who's sneaking now?

dysfuncentine has just begun posting, and the first entry is quite literally SUBLIME. The artist (one of my favourite Snape and Dumbledore artists, to be sure) has brilliantly, inventively, gorgeously and subversively interpreted Dumbledore's words to Snape on the hillside: "You disgust me". Admittedly, this happens to have been my own prompt, but that is not the reason I am so taken with this piece. It is complex, intense, and a gateway to numerous and fascinating re-readings of that traumatic Urszene. The artist creates mirrored parallels and differences -- slanted rhymes of sorts -- between Dumbledore and Snape, and all with the barest of linguistic clues and the most extraordinary and sensitive combination of perspectives, framings, gazes, inking styles and colourings.

Enough babble. Go take a look at You Disgust Me, and please remember to tell the artist what you think.

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

Reveals are up at snapecase. Go take a look -- as ever, with a few exceptions (perverse_idyll, duniazade, cabepfir, venturous1, sigune) most of my guesses were completely off (the brilliant leela_cat!). I am delighted by this, as I have now discovered a whole new host of authors and works to explore.

I am devastated that the fest is over; it was a constant source of inspiration and yes, distraction, but of the best nature, challenging me intellectually and aesthetically and galvanising me to re-think my favourite character in new and unexpected ways. Fortunately, there are still stories I have not had a chance to read (albalark! for some reason I completely missed your story, but will remedy this soon!), and many more I have yet to comment upon, so I have that to look forward to for a few more days.

At this point, I would like to thank iulia_linnea for running such a fabulous fest, for her golden patience and kindness, and abrae and my dearest delphi for jumping into the fray during a time of great need. Your insightful comments and gentle words were more than I deserved, and I owe you greatest thanks.

Forgive me if I sound repetitive, and for falling so behind on responding to comments. I came down with a fever yesterday and am not doing so well on the mental side of things either. As soon as the fog clears, though, your wonderful, wonderful comments will be my treat to look forward to.

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

Oh God. Oh God. I have been waiting with keen anticipation and something almost akin to dread, but positive, electric, for a particular entry at snapecase, for The Lost World to be precise, knowing it would spell a new chapter in my life, knowing it would eat me alive just as I devoured it, knowing it would be cleansing, redefining, humbling, devastating -- and above all combine a savage with an angelical beauty in such a way that would pierce my heart and string it up to the wall for all to see.

It's here, finally, and oh fuck I am lost. This story is fucking incredible, I am sorry to resort to the profane, but I am so overwhelmed that I have to. At this point, I have only read through once, and will need to read through several times before I can comment coherently, and I fear that won't happen before Sunday, as things are crazy here. But I want you to go read this before the snapecase reveal tomorrow, because I want to talk to you about it. I think most of you will recognise the author and the intertextuality, the relationship to her other work, and in particular how this relates, in a fascinatingly inverse way, to her snapecase entry of last year.

Right now I am thinking this: martyred saints, the death of Orpheus, the tragedy of Cupid and Psyche, Paradise Lost, Heart of Darkness, and for some reason, Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. Because the author is experimenting here with dissolution, with falling apart, with decentredness in a way. The decentredness of the self -- our many unrelated masks. Externalisation of inner fragmentation. I think. Here, at least, there is no outsider point of view, no camera lens giving us objective, distanced access to the characters. We are to stay close to Harry (a Harry that is grounded, fittingly enough, unable to fly), to that murky, unreliable, untrustworthy narrator, and oh how untrustworthy and mercurial he proves to be!

Now I am recalling the motif of electric blue. Of ozone. Of dragonflies and how I need to go back and think about this more. Oh am I lost.

Read this, please. And don't just tell me what you think -- tell the author herself.

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

Sadly, snapecase is coming to a close. I have not yet managed to read, let alone comment, on everything, and I expect I will be writing another rec post for the last two stories, but here are a few of my favourites so far.

Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree is a story to be read again and again; it lingers with you like fragrant smoke clinging to your clothes, and it is no accident that one of the central motifs here is smell. The author's prose is stunningly beautiful, and yet the story is chilling in a number of ways, not least because of how the title is personified and manifested in the story, because of how numb Severus comes across, because of her use of blankness and space and silence, because of the startling and vivid and at times deeply unsettling imagery. I have not yet summed up the courage to tell the author how brilliant I think her work, but she deserves many more comments than have been posted, and I think you will find the story well worth your while.

