There are a lot of people who hated Snape and are now all teary Snily shippers. I don't think that applies

No; I liked Snape and am now a teary Snily shipper. ;)

I didn't ship anyone at all until actually getting into fandom, and that mainly because that's how content is organized (considering fandom as a giant filesystem), it seems, primarily by people's favourite characters and ships.

And you have a life outside of fandom?

I do? Where? Did you see which way it went? Did you get its license number?