Severus Snape, 2-4 July, 1996, Notes
Name: Severus Snape
Format: Notes
Date: July 2-4, 1996
Relevance: Extract from one of S. Snape's second-war stillroom books. In reference to the destruction of the ringcrux, the ambush of Arthur Weasley at the Department of Mysteries, and the third Incident at the Shrieking Shack, as well as shedding light on the activities the writer preferred over preparing lesson plans and correcting the extensive essays he set during his stint as the Hogwarts DADA professor.
Warnings: Large text tables, reduced image size, doggerel, copious annotation, some blurring of the line between lateral thinking and black humor.
Note: Due to the use of underlining in addition to several styles of handwriting by S. Snape, Ministry notations will be bolded, except for [bracketed] attempts to describe imagery such as arrows and illegible text. Ministry Potioneer Thaddeus Greengrass's annotations are prefaced MBN (Ministry Brewer's Note).
Page 1
The following five lines are in black ink, but have been heavily scored through in red.
Tues, July 3, 1996
7:30: Heat back on: G-13
clarify
8:19: Decant G-13
8:22: Breakfast?
9:0?: Prepare dry fo--
Here writing trails off to illegibility. The following is also nearly illegible, having apparently been written in a shaking hand until around the 11:15 entry.
Mon, July 2, 1996
[Archivist's note: S. Snape's habit of preparing his morning schedules before retiring has been well established in previous stillroom books. The initial 'p' here is presumed shorthand for 'pm,' as the previous page has a completed schedule for Monday, July 2, ending at 7:23.]
7:30p: chop valerian
8:10: [choose? crush? appears to be 'chosk'] sopophorous [16? 76?] beans
8:38: wash asphodel CAREFULLY
8:2820 [arrow to slot it above previous]: select 1.5 lbs asphodel florets. flawless
8:42: infuse [145? 745?] grams wormwood leaves & strain
8:52: add asphodel & valerian [nonstandard symbol presumed to indicate (hence 'NSSI') widdershins]
9:50: add sopophorous 7 [NSSI widdershins] 1 [NSSI deosil]
10:54: cool to 90°F
prepare 8 grams alum
powder hawthorn mortar, birch pestle
- 15 oz jet
-48 drams powdered bloodstone
11:06: mix powders in 4 oz hot blood-- burn oregano concurrently
11:15: add 18 drams patchouli oil 7d3w [reversion to standard deosil/widdershins notation here]
11:28: chop butterfly weed & catnip together
11:30: heat blood mix to 97°F,
add chopped, strain [(post 10)?]
ensure Draught @ 90°F
11:32: add transformative to Draught
boil & clarify 7w3d
1:15: let simmer
confer etc all to plan
8: cool, decant, administer 2nd d[ose].
Tues, July 3, 1996: STRATEGIZE
· She looks like a viper
· Weasley's primary difficulty was
excessive blood loss
anti-coagulation Not natural! Should be forced coag!
wound non-closure
treatment-resistant
∴ venom will be
naturally hemotoxic [causative arrow from 'blood loss']
magically cytotoxic [causative arrow from 'anticoagulation']
[green circles around the -ly adjectives here and an arrow to switch their position; causative arrow from above green text]
If magically hemotoxic,
immunization impractical
· even if magic didn't make it unlikely to work, would need hers specifically
· can just imagine that conversation.* FORGET IMMUNIZATION & SEROTHERAPY
Must be an antidote,
must be taken
· post bite or
· when bite inevitable
Post-Bite
· prostration ↓
· unconsciousness ↓
· coma
· swelling at site
--site unpredictable
--could interfere with delivery
· tachycardia & dispnoea
might interfere with thought processes
DON'T COUNT ON IT
[MBN: Professor Snape appears to have omitted GI distress--an intentional omission, presumably]
[arrows leading from 'dermal' and
'sublingual]
Better suited to
imm & sero - slow
release, no
guarantee of right
dosage at right time
bite release
· most tooth-accessible areas encounter teeth normally
· would have to make a non-dissolving one
& must be PANACEAN*
re-check literature
on bezoars as ingreds
Pre-Bite
If it becomes obviously
inevitable, will probably
be under his eye, poss.
other constraints,
interferences.
