Note: There are links to mailing lists and messages sent to mailing lists which require registration to access.

With the Snape Slash list gone, the HP Slash mailing list is the best starting point for researching the history of Snape/Lupin in the fandom. The HP Slash list was created on February 2, 2000. The first post is from Chellebelle, who was the creator and moderator at that time.

The first Snape/Lupin story wasn't posted to HP Slash until October 22, 2000: Hunter's Moon, by Majolique.

Three days later on October 25, CM Shaw posted No Choice of Poisons.

Three days after that on October 28, Keelywolfe posted The Subtleties of Loneliness.

And on October 30, Jemisard posted Potions, which is a Remus/Sirius, Remus/Severus piece.

These stories are possibly the first Snape/Lupin stories written; at the very least, they are among the earliest. Interestingly enough, Majolique posted a Snape/Harry story shortly after posting "Hunter's Moon", and Keelywolfe had primarily posted Harry/Ron stories up until then, but it seemed the end of October was destined to see the emergence of Snape/Lupin, at least on HP Slash.

The discussion seems to indicate that CM Shaw's "No Choice of Poison" was inspirational in showing the potential depths of the relationship, which perhaps led to the sudden flurry of stories with a pairing that hadn't been written (on the list, at least) for over 2,000 posts even though there had been Snape/Dumbledore, Snape/James, and other pairings written that are still rare today.

Further investigation reveals the creation date for the Snape Slash list: November 2, 2000. (Note from McKay: which alleviates my concerns that it pre-dated HP Slash or that the first Snape/Lupin stories might have been posted there rather than HP Slash.) The list was created by Jen Faulkner; it was deleted several years later (2005? 2006?), although whether the mod or Yahoo deleted it is unknown.

The first known exclusively Snape/Lupin archive was The Parapet, which was begun and maintained by Eline. It was created in April, 2001, although the exact date has yet to be pinned down. McKay's note: I was able to trace it to April rather than the vague "sometime before October, 2001" I'd been going on before thanks to a post in the HP Slash archives: a message from Eline sent on March 17, 2002, announcing a contest to celebrate The Parapet's one year anniversary in April. I checked 3 different mailing lists - HP Slash, Harry Potter Slash, and Wizard-L - to see if any notification of the site's creation had been given in April, 2001, but there wasn't. I'm guessing there was a post to Snape Slash, which is now lost.

Eline also modded the Lupin Snape Slash mailing list, which was created on October 29, 2001. At the time, she was the only moderator, and it's unknown at this point if there were any other co-mods during that time; lore is a co-moderator now.

The first story posted to the mailing list was Bugger This! (Now and Then), by Eline. It was written in response to Telanu's "Snape is a lousy lay" challenge on the now-deleted Snape Slash list. Technically, it's not a Snape/Lupin story, because she wrote it as a "choose your own Snape pairing" piece.

On November 7, Eline posted the list's first challenge, which involved a possible first line ("You can do that in here!") or the inclusion of one of the following: an eggbeater, Snape's owl and references to (choose one) Shakespeare/Dickens/Austen/Hardy.

The first actual RL/SS story posted to the list was Wicked Game I, by McKay. Part 1 was posted on November 7, and the header information indicates that the Snape Slash Fleet was already well underway by then.

Although it's difficult, probably impossible, to track down an exact date since the list where all the initial posts were made has been deleted, the Snape Slash Fleet was conceived and created in October, 2001, and the original Moonshadow archive was created and maintained by McKay. In 2002, she transferred mod duties of the archive to Sarspasm, who maintained the site until March, 2005, when Xochiquetzl imported all the stories from the old Moonshadow archive to the new automated Moonshadow archive, which remains the primary ship archive.

On December 17, 2001, the Snape N Lupin mailing list was created. The list was created and modded by Viviane/Boadicea; although the reason why she created a new list is unclear, there does seem to be a small difference between this list and Lupin Snape Slash in that Snape N Lupin allows any pairings, het or slash, that feature Snape or Lupin, while Lupin Snape Slash limits content solely to Snape/Lupin (and threesomes).

The Snape N Lupin list began with a great deal of discussion; the first challenge wasn't issued until post 20, and the first actual story (as opposed to links) wasn't posted until post 59: Last Smile, by Viviane.

Although the Severus Snape Fuh-Q Fest was not an exclusively Snape/Lupin event, it did generate quite a few RL/SS stories, and it was arguably the biggest event in the Snape Slash community of 2002. Run by Tboy and Luthien, the SSFF was launched in March, 2002. On March 8, Tboy posted her statement of intent, and on March 28, the Severus Snape Fuh-Q Fest was launched. There were two waves in 2002 and a third wave in mid-2003. Due to increasingly strict pornography laws in Australia, the original SSFF archive was taken down, but it was moved and reopened later in a new location with all the stories intact.

This was arguably a groundbreaking event, bringing together Snape slashers of all types and generating a large body of work with new and different pairings. This was one of, if not the earliest organized fest/challenge events in HP slash fandom which generated a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm at the time. It seems to have been the turning point that illustrated the possibilities with rare pairings, and it spawned several other character and pairing specific fests. Indeed, the number of different fests hosted in the fandom appears to have escalated steadily after the success of the SSFF.

On April 7, 2003, Makishef created the Lupin/Snape Lurve Community on Livejournal. The first story posted to the community on April 10: an untitled drabble by Makishef. Activity was slow initially; the community averaged 2-3 posts per month, and there were no challenges offered at that time. Activity in the community began picking up towards the end of 2003 and early in 2004 with the emergence of familiar names: Arionrhod, lore, the Lady Feylene, the Treacle Tart, Michael Chance, and McKay. In April, 2005, lore became the community's active mod.

During the fall of 2003, Michael Chance began the Master and the Wolf FQF. It appears Michael was collecting challenge suggestions for the first wave of the Fest by September 6 with plans to begin in October and run through the end of November, although it was obviously extended later. The first stories were posted to the archive on October 22: "With My Last Breath" and "Saving Grace", both by Black Onyx Angel. The first wave ended in February, 2004. There have been seven waves to date, in addition to short mini-challenges issued in-between.

In October, 2005, McKay announced the Secret Snupin Santa Exchange, which ran through December 1-25, 2005 on the Lupin/Snape community, and it resulted in over 50 stories and pieces of art. The Snupin Santa exchange returned in 2006 with over 90 participants.