The Snape Ravens: all muddled in with Snape's messenger-bird Lenore, the ravens on the Snape crest, their "election" of Severus as a more worthy heir than Matthew, and the reason Miranda is able to call a second Patronus in BNW 2-19: Snape already sees himself as her protector, and the family mascot obliges as he explains to Miranda in the cookie The Billywig on the Wall.
Aloysius'consternation at Gyiffindor son: Because I love taking pot shots at Gryffindors. The identification of Gryffs with the Scots character is due to that reckless courage ("Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," and all that.) Actually, if you look at the outstanding Scots character of the Elizabethan Era, you've got some distinctly Slytherin-type personalities there with all the machinations over Mary, Queen of Scots.
Long-winded explanation of why the poor background, but Lord Snape in BNW 3: I've never quite bought into the fanon idea of Snape as a "Goth Prince," as Liz Barr said once. (There's no canon evidence whatsoever (up to OotP) for an hereditary nobility, "Lord" Voldemort notwithstanding: Lucius Malfoy is always referred to "Mr." Malfoy, for example.) But I have postulated that at one time the Wizarding World closely mirrored the Muggle World, and that in fact the two societies might have intertwined, to some extent -- and it made sense to me that Wizards, with the advantage of magic, might well have wound up in the upper echelons of society before the establishment of the International Code of Wizarding Secrecy of 1692. And for this level of integration to be possible up to 1692 at the latest, I thought that many of the families that we identify with "pureblood" wizardry were probably immigrants to England with William the Conqueror. (In fact, I went to far as to create a Snape genealogy going back that far: they were one of the smart families that intermarried with the native Saxon magical families rather than ignoring or killing them.)
Snape, though, is not necessarily one of the privileged. He doesn't strike me as having the resources of the Malfoys: presumably he must work at Hogwarts, regardless of its expedience as an excuse for sticking close to Dumbledore. (Why would a well-off man choose to work at teaching Potions in a place like Hogwarts?) At the same time, there may be a reason he was valued among the Death Eaters besides his presumed skill with Potions (and, implied, poisons), and his membership in one of the older (and largely pureblood) families might help explain this.
In short, I thought the Snapes were likely a very old family, like the Blacks, but Severus himself was from a junior branch: surrounded by that privilege and denied many of the advantages of it, but possibly picking up an appreciation for some of the luxuries that are available. We know Snape is probably highly intelligent given that he has survived Voldemort and his (now-confirmed) work as a spy: given that intelligence and a certain amount of postulated pride, I could imagine that he might be resentful of others who haven't "earned" privilege: his (non-canonical) cousin Matthew, the Snape heir; Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived; James Potter, outstanding Hogwarts student and nemesis (we know James acquired a fortune somehow, and his behavior at Hogwarts... well, it screams "spoiled brat" to me).
So Severus the poor cousin, dependent on handouts (prior to OotP, I'll add, and JKR's info about grey underwear and a potentially abusive father -- absolute serendipity) was born. Severus' (unused) status as Lord Snape came first, however: it was simply a way to shake loose some of Miranda's own well-entrenched prejudices -- and then for a reversal Snape hit her with the information that became the basis of The Boy in the Wood: he's not "to the manor born," but merely the Gatekeeper's son. That he acquired the title by the actions of the Death Eaters (indirectly) was another level of ambiguity that pleased me.
Sirius the Git: *croons* Awwwwww, am I being mean to poor widdle Siri? */end crooning* You betcha. I think he was an obnoxious, hyperactive little twerp. This is not to say that he was as bad as Severus makes out here, but we're getting this from Severus' POV: what Sirius may honestly have meant as teasing and a little rough-housing would be interpreted as something very different by poorly-socialized Severus.
II. Of Crabs and Goats
Carcinides maenas inflammatus: the Green or Shore Crab (aka Carcinus maenas). As far as I know, inflammatus is a variety unknown to Muggles.
"Malfoy says he's going to fag you unmercifully": public-school lingo for treating juniors as ones' personal gofer -- running errands, unpleasant chores, etc.