Mother is a beautiful portrait of Eileen and young Severus, based on poses of the Madonna and Child, I believe, but very revealing of the HP characters as well.

Valentine's Day Surprise has a wonderfully disgusted Snape and a devious McGonagall and is a pleasure to look at.

It Only Gets Worse features a very snarky, witty Snape in doubly written form, as portrayed by snippets from reports given to the Hogwarts Board of Governors and Snape's own journal entries. The contrast between the reports and the rude entries is amusing. It's interesting to see a Snape who isn't completely depressed and gloomy during what I tend to think of as that "dead period" between his agreeing to work at Hogwarts and Harry's arrival. Which is not to say that this Snape doesn't have his own depressions and problems, but that he is intact, here, and that it is refreshing to see.

Hand-Me-Down is a well-written and unusual take on Tobias. Rather than going the drunk-and-evil route, the author shows Tobias to be a proud father to his magical son. Tobias' feelings are so persuasively conveyed that one warms to him, and his eventual cowardice hurts even more as a result.

The Other Half is another excellent Tobias fic that reinvents fanon assumptions about his relationship to Severus with a nuanced, beautifully crafted and ultimately heartbreaking narrative.

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

This past weekend was intensely busy, and I am more than behind on my correspondence and commenting. But for those of you interested in the upcoming Bring Back the Bastard challenge, I thought I would give you a taste of some of the very most exciting recent developments.


banner by cabepfir


banner by bvizen
First, we have a number of INCREDIBLE posters by two of my best beloved artists, bvizen (Vizen on dA) and my dearest cabepfir (cabepfir on dA).

Second, we are nearly ready to launch. I am still tinkering with a few details, but expect to see us up at deeply_horrible | deeply_horrible very soon. (We do also have an IJ comm, but I am becoming reluctant to use it for more than cross-posting now that they have ff.net-style advertising all over the place. If you have strong opinions on the matter, let me know.)

Third, we have a schedule for the challenge. I won't give any exact dates here, but do leave space in your calendars for a May sign-up, a late July deadline and a posting period in late August-early September.

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

There have been a number of wonderful entries at snapecase, and I am in the midst of compiling another recs post, but -- I simply couldn't wait, and must direct you to my very favourite story from the showcase so far.

This story is not just a story, but an absolutely fabulous multimedia entry with a glorious bastard!Snape, some very volatile post-war Snarry, a plot that functions well on both the emotional and symbolic level (!) and several complex and thought-provoking illustrations by one of my very favourite HP artists. If you like a Snape who, after the war, has lost his ballast, who is unappreciated and emotionally, physically starved and vulnerable and angry, bitterly angry, ungrateful and lost and horrified to be lost, horrified by his own needs and determined to squash them with a venemous tongue -- if you like a Harry who, literally starved most of his life, has no idea how to respond to the feast suddenly offered up by life after Voldemort, who is desperately in need of help and only just beginning to realise it -- if you like stories set at a Spinner's End that resembles its owner's hair and inner state of being -- if you like stark, expressive illustrations -- if you like even just some of these things, then you will enjoy:

An Exercise in Futility (R; Snarry; EWE)

Summary: Sometimes you can only help yourself by helping others. Sometimes when you're helping others, you realize that it's you who needs help.

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

hpfanficfanpoll is still (until EST midnight tomorrow, I believe) accepting nominations for their spring round of awards. Unfortunately, nominations are limited to certain categories, so one won't always be able to nominate what one wishes to for this round. Information on how nominations work can be found here.

I was pleased to see so many of my personal favourites from 2011 represented, particularly from snape_potter, the OLSB and the absolutely peerless hoggywartyxmas, but I still feel that there are a great deal of holes. Some of them are due to the thematic limitations of this particular round, but others continue to nag at the back of my head, reminding me I have forgotten something of great significance . . . so, if you feel the same, head on over and help correct this oversight!

