QUOTE : Now that Snape is separated from Harry, he is no longer ugly. His face is described as “thin” in this book, rather than hook-nosed and sneering. (HP/DH, 597) It is partly that we are not seeing him through Harry’s eyes and partly that he no longer has the irritation of Harry’s presence in his classroom to provoke him to ugly behavior. But mostly, Snape is no longer ugly because he is doing the kind of life-or-death work that transforms his appearance from ugly to stark. No one but the Dark Lord has power over him. Everyone else sees the authority and forbidding intelligence that emanates from him throughout this sleepless year.