I won’t go so far as to say it’s utter nonsense – just that some “proofs” seem to be reaching while others are more convincing. I particularly like the Snape/werewolf, Lupin/vampire connection…
Vampire mythos have been stretched thousands of times in movies and comics. The original Dracula, Blade, Vampirella and Grandpa Munster could all move about during daylight.
Everything, including except Snapes’s seemingly ordinary orthodontia, could be explained away by his mastery of potions.
It’s possible this confluence of evidence – established and circumstantial – is all just coincidence.
Maybe it was ad-hoc and unplanned until later, when the idea suggested itself to Rowling, and she’s planting these ‘clues’ for later revelations.
But if Snape is a vampire, I wonder why Hermione Granger’s never tumbled on to that fact?
Vampires from Hellsing can take small amounts of daylight, and Alucard sure likes his dungeons… OK OK that’s irrelevant.
What if she has, and she’s just not telling anybody? After all, look what happened to Lupin and Hagrid (in book 4). She doesn’t like Snape but she does realize his importance to the Order, and she doesn’t like people getting picked on because of their origin.
She might tell Harry or Ron, but then again didn’t Ron get pretty freaked over Hagrid himself?
Then again it seems very un-Rowling to have Hermione know it and conceal it until a whole new book or books go by.
The “nape” thing is pretty ridiculous, and it’s true that in the books he lacks sex appeal (for most people anyway) And that “eating dinner” thing has me thinking the whole thing has about the same significance as playing Dark Side of the Moon while watching The Wizard of Oz.
One final note though… I know that by “ordinary orthodontia” you mean that Snape doesn’t have fangs, but doesn’t he in fact have something wrong with his teeth? I don’t have a cite for that though.
Just one opinion. Because it’s only opinion it’s fair game:
I’ve always thought the JKR reference to Snape lived in his first name…Severus.
The Severus I’ve run up against was the guy called Septimus Severus.
He’s the guy who didn’t like the politics of Istanbul and burned the city to the ground in the 2nd Century AD.
After the city and it’s populace was turned to ruins (at that time the place was called Byzantium) Severus realized he’d made a tragic mistake. He ended up changing his attitude, rebuilding new fortifications and enlarging the city area.
He would name this rebuilt city Antoninia…it would later become Istanbul.
This sounds like someone who would reconsider past actions and move to the side he once tried to destroy.
I think you rather missed a minor episode in history known as “the Byzantine Empire” and “Constantinople”. Istanbul came about AFTER the Turks conquered the city not long before Columbus sailed for America.
Actually the city was apparently called Istanbul unofficialy by its Greek inhabitants long before the Turks ever conquered it. It derives from a Greek phrase and was more or less a way of referring to it as “THE CITY”, as the inhabitants of so many large cities tend to do with their home town. The Turks themselves referred to it officially as Konstaniye ( as well Istanbul and a couple of other names ), there version of Constantinople, right up until the 20th century. It only become Istanbul definitively under Ataturk.
Oh and Severus renamed Byzantium “Augusta Antonina”, a name that obviously didn’t stick. Nor did Constantine’s original renaming ( before Constantinople ) as “Nova Roma”.
karoman I don’t mean to hijack your op, but this does fall under your thread title…
There’s always so much conjecture as to why Dumbledore trusts Snape and why Snape hates Harry so much. My current pet theory is that Snape loved Lily, Harry’s mum, in fact he went to Voldy’s side precisely because he was bitter and couldn’t have her. When Voldy killed her, it made Snape turn because he truly loved her. If I’m right, look for Snape to have a conversation with Harry in the future where all is explained and Harry asks why Snape is so mean to him–Snape replies: “Because you should have been my son.”
Wow, I have actually heard this theory before (so you have support!) but that son line is wonderful, I would LOVE to see that happen in the books.
Occasionally this theory is slashed to “Snape was in love with James Potter and never got over it” but that lacks the poignancy of this one to me. Just my opinion and all.
I was drawn the the “Severus lovedLily” notion for quite some time, myself. Rowling places a pretty serious crimp in its viability, however, in OOtP.
