed was unknown - while Lucius was raising stink in the Ministry about Hagrid he said nothing about Remus. Which means that a fact known to Severus and which could have been used to remove Dumbledore from Hogwarts and leave the school open for take-over by Voldemort remained unknown to him. I don't think Severus, even as a Death Eater, wanted Voldemort to win, he just wanted him to last because he promised Severus the protection that the mainstream wizarding society denied him.

Severus as a teacher:

The information of supposed favoritism comes from other Gryffindors, and typically Ron's source is the twins. Enough said. (Do you think the twins were well behaved in his class? And they are very likely to want to antagonize Ron for entertainment value anyway.) There is no mention of 'any other House', we have no information whatsoever about how he treated Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs, nor do we know what they thought of him. That they did not cheer when he was appointed as DADA teacher can mean all manner of things. Maybe they liked him (or were used to him) as Potions Master and didn't want a change? Maybe they were pondering the significance of him being appointed as DADA professor after all those years Dumbledore refused to do so? We see the Slytherins flicking stuff while the students work - that's when Severus is moving around among the students. He doesn't see who is doing what just like he did not see Harry toss the firework into Goyle's cauldron. The 'settle down' comment was said when Draco reappeared for the first time after being injured, Severus had leeway to be lenient. During the accidental hexing of bystanders Harry and Ron got detentions and lost points not for involvement in the hexing but for *yelling* at a teacher. (I already commented in the original thread that the remark to Hermione was over the top, but by then Severus had reasons to be angry, embittered and thoroughly disappointed with her for her past behavior.) We never see any teachers disciplining students for what eyewitnesses report, only for behavior the teacher witnesses hirself, according to how the teacher interprets it. For example in PS Minerva did not rely on Draco's story about Harry and Hermione bringing a dragon into the castle but punished all those who were out of bed that night for that offense. Severus' behavior follows the same pattern.

In any case, if you want to discuss teachers who are unfair, how about Minerva, who gets a first year on her House's Quidditch team against the rules, who buys said student a top-of-the-line broom and who gives students of her House plenty of points for going on a stupid, unnecessary quest that got an Order member killed and destroyed Dumbledore's plot for keeping Voldmeort lying low? (And notice the reluctant way in which she includes Luna.) Or how about Albus Dumbledore snatching the House Cup from Slytherin by handing last minute points to 4 students, only one of whom (Neville) was doing the right thing while the three others went on an unnecessary quest that only made the Philosophers' Stone accessible to Quirrellmort rather than leaving it safe where it was?

If you think his major fault as a teacher was that he mocks and insults students, then I guess all is well. Have you never been insulted by a teacher? Teachers insult students as a matter of course, I recall insults by teachers from most of my school years. The most common being 'are you here just to keep your seat warm?' - said by almost every teacher to students who weren't working or paying attention. Or variants on 'what were you drinking/smoking/ are you sure it was coffee this morning?' to anyone who was being goofy. Similarly 'please let us know when your spaceship lands' to anyone who was spaced out. My well loved 5th and 6th grade teacher had an expression that translates more or less as 'it is a testament to the poverty of your character that...' (I got that occasionally for being incapable of writing creatively on demand). She was a demanding teacher, she is responsible for a quantum leap in my vocabulary (I needed a dictionary to understand her assignments) and my ability to rethink commonly held views, my mother is still in touch with her after all these decades. My physics teacher from grades 9 to 11 was my Severus Snape. He insulted us collectively and individually. He made fun of our names. He ignored my raised hand until I got the message that he knew I knew and he wanted to hear someone else. He made sexist remarks ('the girls shouldn't bother to write this down, it won't help them anyway'). It was hard at first, but we learned to shrug him off. By our second year with him we laughed his remarks off. I tutored several of the girls in my class and we ended up earning very high grades (like Severus, my teacher graded fairly, regardless of his classroom remarks). In retrospect I believe his insults were his way of spurring us on. It worked. We respected him despite the insults because he knew his stuff and we learned from him. Until dementia claims my brain I'll know my high school physics.

