Of course, nobody here ever doubts that Severus Snape is alive. But to what extent ? What does he do for a living ? Where ? How ? Well, these questions rose in my mind again no later than this morning.

Here were the circumstances : I was going out of the supermarket and opposite, there's a pharmacy. In one of the windows, in big, an ad for an age care product.

Usually, this type of product does not draw my attention at all. Yet this time, I had to look twice. Here was the text of the ad, spelt in big in the pharmacy window (in French, I translate later) :

Mysterieux
Divin Venin
Ssssséduisant !

(Which translates as : Mysterious - Godly Venom - Ssssseductive !)

My heart leapt in my chest. I could not help thinking about the gruesome death penned by JKR for our dearly beloved Potions Master. Besides, I imagined a puzzled Severus Snape watching the same window from a distance. No doubt he would have enjoyed the cruel irony of the statement. Or smashed the window in a resentful move of his wand.

That had been my first thoughts. Later, still intrigued, I checked the product in question on the internet. It's made by a pharmaceutical lab based in Switzerland, that uses snake venoms in their research for various clients, among them the cosmetic firm in Paris that commercialize the said age care product.

As I checked the cosmetic firm website, I was more and more puzzled. Obviously, they used names for their products in relationship with magic. Such as, just to give you an idea :

- "L'Alchimie Botanique du Futur" ("The Botanical Alchemy of the future"),
- "Philtre Légendaire & Centenaire" ("Legendary & Centenary Philtre"),
- "Abracadabaume Perfect Illusion" ("Abracadabalm Perfect Illusion"),
- "Diabolique Tomate" ("Diabolical Tomato"),
- "Eau de Sourcellerie" (I can't translate, it's a pun on sorcery, witchcraft and water divining),
- "Formule Ensorcelante Anti-Peau de Croco" ("Bewitching Formula Against Crocodile Skin"),

I could not believe it. Such names could not but come from only one source.

Either JKR had launched her own range of beauty care based on her HP ideas and universe. No. Impossible. Why would she care making more money like this, she already has tons of them !

Either... No, I could not believe either. Yet, once you have removed all the logical possibilities, the only one left, however improbable, must be the true one then.

I knew only one man that could have come up with such ideas and names for products very similar to... potions actually.

So the obvious conclusion imposed itself on me.

Severus Snape was alive. And he was making it nice, maybe even big, in the cosmetic industry. Probably with the help of Nagini by the way. The man was cunning enough to have lured Voldemort's familiar into faking his death and sharing a future wealth and fame in beauty care. After all, he had played his part well, so well, he had deceived one of the greatest wizards of all times. He could have convinced Nagini to follow him to accomplish something far better than the messy affair of the Shrieking Shack.

I hope so. Truly. Madly. Deeply.

(For those who are interested and can read French, the cosmetic firm is named "Garancia". Google them and check it out by yourself. I precise that I do not advertise for them ! I just wrote this, inspired by the ad I saw in the pharmacy window.)