I’ll say no more here, on the chance that you’ve not finished reading it yet.
As for Snape turning double agent as a result of the murder of Lily, I’m pretty sure he was already working for Dumbledore while Voldemort was still active and powerful. Turning spy against the scattered remnants of suddenly bereft Death Eaters would not likely have impressed Dumbledore or the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Hey Kaylasdad I have read it and I know what you’re talking about, but I still believe! We shall see…maybe I’m just looking for a plausible reason for liking Snape…
Awwwww! If Rowling does go that route in book 6, you’ll need the jaws of life to remove my hand from my nether region.
Ahem.
So I was reading book 4 today, and found something curious. In the very beginning, we are told the story of the Riddle family as seen through the eyes of the villagers. Two mysterious things are mentioned.
All three Riddles were found dead. Mom, Dad and their son Tom. Tom is, of course, Voldemort. How could he have died that day? Hmm …
The gardener man says he saw a mysterious teenager around the house the day the Riddles died, black-haired and pale. I think this is supposed to be the real Tom Riddle - you remember, he was sent to an orphanage, so he wouldn’t be living at home.
Umm… I think they meant Tom Riddle Sr., Voldemort’s father. The teenager was Tom Riddle Jr., Voldemort. Because when Tom Sr. discovered that Voldie’s mom was a witch, he left her and moved back home with his mom and dad. So Voldie came, killed his father and grandparents, then left again.
Creepily, it seems that OotP has brought some people around to the Snape/Lily camp. And not just believing that Snape had a thing for Lily, but that they actually had a relationship. Because there’s no surer way to a girl’s heart than
Shouting racial slurs at her when she’s trying to help you!
Alls I’m saying is, if Snape had feelings for Lilly, it wouldn’t be out of character for him to display them by doing something awkward and hateful like that. Also, he seems to have come from a family where his mother was abused, so I wouldn’t be surprised if his treatment of the woman he loves is less than affectionate.
Oh, I can buy that, but (outside this thread) I have seen people who seemed to think that not only was Snape in love with Lily, but that he actually managed to win her over (at least until she fell for James) because she felt sorry for him or something. Which seems unlikely to me, unless Lily was a real idiot. I mean,
If someone called me the wizarding equivelant of the “N-word”, I wouldn’t exactly want to be his date to the prom. Not even if it was just because he had a crush on me and didn’t know what to do.
It’s possible that he may have been in love with Lily (though I personally don’t think so), but there’s a problem in your reason for why Snape turn turned from the Dark Side of the Force. I thought that the downfall of the Death-Eaters came pretty quickly after Voldemort’s first encounter with Harry, which was also the day he killed Lily. In GoF, Dumbledore tells Harry that Snape had been a Death Eater, but broke away from them before Voldemort was beaten, and that it was this early defection, while Voldemort was still at the height of power, that earned Dumbledore’s trust.
It’s possible that he heard of Voldy’s plan to kill the Potters and had his change of heart before the attack was carried out, but somehow this seems too self-centered a reason to justify Dumbledore’s trusting him as he does.
Snape was spying on V for Dumbledore in the traditional sense (V thought he was a loyal death eater.) When he found out the Potters were the next to die, he informed Dumbledore, but was so beside himself, that he said “screw it” and ran over there to protect them (well, not them, Lilly.) That’s how Voldo came to know that Snape was with Dumbledore.
Also, I am now of the opinion that Snape hates Harry because Lilly had a choice of living and letting Harry die by the hands of Voldo, or being killed and protecting her son. Obviously, she chose the latter, and Snape resents Harry for it.
There’s this thing floating around about how JKR hid clues in the movies. Depending on whether that’s true (I can’t find a reliable cite) this could be supportive of my thinking:
In the flashback scene of Harry’s mom being killed, there’s an extra hand reaching out for her (to help or harm. Can’t tell which.) It does not seem to be Voldie’s hand.
Then, in Snape’s Potions speech, he does a really weird, attention grabbing thing, where he just sticks his hand out of his robe. A lot of people see similarities between the two hands, and so the rumor goes that we can be sure that Snape was there that night.