Well, now you've made me cry!! Poor Poor Severus - life really does (did?) have it in for him!!

You have an incredible talent for conveying a great deal in very few words, and I am in awe!! I'm off to read you other stories, and I'm looking forward to them!!
Scarlett

Sad, well-written and probable.

Dates don't work, though. Internal evidence in the books shows that Severus was born in 1958 or 1959, probably 1959. We know this because in spring 1996 Harry thinks of the bullying incident he saw in the Pensieve - which occurred during Snape's OWLs, in the summer that he was sixteen - as *more* than twenty years ago. So it wasn't summer 1976, which would be less than twenty years prior to spring 1996. It must have been 1995, or earlier, and that means Snape was born in 1959, or earlier.

That means 1971 was his twelfth birthday, which is correct - his first birthday at Hogwarts. But 20 would be his 41st birthday, not his 40th.