"Love philtre, we've quantities of it,
And for knowledge if anyone burns,
We're keeping a very small prophet,
A prophet who brings us unbounded returns."

My icon shows Severus Snape as John Wellington Wells (with Harry-in-the-Box) from The Sorcerer by Gilbert and Sullivan. My pen name is from the same source. Based on a drawing by W.S. Gilbert. To see a full-size drawing with clear details, see links to Deviant Art below.To see Gilbert's original, go to http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/sorcerer/html/bab.html or go to www.pattersong.org and check out the logo of the Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society.

Severus is a truly operatic character. With his magnificent extremes of love, hate, and suffering he belongs, not to Gilbert and Sullivan, but to Richard Wagner. On the outside he’s Hagen, the villain of Götterdämerung: harsh, bitter, and cold-blooded; a scorned and utterly miserable half-blood prince; servant of two masters but full of his own secret ambitions; ten times as smart as those snooty pureblood Gibichungs and that heroic dunderhead Siegfried; and a good hand with potions, besides.

But inside— inside he’s Tristan, the ever-faithful lover. Never mind that his Isolde throws him over heartlessly (”Don’t waste your breath!”) and runs off to play happy hausfrau with Escamillo, the toreador from Carmen. (James Potter is sooo Escamillo.) Tristan remains faithful, dedicating his entire life to the memory of his Isolde, and dying at last while gazing at a vision of his beloved’s beautiful eyes. Can't you just hear the yearning, unresolved, unresolvable chord?

From various interviews it appears that JKR sees Snape mainly in his Hagan persona, and doesn't entirely understand why the fangirls love him. Yes, it's partly Alan Rickman, and it's partly the Henry Kissinger effect ("Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."), but it's also because she's given him the soul of Tristan. No fangirl could possibly resist that sort of devotion. Eternal, unswerving love doesn’t grow on trees. It grows only in operas and in fan fiction.

Irrelevant Personal Facts
City: Seattle
Age: Older than Severus Snape (but not by much)
House: Ravenclaw with Slytherin envy
Feline companion: Carey (It means "black," and she's NOT a pureblood.)
Passion: Opera
Raging Passion: Gilbert and Sullivan Opera
Education: Too much
Preferred libation: Tea, hot and black
Usual hangout: Miro Teahouse in Ballard

My work on deviantArt
John Wellington Snape: http://janach.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2ub8rm
J.W. Snape Transfiguration Skills: http://janach.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2vmhrm
Disagreeable Sev (verse): http://janach.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35krcj
Snape by Bab: http://janach.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d361d9m
Star Wars of Penzance (cover): http://janach.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2xidf1
Star Wars of Penzance (spot art): http://janach.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2xiemf
Society for the Prevention of Noseless Snapes: http://janach.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d348aaq
Tobias Snape: http://janach.deviantart.com/art/Tobias-Snape-281742500
Argus Filch: http://janach.deviantart.com/art/Argus-Filch-281741535