Ellen Fremedon: A Strong Defense

Mrrr. This was fabulous. The Snape a bit better adjusted than I
quite believe in, but still perfectly believable.

Dark and hot and just sweet enough.

Highly satisfying.

*

Chaos & Raven: J'ai Oublie

Kind of a three things that never happened, quite. An artsy
little thing on the persistence of memory, and it made me want
*more*.

Because, for once, an author seems to be using the amnesia
trope for good, not evil. *snerk*

*

Predatrix: Sans Merci

A dark and compelling version of the life of Severus Snape.
*Awfully* compelling, and I cling to the fact that I can't believe
Dumbledore could ever be that... *useless*. But the rest...

*Gah*

Really just a damned good story.

*

Halrloprillalar: Draco's Big Date

She's soppy about those big, dumb Slytherin boys. Somehow,
I am, too.

Awww.

*

Tira Nog: A Nick in Time

Oh my God. This story just wrecked me. And then wrecked me
again. And again. And again. And... you get the idea.

Somehow, Tira Nog takes an idea that shouldn't work at *all*
and *makes* it work, and makes me want two very unlikely
characters to be my new mommy and daddy.

It's flawed, but Jesus, if you're anything like me, it'll work for
you.

*

Debchan: A Matter of Convenience

*snerrrrrrrk*

I love Deb. See why? Yeah.

*

Hanna: Asphxia

Wow, it's fucking *impossible* to find good Harry/Ron, but this one
did it for me. Sexy and subtly dark, with an interesting twist on
the characterizations.

Caveats: It could've been a *bit* longer, just to give me some idea
where this Harry is coming from. Also, the POV gets shaky in one
or two places.

*

Kass: Fool

I don't really see the pairing as *quite* this possible without a
sight more angst and general meanness, but Kass does a great
job of selling it.

Funny, sexy, awkward as humanity, and just all around
enjoyable.

*

Juxian Tang: Lukewarm

MMm. Lovely. First Snape/Lupin I've ever recced here, I think,
but it's very worth it. A darker, colder Lupin than I normally
believe in, but the author makes it work. Choices, losses,
and, in the end, simple human need for two rather
inhuman men.

*

Sushi: The Beast

Well, holy *Hannah*. This was a great, unwieldy *monster* of a story,
complete with foreign languages, unbelievable atmosphere, and
the kind of magic that makes your hair stand on end and be glad to
be a human.

It was wonderfully done. Sad, funny, sexy, strange, and does *wonders*
with the Potterverse concept of elves.

It was a bit grue in places, and has some characterization I'm not
entirely thrilled with, and the author really needs to put up links
to her e-mail address, but overall? A great, long read. Just what
I needed.

*

jacquez: New Coin

Oh, this was gorgeous. Bleak as it needed to be, dark and lyrical and
quite, quite beautiful.

With, and this is key, just the right amount of hope. New coin, indeed.

*

Kest: House

Mmm, this was just lovely. I've wanted something like this from
Kest for a *long* time, and she provided quite nicely. Sirius, and
what it takes to learn how to stop running. Remus and patience
and what it is to be a friend. Mrr.

*

Halrloprillalar: In Love

God, this was *great*. Hilarious and sweet and sexy and just
vaguely *wrong*. Vintage Hal, and wonderful Marcus/Oliver.
*happysigh*

*

Pogrebin: Black Gold

Woo. This was a truly fabulous piece of work. Fascinating and dark
and stylish -- perhaps a bit too stylish in places for my taste, but
really, an enjoyable read just the same.

Sixty years ago, there was another war entirely, and, like most
wars, was fought for bad reasons as well as good, and was
fought cruelly as well as nobly.

*

Ivy Blossom: Desires what is Understood

Oh, this was just lovely. Just... guh. Slow and beautiful and endlessly
possible, and *just* hot enough.

The definition of seduction, in a kind of meta way, with all of the
things we don't understand about ourselves when we want.

Quote:

What happens next, Draco thought, is entirely his fault.

