Snape and the faculty, foe glass, Vampire fluff

[Porphyria]

No: HPFGUIDX 35634

Nancy wrote:
>   Lockhart may not be popular with the teachers but then again, neither 
> is Snape, as far as I can see, he's not too kind to the other teachers 
> (re: his treatment of Quirrel and Lupin).

What evidence is there that Snape isn't popular amongst the other 
teachers? Snape has very specific reasons for hating Quirrell and Lupin 
(and Lockhart); I don't think we can assume this implies some type of 
overall hostility between Snape and the rest of the faculty in general. 
Profs Sprout, Flitwick and McGonagall all seemed to thoroughly 
appreciate Snape's menacing of Lockhart at the end of CoS; the faculty 
apart from Lockhart was functioning as a unit here. Snape and McGonagall 
have a pointed rivalry over their respective Quidditch teams, but this 
too can be interpreted as a sign of affection between them. I've always 
imagined these two respect each other well enough; they certainly never 
speak ill of each other, and as Dumbledore's left and right hand people, 
they are partners. I suspect that the other faculty members normally 
afford Snape the respect his position deserves as a matter of 
professionalism (if they didn't, we'd probably hear about it). I think 
this accounts for the very least of the reasons that Hagrid sticks up 
for Snape. Also, is Snape ever disrespectful to Hagrid? You imply that 
he is, but I don't remember it.

> Or we could try my other theory: that Snape is part Vampire and Hagrid, 
> because of his own past, is sticking up for him?

I suspect that if Hagrid is keeping one of Snape's secrets, it's 
probably the one we already know about by GoF, that he was a DE, and a 
spy -- that and it's ramifications, which we don't entirely know yet. In 
PS/SS, Hagrid, in defending Snape, glosses over responding to Harry's 
accusation that Snape hates him. This implies that Hagrid probably does 
know a lot about Snape that he isn't telling,  but that it's something 
of a different nature than vampirism, something having more to do with 
Harry or his parents directly, and probably how that ties in with 
Snape's position in the DEs or his experience as a spy.

I admit that JKR likes the social prejudice theme, and uses it again and 
again. We know that house elves are people too, werewolves are people 
too and half-giants are people too. But Snape already has a problem 
along these lines. Although it's a little confusing as to who exactly 
knows that Snape had really been a DE (like those 200 wizards in the 
Pensieve seem to know), I think  we can assume that it's not common 
knowledge. Snape is pretty edgy all through GoF about not letting either 
Karkaroff or "Moody" say anything that will reveal this fact to random 
onlookers. Plus I think we can take Sirius at his word when he says he's 
never heard anything about Snape being a DE (Sirius has evidently 
researched this topic during his vacation) and that he thinks it would 
be inconceivable that Dumbledore would hire an ex-DE as a professor. My 
reading of this was that Sirius's incredulity at this idea probably 
reflects what the average parent would think; wouldn't Dumbledore be 
bombarded with owls about Snape if every parent knew that he used to be 
a DE?

My point here is that I'd find it rather redundant and heavy-handed 
writing if Snape turns out to be a vampire. He already has enough 
problems with his dark past and with people being prejudiced against him 
for it (like both the fake and real Moodys). I'd find it artistically 
unbalanced if vampirism was heaped on top of what already looks to be a 
teetering pile of issues. And furthermore he's one of the most *human* 
characters that JKR has developed; I'd hate to think that his nastiness 
could somehow be "explained" by vampirism. That's too much of a 
simplification; he's nasty because he's human.

Plus I really don't get the point of why a character would turn out to 
be a vampire when they don't exhibit *any* of the stereotypical symptoms 
of it. Snape bleeds -- profusely, he eats in public, goes out in 
daylight, bursts through doorways uninvited; it is implied that he 
sleeps, has no fear of garlic and there is no evidence that Hogwarts 
students occasionally find themselves suffering from unexplained anemia 
and puncture wounds to the neck. I agree that we don't seem to know 
exactly how JKR construes vampirism, but if she even wants to deal with 
it at all then she must ascribe to it some symptoms which distinguish it 
from normal wizardy. If Snape is a vampire, or part-vampire, or 
'treated' vampire, then it *virtually doesn't matter* -- even the 
'treated' Lupin still got sick every month, had a morbid fear of the 
moon, and still transformed accidentally. There's no evidence that Snape 
has even residual vampire problems. I guess I'm saying I don't see how 
this would fit in thematically; if the point is to give Snape more angst 
and vulnerablity towards prejudice, I'd say he already has enough to 
hold him in his human interactions.

I wanted to mention the foe-glass. Filo-roll has just pointed out:
> I have a thing about the Foe Glass in Moody/Couch's office. 
> There was some suggestion that Snape is not a vampire because he
> could see himself in the Foe Glass.  The thing is, the Foe Glass is
> not a mirror.

Exactly, the foe glass is *neither here nor there* in terms of vampire 
evidence. Since some other people were wondering why Snape seems to be 
so taken with his reflection here, as if he'd never seen it before, I 
wanted to offer an alternative interpretation for his reaction to it.

Snape has been having more that a few identity crisis problems 
throughout GoF, in the essentialism vs. existentialism category. He has, 
for the last 15 years or so, _acted_ in the service of good, he's _done 
good things_ (risked his life to spy, protected Harry over and over, 
remained loyal to Dumbledore). So this means that he's Good because he 
acts that way. But then this damn scar, this insignia which brands him 
as being essentially Evil reappears, and even though he knows better it 
bothers him. A lot. He's stained, as the fake!Moody implies, and he 
shudders convulsively at the mere thought. Plus "Moody" himself accuses 
Snape of being untrustworthy, that is, of being a 'foe' of Dumbledore's. 
So with his past catching up with him at every step (when Moody isn't 
dogging his heels Karkaroff is), Snape has a lot of identity issues to 
be anxious about.

So when Snape finally walks into "Moody's" office and looks to this 
mirror and sees, metaphorically, a reflection of his own 'self,' it 
probably took him several seconds to ponder the immense irony of the 
situation. The mirror reveals him to be a 'foe' of "Moody" not because 
he's Evil, but precisely because he's Good. "Moody" is really the one 
whom Dumbledore is mistaken to trust, not Snape. He probably found it 
therapeutic to let this all sink in. It's actually a very touching 
scene. And I'll be ripped if it has anything to do with vampires. ;-)

Sorry if I'm prickly about the vampire thing; it's sort of a pet peeve 
and also it's early in the morning, for me, in this time zone.

~~Porphyria, who could use some coffee.



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