Two days. Two long days we went without new content from J.K. Rowling. In all fairness, though, we were given five articles in three days, so I suppose two days without new articles were meant to follow. However, today, on day six of Pottermore’s “Twelve Days of Christmas” campaign, we are given the sixth moment from Half-Blood Prince and along with it the sixth article of new content from J.K. Rowling.

Today’s three-paragraph article is all about vampires. Within it, Rowling reveals that, in part because vampires are the subject of so many books and movies in contemporary culture, and in part because they come from Eastern European tradition and she tried to pull from British mythology as much as possible when writing the Harry Potter books, she simply chose not to make any main characters vampires.

For those who’ve read the Half-Blood Prince, you may remember Sanguini, who makes a rather comic appearance at Slughorn’s Christmas Party. However, you won’t remember another character, Trocar, because, well, he never made it into the books. Rowling reveals in her article that on one of her very earliest Hogwarts staff lists, there was a subjectless vampire teacher with that name! She also mentions the very popular fan theory for many years that Snape was a vampire. Actually, I remember writing Harry Potter fan fiction, oh more than 13 years ago now, in which it is revealed in the end that Snape was a vampire. I also used another very popular fan theory at the time in the story: the Green-Flame Torch.

J.K. Rowling goes on to explain that Trocar from her notes was dismissed fairly early on as a possible teacher, and no, Snape did not take his place.

Want to read this article for yourself? Here’s the riddle (from the Pottermore Insider):

The answer to this riddle is my favorite Ravenclaw, Luna Lovegood.

The Pottermore Index will be updated later today with this new article.

What did you think about the new article today? Share in the comments!