Snape as "half dead"

[linda_mccabe]

No: HPFGUIDX 37255

Rita wrote:


This isn't in response to any particular post, but to the theories 
that someone can be "half vampire" or "half dementor".  From my 
understanding, vampires and dementors are not living things.  
Vampires are dead, no?  How could one be partially dead?  
Could a dead thing mate and cause life within another to make a 
half dead child?  I don't see how this is possible.  Same with the 
dementor concept.

If someone could explain this, please do!

Athena:

When I was in high school I had the assignment to write a ten page 
research paper on any topic.  Of course, being a teenager I had a 
difficult time figuring out what to do it on.  Somehow or another I 
decided to research vampires and werewolves.  I soon found out that 
there was a dearth of information on lycanthropy, but a wealth of 
info on vampires.  I dropped the werewolf subject and concentrated 
solely on vampires.  

I think that JKR is trying to borrow and tweak legends and mythology 
to serve her own needs plotwise - so she I think she'll freely adapt 
things independent of whatever research is done regarding vampire 
legends.  However, since you asked...

There are many, many ways to become a vampire.  Of course the 
easiest way is to be bitten by one.  You do *not* have to be bitten 
three times by one in order to become one yourself.  One bite is 
sufficient and you do not have to die right away.  You might live 
twenty years afterwards and then after you die - boom, it's Undead 
City.  You can also be bitten countless times (maybe little love 
nips with just sips of blood taken?)

You can become a vampire if you are excommunicated or if a vampire 
looks in the direction of your mother while she is pregnant with 
you.  When you die - then you're a vampire.  In Greece, anyone with 
red hair is suspect.  (Only because red hair isn't common there and 
I mean to cast no aspersions toward the Weasleys!)  If a cat jumps 
over your coffin, then this magic will cause you to become a vampire.

The vampire legends are also filled with the erotic element.  It's 
not well hidden when you think about it.  Women are attacked in 
their bedrooms alone at night with a man they had to invite into 
their house.  More than one appetite was satisfied.  So, if a woman 
didn't die from the attack, there could be a child of a vampire 
conceived.  The child wouldn't become a full fledged undead vampire 
until their natural death.

And interestingly enough...when a werewolf is killed, it will rise 
up to become a vampire.  I'm surprised that Hollywood has never 
glommed onto that one as it has Sequel Written All Over It.  So if 
JKR knows that little quirk in legends, if she kills Lupin with the 
silver hand of Wormtail - he can still come back in another book!

Anyway, back to legend and canon.  One ancient Balkan legend had 
vampires having the ability to walk during high noon.  And if Snape 
could attend and sit in the front row of the stands during the 
Quidditch Final in PoA which was under bright sunshine, then he 
might not be a vampire if the "traditional" vampire legends apply.  
JKR might also have made a Special Potion that allows Snape to be in 
direct sunlight for limited periods of time.  If so that would be 
*highly convenient.*

One other thing that would bother me with the thought of Snape being 
a vampire is that vampires being Undead do not age.  From what we've 
read, Snape is the same age as Sirius and Remus.  Surely they'd have 
mentioned something that Severus doesn't look to be in his thirties, 
but rather a decade younger or so - you know when he Died and rose 
as a vampire?

Here's my last thought on this topic, someone earlier had posted 
mentions about Death Eaters and that it was similar to legends 
regarding those who would "eat the sins" of dying people.  That is 
also a belief in the ancient Aztec religion.  They were called Filth 
Eaters.  I'm however wondering if instead, JKR meant to allude to 
Renfield in "Dracula" who thought that if he ate the souls of small 
animals such as flies, spiders, and a big, sleek kitten that had 
been fed the souls of hundreds of flies and spiders that he would 
then become immortal.

If anyone wants to read more on this topic, check out Reverend 
Montague Summers's books, "The Vampire, His Kith and Kin" and "The 
Vampire in Europe."  They were written around 1914 or so and he 
quotes extensively in Latin and Greek, but you'll find information 
there from someone who truly believed that these legends were based 
on historical fact and not fantasy.  All the modern books written 
about vampires pay homage to his research, so I went to the source 
being quoted repeatedly.

Athena