Status: Completed

Length: Short Story

Tags: Gen, Drama/Angst, Snapecentric, Tragedy, Pre-Hogwarts

Story Summary: A door can open either way.

AlbaLark’s Rec:

Every once in awhile there comes along a piece of fan fiction so transformative that you never look at the original in the same way again.  This is one such for me.

From the very beginning, the amazing writing lets you know that you’re in for something wonderful - the near cinematic level of description puts you right into the middle of the story.  You wake with Severus on the morning of his 11th birthday, listening to the sounds of his mother doing the morning chores as quietly as possible so as not to disturb him.  But there is another sound he is listening for - the sound of owl wings.  Today should be the day his Hogwarts letter comes, but there is a hint that there is something extraordinary about his circumstances, and he worries that he might not get the letter at all.

When his letter arrives, it comes not by owl, nor is it brought by a member of the Hogwarts staff, but by an auror - by Mad-Eye Moody.  At this point we are propelled into something much darker and deeper than the story seemed to be at first.  Here we discover that Eileen Prince Snape is not at all the sort of person we had imagined her to be, and this is definitely a world in which the sins of the parents are visited upon the son in spades.

Poor Severus has been born into a world of half-understood secrets and dark destinies - mysteries he cannot comprehend, yet is trapped by just the same.  Scenes and objects familiar to us from the stories are shown in ways that give them entirely different significances from our original ideas of them.  Little details layer every scene with depth and portent, the characterizations are profound and the entire dynamic of the Snape family is so much different than the usual assumptions.  In fact, the whole story has the sharp, surrealistic hyper-detail reminiscent of the way time seems to slow just before a life-threatening impact.  The impacts of this day will shatter Severus, and he comes back together in a way that makes it clear that things will never be the same again. The burdens he must bear, the meaning of his legacy as a Prince, the losses he must bear now and in the future make your heart break for him.

The ending is astounding, with possibly the most perfect closing line for a story I have ever seen, and all of this in less than 6000 perfectly placed words!  This story is a true masterwork, one that should be read several times so that you miss none of its incredible intricacy.

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: Slash: f/f, Drama/Angst, Romance, Rare Femmeslash Pairing, Minervacentric, MM/RH

Story Summary: A young Minerva McGonagall takes flight.

Kelly Chambliss’s rec –

What if, during the Grindelwald War, children from the wizarding world had been evacuated to the country the way Muggle children were?  Such is the intriguing premise of this story, which is how Head Girl Minerva McGonagall finds herself asked to look out for two Squib girls evacuated to Hogwarts:  Rolanda Hooch and Myrtle.  Narrated in the voice of an older McGonagall, the story examines not only the moving tale of Minerva’s growing relationship with Hooch and her unexamined feelings for Walburga Black, but it also explores complex questions about otherness and essentialism and perceived difference.  A well-written, thought-provoking fic.

Status: Completed

Length: Ficlet

Tags: Gen, Drama/Angst, Malfoycentric, Hermionecentric, Horror/Darkfic, Post-DH

Story Summary: Notes: In my call for prompts below scarletladyy asked for Narcissa/Hermione darkfic.

harmony_bites’ Rec:

Very short piece–stylish and in the rare second person. I like the way Hermione and Narcissa illuminate each other’s characters. Plus, the ending gave me a delightful little shiver.

Status: Completed

Length: Short Story

Tags: Slash: f/f, Romance, Rare Femmeslash Pairing, Minervacentric, Pre-HBP

Story Summary: They never actually made plans to meet up. . .Minerva McGonagall and Amelia Bones

Kelly Chambliss’s Rec –

 Amelia Bones is one of those fascinating minor canon characters whose short time on the HP stage makes us want to see more of her:  she’s head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, she’s a voice of reason during Harry’s hearing at the Wizengamot at the start of OoP, she’s killed brutally by Voldemort at the start of DH. . .and she wears a monocle.  This last detail alone is enough to start my femmeslash antennae waggling, and in this story, Holyfant brings all that subtext to the fore.  Minerva and Amelia are both career-oriented women who nonetheless find understated happiness in each other.  It’s a quiet story of matter-of-fact pleasure and the poignance that comes with the fact that we know how it ends.

