Saint Severus

Saepe creat molles aspera spina rosas
Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem
Quae nocent saepe docent
Sic inquam Severus:
Exaudi sapientia mea

-Litany of St. Severus


A number of minds have already connected the martyred character of Snape with the existence of real saints sharing his name. We can only hope they were not members of Death Eater-like clubs, but the idea of redemption through love is a romantic and persistent one. . .

Poetry Party: word and drama

July 16th was my friend Hide's birthday, and a wonderfully lavish party was held, complete with delicious treats, a variety of drinks, and – a romantic poetry read! Not everyone stepped up to the mark, nor came in dress; there was much recital from bodice-rippers. I, however, wrote a poem for the occasion, inspired by who else but Snape.


Elegance and strawberry shortcake. Yum!

SARCASTIC

The day we met
you were wearing your favorite outfit in the color of my life
I had dropped through a gap in time
into this Otherplace of pain and grief
A stranger in this territory you called Home
whose native language you spoke with terrifying grace
The flavor of your voice as complex, as bittersweet,
as dark as blackstrap molasses and your frock coat even darker
I hated you for your words
loved you for your words
wielded with a swordmaster's sublime skill
the cruel edge of your tongue dripping
in the rich red crimson of its conquest
cutting to the core of our contempt
consonants exquisite
Yet when we the world dissovered that the fire
tempering your edge was born of love's crucible,
we grieved and gave our hearts to you
Now you've up and moved,
to a region where I cannot follow
You always did love your solitude.
But where the spark of a soul resides hidden
and protected, one cannot die –
and the fire in the core of your cold steel
ignited one in mine
Welcome home, dearest Animus!
You and I have lost our taste for happiness and smiles
but if contentment and snarks suit your palette
as they do mine, you are invited to dine at my table
Then let us stroll at night through silent shadow
and silver shrouds of mist,
where secrets yet to be spoken await
in shades of grey satin and black velvet –
whispered silken subtle sarcasms slipping
across my skin like a sabre's caress
Kiss me now, deeply, with lips cool and sweet,
a balm to my soul's agonies
your tongue tasting of my own essence
carven from the depth of my desires
delicious
I will surf the keen edge of your words
until the fathomless folds of your voice envelop me
Drowning in a dark abyss of bliss
Out of my mind
and not minding it
not minding it
ONE
LITTLE
BIT.


George recites his poem, ending with a seductive "Meow!"


An adventure upon a pirate ship by Colleen


Contented (and perhaps slightly drunk) listeners. Birthday gal Hide in the middle with fan. (Topic of recitals did absolutely nothing to alleviate the heat in the room.)

Midnight Premier: say goodbye & go out laughing

I've been to many an event alone. I've spent most of my life alone. When you think about it, there's only one person you can count on with whom to spend time – so if you're not comfortable being alone, you're F*&%#ed. Having said that, this was one event I was happy to spend in the company of friends.

July 14, 2011, 11:59pm.

A thousand people stand in four lines, choking the penthouse-floor lobby of Regal Cinemas. The floor is covered with people sitting, people standing, people doing who-knows-what dressed as You Know Who. . . Some have nothing, others merely a lightning bolt drawn on the forehead; still others are fully decked out. There are Potters, Death Eaters, a Luna with a puffy blond wig, even a pair of identical twin girls with F & G shirts next to me in line. . . I have to literally shout over the din. Next to me, Kat and two other friends swill espresso, getting wilder and wilder, laughing louder and louder. And to be sure, this particular Snape is anything but dour and silent. As usual, my bag is stuffed with goodies – potions, Bertie Bott's beans – and I am way too hot in my Snape attire for comfort but totally don't care.

And I think, when next will I ever see anything quite like this?

How amusing it has been, how curiously enriching, to have gone from immature teen to mature adult during the years spanning the Age of Potter.

The line starts moving, and the butterflies in our stomachs grow. I, who so often shun popular fads, big events, or "the bandwagon", allow myself to be swept into the excitement, feeding on the adrenaline and emotions like a human version of a Dementor, relinguishing judgment. . . knowing if any modern trend has been worthy of appreciation, it is this one, which has opened the imaginations of so many – kid and adult alike.


Drinking in the scenes while sporting homage to The Bravest. Long live the grease! I was so relieved at the way they portrayed Snape's memories and remained fairly true to things, at least there. God, but they can botch things! This was beautiful and deeply moving.



Snapey hugs and kisses amid cinema chaos with Kat. In a situation like this, it's hard to pin "most annoying theatre viewer" labels on anyone, but we came damn close – squealing, shouting, giggling, technology usage, and bellowed mock-orders of "SILENCE!!!" being the order of the night. Soon as the curtain opened, we busted out the potions and snacks and partied like the pair of Slytherins we are!


An evil grimace from a Snape holding nothing back! The "sugar daddy" shirt (didn't have a Hawaiian print one) suggests the angel/devil complex and being free of those restrictive roles, plus, nothing – nothing is sexier than Redemption. (Sorry, James.) If not laughing all the way to sainthood, Severus can at least sigh in relief. At any rate, the angel wings were too much in the way in the cinema, had to leave those off.


Kat plays with a little Muggle magic. "Put your laptop away before we get thrown out," her friend ordered – turned out he didn't actually have a ticket, and was worried. Pth.


