[HPforGrownups] Half Vampire? (was: Vampire!Snape)

[Wendy St John]

No: HPFGUIDX 77131


I wrote:

Why Half-Vampire? Because I like to think he was born that way, and was
already vampiric as a Hogwarts' student. But in canon, we've seen him 
age,
so he couldn't have been just a pure vampire, or his age would remain
static (unless JKR decides to play with that, which could very well be 
the
case - more on this in a bit).

To which Kneasy responded:

This stirred  my somewhat perverted imagination in a delicate  
direction.

How does one ...umm...produce a half vampire? The ..ah.. mechanics of 
it intrigue me.

How is it done? I think we should be told."


Now me again (Wendy):

I think you may have been joking when you asked this, Kneasy, but you know
what they say about being careful what you wish for. <g> I'm going to
answer this, as I've actually given it rather a lot of thought. Sad but
true. ;-)

As to the mechanics, I say it happens the same way it happens with humans.
Just because some vampire myths don't allow vampires to be fertile (or even
have intercourse) doesn't mean that Potterverse vampires can't. Some
vampire myths allow a male vampire to be fertile one night a year, but I
tend to think that JKR might very well allow her vampires to be capable of
reproducing all the time. And this really isn't a stretch at all, actually,
considering that we already have canon for human/non-human relationships.
Humans can breed with giants and veela (maybe there are others, but those
are the two that come to mind). So I don't think it's outlandish at all to
think that humans and vampires could reproduce in the Potterverse. 

You joked about an impervious neckguard, but there's no need for that.
Let's say that a human and a vampire have fallen in love. Why couldn't this
human voluntarily allow her (or his) vampire lover to feed on her/his
blood? In fact, OoP gives us a lovely bit of canon to make this plausible:
the blood replenishing draught. Every time Mr. V gets hungry, he has a
little snack courtesy of Mrs. V, after which she takes a swig of the
potion, and she's good as new. There's literary precedent for this sort of
thing, it's been done before. No reason to assume that anyone bitten once
is doomed to become a vampire afterwards. (Although, I do like to think
that at some time after Snape was born, daddy dearest might very well have
done the deed to mommy Snape, and she's a vampire too, now. Or dead. I
don't think he was a nice guy at all). So maybe our beloved Potions Master
has a blood donor hidden away somewhere, which is why he's not running
around attacking the students. ;-)

So, it is possible? Absolutely. As I said (rather strongly) in my other
post, there is no "one true vampire myth" to which JKR must adhere. If she
wants half-vampires, she can write them. And I don't think it's even a big
stretch, given what we already know about the Potterverse. That doesn't
mean she will deifinitely go this route with her vampires. Maybe she will,
maybe not. But she hasn't yet written anything to rule it out as being
possible. I know there are people out there who will think, "But what's the
point of a half-vampire?" or whatever, and these people just hate the idea,
think it's stupid or contrived or pointless or whatever. And that's
absolutely fine! Those are all perfectly valid arguments as to why they
don't choose to read Snape as a vampire. It's not for everyone. I gave my
reasons why I like it. And I love reading the reasons others have posted
about why they don't like it. As long as those arguments are valid, and
don't hinge on, "well vampires can't have sex, because Rice's didn't," or
"vampires can't go out in the daytime, and Snape does." It's JKR's world,
and she gets to make up the rules. In cases where there aren't specific
rules in canon, there's no reason we can go in and make up our own for the
time being. Eventually, they'll all either be proven, disproven, or left
open for us to speculate eternally. I'm not trying to convert anyone to
belive in HalfVampire!Snape. I'm just saying it's how I prefer to read the
canon because I think it's fun. You don't have to agree with me. Just so
long as you don't say I'm obviously wrong about it, because fact is JKR
just hasn't given us enough information one way or the other to prove or
disprove this theory.  

Hope this helps!
Wendy