le temps de la douleur exquise

This can stay here.

I feel like most people would just judge everyone who ship that but I’m really curious of your point of view. Why them and not someone else? What’s so interesting about snarry?

Thank you for keeping an open mind. I appreciate that. I genuinely think the ship makes sense and has a lot of potential. It’s not the student x teacher dynamic that attracts me to it, but the characters’ personalities and how they fit together.

To me, Snape and Harry are the most interesting characters in the series. The story revolves around Harry, and he has a very strong personality. He is funny, smart, and brave, and even though he is empathetic (or moreso than some characters, anyway), he isn’t a pushover, and those are things that I think Snape could grow to appreciate if he were able to separate Harry from his father.

I don’t think Harry is very much like either of his parents, based on what we know. Despite characters comparing him to his father, what little we see of James is totally out of character for Harry, and Harry actively scorns it. The people who compare him to his father seem to do it wistfully, and it frustrates Harry that Sirius, for example, seems to see James when he looks at him, and not Harry. I think what we see of his mother is also out of character for Harry.

Lily is very much a lawful good character, for good or bad. I don’t think this always serves her well. I say this without judgment to Lily as a person, because she is a not a person; she’s a character. I’m explaining why I think she is a “lawful good” character (disclaimer because some people get very righteous about fictional characters). When Snape is being bullied, she tells James to stop, but doesn’t actually do anything to make him. Harry most certainly would have hexed the offender if his friend had been being harassed. It’s just a difference of personality. Lily sees things in a very black and white way. When Snape calls her a mudblood while being assaulted, Lily (justifiably) fully cuts contact with him. I don’t think Harry would do this. I think he would find nuance in the situation and would try to work through the initial feeing of injury, even if it left him sore for a while (I’m thinking about his fight with Ron). Again, Lily isn’t wrong for cutting contact. I just think Harry would go about it in a way that I agree with more on a personal level.

Harry’s differences with his father present the opportunity for he and Snape to get along in the first place. Harry’s differences with his mother are what would allow him to keep a retain a functioning relationship with someone like Snape, who is a complicated person whom some people cannot or are not willing to deal with.

That’s why I think their dynamic is interesting. As for fanfiction recommendations, I recently read a very beautiful one. I’ll link it. It’s called The Boy in the Bushes by inarticulateimbecile on Ao3 (and possibly other websites, but I don’t know).

original:

An unlikely savior