[HPforGrownups] Snape, was Re: Class origins

[Margaret Dean]

No: HPFGUIDX 29477

lotusmoondragon at aol.com wrote:
 
> I think a more plausable theory is that Snape is half vampire
> (even though in most vampire mythos, vampires can't breed).
> Perhaps his father as a vampire, and he ran out on Snape and his
> mom. It could be why he wants to be the DADA teacher so badly -
> he could be very bitter towards his vampire father, and thus
> be bitter towards all dark creatures.

Ooh!  Though I don't at all subscribe to the theory that Snape is
a vampire, I did a =lot= of reading about vampire lore in my
younger years, and in some of the more obscure legends, vampires
do indeed sometimes crossbreed with humans.  The crossbreed is
called a "dhampir" and possesses the innate ability to =detect=
vampires.  Thus the offspring very often turns out to be the
vampire parent's nemesis.  I could see Our Severus in that role,
I really could.

Pippin wrote:

> I'd say that Snape is from the lower end of the scale, judging by 
> the poor condition of his teeth and the way his polished manner 
> of speech disappears when he's agitated.

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Snape's background, as
would befit his complex character, was decidedly "mixed."  I can
see him being born into a large, rather chaotic family of
wrong-side-of-the-tracks wizards, probably with Dark leanings --
never getting much attention or affection and having to fight
tooth and nail for what he did get.  Then perhaps, when he got
old enough that his intellect would begin to show, he's picked
out of the mob by an elderly male relative who is a bit more
high-class -- a grandfather, uncle, great-uncle . . . dare one
suggest a godfather? -- taken into his household and whipped into
shape as a proper Dark Wizard, rather on the Malfoy model but
more scholarly and austere.  Still not much real affection, but
personal attention: Knowledge, Rule, Order, learn your lessons
well, Severus, and one day you will be of the Wizard Elite that
will Rule The World.

Then he comes to Hogwarts, and we know something of what happens
next . . .  May have been a fierce battle of loyalties, at some
point, between Grandpapa and Dumbledore.


--Margaret Dean
  <margdean at erols.com>