Hagrid's plans for the li'l bugger: Hagrid will develop Blast-Ended Skrewts from Manitcores and Fire-Crabs: he is, however, apparently not successful until 1994. (The gods only know what strange fire-farting hybrids have been running loose in the Forbidden Forest since 1968 or so.)
The goat and Aberforth: one of the few things we know about Aberforth Dumbledore is that he got in trouble for an incident involving charms and a goat. My guess is that the Polyjuice was hushed up out of deference to the Potions teacher, and Aberforth alone got the official blame.
Headmaster Nigellus as owner of said goat: (shrugs) Well, it's possible.
Possible tie-in to BNW: in BNW 3-19, Miranda notes 'a patch on the back of his [Severus'] right thigh, suspiciously like an old burn.' It's possible she's being euphemistic, of course -- it could be on his bum. Not all Severus' scars have to be from DE activities. ; )
III. How to Hex Enemies and Influence Wizards
Title: As I note in BNW, this is a nod to Carnegie's How to Make Friends and Influence People. Snape may have already known many hexes when first coming to Hogwarts, but he obviously wasn't going to give the competition a chance to outflank him.
Surgery expensive for non-Muggles: presumably Wizards are not on the NHS. I'm working with the premise that, at least as of the 1960s, there were still illnesses the WW couldn't treat, particularly involving brain impairment/function or delicate surgeries of the ear/eye. I have a hard time believing they're that far ahead of us.
Special thanks to LilithJ (aka Lilith Janvier) for tweaking Maitre Claude's French!
Flying over hols: if First Years can't bring their brooms per the Hogwarts Letter, that implies they're allowed to fly at home -- no stricture as with performing magic. While there's certainly a magical component to flying, I assume it's largely a matter of coordination (as in driving a car) and is a physical and athletic skill as well -- and therefore in a different class than casting charms and performing other magics.
101 Ways to Hex Enemies: see BNW 1-13. The text itself: there really was a Comte Alain Le Noir in William the Conqueror's invading force. And a Corbet Le Normand, not Corbeau -- I suppose the Venerable Bede made a mistake in the rolls. ; )
Gates' citation of Quidditch in Bed: Quidditch in Bed is, of course, Textual Sphinx's -- as is the idea of sex manuals targeted at specific Houses. (Angel of the North is actually writing a text for Qudditch in Bed, BTW.) The rest of the titles are mine.
Wand-dueling as a precursor to Fencing: *mutters* bloody wizards want to take credit for everything.
Flitwick's reference to ballet and West End/Broadway musicals: BNW Flitwick is a fan of the Performing Arts. Don't ask me why, it's just another one of those quirks I discovered when writing him.
Deflecto cantiones: I speculate that "competitive" dueling as I postulate it might be a bit more refined than general hex defense techniques. And while I could have gone with Incantatum, my Cassel's doesn't actually include it (of course it's a compound word...). Besides, it gave me an opportunity to have James screw up. Another plus.
Vomitem verbi: the infamous Babbling Curse for which we have no incantation. (Some of these incantations -- those for which we have no canon incantation -- are mine, as are some of the hexes themselves.)
Vacille cruris: the Jelly-Legs Jinx, as above. (Anyone else get the feeling JKR got a little lazy and never fine-tuned the narrative?)
Pullus cruris: a chicken-legs hex, which is not canon; Ian Neill hexes Gregroy Goyle with chicken wings in BNW 1-13 after consulting 101 Ways to Hex Enemies....
Rostrum armadillus: Armadillo snout hex. Presumably Black had to eat termites until Pomfrey fixed him up. Again, not canon.
IV. Death and Transfiguration
shrivelfig: I've postulated elsewhere that shrivelfig is used in the Wolfsbane Potion, and for the treatment of Priapism and, ah, improper use of Engorgement Charms.
Darby's crush on McGonagall: NO, I'm NOT implying that McGonagall had a liaison with a Snape House Elf (ewwwwwwwwwwwww). Just that poor Darby formed an unrequited passion for her. Jeesh. Getcher minds out of the gutter.
