Letter 27: Severus Snape to J. Alfred Prufrock, 7th May 1998

A/N: For simplicity’s sake, titles of books, journals etc are underlined and emphases are italicised. In reviving the old tradition of epistolary novels, I understand the plot may be a little slow, laborious and difficult to follow. Some might consider it AU and a little OOC.

In order not to weary the reader’s patience, a number of letters from the series of correspondences have been suppressed; those only have been given which appeared necessary to a complete understanding of the events in this group. For the same reason, some letters from the actors in the events of this drama have also been suppressed.

Proestigium or What the Seasons may Bring

Letter 27: Severus Snape to J. Alfred Prufrock, 7th May 1998

Severus X. A. Snape

Potions’ Office,

The Dungeons,

Hogwarts,

Scotland,

UK.

7th May 1998

You are right, Prufrock! I must be calm, bold and resolute. I already know that it is a terrible notion! I am not going to pursue her. Do you take me for a fool? I do not want her to run mad before the NEWTS and fail so badly that I will have to hang myself in shame. I have no desire to see my head dragging on the cold floors of Hogwarts. I have too much vanity as an educator to desire my students’ destruction. You have every right to disapprove! Your miserable four lines of scrawl have brought me to my senses.

Beyond this nonsense, life goes on normally for me. I have finished preparing all my exam papers and am prepared to fail all the dunderheads. This year’s NEWTS papers from the ministry are more difficult than previous years. I sincerely hope that Potter will fail it, though I know it is a worthless hope. Nimue will undoubtedly do well. She has done much extracurricular reading under my guidance (and Jigger’s). I have composed a reply to her love potion article in Ars Chemica. All that remains is for Jigger to write a letter telling her that it is impossible for him to supervise her.

After the Kent conference in December last year, I have been inundated with many offers to deliver one-day lectures. Jigger will not do them, for I will deliver some of them by proxy this summer. Arrange for the usual fee to be credited into my Gringotts account. The end of the Dark Lord seems to have done my reputation some good. Yesterday, York offered Jigger a tenured position as a shadow lecturer. I am tempted by the offer as it would take me away from the dunderheads here. However, I am aware that there will dunderheads there as well. Perhaps I should do the world a great a service and poison all the dunderheads. Dunderheads or no, I have until July to apprise them of my decision.

I’m sending you the manuscript for Epistemological Alchemy. Get Penelope to read it and see if it is any good. If you can beat Heaney over your knees and convince him that Severus Snape is a respectable writer, publish it under my name. If he still feels otherwise after the beating, publish it under Jigger’s name, then hex him. Severus Snape can restrict his name to academic journals and still be satisfied. It is like the University of York’s offer – either way, I, Severus X. A. Snape, stand to gain. And that’s exactly how I like it. See what you can do about it on that score.

S. Snape.

Footnotes

Proestigium is Latin for illusion. Ironically, the English word Prestige derives from it.

The U of Kent conference was referred to in letter 4 and intimated in letter 6.