Snape a vampire? (was Snape's Patronus)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 107970

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Phil Boswell" 
<phil_hp7 at y...> wrote:

> 
> Surely he eats something at that Christmas meal where he 
popped a vulture-hat out of a cracker, or Harry and the gang 
would have noticed!<
> 

Vampire threads...they just won't die, will they? If Jo wants to put 
a stake through their heart, she's going to have to do better than  
"Erm...I don't think so." 

She does occasionally give hints that can be interpreted in more 
than one way. The clearest example I can find is this one:

http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/1999/0999-barnesnoble
-staff.htm
====
You've said in interviews that there will be casualties in the Harry 
Potter series. Now, everyone at a web site I visit says someone 
(probably Hagrid) will die in Book 4. Will someone die or is this a 
terrible rumor? I love Hagrid!

It is true that there will be deaths in Book 4 for the first time. It
is likely that the reader will only care about one of the deaths. I
can't say who it is, but I have certainly never told anyone that it's
Hagrid -- hint, hint. 
====

To understand the double meaning, you have to know that  
according to a widespread and fairly credible rumour at the time,  
Jo had told  someone   that Hagrid would die in *Book 5.*  (I can't 
give details cause they're movie related, but you can look them 
up.)  So one might think that Jo was hinting the book 5 rumour 
was true even if the book four rumour wasn't. 



As for Snape's dietary habits:
Jo has carefully explained, and shown us in canon, that the 
Hogwarts House Elves can prepare meals for all dietary 
requirements. Jo has also said little in canon about what 
vampires can or can't eat. We know that they have a taste for 
blood and an aversion to garlic. That's all.  Perhaps Snape 
doesn't eat at Grimmauld Place because telling Molly to hold the 
garlic would make her suspicious?

Pippin