Oo, I like your tricksy Godric vs tricksy Goblin theory.

I got the feeling from the memories that Snape actually *had* started to care about Harry. Tried to refute that, sure, with his Only-Lily-Patronus, but his arguments, there was something there.

Snape as Harry's actual father woulda been *fun*. If really, really tragic. I've read something like that, somewhere, and it was pretty neat (although based on older canon, like after OotP or something).