 |
Journal | Friends | Calendar | User Info | Memories |
snarry_reader's Journal
Title: A Matter of Intent
Author: Florahart
Rating: hard R
Author’s Warnings: highlight if you want warnings: Dying and general ouchiness
Story Link: http://florahart.livejournal.com/54
Author’s Livejournal:
![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
florahartAuthor’s summary: not given
Length: shortish
Reviewer:
painless_jVery sad but beautiful and gentle, especially the very ending. The story tells us an episode in Horcrux hunt which is neither trite nor adventure-like and an even briefer episode in Snape and Harry's relationship which lasted a night but left a life-time impact. As I told the author, I'm not sure that I believed in this Harry, but the story reads so well that I didn't really pay attention to it until afterwards. Interesting, emotional, with a fine magic touch as often happens in Flora's stories.
Title: A Pushing, Thrusting Young Man
Author: Adbaculum
Rating: NC-17
Author’s Warnings: Dub. consent, discipline, incest, channish (Harry is 15)
Story Link: http://community.livejournal.com/revers
Author’s Livejournal:
adbaculumAuthor’s summary: Snape believes it is up to him to bring a wayward Harry back in line.
Reviewer:
painless_jI don't usually like this sort of plot (Snape punishes student!Harry), but here there's a wonderful trick and enough background details to keep me interested and even giggle in delight. Even though it's a short story, it shows enough of what Harry could have been had he grown with his parents. And it's hot -- if you like spanking.
Title: The Mark of Cain
Author: Beth H.
Rating: NC-17
Story Link: http://www.livejournal.com/community/me
Author’s Livejournal:
bethbethbeth Author’s summary: After the defeat of Voldemort, the Ministry has found a way to deal with the Wizarding World's last remaining Death Eater. When Harry returns to England, he comes up with a different plan.
Length: novellette
Reviewer:
painless_jI loved this fic to bits. Harry comes back to England, crashes in on Hermione and her kids, and meets Snape who comes to babysit and teach those kids about the theory of Potion-making. Snape has been made an example of: there's a bright halo around him that prevents him from doing magic, people from doing magic to him, but also it doesn't allow any contact at all. A couple more accidental meetings, and Harry boggles at the inhumanity of the punishment. It's a fabulous story with absolutely amazing magic. If you've missed it, run, don't walk!
Title: So Lonely Without Me
Author: Calligraphy
Rating: NC-17
Story Link: http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.p
Author’s Livejournal:
caligryphyAuthor’s summary: Two men, two rooms. Takes place several years in the future, during the war.
Length: novella
Reviewer:
painless_jThis is a long fic where barely anything happens, just two people co-exist in a closed up space. But it's written in such a way that it sucks you in, totally engages you in their conversations, emotions, and small things that make their routine.
Snape and Harry are in hiding. They can't do magic lest they are detected; the place supplies them with bare necessities: some water, some food, no entertainment or even heating. They have a couple of old newspapers they soon know by heart; their space is limited with one room and one bathroom. They have only each other for company.
It's beyond claustrophobic, but these settings (not unbelievable the way it's done here, btw) let the author reveal the maximum of what can be 'squeezed' out of the pairing. These two unsuitable people grow on one another because there's no way out, because they have nothing else to do. It's a slow process that we can observe, and it's at the same time heartbreaking and heartwarming.
Despite being long and detailed, the story is also somehow minimalistic and very precise, and the pacing is wonderful. It's very dialogue-heavy, and as for me, the dialogue is brilliant. And when it comes to the sex, it's wonderfully realistic, moving and, well, sexy.
This is one of my most favourite long fics. I read it when I want something really good that will make me feel good afterwards. And I'll certainly keep re-reading it in the future.
Title: Pink Slip
Author: Cluegirl
Rating: NC-17
Author’s Warnings: BDSM, cock/ball torture, crossdressing, humiliation, extremely dubious consent, slavery. AU as of book 2.
Story Link: http://www.livejournal.com/users/cluegi
Author’s Livejournal:
cluegirlAuthor’s summary: N/A
Length: short
Reviewer:
painless_jThis fic is basically a kinky PWP but with a clever background. The final battle with Voldemort occured at the end of Harry's year one at Hogwarts, and after some perturbations, it was decided that children from the opposite sides should be exchanged between the Ministry and the remaining Death Eaters and taken into fosterage. Harry and his friends are fostered to Lucius. Kink ahoy! If you are, even just a bit, into any of the kinks mentioned, it's very, very hot. Snape is wonderful - dark and ambiguous. Delightful reading!
