more recs
I'm still behind on my fest reading, but here are some absolutely wonderful stories from ![[livejournal.com profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
hoggywartyxmas that I simply cannot get out of my mind. Yes, they are that good.
- Anonymous wrote Into the Silence (PG-13. Severus Snape, with appearances by Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Lily Evans, Narcissa Malfoy and assorted others). This sequence of missing canon scenes told from Severus' perspective during his painful tenure as headmaster and in the present tense is exquisite in every way. Tone, pacing, dialogue, verbal music and colour and variety work together to create an atmospheric narrative that really does take the reader into the silence -- if you're like me, you'll find yourself holding your breath until the very last line. Characterwise, the story couldn't be more interesting: We are given surprising and deeply plausible insights into Severus' relationships to Lily, Draco and Narcissa, Albus, Minerva and even Flitwick and Slughorn. An excerpt, to give you an idea:
He makes himself light. Around him, the forest softens into darkness and the air deliquesces. He rises amid the trees; it feels oddly effortless, as if he were being lifted on a scale, counter-balanced by a heavy weight.
The forest spreads out below him, black and silent. Potter is somewhere under its branches. Lily's son, the boy on whom all their hopes rest.
Fixing his gaze on the north, he flies.
- Anonymous wrote Happy Christmas, I Wish It Were (Or, Visiting With The Ghosts of Christmas Past) (PG-13, Severus/Minerva). Absolutely charming, with the intelligent banter and inherent competitiveness that makes McGonagall/Snape such a satisfying pairing. This is also wonderfully written, sparse and well-paced and bittersweet and sexy. An excerpt:
Minerva smiled. "You're a piece of work, Severus."
"Please don't tell me you're the last to notice," said Snape, turning another page.
"Yes, I've lived this long through two wars by being an unobservant little biddy who thinks the best of everyone," said McGonagall.
- Anonymous wrote An Old Fool's Folly (PG-13. Horace/Albus). Now, you may be thinking: Slughorn and Dumbledore? As told from Slughorn's perspective? That could never work! But it does, and brilliantly. This is one of the most insightful and interesting takes I have seen on either of these characters. Slughorn is shown to truly care about his craft, to have real, complex feelings extending far beyond an incessant craving for pineapple and fame. These feelings are skillfully twined together with fear and guilt and a psychological mechanism to explain the character plausibly and charmingly. Albus is also masterfully drawn--as clever and manipulative and yet as boyish and sweet and mischievous as in the books. An excerpt:
It wasn't that he didn't want to do his friend a kindness—Horace quite liked giving (and receiving) favors.
No, it was that somehow, by giving Albus the ointment, he would have to acknowledge what had been done to him, which would include acknowledging, however obliquely, that it was Horace's fault.
Because Horace knew why Albus had needed to touch a Dark object, knew, more or less, exactly what sort of Dark object he had been touching.
He didn't dare utter the word, even in his own mind. Instead, he cursed himself at his inability to perform a proper Memory Charm. He contemplated trying again, but didn't dare. Better just to not think about it.
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hoggywartyxmas that I simply cannot get out of my mind. Yes, they are that good.- Anonymous wrote Into the Silence (PG-13. Severus Snape, with appearances by Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Lily Evans, Narcissa Malfoy and assorted others). This sequence of missing canon scenes told from Severus' perspective during his painful tenure as headmaster and in the present tense is exquisite in every way. Tone, pacing, dialogue, verbal music and colour and variety work together to create an atmospheric narrative that really does take the reader into the silence -- if you're like me, you'll find yourself holding your breath until the very last line. Characterwise, the story couldn't be more interesting: We are given surprising and deeply plausible insights into Severus' relationships to Lily, Draco and Narcissa, Albus, Minerva and even Flitwick and Slughorn. An excerpt, to give you an idea:
He makes himself light. Around him, the forest softens into darkness and the air deliquesces. He rises amid the trees; it feels oddly effortless, as if he were being lifted on a scale, counter-balanced by a heavy weight.
The forest spreads out below him, black and silent. Potter is somewhere under its branches. Lily's son, the boy on whom all their hopes rest.
Fixing his gaze on the north, he flies.
- Anonymous wrote Happy Christmas, I Wish It Were (Or, Visiting With The Ghosts of Christmas Past) (PG-13, Severus/Minerva). Absolutely charming, with the intelligent banter and inherent competitiveness that makes McGonagall/Snape such a satisfying pairing. This is also wonderfully written, sparse and well-paced and bittersweet and sexy. An excerpt:
Minerva smiled. "You're a piece of work, Severus."
"Please don't tell me you're the last to notice," said Snape, turning another page.
"Yes, I've lived this long through two wars by being an unobservant little biddy who thinks the best of everyone," said McGonagall.
- Anonymous wrote An Old Fool's Folly (PG-13. Horace/Albus). Now, you may be thinking: Slughorn and Dumbledore? As told from Slughorn's perspective? That could never work! But it does, and brilliantly. This is one of the most insightful and interesting takes I have seen on either of these characters. Slughorn is shown to truly care about his craft, to have real, complex feelings extending far beyond an incessant craving for pineapple and fame. These feelings are skillfully twined together with fear and guilt and a psychological mechanism to explain the character plausibly and charmingly. Albus is also masterfully drawn--as clever and manipulative and yet as boyish and sweet and mischievous as in the books. An excerpt:
It wasn't that he didn't want to do his friend a kindness—Horace quite liked giving (and receiving) favors.
No, it was that somehow, by giving Albus the ointment, he would have to acknowledge what had been done to him, which would include acknowledging, however obliquely, that it was Horace's fault.
Because Horace knew why Albus had needed to touch a Dark object, knew, more or less, exactly what sort of Dark object he had been touching.
He didn't dare utter the word, even in his own mind. Instead, he cursed himself at his inability to perform a proper Memory Charm. He contemplated trying again, but didn't dare. Better just to not think about it.
This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are