Status: Completed

Length: Short Story

Tags: Gen, Drama/Angst, Snapecentric, Friendship/Mentorship, Missing Moment, Pre-HBP

Story Summary: Severus attends two very different celebrations of his 37th birthday.

AlbaLark’s Rec:

It is January 9th, 1997.  Severus is teaching DADA, Draco is up to something unspeakable, and Albus Dumbledore has invited him to his office after tea to celebrate his birthday.  And so he goes, with both trepidation and careful hope to see what the Headmaster has planned.  This audience is later interrupted when his other master calls him, and he finds himself at a surprise celebration of his birthday there.  It is his feelings and introspections about these two very different acknowledgements of his birth that form this acutely moving story.

This short tale is soaked in Severus’s deep loneliness and longing for connection, a side of him we don’t get to see in canon until ‘The Prince’s Tale‘ in DH.  The contrast of the distance, the chill of the day at Hogwarts, and the warmth of his welcome at Malfoy Manor is heartwrenching.  That we know how this will end, where all of these players will be and where they will be headed on Severus’s next birthday (and some of the people involved also have a pretty good idea where that will be), makes it all the more poignant.

That the author manages, in so few words, to convey so many insights into the characters of the main participants, to humanize and make real a group of people generally treated in broad brushstrokes as utterly evil (and make absolutely obvious why Severus was drawn to them in the first place) is astounding.  Stories like this one, which offer deep insight, reveal hidden moments and make these beloved stories all the richer, are fan fiction at its very best.

Status: Completed

Length: Short Story

Tags: Gen, Snapecentric, Friendship/Mentorship, Post-DH, Missing Moment, Sproutcentric, Multi-Era

Story Summary: Pomona Sprout performs a melancholy duty in fulfillment of a promise she made to Severus years before he died.

AlbaLark’s Rec:

This is a gorgeous story, with a brilliant concept and told with powerful economy - not a word wasted.

It is the eve of what should have been Severus Snape’s 39th birthday, and Pomona Sprout is preparing for a requiem of sorts.  From the time Severus was a first year at Hogwarts, until the birthday before Albus Dumbledore died, Pomona had been helping Severus maintain an old Prince Family rite he calls ‘The Janus Rose’, one that through blood magic, allows us a view of the state of Snape’s soul.  She broke with this tradition the year Snape was Headmaster, and now, in sorrow and guilt, she goes to the place where the rite was performed to honor his memory.

Through her reminisces, we see him as the the small, rough-around-the-edges North Country boy he was when she became a part of this:  sharp, deeply intelligent, just as deeply vulnerable and proud.  We also get to see him as he matures through his Hogwarts years and beyond, as, at the end of his schooling, she promises to allow him to continue the ritual at Hogwarts, since he doesn’t yet have a place of his own.

We get to watch, too, the way in which this short, once a year ritual grows into a deep friendship; one which will mean so much to Severus as the years wear on.  We watch all of the many changes he undergoes through Pomona’s eyes, as he returns to complete the rite.  We feel his isolation, his fear, his efforts at redemption, his pain and her reactions to them as she tries to be there for him and give him what he needs.

This lovely story is so full of perfectly drawn moments, told with remarkable reverence for the small details which bring everything vividly to life.  I especially love the author’s portrait of Pomona Sprout, a character often seen only in passing or used for comic purposes, who shows herself to be a remarkable woman who embodies all of the best traits of her house, and someone we’d be proud to call friend.  She and Severus both are so beautifully characterized, it just took my breath away.

This is an extraordinary story, beautifully told, that moved me deeply.  Keep the tissues handy while you read - unless you have a heart of stone, you’ll need them .

Status: Completed

Length: Short Story

Tags: Het: m/f, SS/MM, Missing Moment, Pre-HBP

Story Summary: Just another day in the life of two Hogwarts professors.

AlbaLark’s Rec:

I had a hard time attempting to categorize this little gem of a ficlet/short story.  The situation is somewhat angsty, but the dialogue is exactly what you’d expect between these two, with several wonderful turns of phrase that had me laughing out loud.  The two of them are snarky and unsentimental, yet are full of such obvious affection for one another.  This is a lovely little missing moment, one you are sure to enjoy.

Status: Completed

Length: Novella

Tags: Slash: m/m, Drama/Angst, Romance, Rare Slash Pairing, SS/MM, Rare Snape Het, Missing Moment, AD/HS, DH/Epilogue Compliant

Story Summary: Horace's relationship with Albus has never been straightforward; he has always been left at once ecstatic, confused and hurt to the bone. As the two friends become reacquainted during one of the wizarding world's most trying years, what, this time, might play out differently? How might memories of times past impact upon the future, and what secrets might come to the surface? Set during 'The Half Blood Prince.'

AlbaLark’s Rec:

The Horace Slughorn of Canon isn’t exactly, if you will pardon the pun, terribly fleshed out.  We know him only as the Head of Slytherin House and Potions master who preceded Severus Snape- a man who has quite a few character flaws (gluttony, hedonism, cowardice, someone who ‘collects’ people he believes can be of use to him later and so he can bask in their reflected glory, an avoider of uncomfortable truths).  In other words, he’s not a terribly admirable person, and he is meant to be someone for whom we feel a mild disgust when he intrudes upon our notice.

But this brilliant fic is guaranteed to change your point of view regarding Slughorn.  It humanizes him in a way JKR failed to do, setting his flaws in context, making them understandable and much less repellant than our original one dimensional view made them seem.

