#hpslash

2001

A Most Disquieting Tea

by Telanu

One of the classic Snarry fics that influenced many authors afterwards. I discovered The Tea Series through painless_j's recs way back when. (painless_j's work actually inspired me to do this rec list.)  Albus Dumbledore invites Severus for tea to discuss a Harry problem. Madame Minster's Mint Madness. Dumbledore's sentient armchair is called Toby. How the author handles a complicated subject in a tasteful manner really impressed me. It was one of the first fics where I realized how writers use fiction to explore taboos. No longer available since the author took their fics down.

Severus/Harry

Angst, Romance, Pining

2002

A Bittersweet Potion

by Alchemia and Bugland

Write for yourself is common advice. A Bittersweet Potion is one hundred percent written without trying to pander to readers. Alchemia's first person Harry and Bugland's Severus are unique and lovable, but the world they are in is dark and tragic. I like the fics with Harry's narration the most in the series but both are equally good and really powerful. It is a controversial fic but it will make you feel something. The one exception to going for only completed fics in this rec list.

Hermione eyes me critically. "Maybe you should kneel."

"Is that part of the ritual?"

"No, but it'd be humble," she says, pushing me down by my shoulders.

I kneel on the cold, damp tiles, grabbing her sleeve to pull her down beside me - right into a puddle that I hadn't noticed. "Now they'll be twice as impressed," I say.

Severus/Harry

Angst, Romance, seriously dark

2003

Primer to the Dark Arts

by Icarus

Primer is the first Severus mentors Harry before they fall in love fic I have read. It is one of the fics that really convinced me about the pairing. This fic is written before OoTP and you can see that in the plot elements. There is Snape Manor. Severus is rich and pureblood. But all that doesn't detract from how unique the fic is. Severus is brilliant and loves the Dark Arts. Harry is trying to learn without getting killed. Ron gets the popcorn. This is one of the classics without a ton of angst going on.

"It's still dark out," Harry complained. The window could have been a wall for all he could see outside. "You are certifiable."

"Yes, well, collecting Cursed Artefacts is a registered form of madness in the Compendium of Wizarding Mental Disorders and Other Things That Make You Twitch," Severus said, "alongside most compulsions to collect. But it's very a popular one, and I intend to be there early to beat everyone else to it."

Severus/Harry

Unresolved sexual tension, snark, not angsty

2004

Consanguinity Arc

by Tryfanstone

Severus and Harry are trying to get a divorce. They are only married on a technicality. But are they really wanting to be divorced? A dark and complex story. Mature and brilliant. Harry claims Severus because he wants to kill him himself.

Prior claim has been made and recognised. In the case of Wizengamot versus Snape -

He looks down

possession is, by law, precedent Brown versus Lamont, 1875-

It is Padfoot's collar.

This fic is the first one where I really liked OCs in a fan work. Jonathan, the solicitor. Kate, the marriage counsellor are both written brilliantly. Incredible Severus characterization.

Severus/Harry

Dark, Angst with a happy ending

2005

Peripheral Vision

by Alexandra Dane

"Ex-wizards, Potter. Very ex. Surely you remember - one last final surge of elemental magic ripping through everything, Dark Lords dropping dead, Malfoys blasted to vapour, all the witches and wizards in the world losing their powers simultaneously?"

This fic made me fall in love with the Loss of Magic trope and Room mates to Lovers trope. Really clever writing. The first fic where I discovered what good pacing does to make the story great. The relationship progress is shown through conversations between Harry and Severus. Harry hasn't lost his optimism. Severus hasn't lost his grit. The world is a mess outside but in their room they have got books, snark and heart to hearts... and pining for each other.

Severus/Harry

Snark, Pining, Angst with a happy ending

2006

Snape: the Home Fries Nazi

by pir8fancier

The only story fanfic or otherwise I read set in Arizona. This fic made me want to see the desert. Harry and all the Death Eaters have lost their magic after Voldemort's death. Harry is on suicide watch and dealing badly with his dying magic. He tracks down Severus in Arizona where Severus is a fry cook. They don't exactly get along. Severus is as prickly as the desert plants. The desert itself is an allegory for their loss of magic. But like the desert they find something beautiful. Harry is a mess. Severus has issues. Absolutely brilliant fic that packs a punch.

Severus/Harry

Snark, Angst with a happy ending

2007

In the Gloaming

by RaeWhit

The first fic I read that convinced me about the faked death trope. Really amazing pacing. Dumbledore faked his own death with Severus's help. Let's just say that Harry isn't their biggest fan when he found out.

Snape observed as Potter walked with his friends to the door, then waited until the man was about to turn back to murmur, "Finite Incantatem."

He watched with satisfaction as Potter's eyes went wide, then feared he might faint when the color drained completely from his face. Standing, he held out a hand and guided him to a chair, then Albus Dumbledore said kindly, "Hello, Harry."

Neither Albus or Severus are happy when Harry pulls the same move on them later. I actually like this plot much better than Deathly Hallows. Not surprised! RaeWhit is an amazing author who knows how to construct not just a world but also flesh and blood characters in it with realistic motivations.

Severus/Harry

Romance, Angst with a happy ending

2008

Down the Rabbit Hole

by RaeWhit

Another RaeWhit fic! Brilliant and angsty. Nonlinear and whimsical narrative. This one made me finally read Through the Looking Glass. Sentient Castle saves Severus after the war. But Hogwarts keeps him a prisoner because he failed his duty to the Castle. Whenever Severus tries to leave his rooms, he gets agoraphobia. Harry is the only person who knows that Severus is alive and trapped in the dungeons. Binns the ghost is part of the Castle's sentience. Really complex and beautiful plot, excellent pacing. Harry saves Severus. But getting Severus out of Hogwarts isn't easy. This Harry is a savior who doesn't hesitate to go to war with the Castle for Severus's sake. Binns likes Severus and that is the only reason why the Castle saved him. It turns out that Binns traded his magic to the Castle in returning for binding him eternally to the sentience. So the Castle sometimes listens to him. A great plot and reveal, like I mentioned earlier.

"And who would you be, if I'm the Cheshire?" Harry asked him once they were seated, side-by-side.

Severus didn't even stop to consider. "Oh, I'm most definitely the rabbit. Down the hole, ever late for a very important date," he said, giving Harry a challenging smile. "You would be Alice, though, chasing after the silly rabbit."

The best sentient Hogwarts fic I have read. The best Snarry fic I have read.

Severus/Harry

Angst with a happy ending

2009

Sex, Lies, and Audiobooks

by RaeWhit

Another RaeWhit fic! RaeWhit wrote some of the best Snarry fics so definitely not surprised that her fics ended up on my list three times. I am a big fan of her pacing and plots as well as of how she conceptualizes the Snarry dynamic in a mature setting. Harry in her fics is his own man in a postwar setting. He is written as an equal to Severus in her fics which I really love.

