Field Reports

I don't read a lot of Snape/Harry, and I think I know why now: it's because this pairing needs to be dark for me. I can't see romance for it. I see only pain, death, anger and obsession. And after reading atrata's Nine Adulteries, there's really no way I can deal with any other kind of Snape/Harry now.

This story messed with my head. I mean, seriously. It's intense, it's fucked up, it's not what you think, it needs to be read carefully, multiple times, with all of your attention and everything you know about the series at the ready. And even then, a purely superficial reading will still make you go, "Holy shit, that's completely amazing." Because it is.

Major spoilers for HBP. And did I mention that it's DARK?

I actually finished reading theatresm's Chaos is Come Again (Snape/Hermione) a while ago, but it took me a long time to get there and then I didn't actually like the end result -- but mostly because I was expecting it to go the way of most Snape/Hermiones. So I debated recommending it. But upon further reflection, I've rec'd plenty of stories I didn't like 100%, and this one has so much more to offer than most.

First of all, it's NOT a romance. Fancy that. Second, it's clearly written by someone with a brain. Fancy THAT. It's incredibly in-character (even post HBP, this is not a nice Snape, not at all) intelligently written, intriguingly political. It's set post-war, and it doubles as an impressive commentary on the state of the wizarding world, extrapolating brilliantly from the little bits JKR's dropped about Muggle/Muggle-born prejudices.

But the really cool thing about the story (and actually why it took me so long to finish) is that it was first posted entirely in the author's LJ as a work-in-progress, and as such every installment has comments from a regular round of readers. These comments, in their own way, are just as fascinating as the story itself. People freely discuss the Snape/Hermione characterizations, the implications of the plot, their own interpretations of canon and how the author's interpretation compares, and the author responds and sometimes argues back and it's just this crazy cool synthesis of author and reader and storyteller and audience. After each chapter I found myself spending just as much time reading the subsequent discussion, and wanting to log all the posts in my LJ memories because they're like mini-conferences on a myriad of issues in HP. I loved the chatty sort of storyteller-audience feel to it -- and the explanatory footnotes provided by the author for each chapter. Definitely a fun and absorbing way to read a fic.

Of course, if you don't want all of that, you can read the clean version here. Note that this page also includes a bonus end chapter which I don't think is in the LJ version.

And now that this rec is nearly as long as the story itself, I will move on...

A while ago I recommended resmiranda's Shadows Trilogy, which is this great big gorgeously intellectual epic about arithmancy and magic and damaged Snape and...

And then I stumbled across A Little to the Left, Professor, which is pretty much just about bad sex. It's all rendered hilariously, with wit and cleverness and some sly little nudges at awful Snape/Hermione sex-god fic.

Thamiris had a great LJ entry recently about how, unlike a short story, a novel has the luxury to indulge in description and detail, to follow its own winding path without the need for economy of prose or plot. Resmiranda's Shadows Trilogy (Harry Potter) is exactly this kind of novel. It's about Hermione, Snape, and magic, but not like you've ever seen them before. It's an ambitious story, with some intriguing concepts about how magic in the Potterverse works, the process of redemption. Each sentence is a full-body caress of water, the writing rich and layered and intelligent. For the discerning reader, there is more depth here than a fathomless ocean.

ETA: This author has removed her fanfic from the Internet.

I kind of clicked on Falling Further In by KazVL in spite of myself, or perhaps out of morbid curiosity. A Snape/Hermione story that would actually work, and not be squicky or wrong or just plain out of character? Hah. Not bloody likely. But here I am, eating my words. This takes place the summer before Hermione's seventh year, after she's already been through hell and back. Sometimes, I'll admit, her characterization was a bit too harsh for me, but Snape and the rest of the faculty are delightfully, wonderfully right. There's a fine sense of control and restraint in the writing which I greatly appreciated.

Note: I originally recommended this story when it was still an unfinished WIP. I have not yet read the complete version.