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

[tesseract_5]

Hi Lilian, this chapter is nicely sparse and spaced out.

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

Only a couple comments

Do these sentences need to be seperate paragraphs? A woman’s laughter echoed from the play room. Not wanting to miss the excitement, the boy left his books and ran to his mother.

He stopped short by the door, eyes growing big as saucers. Snowflakes swayed and danced in the air.

and, the only glimpse we get of Snape's parents, in OotP, they are yelling at each other. I understand that mood you've created with Snape's father deathly silent, condeming his wife. 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.

[lilian_cho]

Thanks for the v. prompt review

[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.