This fic opens with Harry and Severus in Scotland in Lochdubh. They are there to settle Dumbledore's will. Harry is left a cottage with mysterious tenants. The relationship deconstruction between Harry and Severus happens as they deal with the cottage problem. Harry is now making wooden rocking chairs. Severus is now recording audio books which I really liked as a career for him. Harry is kind of lost in his life. Severus is finally at peace or so he thinks but he's lonely. They have history between them. Severus sent Harry away after one night together immediately after the war. Harry hasn't really recovered from the rejection but Severus had his own confusing reasons. They keep picking at each other's scabs and hurts but with a lot of mutual respect and love. The pacing is just perfect.  

Severus made a face. "After ten years, still finding himself. For god's sake, he's twenty-eight. If he's not done it by now…" He shook his head.

Whitney rested his chin in a hand, then asked softly, "And you, Severus, had you found yourself at twenty-eight?"

Ah, touché. "Lost myself, was more like it," Snape had to begrudgingly confess.

Severus/Harry

Pining with a happy ending

2010

Storytelling

by kelly_chambliss

Hermione falls in love with Minerva. This isn't an easy fic. Brilliant and incisive, it cuts to the core of Hermione's characterization. kelly_chambliss writes female characters beautifully. So no surprise that this fic is my favorite femslash story. It starts with an obituary column Hermione is reading. Then the fic goes into a flashback through time, from Hermione's Hogwarts letter and her years at Hogwarts. Each flashback shows us an interaction or an observation by Hermione of her teacher. The progression is written in a realistic and sharp portrayal of Hermione. She knows that she is falling in love very early on. She learns to masturbate from a book. She finds out that Minerva is interested in woman when she discovers Minerva's relationship with Wilhemina Grubbly-Plank. She wants to know what attracts Minerva to the other professor. She watches Minerva through the Marauders Map. HBP/DH years are hard on everyone. Hermione marries Ron after the war. She can't let Minerva go though. She comes back to Hogwarts to teach. This fic is realistic. There is no happy ending with everything working out. Things are complex and unresolved but they make their peace with it.

She liked to think that "bewitchment" came closest. She felt like the word itself -- "be-witch-ment," the "witch" tucked inside, encased and enclosed by another's being and essence. The structure of the word was a lovely metaphor for the way the pleasures of McGonagall's presence and voice and regard surrounded her like a cocoon, like the blanket of a warming spell cast and welcomed.

The best femslash fic I have read.

Minerva/Hermione, Minerva/Wilhemina

Pining with a bittersweet ending

2011

The Boy Who Fell

by bussaiko

It's not a big secret that the best fics are in rare pair land! This fic is full of hurt/comfort and soft things that will make you go gooey in happiness. Dudley redemption but not really. He is not falling over himself to go apologize to Harry or anything like that. He thinks about Harry but he's not in touch with his cousin. He is an interior decorator. He's adult and written as an adult with brilliant characterization. His relationships with his parents are still strong. Petunia tries to set him up with gay dudes when he comes out. Vernon doesn't like queers but this is his son so he makes an exception. Things are going normal for Dudley. That's when he sees Dennis Creevey getting beaten up. He saves the younger boy. The wizarding world makes a reappearance in his love as they fall in love. Dudley is a good boyfriend even if it means going to Mrs. Figg and begging her to take him to buy a wand to replace Dennis Creevey's broken one.

"So," Dudley says. "Gay, huh."

Dennis snorts. "It was the Victor Krum at Hogwarts effect. Everyone either wanted him or wanted to be him. I was young and impressionable and madly in love, and then I figured out it wasn't just him."

Dudley waits a moment and then says, "At my school, they called it the Dudley Dursley effect."

Dudley/Dennis Creevey

Hurt/Comfort with a happy ending

2012

The Bone Mother

by rinsbane

Rinsbane has written some amazing fics in our fandom including great Snarry fics. So definitely not surprised that they ended up on this list I was making. This fic is one of the most complex and beautiful ones they have written.  I am confident that this fic is older than 2012 but I just went by the AO3 posting date.

Andromeda is completely fascinated by Bellatrix. Bellatrix is cold and calculating, even if she does love Andromeda in her own way. Andromeda hates Narcissa who is equally fascinated by Bellatrix. Everything goes to hell when Bellatrix becomes obsessed with Voldemort. Things spiral from there. This is a seriously dark fic. It is brilliantly written and characterized. Bellatrix is predictably cruel. Andromeda is not far from Bellatrix in her personality. They both have a mad obsession and attachment to each other. Voldemort, Narcissa and Ted Tonks change their life but nothing breaks that bond between them even if it gets poisonous and deadly.

They pretend it’s a game, though, no matter how serious it becomes. For if there’s one thing Bella hates, it’s to be out of control. Andromeda would hate it too, if it weren’t Bella seeing her so. In the end, then, Bella thinks she wins because she usually manages to make Andromeda fall apart first, and Andromeda knows she wins because she’s getting exactly what she wants.

Bellatrix/Andromeda

Angst, Horror, dark, bittersweet ending

2013

The Muggles Have a Word for Them  

by kelly_chambliss

This fic made me fall in love with the magical portrait matchmaker trope. I loved this fic because it was one of the first fics that I read which was good without being weighty, if that's the right way to explain it. The Fat Lady is a self-appointed Cupid at Hogwarts. Violet is another magical portrait of a woman who isn't famous or heroic who goes in other portraits of Hogwarts to collect gossip for The Fat Lady and helps her to do matchmaking. Their latest targets are Madam Hooch and Professor Sinistra.

"A butch. Madam Hooch is one as well. A woman who acts like a man, wears men's clothes, cuts her hair short. No adornments. Not even the lightest touch of rouge."

Oh, one of those women. Well, I don't know why Violet thinks I need to know some vulgar Muggle term for them. We have such women in the wizarding world, too, of course; we call them "hitches," for "he-witch," a much more tasteful expression, if you ask me. Why Violet doesn't know this, I can't imagine, I mean, she did receive a fine magical education.

Madam Hooch/Sinistra

Humor, Romance with a happy ending

2014

The Judas Sextet

by eldritcher

This fic is the first Voldemort pairing that actually worked for me. He is completely barking mad and somehow a kind lover to Severus. Severus betrays him anyway. After the War, Harry falls in love with Portrait Severus. The sparse but deeply emotional and intense writing style works for Severus. He feels everything so much but he doesn't have the words. And Harry! Harry is brilliant here. The flesh and blood of the characterizations is very much three dimensional and present. Voldemort's madness is written without holding back. Really, really powerful fic.

Perhaps she had expected Harry to call the dead man Severus. He didn’t know why he would. It wasn’t as if he had ever known the man without smokes and mirrors. He was not sure that he mourned the loss of a beloved as the Daily Prophet declared often. He had happened to fall in love with a dead man, after the death had happened.

Severus/Voldemort, Severus/Harry

Pining, Romance with a bittersweet ending.

