“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 my deviantArt page, where I am known as janach. To see Gilbert’s original drawing and hear the patter song from which I took my name, search for "My Name Is John Wellington Wells" on YouTube.

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 away with Colonel Fairfax from Yeomen of the Guard. (James Potter is such a tenor.) 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.)
Wheels: 2019 Mini Cooper Clubman
Passion: Opera
Raging Passion: Gilbert and Sullivan Opera
Education: Too much
Preferred libations: (1) Tea, hot and black, and (2) Artisan hard cider
Usual hangout: Miro Teahouse in Ballard, almost every morning for tea and newspapers
My Three Seconds of Stardom: A brief acting role as a supernumerary in Beethoven’s Fidelio, center stage at Seattle Opera in October, 2012.

Why "Very Small Prophet"? Because I'm 4'8" (1.42m). And shrinking.

On deviantArt I am known as janach, and have the following works posted:
John Wellington Snape: Full-size version of my ff-dot-net icon
J.W. Snape Transfiguration Skills: The above with word balloon
Disagreeable Sev ("...and I can't think why!"): Versification with apologies to W.S. Gilbert
Snape by Bab: Illustrations of the above, again with apologies to WSG
Society for the Prevention of Noseless Snapes: S.P.N.S. logo
Summer of 1970: Sev, Lily, and Tuney sing along with the Beatles: "Let it be, let it be..."
Tobias Snape: Portrait based on a Seattle-area singer/actor
Argus Filch: Portrait based on a Seattle-area singer/actor
Star Wars of Penzance (cover): Drawn in 1977
Star Wars of Penzance (spot art): Drawn in 1977

I also comment on Death To Capslock as jana_ch.