Sincere thanks are due to the kind person who nominated The Bauble -- I am flabbergasted and honoured. Being nominated was more than I could have ever asked for, truly. But I do think there are stories significantly, as in significantly, more deserving in the same category. Admittedly, I have not read all of the stories in the category, but of those I have, I know you will be astonished and delighted or moved beyond words by delphi's Father to the Man, lash_larue's Frater Contemno, Frater Diligo, pale_moonlite's The Circle and, last but not least, perverse_idyll's absolutely mindboggling In Infinite Remorse of Soul. I strongly hope that people vote for these stories, for I have known few pleasures of their equal.

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

Reading Donne is very enlightening. My attention has been drawn to his use of the term "oblique" and its origins in navigation and cartography. In the baroque period, it was assumed that there were three ways to navigate a ship: in a straight line, on a tangential, 'oblique' course (complicated to explain, but it was thought that one was still moving in a series of lines) or in a "Great Circle". The "oblique" course was hardly a tangential, however, but in reality a spiral-like movement.

From the perspective of ancient aesthetics, mathematics, philosophy, spirals were a crude sort of shape, a distortion of the perfect geometry of lines and circles.

Navigators, being pragmatic men, simply ignored the paradox of straight lines that were in fact spirals. Cartographers, on the other hand, were faced with the paradox whenever they translated spherical representations onto two-dimensional maps. The Mercator map, which corrected distortions to the meridians by introducing distortion upon distortion upon distortion at the poles, is a famous example:



Theologians such as Donne picked up on these semantics and described man's path as a spiral between the straight line of the sinner and the perfect circle of the angels and God (in truth, the idea of man's motion as that of a spiral goes back to Plato, but let's ignore that for now.) I don't particularly wish to go there, but I like the idea of the paradox and of distortion and the kind of incomprehension felt by men at learning that perceived straight lines were in fact not so straight at all. Possibly a good metaphor/conceit for characters in HP, what do you think?
This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

- pale_moonlite wrote Black Queen, Dark Pawn (NC-17; Bellatrix Black/Severus Snape, past Bellatrix/Narcissa). You may wish to read the warnings beforehand. A fascinating sojurn through Bellatrix's head that, through clear, cutting prose, illustrates the fine line between madness and rationality. It's only fitting that a master Legilmens be brought into the fray, and -- if Bellatrix is interesting, Snape is the true piece de resistance. The author's portrayal of Snape -- ugly and awkward and rude -- is just delicious. Best of all, she cleverly brings out his strengths and weaknesses at once, foreshadowing the Spinner's End argument in HBP, where Snape is coldly able to outmanipulate Bellatrix even when she thinks she's got him cornered.

( Excerpt )

- Anonymous at Snarry Swap wrote The Winter Out There (NC-17; Snarry). You may wish to read the warnings beforehand. This is a fic that could give you nightmares, especially if you associate bagged human hair with more than its use in Polyjuice. Nonetheless, in only a few thousand words, it captures something essential about Harry and something monstrous and pitiful and desperate about Snape. I won't give an excerpt, as I don't wish to spoil the horrible twist here more than I already have . . .

- igrockspock wrote The Journey of a Thousand Miles (Gen; Severus Snape, Luna Lovegood). What a beautifully told story! The shades here are never very bright; in this post-war world, Luna is isolated even from her father, whom she can't bring herself to forgive for betraying her friends. Seeking a connection to her mother, she tries to recreate the experiment that killed her and ends up taking up an apprenticeship with an even more isolated and estranged Snape, who runs a struggling potions business. Luna is a marvel here, never ridiculous or exaggeratedly silly, but a troubled, searching human being who brings a unique perspective to all she sees, who is strong and unexpected and interesting. Snape is wonderfully bitter. And Xenophilius is troubling and heartbreaking at once, a moral and emotional puzzle for the reader and Luna to solve.

