#asecretchord

In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably mention that I beta'd this story and so I may - MAY - be a bit biased. That said...

Birth of a Dancing Star, by asecretchord (NC-17, 230k)

So. Have you been wanting something nice and meaty to read, but you've read all the old, lengthy classics? Then have I got the story for you. Clocking in at over 230,000 words (all complete - this is no WiP), BDS has a little something for almost everyone. It's mpreg - and before you click on the next website, know that I am actually no great fan of mpreg. It's...okay. Back in the day, when I used to write in a different fandom - critically, before I had children of my own - I was all about pregnancy and baby fic. Really. And then I had kids. As a result of pregnancy. And suddenly, all of those stories about idyllic pregnancies in which women glowed, ate funny things, barfed a lot, etc., suddenly weren't so appealing anymore (suffice it to say, I hated pregnancy. Every. Last. Minute of it).

This is not that mpreg.

BDS is an eighth year fic with a twist: Harry, who has been caring for a recovering Snape throughout the summer, falls in love with him - his courage, bravery, cleverness - and Snape, assuming that this will run its course in due time, allows Harry to love him. He doesn't encourage Harry, but neither does he reject him, and when Harry gets the courage to act on his feelings (with Snape's tacit acceptance), one single night of passion ensues. And then Harry is shunted back off to the Gryffindor dormitory to nurse his broken heart in private. OR SO THEY THINK. 

I don't want to give too much away, because, more than 'just' an mpreg, this is a mystery and something of a political thriller that may well leave you guessing until the very end. It's about two men - one barely more than a boy, the other utterly unused to sharing his life with anyone - who find themselves in unforeseeable circumstances and who cope with them as best they can, missteps, mistakes, and all. It's mpreg, but it's also romance, angst, redemption, mystery, and political intrigue all wrapped up in lovely prose that will keep you reading to the end.

A Taste:

After placing Snape under the mullioned windows at the front of the Hall, Flitwick stood up on the Staff Table and brought everyone in the Hall to attention. He placed the tip of his wand under his chin and his amplified voice rang off the ceiling. “On behalf of Hogwarts, we thank you for helping us rebuild the castle. As the resident Charms Master, it is my pleasure to teach you the enchantments needed to bring our ceiling back to life.” He gestured to the vaulted stone ceiling soaring high above their heads, the cold stone bleak and barren of life.

Harry’s jaw dropped and his eyes lit up with excitement. He was going to help charm the ceiling, the one he glanced at a dozen times a day to anchor himself in the present, to remind himself that he was still alive, no matter what awaited him beyond the castle walls. Generations of students would look up as the school owls delivered letters from home and see blue sky and clouds, starlight and moonbeams, the threat of storms or the peace of a summer’s day, and he, Harry Potter, would have had a hand in that.

He listened intently as Flitwick demonstrated the wand movements, and repeated it over and over and over until he could perform it properly. The incantation came next, but Harry didn’t understand Latin well enough to translate and only knew that it had something to do with the stars, the sun and hope for the future. He repeated the charm, absorbing the cadence as fifty voices chanted it in unison.

“Practice, everyone,” exhorted Flitwick. “Practice, whilst I speak with our anchors.” He jabbed his wand under his chin and suddenly Harry could hear Flitwick’s voice in his head.

The enchantment is a canon, a round, if you will. Once they’ve all said the first half, you four will need to come in. Watch my wand and pay attention. If it doesn’t work the first time, we can try again. Remember that.

Harry fixed his eyes on Snape, standing alone in front of the tall windows, and his heart went out to him. Even now, when Snape’s strength was required to help hold the charms in place, he was isolated, a solitary figure doing what was necessary for the benefit of others, no thanks given or expected.

It wasn’t fair, Harry decided, that all of Snape’s efforts should remain overlooked. If love was the greatest power ever known, then he would pour his heart into his spell so that years from now, when the ceiling was a mere afterthought to those who gathered within the Great Hall, the ceiling would remember that the man whose power supported the enchantments was loved beyond all reason.

2012 wasn't the only banner year in recent Snarry history; 2011 also saw a wonderful crop of new-to-Snarry writers who were busy in 2012 writing new and exciting stories.

suitesamba has been giving readers a steady stream of wonderful Snarries since her first, Never Any Regrets (R, 14k), was posted in late 2010. She specializes in postwar stories, with a particular flair for laugh-out-loud funny (her Four Words series is a favorite, as is The Cottage Series), but where she really soars is in stories where her characteristic humor is complimented by an exquisite sensitivity to Harry and Snape. I love all her stuff, but the ones that have stuck with me are stories ranging from the expansive With Eyes Wide Open (NC-17, 70k, recced below) to the charming Innocent and Faithful (NC-17m, 26k); the heartwarming The Second Time Around (NC-17, 28k) to the short, beautiful The Homecoming (PG-13, 5k). I'm so excited to see what she'll be giving us in 2013.

asecretchord began posting her WiP, Battle for the Dark Arts (NC-17, 172k+), in 2011, and as she's been writing her way through the complex plot of that wonderful story, she's also been writing stories that are by turns funny, sensitive, and intricately plotted. Of her stories, my favorites are Je m'abandonne (NC-17, 24k), a hysterical creature!fic (Snape is a Wild Veela, and a hapless Harry is his mate), Beyond Price (G, 3k), a gentle Christmastime romance, and No Sign of Love (R/NC-17, 52k), which I'll be reccing in a later post. Her Snape is possessive, her Harry intelligent and innocent, and together they're a heady combination.

cayce_morris gave us the very charming What You Don't Know (NC-17, 47k - a personal favorite) in late 2010, and she followed it up with the popular Coffeehouse Jazz (Variation II on a Dance Theme) (NC-17, 90k) in 2011. In 2012, she wrote A Light in the Silence, A Voice in the Dark (NC-17, 77k), in which Snape is trapped within his own mind following the war, with only Harry Potter able to hear his thoughts. She writes a wonderfully insecure Snape, and her Harry is always there to let him know that, above all, he's loved. I hope there's more in store for 2013!

I'm a relatively new reader of oliver.snape's stories, but what I have read has been terrific. Although he's been writing Snarry since 2010, he came to my attention through a wonderfully haunting 2011 summer fic, Disquiet in the Face of Victory (R, 28k), and then later through his lovely Snape_Potter Big Bang story, A Match of Wits (NC-17, 27k), told through the use of an inspired non-linear narrative that, by the end, serves to make the whole story indescribably heartwarming and simply lovely. He's an amazingly prolific writer, and I'm looking forward to digging deeper into his oeuvre this year.

emynn has been writing shorter Snarry fics since as early as 2006, but 2011 was the year she began writing longer stories, and this is where she really shines as an author. The Interrupted Kiss: A Fairy Tale (NC-17, 24k) was an early favorite of mine, but her 2012 Forget Me Not (NC-17, 36k) really blew me away with its tender sensitivity. She writes a sweet Snarry, but with just enough edge that her stories are never saccharine, and they make for a perfect read on those days when you need something that's just charming. Like oliver.snape, she's a wonderfully prolific writer, and there are real treasures on her AO3 site.