Scales and Tales

DementorDelta and CruiseDirector have just earned 10,000,000 points and a free lifetime supply of squee! A Reason To Celebrate (Part One, Part Two, Part Three) is exactly what I wanted: post-Deathly Hallows Harry/Snape that fixes canon in the best ways without destroying it.

If you're feeling the need for an antidote, Barmy is just the thing.

Schemingreader mixes liberal doses of humour with the occasional startling insight. I love her Snape and Harry, and the ambiguous position they occupy, both with the outside world -- patients to be coddled and healed, yet prisoners to be feared -- and with each other -- tormentor and healer, both wounded and each trying to mend the other.


You have recurrent and unpredictable memory loss, possibly due to spell damage. The only thing you seem to be able to remember is your antipathy for me. Every so often you inform me of it, with bellowed threats."

"Really?" Harry said to himself. "Good for me."

And then there's what I can only call Snape's Midlife Crisis. Fast driving, sunglasses, loud nostalgic music. (And sex! In hotel rooms!) I nearly died laughing, and at the same time was misty-eyed at seeing Snape actually, normally happy.

sinick and ac1d6urn have done it again! "Two Lockets" is amazing -- I love the way the story unfolds, the little details and separate parts slowly fusing into/with the greater whole; and Severus and Harry are the same, managing to slide from antagonistic into supportive in such an amazingly well-built, lifelike way. Bonus: Mrs. Black is actually a human being!

Senility has set in, because I could have sworn I recced this already, back when it first appeared. Nonetheless, Black Story is worth reading again. Jay Tryfanstone writes the most fabulously real Snape and Harry; wounded, heart-hungry, with sharp edges and unpleasant truths and need. "Black Story" is a tale of mending: of Snape, desolate and desperate and deeply wounded; of Harry, haunted and hiding; of books and lives, as well as bodies. Very sensitive readers should beware; there's a pretty graphic, if brief, scene involving (child) sexual abuse.

While you're waiting eagerly for updates to "The Price of Magic", wander over and read "Commonplace Magic", Acid and Sinick's alternate-reality spin-off story. It would stand alone, if you haven't read PoM for some reason; you'll miss the small references to PoM, but the story is definitely a whole, contained piece nonetheless, and beautifully done. Harry, a local Uni student, works as a waiter in a London restaurant, and slowly comes to befriend one of his regular patrons. Dour Professor Snape introduces him to Shakespeare, the importance of umbrellas, and, eventually, love.

Written by the marvelous icarusancalion, this is a "HP/SS gen" drabble. (I suppose I'll double-file it.) It's a wonderful take on the old "X and Y are locked up together" plot, and their answer is priceless. :D

Harry/Severus (well, sort of) fic, after HBP? Light-hearted, humourous HP/SS fic, after HBP? It's hard to imagine, but Acid has done it perfectly. If you haven't already, run over and read "Hello, Half-Blood Prince" -- because after that book, we all need a little Snape humour. :D

Note: do I really have to tell you there are spoilers?

Fairy tale(s) with a twist! Wax, Glass, Venom is a Sleeping Beauty pastiche that manages to blend its various elements and characters beautifully. Malfoy want to eliminate Snape, whom he feels is in too great favour with his master; by guile he administers a virulent poison to his rival. Snape falls, but the spells of his friends preserve him in hopes of future cure... but Malfoy is not unduly worried, for who could ever love such an ugly, spiteful man?

Cluegirl blends forsoothly language with regular speech deftly, interspersing the occasional bit of wickedly sharp humour (thick socks, indeed). Harry is a charming combination of adult hero and impatient youth, and Snape is, well, Snape is indubitably himself. And the ending... Oh, the ending! I shiver. ( But I shan't spoil it for you!)

The brilliant dementordelta strikes again! Dumbledore's Folly seems to be her take on the recently re-circulating "Snape courts Harry" challenge, and it's wonderful (as usual). Dumbledore's death leaves Severus and Harry with joint possession of the Headmaster's childhood home; when they can't agree whether to renovate it or sell it, the will declares that any transfer of ownership must be settled via the old Wizarding courtship rituals, which were designed to give property transfers at least a veneer of romance. And so it begins--with Hermione arbitrating the courtship requirements, which are amusingly and convincingly old-fashioned in some respects. The dialogue flows easily, and Delta knows how to build tension like few others; Harry's last-minute realisations and sudden save are very much in character, too. Her Snape is calmer, mellower; perhaps a result of time (the story occurs some years after Hogwarts) or distance. He's also charmingly inept at social interactions, and retains the same privacy and aloofness of canon Snape while acquiring a certain subtle humanity. Overall, a brilliant story, and I particularly enjoyed Ron and his deep and the underlying strength of his friendship with Harry.

Yes, I'm making a rec post -- time to check the pork for pinions! But it's true. Just as I was concluding that I had fallen into a slump, that the dearth of Severus/Harry slash would never relent, and wondering gloomily whether my favourite pairing was gone forever, along came Penumbra.

Conduits of Sorcery is a wonderful future-story, wherein the Triwizard Tournament has returned to Hogwarts and Harry Potter with it; this time, thankfully, not as participant but as one of the Ministry wizards in charge of the challenges. Burnt out on professional Quidditch and beginning to realise his own unhappiness, he nonetheless finds little rest at Hogwarts, for Lucius Malfoy--head of the Tournament--is up to something sinister.

Aside from a beautiful work-up and achingly erotic sex scenes, I love this story because This. Is. My. Snape. Broken, bitter, stubborn, awkward, scarred, pragmatic, ruthless, and unthanked, a flawed but not hopeless character. Furthermore, this is my Dumbledore, a man who, in Snape's own words, believes in healing no matter the pain it causes, and who is far from the kindly old coot he projects, while still a good, even great, man. And I like to think this is my Harry, a man who has had time to learn that there are shades of grey, and that happiness requires effort -- this is who I hope canon Harry can become.

Egad, I love this story.