Told from Slughorn’s POV, the story begins just before Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter show up in Budleigh Babberton to induce him to return to Hogwarts.  Slughorn had fallen hard for Dumbledore long ago, who seemed to reciprocate his feelings to a point, only to wound Horace deeply and without seeming to notice that he’d done so.  We see Dumbledore’s manipulations here in an entirely different light than in HBP, and in spite of himself, Slughorn gives in.

As Harry Potter’s 6th year unfolds from Slughorn’s perspective, he falls easily into the old routines, renews old acquaintances, discovers a budding romance between colleagues and tells himself that he can handle being in such close proximity to Dumbledore, - even be friends with him without danger.  But we know as well as he does how impossible that will prove to be.  Dumbledore still has the power to wound him, even without meaning to.

The backstory of their past relationship unfolds in reminisces and flashbacks, and we see how he idealized Dumbledore, how insecure he felt at the disparity in their looks and talent, how unequal the feelings seemed to be.  These ideas haunt him still, making him feel the hopelessness of his longings even as he cannot prevent himself from having them.  Dumbledore won’t allow him to get close, will not allow any acknowledgement of feelings, nor would he in the past, though they were involved physically.

In the wake of one particularly devastating attempt make his feelings known, Slughorn spills his anguished grief to a photograph of Dumbledore.  It is a heartbreaking scene that will ring deeply true to anyone who has fallen for someone they feel is out of their league.  What Dumbledore has to say in the aftermath of this rings true as well, and gives one some keen insight and a bit of sympathy for past behavior one might otherwise find in short supply when it comes to him.  As things move toward the end we know is coming, the author crafts a denouement that is very moving, and a finale that gives us what we and the characters dearly hoped for.

In truth, I almost passed over this amazing story because of the primary pairing - the background helping of Severus and Minerva was the main reason I decided to read it at all.  I am *so* glad I decided to give this a chance.  It is beautifully written, exquisitely well characterized and deeply satisfying.  Don’t miss it!

Status: Completed

Length: Ficlet

Tags: Romance, SS/RL, Erotica/PWP, Missing Moment, Pre-HBP

Story Summary: An unseen moment from the 5th film...

 AlbaLark’s Rec:
I don’t usually do PWPs, but this one grabbed me by the heart and wouldn’t let go.  Short, but intense, it exposes both Severus’s deep inner wounds and the best in Remus Lupin.

Status: Completed

Length: Short Story

Tags: Het: m/f, RW/HG, Gen, HP/RW/HG, Fluff, Friendship/Mentorship, Post-DH, Missing Moment

Story Summary: Set immediately after Deathly Hallows. Harry, Ron, and Hermione have some sandwiches and get some sleep.

harmony_bites’ Rec:

Lovely scene set just in the aftermath of the defeat of Voldemort that shows the closeness of the trio. It is Triofic, but not in a sexual sense, and could be seen as just friendship in the canon sense, but it does give convey how central they are to each other while leaving you feeling warmed.

Status: Completed

Length: Short Story

Tags: Gen, Drama/Angst, Humour/Parody, Snapecentric, Post-DH, Missing Moment

Story Summary: A tale of spilled drinks, broken bottles, and missed opportunities, in which Snape and Dumbledore share a bathroom encounter (but not in a sexy way), and it is conclusively proved that any problem at all can be solved by a nice cup of tea.

AlbaLark’s Rec:
By turns poignant and sardonically humorous, many lovely turns of phrase lace this tale of Severus Snape’s last few years.  We see the rocky, yet amusing, beginnings of a possible relationship with Remus Lupin, his preparations for the inevitable, a brief and moving description of his death, followed by an amusing yet surprisingly emotional conversation with Albus Dumbledore.

The author does a wonderful job of setting a mood that strikes just the right tone and fits well with what we might have imagined as the view from Snape’s perspective.

Status: Completed

Length: Ficlet

Tags: Gen, Drama/Angst, Humour/Parody, Snapecentric, Post-DH, Missing Moment

Story Summary: Fawkes takes a bird's-eye view of events at the Shrieking Shack.

AlbaLark’s Rec:

This is a two part ficlet; first, Fawkes’s take on the events in the Shrieking Shack that night of Voldemort’s downfall, and secondly, what Luna and Hermione make of what they find afterward.  A very satisfying, cleverly written little fic with an original twist.

Status: Completed

Length: Short Story

Tags: Drama/Angst, Romance, Multiples, HP/RW/HG, Fluff, Post-DH, Missing Moment, Het Multiple

Story Summary: A moment between the trio while at Shell Cottage

harmony_bites’ Rec:

This is almost gen except for a little subtle hint of attraction, but it is very much triofic, one in which Hermione needs Harry and Ron both. I like how Inell creates this quiet missing moment in the midst of Draco Hallows, as Hermione tries to move on from what she experienced at Malfoy Manor.

Status: Completed

Length: Short Story

Tags: Slash: m/m, Drama/Angst, Post-HBP, SS/RL, Erotica/PWP, Missing Moment

Story Summary: A missing scene from HBP, involving a visit to Spinner's End, a voyeuristic Peter Pettigrew, and Lupin's desperate search for atonement.

harmony_bites’ Rec:

This is a missing moment fic set during Half-Blood Prince told from Peter’s point of view–it’s a fascinating if disturbing point of view and one that makes this a lot more than a PWP.