Title: The Devil Will Drag You Under
Author: Dementor Delta
Rating: NC-17
Author’s Warnings: chan, AU
Story Link: http://archive.skyehawke.com/authors.ph
Author’s Livejournal:
dementordeltaAuthor’s summary: Harry must marry Snape for his own protection. Only a legality for seven years, of course.
Length: novella
Reviewer:
painless_jI was asked to name my most favourite fic in my Slashcast interview. Of course I named two, but this fic was one of those two -- most favourite, most beloved of all slash HP fics that I've ever read. Delta's stories are a blessing on the whole, so warm and humane they are.
This story is chan, but if you don't read it because you don't read chan on principle, you'll lose much more than you'll gain holding on to those principles. If you don't read chan because it squicks you, this is your chance of reading a non-squicky chan, because I can't imagine a less squicky fic in general.
The story is loving, warm, amusing; this is my ideal comfort reading that lets me believe that everything's all right with the world and mankind when I'm depressed and can see no light in the end of the proverbal tunnel.
So, Snape has to marry a very yong, pre-pubescent Harry. Who, having trusted him when Snape came to take him from the Dursleys, stubbornly keeps to his "misplaced" (as Snape sees it) trust and liking. Besides, Harry's a curious boy. Given a taste of intimacy once (by necessity, so activate the bond), he keeps wanting to learn more. And of course he asks Snape to teach him. Repeatedly. And of course Snape doesn't comply. He's Snape, what would you expect! So all the initiative comes from the curious imp Harry. But in the end, who could withstand the charm and insistence of such a child? So, of course, Snape teaches him, cursing his own weakness.
Amazing fic, sexy and sweet.
Title: Social Clues
Author: Diagonalist
Rating: PG-13
Author’s Warnings:
Story Link: here
Author’s Livejournal:
diagonalist Author’s summary: Harry starts finding ways to talk to Snape again after the war.
Length: short
Reviewer:
painless_jThe story consists of a series of scenes years after the war where Harry and Snape meet at various social occasions and don't have a conversation -- because every time it goes either bad or awkward. But Harry's a stubborn man when something gets into his head, so he keeps trying, with Hermione's help. The story progress seems effortless: the short scenes follow each other; the writing is succinct. The fic seems very simple but when you look attentively, you can see it resulting from the author's skill. It's a lovely fic, in places funny, the one to keep a smile on your face after you finished it and with enough "flesh" to make you remember it. Wonderful story.
Title: Under His Spell
Author: Ella Bane
Rating: NC-17
Author’s Warnings: Explicit sex
Story Link: http://www.ellabane.slashcity.org/ficun
Author’s Livejournal:
ella_baneAuthor’s summary: Snape's will is gone. Harry helps restore it.
Length: novella
Reviewer:
painless_jThis story was the last in the 2006 Snarry Games, and in my opinion, it was really worth waiting for. It features: really interesting magic (the curse and especially the way to heal the victims), Harry and Draco as mind healers, Ron and Snape's friendship; love that conquers and saves -- and all of it written in a very credible way. I loved Harry here. I loved how the development of his feelings was written, so realistic and sweet. And of course I liked the mystery element -- it makes the story move and the reader fidget. All in all, a really good fic, very enjoyable. Oh, and of course it's hot!
Title: For Things Not at Hand
Author: Empathic Siren
Rating: R
Author’s Warnings: Character death, but not Harry or Severus, a brief scene involving cross-dressing, a brief mention of bondage.
Story Link: http://community.livejournal.com/revers
Author’s Livejournal:
empathic_sirenAuthor’s summary: What gets you through the despair, the loneliness, the fear? What do you set your sights on? How do you find the courage to hope when all seems lost?
Length: novelette
Reviewer:
painless_jWonderful story. I wasn't sure I'd like it when I started reading it -- such a peaceful scene, you know, and looks like established relationship, which I don't like. But it began alternating timelines and going deeper and deeper in Snape and Harry's history. Small details of war and Harry's struggle for victory started coming up, so I started falling in love with it and by the middle I was already thinking, duh, what's not to like? So by the end I was quite charmed. The story is bittersweet but hopeful, and I liked the narration and the characters. And although Snape seemed rather mellowed at times, I believed in him. Very pleasant reading!
Title: The Second Time Around
Author: Beth H.
Rating: R
Author’s Warnings: More plot than sex (for some values of 'plot')
Story Link: http://community.livejournal.com/revers
Author’s Livejournal:
bethbethbethAuthor’s summary: There were many things that Severus Snape didn't remember, but he was almost entirely certain that he had always been heterosexual.