2015

Gods and Monsters

by writcraft

This fic made me restless and uneasy for days. Umbridge manages to curse Harry through the scar she gave him on his hand with the quill. Years later he is dying because of that. He is plagued by dreams. Severus is affected because he has some of Harry's blood. They are both dying slowly. The author does a great job of showing the layers of their relationship here. They have a lot of emotional unresolved issues between them. Sexual attraction. Bonded by Umbridge's curse. Slowly dying without being able to do anything when their entire life was about doing things. This is a great fic but definitely not an easy one to read.

Snape pointedly ignores Harry and continues. “I am now certain that Potter was cursed before the end of the war. I believe my final interaction with Potter resulted in some of his blood entering my system. The result is, unfortunately for me, that Potter and I appear to have developed some kind of connection which means my life is now inextricably bonded to Potter’s.” Snape finishes with a snort, avoiding Harry’s eyes.

“You didn’t tell me any of this.” Harry clutches his wand and stands, ignoring Kingsley’s attempts to calm him. He shoves his chair backwards. “I’ve been in your company for days and you’ve been stalking me all over the place and you didn’t think to tell me we were bonded?”

Severus/Harry

Angst and horror, dark, Ambiguous ending.

2016

Love in the Eye of a Storm

by rattlesoft

This fic didn't stay with me because of the femslash. It's honestly one of the best divorce and midlife crisis related fics I have read. Narcissa's divorce from Lucius doesn't happen with arguments or fighting. But it is unpleasant and leaves scars.

All of it could be blamed on Lucius. He hadn't been happy about the divorce. That had been clear from the beginning. But, and this was the part that stung now, he had been civil. He hadn't fought over money or possessions. It helped that Narcissa had money of her own. All that civility had dried up or had never really been there at all.

His suggestion of Autrey Island was no longer an olive branch. Narcissa saw it now for what it had always been: a way to get her disconnected from the world so that he could manipulate the public's view.

Narcissa/Hermione

Romance with a happy ending

2017

A Promise Made

by BeyondStarlight

One of the best fics I have read showing Severus's Imposter Syndrome when he comes back to teach at Hogwarts at a young age. This fic is intense. Albus failed the promise to keep Lily alive. Severus still comes back. He doesn't know why. He is tired. Albus makes him swear to live for him. Severus isn't attracted as much as he is clinging to the last thing that's keeping him standing. Albus teaches him Occlumency and their lessons go every bit as disastrously as the time Severus tries to teach Harry. Albus isn't a kind teacher. But there is something between them. It grows and grows. A beautiful and powerful fic. It made me cry for both of them.

Before his eyes, Albus had become another man. He was no longer the Albus he had met first – the Headmaster to his student self. A man not unlike the god Severus had learnt about at home. A distant god, with the power to change the ways, and judge the people. Not always a fair god. And he had seen Albus as the Devil too. More powerful even, but on the other side of the war. A man who believed in his own righteousness and his own justice more than anything. And, not long ago, Albus had become a god once more. A personal god. A father. Who forgave and guided. Now, Albus was no longer an Almighty Being. He was no longer part of a dichotomy – either all virtue, or all sin. Albus was, finally, just who he was. A man. Flawed and beautiful. Strong and soft and warm to the touch.

Albus/Severus

Romance with a tragic ending

2018

Almagest

by eldritcher

Another eldritcher fic! This fic makes me feel everything I am capable of feeling and then some. I am not a fan of Voldemort/Harry fics because of the tropes they usually have and the characterizations they go for. Almagest does the impossible. Beautiful writing, mature characterizations, brilliant plot. Canon divergent after OoTP. Albus is spectacular as the beating heart of the fic. Voldemort is brittle and cautious but he can't really hide his love for astronomy. Harry is true to himself here. Kind even when he doesn't want to be. He can't look away from the wreckage of the relationship Voldemort and Albus had. He falls in love with astronomy just like Albus and Voldemort. Albus sacrifices himself to save the world. Voldemort breaks. Harry puts him back together.

He had not minded incorporeality; he had not felt corporeal in his body for most of his life. In Albania, as a spirit, his existence had been simpler. What would he do now? There was no end to this, he knew. Take my triumphs, Albus had said, and had omitted to tell him that he was placing a world upon his shoulders, a world Albus had not wanted to deal with. Death danced in his veins now, and he struggled to overcome being pulled into its mysteries. Mastery was not a single day's combat. He fought the hallows into submission each day, with his will, knowing that the mantle would fall upon Harry if he failed.

The best slash fic I have read.

Albus/Voldemort, Harry/Voldemort

Romance with a bittersweet ending

2019

a certain optimism  

by hippocrates460

hippocrates460 writes an amazing Snarry. I love all their fics but this one is special to me because it made me fall in love with Snarry again. Definitely different from the earlier classics but absolutely beautiful. The first secret identity conversations in a book fic I loved. The characterization for Severus is amazing. What he feels, how much of that he is willing to share (not much). The book is a lifeline for both Severus and Harry during the war. This isn't a surprise given what they were doing. But after the war they need it just as much to stay afloat in The New Life.

The person that has the other book, Severus has started thinking of them as The Person That Has The Other Book, writes as often as they did during the war.

Severus/Harry

Romance with a happy ending

2020

Crooked Neighbors

by earlybloomingparentheses

Set during PoA. Remus is appointed to teach at Hogwarts. He gets along with the staff just fine. Albus asks Severus to make Wolfsbane for him. Things are going well...until he hears about Sirius Black put on the line to be Kissed. Albus tries to show connection by sharing a memory with Remus. Instead of getting the comfort, Remus gets fascinated by seeing Albus as a man. It snowballs from there. The author is really good at hinting about the complicated motivations Remus has. But things don't become easier for Remus. Sirius has broken out of Azkaban. Harry is in danger. Remus finds out that Sirius is at Hogwarts but he doesn't tell anybody. It is a predictable tragedy from there but that doesn't make the blow land softer.

Remus/Sirius, Remus/Albus

Angst with a bittersweet ending

2021

Pandemic

by eldritcher

Another eldritcher fic! Not a surprise given that the author is really good at mature psychological characterization that shows instead of tells. I am a big fan of how they balance grand saga plots with intimate relationship progression between the characters. Pacing is brilliant. Their fics take unique directions especially when it comes to relationships and sexuality.

Pandemic can quickly trip you up at every turn if you aren't paying attention. Brilliant, layered, subversive and packs a punch. Yes, it's set in 2020. Yes, there is the pandemic and its tragic effects in the community. But there's also Harry, who is now a 40 year old single gay man waiting for the spark with a midlife crisis. We find out they ended the war in the 90s by dividing the country into two. Voldemort appointed Griselda Minister in his half. Dumbledore is still the Headmaster and Fudge the Minister in their half. The Pandemic response brings them together after two decades since the war was ended with this pact. It feels at first look that it's a standard slash fic around Gellert, Albus, Voldemort and Harry. The fic peels the layers to show us four pandemics (Spanish Flu, Polio, HIV, Coronavirus) and four women (Ariana, Minerva, Narcissa, Delphi) and how they changed the course of the Wizarding World. A story told in motifs of rivers, astronomy and wandlore.

"I had an epiphany on the nature of viruses."

"Pray tell."