~

Oh, of course it is.

*

Dolores Crane: Crucius

Oh, this has to be one of the most fabulous Snape/Harry stories *out*
there. Two stubborn, smart, hurting and hurtful men with two much
power between them and just the slightest chance of doing good with
it.

Really, it was fabulous. Well-written and engaging.

*

Rhoddlet: Aphasia

Okay, this was  just *sweet*. No, really. Ron, teaching himself
a new way to interface with the world, all of the world, and
finding happiness in the curious absences with which he's
been left. I made woobie face.

*

V: True But Not Nice

I was half-convinced by this pairing before I ever read anything,
and it's been frustrating because it's rather hard to find good
stuff for it.

Everything's so very moody and stylized and pretentious and
annoying, and I just want to tell people to shut up and write
incomprehensible poetry, instead.

But this! Was a story, a lovely awkward, rough around the edges,
*guy*-like story, with humor and adolescent confusion in just
the right doses. And *hot* sex.

Oliver was a touch too needy for me, but hey, what can you do?

*

Slytherlynx: Screwed

Mmm. This was absolutely fabulous. I spend a lot of time wanting
good Ron fic, and this hit the spot. Harry and Ron, just two teenaged
guys, full of awkwardness and having no idea what they really
want.

Really, this is almost meta in terms of Ron. Ron on the sidelines,
Ron the last to know. There's a definite sense of a story beyond
the story here, and that just makes the whole thing more...
tragic? Perfect?

Something.

*

tradescant: Secret-Keeper

This is actually a companion piece to another story, but I like this
one much better. It's just... very raw, intensely *real*. It might as well
be in second-person, you're so close to Snape.

It made perfect sense to me in a way its companion "Fidelius"
did not.

Very well done.

*

Rhoddlet: Sundress

Man, Rhoddlet is like wine that needs diluting, like the kind of
chocolate that can only be eaten in tiny bites, because each
taste is its own brand of intoxication. Yeah.

And she can make me like Ginny fic, too. What *gives*?

And: The Empire of Light

I desperately love how this one plays with time and emotion to
create a sense of powerful *immediacy* in all things. Everything
is *now* within the universe of this story, and... wow. I love that.

Oh, and I also love that it's dark and twisted and fucked up.

*

Halrloprillalar: Billet-Doux

*DIES*

*DIES* again.

*DIES* three times.

This made me laugh so hard I choked and nearly peed. Takes the
piss out of the whole challenge, really.

*

Kest: A Sword, a Horse, a Shield (The Heartbreak Hotel Remix)

This really is a perfect story for midwinter. It's making me *feel* that
particular February feeling most amusingly described by Douglas
Adams, and... yeah. Very reminiscent of the sort of bleakly beautiful
(dead trees, white white snow) inevitabilities one would get from
torch's X-Files stories, and Kat Allison's Highlander stories.

Really quite nice. And if she doesn't write me happy werewolf
porn one day I'm going to *throw* things at her.

*

Northlight: Blood Speaks

So, I was bitching to Jenn tonight about Harry Potter fandom, and
how hard it was to find good, *readable* fic.

Now there are some stylistic marvels out there, but I often wonder
if the authors are really thinking about people like me when they
write. Are there any *storytellers* to be found?

Look, I see it this way: If I want to bloody wallow in something, I'll
take a mudbath. If I want to *experience* something, I'll get high.
When I want to read, I want to READ. Stories.

Not plotless rambles, no delicately styled navel-dives, none of
this pretentious *tripe*.

So Jenn asked me if I'd read Northlight's work. And no! I hadn't.
But I've loved Northlight's various ME-verse efforts, and I immediately
hied myself to the Glass Onion archive to read. And what did I
find?

This glorious little Neville-centric *gem*. It's almost too good -- I
can't imagine a happy ending for the poor bastard anymore,
and I used to have a few. No, it's a brilliant character study, and
while I didn't think the use of second person was *necessary*,
it was certainly not offensive.