Length: 10,236 words
Reviewer:
painless_jCharming, sparkling funny in places, wonderfully written. This fic has been a pleasure to read from the first line to the last. I don't want to say anything for fear of spoiling it, but I'll tell you that Snape doesn't really remember everything. Like, here remember, and here... surely it was like this... And that makes for a fantastic plot device. His relationship with Minerva is fabulous. I loved it; it's such an absofreakinglutely wonderful story. Awww and bravo!
Title: Containment
Author: Flora
Rating: NC-17
Author’s Warnings: Harry is 17, Snape is an adult
Story Link: http://community.livejournal.com/hpvale
Author’s Livejournal:
florahart Author’s summary: N/A
Length: 16,100 words
Reviewer:
painless_jThis is a pretty weird fic, but I'm very impressed -- although I can't say by what exactly 'cos I'd spoil it if I did. I'll just say that Flora manages to pull off two of the silliest and craziest concepts of defeating Voldemort, the ideas fit for the crackiest of crackfics or worst of badfics, without making this story either. Not even close. As for me, what saves it is the narrator: the fic is written from Snape's POV, first person. His voice sounds really good and a bit melancholic. Apart from all this, I liked characterisation and the ending. Interesting reading. I'd call the fic lovely were it not outshined with various unusual things. Go read!
Title: Anesthesia
Author: Flora
Rating: NC-17
Author’s Warnings: given the origin of the premise, it should probably go without saying this is fairly fluffy. Heh.
Story Link: http://florahart.livejournal.com/48
Author’s Livejournal:
florahart Author’s summary: N/A
Length: 6950 words
Reviewer:
painless_jFics like this are the reason why I can't stray to other fandoms for too long. It's shining, gently absurd, funny, awfully cute, and wonderfully written. Sheer joy!
This is the case of a cracky premise made into a good fic. Harry decides that he should put Snape out of the picture when he goes after Voldemort 'cos Voldemort and Snape could be too much for him to handle. The way to do it? Why, put him to sleep. How? Read to find out.
Go let yourself have a bit of fun!
Title: Mirror Magic
Author: Go Seaward
Rating: NC-17
Story Link: http://goseaward.slashcity.org/Fics/mir
Author’s Livejournal:
goseaward Author’s summary: For the SSFF three-word challenge: contrition, voluptuous, bloodthirsty. Or, to put it another way, Snape has a stalker and a fiftieth birthday.
Length: medium-short
Reviewer:
painless_jWorking my way through the Severus Snape Fuh-Q Fest in order to find something interesting that I had missed before, I found out that I, indeed, had missed several excellent fics. This is one of them.
Somebody enchants Snape's mirror. The mirror likes watching Snape in his private moments. The mirror talks to him. There are several suspects which in the end come down to two. You'd say, a-ha, situation comedy! I'd say, and situation comedy, too, but also much more. Love triangles, fascinating magical theories (and practice!), amusing dialogues, and a fair share of tender and sad moments. This is a wonderful fic. I started re-reading it for this rec and was unable to stop until I've read it all again.
Title: Private Lessons In Piety
Authors: Isidore13 and DementorDelta
Rating: NC-17
Author’s Warnings: AU, blatant disrespect of religion
Story Link: http://www.livejournal.com/users/dement
Authors' Livejournals:
isidore13 and dementordeltaAuthor’s summary: N/A
Length: short
Reviewer:
painless_jThis is a kinky PWP, channish. The fic should be read for the sheer wrongness and hotness of it. It's not perfect, there are some typos and problems with flow (a typical feature of co-authored fics), but in this fic it doesn't matter one bit because it's the essence of porn, or porn as it should be. Don't read at work, you might moan out loud! Delicious dirty smut!
Title: Childe Harry to the Dark Tower Came
Author: Isolde
Rating: NC-17
Author’s Warnings:
Story Link: http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.p
Author’s Livejournal: cursive
Author’s summary: A risky potion is botched and, acting as an unstable portkey, transports Harry and Snape back in time to a seedy Wizarding village (before it became Hogsmeade) where they must assume a Master/slave relationship while trying to escape.
Length: 10K words
Reviewer:
painless_jThis fic is an old favourite of mine. Apart from Isolde's excellent writing, the story has a most fascinating plot. It's a time-travel fic, but this fic is unlike many others that use the time-travel cliche. Isolde brings us to the depths of history and shows us (once again, contrary to most time-travel fics that reproduce the past as the present, only in different decorations) that another era is another way of thinking, that people in the past had quite different ideas, traditions and views. That the dangers of appearing in the past are far more complicated and literal that the mere possibility of paradox. And don't forget the amazingly written Snape/Harry relationship, rich with nuances. Excellent fic!