Vergil's illness: I think it's a particularly virulent form of the senility that strikes wizards, per BNW2. A parallel to Alzheimer's, if you like. I'm not certain if there's an hereditary component, although I noted in the now-deceased Epilogues to BNW that Severus went a bit funny at the end.
Headmaster's sock: Yes, I bet Elizabeth tried to knit that one. See the After Elizabeth.
Wizarding burial practice: No idea, of course. But some of them are very practical people, I think, and I doubt they have the religious scruples about preserving the body whole, as many of us do.
snogging Florence: I'm going to be really screwed if JKR further elucidates re: the Bertha Jorkins hexing. And if a Ravenclaw girl has researched French kissing, I bet she researched what it's likely to do to ones' male partner and appropriate ways to put him out of his misery, too.
V. Fifth Year TBA
VI. Of Willows and Werewolves
Prefect!Severus: no evidence, of course. But it gives him opportunity to spy, and to abuse his position, and to be suitably outraged at the (as he sees it) injustice of it. I'm not saying he didn't deserve to have it yanked, quite the opposite.
curiously cowardly Sirius: the question is, how much is cowardice, and how much is deliberately setting Severus up? I think it's equal amounts. (Severus just kneed him in the groin, remember -- from the accounts I've heard, that can lay a guy out. I'd do anything to get out of such a situation.) Severus is not behaving particularly intelligently, either: he buys it lock, stock, and barrel, not having yet learned not to underestimate opponents.
Davey Gudgeon: canon, that Gudgeon nearly lost an eye to the Whomping Willow. Could be one of JKR's nasty little red herrings or just an incidental mention to prove how nasty the Willow is, but I'm betting it has something to do with The Incident.
Padfoot biting Snape: just a mirroring of the Fluffy incident. I'm perverse like that. And it makes Sirius look even worse. My bad. *evil grin*
"thought it through with both hands, for a decade": a little borrowing from someone, probably Sayers' Dowager Duchess, I think.
SekritEvilMastermind!Pettigrew: I think Peter is the one who left the map, not Sirius, actually -- as well as the one responsible for the broom fiddling. Sirius is too arrogant to pull something like the brooms -- and too confident in his and James' skill. I can easily imagine Sirius explaining to Peter that he suspects Severus will snoop around the Willow, and Peter making sure that he does -- classic case of the underdog in a group wanting to put someone else in his place and get the glory if it turns out well. I hope you're happy, pauraque. Your theory is insidious and contagious.
Lycanthropy Limiting Potion/Wolfsbane: It has to start somewhere. Lupin is on an experimental trial of a precursor to the Wolfsbane potion -- it's not enough to make him "curl up in his office," but probably enough to dampen the magical aspects -- perhaps retard transmission of the Curse. That would be the first aspect I'd work on, anyway -- that's the greatest harm with Lycanthropy.
Thanks for everyone's patience on this one. It was a bugger, balancing the known evidence and trying to work out who knew what when. Example: Dumbledore says he did not know of the Animagi status until PoA -- which precludes him knowing any of them were Animagi, including Black. Had Severus made the connection, he would undoubtedly have blabbed, and I don't think Dumbledore is so out of it that he wouldn't have investigated the possibility. So James had to be very careful about the story he told, making sure not to give anything away -- and making sure Severus hadn't put two and two together and wasn't reacting to the lies. This also means James is perfectly aware of exactly how bad the situation was, and that it was Sirius himself in his Animagi form; and it's undoubtedly (at least in my version of the Potterverse) why Lupin thinks Black is capable of having killed James, Lily, and (supposedly) Peter.
Apologies for Severus' asscaps, BTW. I got some spitting in too, though, did you notice? ; )
VII. Ticket-of-Leave and Recruitment
The Death Eaters as evolving from a minority political party: blame/thank my online friend "pauraque" for this, who quite reasonably pointed out that the DEs are not likely to be a fascist majority, but a violent minority. This led me to thoughts about why people would turn to violence as a form of political protest (current events might certainly apply, though I'd already formed some opinions through work on the musical Assassins -- thank you, Stephen Sondheim).