*

L.C.: The glory of the hummingbird

Oh, this was just delicious. I've been *waiting* for a Peter story that
actually gave some sort of *reason* for both the betrayal and for
people who were supposed to be smart to *miss* it.

In any event, this served both my needs, painting a picture of
adolescent ignorance and insecurity that hurt just right. Yum.

*

Halrloprillalar: Sides

Oh. Man.

Okay, I'll admit it -- I wasn't surprised by the ending. But, like in
all things, the means were what made the story important. My
goodness. What a fabulous journey. What a gift of everything
I could possibly want.

And speaking of gifts -- how fabulously Draco to know that the
best (worst) possible thing he can do is... yes.

Wow. Wow. And wow some more. Screw the apple, gimme
the witch.

*

Halrloprillalar: Ocard

This is a lovely little drabble that bridges the gap between book,
movie, and fanon with spare, Bauhaus style and a Byzantine
maze in the subtext. Righteous.

*

Seeker: Potio

You know, it's becoming increasingly clear to me that I'll read
Snape with damned near anyone. This Snape/Lockhart piece
was more believable than quite a few of the Snape/? stories I've
read, and hot and *deep* besides.

There are undercurrents in this one that kept me interested beyond
the sex and the snark, a kind of sadness that made me bizarrely
happy.

I would've liked a bit more conversation between Snape and
Lockhart, but then? I'm a dialogue slut. YMMV.
 
 

Resonant: Alive In Here

Oh my. Not a pairing I'd ever really wanted to explore, but I'm beginning to
think that has more to do with fanon rather than canon. To wit: I've become
inured to craptacular fic about Snape and Draco, so much so that I can't
even imagine Snape/Draco being handled well.

Except, of course, when I can.

Resonant is in rare form here, the voices dead-on, even more so in terms
of what is unspoken than in terms of what is. This is no mean feat. Certainly,
I've suffered the pain of obscure fanfic that didn't need to be so because
writers confuse ambiguity with, well, obscurity.

This was quite well-done, and wonderfully painful.

*

Telanu: Please Understand

*blink*

Oh, my.

I could talk about how this is an... unexpected pairing, but really, even though
it is? I read it not out of curiosity, but out of pure, unadulterated kink.

So... I'm not sure I'm the best judge of how good this is, since my buttons were
quite *firmly* mashed.

I will say that the writing is clear, if the device used is troublesome. The world
created is fascinating. And Sirius' voice... I want Telanu to do more Sirius,
because her take on that unique blend of immaturity and passion is quite
fascinating.

*ahem*

*

Spyke Raven: Lethe

Ah, this is a dark, twisted little thing. I love it. Love, love, *love* -- you get
the idea.

One of my problems with the books is that consequences are so often
*simplified*. The bad guys are punished, sure, the good guys escape in
the nick of time... but some of the punishments meted out are pretty
damned scary.

And some of the things the good guys escape are really rather... trauma
inducing. *g* I'll always be a fan of authors who focus on these shallow
events and dig *deeper*.

Which is precisely what happens here. Snape, Lockhart, responsibility,
and the lies we tell ourselves. Mmm.

*

Elizabeth Barr: Just Like My Daddy

Aside from the overuse of Tori Amos lyrics --

and really, we've been there, we've all been there, and it's possible
I wouldn't mind so much if I hadn't heard the song 9,000,000 times
and I wouldn't really call this *songfic* per se, she just uses lyrics
in her chapter headers. Which is unnecessary. *ahem* --

this was really fantastic. I'm not precisely sure why I read it, it's not
like I've ever been remotely interested in the sainted James Potter,
but I did, and I'm most sincerely glad about it.

Because, well. Anything that puts the Potter family in a new and fascinating
perspective without slipping into cliche *and* Explains Snape?

Just bloody fine with me. Mm. Read.

Julad: Broken Bones

Oh, *man*. This hurt. Like, clutch your chest and spill a little saline hurt. Damn.
I'm not quite sure how she did it -- it's not as though I haven't read dozens of
war stories for this fandom before. It gets to be... it makes a girl jaded, especially
if that girl didn't take the characters that seriously in the first place.