"They spread by touch, by proximity, by intimacy. How clever of them to know that we, in our imperfections and desperate loneliness, crave to seek and hold and be held, as is the course of human things."

Abraxas/Voldemort, Harry/Voldemort

Peaces

by HenryMercury (2018)

Length - 1100 words

Poly - Minerva/Rolanda/Poppy

Genre - Getting back together, mourning

Minerva, Rolanda and Poppy are clearing out Charity Burbage's desk. They find a tattoo kit. Bittersweet postwar fic with a hopeful ending.

"Maybe we should try it. In her memory."

 The Ménage à Trois Solution

by Hermione_Stranger (2021)

Length - 2800 words

Poly - Hermione/Fleur/Ginny

Genre - Kink, threesome, cuckquean, Plot What Plot

Ginny wants to watch Fleur bang Hermione. Hermione is Ginny's girlfriend.

YMMV - This is a hot smutfic with a threesome. It's not a romantic relationship development fic.

They had agreed they wanted to be able to kiss and look into each other eyes while Fleur had her way with Hermione it was a key part of Ginny's fantasy and all parties were fine to indulge her with this strange desire.

 ready

Thealmostrhetoricalquestion (2018)

Length - 4000 words

Poly - Hermione/Parvati/Lavender

Genre - Hurt/Comfort, scars, Eighth Year

Beautiful fic about healing and hurt/comfort. Postwar. Traumatized eighth years Hermione, Parvati and Lavender return to Hogwarts. Sweet fic and really well-written.

See, Lavender’s not always the smartest person in the room, but she’s observant. She likes knowing things, and she likes being the first to notice things, and what she’s noticed about Hermione is that she’s stiff. Stiff and in pain and tense, like she doesn’t know how to relax now that the war’s over. She’s always the first to react when someone enters the room, and she sits like she’s waiting for an attack. Her wand never leaves her side.

 Unexpected Guest

Icarus

Length - 4500 words

Poly - Harry/Ron/Snape

Genre - fantasizing, smut

Harry has a fantasy about Ron and Snape. He has a serious crush on them. Of course being Harry he's oblivious. His dreams definitely know what he wants.

Rec note - This fic is from the Primer to the Dark Arts Universe, the brilliant Snarry fic by Icarus.

 A Spell to Turn Tigers to Butter

by Amanuensis

Length - 9200 words

Relationships - Harry/Lucius, Harry/Snape

Genre - Dark, noncon, manipulation

This fic doesn't have a threesome. The reason I included this fic was because of how the relationship dynamics between the three MCs is written. It's fucked up, dark and seriously brilliant.

Voldemort gave Harry to Lucius and Snape. They end up killing each other. Why? Turns out maybe Harry isn't as broken as they think! He uses them against each other.

Malfoy and Snape had dueled. Saying nothing to anyone, from what I can discern, what had brought it on. A wizard's duel. But not to first blood.

Both used Avada Kedavra. And neither missed.

My two most useful servants, dead! Not by enemy hands but by their own! Over an insult about which I know nothing...

Voldemort being Voldemort makes the same mistake again of course! Amazing darkfic.

 What It Takes

by jad (2011)

Length - 10000 words

Poly - Harry/Ron/Draco

Genre - D/s, kink

Seriously hot smut with tons of complicated dynamics. Harry and Ron are doing the dirty together. Draco propositions Harry in a bar. Harry and Ron take him home and don't really treat him like a princess. Ron is with Hermione. Draco wants Harry. Complicated emotions! Complicated characters.

As his fingers curled around the wood he felt a rush of warmth at his fingertips, and studied the way the muted light spilling in from the hallway danced off the shaft. He'd always wondered if Malfoy had any idea that it had been this wand—his wand—that had put an end to the evil that had nearly consumed them all.

 Raising the Bar

by literaryspell (2011)

Length - 12400 words

Poly - Teddy/Scorpius/Albus

Genre - flangst, pining and misunderstandings.

Rec - Albus and Teddy own Hog’s Head Inn. They hire Scorpius as the help.

"Scorpius Malfoy, the sluttiest, dirtiest bottom the wizarding world has ever seen, needs a job and is willing to do anything. He said that.”

Scorpius has a reputation. But how much of that is true? Classic pining and misunderstanding plot executed really well in the context of two MCs bringing a third MC into their relationship.

 A Feather in One's Cap

by featherxquill (2012)

Length - 13000 words

Poly - Minerva/Rolanda/Rita

Genre - Established relationship

Rita is doing sports reporting. She is really bored! She sees Minerva watching the referee. She smells a story. After the match she goes to interview Rolanda and things get interesting between them. Minerva and Rolanda are in an existing relationship. They talk about. Love how the discussion between them is written. Mature and realistic. How they approach Rita and how she treats them is done brilliantly. Happy ending. This is not a fluffy fic. Really clever and unique.

Rita was a hedonist, often a predator. She acted on instinct most of the time, like she had in the locker room. Get under people’s skin, see what happened. She liked that, the unplanned, the unguarded moment, that instant when people snapped. It told her so much about them, and Rita was not afraid of exploring those stories, whatever was hidden beneath the surface. Indeed, the more dangerous, the better.

 Never Like This

by s0mmerspr0ssen (2009)

Length - 18900 words

Poly - Remus/Sirius/Harry

Genre - AU, pining, misunderstandings, happy ending

This is a AU fic. Sirius does not have a Godfather relationship with Harry. Harry picks up Sirius at a bar. Sirius was there upset after a fight with Remus. Harry finds out and makes Sirius stop before things get hot. But Sirius goes back to Remus and they work out their problems. They decide they want to bring Harry in. Things get really complicated. It's got a happy ending!

Merlin, what was he thinking? He needed to get away from them. He'd make up some excuse not to see them so soon - practical training at the Amazon or something equally time-demanding - until he had sorted this whole mess out. He wasn't falling for them. He just wasn't.

 Euphoria

by birdsofshore (2015)

Length - 22500 words

Poly - Draco/Scorpius/Albus

Genre - Incest, Kink, Dubcon

Dirty/bad/wrong/hot smut! Drunk Albus ends up in Draco's room. He realizes his mistake and tells Scorpius everything. Scorpius exploits the situation like any good Slytherin. Complicated fic. Seriously hot and kinky. It's got a happy ending.

It's like some terrible surreal dream, the kind you never manage to wake up from in time. Where you're caught in Devil's Snare, and the more you struggle, the less chance you have of getting free. Maybe it's the right thing to do – to stay and face this. I look from one to the other of them and meet only the same calculating grey eyes, whichever way I turn.

 Make Me Smile(Come Up and See Me)

by bussaiko (2010)

Length - 26100 words

Poly - Sirius/Remus/Snape

Genre - Raising Harry, AU

Rec - Sirius and Snape steal Harry after Voldemort kills the Potters. They take him to Snape's house. In this fic Remus is the one who goes after Wormtail. The Ministry is looking for him. He comes and hides at Snape's house. Turns out they were lovers before. A really beautiful and complicated fic. I feel some of the characterizations can be OOC. But everything works in the context of the fic. The relationship development is great.