While Severus may have hated being a teacher (I think he hated teaching a general class, had he been only required to teach those who cared about his subject he would have been very different) we know he actually was very good at it - the Ministry admitted his classes were advanced beyond their expectations, and 25% of the students in Harry's year earned an O.

Had Severus wanted to poison Neville's toad he would have moved Hermione to a different place in the classroom, he knew she was in the habit of 'helping' him (actually preventing him from learning). He was very obviously totally in control of the situation, all he wanted was to get the boy to stop bringing the dratted animal where it did not belong and where it was a distraction and a potential danger. In a Charms or a Transfiguration class the worst that could have happened was that a spell might have hit Trevor by mistake. In a Potions class having him hop in a cauldron could cause any manner of disaster, from splashing the potion on a student to changing the potion into something unpredictable, maybe explosive, maybe something that emits noxious fumes, who knows? Notice how many times parts of animals similar to toads are used in potions. Even if he doesn't hop in a cauldron but merely distracts a student into making a mistake the effect is worse than in any other class, because it would destroy the student's work from the beginning of class as well as possibly endanger everyone if an explosion were to occur. I really can't believe anyone would think a toad (one with a tendency to escape, at that!) would be a safe think to bring to a Potions class. Would you think it safe to bring uncaged pets into a Muggle chemistry lab? Nor do we ever hear of any other pet ever being present in class.

As for Harry's first lesson: We do not know how other first lessons went in other Houses and previous years. The speech was obviously well practiced, and must have been the one he used in every first lesson of first-years. The same may apply to the quizzing. It is a good way to get across the message that one comes to Severus Snape's class prepared. This was exactly the method used by my 11th grade history teacher - he would quiz us at random about minutae of the reading material to make sure we read it thoroughly. Harry does not lose points for not knowing (so whether reading had been assigned isn't relevant), he loses one measly point for his cheeky attitude. Harry, being the self-centered brat he is, who in 5th year still doesn't know names of students who have been sharing his class for years, thinks it is about him. Did he ever ask around students from other years for comparison?

I'd like to copy here a message I wrote to Snapedom in response to an anonymous poster who asked whether Neville and Harry should be expected to respect Professor Snape:

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So...he automatically deserves respect from Neville / Harry / random victim no matter HOW shabbily he treats them?

It is a student's duty to approach a teacher with respect, most definitely. Now, it isn't easy to maintain respect for a teacher who constantly demonstrates lack of knowledge of hir field (Lockhart), one who lacks confidence (Trelawney, Hagrid, Quirrell in twitchy mode), one who can't even remember who hir students are (Binns, Slughorn to some students), one who uses clearly ineffectual methods of instruction (Binns, Umbridge, Lockhart), one who designs hir curriculum pretty much on a whim (Hagrid) or one who insults and provokes students (Severus Snape), but students still owe these teachers a respectful attitude in class and when they interact with said teachers in person out of class, even if they no longer feel respect for them.

Where teachers deserve to lose even a modicum of respect is when they are clearly abusive - Umbridge with her detention quill, Veritaserum and Cruciatus, Crouch/Moody bouncing the transfigured Draco - or when they engage in serious endangerment of students: Hagrid with his skrewts, Lockhart with his pixies (they are only class 2, but he had no idea how to control them), Minerva sending students to follow a unicorn-hunter (as punishment for endangering themselves, yes, that makes total sense!), Remus Lupin hiding information about a suspected mass murderer and neglecting to take his medication properly and Albus Dumbledore using the school as a place in which to place bait for someone who was suspected as at least an agent of Voldemort as well as enabling all the previously mentioned abuses.

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(I would add to Dumbledore's crimes at the very least neglecting to investigate the werewolf caper thoroughly, neglecting to upgrade Remus' protections when he knew at least 3 students knew how to get past the existing ones, allowing students to commit crimes against one another, not taking basic precautions when a basilisk was roaming about the school.)