CANNOT RELY ON
ABILITY TO BRING
HAND TO MOUTH
· injection [arrow labeled 'impractical' from 'constraints, interferences']
· dermal
· already in mouth
--sublingual
--collapsing capsule [circled in green, with arrow leading to 'release,' below]
charm
wandless?
needs to be--
can't raise wand if he's there --
instant inescapable death but if he plans to anyway, may as well, but can't rely on ability, so does need to be wandless, only there we run into the difficulty of
· a) possibility of impaired concentration
· b) the problem of how:
The keyphrase would have to be something innocuous in his presence so as not to tip him off, as even in best-case scenario His Bloody-Mindedness is unlikely to be satisfied with less than death, but if it is an innocuous phrase, is likely to be said at other times.
Must wager on simplicity & quick-draw.
Wed., July 4, 1996
consider collapsation key
research panacean antidotes
Old research specific or focused on toxins.
[Charms diagram in green: Up, outward arc culminating in inward jab, containing words 'My Lord']
leg-holster only once things get tight.
MBN: The butterfly weed preparation has a base not unknown to IAMB [the International Association for Masters of Brewery], being a transformative potion that acts on other brews and most effective at defusing a brew's Dark Magical effects. Despite not knowing the preparation of the catnip, this Potions Master's opinion is that it would most likely be applied to the Draught of Living Death in a transformative as a stimulant, to negate the potion's 'Sleeping Beauty' effect, and hindsight applied to the circumstances of July '96 supports this hypothesis. The burning of the oregano is more straightforward, as oregano smoke is known to have a disruptive effect on Dark Magic, especially when stretched over distances, as in the case of Dark Artifacts connecting two persons not in proximity. As for the Draught itself, other than certain discrepancies in the preparation, the only notable factor is the enormous quantity Professor Snape seems to have prepared at one go.
Page 2 (July 4 cont'd)
The following text is wrapped around the page, and is attributed to A.E. Housman.
There was a king reigned in the East: There, where kinds will set to feast, they get their fill before they think With poisoned meat and poisoned drink. He gathered all the springs to birth From the many-venomed earth; First a little, then to more, he sampled all her killing store; And easy, smiling, season'd sound, Sate the king when healths went round. They put arsenic in his meat And stared, aghast, to watch him eat; They put strychnine in his cup And shook to see him drink it up: They shook, they stared, as white's their shirt: Them it was their poisons hurt.
I tell the tale that I heard told: Mithridates, he died old.
· it always takes longer than you expect, even taking this into account -- pro
{3:1} · elegance: the simplest solution is most probable: anti
· work expands to fill the time available for its completion: pro
· the perversity of the universe tends towards a maximum: PRO
If Occam's Elegance is bollocks as usual, O'Toole is persuasive in view of:
· no order · no temperature, times, stirring directions · excessive use of fresh, whole plants
· Pliny reports universally varying weights where Celsus doesn't and disagrees on #ings.
What the hell. O'Toole is persuasive.
MPP · Trimble's Dark Forces · Asiatic Anti-Vs · Medieval Ps · ask & obliviate Jigger · Livia Drusilla's Add'm to De Medicina
8G
acacia juice (A.C) ♂
illyrian iris ☽
cardamom ♀
(Elettaria)
12G
Gallic nard ♀
gentian root ♂
dried rose leaves ♀
17G
poppy-tears ☽
(papavar rhoeas)
parsley ♂
20G
sweet flag ☽
21G
storax ☉
24G
castoreum ☽!
frankincense ☉
hypocritis ♄
myrrh ☉
sweet myrhh☉
malabar leaf ☿, ☽
25G
nard ♀
obalsam ☉
shepards' purse ♄
28G
rhubarb root ♂, ♄
29G
saffron ♀
ginger ♄
cinnamon ☿
Unknown quant.
dried blood ♂
dried flesh of
☽ lizard or
♂ viper
^ species [of all]?
