A BIAS in the Pensieve: A Batty Idea About Snape

[nkafkafi]

Combining answers to several posts:

Pippin wrote in #1294:
Statistical analysis is all Geek to me, but aren't you all ignoring
the possibility that Umbridge is more than metaphorically a hag?
The PoA video game chocolate frog cards inform us that hags
have been known to masquerade as witches, and Umbridge
does have those pointed teeth. Perhaps Dumbledore was able
to rescue her from the centaurs by revealing that she wasn't
actually a human after all.

Neri:
Pippin, I suspect that this kind of argument doesn't help the vampire 
theory with many members. You know, one feels that SOME Hogwarts 
teachers should be just plain all-human wizards.

Neri wrote previously:
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.

Pippin answered:
Because it makes Snape's coldness natural to him, which I am
afraid tramples the dearest fantasies of those who would like to
think that if only some warm-hearted witch -- too insightful to be
deluded by appearances-- had offered him affection, he might
not be what he is. Eurgh! Gimme vampires any day.

Neri now:
I don't pretend to understand anything about fandom sociology, but 
aren't vampires supposed to be sexy and fashionable? I'd think that 
many fans' dearest fantasies would actually go very well with vampire!
Snape. Especially when we know so little about Potterverse vampires, 
so each of us can, in his/her fantasy, set the temperature of Snape's 
coldness to the level that he/she likes.

Pippin:
As for connecting vampires to the main plot, I direct you to this
quote:

He disappeared after leaving the school...travelled far and
wide...consorted with the very worst of our kind,underwent so
many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he
resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognisable."
--CoS ch17

We know that some of those transformations were directed at
achieving immortality and that vampires are considered
"undead", commonly live (or exist?) for spans of several hundred
years (both PoA choc frog cards), and are notoriously hard to kill
(GoF). So it's hardly far-fetched to think that some of LV's
experiments were vampire-related. It's also been hinted that
those experiments will have to be reversed if LV is to die.


Jo explored a similar idea (#1289):
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 


And Kneasy (#1296):
Associated with vampires, then. Could be, could be - though maybe not
in the way you mean. IMO the best fit for a vampire in HP is Voldy.


Neri:
Yes, I tend to agree with this direction of thinking. It's Voldy who 
is the honcho vampire, and Snape got himself involved in this and is 
now trapped, but he's also resisting it, and he might be using it in 
order to spy on Voldy. My only problem with this is that we already 
have some intriguing clues about Voldy's dark connection with Snape: 
the Dark Mark, pronouncing Voldy's name, Occlumency, possession, the 
Unforgivables, the Malfoy connection and so on, but most of it 
doesn't seem very vampire related. And remember that the dementors 
also have some vampire-like characteristics, but they still seem to 
be something different than Potterverse vampires. So I see three 
options here:


1) A theory that Voldy made himself a master vampire and the DEs, 
including Snape, are junior vampires. In such a theory we need to 
explain how all the Voldy/DEs elements above fit into the vampire 
mythology.

2) A theory in which Snape was after similar goals as Voldy, but he 
chose to become a vampire to achieve them, while Voldy used a 
different way.

3) Assume that this "Voldy is the master vampire who initiated Snape" 
is true, but strictly in a metaphorical sense. JKR is using the 
common myth of vampires as one of several sources of inspiration, but 
she's developing it in her own very special way, as the connection 
between Voldy and the DEs, which actually no direct connection with 
Potterverse vampires.

Personally I think the third option would allow JKR the most freedom, 
and prevent any complicated duplicity between vampire immortality and 
non-vampire immortality. To me it feels like JKR's style, to be 
influenced but not to conform to any common mythology in her central 
plot and themes.

Neri