"Sirius isn't a leader," Remus said. "He follows orders, and he measures how much love he deserves by how well he obeys." One corner of Remus' mouth twitched up. "Opposite to you, I suppose. You follow your own bent moral compass."

Rec note - bussaiko wrote some of my favorite Remus Lupin characterizations. Highly recommend checking out their AO3 if you like their writing style.

 And Malfoy Makes Three

by AbstractConcept (2008)

Length - 40600 words

Poly - Draco/Harry/Snape

Genre - Relationship building, humor

Rec - Harry wants a baby with Snape. Snape of course thinks Harry wants a threesome. With Draco. One of those fics which should be 100% crack. It's got the crack. But it's also got good characterizations and relationship development. Polyamory fics are sometimes unconvincing about how two MCs in an existing relationship bring a third MC into it. This one does a great job.

"Which would you prefer, male or female? I assume male," he added.

Harry was overjoyed. "Oh, it doesn't matter to me at all!" he assured the man. "As long as it's healthy."

Super excited to finally get the chance to rec AbstractConcept! One of my favorite Snarry authors of all time. Their fics are guaranteed to cheer me up. Absolutely brilliant and funny. Funny in fic can be pretty dicey especially in fanfics where a lot of us have headcanons about the MC's sense of humor. This author really nails the funny in their fics.

YMMV - Mpreg can be a squick for some readers. It's not graphic. Only talked about in the last part of the fic. YMMV.

 Three Men

by Celandine and cruisedirector (2009)

Poly - Remus/Harry/Snape

Genre - kink, enemies to friends to lovers

Length - 54250 words

Rec - So we get a great poly relationship development. Bonus Watersports. I really love how dirty/bad/hot/wrong/fun this fic gets without compromising on showing how the relationship gets built. Really good writing. I am super impressed by how the characterizations are on point. It's the kind of fic that doesn't get written a lot now.

Tonks and Ginny are together. They dumped Remus and Harry. They are drinking together when Snape overhears their drama. Of course he exploits the situation!

How had Harry got himself into this? He was supposed to be getting drunk and feeling maudlin about Ginny, and instead he was about to be buggered by Severus Snape! He wasn't sure he'd drunk enough for this, or that he was capable of drinking enough for this.

It should be crack. It legit should be crack! But it's a kinky and sweet fic. Especially love their characterizations. A lot of Remus characterizations can get pretty serious and gloomy. This one is actually more lighthearted which I really liked.

YMMV - The kink definitely will be a squick for some readers. It's a serious kinkfic. YMMV.

 The Semblance of Peace

by Maeglin_Yedi (2006)

Poly - Voldemort/Snape/Harry

Genre - Manipulation, dubcon, mindfuck

Length - 62500 words

Rec - The fic has a lot of plot and focus on relationship progression. The relationship development between the three MCs is awesome. Snape survived the war. Turns out that Voldemort also survived inside Harry's head! Voldemort wants revenge on Snape. Harry himself isn't Snape's biggest fan. The plot is brilliant and executed really well. Great writing. This author wrote one of my fav Snarry fics Penance Is The Play

Besides, Voldemort was dead. That was the most important thing, Harry told himself. Voldemort was dead for good.

Rich laughter echoed through Harry's head right before sleep captured him.

YMMV - I feel the Voldemort and Harry characterizations will vibe with a lot of readers who like the current trends in TMR/HP fics. The TMR characterization didn't really land for me. But it takes a lot for me to actually get convinced by TMR's characterization. Definitely not any fanfic author's fault. I just wasn't super convinced by canon. That's my subjective thing. YMMV. Loved the awesome plot.

 Fate is a four letter word

by Philo

Poly - Kingsley/Snape/Harry

Length - 525300 words

Genre - Murder mystery, slowburn, friends to lovers, read the tags on AO3

Blurb - Kingsley and Snape left the country after the war. Harry is accused in Ginny's murder investigation. Harry and Ginny are married. But Draco was Ginny's lover during the time. The plot gets really complicated. Kingsley and Snape opening their relationship to include Harry is written amazingly. The take on polyamory in the fic is a slowburn relationship progression which is organic because of the other plots happening to get the MCs together. There's a lot going on. Honestly I am probably too dumb for this plot because it gets seriously complicated. But the relationship progression really stood out. It's also one of those fics which has older characters getting into a relationship and managing a lot of family problems.

YMMV - Definitely rec the fic as one of the best polyamorous relationship development serious fanfics in our slash fandom. But this fic was tough to read for me because of the length of the fic and my attention span problems. YMMV. If you like seriously longfics and complicated plots, this is the fic for you!

Always Hungry

by melora98

Genre angsty, wartime, love, sacrifice, character death, no happy ending.

Blurb Harry is caught in a Death Eater pit trap during the war. He is dying alone and nobody knows he is in the trap. Except Severus who jumps into the trap with him. Only Death Eaters can find a way out of the trap. Severus gives Harry his full magic good and bad including the Dark Mark. Only one of them get to escape.

The intensity of Harry's hunger in the fic will leave you feeling creeped out and horrified. This is war, make no mistake. The narration is through Harry. His disorientation is chilling.

Rec note This fic gives off the vibe of Darren Aronofsky movies. Intense, suffocating and scary.

But there was no water, other than the condensation on the wall, and no food. No one came to check on him with a prisoner's rations – no dirty cups or mouldy crusts of bread. He had scrabbled about on the floor, in the corners, searching for signs of rats or bugs which he was sure now he might be able to stomach out of desperation. If Sirius could survive that way, so can I. If only I still had my wand.

Pairing Severus/Harry

Length 6000 words

  Brown Sugar

by eldritcher

Genre Seriously dark, wartime, mental illness, imprisonment, torture, PTSD, happy ending.

Blurb A wartime and psychological trauma recovery fic. The Voldemort characterization for me.

An insane Voldemort finds out that the Malfoys managed to make a boy out of the Diary. He starts getting attached to this boy. He is taken captive by the Order when Severus betrays him. His sanity breaks down even more. Severus is the only jailer with kindness for him. The war goes on until Tom saves him and takes him to Montserrat where he recovers slowly. I really love the recovery part of the fic. It's done beautifully.

Brown Sugar is the first-person fic for me. The writing is devastating. The psychological characterizations for Voldemort, Albus and Harry are brilliant. Severus, his divided loyalties, how his hatred and love are sides of the same coin! The fic goes to really dark places of the human psyche.

"Give him his wand," Dumbledore ordered. Severus frowned, but he threw my wand at my feet.

"Pick it up," Dumbledore said quietly. "Let us duel."

I had done that to Harry Potter in the graveyard.

The incisiveness in plot and characterization in this fic is something I haven't encountered in my reading before. It doesn't hold back. It is intense, brutal, disturbing, unforgettable and exactly what it needs to be. A brilliant and chilling masterpiece.

The fic has a happy ending. Really healing conclusion which fits the story.