1·66gG
costmary ♃
20·66G
casia ☽
(probably buds)
saxifrage ☽
darnel ♃
long pepper ♂
24·66G
flowers of round rush ♃
turpentine resin ☉
galbanum ☉
cretan carrot seeds ♀
pounded
taken in honey as an
almond-sized lump
served in wine
☽ 8 @ 2733g+?
☉ 7 @ 3286g
♂ 6 @ 1389g+?
♀ 6 @ 1678g?
☿ 3 @ 65g
♃ 3 @ 2970g
♄ 4 @ 106
[in descending order]
sun
Jupiter
moon
Venus
Mars
Saturn
Mercury
[no order indicated]
alloy-? [arrows leading from 'gold' and 'tin']
copper? no, it's for me [arrow leading from 'birch']
gold
silver
tin
hawthorn
birch
· Choose [weakly drawn arrows lead from above materials]
cauldron [alloy]
mortar [hawthorn]
pestle [birch]
knives [gold]
ladle [silver]
sun predominates
Resolve
· Livia/Celcus/Pliny/Andromachus/Nicostratus discrepancies (err on Livia's side)
· casia: buds v. bark
· form of ginger - other spices presume powdered
· species & quantity of blood & flesh
--flesh refers to muscle or 'chunk of reptile?
Occam suggests muscle. Specificity?
--blood: wizard or muggle? conditions?
· brewing order
· brewing stages - temps & times
· stirring cycles
! · why get the salicin from beavers instead willow?
· theriacs build to a level - find other use for that perfectly good capsule
· figure out why a bitch of a potion like this is worth my bloody time when the likelihood of its working by the time I need it approaches NIL.
aside, of course, from its being a bitch of a potion...
The following begins in very small, diagonal cursive, straightening and strengthening line by line until it's calligraphed completely perpendicular to the rest of the text.]
braced on yielding walls under a stone sky
ten thousand sharp green eyes unfurling
ten thousand tender blades
ten thousand thin arms
urged on bad [haz'd?] by bright [illegible] nothing urged on
in bright whips
They're searching for --
June's eyes will see--
no telling
Step step by step by measured step
turn each anticipated turn
towards a certain center
Strung along in the hedge.
What the hell.
Format: Notes
Date: July 2-4, 1996
Relevance: Extract from one of S. Snape's second-war stillroom books. In reference to the destruction of the ringcrux, the ambush of Arthur Weasley at the Department of Mysteries, and the third Incident at the Shrieking Shack, as well as shedding light on the activities the writer preferred over preparing lesson plans and correcting the extensive essays he set during his stint as the Hogwarts DADA professor.
Warnings: Large text tables, reduced image size, doggerel, copious annotation, some blurring of the line between lateral thinking and black humor.
Note: Due to the use of underlining in addition to several styles of handwriting by S. Snape, Ministry notations will be bolded, except for [bracketed] attempts to describe imagery such as arrows and illegible text. Ministry Potioneer Thaddeus Greengrass's annotations are prefaced MBN (Ministry Brewer's Note).
Page 1
The following five lines are in black ink, but have been heavily scored through in red.
Tues, July 3, 1996
7:30: Heat back on: G-13
clarify
8:19: Decant G-13
8:22: Breakfast?
9:0?: Prepare dry fo--
Here writing trails off to illegibility. The following is also nearly illegible, having apparently been written in a shaking hand until around the 11:15 entry.
Mon, July 2, 1996
[Archivist's note: S. Snape's habit of preparing his morning schedules before retiring has been well established in previous stillroom books. The initial 'p' here is presumed shorthand for 'pm,' as the previous page has a completed schedule for Monday, July 2, ending at 7:23.]
