Un Chapeau Blanc (A White Hat)

[lilian_cho]

Title: “Un Chapeau Blanc” (“A White Hat”)
Author: lilian_cho
Pairing: None. Mr. & Mrs. Snape :-P
Genre: Genfic, Dark, a sprinkling of angst
Contains: Implied violence, murder attempt and suicide
Warnings: Undercurrent of violence, mental degeneration, character death
Spoilers: Harry Potter books, Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince chapter one, I am

Comments

[lilian_cho]

Thanks for the v. prompt review :-)

>>>>>I know it's left vague on purpose, I'm guessing, but is Snape's mother meant to be drug addicted? or mad, or both.

Both. She did not intentionally overdose on alihotsy though, it's her husband. I wonder how to make that clear?

>>>>>I like the idea that she's kinda of self medicating her mental state with herbs and spices from her garden and kitchen.

Yup, her death in the end is due to her "self-medication." It wasn't her husband, since he wouldn't know the hallucinatory effect of nutmeg, a Muggle household spice.

>>>>>Do these sentences need to be seperate paragraphs?

Hhm. This story has many two-line paragraphs. I separate those two paragraphs because I want to emphasize "He stopped short by the door"--which is a direct quote from "The Yellow Wallpaper" (When John finds his wife creeping along the walls).

Do you think they work better combined?

>>>>>It might make a more dramatic scene if he were to be verbally doing this, yelling at her, to match what we read in JKR's scene. Just a thought.

I deliberately left Snape's father out of this so he can be the invisible menace. Even in "C'est un Chapeau," his verbal abuse remains offstage:

The ancient spells that guarded the tomes robbed people of their speech once they entered the library. Even his shouts could not reach me here. [...]

On particularly bad days, when she did not even recoil from him, I wondered if mother had been kissed by a dementor.

Since Ill be writing a remix of this back-story, I'll try to write the verbal abuse onstage. I grew up with a hot-blooded family, and I'm also rather hot-blooded myself. But I shy away from writing onstage verbal assault. I wonder why... ~_~ Maybe I should try writing fiction when I'm angry. That should be interesting.

[tesseract_5]

ah, She did not intentionally overdose on alihotsy though, it's her husband. I didn't catch that. I can see how you hinted at it, but it was too delicate a hint for me to catch.

I'd argue with you on the nutmeg being purely a Muggle spice, plus, as far as I know from pure rumor, one would have a eat a sickening LOT of nutmeg in order to hallucinate that much. (I know people who've tried, and ended up feeling just sick).ahem! In the HP books, in potions class a lot of the herbs used really exist in muggle households, so one would think it would be the Wizarding world have has a deeper knowledge and access to herbs rather than the Muggle one. Unless it was something like Mrs. Dash seasoning. But that's not toxic, even in large amounts. :)

[lilian_cho]

>>>>>I didn't catch that. I can see how you hinted at it, but it was too delicate a hint for me to catch.

I'll work on that. I'm just...too-subtle-it's-nonexistent.

>>>>>as far as I know from pure rumor, one would have a eat a sickening LOT of nutmeg in order to hallucinate that much.

Yup. Which is why the nutmeg jar was empty.

>>>>>In the HP books, in potions class a lot of the herbs used really exist in muggle households, so one would think it would be the Wizarding world have has a deeper knowledge and access to herbs rather than the Muggle one.

Hhmm, true. But nutmeg seems so...harmless. You hear "nutmeg" and you think "apple pie." I think v. v. few people know its hallucinatory property, esp. since as you've pointed out, a sickening large amount is needed to get high (or even get a buzz).

Nutmeg is also not as obvious as wormwood and aconite, which Snape definitely will clear out from the kitchen and garden.

[tesseract_5]

right, still even a very sick person -- eating a whole nutmeg piece? bleargh.

Someone I envision Snape's father slipper her a potion that would drive her nuts to run into the lake, (so Ophelia like), but that's my sense of over the top drama.

[lilian_cho]

*g* I was thinking of a jar of nutmeg powder, actually. I know, I know, nutmeg's less effective when not freshly grated.

Still, I need to give her a way to off herself. And grating huge quantities of nutmeg will surely attract the house-elf's attention.

>>>I envision Snape's father slipper her a potion that would drive her nuts to run into the lake, (so Ophelia like), but that's my sense of over the top drama.

Yeah...I have her drug herself in the end to give her a last modicum of control over her life. Also, I can't see how her husband can manage to slip through Snape's vigilance to slip her the potion. Maybe if Snape's away at Hogwarts...but it was Snape's summer break when it happened.