( Excerpt )

schemingreader wrote At the Scramble Crossing (NC-17; Snarry). Alright, I know I've recced this before, but I love it so much, this fic means so much to me personally, has made me cry several times -- that I helplessly offer it up to you again, in case you missed it the first time. Severus and Harry exude a palpable loneliness; in Tokyo, of all places, they find each other and, in their own awkward, impulsive, personal ways, begin to discover, in that surprising yet perfectly natural way schemingreader has, essential things about themselves. This is a love story to Tokyo as much as to Severus and Harry; every word is like a fruit, sweet and complex and like a jolt to the senses. I think this reads well together with the story schemingreader and green wrote together earlier last year, Wild Thyme Honey. Both have a similar premise -- Harry finds Snape hidden away in another country after the war, and they recover and heal together in this magical place away from home -- and yet are complementary, in that WTH is told from Harry's perspective, and ASC from Severus'.

schemingreader also wrote Moonlight Saving Time (NC-17; Snupin), a very unusual and interesting alternate universe with a lot of wonderful humour and mystery and snark and the unforgettable appearances of Sirius Black and Lucius Malfoy.

( Excerpt )

And now for three contributions from the wonderful snapecase:

- Anonymous wrote That Time of Year (R; Severus, Eileen, Remus, Albus, some Snape/Remus). Severus' father is dead. The repercussions of this, of having to go "home" for the funeral, of trying not to think about it and thinking about it and trying not to cry and trying to think about what to teach -- the hysteria and depression and raw pain of fresh grief are convincingly portrayed here, thanks to the beautiful prose and a repetitive structure that just hammers you with Severus' pain.

( Excerpt )

- Anonymous wrote Memories, Dreams, Reflections (PG-13; Snape, Remus, Poppy). The incredible suffering of recovery -- of recovering from a cursed gigantic snake bite -- are unflinchingly portrayed here. Severus' courage shines throughout his pain, and though he can barely speak, his actions and expressions speak volumes. A sobering and yet rewarding tale.

( Excerpt )

- Anonymous drew Defence Against the Dark Arts. Severus is just wonderful here -- arrogant and supremely focused and calculating and dangerous and yet isolated, inwardly sad. You can read almost everything about his character in this face, he is so multilayered and interesting.

. . . Let me know if I'm reccing too much or too often or not enough. I have a femmeslash rec post planned with some more hoggywartyxmas favourites that I loved so much I haven't been able to overcome my shyness and comment, but can wait to post it for a few days if you need a break. :-)

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

Hatesex! Characters screaming at each other! Someone seducing someone else, and then being thoroughly unsatisfied with the result! Resentment! Jealousy! Boredom! Sound like your thing?

Prompting is still open for dysfuncentine, a low-pressure HP ficathon 'celebrating dysfunctional relationships'. This sounds like just the sort of Valentine's fest for me, and although I can't promise that I'll have time to write for it, I shall be following the entries. If the idea appeals to you as well, do go over and leave a prompt with your favourite dysfunctional pairings and scenarios at the comm here.

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

Title: The Bauble
Beta:: The wonderful carolinelamb. Many thanks are also due to therealsnape for her patience and help with the story's coda.
Word Count: 9,866
Characters and/or Pairings: Severus, Albus, Rolanda, Minerva, Poppy and assorted Hogwarts staff. Gen, with strong suggestions of Rolanda/Minerva and hints of other relationships.
Summary: That year, they decided to throw a party with plenty of punch and a wicked game.
Disclaimer: I do not claim to own any of the copyrights, trademarks, or registrars of or having to do with Harry Potter.
Author's Notes: Slightly edited version of the story written for flaminia_x at hoggywartyxmas. She asked for a party with "reluctant/grumpy people playing holiday games", getting tipsy. Having never played a holiday game before, this prompt stumped me for longer than I'd care to admit. I ended up enjoying the challenge, however -- thank you, flaminia_x, for the encouragement to think out of my usual box!

( The Bauble )

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

The utterly glorious hoggywartyxmas is over . . . woe is me. For it was an extraordinary pleasure -- an honour -- to take part in this fest. I owe it much of my inner stability over the past weeks. Every single contribution I have had the pleasure to encounter thus far has been a delight, and although I am not quite caught up, I am positive that further gems await me. therealsnape, I cannot thank you enough for hosting such an unforgettable party, for letting me in at all, and for all of your patience and kindness towards me. Here's to Hoggywarty 2012!