The narration is by Voldemort, with a first-person POV, an eerie choice. When he's crushed we are crushed with him. When he's healing we're healing with him. The first-person POV works brilliantly for this fic.

Rec note - I don't like Voldemort as a MC in slashfics. I don't find him that interesting in canon. But I am completely head over heels for this author's take on him and this fic! The fic I rec whenever anyone wants to know what the first-person POV can do! If you've seen Pedro Almodovar's movies like Pain and Glory it's that kind of feel - beautiful, disturbing and traumatic with a healing conclusion. With that said, this is an intense fic covering a lot of complicated topics.

Pairing Voldemort/Tom Riddle

Length 75000 words

  Contrapasso

by rexluscus

Genre Imprisonment, Mental Illness, Prisoner Abuse, Happy ending

This fic is unsettling and unpredictable. The Ministry keeps the prisoners in a dollhouse. Yes, they are made into tiny doll sized prisoners! There's a cat to catch them if they try to escape. The cat's called Attila.

Harry applies to be a prison warden. He wants revenge because his friends were killed in the war. Severus is a prisoner. We see where there is going. It's definitely not easy to read.

The second part of the fic is about Harry making amends. Snape is freed. They start a real relationship. This real relationship part I didn't connect with but it's a fic so it works with some suspension of belief.

What's not to love about this fic? The plot is amazing! The concept of the dollhouse prison. The brilliant writing in the conversations between Harry and Severus. Severus's characterization! He is a prisoner but he's definitely Snape. Harry's mental health. This fic covers a lot of ground without a lot of words.

Harry looked, and looked. Prepared for it though he had been, the sight still shocked him—a living, breathing human being, shrunk to the size of a toy.

Pairing Severus/Harry

Length 11000 words

  Dangling Conversation

by loupgarou1750

Genre Angst! Brilliant angst! Mental illness. Character Death. No happy ending.

Blurb This fic has an incredible characterization of Severus but it doesn't stop there. A lot of Snape-centric fics focus on Severus's character development. This fic does a powerful Harry characterization which really drives the plot. He's got one task - kill Albus Dumbledore's murderer.

Harry goes to Spinner's End after the war to kill Severus. Severus is trying to die. He selected a really disturbing method. A spell that removes his magic. He is dying when Harry arrives. Harry saves him. That's good, right? It's a chilling and tense plot. Severus is suicidal. He's also attracted to Harry. They fight over a stuffed toy which both of them are disturbingly possessive about. Harry's mental health isn't good. It's a masterful tragedy that grips you and breaks you. No holding back here.

'You're just mad because I saved your life again.'

'I'm mad because I'm still alive. You, on the other hand, are simply mad. Why didn't you let me die?'

'Because knowing I'm going to kill you is the only thing that keeps me going.'

Pairing Severus/Harry

Length 16000 words

  Exorcism

by Cluegirl

Genre Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Hopeful open ending

Blurb When they return from the DoM the brains from the tank are affecting Ron. He is weird and creepy. Everybody's scared of him. Except Harry. Harry goes in charging to save his friend. His idea of saving Ron is smutty and maybe not the best. It's Harry after all. But what really shows powerfully in this fic is how much guilt Harry has for taking them to DoM. What being Ron's friend and saving Ron means to him.

This fic has a great take on some of the canon questions I have around DoM around sideffects from Ron's brain attack. The smut doesn't feel smutty. It feels like friendship, if that's the right way to describe it? Harry's and Ron's relationship is way more than friends with benefits. Harry loves his friends. He carries a ton of guilt about what they went through. There's nothing he won't do for them. The characterization is on point.

Pairing Ron/Harry

Length 10000 words

  Fifty Shades of Truth

by starcrossedgirl

Genre Dark, manipulation, no happy ending

Blurb Is Severus Snape really a noble Byronic hero? In this fic, he is a master manipulator. With total Gone Girl movie vibes, he manipulates Harry to depend completely on him, gets him to cut off his friendships with Ron and Hermione. Ron and Hermione don't give up on Harry. They keep trying to save him from Snape. They don't succeed in their goal. A disturbing fic because it hits too close to real life stories.

Harry could track him just as easily, but Severus knows he would not think of it, presents no real risk. After all, Harry was bred for this: born into chaos, raised in neglect and abuse, carefully moulded into the perfect pawn by Dumbledore. He was ripe for the taking, by the time Severus got to him.

Pairing Severus/Harry

Length 13000 words

  Goat Song

by Delphi

Genre Angst, hurt/comfort, happy ending

Blurb Goat Song opens with setting stage in the village of Hogsmeade. So the people of Hogsmeade passed the time. They trod the boards and sang the chorus, and they waited for the hero to make his grand entrance. Because the Death Eaters are in control. Severus Snape has just killed Albus Dumbledore. He's now the Headmaster. He's visiting Aberforth. The reader discovers that they have a relationship. It's got some of the best descriptions of Severus Snape in fanfic I have seen.

his gargoyle of a lad, all pale pitted stone and sharp angles._

Severus Snape was a novel show, a queer lad with an odd manner about him that disturbed most who met him, Albus included, and so gave Aberforth a good chuckle.

It's about goats. It's about absinthe. It's about first times. It's also about sacrifice. How does Aberforth save Severus after Nagini's attack?

Excerpts and explaining don't really do this fic justice so I am going to stop doing that. This author has a talent for writing poetry in prose. The characterizations, the pacing, the plot development - it's just incredible to read. It's as much about Aberforth's relationship with Severus as it's about both of their relationship with Albus Dumbledore. A delicate and beautiful intense fic .

Pairing Severus/Aberforth

Length 4000 words

  Help Wanted: God and Executioner

by pir8fancier

Genre - Wartime angst with a happy ending

Blurb - What if the war hadn't ended in the seventh year? In this fic, the war is going on after Albus Dumbledore's death. It doesn't factor in Hallows. What we get instead is an army of child soldiers trying to end Voldemort. Severus is their informant from the enemy camp. Harry and Severus start meeting in Hagrid's shack in the sea to exchange information and make plans. It gets really brutal. The war is dragging on for years. People are dying. For strategists like Harry and Severus they are left to play the role of both God and Executioner.

A deep and intense fic which doesn't hold back on showing the horrible consequences of fighting this war. They both have a lot of coping mechanisms... The characterization of Severus here is incredibly nuanced - he does what needs to be doing and still tries to stay human.

Sometimes it is the smallest things that allow us to retain our humanity in times like these.

Harry! This Harry is so tired of the war left on his shoulders after Dumbledore's death. He's got Ron and Hermione. But he is really struggling with the kind of decisions and strategies he is forced to make.

In his more bitter moments, he wondered if they could just stop all this fighting and uncertainty and lay it out in the open. War as poker. I bet you a Neville Longbottom. I'll see that bet and raise you a Draco Malfoy. I'll see your Draco Malfoy and raise you a Ron Weasley. Call.

The fic has a happy ending for Harry and Severus!

