Yes, alas, HBP and then DH canon-shafted me pretty good on Snape's KEC background, BUT, I like this Prologue too much to scrap it.  Glad you enjoyed it!

Indeed it is a Dr. Who reference!  You know you're a total fashion geek when your first response upon discovering the Tardis is "ZOMG could I get a purse or suitcase like that?!  PUHLEEZE?!"These days I've also become something of a Torchwood geek as well, thanks to the wonders of Netflix.   I love getting BBC programming in  the States. 

Indeed it is a Dr. Who reference!  You know you're a total fashion geek when your first response upon discovering the Tardis is "ZOMG could I get a purse or suitcase like that?!  PUHLEEZE?!"These days I've also become something of a Torchwood geek as well, thanks to the wonders of Netflix.   I love getting BBC programming in  the States. 

Heeeee, and the fun part is, they both think they've hidden  all their highly inappropriate feelings away so carefully and nobody has the slightest idea how they feel about each other... And they both have all this romantic angst percolating away and absolutely no one with whom to actually talk about it...Can't wait till you see the next chapter!

I can't wait as well.  But your little icon there has me a-wonderin' now.  What are you up to?  I have to go check the queue to see if you've loaded it yet.

Heeeee, and the fun part is, they both think they've hidden  all their highly inappropriate feelings away so carefully and nobody has the slightest idea how they feel about each other... And they both have all this romantic angst percolating away and absolutely no one with whom to actually talk about it...Can't wait till you see the next chapter!

I can't wait as well.  But your little icon there has me a-wonderin' now.  What are you up to?  I have to go check the queue to see if you've loaded it yet.

Oh there will be lots lots LOTS more, believe me! Thanks for sticking with it!

All the plot points laid out in the last few chapters come to what I hope is a rather pulse-pounding denouement in Ch. 26 -- but no spoilers! It might be a LEEEEETLE bit longer than my usual single chapter, but I've been told it goes by quickly. Can't WAIT till you see it!

For all seasons,

Guernica

Well, let's see, she's physically attractive by Caucasian human standards and the standards of Faery fauns, satyrs, sidhe, boggins, and sluagh.

Goblins and pixies might find her kind of overly tall, pale, and skinny, nixies would find her too tall, stocky, and lacking in flight ability, giants would find her too small and her conversation too complicated, tiger pookas would find her too small and too bald and whiskerless, and spider pookas and centaurs would think she had rather too few legs to be really attractive. And seeing as how veela are always female and Emily is straight, she'll never get to pick up on any of them, either. Plus not all Fae sluagh would go for her either -- Emily's marriage to Dorien was considered interracial by Faery standards.

So as with everything, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Plus, I find it really humanizes a person to depict her as having inconvenient bodily functions like oestrus, and now and then having a decent sense of humour about walking into a really bad joke at her own expense. Tends to make even an otherworldly character more sympathetic, in my opinion.

Anyway, I hope you had as much fun reading about Em as I did creating and writing her. Thanks for the review!

Thank you! Yes, seeing as how Emily feels more of an affinity with and has a close peer relationship with her old flame Lucius than she does with the ever-busy and preoccupied Dumbledore, she does just tend to favour the fellow who pays more attention to her without really thinking about it. To her credit though, she does eventually figure out what was going on, and takes steps to remedy her errors in judgment.

And yes, these chronicles of the Knight Errant are very much a fish-out-of-water tale, so oftentimes the ardent Potter fan knows more about the situation Emily is facing than Emily herself. Anyway, thanks for the review!

Alas, heartbreak happens in JKR's Potterverse with regularity. We can't expect everything to always be hearts 'n flowers for these two, BUT, I promise it won't be this bleak forever. More to come!

You might find out what Snape wanted to say to Emily that day when he interrupted her sword-cleaning -- it just MIGHT come up in later chapters. (Certainly he's had some time to think about it since then!)

But seeing as how he reacted furiously to Emily's first attempt at patching things up the night before, and not long after that was told that the woman he'd been so angry and suspicious toward had been tragically widowed in years past... well, even Snape has admitted that he's not made of stone, and might have done some hard thinking after the Hallowe'en Ball about whether his harshness toward her was really justified.

However, given how little practice the poor man has at apologizing to women or sustaining interpersonal relationships without any sort of political agenda in mind -- who knows if he would have found the right words to say to her in that moment. He might have just made things worse, kind of like Mr. Darcy offending Lizzie as he tries to propose to her.

But it MIGHT come up again in Part III -- all I can say is stay with it! MUCH more to come

Glad you enjoyed it so much!  Don't confuse Faery absinthe  from the Seventh Kingdom (which has an effect on Snape much like the human drug Ecstasy) with real, Second-World absinthe, however.  I've tried real-world absinthe in Amsterdam, and all I got for my trouble was one hell of a stomach- and headache.  For all of its literary accounts, it's really pretty foul-tasting stuff, alas.

