Disclaimers:
JK Rowling created the Harry Potterverse ; Hogwarts and its inhabitants all belong to her. As she's not letting them out for another adventure until next year, I'm giving them some exercise - for pleasure not profit. Salomé the Snake is my own invention, the latest addition to Snape's Menagerie. Snape's beard/goatee /moustache may well belong to every other Sevromancer (and the American illustrator) but certainly does NOT belong here, or to me: it is Banished from this fic, understood? Severus' forehead is in fact the property of Mr Sphinx, since he asked me (a tad plaintively) whether my favourite fantasy-figure bore any resemblance to him whatsoever.
Notes:
First, an apology for the long absence. Been in computer exile for over five months, working on an exhibition and series of public art projects that demanded all my creative resources. I banned myself from writing, just in case it robbed my real work of necessary sparkle. To J L Matthews, Morrighan, Lilith Morgana and Winged Keys, huge thanks for the sustained and lively correspondence that kept me going in the gloomy Cybercafé I frequented.
This story owes its existence to Morrighan, who suggested that I write a prequel to 'Letter from Exile One Merciful Morning', itself an alternative ending to Lupinlover's Snape-Hermione romance Beyond the Silver Rainbow. Whilst I did fit my plot to Lupinlover's, in all the other respects the works don't match; besides, having more than once accused other S-H writers of Narrative Cheating (Hermione in love with Severus before the story starts so you don't have to explain it or make it convincing ) I felt obliged to write my own version.
My word, it IS difficult, isn't it? Oh well, you can amuse yourselves watching a tormented Sphinx go through all manner of literary contortion acts to square her political/moral beliefs with a female student-male teacher romance. It's such a strain I've pulled all my cerebral muscles into lumps that can't think straight. Here's a titchy prologue (we're talking brief chapter postings) to show I still exist. The Explanation proper begins next chapter, mind.
I've also, in this interim, read far more Sevromances than are good for me. Any resemblance to Lilith Morgana's 'No Angel' is not intentional, but has certainly become recognisable. Quite uncannily, all our Severus stories have similar dynamics though they were written independently. We have agreed that twenty-first century feminist minds are bound to think alike, and are happy to deconstruct the patriarchal myth of Authorial Originality for anyone who'll listen (phew, thought not). Actually, all you need to know can be found in the book 'Gender and Genius' by Christine Battersby). Though the pacing of our stories is similar (SLOW - for instant shagging go elsewhere) and they are both post-Voldemort, I've steered mine away from her realism, and decided to tackle the inevitably Redemptive role of Hermione head-on. Very head-on, even though I'm an Atheist.
You may wish either to bless or curse the brilliant and insightful Morrighan, who hath delivered you a prequel but delayed the sequel thereby.
This all happens, not in an Alternative Universe, but a Slightly Dislocated one. For reasons that will become clearer in the sequel, this needs to take place in the academic year of 1999-2000. Hermione, Harry, Ron et al are in their 8th year at Hogwarts, the war with Voldemort having delayed their NEWTs. All their year have stayed on to make up for lost time (Literary Contortion no. 1: Hermione is eighteen going on nineteen). Here, Voldemort's first defeat was in 1982, not 1981.
If you haven't read 'Letter from Exile', read it before this. In plot terms this comes first, but hows and whys are more important than whats, and 'Letter', which wrote itself in a week, is more inspired. It'd be a shame if you read this and decided not to bother with its predecessor. A kindly reviewer told me she'd be happy with something 'half as good' as that - so here it is.