cluegirl has drawn an absolutely awesome Snape artses with Patronus (rated PG-13, bit o' blood) and it's awesome. Emotional and dark and just terrific.

tbranch has a theme this month--he takes requests in March and then draws one per day in April.

Mine came up today! Click here to see Voldie and Bubble!Nagini staring down Snape.

Thanks so much, Tbranch!!!

Alas, the fun has ended at romancingwizard. Their annual Holiday Drabble Challenge (full listing of drabbles here) inspired many het drabbles.

I have to say, it's an incredibly well-run challenge. Such attention to detail, and you just know that a heckuva lot of time is invested into moderating this challenge--there are lots of entries. Just thinking about coding the list of participants/entries makes me break out into hives. Thank goodness seaislewitch and her fellow Romancers are such good sports about it!

Here's mine:

Wizard/Witch: Severus Snape/Narcissa Malfoy
Rating/Warnings: PG-13/R
Prompt: Wandlight

( Read more... )

...and that I rarely find any HP-themed poetry.

Well, thanks to a rec from crack_broom today, I've found a terrific, thought-provoking series of poems. It's very spare, humorous, bleak, and full of tiny electric particals that will buzz within you long after you finish it. Even better, it is very accessible, whether you enjoy poetry or not--it's so tightly and fluidly written that it's sure to affect nearly everyone.

It's called Silence and Esoterica, by cedarlibrarian. It follows Severus through his many decisions and thoughts. It's pre-DH, so Severus's core rests on a different weight than what we know now, but don't skip it because of that--it's still relevant, and it's full of dark, creeping thoughts. It was written for kinda_lush with the prompt "Honor."

It's a progression of poems. A taste of the first few lines:

Just Before My First Year

I knew
from the beginning
that popularity and security
and a predictable future
were
for anyone but me.

If you have any taste for poetry, you should run, not walk, to this work. It's haunting.

Conduits of Sorcery by the lovely and much-missed pen_and_umbra is one of my very favorite fics. It's Snarry, NC-17, adult!Harry, Harry POV, approx. 70k, written pre-HBP, and you're unlikely to receive a response to any sort of review you leave, because Penumbra has pretty much jumped off the face of LJ sometime ago, much to my sadness. Though that generally shouldn't stop reviewers...it's nice to leave that memento anyway, like a memorial, I think. ;) And if/when she returns, I'm sure she'd like a bouquet or two.

Summary: It's a Triwizard Tournament year and Harry returns to Hogwarts as one of the Tournament organisers. What he had hoped would be a quiet year with old friends turns to something quite different when Lucius Malfoy shows sudden interest in wizarding sports.

This fic is really fantastic. I can't say enough about it. Penumbra is an absolutely amazing writer, and in her hands this story glows. It is all about the little things, you see, the little details that draw us together and weave us into a relationship. Her loom is beautifully arranged. The plot isn't overpowering; it's the background that establishes a place for the two to connect, and they do so by degrees. Her Snape is a wonderful creation, sly and cruelly intelligent and still risking his neck with little hope of reward. He's extremely well-spoken, moreso than canon, I'd hazard, but it makes this a better piece, because it's really interesting to follow his machinations. Her Harry is a bit thick, just like the real thing, but he does catch on when it's required, and he pursues Snape without even understanding why. He's wondering and awestruck and forthright. Their verbal sparring is terrific.

Also, the adult content is very well-done. It's developed in a delicious slow-burn arc. Their relations are very nearly a duel. And it's definitely NC-17, I'm warning you.

I think one of the reasons it always draws me is the feeling of a palpably malevolent, adult HP world. It's as if we're in JKR's universe, but the few rose-colored glasses we've been spying through have been removed. I mean, her world is already pretty violent and frightening, but in this, there is a real sense of danger and alarm, and there are Very Bad Wizards involved, and it's absolutely thrilling.

The ending segment is extremely gripping, and I think about it at least once a month. I'm serious. If you have a bit of time to devote to this marvelous, understated piece, I believe it would be time well-spent.

Title: Through These Walls
Rating: R
Characters: RL, SS
Summary: Severus receives a visit from Remus in Azkaban.
Warnings: Poetry, angst, pre-slash
Notes: Beta'ed by the lovely julian_black.