That said -- I cannot WAIT until you see the next few chapters, in which we see what came of Snape's little foray into Faery nightlife... all I can say is, STAY TUNED!!!

too bad i dont do drugs. that sound slike an awesome feeling. oh well. ill stick to living it thru snape. lolanyways... i will definitely stay tuned. I cant wait to see them either!

Yes, as much as the Fae enjoy their recreational hallucinogens (which for them have religious significance, rather like Native Americans and peyote) they are as you can see NOT recommended for human consumption, especially if you don't have a Fianna knight to keep you out of trouble in that state!!!

And as much fun as Snape had while "in the arms of the Blue Faerie", it's entirely possible that he might end up paying for it later... MUCH more to come of this little development!  

Alas, tempting as the Blue Faerie may seem, she's a treacherous wench who packs a WICKED hangover, she is...    Snape may live to regret meeting her... but no spoilers!

I am beyond delighted to entertain such a discerning reader (and editrix) as yourself.  Cheers! 

Ooooooooooh!!!!  I can't wait till you see what happens next! 

Yes, indeed, while Emily has never thought Lucius was the most morally upright of men, she would never have imagined the depths of cruelty and depravity he's capable of, seeing as how she'd never really seen that side of him until now. 

But she has started to see Snape as something of "conscience"; snarky as he is, he does have her best interests at heart most of the time.  We MIGHT see a great deal more of Snape with Emily later... but no spoilers!  Ooooh, I can't wait till you read the next chapters!!!  *wibble* 

*evil laugh* Rather a tense place to end it, I was hoping...

And yes, older women are not always immune to the charms of gorgeous young jailbait, even though Emily's code of honour would absolutely prevent her from ever laying a finger on Draco while he's still a minor.

It makes for some SERIOUS dramatic tension though... stay tuned!

Exactly, for all his surliness and grudge-bearing, we all know that Snape will always come through when anyone else is in truly desperate danger, even if he dislikes that person. (Look at all the times he's saved undeserving little Harry's neck!) Emily might absolutely agree that she'd take Snape over Lucius any day... but alas, Snape's given every indication that he can't stand her...

That MAY change in the future, but no spoilers! Thanks for the review!

Thank you, sweetie! Yes, when I wrote the "Emily teaching class" scenes, I was definitely trying to establish a sense of fun and playfulness. And believe me, Lucius is a slut nonpareil -- in Ch. 18, he has not yet BEGUN to slut. Can't wait till you see what's coming up next!

Indeed, in HP canon the Dark Lord seems to have an active interest in recruiting other supernatural factions, i.e. the giants and the goblins over to his side, so I figured it would be natural for him to covet the Faeries as well. And alas -- seeing as how she's a Beauxbatons alum and never spent too much time in the British Wizarding world, Em has never really learned what a Dark Mark is or how they work... this MAY be important later...

All I can say is, STAY TUNED!!! There's lots more to come!

Yeah, something about getting showered with diamonds and great sex and having your least little whim indulged can really turn a girl's head, somehow, especially when she's feeling lonesome, homesick, and rejected...!!!

But Malfoy being Malfoy, of course it comes with a price... but trust me, there will be MUCH more to this later! 

Oh, I believe you. And I won't be fooled again! ... (I think.)

Thank you very kindly! I'm always pleased to hear that folks get so interested they tear through this behemoth in record time (and to hear that they don't think the OC is a Mary Sue!)

Regarding Arcadia's seeming perfection though, keep in mind that it's only been described by a homesick Faerie and a Tithe page vacationing at a royal court -- of course it's going to come off as the object of desperate longing to Emily, and as picture-postcard perfect to the wastrel aristocrat that was Lucius. (However, just wait until the later scene when Em walks across a battlefield feeling the blood-soaked ground squelching under her hooves... the place ain't as perfect as all that.)

Thanks for the remarks about my protrayal of Lucius -- I've seen him done as SociopathicHannibalLecter!Lucius so often that I'm having a lot of fun with SilverTonguedWomanizingBastard!Lucius. Yes, he's a pig, but damn it all if he isn't a LOT of fun to write. I've often described him as a "reptilian id in bespoke robes."

Also, I am in the process of writing an original novel right now! It's called Marble Angel, and is an urban noir suspense thriller. (A good friend refers to it as "The River's Edge in the L.A. goth scene.")

You can find a few excerpts from it in the Files section here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Guernica-Fics/

And I am ever so grateful!  Thank you!

Thanks!  As I was writing the "Snape and Emily go off on the Tournament" scene I kept thinking, oh, man, it's a couple of teachers cracking each other up with obscure academic humor -- everybody is going to think this scene is SO geeky. But oddly enough, folks seem to like it.

And indeed Snape's a little jealous of Emily and Malfoy -- maybe even more than a little jealous.  (But could Lucius be twigging on to Emily/Snape?  Hmm...)