Pairing Severus/Harry

Length 20000 words

  In Between Days

by atrata

Genre Angst, Dubcon, Dubious morality, Depression, Hopeful ending

Blurb

The Snape of the 2000s before the last books were published. Ambiguous morality? Check. Ambiguous motivations? Check! Ambiguous allegiances? Check! His characterization confuses the reader just like it confuses poor Harry. A brilliant and ambitious plot that delivers on everything it promises and some!

Snape kidnaps Harry and trains him to defeat Voldemort. Kind of. He keeps Harry isolated and dependent on him to make sure that Harry trusts him. The fic is really dark especially on the psychological side. Harry has a terrible life. This fic doesn't hide or lighten up that stuff. How can he actually defeat Voldemort? Why isn't Dumbledore training him? A lot of the questions before Hallows was published have super creative answers in this fic.

"Please," he said, eyes still closed. "I just -- I need to understand."

A rustle of robes. "What is there to understand? I used you, Potter, and Voldemort is dead, and you're once again a hero, and I'm once again a traitor. Congratulations on a game well played."

It is a heavier fic. Definitely look at the warnings!

The ending fits the fic. Sometimes even on really good fics I feel like the ending doesn't match the fic. This one knocks it out of the park.

Rec note I kind of have lost track of how many times I read this fic. It's just an absolute thriller. Reading for the nth time doesn't make it feel dated or boring which can happen with older fics sometimes. I got a Matrix Agent Smith movie vibe from this fic.

"So what was the point if you didn't let me listen? Just to make you feel better about the whole thing? I can't even-- I can't relate to you. I feel like I'm talking to an alien." "Speak with a lot of aliens, do you?"

Pairing Severus/Harry

Length 68000 words

  King of Fat

by rinsbane

Genre - hard to categorize. It's set in wartime. Character study. Happy ending!

Blurb - The fic that got me started on the idea of making this list! Unique, brilliant and unsettling.

A character study of Severus Snape. How does he see the world? How does he think about the major players in his life? In this fic his mother raised animals for slaughter and curing. So from his childhood Severus thinks about beauty and personality in terms of fat.

Snape had long ago learned that he was not one of the Beautiful. The Dark Lord, though – the Dark Lord was all economy of motion and languid ease, all sharp impatience and sleek insinuation, all burning coals held behind a sheet of ice. He smelled like sweet smoke rising from a sacrifice of flesh, and his voice was the low crackle of the fire devouring the meat. He was the altar and the fat upon it, and he sacrificed to himself, and he would pull Snape up onto his fire and burn him, and Snape would be remade into a thing of beauty himself.

Harry is oranges and freshness in comparison. There is a powerful scene where Severus is rubbing orange juice on his Dark Mark to clean it. The fic goes on to describe Dumbledore, Lucius and Draco on a similar note.

Have you ever read a fic and felt it's just using the right kind of words and the right amounts of words to tell this story? In Snape's take, no spare fat here in this fic!

Severus/Harry, Severus/Voldemort

Length 10000 words

  Leave the Children Behind

by montparnasse

Genre Angst with a happy ending

Blurb A gorgeously written fic. It is poetry written like prose. You know what they say about words touching you in the soul? This is that kind of fic. It gives me the vibe of movies like A Beautiful Mind. Remus centric. It starts with Remus getting the news about the Potters death and Sirius's betrayal in 1981. The ending is in Harry's fifth year when Sirius and Remus are reunited in Grimmauld Place.

. He wants to tell Dumbledore to feel the weight of Sirius’ name around his neck heavier than penance, go on, Headmaster, stretch your hands out across the empty bed, remember the edges of his teeth at dusk once a month as you rebirth yourself under the hot white acid-flood of the moon, and don’t forget, don’t ever forget how much he never loved you. Do this, again and again and again, as many times as your brittle life will allow. Then, Remus thinks, then you can speak to me of strength.

The characterization of Remus, Sirius and Harry are brilliant. Sirius especially is one of the best Sirius characterizations I have read in fic if not the best! But it's also the rare m/m slash fic that puts in just as much into female characters like Fleur and Tonks.

“What I’m saying—what I’m saying is, it feels like the world left me behind,” says Sirius, leaning over to blow out the last candle and tug the quilt over them. “And it did, didn’t it? I feel like I’m just now starting to catch up. With myself, as much as anything.”

This fic is definitely angsty - it's the kind of angst that you don't want to stop feeling it anyway.

Pairing Sirius/Remus

Length 54000 words

  Measureless to Man

by Amanuensis

Genre Dubcon, Pregnancy

Blurb Amanuensis has some delicious dub con fics. In this fic, new mom Narcissa is giving advice to pregnant Lily. Lily wants advice on how to raise a wizard child because she is feeling some insecurity as a Muggleborn who married a pureblood. She wants to impress her in laws. Narcissa uses this as the chance to show how Slytherin she is. She does things under the cover of teaching Lily on how to be a good Wizard mom.

Good dub con fics are hard to come by. Especially in femslash. This fic doesn't try to be anything other than one thing and one thing only.

Lily could read that smile. That smile said it understood why Lily was there, even though Lily could hardly put it into words herself. She didn't like Narcissa--hated the bloody woman. Hated her and her pureblooded house and pureblooded husband and her undisguised contempt for all things muggle--and muggle-born. So why had she accepted Narcissa's imperious summons--nothing like an invitation--to visit and learn first-hand what was expected of a mother with a wizarding newborn?

Pairing Narcissa/Lily

Length - 4500 words.

  A Necessary Evil

by kai

Genre Male pregnancy, Wartime, bittersweet ending

Voldemort is defeated but he's got one more plot! He makes himself into a fetus in Albus Dumbledore's stomach. Severus and Harry have to figure out how to get rid of Voldemort from Dumbledore's body without letting anybody else know about this problem...without killing Dumbledore in the process. Dumbledore being Dumbledore wants to love the fetus and give it a second chance. If this sounds like a whacky crackfic it really isn't. It's subversive and brilliant in some of the subjects it's looking at like abortion and ethics. Like Help Wanted: God and Executioner which we saw on the list before in this fic we are back to looking at the greater good. Poppy wants to protect Albus's rights as his healer. Severus and Harry want the fetus gone. Lucius has some agenda.

"Yes," Albus said mildly, as if our objections were absurd. "I plan to bear the child."

Poppy shook a thick sheaf of medical records at him. "Albus, you're 156 years old. You're not in the best of health. This is so far beyond medically unwise that it borders on the suicidal."

"We're talking about an infant," Albus said, shifting a bit against the mound of pillows piled at his back. "A veritable tabula rasa."

Tabula rasa? A grimy scrap of parchment with runes written in shit was more like.

The fic goes in some unpredictable directions but it lives up to the ambitious scope it tries to cover. The YMMV part in the fic is Harry's characterization. It is definitely closer to overpowered/grey tropes but we have to remember that this fic was written in 2004 before tropes like that were super common. Put in that context the fic has a lot of interesting things about Harry's characterization.

