[HPforGrownups] Snape eating or not eating

[Robert A. Rosenberg]

No: HPFGUIDX 69093

At 21:46 -0700 on 07/08/2003, Jean Lamb wrote about Re: 
[HPforGrownups] Snape eating or not eating:

>We are told that Snape is never seen eating (at least by Harry) at 12
>Grimmauld Place. There are several possible reasons for this:
>
>1) The vampire or part/vampire hypothesis. I lean towards part/vampire,
>myself--it would have been difficult for him to conceal it while young and a
>student at Hogwarts, and at least two Gryffindors would have found
>themselves with severe iron deficiency soon after the Worst Memory incident
>(at least Black would have following the Prank). One can theorize that a
>part vampire may never know it if they never consume human blood--but if
>Voldemort knew of Snape's ancestry and wanted to turn him, this could have
>been arranged. Once Voldemort was 'dead', Snape might not have needed blood
>on a regular basis, or simply taken his beefsteak _very_ rare. But once
>Voldemort arose again, Snape might have felt a certain amount of hunger for
>blood once more. (This could lead to him teaching Potions _after_ a
>good&juicy death scene. Given how far north Hogwarts is compared to say,
>most of the States, this could be managed with late afternoon/early evening
>classes).

The above comment about "late afternoon/early evening classes" (which 
I assume is a reference to classes being held after sunset when a 
vampire is out of his/her coffin) is a misconception triggered by 
Hollywood. If you go to "The Source" (Stoker's "Dracula" or 
Saberhagen's "Dracula Tape" [a Retelling of Stoker from Dracula's 
Viewpoint - More about which is in the reply below]) you will find 
that there is no requirement for a Vampire to be a "Day Sleeper" or 
be inactive during the Day Hours. In fact the "Sunlight is Deadly to 
a Vampire" business is a 100% Hollywood invention. Stoker's Dracula 
is shown to be active and visiting London Zoo at High Noon in the 
book. The major things that occur at Sunrise is that the Vampire 
loses his/her Shapeshifting Powers (ending up locked into the form 
that existed at Sunrise until the next Sunset), loses much of the 
Superhuman/Supernatural Strength, and (as a consequence of the lost 
of shapeshifting ability) is now subject to wounds inflicted by 
metallic weapons in addition to the standard wooden ones [ie: The 
Classic Wooden Stake]). There may be some other reductions in 
powers/abilities that I've missed but these are be big ones.

As to part/vampire hypothesis (which I assume means he is a 
Dampyre[sp?] [ie: The result of a Vampire/Human Liaison where the 
Human Mother either has a sexual relationship with the Male Vampire 
or is bitten while Pregnant]) that has some interesting aspects. I am 
not sure of the all of the characteristics of this type of Human 
Hybrid (not being a reader/viewer of the Blade Series) since the only 
one I've read about is Sherlock Holmes in Saberhagen's "Dracula 
Tapes" sequel "The Holmes/Dracula File" where it is revealed that 
Holmes's Mother had a Liaison with Dracula's Brother prior to 
Holmes's birth thus granting Holmes his strength and agility. There 
is no need for a (this type of?) Dampyre to drink blood since it is 
basically just an enhanced human so the Can Not Eat reasoning in 
relation to Snipe would not apply (The Dampyre is not on a "Liquid 
Diet" like a Vampire is and can thus eat "Solid Food").

BTW: I seem to remember Snipe being described as eating at the Head 
Table in some of the books (especially SS/PS) although I might be 
confused and he is just described as being seated at the table.


Talking about Vampires and our fascination with them, I have this 
point to make:

At 08:47 -0400 on 07/07/2003, Diana Williams wrote about Re: 
[HPforGrownups] MadEye & Malfoy - James & Snape - Every:

>Why are we secretly rooting for Dracula in many of the movies? 
>Because he's much more fascinating than the Good Guys!

As well as being the victim of a slander campaign from Von Helsing 
(check out the Saberhagen "Dracula Tape" which is a tour de force 
since it a 100% faithful retelling of the Stoker Dracula narrated 
from Dracula's viewpoint). Since the Stoker Version is all diaries 
you have to take everyone's story with a grain of salt. If you read 
the story with no preconceptions (or just read the Saberhagen 
version) you will note that Von Helsing is manipulating the others 
since only he has any knowledge of Vampires and thus can say anything 
he wants to get them to help without being contradicted. As an 
example, Von Helsing enters the story when Lucy is "attacked" (ie: 
she was seen with Dracula and afterwards had Puncture Marks) and he 
says that there MUST be a Vampire in the area since she is anemic and 
sleepwalking in addition to having the Puncture Marks on her neck 
(ignoring the fact that she was there on a "rest cure" due to being 
anemic and sleepwalking - long before Dracula even showed up in 
England).

The popularity of Dark Shadows and Forever Knight attest to the 
fascination with the concept of a non threatening Vampire.


--

Bob Rosenberg