Returning to the question: Is Snape a vampire/half-vampire?

[ratalman]

No: HPFGUIDX 74948

Returning to the question: Is Snape a vampire/half-vampire?  On 
a whim I did a search on Google, typing in "bat greasy".  To my 
surprise, a couple of web sites containing factual information 
about bats included references to some bats having fur that is 
greasy to the touch 
(http://www.ku.edu/~mammals/nyctic-macr.html).  Another site 
said:  "There will often be dark, greasy smudge marks on the 
wall just below the region where the bats are entering and 
leaving the building." 
(http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/naturalresources/DD
1141.html).  Hmmm, could this be an explanation of why Snape 
is so commonly described as having greasy hair?  I've often 
suspected that Snape changes into bat-form for his spying 
activities on LV and the DEs.

I think we get another clue in the pensieve scene in "Snape's 
Worst Memory."  Snape may have made use of a heightened 
sense of hearing (a characteristic of vampires?), that he was 
about to be attacked by Sirius and James.   (Whether you buy 
that premise or not, I think that it can at least be argued that 
Snape was hanging around the MWPP to listen in on their 
doings, in an effort to gather evidence against them, or for 
whatever reason.  By the time of the Pensieve scene, I think that 
Snape already knew alot about the four marauders, including 
their nicknames; he heard them being used by MWPP 
themselves (as could anyone else who happened to be 
standing nearby).  I will return to this point in a bit, about the 
scene in PoA where Snape discovers that Harry has the 
Marauders Map.)

During the O.W.L. DADA exam, Snape was sitting some rows 
behind MWPP.  Harry tells us as much.  After the exam was 
finished, MWPP filed out of the Great Hall, conversing about the 
werewolf question, and calling each other by name.  They 
headed for the lake.  "Snape followed, still poring over the paper 
and apparently with no fixed idea of where he was going." (OoP, 
p. 644, American ed.)  MWPP settled down under the beech tree, 
Snape sat in the shadows of some bushes, still engrossed in 
the exam paper, Harry somewhere between them.  Was Snape 
really absorbed in the exam paper, or using it as a cover for 
some eavesdropping on MWPP?  Then James noticed Snape 
sitting nearby.  I think that Snape overheard that Sirius was 
getting bored, and heard James alerting Sirius to Snape's 
presence.  Accordingly Snape got to his feet, and was making 
ready for a get-away or to defend himself, IMHO:

    "This'll liven you up, Padfoot," said James quietly.  "Look who
it 
is...."
    Sirius' head turned.  He had become very still, like a dog that 
has scented a rabbit.
    "Excellent," he said softly.  "Snivellus."
    Harry turned to see what Sirius was looking at.
    Snape was on his feet again, and was stowing the OWL paper 
in his bag.  As he ermerged from the shadows of the bushes 
andset off across the grass, Sirius and James stood up.  Lupin 
and Wormtail remained sitting:  Lupin was still staring down at 
his book, though his eyes were not moving and a faint frown line 
had appeared between his eyebrows.  Wormtail was looking 
from Sirius and James to Snape with a look of avid anticipation 
on his face.
    "All right, Snivellus?" said James loudly.
    Snape reacted so fast it was as though he had been expected 
at attack:  Dropping his bag, he plunged his hand inside his 
robes, and his wand was halfway into the air when James 
shouted,"Expelliarmus!" (OoP, pp 645-6)

During the Snitch episode, Lupin had taken out a book to study 
for the Transfiguration exam, apparently ignoring the goings-on.  
When he realised that James and Sirius were about to take on 
Snape, he pretended to be engrossed in his book, as he did 
throughout the exchange between James, Lily, Sirius and 
Snape.  Clearly he was not really reading.  (Just like Snape?)

Then there is the fact that James and Sirius turned Snape 
upside down, bat-style, as others have noted.

Now, back to PoA.  I don't have that book in front of me, but when 
Snape sees the names of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and 
Prongs, he immediately calls for Lupin.  On my first read 
through PoA, I didn't think that Snape knew who those people 
were; Lupin apparently doesn't think that Snape knows either.  
But in retrospect, after OoP, it is clear to me that Snape did know 
who those names referred to, and that is why he asked Lupin to 
come.  And the final vampire-ish bit is that comment that other 
people have noted, when Lupin says that he needs to have a 
word with Harry about the Vampire essay, in payback for Snape's 
essay on Werewolves.

Tying these bits together the myriad references to bats 
throughout the books, and that others have cited in previous 
posts, I think that the evidence is mounting that Snape is a 
Vampire/half-vampire, whatever that means in JKR's magical 
world.

Robyn