Title: Nettle Soup and Gooseberries
Author: Jay Tryfanstone
Rating: R
Story Link: http://community.livejournal.com/revers
Author’s Livejournal:
tryfanstone Author’s summary: An old-fashioned romance, this tale concerns the trials and tribulations of the star-crossed lovers Master Harry Potter and Professor Severus Snape, being a tale of some ingenuity and divers complication.
Length: novella
Reviewer:
painless_jYou don't read a fic like this; you savour it! The style is simply fantastic. I fell in love with it at the first paragraph. But speaking of the contents, this is the first story I've read that speaks of real integration of the Muggle and Wizarding words. You know, not a dystopic scenario of how Muggles found out and then everything went bad, but of how the worlds interact and mingle. It's beyond fascinating; I believe I was reading with my mouth open in astonishent and my eyes owl-like huge. Snape settles in a small peaceful village, inhabitated mostly by old ladies. The old ladies learn how to deal with a wizard; accidents happen on the way. It's so charming and moving!
Title: On Wednesday
Author: Jay Tryfanstone
Rating: PG-13
Story Link: http://inkstain.inkquill.net/isf/archiv
Author’s Livejournal:
tryfanstoneAuthor’s summary: Postwar. Food, owls and taxes. There might be a plot in there somewhere.
Length: short
Reviewer:
painless_jMr Potter drives home from work. It's Wednesday.
On Wednesdays, he ironed the shirts he'd washed on Monday, ate lasagna, and watched whatever sport was currently occupying the television schedules. If you'd asked him, Mr Potter would have said that what he did on a Wednesday was perfectly unremarkable. No more unusual, in fact, than what he did on Monday, or Tuesday, or indeed any other day of the week. Mr Potter got up in the morning, showered, and had a bowl of cereal. He drove to work and spent the day in front of a computer terminal. He's something in import/export, one of many in an open plan office where the staff come and go like subbuteo players. Then he drives home. On Saturdays he might play with the old playstation stored neatly below his small television. On Sundays he allowed himself an extra half-hour in bed.
As you can see, Mr Potter leads a perfectly normal, quiet life. But strange small things keep happening around him: one day there are two owls in the tree by his porch, another time he runs into an old man who calls him "my boy" and offers him sweets. When one of these days something inexplicably odd upsets his routine, he begins noticing many other unusual things in his neighbourhood, and doing unusual things, too.
Sly, charming short fic with fantastic narrative intonation!
Title: A Necessary Evil
Author: Kai
Rating: NC-17
Author’s Warnings: This is a horror story. If you have a weak stomach and/or hate experimental fiction, then flee now. I mean it, folks. No fluffy, third-person, limited POV bunnies here! Some readers may find the subject matter and my treatment of it quite offensive. MPREG.
Story Link: http://www.squidge.org/~kali/hp/ane.htm
Author’s Livejournal:
kaiz Author’s summary: After the Final Battle, Albus is pregnant (!) and Lord Voldemort is almost-dead yet again.
Length: novella
Reviewer:
painless_jThis fic is so strange and gloomy! This *is* a horror story: Voldemort moves into Albus' body as a phoetus. Albus believes that if they give Tom, as he keeps calling him, another chance, a chance for a happy childhood full of love and care, they will be able to change him. I.e. nobody is bad at birth. Neither Snape nor Harry share this opinion, none of them want to allow even a slight opportunity that Voldemort will be reborn, and they believe that this is what will happen. They plot and fight, Albus is old and the baby is devoring him from inside, but he's adamant in his beliefs. The plot progresses with the pregnancy, sinister things happen, the atmosphere darkens - all in excellent writing. The story is told by Snape who reminiscences of the events in the past, and his lamentations ("if only we had seen...", "little did we know..." etc) create nearly unbearable suspence. I was writhing on my chair all the way. Snape's voice isn't similar to all those versions of it we are used to in fanfic, but it's very consistent and, as for me, credible. Limited POV that the author announces in the notes is a perfect device to play with what is hidden from the readers, and it works here very well. If you want to know more about the pairings, it's mostly Snape/Harry, with some - ah- steps aside.
This is a wonderful fic, like many of Kai's.
Title: The Return
Author: Kulfold
Rating: PG-13
Story Link: http://inkstain.inkquill.com/isf/archiv
Author’s Livejournal:
kulfold Author’s summary: N/A
Length: shortish
Reviewer:
painless_jHarry and Severus have spent a long life together. Now Severus is weakening, he is dying. One day they receive a seemingly disrespectful owl from Ollivander that asks for Snape's wand to be returned. Harry is indignant on his lover's behalf, but it turns out that even at the age of sixty he doesn't know everything about how the Wizarding world works.
