Prisoners of Azkaban: Editors’ Notes

II. Arithmantic and Occlumentic obfustication in the diary entries

During the thirty-one days of their probation, Severus and Hermione Snape both developed unique methods to resist the influence of the Veritaserum in the blood-ink of their quills, what experts from the Department of Mysteries call “obfustication”—to render obscure or unintelligible by magical means.

In the course of the eleven years of her imprisonment, Hermione Snape’s talent for and interest in Arithmancy turned into a fixation on numbers, figures, and counting. It was this obsession, St Mungo’s experts agree, that saved her mind during her extended solitary confinement. Her probationary diary clearly shows how she harnessed this borderline-psychotic habit to suppress incriminating information that inevitably crept up again and again in her entries. Every time her quill slipped and the flow of words is interrupted by a sequence of figures—most often counting letters in surrounding words, but sometimes also lines, or days, or other items—, can be interpreted as an instance of successfully suppressed confessions.

Severus Snape, on the other hand, employed his superb skills as an Occlumens not only to build an imaginary life that helped him survive confinement in Azkaban, but also to resist the pressure of Veritaserum to provide further evidence for his and Hermione Snape’s involvement in Voldemort’s death. With the very rare exceptions of splodges and smears caused by fat, sweat, or tears, magical particle analysis shows that all of those marks occur during periods of full Occlusion, when he would not betray his cause by thought, speech, or written word.

Based on complex arithmantic-divinatory interpretations an attempt has been made to extrapolate the meaning hidden in these entries by Arithmancy and Occlumency. While the results of this method are generally reliable and accurate, it should be noted that, like all arithmantic and divinatory methods, the following must not be seen as the presentation of facts.

Nevertheless, it is the hope of the research team that the strictly chronological explanations of the obscured parts of these documents will further illuminate the material.


7 Responses to Prisoners of Azkaban: Editors’ Notes

  1. beffeysue says:

    Something bothered me about the two lists of names, and it took me a while to figure it out. Minerva McGonagall’s name is not on Hermione’s first list of the fallen. There are 95 names listed, but none of them is Minerva’s. With hers on the list there would have been 96.

    Please forgive me. I am cursed with an analytical and technical mind. *shakes head* Not good for much else, I afraid. LOL!

    Beth

    • JunoMagic says:

      Of course it’s rather sad that you have nothing at all to say besides a rather minor nitpick. However, I am naturally grateful that you pointed this tiny glitch out to me, and I’ve been happy to correct it.

  2. beffeysue says:

    I’m so sorry that I came across as such an asshat. That was never my intention. I have inhaled this story in the last couple of weeks (first on TPP and then finished on OWL today), and I left what I hope were intelligent comments for each chapter.

    There were such tantilizing hints in each chapter that kept me going from one to the next, and I love trying to connect all the dots. I am an analytical person by nature and by training, and I let that side of me take over when I came here to see the lists. I had read some of the comments that other readers had made about the Editor’s Notes on OWL, and was interested in combing through the data to see if I would recognize any of the characters missing from Hermione’s first list. I felt like Hemione with her counting.

    You are one of my favorite writers, and Prisoners of Azkaban is one of the most compelling and uniquely constructed stories I’ve ever read. I got carried away with my “dot connecting”, and I apologize for my comment here. I feel terrible about this and hope you will accept my apology. I am humbly sorry.

    Beth
    aka beffeysue

    • JunoMagic says:

      It’s okay, no worries. *hugs* In a way, I’m really thrilled you paid such close attention! I mean, in more than a year (!) of having the story posted here, you’re the first person who noticed! I just had this moment of disappointment when I thought “Wow, someone came all the way to my website for the story, wonder how they liked it” … and then it was only about the missing name. 🙁

      I still have to get caught up on replying to comments on the other sites, and I have to admit it’s very difficult for me to keep all names and addies straight between FFNet, OWL, TPP, AO3, and my own site at all times. I guess for you it felt like just one of ALL the comments you left. While for me, I’m sorry to say, it just didn’t connect with all the other comments. Lately I’ve been having an awful time with keeping even the people I interact with more regularly with straight, what with most people having different names on Buzz than on LiveJournal or the archives. I hope that explains my reaction a bit.

      And I’m so glad that the counting didn’t put you off. When I set out writing, I wasn’t sure if that “tick” I chose for Hermione wouldn’t drive people crazy. I have to admit, during the writing process, there were times when I felt it was driving me round the bend. (But I promise I never started counting squares.)

      Thank you again for reading and noticing my mistake; if you look at the list again, you’ll find the name where it belongs!

  3. Einsam says:

    I read this story over at least once a year at FanFiction.net, and this time I decided to check out the CSS3 version on your site – I loved it! All the extra little details that you just don’t get over at FF really contribute so much to the story, and the amount of time and attention to detail you’ve put into this is mind-blowing. I’ve always been a big fan of your work, but this story will always be truly outstanding to me.

    • JunoMagic says:

      Wow, thank you! I’m thrilled you enjoyed the story, and it’s really the best compliment a writer can get if a reader comes back to re-read. *beams* And I’m really really happy that you’re also enjoying the web design. Hooray!

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