Right now, I'm studiously ignoring the reveals: since the posts themselves are still anonymous, this should be possible for a bit longer. There are a number of fabulous stories that I began to read over this past weekend (on my phone, unfortunately) which I would like to complete and review without the additional distraction. I also have a few recs (hopefully not too late). These should have gone up this weekend, but instead of going home to books and computer like a rational person, I lingered in the city for as long as possible.

The Insomniacs Social Club is a delightful and delicious portrait of those characters I like to think of as the shamefully overlooked: Filius, Sybill, Septima, Aurora and, my favourite of the bunch, Mr. Filch. These otherwise neglected characters are given fascinating histories and quirks and colour in a very few deft strokes and under a brilliant premise: They all gather informally and sort of unconsciously at night, when unable to sleep (see the title of the story). I think I have an idea who wrote this, because there is only one person I know who can write Filch this brilliantly: as the most serious of the group, in a way, as their reluctant chaperone or parent. Each character is wonderful, though, particularly Aurora and (I never thought I would be saying this) Sybill. Yes, Sybill.

The Circle is witty and thought-provoking and wonderful and contains Minerva's ironic notes about great witches in history. I don't want to spoil the story, but there is a certain timelessness about this that is achieved both through the continuity of the stories of past (and present witches) told in the notes and the outer frame of the story, which is about Minerva's present and how she herself belongs to that lineage and heritage through her actions. I'm pretty sure I know who wrote this as well, because there is only one person I can think of who writes such clear, beautifully direct prose and understands German Quidditch this well *g*.

And ack, so much for remaining unrevealed -- the names are going up already. I'd better stop while I'm still ahead . . .

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

A wonderful, talented still-anonymous author at hoggywartyxmas has written a fabulous post-DH Snape/Slughorn -- with my name on it! I can't even begin to describe how very lucky and humbled and grateful I feel to have received such a splendid gift.

Aristophanes and Aesop has really made my (otherwise very depressing) day. Allow me tell you why:

Even if Snape/Slughorn sounds awful to you (which it shouldn't, not if you've read delphi's The Courtship of Benjamin Jink, which converted me to the pairing with force) it certainly won't after you've read this story. It not only contains one of the most original solutions to Snape's survival I have ever encountered, but also a Slughorn with an entirely plausible, dare I even say sympathetic inner voice. His methods to rouse Severus out of a post-war depressive funk are positively Slytherin at first, and -- typical for Slughorn -- involve a certain amount of psychological repression, but progressively and realistically both Horace and Severus begin to bond and heal and redeem themselves in a way that, in hindsight, seems entirely natural: over good food and wine and experimentation with both.

The author appears to have also had supernatural powers, for she knew exactly what sorts of European delicacies I secretly love to read about (the result of having great-grandparents who were fine pastry cooks in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, of having grown up with a great-grandmother who played Die Fledermaus constantly and told us in a hushed voice of her late husband's travels across the world, making ice sculptures for President Teddy Roosevelt in Egypt and studying at Rumpelmeyer's in Paris and opening up a now-gone, but then well-known konditorei right across the street from the Budapest opera; the result of living in Germany surrounded by foodies and a French snob who adored her foie gras and once even shared her bottle of Château d'Yquem . . .) The story manages to capture the glamour -- the magic -- of late 19th-century imperalist culture without the imperalism and -- most important -- without nostalgia. Horace simply lives this magical life; in his world, it still exists and is very costly, to be sure, but is nonetheless not categorically closed off to Severus, that depressed, guilt-ridden, impoverished half-blood. For, as Horace discovers, there is something magical about showing and giving Severus that kind of pleasure. There is no pity involved here; simply the joy of excess, of indulgence, of self-indulgence. (The joy of poetry.)

I think it's this generosity of Horace's that ultimately (alongside the lucious descriptions of both the food and Severus himself) took my breath away. So often Horace is portrayed as a greedy collector of students who will only give if he receives. Here, we have a Horace who, yes, has something of an ulterior motive, but ultimately does what he does for Severus out of the pure pleasure of giving, because he enjoys Severus' company and Severus comes to enjoy his.