( Read more... )

It isn't a fest fic, surprisingly enough.

in places where nobody was meant to see by girl_tarte is one of the best fics I've read in ages. It's SS/RL, absolutely haunting and bittersweet, full of beautiful details. It's short and simple, PG, just RL/SS at an advanced age, and it unfolds perfectly. Every line resonates and builds into a lyrical portrait of two old men, living another day together. I can't recommend it enough. No graphic anything, just a heartfelt moment in their lives, with well-drawn characterization.

I was looking at the entries in my recs tag, and thinking that my Awesome Fics bookmark folder has a few more which could be shared, definitely.

I'm not a reccer, actually, but once in a while I like to share a link. I'll try to list out my Awesome Fics folder in the next couple months. Some of them are older fics, still fantastic, and hopefully someone will find a good read through this.

One of my favorite fics to re-read is Third Time's the Charm, a snupin story (with RW/DM subplot) by Helen. It displays a stunningly dry wit, it's a nice long length without being epic, and it's quite hilarious and full of beautifully understated emotion. It really is one of my favorite fics, ever. It's simply terrific, totally absorbing and engrossing, and I really do adore it. It's an R, definitely, maybe NC-17, there isn't a rating on the page...but I don't remember anything super explicit.

Oh, and it's completely AU because it's an older fic, but it's still lovely.

A sample:

Severus drew in a breath. "You have permission to go to the hospital wing," he said, spelling some dust motes quickly together, setting them hovering, emitting a faint blue glow, over Weasley’s shoulder.

"What’s— " Potter said.

"That," Severus said, "is the sign that a student is authorized to be out of his dormitory after curfew. I must say, it doesn’t surprise me that you have no idea what it is."

amanuensis1 dazzles.

The Happy Half-Blood Prince, Snarry, fantastic. There is no rating provided, but I'd rate it at PG. There is no sex involved at all, it's just a fantastic story of redemption, and it's really a terrific read, full of great dialogue and characterizations.

The Snape love interest characteristics entry was pretty thought-provoking. I really enjoyed all of the comments.

So I'm going to annoy you all further...

Who is your favorite HP character, and why? I'd love to hear the details, from the small to the large. Why did this character capture your interest? What made you first want to read/see/write/draw/etc. him/her outside of the books? What was the Point of No Return for you (when you realized you were truly hooked)?

I'll go first...

Severus Snape, as if anyone on this flist didn't know.

The first time I noticed him was bookwench2096's fault. I had read a couple of the books and wasn't really into them that much, but then she pointed out Snape's...appeal. I was still unconvinced, but at the time we were exchanging smutty little stories we called "weasels," so I sent her a quick weasel featuring Snape and an OFC. (He was convinced she was hiding something in her robes...heh.) After I wrote it and sent it off, I thought that would be it, but somehow he began to curl around my subconscious, and pretty soon I was very interested in his character.

I reached the Point of No Return only after I began to read fanfic. I read a story on ffnet somewhere, and it wasn't that great, but there was something about him that just pulled me in. The dark eyes, the bitterness, the dry wit...all of the little things that sometimes were barely in canon were brought out in fanon, and I really became completely entranced with him after reading different authors' stylized versions of him.

I wanted to write him myself after reading so many stories; I really thought I might have something to offer, and I wanted to explore blood magic as well, and that ended up being a jumping-off point for me. I reread the books in order to prepare myself, and found that in reading so much fanfic I had somehow developed a rather distorted view of him, and I was very relieved that I reread them, because it helped me develop my own version of Snape. I didn't want him to be a walking, talking fanon cliché.

I think it was switchknife, though, who finally and incontrovertibly sealed my fate. Up until I read knife's work, I had been...well...content with the ffnet stories. Once I found knife's stories, it opened up an entire new world of reading. Through knife and LJ I found many new, absolutely amazing authors who had written Snape-centric stories, and that was it. In their capable hands he became even more mesmerizing. One of the things I love best about him is that he is so well-armored; I adore stories in which he's made vulnerable, where he has to let someone help him, or worse, let someone in. His tightly-wound control is absolutely fascinating to me. I want to see the passion that I know is underneath.

So tell me about your character journey! I'd love to hear about which characters you love, and how it all happened.