Here’s a typical excellent line:  “She opened her eyes, and it still wasn’t a dream: the bed was wide, sun-painted and Amelia was in it with her. (Amelia, Amelia, who couldn’t be described in terms of pretty or beautiful; she was open-faced and warm and her teeth left little marks on Minerva’s shoulder when she wasn’t paying attention [. . .] There was nothing like the realness of this, this body, this imperfect perfection wrapped in light white linen.)”

Status: Completed

Length: Short Story

Tags: Gen, Drama/Angst, Weasleycentric, Tragedy

Story Summary: After the battle of Hogwarts, Percy goes home with his family.

Antosha’s Rec:

This is a sad, sweet one-shot that looks at Percy’s reintegration into his family after the events of DH. Lyras, who always has a deft sense of character and of emotional reality, paints a wonderful portrait not only of the least Weasley-ish Weasley and his ultra-literal attempts to help his siblings and parents, but also of the rest of the family, and how the war devastated them. Percy’s interactions with George and Ginny are particularly moving.

After the battle, after the dead have been arranged like toy soldiers ready for their funerals, Percy goes home with his family. The sun has just passed its zenith and the mood is sombre, but muted – unlike the grief so openly expressed during the long night.

Fred and George should be the ones cracking jokes and generating light relief, but Fred will never crack a joke again, and George… George walks silently apart, and when they arrive at The Burrow, he fades upstairs. They all watch him go, but no one comments.

Status: Completed

Length: Novel

Tags: Het: m/f, Gen, Post-HBP, Romance, Rare Het Pairing, Fluff, Mystery/Suspense, Nevillecentric, NL/HA

Story Summary: Neville thinks his summer will be much like any other: working in his grandmother's garden and other lonely pursuits. After leaving Hogwarts many months before, Hannah Abbott believes she is trapped and isolated for good. They're both mistaken. This story is rated PG13, except for one R-rated scene in chapter 14. This story was written prior to the release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

Antosha’s Rec:

It’s a bit late for Valentine’s Day, but I thought I’d share one of my favorite novel-length fluff fics. It’s definitely not all sweetness and light, but it’s wonderfully romantic and it happens to pair two of the nicest characters in the series, Neville Longbottom and Hannah Abbott—a couple that was quite rare when the fic was written before DH, but became quasi-canon when JKR revealed in post-book-seven interviews that they had ended up together.

The fic combines romance and mystery, very much in the vein of one of Rowling’s favorite authors, Dorothy L. Sayers. While Hannah and Neville very slowly find their way together, they are also trying to solve the mystery of her mother’s death—an event that was easy to miss in all the uproar of HBP, but which the author spins into a very canonical, compelling plot.

He didn’t seem to have much of an appetite at the moment. Instead, he poured himself a cup of strong tea from the rapidly cooling pot. As he did so, a plump tawny owl swooped in through the open sash window.

“Gran – she’s here!”

“Yes, I can see that, young man.” Augusta Longbottom’s voice softened. “Hebe – my angel. Where have you been all this time?” She held out her hand for the owl to alight. Instead, the bird settled on Neville’s shoulder and extended her leg. With trembling fingers, he unfastened the small roll of parchment and carefully spread it on the table, tea and toast forgotten.

Dear Neville,

Thank you for your last letter. It was good to hear from you, even with such awful news. I know I’ve said it before but if it hadn’t been for you and my other friends keeping in touch, the last few months would have been unbearable. Although, it’s funny because I got the strangest note from Professor Sprout the other day. It was so sweet of her to write. I miss her. In answer to your question, there’s no chance I’ll be able to go back to school next year. I’ll explain when I see you. Yes, that’s my answer to your second question, but I’ll come onto that.