What makes me love this fic is that the author takes a sad, even painful theme and makes it into a fic full of light and hope, it all accompanied with fantastic magical traditions. It's about future no less than past; about beginnings rather than endings, although you'll see a fair share of moving and solemn moments, too. The very ceremonial Ollivander asked for is breathtaking. I don't know how to speak of it without making it sound dry, because it's not dry at all. The author makes the metaphor of death literal, and man, does it work! And there's so much more!
There are typos and minor mistakes here and there, but they are really easy to overlook taking into account how original and interesting the story is. Wondeful, truly wonderful reading!
Title: In Dreams Begin Responsibilities
Author: Leni Jess
Rating: NC-17
Author’s Warnings: Hurt/comfort, but anything too squicky is in the past
Story Link: http://leni-jess.livejournal.com/12
Author’s Livejournal:
leni_jessAuthor’s summary: The war is over and won. Harry and Snape are both wounded (Snape almost to destruction), and reluctantly allowed their freedom. Harry's Healer gives him a job, trusting a potential Dark Lord where few others would. For Harry and Snape, the only way out is through.
Length: novelette
Reviewer:
painless_jHarry, who doesn't initially want it at all, is made Snape's minder. Snape is nearly a blank slate (or Pavlov's dog, which would be closer to what was done to him), and so it falls to Harry to lead him from that to a nornal, Snape-ish state. The strory has wonderful, dreamy imagery and a complex, bitter Harry. It's slow, angsty -- or better to say very well balanced between angst and hope. And the ending -- sniff, awww.
Title: The Perfect Wife
Author: LinW
Rating: R
Story Link: here
Author’s summary: This story occurs at a private boy's school in the late 1800's; there is no such thing as magic.
Length: novella
Reviewer:
painless_jThis fic is different and utterly charming: a non-magic AU set in the 19th century. Severus Snape teaches in his uncle Albus's school. He's thirty years old but still unmarried, and there are some rumours about his "unnatural relationship with his friend Lucius Malfoy." To hush down the gossip Uncle Albus orders Severus to marry. The bride is chosen and soon arrives, a tall, strong girl, innocent and poor but with a strong character.
The train platform was a busy place; several trains had arrived on the platform within minutes of one another. Lucius searched for Minerva's recognizable red and yellow tartan plaid cloak. A commotion at the far end of a side platform caught his attention.
Amidst screaming and shouting, they saw several shabbily dressed men tugging at a young woman's carpetbag. In a flash, they realized that the men had attempted to snatch the bag and bolt from the platform into the alleyways surrounding the station, but the woman's wrist was tangled in the strap and she was being dragged across the wooden deck. A chubby teenage boy came to her defense, but was attacked by one of the young woman's assailants. The boy went down with a vicious kick to his chest.
Before Lucius, the Weasley brothers or platform constables could reach them, the tallest woman Lucius had ever seen waded into the fray, swinging an umbrella with deadly accuracy. There was surprising strength in her reed thin frame. The two assailants ceased their struggle over the carpetbag and fled from the deadly umbrella into the waiting arms of Charlie and a constable.
Minerva crouched beside the fallen young woman and the bleeding boy. Percy rushed to the young woman's side and helped her to her feet. Nymphadora and the boy's grandmother were helping the boy; thankfully he was more dazed than injured.
Lucius looked around the platform and saw the thin young woman sitting dejectedly on a luggage trolley beside several trunks and a large blanket covered birdcage. She was staring at the wooden planks, her broken umbrella in the gloved hands.
The white blond man bent beside her. "Miss, are you injured?"
She looked up, her black tresses tumbling from a severe braided coronet. Lucius found himself staring into the most startling emerald green eyes. She looked to be slightly older than twenty. It wasn't a pretty face, but it was a handsome one. She had the features that would improve with age long after beauty had faded.
"No." she answered quietly in a surprisingly husky voice. She pushed her thin gold wired spectacles up her nose. "Not physically…Oh! What Madam Dumbledore must think of me…brawling like a common hooligan…She has every right to put me back on the train…not fit to marry her nephew…"
This fic is a sitcom of sorts, only it's not quite comedy. I'm reluctant to tell you more about the plot because its charm is in discovery and growing awareness. It's a lovely story; even "Sev" looks OK in it -- maybe not literary perfection, but a good bit of pleasant reading, ideal for improving one's mood on a gloomy, cold day.