The Mark: While in this AU the Isolationist Party is to all intents and purposes an acknowleged (i.e., legal) political party, I suspect Voldemort has known for some time that the Party will eventually be driven underground. The Mark is, at this point, simply a means to contact the membership more stealthily than by owl when it is eventually made "illegal" -- and given some of the Ministry's tactics I'm sure that's where they're headed. (At least that is Voldemort's official justification.)
For my reasoning on the use of runes, see the footnote to BNW 2-12. We've only seen Wormtail's Mark, by the way, in GoF -- which is the traditional skull-and-snake.
The fanged aspidistra is not an intentional reference to 'Little Shop of Horrors'. More likely it's the ubiquitous and practically un-killable aspidistra in Busman's Honeymoon. With a magical twist, of course.
Title: Mahler. And as McGonagall kept putting her finger in the pie with all that backstory, it seemed appropriate.
Title: The Whomping Willow incident, obviously. Snape has had my sympathy ever since we learned about this, by the way. No wonder he's a paranoid git.
Title:The document soldiers are given when mustering out of the army, for example (an archaic phrase). In this case the Leaving from Hogwarts, and recruitment to Voldemort's cause.
Salisbury University: despite JKR's assertion that there are no Wizarding Universities, I wanted there to be one in this AU for totally silly reasons -- Snape having some contact with the Muggle World via Oxford, for one, which begged the question of why he would want or have to go to Oxford. I'd already speculated an academic profession for his father, as well, but wasn't totally resigned to what I suspect JKR might eventually address -- something more akin to the medieval model of apprenticeship with a Master (which makes a great deal more sense historically, given the Wizarding World's somewhat archaic structure). Salisbury (which was a small university to begin with) will be made redundant when there simple isn't the student population to support it, whether it's because the students go outside the country, study on the medieval model, or because Voldemort has finally managed to kill of enough of the population to make it impractical to support a full University.
Gillian: I hate to say it, but Gillian is a nod to those of us who want to take the Heathcliffs, Edward Rochesters, and Snapes of our lives and manage (tame) them. Nice girl, good taste in re: appreciation for high intelligence, unreasonable expectations.
South American text: This is, of course, the text that will eventually lead Snape to the Dresden Codex and the Aztec herbal that hints of the Elixir of the Gods.
The Frock-Coat: Well, it had to start somewhere -- the armoring of himself against future vulnerability. I've obviously totally bought into the film's costuming rather than JKR's vague "robe" this and "robe" that. I don't know why the designer chose to go in this direction, but it's certainly better for making character statements than having everyone running about in the same basic costume.
II. The Task TBA
Title: Voldemort introduces Snape to his primary duties, and Snape begins to glimpse Voldemort's ulterior motive.
IV. Disenchantment TBA
Title: Reference to I., and the breaking of Snape's commitment to Voldemort.
V. The Last Straw
Title: The incident that sends Snape back to Dumbledore.
Part One:
both his wands: BNWSnape came up for this explanation for the DEs avoiding Prior Incantato, and I re-used it.
snappish Dumbledore: I'm sure to catch hell for this -- already have for certain aspects of him in BNW -- but my whole point in writing these buggers was to explore sides of the characters that Harry hadn't (yet) seen. We know Dumbledore can be exceedingly scary and commanding (GoF); we know he can even be submissive and apologetic (the revelation to Harry at the end of OotP). He appears to be a much more faceted -- and fallible -- person than we'd suspected, and I'm simply building on that. It obviously throws Snape, too, who has only seen Dumbledore in his capacity as "Genial Headmaster" heretofore.
Gillian: see Salisbury, Snape's first year at university.
Snape's sneer at Christianity: He's obviously read a comparative mythology/religions text that stresses the Old Testament or that didn't get the point of the New Testament. This is in his pre-Oxford days, so he hasn't had any first-hand exposure to Christianity (I can't quite see him sitting down at Hogwarts to discuss religion with any Muggleborns, either). No offense intended, folks -- just writing to character.
