OK, now I've read the definitions of AU and AR and I'm still confused. I think it's only because you've used AR to define what I think of as AU - a different existence. Would these definitions mean that if I write the usual post-DH story and bring Snape back (still as the potions master Death Eater etc.), that's now AU? But if I write him as a cowboy and Harry as a sheepherder in the old west (what I think of as AU) that's AR? I just want to be clear on your definitions (I figure I don't have to agree with them, just understand them *g*)