I think it's the details that make this one for me. The way the atmosphere is
defined from the very first sentence, the way every consequence is, at the
very least, alluded to.

The tremble of a hand, quickly stilled.

It reminds me a bit of Watership Down, at least in terms of my emotional
reaction to it.

Check it out.

*

Predatrix: The Love Song of Bastard and Idiot

Oh, this was lovely. Hot, funny, and oddly *real*, with lots of little moments
designed to remind us all of sex in the real world.

And yet not so 'realistic' as to be unsexy. Heh. This pleases me.

(And no, Caro, I'm not talking about "realizm.")

As does the fact that, as the title suggests, both Snape and Harry are
most assuredly themselves throughout, more likely to snarl than simper.

*happysigh*

These are all *very* good things.

*

Illuferret: The Tale of the Shining Prince

[URL edited 1/10/2002 upon hearing from the author.]

Oh, my. This was a dizzying, dreamy, dark, wild yet curiously gentle trip
through the minds, hearts, and souls of various castmembers of the
Harry Potter novels.

A tale of sex and sexuality, dreams and nightmares, and the lingering
faith (truths?) behind fairy tales.

It's a story about how one goes about building a Draco, and, more
fascinatingly to me, how one goes about building a *Malfoy*.

It's a story of life through an artfully flawed mirror, and, cliche as it is,
nothing is ever quite what it seems, or perhaps it's just that nothing
is quite how it seems it should be.

Wonderfully done, and a long, exquisite read to boot.

*

Silvia Kundera: Azkaban

Another lovely found for me by the Spike. It's probably just a matter of my
personal perception (ha! ha ha!), but a lot of writers seem to be playing
with the theme of perception and reality these days, and playing *well*.

This one's no different, as Kundera follows Draco into the deepest, darkest
pit (deeper and darker than a casual reader of the books might
reasonably expect) Rowling produced and shows us around through his
eyes.

Wonderfully done, if a trifle confusing in spots. The difference between
this story and other heavily stylized works (I'm looking at *you*, Buffy
fandom) is that this story has enough *there* there to make the effort
expending in rereading worth it.

Check it out.

*

Resonant: The Familiar

This was a quietly, subtly brilliant little story that proves once and for all
that things unspoken aren't necessarily tragedies waiting to happen.

Humor, grief, heat, and comfort are all woven expertly through this to give
the impression of nothing more nor less than real life itself...

Wonderfully done.

*

Wax Jism: Second of our Reign

Could it be? More fic where Draco is allowed to be the mean, mostly
irredeemable bastard he actually is?

Why, yes! It can!

Wax takes a fabulous little sci-fi/fantasy trope and runs with it, along
the way crafting a post-war world unlike most. No vastly apocalyptic
sturm und drang, no fuzzy bunny it's all okay now, just... life among
the survivors.

All of the survivors.

And what happens when one such survivor gets a chance to see what
it's like to be *alive* again.

Beautiful and gothically tragic.

Ivy Blossom: Blue Vase

Mmm... fascinating tale. Very true, very real in the sense of people getting
past -- if not over -- truly horrible things the best way they can. The rare Draco
story that manages kindness, and even sweetness, without losing complete
track of the fact that the boy is hardly a paragon of humanity.

There's a depth of imagination here that will keep me looking for more work
by this writer, even if the story itself *did* need a beta-reader for some annoyingly
simple spelling mistakes.

I also felt the ending was a bit rushed, but ymmv.

*

Resonant: Down, You Lie Down Too

Oh, the terrible addiction that is Snapecandy. Damn you, Alan Rickman!
Damn yoooooouuuu!

Really, this story can be summed up with a quote:

"What the devil -- Potter? Are you hurt?"

Harry opened his eyes. An hour or so before sunset, it looked like,
from the light coming in where the wall was missing. "No," he said. "No
more than I was this morning." He turned over.