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Shrieking Shack: Just like Sirius could hear Bellatrix and her friends screaming in their nightmares so could they hear him. How many times does Sirius need to yell "Damn you Wormtail, you betrayed James and Lily!" for Bellatrix to start yelling "Damn you Wormtail, you betrayed the Dark Lord!"? Obviously the DEs in Azkaban knew who the double-crosser was, they heard it from Sirius, but there was no way for them to communicate to the outside world. Since I doubt Sirius got in touch with Lucius or Avery between his escape and going to Hogwarts, so all he said about what DEs outside Azkaban knew was pure speculation on his part. Peter had to remain hidden (whether as a rat in Britain or abroad) because he would have had to explain to the Ministry how come he was alive after being seen dying and his whole story would have come out, after which he would have had the Ministry wanting his blood. (The DEs aside from Bellatrix's group didn't care, they were actually happier with Voldmeort gone than present, which is why they never tried to get him back, nor did they try to kill Harry in Voldemort's absence despite him being accessible whenever he left 4PD.) So no, we do not have evidence that any DE outside Azkaban knew who betrayed the Potters. While Karkaroff knew about Rookwood and Severus we do not know that Rookwood and Severus knew of one another. When Voldemort addressed some DEs in the circle in GOF he was outing the ones he was most displeased with. Normally only small groups that operated together knew one another's identities - that's how typical terrorist organizations work. Even those built on family ties, such as Al-Qaida (see Scott Atran's work). And Karkaroff knew very little about Severus - he was incapable of accusing him of any crime beyond membership in the organization despite having the time to do so (as opposed to what he says of Dolohov, Mulciber, Travers and Rookwood).

Severus' behavior certainly does not give him away. He entered the room while invisible so he could see if/when the situation became dangerous. There is no reason to think he spent any significant time outside the door, because we know how long it took Remus from seeing Peter and Ron enter the tunnel until he finally arrived, so we can assume similar time between Severus seeing Remus enter the tunnel and his arrival. Remus certainly was due to transform at some point (it is hard to tell if the time was predictable because of Rowling's inconsistencies) and he wasn't safe because he missed his potion as a result of his irresponsibility. Severus is responsible enough not to act rashly, especially as he was outnumbered. Acting immediately could have endangered the kids. He lost it when his very traumatizing near-death experience was belittled. Not really surprising. Even then he neutralized the worst danger first - the werewolf. In any case, while Severus heard that Sirius and Peter were Animagi, his only clue as to Peter's form was that he was the smallest one.

(And Sirius' treatment of unconscious Severus was despicable - Severus could have died. You do not cause more head trauma to someone already concussed.)

Severus had no way of knowing the kids were not Confunded, they were behaving irrationally enough. Even if he was lying, the lie would have protected the kids from expulsion - it would have enabled them to claim temporary insanity rather than being in collusion with a wanted criminal.

I disagree Severus is putting a show for Dumbledore. He does not need to, Dumbledore isn't the master that would have him Cruciated or killed if he failed, the other one is. Because he feels safe enough with Dumbledore he allows himself to blow the occasional gasket in his presence, he can't afford to do that with Voldemort.

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Dumbledore's characterization: I disagree with you that Rowling changed it. He was always the manipulative bastard rat (with apologies to Kendra) we saw in DH. In PS he used the school as a trap in which he baited someone he suspected as Voldemort's agent with the Philosophers' Stone. If he really believed the Stone was unsafe in Gringotts (and Griphook makes me doubt that was true) he should have placed the Stone on his person or in his private chambers, not where someone could wander upon Fluffy as the kids did. And in the hospital wing, what he tells Harry about Severus' motivation (besides turning out to have been a lie) is the worst he could have said if he ever wanted the two of them to work together. He should have said 'yes, Professor Snape hated your father, but as a Hogwarts teacher his duty is to protect all students and as you can see, he did so admirably'. Or 'Professor Snape is a very capable wizard and I asked him to watch over you, which he did excellently, regardless of his personal feelings'. But if Dumbledore wanted to be the only puppet master around, if he wanted his two bishops (not pawns) to never trust one another - what he said served exactly that purpose.

His brilliant plot in OOTP is of similar levels of manipulation: He knows Voldemort is after the prophecy. If his goal had been to keep the prophecy from Voldemort what he needed to do was to send someone into the Hall of Prophecies and blast the entire shelf, like the kids did during the battle. But instead he places a watch outside, to convince Voldemort there indeed is something of value inside. So Voldemort remains lying low as long as he believes he might get the prophecy. (Of course there was nothing for Voldemort to gain from hearing it, there was nothing he could have done to undo the mistake of attacking baby Harry.) However he failed to impress upon Harry the threat of his mind connection to Voldmeort to the Order's plans - he left the explanation to Severus, whom Harry doesn't trust, rather than have Remus or Sirius do the explaining, or explain it himself - in a letter.