7:30p: chop valerian
8:10: [choose? crush? appears to be 'chosk'] sopophorous [16? 76?] beans
8:38: wash asphodel CAREFULLY
8:2820 [arrow to slot it above previous]: select 1.5 lbs asphodel florets. flawless
8:42: infuse [145? 745?] grams wormwood leaves & strain
8:52: add asphodel & valerian [nonstandard symbol presumed to indicate (hence 'NSSI') widdershins]
9:50: add sopophorous 7 [NSSI widdershins] 1 [NSSI deosil]
10:54: cool to 90°F
prepare 8 grams alum
powder hawthorn mortar, birch pestle
- 15 oz jet
-48 drams powdered bloodstone
11:06: mix powders in 4 oz hot blood-- burn oregano concurrently
11:15: add 18 drams patchouli oil 7d3w [reversion to standard deosil/widdershins notation here]
11:28: chop butterfly weed & catnip together
11:30: heat blood mix to 97°F,
add chopped, strain [(post 10)?]
ensure Draught @ 90°F
11:32: add transformative to Draught
boil & clarify 7w3d
1:15: let simmer
confer etc all to plan
8: cool, decant, administer 2nd d[ose].
Tues, July 3, 1996: STRATEGIZE
· She looks like a viper
· Weasley's primary difficulty was
excessive blood loss
anti-coagulation Not natural! Should be forced coag!
wound non-closure
treatment-resistant
∴ venom will be
naturally hemotoxic [causative arrow from 'blood loss']
magically cytotoxic [causative arrow from 'anticoagulation']
[green circles around the -ly adjectives here and an arrow to switch their position; causative arrow from above green text]
If magically hemotoxic,
immunization impractical
· even if magic didn't make it unlikely to work, would need hers specifically
· can just imagine that conversation.* FORGET IMMUNIZATION & SEROTHERAPY
Must be an antidote,
must be taken
· post bite or
· when bite inevitable
Post-Bite
· prostration ↓
· unconsciousness ↓
· coma
· swelling at site
--site unpredictable
--could interfere with delivery
· tachycardia & dispnoea
might interfere with thought processes
DON'T COUNT ON IT
[MBN: Professor Snape appears to have omitted GI distress--an intentional omission, presumably]
[arrows leading from 'dermal' and
'sublingual]
Better suited to
imm & sero - slow
release, no
guarantee of right
dosage at right time
bite release
· most tooth-accessible areas encounter teeth normally
· would have to make a non-dissolving one
& must be PANACEAN*
re-check literature
on bezoars as ingreds
Pre-Bite
If it becomes obviously
inevitable, will probably
be under his eye, poss.
other constraints,
interferences.
CANNOT RELY ON
ABILITY TO BRING
HAND TO MOUTH
· injection [arrow labeled 'impractical' from 'constraints, interferences']
· dermal
· already in mouth
--sublingual
--collapsing capsule [circled in green, with arrow leading to 'release,' below]
charm
wandless?
needs to be--
can't raise wand if he's there --
instant inescapable death but if he plans to anyway, may as well, but can't rely on ability, so does need to be wandless, only there we run into the difficulty of
· a) possibility of impaired concentration
· b) the problem of how:
The keyphrase would have to be something innocuous in his presence so as not to tip him off, as even in best-case scenario His Bloody-Mindedness is unlikely to be satisfied with less than death, but if it is an innocuous phrase, is likely to be said at other times.
Must wager on simplicity & quick-draw.
Wed., July 4, 1996
consider collapsation key
research panacean antidotes
Old research specific or focused on toxins.
[Charms diagram in green: Up, outward arc culminating in inward jab, containing words 'My Lord']
leg-holster only once things get tight.
MBN: The butterfly weed preparation has a base not unknown to IAMB [the International Association for Masters of Brewery], being a transformative potion that acts on other brews and most effective at defusing a brew's Dark Magical effects. Despite not knowing the preparation of the catnip, this Potions Master's opinion is that it would most likely be applied to the Draught of Living Death in a transformative as a stimulant, to negate the potion's 'Sleeping Beauty' effect, and hindsight applied to the circumstances of July '96 supports this hypothesis. The burning of the oregano is more straightforward, as oregano smoke is known to have a disruptive effect on Dark Magic, especially when stretched over distances, as in the case of Dark Artifacts connecting two persons not in proximity. As for the Draught itself, other than certain discrepancies in the preparation, the only notable factor is the enormous quantity Professor Snape seems to have prepared at one go.
Page 2 (July 4 cont'd)
The following text is wrapped around the page, and is attributed to A.E. Housman.
