A BIAS in the Pensieve: A Batty Idea About Snape

[mooseming]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "nkafkafi" <nkafkafi at y...> 
wrote:
> > Neri:
> I was of course only stating my opinion when I talked about "worthy
> reason". But it seems that many members here and in HPfGU don't
> believe the vampire thing even in the strictly metaphorical sense.
> Actually, only two weeks or so ago there was a fun pole in the OTC
> list of HPfGU that included also the question "is Snape a 
vampire?" I
> think that out of 20 or 30 people who answered it, only Pippin and
> myself answered something other than a firm "no". So, as someone 
who
> thinks that there actually MIGHT be something in the vampire 
thing, I
> was trying to put my finger on why many people don't like this
> speculation. 
> 
> Neri

I come from the `Snape is not a vampire' camp because I believe that 
the idea is tired and lazy, if it were true then JKR would be a less 
satisfactory author for me and I don't want to be disappointed. 
We've seen unregistered animagi, mixed blood prejudice, hidden mixed 
blood etc possibly more than enough, I really would be unhappy to 
see it as Snape's secret. To be honest I've skipped most vamp Snape 
posts because they tend to fall into the entrenched `oh yes he 
is`, `oh no he isn't' exchanges. Also I'm not overly keen on the 
whole vamp mythology, it has never really spoken to me (this from a 
huge Buffy fan btw!).

And yet 
 the posts here have been so compelling I've revisited my 
position. The problem I have is, as I say, that its unoriginal given 
the rest of the series, so I started contemplating how JKR could 
make it different and interesting.

Take that interview response:

Is Snape a vampire?
Erm, I don't think so

Could the rest of the answer be `but if he *chose* to be he could 
be`.

In keeping with vamp mythology to become a vamp you have to drink 
your sire's blood, in other words you have to opt to be a vamp or a 
victim. Now that is consistent with HP themes, the theme in fact. 
Haggrid and Lupin have no choice regarding their heritage but vamp!
Snape might have actually sought out vamp power. This would give him 
a parallel to Voldy's immortality quest. More grist to the mill. 
Young Snape may have made a very poor decision which he regrets and 
that haunts him still. Perhaps he's not safe yet. If Snape is 
keeping his vampirism at bay by force of will, not giving into 
temptation  or similar, he'd certainly have an excuse for being 
cranky! No sympathy with Harry's `I can't' response to occlumency 
whatsoever, Harry hasn't got a clue about the battle Snape has to 
undergo daily. He'd view Lupin with both pity and envy. Pity because 
Lupin has lost the battle, envy because the struggle is over and 
he's blameless. If taking bat form threatens his control over his 
latent vampirism then DD's request would be a great one indeed. 
Plenty of room for the reader and Harry to doubt Snape's true 
identity, plenty of room for Snape to become a traitor (to himself 
as well as others), JKR can play this one to the wire.

Yes, I'm definitely beginning to see how this could work 


Regards
Jo