Alice Snape is Harry Potter’s teacher and one of his earliest and most supportive friends. As the series progresses her views on gender become more moderate, but she still has strong opinions about the roles played by the sexes in society. Her death is a great loss to Harry and his friends, as is implied when Sirius Black reveals to Harry that his mother was an Alice in Wonderland enthusiast. But while there are many theories as to how she died, one of the most prevalent is that she died of old age and not as a result of a romantic liaison with a Muggle, as was rumored.
The name Alice is given to her by the wizardry world, and it is an anagram for ‘alicante’. It is also very interesting that this name was not included in the original manuscripts of the story, nor does Rowling ever mention it. In the first book, she is referred to by her first name only, and in the last several books the name is included only in footnotes. Perhaps because of these problems, people have come up with a theory that Alice Snape is a name adopted by the character herself, to hide her true identity.
One of the strongest theories is that Alice is a nickname of another person who worked closely with Rowling on the Harry Potter books – meaning that she may be a secret half human/half animal witch, like Hagrid. Another name given to her is Hermione Granger, which is easily recognisable from the pens in which Rowling wrote most of the Harry Potter stories. Finally, another name commonly used by Rowling, but never used by the characters themselves are Pettigrew. This is purely speculation on my part, but it does match the description of Alice in the books (a name which comes from Alice in Wonderland) and fits the Hermione Granger type of career.