And we knew he was an emotional cripple when in HBP he encouraged Harry to think that wanting to avenge his parents is an expression of love (no, that is the way to the Dark Side of the Force - Yoda was a much better mentor than Dumbledore), or when he describes Harry as pure-of-heart when Harry had been cursing people without provocation (he cursed Filch, so Dumbledore must have known).

But I at least hoped he had a heart, behind all the Machiavellian stuff. And DH made me doubt he ever had one. As opposed to Severus, who turned out to be mostly heart, with his sarcasm and wit as a protective shell.

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Percy:

Why would Percy *not* think Dumbledore would lie and manipulate Harry to lie about Voldmeort's return? Dumbledore had been bossing the Ministry about since the first war (while refusing to take responsibility by becoming Minister himself), he used Ministry employees for his private army, which created at least the potential for conflict of interest for them. Over the last few years mysterious things were happening at Hogwarts that impacted the safety of students, yet the Ministry was not being properly appraised of them. And over the last 2-3 years Dumbledore's hold on the Ministry had been slipping constantly. So why not create a crisis to make the Ministry beg Dumbledore to once more tell them what to do? But this time the Ministry was having nothing of it. It makes a lot of sense if you look at things from the Ministry's POV. How would Percy know the things said about Harry were untrue? There was a grain of truth in each one of them. Harry was a Parselmouth. Harry was befriending members of races the wizarding world holds in suspicion. He did have a strange fit in Divination. And yes, Harry does appear as seeking attention, whether he intends it or not.

Percy's letter to Ron was written out of honest concern, because Percy believed Harry and Dumbledore were bad news. We know Percy cared for his youngest siblings: He was proud of Ron for beating Minerva's chess set, he was the only one who tried to help Ginny in COS (he failed because he had no idea what her problem was, but he made an effort in a way that made sense) and the supposedly stuck up dignified Percy ran into the lake to help Ron out.

Percy did not know the truth about Sirius because Ron was not allowed to tell the family. Notice how Molly reacts in the hospital wing when Sirius reverts to human form. And since he was escaping from the law only Order members, Weasley children, Hermione and Harry were allowed to know his story. No way Dumbledore would allow the Weasleys to tell Percy before Percy made a commitment to the Order.

Regarding Crouch's absence - it was no secret. Do you think nobody noticed he was not in his office? Everyone he normally interacted with would have known he was home, supposedly on vacation. If people who knew him much longer than Percy did didn't suspect anything was wrong why on earth was Percy expected to know any better?

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Sorry, I don't see in your examples evidence that Ernie was more than an acquaintance, and later a comrade, of Harry and Ron.

The view that it was exceptional for Hufflepuff to have much glory comes from the Gryffindor glory seekers. Hufflepuff House values togetherness over individual success. They move at the pace of their slowest member, but all of them finish the race. Had Harry and his friends been Hufflepuffs Hermione would have made sure not to raise her hand in class more than the typical student of her House (even if she knew the answers). The Triwizard Tournament is unusual in that a group effort supports one contestant. Why didn't Hermione find the bubble-head Charm? because the Hufflepuffs did their research earlier (and kept the books away from Harry, whom they believed to be a cheater).

(Regarding house preference, I disagree there was a general consensus, each House had people knocking on its doors, based on family tradition, upbringing and how they perceived themselves. I don't believe everyone outside Slytherin has Gryffindor-envy. We only hear the views of 5-6 people about Sorting, neither of which ended up in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff.)

Luna - I never said she was ostracized for being intelligent, I said she was the most prominent Ravenclaw, but her ostracism by her Housemates makes her inappropriate as a representative of her House. In a way she was ostracized for being an improper Ravenclaw. As one who self-identifies as a Ravenclaw I do not feel my House receives justice by having its more typical members hidden in the background.