The story also adeptly deals with a question I've always had about Severus, the question of adaptation. It seems to me that Severus, in his youth, struggled both in his attempts to be accepted and to be brilliantly different; that in a way he attempted to conform (through the Death Eaters) and yet in other ways attempted to remain firmly himself (his notebooks, his greasy hair, etc.). In this story, Severus is taken under someone's wing for perhaps the first time in his life, and as a result, begins, in subtle ways, to become more like Horace (in his interests and outlook) while at the same time remaining uniquely himself (in his tastes, in his wit, in his suspicions and sarcasm). I think there is something quite profound about that, something I have to think more about, and I would be very interested to hear your thoughts at some point.

Now that I have babbled long enough, here's an excerpt from this glorious story:

Slowly, Severus drew his wand from his sleeve. He closed his eyes, looking for all the world sure and peaceful, and incanted the familiar words. As a supple, silvery frog coalesced in light and hopped about them, he turned to Horace. There was such trust, and hope, and attraction - gods, yes, it was attraction - in his eyes that Horace's heart at once did somersaults and plummeted in his chest at the secret he had been keeping.

In that awful split second, Horace considered his options. The Slughorn of yore would always have taken the easy route: say nothing, let him assume, avoid confrontation - and he had to admit it; that voice was strong.

However, he had grown. He had fought, he had been grateful, and he had vowed, no more guilty secrets. -And it was with that spirit that Horace opened his mouth to put off the wonderful young man who had just come to his bedroom, even though he wanted him more than he could imagine wanting anything else. "Now, Severus, you really mustn't think that-"

(Apologies for any typos; I only have smartphone internet at present and am not very adept at typing on a phone.)

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

Sorry for spamming you of late. I have to go offline for the next two days, so I wanted to get at least one more rec post in before then:

- Anonymous at hoggywartyxmas drew and wrote From Severus' Journal, December 24th (Severus Snape, Hermione Granger, G). This clever panel by one of the foremost artists in HP fandom will brighten your day with its witty plot and beautiful illustrations. A page from Severus' journal, it captures his sneakiness and sarcasm right down to the the prickly lines of his handwriting.

- Anonymous at hoggywartyxmas wrote All That is Mine to Give (Sprout/Moody, PG-13). I had never given much thought to this pairing, but this story has not only made me believe in its plausibility and rightness, it has also convinced me that this is how canon should have been. A masterful character study with sharp-edged, gritty, honest dialogue that suits these two characters perfectly. Here's an excerpt:

“Come right on through, Alastor,” she called, and a moment later he stood on her hearth rug brushing off the soot, that absurd eye of his giving her the once over. Merlin, but the look in his normal eye was making her blush, even if she hadn’t suspected that magical eye of being able to see right through her robes.

“Your Floo connection ought to be more secure, Pomona,” he said gruffly. “I could have come right through without your permission, so it’s a good sight that I remembered my manners. The Death Eaters won’t be so refined.”

“I’m glad to see you, too, Alastor,” said she, as she stepped forward to kiss his cheek and help him with his coat. “I had the connection open specifically for you, you great goose, keyed to your voice. Not even foolable by Polyjuice. We do learn from our mistakes, dear.”

- Anonymous at snapelyholidays wrote Tensile Strength (Snape/Neville, NC-17). This story was quite nearly too much for me. Like Neville, I was practically raised by a grandparent, and devastated when she began to deteriorate towards the end of her life. Neville's anguish at losing yet another family member to mental illness is palpable and oppressive and masterfully evoked. His situation in a post-DH world is a grim one; this is not a world of happy endings and flowers, but depressing reality. That Snape, a natural inhabitant of such a world, flickers into his life only seems natural. Battered and bruised, pitiless and overconfident, Snape is paid by Neville to develop a cure for his family . . . But I have no wish to spoil the story. Suffice it to say that it is incredible how much this author accomplishes in 5000 words. An excerpt:

"All of these plants are potions-grade." Neville said nothing to that; Snape was simply stating a fact, and he'd learned through seven years of classes with the man not to speak when it was unnecessary. "I'll need a sample of each plant for testing purposes. With luck, I'll have a recipe for a treatment within the next few days."

Neville sighed and rubbed his eyes, applying so much pressure that a sharp pain shot through his skull. "And then likely a month to brew the treatment."

"Don't be ungrateful."

Dropping his hands, he attempted a smile. "I'm not, really. Just thinking of the mountains of paperwork this will require, not to mention how closely I'll need to monitor the other plants." And the loss of income. Then there was Gran and her appointments to consider... He had no time for this.