Part Two:
The Playfair Cipher is real, and for an excellent site on it go to The Black Chamber, which includes a working example (boy, was that a life-saver in writing this chapter).
The infamous Donne poetry and BNWSnape's fondness for it: this episode explains why a pureblood wizard might eventually acquire a fondness for Muggle poetry, much less have it in his possession (see BNW 2-11 for the first incidence of Donne). (And oddly enough, "husband" is the first qualifying word in Elegy One by Dumbledore's standards for a key, for those who may have picked up on his hints about his past. I didn't plan it -- serendipity strikes again.)
Dumbledore in drag: I'm so sorry. He would not behave. He not only has a wide streak of mischief, he likes inflicting it on people like Snape and Aberforth, who take themselves too seriously (Aberforth has obviously sobered considerably since the Goat Incident). I'm not certain yet whether it's simply a reaction to the gravity of the situation as well, or just plain yanking Snape's chain. (And I wonder if Dumbledore and Laurie King's Sherlock Holmes had the same teacher in espionage, given.... Well, RJ knows what I mean.)
Dragqueen!Dumbledore's big bubbies: I admit it, I think the general heterosexual male preoccupation with female breasts is hilarious. I'm sure a Freudian would tell me there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for the obsession, but it just kills me, particularly our society's preoccupation with them. They're just udders, for God's sake -- you don't see bulls going crazy about cows' udders, do you? Rather erogenous udders and fun in certain circumstances, but udders nonetheless. And I suppose it's a reaction to Stacked!Hermione, who constantly crops up in fanfic (including my own). Some day those 44Ds are going to be down to her navel -- how sexy is she going to be then?
II. Once More Unto the Breech
Title: Henry V, Act III scene i. Back at Howarts (after swearing in Ticket of Leave that he would sooner die), back to dealing with annoying students.
Pre-teaching barf-fest: The recurring tummy complaint -- I finally noticed that it doesn't flare up when he faces a particularly vile or dangerous situation, but rather when he's at his most vulnerable and self-doubting. So working with noxious substances doesn't cause problems, but travelling and having to deal with new people and situations to which he's not ideally suited (like diplomatic missions in BNW 3) does. If you incline toward a theory that Snape has some significant anxiety-producing social deficit disorder, like a mild autism or Asberger's Syndrome, this fits as well.
III. Men Have Died, and Worms Have Eaten Them...
Title: As You Like It, Rosalind, Act IV scene i ("Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love"). As You Like It pops up in BNW 2 not as a theme, precisely, but I suppose you could say Miranda has definitely entered the Forest (Forbidden, Arden) and there are certainly a lot of (mistaken) identity games being played (appearance vs. reality, or persona vs. character): I picked up on the phrase Snape quotes to Miranda in BNW 2-3 as a reference to Cedric's death at the end of GoF, which closes this episode.
Snape and Miranda's meeting at the High Table: See BNW 1-6. The subsequent days' happening is in Chapter 7.
Homo sapiens sapiens: Snape being annoyingly precise. Homo sapiens, while used by laypeople to describe humankind generally, actually refers to Neanderthal man. Everything from Cro-Magnon on is Homo sapiens sapiens, true modern man. And he's entered true smartass territory with Homo sapiens sapiens wizardii.
Dumbledore had known: Known that Black was hanging about during the events of GoF, and hadn't warned Snape (possibly to prevent him from siccing the Ministry on Black?). Part of this may be due to his disappointment in 'losing' custody of Black in PoA, but it might well be a matter of pride for Snape as well -- Dumbledore is hiding information from Snape (as he finally admits to doing with Harry in OotP), and Snape is not likely to take this well -- he would not necessarily take being left out of the loop for his own good a valid excuse, but a sign of mistrust.
IV. ...but not for Love
Title: The conclusion to the mangled fragment above, obviously. A restatement of his arguments that he cannot possibly love Miranda, or even desire a closer emotional bond, rather than a purely physical lust. See BNW 2-8.