Infinitus Report: The Snapeyness of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

[pennswoods]

As a service to fellow Snape-fen everywhere, my fellow snapecasters and I went in to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter with a critical eye toward evaluating the Snapeyness of the park. We already knew not to expect any actual portrayals of Snape by park employees, which was fine by us, but we were keen to find other indicators of the professor's presence.

We first conducted a systematic investigation of all the merchandise for sale in the park. Among the various character wands for sale was Snape's. However, a version of Snape's wand has been available for a while through the Noble Collection, and we were interested in finding something unique to the park. chaeche, msavi and I combed the shelves in Dervish and Banges looking for something Snapey. Although there was a lot of fun House stuff for sale, our search turned up no sign of the Potions Master. A similar scrutiny of Honeydukes did not turn up anything substantially Snapey either. This was perhaps not surprising in light of Snape's less than sweet disposition.

This left Filch's Emporium at the end of the Forbidden Journey ride. The ever intrepid gina_r_snape made a special trip to the Emporium in search of Durmstrang merchandise for perosha and while there, conducted a detailed search for Snapey stuff. It was here she struck paydirt and found the only Snape merchandise in the park:



Behold the Snape keychain.


Ever the dedicated Snape fan, she promptly bought 10 of these, which she surprised the rest of us with as we headed off to the airport. Here's hoping they have a lot more in stock to satisfy the cravings of rabid Snapefen.



On a more positive note, a little digging uncovered Snape's subtle presence in the park. Snape no doubt frequented Potages when in need of a new cauldron for brewing Wolfsbane for the order.



Precariously stacked cauldrons outside Potages.


However, the shadow of Snape was most evident on the Forbidden Journey. Curious Muggles, eager to experience Harry's adventures wound their way first through the dungeons of Hogwarts where they passed the infamous Potions classroom followed by the Potions storeroom:



Potions classroom in the Forbidden Journey. Photo by perosha.


Potions storeroom. Site of the famous Boomslang skin heist of CoS. Photo by sugareey.


Although drinkingcocoa confided to chaeche that she had seen Snape in the mirror of Erised, I don't think we can credit Universal for this. Aside from the sights along the queue, the next place we looked for Snape was on the Forbidden Journey itself. At the very end of the ride, after you help Harry take on dragons, spiders, whomping willows, and dementors, you're greeted by cheers from Hogwarts students and faculty. We looked carefully but did not notice Snape among the cheering faces.

Then again, maybe he was there, sneering from the side, and we just didn't spy him. Did anyone else notice Snape in the crowd?

In any case, after careful scrutiny and evaluation, the other snapecasters and I determined that Snape's presence in the park was at best subtly referenced through Potions related symbols. In other words, we decided that the Park was definitely not Snapey enough!

That was, until I began digging around the photos posted to the Infinitus Flickr group, where I stumbled across this:



OMG!!! This changes everything!!!! It's Snape's office!!! Photo by curryfingersink.


I can't believe I missed this!!!! (BRB, turning in my Snape card...) After a bit of sleuthing, I've determined that the blue thing in the photo is a part of the statue of the One-Eyed Witch, which comes up quickly near the beginning of the queue inside the castle for the ride. YOU GAIS! I MUST GO BACK TO THE PARK TO SEE SNAPE'S OFFICE AND SERVE DETENTION!!!!!

You have no idea how happy and sad this makes me. Snape's name is on a door in the park. :D But I totally missed it. D:

Did everyone else on my flist see Snape's office but me?