Neville put the letter down for a second and took a noisy gulp of his tea. Augusta held back a retort about table manners with difficulty. Her grandson was looking more cheerful than she’d seen him since he arrived home for the holidays. For the first few days, he’d done little except limp around the garden, looking frustrated at all the work that needed doing. This week, he’d recovered sufficiently to start pulling his weight again, but he’d been going about his chores with less than his usual gusto. Although longing to, she hadn’t quizzed him about the events of the end of term, taking Poppy’s and Minerva’s advice for once. Across the table, Neville slammed his mug down with a thump, spattering the tablecloth, before starting to read eagerly again.

I haven’t heard from Susan since the start of the holidays – she said she wouldn’t be able to write once she left Hogwarts. They have to be so careful. But I’d give anything to know that she’s safe.

Death everywhere. I have to keep telling myself not to be gloomy. Life goes on. For some people, anyway.

I’m so sorry you got hurt. I can’t imagine how terrifying it must have been. Thank goodness you’re getting better now. You are being careful, I hope? Being hit with a Blasting Curse, even indirectly, is no joke.

I had a feeling something must have happened. I had my Galleon in my pocket, I like to keep it with me to remind me of last year when Mum before all these horrible things started happening. I was lying on my bed in the dark, talking to my cat. Reading seems pointless and I can’t seem to concentrate on my knitting, so it makes no difference. Zophy’s a real comfort though, she hardly leaves my side. Anyway, I felt the Galleon starting to get hot straight away.

I switched on the light and all I could do was sit there and look at it, and wonder what was going on, wishing I could have been there. I’m not brave like you but at least I could have done something. I can’t believe Ernie let you all down. I told him never to stop checking, but he’s always been a heavy sleeper, or so I’ve heard. I could bash him, I really could.

I can’t wait to see you and ask the millions of questions buzzing round my head. I feel like we’re just walking around in ignorance, not knowing when the next bolt from the blue is going to strike. I’ve had a lot of time to think over these last months and talking to Dad and everything he’s going through

Then again – maybe I’m better off not knowing, stuck here.

Gosh, this is a long one. I’ll get to the point. I can meet you tomorrow – well, today by the time you’re reading this. I’m coming down to London with Dad, he says he’s been promised a meeting with someone about Mum. I can’t imagine who – all our letter-writing must have paid off. He even got me to send a owl to the Ministry a few weeks ago, although I told him it was useless.

So, I’ll meet you outside St. Mungo’s at 12.30, like you suggested. The Physic Garden sounds lovely. I do hope it’s a nice day. I could do with some sunshine, and a bit of fun.

Can’t wait to see you!

Hannah

—from Asking for Roses, Ch. 1

Status: Completed

Tags: Gen, Drama/Angst, Snapecentric, Post-DH

Story Summary: There's a Boy Who Lived and a boy who didn't, and even a mother can't always tell them apart.

Kelly Chambliss’s Rec:

I can fairly simply describe the main premise:  After Snape’s death, Harry Potter pays a visit to Eileen Prince at Spinner’s End.  But that’s the last simple thing about this superb, complex, intelligent story.  There’s a clever, twisty plot, but it’s the language and the characterization that lift this fic into the first rank.  Eileen is a triumph:  you’ll believe every smart, scary layer of her character.  Through all her anger and bitterness, she loves her son, but you’ll have to decide whether that’s a good or bad thing.  Throughout, the writing just explodes with intelligence and power; Perverse Idyll turns Eileen Prince into a veritable poet of pain and also creates unforgettable portraits of Severus and Harry.  A top-notch piece of fiction — complicated and moving.

Status: Completed

Length: Short Story

Tags: Het: m/f, SS/HG, Gen, Drama/Angst, Romance, Fluff, Friendship/Mentorship, Post-DH, Minervacentric

Story Summary: Birthdays are the highlights of Severus Snape's life.

harmony_bites’ Rec:

This was lovely. This does feature Snape/Hermione, but is mostly a friendship story, especially between Severus and Minerva, and later Filius. I like how this builds from birthday to birthday from the one just before Harry Potter started Hogwarts to post-Deathly Hallows. Lots of little individual details in this story was a pleasure.