Snape a vampire? (was Snape's Patronus)

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 107200

Lily: "When has JKR said flat out that he's not a Vampire? I've only
read a comment where someone asked her if Snape "had any connection
with Vampires," and her response was, "Erm...I don't think so..." This
sounds like she was skirting the issue to me. He can still be a
Vampire without having connections to other Vampires."

"I find the fact that Lupin assigned a Vampire essay right after
Snape's Werewolf essay, AND made sure to mention it to Snape right in
front of Harry, very suspicious. As for Snape being out in daylight,
if he can brew a potion to keep Lupin from transforming during a full
moon, I'm sure that there is something for a Vampire."

Isn't all that a bit tenuous?  If an argument has to take that many
twists and turns and wiggles, its probability gets less and less and
less, doesn't it?  Was Snape that good a potion brewer when he arrived
at Hogwarts at age eleven? If you solve the "daylight problem" with a
potion we've never heard of, we can explain anything, I guess. BTW, I
might be a little squicked if I had to sit next to Snape at the staff
dining table.

I hypothesized once that Snape was a social phobic, formed by his
tense unhappy home life and the torment he underwent at school. Here's
what JKR has said recently about Snape:

"Where as most of the character, like Snape for example, are very hard
to love but there's a sort of ambiguity I think is probably the best
word you can't quite decide, there's something rather sad about Snape
as well, something very lonely..."

People like that become filled with rage, as Snape is.  It's a common
enough life trajectory.  Surf on over to the newsgroup
alt.support.shyness and you'll see pent-up rage to take your breath away.

If Snape's a vampire, it detracts from JKR's wisdom in giving us these
rich characters.  A young reader - and many an adult - can learn
something about people and life observing these characters.  Snape's a
person, a complicated one, a truly nasty so-and-so who's full of
demons, but on the right side.

JKR is character-driven.  Understand her wonderful, amazing
characters, and you understand what's likely to happen.  Tiny little
snippets of text can lead the reader far, far astray.

Jim Ferer