Snape's height

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 171804

I realize that this topic is less than earth-shaking, but I can't bear
to speculate wildly at this point. Several posters have wondered
whether Snape is actually short. I would say no, simply because JKR
never actually applies that adjective to him. If shortness were one of
his defining characteristics, she would routinely use it in his
descriptions. Instead we have curtains of shoulder-length black hair,
sometimes described as greasy, a sallow complexion (occasionally
described as pallid or pale), black eyes, and a large hooked nose
(along with a thin mouth and long fingers, secondary characteristics
that have been mentioned more than once). His voice--cold or silky or
dangerously soft--and his facial expressions (inscrutable,
calculating, or furious, for example) are important. His height is not.

Flitwick, Dedalus Diggle, and the Creevey brothers are always
described as "tiny." Wormtail is always described as "short" (slightly
taller than thirteen-year-old Harry and fourteen-year-old Hermione but
evidently shorter than fourteen-year-old Ron in PoA, so perhaps 5'5"
or 5'6"?????). Harry, too, is described as short (and thin). Snape is
described as "thin" on several occasions, but never as short. Granted,
he's described as shorter than Sirius Black in OoP, but Black is
described as tall in PoA. To be shorter than a tall person is not the
same as being short. He appears to be taller than Harry as late as the
Occlumency lessons in OoP (at any rate, Harry finds his presence
threatening, as I doubt he would do if Snape were as short as
Pettigrew, even given those penetrating looks). He looks "down" into
Narcissa's face in HBP, and she is described as "tall" in GoF (at the
QWC).

IIRC, the only male characters (other than Hagrid) whom JKR describes
as "tall" are Dumbledore, Karkaroff, Ron, and Voldemort/Riddle. The
male characters she describes as "short" (or "tiny") have already been
listed. Since neither adjective is ever used in relation to the
frequently described Snape, I conclude that he's of average height for
a thirty-something man, rather thin but evidently in good physical
condition considering his long run from the astronomy tower all the
way to the gate in HBP, after which he parries all of Harry's curses.
(No doubt he stayed in shape by climbing all those stairs every day
and prowling the corridors at night. Never again, alas!)

Carol, realizing that Snape's allegiances are much more crucial than
his height but nevertheless determined to visualize him as about 5'10"
(her own height) until informed otherwise