fic rec: "Cost of Living"

Cost of Living has one of the most original premises I've encountered in HP fiction; and yet, it makes so much sense. After all, Voldemort is striving for a particular prize; if he loses, Harry wins, and, well, they do say that to the victor goes the spoils.

Sansa does exactly that: Severus and Harry realise that, as the ones responsible for slaying Voldemort, they have inherited the immortality he sought. Harry shows up to consult Snape about a cure for their strange condition, and slowly develop a friendship amidst the strangeness of their new lives.

The best part of this fic is the sense of time it's imbued with, the heavyness of centuries, the moments of singular clarity that seem to stand still, and the rushing flow of years that begins to seem far away, like a river glimpsed through the trees. Harry and Severus are at once outside of time and occupied by it, barely noticing the centuries while obsessed with how fast they pass.