There was a king reigned in the East: There, where kinds will set to feast, they get their fill before they think With poisoned meat and poisoned drink. He gathered all the springs to birth From the many-venomed earth; First a little, then to more, he sampled all her killing store; And easy, smiling, season'd sound, Sate the king when healths went round. They put arsenic in his meat And stared, aghast, to watch him eat; They put strychnine in his cup And shook to see him drink it up: They shook, they stared, as white's their shirt: Them it was their poisons hurt.
I tell the tale that I heard told: Mithridates, he died old.
· it always takes longer than you expect, even taking this into account -- pro
{3:1} · elegance: the simplest solution is most probable: anti
· work expands to fill the time available for its completion: pro
· the perversity of the universe tends towards a maximum: PRO
If Occam's Elegance is bollocks as usual, O'Toole is persuasive in view of:
· no order · no temperature, times, stirring directions · excessive use of fresh, whole plants
· Pliny reports universally varying weights where Celsus doesn't and disagrees on #ings.
What the hell. O'Toole is persuasive.
MPP · Trimble's Dark Forces · Asiatic Anti-Vs · Medieval Ps · ask & obliviate Jigger · Livia Drusilla's Add'm to De Medicina
8G
acacia juice (A.C) ♂
illyrian iris ☽
cardamom ♀
(Elettaria)
12G
Gallic nard ♀
gentian root ♂
dried rose leaves ♀
17G
poppy-tears ☽
(papavar rhoeas)
parsley ♂
20G
sweet flag ☽
21G
storax ☉
24G
castoreum ☽!
frankincense ☉
hypocritis ♄
myrrh ☉
sweet myrhh☉
malabar leaf ☿, ☽
25G
nard ♀
obalsam ☉
shepards' purse ♄
28G
rhubarb root ♂, ♄
29G
saffron ♀
ginger ♄
cinnamon ☿
Unknown quant.
dried blood ♂
dried flesh of
☽ lizard or
♂ viper
^ species [of all]?
1·66gG
costmary ♃
20·66G
casia ☽
(probably buds)
saxifrage ☽
darnel ♃
long pepper ♂
24·66G
flowers of round rush ♃
turpentine resin ☉
galbanum ☉
cretan carrot seeds ♀
pounded
taken in honey as an
almond-sized lump
served in wine
☽ 8 @ 2733g+?
☉ 7 @ 3286g
♂ 6 @ 1389g+?
♀ 6 @ 1678g?
☿ 3 @ 65g
♃ 3 @ 2970g
♄ 4 @ 106
[in descending order]
sun
Jupiter
moon
Venus
Mars
Saturn
Mercury
[no order indicated]
alloy-? [arrows leading from 'gold' and 'tin']
copper? no, it's for me [arrow leading from 'birch']
gold
silver
tin
hawthorn
birch
· Choose [weakly drawn arrows lead from above materials]
cauldron [alloy]
mortar [hawthorn]
pestle [birch]
knives [gold]
ladle [silver]
sun predominates
Resolve
· Livia/Celcus/Pliny/Andromachus/Nicostratus discrepancies (err on Livia's side)
· casia: buds v. bark
· form of ginger - other spices presume powdered
· species & quantity of blood & flesh
--flesh refers to muscle or 'chunk of reptile?
Occam suggests muscle. Specificity?
--blood: wizard or muggle? conditions?
· brewing order
· brewing stages - temps & times
· stirring cycles
! · why get the salicin from beavers instead willow?
· theriacs build to a level - find other use for that perfectly good capsule
· figure out why a bitch of a potion like this is worth my bloody time when the likelihood of its working by the time I need it approaches NIL.
aside, of course, from its being a bitch of a potion...
The following begins in very small, diagonal cursive, straightening and strengthening line by line until it's calligraphed completely perpendicular to the rest of the text.]
braced on yielding walls under a stone sky
ten thousand sharp green eyes unfurling
ten thousand tender blades
ten thousand thin arms
urged on bad [haz'd?] by bright [illegible] nothing urged on
in bright whips
They're searching for --
June's eyes will see--
no telling
Step step by step by measured step
turn each anticipated turn
towards a certain center
Strung along in the hedge.
What the hell.