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

I'm still behind on my fest reading, but here are some absolutely wonderful stories from 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 DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

I've got a splitting headache and fear I don't make any sense, but these stories are such absolute gems that you would be missing out not to have read them.

- hoggywartyxmas has opened and begun posting, and wow, did the fest begin with a bang! A Change of Plans for delphi (Snape/McGonagall, NC-17) is a masterpiece of prose. Told by an omiscient and personable narrator with great self-awareness, the story flirts with all sorts of literary devices (intertextuality, narrative voice, questions of representation - how much do I or do I not tell?) while being more than witty or sexy or psychologically realistic, while managing to tell us something essential about these two intensely private, powerful and scathingly intelligent people. I am not doing justice to this with words. Just go read it.

- Father to the Man by Anonymous for bethbethbeth at snapelyholidays (Snape/Filch, R). Author's Summary: A restricted spell goes awry, and Severus Snape is left scrambling to cover his tracks. Meanwhile, Argus Filch turns out to be surprisingly good with small children, the nature of time is proven to be fiddly and anyone's guess, and (at least one) Severus gets a second chance at life.

I have my suspicions as to who wrote this - *eyes f-list slyly* - but no matter. This is a story to be savoured over and over again. Severus, obsessed with the idea of seeing Lily, ends up summoning himself as a child by means of a botched spell involving a holy well. Argus is on hand to help, and good thing too, for Severus' self-hatred and emotional instability are as dangerous to the child as to himself. I don't want to give too much away, but let me say at least this: Every line of this story is a story in itself, and yet the prose is by no means unnatural or self-conscious or distorted by pretentiousness -- on the contrary, the prose is as humble and calm and pragmatic, as simply beautiful, as Argus and Severus themselves. The motifs of seeing and not-seeing, of misjudging and falling and being rescued just in time, represented by the emblem of the well, are woven throughout the story with great deftness. Reading this is like healing yourself with a magical balm, it's that wonderful.

There were several other pieces I loved at snapelyholidays but have not yet had the time to review. Let me briefly list my favourites here:

- gift art by Anonymous for fluffyllama (Snape/Moody, NWS). The loveliest and most thought-provoking Snape/Moody art I've seen. There are three panels, so don't forget to click ahead.

- At the Scramble Crossing by Anonymous for 7types (Snape/Harry NC-17). Author's Summary: Harry learns that Snape has found work at the Genius Bar at an Apple Store, far from home, and tracks him down. I think I know who wrote this, another one of my favourite authors. In any case, while the premise and wonderfully realised Japanese setting alone should catch your interest, the dialogue itself is so lovely, so natural and convincing, that you'd be missing out not to read this.

- To Some a Gift for akatnamedeaster by Anonymous (Snape/McGonagall NC-17). Author's Summary: After Voldemort's first defeat, Severus has a great deal to atone for. Minerva finds a way to help him. I loved this story. It's difficult to speak of it without giving away spoilers, but let's just say that I very much enjoyed seeing the author's take on two particular dynamics: Snape/Dumbledore and Snape/McGonagall.

- Bumblethwacker, Broken Nose and the Wizard's Finger by Anonymous for delphi (Snape/Aberforth, adult). The wit in this story would be reason enough to read it, but it was the subtle and utterly convincing portrayal of these two men that stole my breath away. The story also has a fabulous structure. Albus, for example, is conspiciously absent and in his absence even more present - not easy to represent, yet masterfully done so here. Really worth a read, even if you've never thought about this pairing before.

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

This is but a brief update. A surprising number of people have asked me about Elective Affinites lately, which is all the more amazing as I haven't updated it in months. Thank you so much for your kind words, for your encouragement! I have not given up. The whole story is outlined and is something I think about often; the actual writing is what is so time-consuming. As soon as I have a bit more time, the next chapter will be up. (On that front, I finally submitted my thesis last week, but other academic concerns have popped up unexpectedly and are overwhelming me at present. I also made myself ill in the process of finishing the thesis.)