Snapes were few and far between, but this specimen was sighted in our cinema. For those not naturally blessed with abundantly greasy black hair, there's always the stringy black mop wig.




We were the last out of the cinema, and howled at the poor projector man when he tried to short the credits early. The credits promptly came back on. After much howling, laughing and gabbing, we tottered out of there about 3:00 am.

And so the odyssey ends. . . but the brewing doesn't. Harry Potter didn't invent potions, cloaks, or anything else in traditional witchdom – it just made it okay for us to come out of the broom closet . . . and keep on coming out. Anyone who has ever played dress-up, who has ever dreamed, who has ever brewed potions in a sink, or who is a true Witch or magic enthusiast. . . we've benefited in so many sundry little ways, even if we're still not taken seriously. That, sadly, will take a lot more time. Stereotypes, and religion, cast a long shadow. And that is why we must dream on, dance on, write on. . . brew on.

The Last Premier - Party like a Potions Master!

HARRY POTTER PREMIER PARTY JULY 14th:
Candy, Potions, Prizes, Wizard drinks, Plastic snakes and plenty of fun!

A display on the potion table – cauldron and numerous witchy ingredients (snakeskins, aconite, brimstone, wormwood, ghost weed, velvet leaf, belladonna, bistort, and a couple of potions). Only the batwings are not real – anyone who would kill bats merely for a display deserves to be cut up and used in a potion!

Let's face it – not all of us have the Galleons (nor the inclination!) to travel from the Pacific Northwest to scorching, muggy Florida to attend an official Harry Potter Convention. So, we here in Portlandmeade did what we could to send the Great Franchise off in style. At the apothecary I call home, we were invited by a small candy company, Chalk-Let (cute) – which is run out of a mini-schoolbus: Knight Bus, move over for these girls! – to have a table there, at which we could sell goods and do live potions demos.

Ewww!!! Name your ingredient – gooey gel, spiders, rats, several species of snakes – Dollar Scholar hosts a freaky table

What could be better, I ask, than being a real live Potions Master and apprentice, getting to help kids make real potions, all while sipping delicious, homemade butterbeer and pumpkin juice and swapping ridiculous anecdotes on a balmy afternoon? Few things, I daresay. . .



Our potion-making table – for a mere five Galleons (oops, dollars!) kid and adult alike can "brew", bottle and take home a potion. Antiquated pewter scoops, my massive potion case, old parchments, a quill, and a jar of Unguens Levitamens complete this scene.



Detail of the parchments, et cetera. Three of them – Libido Dulcis Fervidus, Velvet Blanket Brew, and Venice Treacle, are recipes for real potions; the fourth is a joke parchment, featuring a student's hideously illegible scribble and the scathing red-inked reply of an irate Professor Snape.

Butterbeer Recipe:
Cream soda, then spray or slather some butterscotch-flavor whip cream on top. Mmm, decadent!



A young member of my own House, dressed in her finest, coolly watches her friend's attempt at making a potion. She sips some of that yummy pumpkin juice, and has already made her potion, with the assertion: "I don't care what the herbs do, I just want something cool to put on my shelf!" Slytherin vanity. . . Hufflepuff honesty!

Pumpkin Juice Ingredients:
Apple cider
Pumpkin puree
Ginger
Cinnamon
Cloves
(sorry, didn't get the fractions. A bloke like Sev, and his apprentice, can figure it out – tough luck if you can't!)



My real-life Master, Carmella, instructs a young hopeful on the magic properties of each ingredient – Rose, Lavender, Jasmine flowers, Cinnamon, Mugwort, Mandrake, Frankincense – while Mom watches. We taught our charges how to make three types of potion – for love, vivid dreams, and protection. Pop Quiz: Which combinations do you guess are good for each brew?


The Woman who was Snape uses freaky Legili-powers to divine the reading of a Love-o-meter, an uber-cool, geeky science glass piece sold by the nearby Dollar Scholar fun shop. Around my neck are the very expensive Emerald Phial and a very cheap candy-powder plastic bottle, now filled with a healthy bee pollen snack. I found it's not practical to fully channel Snape (like I do in pictures), even in a Harry Potter setting, beyond making teases like, "And I'm not even grading them!" Why? Let's face it, folks. These are kids, and Snape is – no question – not a fun guy to be around.

Potterheads check out some local merchandise. Pah! Golden-Trio emulators! nice scarf



The interior of Chalk-Let Candy Company's candy bus! Second only to Honeydukes, with enough variety of goodies to satisfy even Dumbledore's tastes, the Bus features bulk lemon drops, runts, mints, wax sugar-drink bottles, gumdrops, crunchy clusters, lollipops, jelly beans (yes, they have boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and I ran into one hell of an icky taste twice!), and Snape shudders to think what else. If you're ever in Portland, give 'em a visit – any candy-filled school bus with a chalkboard inside reading, "You are special" is a great place.


Afterward, at 9:00 pm, we all packed up like maniacs, I stuck 40-odd lbs. on my back and raced home on the wheeled broomstick to prepare for the Last Premier – as (what else) all-inhibitions-barred Snape!

Ladies and gentlemen, make way for The Saint – or else.