"I see." Snape's skin was even more unhealthy-looking than it had been
in the days before the war, and there were deep grooves on either side
of his mouth. "You couldn't find someone else to fulfill your sudden need
for human contact? Someone who likes you?"

Harry raised himself up on his elbow and pointedly looked around what
was left of the library. "Is there anyone else?" He was confident that
most of Lupin's contingent would be able to get back here from the
dormitory wing, but it was going to take some time.

"Not at the moment, no." He was close enough to feel that impatient
sigh he'd heard so often.

"Thought not." He smiled a little and hooked his leg over Snape's
hip.

Snape's mouth tightened. "The life force, is it?"

"Mm." He smelt of camphor and grapefruit and a tantalizing, nostalgic
whiff of tobacco.

"I wish the life force would manifest itself in a more practical manner.
Perhaps an irresistibly powerful desire to provide food."

"If I had any food --"

"Yes, I know." Snape dropped an arm over Harry's shoulders and
drew him closer. His neck was dirty.

~

*snert* Gently realistic for their characters and wonderfully adult, a
moment out of time, out of the wars.

And, well, *funny*.

(And hot.)

torch: Pale Green

I've been trying very hard to resist the tidal pull of Snapecandy, but...
torch! And drunken dares! And dirty angry kisses of seduction and
possibility and eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Eeee.

I *defy* you to read this story and not want Snape/Harry smut.

Damn you, torch.

*

Keieru: Filios

I tend to be rather wary of Draco fic, since a spate of it hit the net a
few years ago and with it came the apologia -- and worse, the flat-out
forgetfulness. Draco is, after all, a nasty, cruel, racist (classist?) little
bastard as written. And yet, since he's also the prettiest character
of an age to slash Harry with...

Well, we all know how *that* goes.

Makes my teeth gnash, despite my taste for antagonist slash. I really
don't care for bigots.

In *any* event, I still peer around cautiously for writers with the brass
to write a Draco without falling all over themselves apologizing for
the little bugger, and Keieru most assuredly fits the description.

Filios is a nasty little shot of a story, brief and powerful. No excuses
offered, just reasons -- and perhaps not even those. Draco as he
sees himself.

Draco as he builds himself. Beautiful thing.

*

L.C.: Theme and Variation

Why, yes, I *am* a fanwhore.

The Spike pointed this one out to me, long may she reign, and after I made
vowel sounds for a while...

Well, *damn*.

The *rhythms* of this piece will move you, if nothing else does. Stylish in all
the best ways, for all the best reasons. God. This is the sort of Draco I can
believe in. A redemption all too impossible, a love cracked and yes, crooked.

The silence and misunderstandings between boys who believe themselves to
be men.

*

Helen: A Quaint Notion [When Helen gets her site back up, I'll put up a new
link.]

My God, it's Dracoslash that actually lets the boy be himself! Look,
y'all know me. You know I'm a fandom slut, and will read *damned*
near anything -- hence my familiarity with Jar Jar slash -- but most
of the time even the most well-written Harry Potter slash will bug
me.

They got something going on over there, some kind of massive Draco
Whitewash, that I remember well from my days with Weepy And
Misunderstood!Krycek. Essentially, you take a character whose canon
world is, at the very least, very grey, and twist, fold, spindle, and
mutilate things until the dark character is just, well, misunderstood.

He should probably weep at some point, or at least stoically weather
his pain at being abused by his mother, father, teachers, mystical
dark lord, magic wand, and dog up until he was 35 years old.

*This* story is not like that.

Nope. Instead we've got a right bastard of a Draco, unapologetic
about everything -- including his need. In the other corner we have
Ron -- yes, Ron! -- quite possibly my favorite character in the
whole Rowlingsian mess. I can relate to him, and his resentments, and
his basic *love*.

And I sure do like watching him get dragged down a little. This
surprises no one, I'm sure.

This story left me wanting more in the best possible way, and I'm off
to read it again once I get the rest of these recs written.