Why Snape doesn't have to be human

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 107574

Alla: "By the way, after her answer, I don't really believe that he is
a vampire, although I could never figure out why people are so
strongly opposed to that theory."

I can only answer for me.

I have a more conservative approach to "theories" - they're really
hypotheses - than some people do.  When I come up with a speculation,
I try to find reasons to knock it down, not build it up.  A lot of
people hang very large theories on very tiny snippets of text.  We try
to wring too much meaning out of too few words.  IOW, I believe in
being very tough on proving any kind of theory that makes a big
difference in the story.

There's other tools to interpret the canon.  I don't think we spend
enough time getting under the characters' skins.  JKR is strongly
character driven and if you know the characters you can make
reasonable guesses how they'll act.

We don't use our own life experience or knowledge enough, either.  I
read and post on a newsgroup, alt.support.shyness.  There's a lot of
people there full enough of dark, bitter rage it would take your
breath away; and a lot of them sound like Snape.  Since then, JKR has
said there's something sad and lonely about Snape.

Another way to use your knowledge is to ask, "If this was my problem,
how would I solve it?"  I once wondered what would happen if one of my
daughters got a Hogwarts letter - how could they get me to believe it?
 If I was Headmaster, I'd send the Muggle parents of Hogwarts students
over to the new family to help them get over the shock. {I wrote a fic
about it.]  Later, JKR said in an interview that people come to the
Muggle parents' house and explain everything.

It's also possible to look at other literature and test it against
JKR.  The Laws of Magic come to mind - does JKR follow them? Does she
know about them?  We don't know.  We know that JKR uses folklore, the
classics, and literature, so we can, too, and see if it fits.

This is not meant to offend anyone, or to brag, either, but there's
dozens and dozens and dozens of theories that have gone through the
Theory Veil, never to be seen again, including one in particular that
was promoted as blindingly obvious, with amused scorn for those who
didn't "get it."

OTOH, I believe it's perfectly okay to speculate on something and say
upfront there's no proof.  We can all start looking for proof or
rebuttal.  An example is the Umbridge-as-hag idea.  Her outre
appearance and pointed teeth are interesting.  If we don't see her
again, we'll just have to wonder.

To get to the Snape-as-vampire theories, and again no offense meant,
the adherents have relied on very small clues while explaining away in
different ways very large objections, including something JKR said,
which we are told isn't what it sounds like.

JKR doesn't work that way. She plays fair in the literary sense. The
clues that Lupin was a werewolf were much larger.

I almost didn't post this, but we're all grownups, and we can debate
how we go about exploring these great stories. NO ONE is singled out
here, believe me.  Let this be like Valhalla, where we fight all day
and hoist a few at night.

Jim Ferer