vidrec - to your grave i spoke by katrindepp

I wasn't sure how to rec this one, since it is--at least in composition--very unusual, and I felt the last third broke in a huge way the entire theme she was going for. However, unless I just hate a vid altogether, I rewatched a few times because hey, freaking Severus Snape, and there really aren't enough vids about him.

To Your Grave I Spoke by katrindepp, Harry Potter, Severus Snape, All - the first two thirds are consistent and then the third third is a hard break from the beginning, which again, talk about dissonance, it felt like two separate vids slammed together. However, repeated watching makes me see what she was trying to do, and it does work really well once you follow the framing she set in motion from the beginning.



See, I like Snape, and while I'm not terribly vocal about it or defensive of him--some of the stuff he did was just ridic--I also really, really get where he was coming from. Sometimes, anyway.

One of the things that Rowling in the books did well and the movies just couldn't was emphasize how much a child's pov the books were, with the sophistication of what Harry sees becoming more and more prevalent as he grows up. It also shows what he doesn't, especially Snape protecting Harry to offset the fact Severus was a dick of a teacher. Which yeah, he was, but honestly, not much worse in my memory than my middle school science teacher who was in her sixties, brusque, loud, very tall, very imposing, and very, very, very impatient with--well, everyone.

I rarely didn't get along with teachers, having long mastered the art of being quiet and inconspicuous, which for certain teacher personality type is the ideal or at least the preferred, but for a certain other personality type it's nails on a chalkboard. She scared the living fuck out of me, and I had no good memories of her until fifth grade, when I was placed in the gifted and talented class at the same time that when we voted for what to do in science class, I suggested chemistry, and I was a lot less quiet when we were given teh option to learn how to make the science class equivalent of Molotov cocktails, which apparently she also liked explosions and there was bonding. Which retrospectively, who knew.

That would have been around eleven years old for me.

This is not to say Harry and Snape would have gotten along better if they'd had a shared love of explosions, nor that Severus wasn't a dick of a teacher in general, nor after Harry in specific. What mostly I think is that Severus was a good teacher whose students should have been way above the age of reason--say college--because I honestly think kids in general drove him nuts. They weren't studious, they didn't take anything seriously, and he knew down to his feet for the eleven years leading to Harry's admission that every one of these kids was being trained for another war that no one actually believed in. They didn't take it seriously! The idiots didn't know potions could save their lives!

I like kids in all age groups for the most part, but the reason I am not a teacher is that I don't have that kind of patience with them in the long term, and even the ones I bonded with Id' have to deal with for seven long ass years (were I working at Hogwarts) while they failed to realize that green boiling shit they didn't get right would like, I don't know, save them from Deatheater dust or something. And not even know why or even believe it if the did know.

Which argues he shouldn't be working with kids, yes, but thought; in all of Hogwarts, besides Dumbledore and maybe McGonagall, who else in their hearts knew the Dark Lord would return as a real actual event that was going to happen and not either a theoretical exercise or a fairytale?

Snape's life kind of sucked, and while joining the Deatheaters is not particularly defensible, from his point of view, all he really had going for him as far as a group that would accept him because they kind of had to were the ones going on about the pureblood nonsense. He didn't even really buy it, but ti was kind of the only thing he could see at the store of life choices that looked even vaguely--I say this with deep hilarity--accepting of him. He tosses all that away to go to Dumbledore to save Lily and that fails, sorry, but consolation prize, watch the kid she died for. For doing the right thing--with admitted reasons not entirely idealistic--he's trapped into teaching children for eleven long years to give him a reason to be around Harry for those important Hogwarts years, and while he's at it, surreptitiously preparing all the kids he teaches to live and die for wizardkind when Voldemort returns while pretending to still be on board with the death to non-purebloods. And the little fuckers blow up the green goop that saves them from Deatheaters.

(I love Neville, I do, and while I would have deeply regretted it after, I would have hexed the hell out of him some of those potion-blowing-up days. I would have felt bad! And maybe Ron, too. I would have felt terrible after and gave them chocolate, but still.)

I also put a lot in store that McGonagall really did like Snape, and I still think that when she challenged him it kind of broke her heart to do it.

To be fair, I liked him in the first book because in my head, he was a male version of my science teacher pre-chemistry bonding.



If I ask nice, anyone have any good Snape fic? I'm not really picky on pairing, or even if there is a pairing, but I'm in the mood for it.

