You certainly wouldn't want to bathe in a loch in *early* spring - but by May it depends on the year and exactly where you are. There are places in Scotland where the snow hardly ever melts - and places where sub-tropical palm trees will grow in the open.

It's a very convincing story, anyway. I take it from the summary, and from comments about Occlumency, that we're going to find out that Snape deliberately *allowed* himself to go mad, because it made it easier to keep Voldemort out of his head?

Author's Response: Thank you. the next time I'm having a quandry, I'll be sure to check that out. As far as Severus' madness goes, as you've noted, the summary makes it fairly clear that Severus willingly sacrificed his sanity, but I'm not ready to state how or why. From canon, I would assume that with his Occlumency skills intact, he had little trouble hiding things from Voldemort. So the loss of his sanity would not be necessary. At least, that's where I'm coming from with this fic. Insanity mucking up Occlumency is a product of my own coweb ridden imagination; it certainly isn't canon. :)