Bad health, poor planning and academic pressure have made for an unproductive combination in other arenas as well: To my extreme embarrassment, I have had to ask for extensions for both of my fic fest contributions. And just looking at my comment backlog - not to mention the number of unanswered e-mails in my inbox - makes me feel faint.

Sincere apologies. I don't deserve your patience.

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

If love memes aren't your thing, ignore this post.

Even more behind than ever (can it be that my thesis is due in 2 weeks?) but I wanted to at least take time for this:


Banner by pirateveronica.

hp_love_anon is a Harry Potter Love Meme.
Come and share your love for members of the HP fandom.

I've left several comments and started new threads, but there are still so many of you I want to thank and so many authors and artists not yet on the list deserving of recognition. If you have a bit of spare time on your hands, do go on over and show the people who make it all possible and fun and inspiring, who make it all so worth it, some love!

*blows kisses*

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

"It's fun to write about Snape because he's a deeply horrible person." —J. K. Rowling

Some of you may have already seen the discussion post that prompted this poll. I am strongly considering issuing a bastard!Snape challenge, 'Bring Back the Bastard', from the soon-to-be-opened community deeply_horrible/deeply_horrible/deeply_horrible. Right now, I'm in the middle of a move, but I would love to hear your thoughts while I pack and unpack.

The challenge would be low-stress, prompt-based and anonymous, with sign-ups in early May 2012; posting would begin sometime that summer, depending on the results of the poll. Gen, slash, het and meta works featuring bastard!Snape would be welcome. People would join the community to leave prompts and discuss Snape's character in dedicated discussion posts. Challenge participants (18 or older) would anonymously choose prompts from the list or make up ones of their own, and their fic, meta, art or multimedia entries would be posted anonymously until reveals.

Interested? Questions and comments are welcome below. Feel free to link far and wide.

link to LJ-poll

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.

I know I'm not the first person to notice the existence of a trend regarding Snape characterisation in the wake of Deathly Hallows. Many newer fic feature a mellow, attractive Snape whose hatred of Harry was but an act, whose attraction to the Dark Arts was but a misguided phase, whose cruelty is easily tamed, etc. etc. Which is not to say that such characterisations are wrong or unlovely, only that I cannot help but long for more fic that at once register the relevations of DH (Snape crying over Lily's photograph, for example) while maintaining a hold on Snape as a nasty, fucked-up, volatile, morally ambiguous, ill-tempered (etc.) bastard (not in the literal sense).

What I am about to propose is hardly original (it's presumptuous of me, more like). Nor is it directly my own idea. I am simply attempting to pick up the thread of wandlorean's interesting post here on snarryficfind.

wandlorean, perverse_idyll and others suggested that someone start a "Bring Back the Bastard" fest to address this issue of characterisation, this theme. (ETA: By theme I mean this could be a way to encourage and challenge authors to think about the many shades of heroism, about the divergence between history books and reality, about ambiguity and its consequences.) Now, I have no idea what goes on 'behind the scenes' of fests. I have no idea what kind of work is involved or how one prevents a fest from conflicting with another fest -- in short I am talking about something I know absolutely nothing about, which endangers this project considerably. Nonetheless, I would be personally interested in seeing such a fest come to life, so I thought I would post this as a way of asking for advice, opinions, criticism.

Here is a suggestion to get started (all of this is up for discussion): The fest would take place sometime in 2012, at a time when it would not conflict with the major Snape fests (is that even possible? perhaps 2013 is more realistic?). Obviously, it would be Snape-centric. Participants could write a story of drabble to novel length about Snape in any variety of gen, het or slash relationships. The story could be based upon a prompt from a list participants had cobbled together in advance. Or perhaps it need not be prompt-based. I don't think an exchange fest format would particularly work here, but you can convince me otherwise. I have no idea whether anonymous posting is considered a benefit or a stress-inducer.

What I am most uncertain about is the approach that should be taken to defining "bastard Snape". I think this could easily become a very delicate issue. There are infinite ways to interpret Snape. Choosing one type of reading over others could be seen in the wrong light, causing misunderstandings. It would have to be made clear that the fest was not meant as an attack, but rather as a celebration. I would be most grateful for your thoughts on this issue.

Would you even be interested in such a fest?

This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. There are DW comments. You can reply there using Open ID.