The real vampire

[nyarth_meow]

No: HPFGUIDX 36078

Amy  Z quoted
> > passage from PA 3:
> > 
> > "Harry looked into the shadowed eyes of Sirius Black, the only 
part of the
> > sunken face that seemed alive.  Harry had never met a vampire, 
but he had
> > seen pictures of them in his Defense Against the Dark Arts 
classes, and
> > Black, with his waxy white skin, looked just like one."
> > 
 
I noticed this, but chose to ignore it, as it doesn't fit in with my 
pet theory!  (Oh come on now, the best of us do it!)  Maybe Rowling 
is throwing us a red herring?  Or perhaps the Snape/Vampire 
references are the red herrings?  This could get confusing!


Adhara says:

>Vampires are obliged to sleep during the day which
would interfere with a school timetable. Snape
couldn't manage that.

Think how often we've seen Snape prowling round the castle at night, 
though.  Indeed, Harry can barely venture out of his room after 
lights out without running into the Potions Master.  He does seem to 
have rather nocturnal habits.  
As for vampires being obliged to sleep during the day, vampires are 
so variously used and represented in global folklore, there's really 
no one thing you can say is true to all vampires.  Our western ideas 
are influenced by Bram Stoker's Dracula, but if I recall, didn't 
Dracula venture out in the light sometimes?   
My theory is that Snape does seem to have some vampire 
characteristics, but his ability to move around in daylight, eat food 
and not drink the blood of his students could be explained by the 
half-vampire theory.  We've had a half-giant, afterall.   

There is a precedent in folklore for part vampires.  In Eastern 
European traditions, they are called dhampirs or dhamphirs, and they 
are the result of a rape of a human woman by a male vampire.
Traditionally, dhampir have no overtly vampire characteristics, but 
they do have the abilty to "see" invisible vampires.  For this 
reason, they were often vampire hunters.  
They would ride into your village, see your invisible vampires, kill 
your invisible vampires, charge you an extortionate amount of money 
and ride out.
Admittedly, this smacks more of Gilderoy Lockhart than Snape, but 
such things as part-vampires do exist.  JKR also admits she twists 
folklore to her own ends sometimes.

make of it what you will!

-Nyarth