Comments

[welfycat]

This is probably my very favorite Snape fic that I've read, though it is really quite depressing and not particularly a happy read at all:
Getting the Hang of Thursdays by Hayseed: http://www.obscurusbooks.org/html/Hayseed/Thursdays/index.html

[leupagus]

Not sure if you're the Oracle Who Knows All Of Snape/Hermione, but do you have any other recs for that pairing? I love Thursdays, but you're right, it's kind of a downer. Any longfic on a happier note?

[welfycat]

Sadly I am not the Oracle Who Knows All Of Snape/Hermione. I've been out of the HP Fandom for years now and I didn't follow any particular pairing while I was there. Sorry!

[green_grrl]

I'll just say ITA on all you said. He's my one true character.

The Best for Last by odogoddess. Gen. Just after the final battle, Harry find's Snape's happiest memory. Lovely and sad.
http://severus-shorts.livejournal.com/15966.html

And the two fics I always have to rec, my favorites.

The Fourth Deadly Hallow by Gingertart. Snape/Harry. Just after the final battle, Snape, Harry, and Draco end up in Sherlock Holmes' Victorian London. Brilliant characterization of all three, plus Watson POV, world building of Victorian magical history, and competence kink out the wazoo.
http://www.thebejeweledgreenbottle.com/2009%20Mixed%20Games/Fic%20Snitch/snitch-gingertart.html

Sing a Mad Rebellion by femmequixotic. Snape/Harry, past Snape/Draco, various other pairings. Dystopian future fic with magic revealed and repressed by the government, Snape wearily doing his duty to save the world again and being smarter than everyone, and Harry doing what he thinks is right, trying to change things from within.
http://www.thebejeweledgreenbottle.com/2009%20Mixed%20Games/Fic%20Cauldron/cauldron-femmequixotic.html

[seperis]

I really do just boggle at what he had to deal with. The sheer amount of pressure he was under just kills me.

Thank you!

[boxofdelights]

Schemingreader writes a Snape who seems like the same person as the Snape in the books, yet somehow manages to give him some believably happy endings. I'm very fond of Train Songs.

[burnishedvictory]

http://archiveofourown.org/users/FabulaRasa/works
Snape/Sirius Black - All of her stuff is awesome. I'd start with Repechage.

http://tasteofpoison.inkubation.net/viewstory.php?sid=12
If you like h/c, you'll like this one. Snape/Draco/(Harry)

[malnpudl]

For reasons I still don't understand, I belatedly tumbled headlong into reading vast quantities of HP fic after the final movie was released, and I still haven't emerged. Guess I wasn't ready for it to be over. Anyway, Snape (or Lupin) is my preferred focal character, so I have a few favorites fresh in my brain.

If you're interested in epic length Snape-heavy gen, I like Theowyn's Harry Potter and the Enemy Within and its immediate sequel Harry Potter and the Chained Souls. Links go to FFN; thank heavens for the Calibre fanfic downloader. Total length something like 400K words, give or take. Premise: Harry and Snape recommit to the occlumency lessons and don't give up this time. Reads almost like JKR, but takes events in a different direction from sixth year forward. Deeply focused on Snape & Harry, also a good bit of Dumbledore. Snape's rough edges are not polished away or prettied up, which I appreciate.

Busaikko's Snape fic is outstanding (which I'm sure will not surprise anyone). Mostly Snape/Lupin. She writes them fully, recognizably adult, complex and very real. Chewy and satisfying. (Also: Hot.) I believe all of her HP stuff is on AO3.

[kopernik]

If dw had a like button, I'd be hitting it hard right now.

I'm positive that, in the heat of the moment, many, maaany teachers would have hexed their Nevilles (and that most - not all - would have felt bad later) if they had the ability. File under: Would bet the farm on it.

[seperis]

Dude, Neville and Ron and even Harry sometimes. Love them I do, but teach them I would not want to.

[metaphortunate]

That hard break around the 2/3 was unfortunate, yeah. I was loving it till then.

For me, the movies actually emphasized the child's point of view more than the books, just because the books were purely from the child's view, and to a child, the child is life-size! Whereas watching the movies, it was impossible for me to forget that I was looking at an 11-year-old.

[seperis]

I'm pretty sure from the style that it was supposed to be climatically cathartic, but it doesn't have enough pre-build not to be jarring. A few watches helps with the jarring, so I can see what she was trying to do with that and she wasn't too far off from making it work.