Rec notes - First-person POV! Severus's POV works here brilliantly to show us that picture of horror and desperation when he is working against time to save Dumbledore and get rid of Voldemort. Dark humor in dark times! First-person POV makes this fic what it is - personal and incredibly powerful as we share in Severus's worries about Harry, Lucius, Voldemort and Albus.

Severus/Harry

Length 53000 words.

  Odysseus's Last Days

by amand_r

Genre - Tragedy, Major character death, suicide, no happy ending

Blurb - This fic is heartbreaking. Harry saves Severus. He doesn't save himself. Severus's mourning and how the Weasleys and Hermione support him is crushing. This is a great fic. Angst is hard to write in a realistic manner without going overboard. Somehow this fic manages that beautifully. It's definitely going to find its way into your thoughts and stay there.

Rec note The angstiest fic on this list.

Pairing Severus/Harry

Length 17000

  A Prelude To A Kiss

femmequixotic

Genre Mystery, Rebellion, Great escape, Pining, Happy ending

Blurb A political intrigue fic. Unique and clever. Femmequixotic is incredibly talented at writing this kind of thriller and sneaking in a bunch of emotionally fraught relationships between the main characters. Draco's characterization here is rich and layered. This is fast paced. No dull moment. But if you stop and think you see the terrible decisions everybody made in the war to just survive.

Draco sleeps around London and scandals are happening because of him. His father who is the Minister in Voldemort's government sends him to Cornwall. He starts discovering secrets about the Order. We find out that Draco was working for the Order. He went back to Lucius when Severus is killed. But Lucius saved Severus and stashed him in Cornwall. Severus is now helping Order members to escape to France. Draco has to make a choice between staying with his father or leaving with Severus.

Pairing Severus/Draco, Lucius/Severus

Length 28000

  Rats' Alley

by FabulaRasa

Genre Wartime, vampire, happy ending

Blurb Sirius and Severus are prisoners in Lucius Malfoy's dungeon. The situation makes Sirius find out Severus is a vampire. It's a nonstop action and adventure after that. The feels! Sirius thinking about Azkaban, how he used to be before Azkaban especially when it was about sex. Sirius is a man who is kind of frozen in time. He has got a great sense of fairness. Chess is his main coping method.

Always it had been like that for him -- seeing the chess board clear and entire, every move forward and backward for ten moves on either side. Unlike life. In Azkaban, he had torn bits of his tattered clothing off to make chess pieces. It had kept him sane. He looked about him, studying the dungeon again. Captivity made sense. It was life that was confusing.

Like a lot of fics written before the final books this one has a pureblood Severus Snape and a halfblood Sirius Black. Cruel stepfather makes child Severus a vampire. Lucius gets him to sign up with the Death Eaters promising acceptance because the Ministry treats vampires really badly.

The fic is about Severus finding acceptance with Dumbledore, Sirius, Harry and other students at the school just like it's about Sirius finally figuring out what falling in love means for him. It's got a happy ending!

Rec notes I didn't think a Creature Fic was going to show up on this particular list. FabulaRasa's Sirius characterization is absolutely brilliant. Leaving this fic out was impossible.

Pairing Severus/Sirius

Length 42000 words

  Sans Merci

by Predatrix

Genre Tragedy, exploitation, no happy ending

Blurb Severus's characterization is a bit like Sherlock in the TV show. This fic predates the show though. He's a happy kid. Running experiments, reading books and avoiding his mother. Rare fic where he has a good father and a not so good mother. His birthday gift from his father is an ant farm. It makes kid Severus really happy.

How could he even know if he wanted friends or not? He was still finding out how people fitted together. He knew a good deal more about ants, for example.

It gets really serious and dark pretty quickly. Severus falls into Lucius's orbit. He signs up with Voldemort. Severus learns how to Slytherin in order to survive.

Another fic written before the final books with a pureblood Snape backstory. Like a lot of the fics in this era the author has a creative take on the character. I honestly don't know if another HP character got great fics written about them by so many talented fanfic authors during the books, after the books came out and even now. Pretty sure that this is my just reading bias. Anyway.

Style of writing! This one has a Terry Pratchett vibe to it. I really like how both Severus and Lucius are shown here.

He could hear Lucius ordering something, in a low voice, ending with, “...and get on with it or I’ll make you set fire to your feet.” Oh well, that was reassuringly normal. Lucius never did dreadful things to the house-elves himself. That was their job.

Rec note The take on Dumbledore has a strong bias. I don't generally like to read or rec fics with this kind of bias in his character. But the fic overall is unique with some strong standout moments.

Pairing Severus/Lucius

Length 37000

  Trainspotting

by kelly_chambliss

Genre Wartime, hopeful open ending

Blurb Voldemort won the battle at Hogwarts. Minerva and the other survivors are now scattered. Minerva hides in Muggle areas and finds a job as a part-time teacher under the name Mina Morgan. The other teachers Gemma and Phil are trying to find out more about her. The fic is told from different POVs - Minerva, Rolanda, Gemma. Kingsley and Arthur are trying to get the Order back up again. Minerva sends her paycheck to them. She is living in a bad area without much money for food. I found this fic a realistic take on what would have happened if Voldemort actually won. The Order would definitely regroup and continue. But it will take them time.

Minerva's characterization here is just perfect.

She will soldier on, she knows, because that is what she does. And because anything else would be surrender, which she doesn't do.

The relationship between Rolanda and Minerva is tender and comfortable. It's dark times. But they have each other.

This is a hauntingly beautiful fic that will leave a impression. Writing, plot, characterization, narration - everything fits together for a unique fic.

Pairing Minerva/Rolanda

Length 23000 words

  Upon My Word And Honor

by calrissian18

Genre Wartime. Romance and angst. Character death. Bittersweet ending.

Blurb Draco and Percy are working together to find information about their enemies. They are also doing Horcrux hunting. I really like the author's take on Horcrux hunting as a group effort. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Draco and Percy are working together. A lot of the characters are dead. The Ministry is supporting Voldemort. Percy is losing his faith in the Ministry. This world is really dark and full of suspense.

The Ministry was his life, and had been since his fifth year of Hogwarts when he was called into McGonagall's office to discuss his career path, and yet he was impetuously destroying everything he had ever believed in for Malfoy, crushing his--his religion for this man.

Sacrifices need to be made. Draco takes the Horcrux in Harry's scar so that Harry doesn't have to die.

Malfoy's hand twirled above them as if he intended to pluck his words from thin air. "We're all our own greatest enemies and our own bravest champions. When our story ends we only have to hope that we've played all the right parts."

The love between Draco and Percy, Draco's characterization. Percy changing because of Draco. This is a gorgeous fic and unforgettable. Percy's funeral speech is heartbreaking. If you have seen The Spy Who Came In From the Cold it's that kind of vibe.

Pairing Draco/Percy

Length 15000

  When the Rose and the Fire Are One

by perverse_idyll

Genre Dark, postwar, seriously angsty, imprisonment, dubcon, hopeful ending.

Blurb - Severus is under house arrest after the war with some really horrifying wards. Harry defeated Voldemort. But Voldemort got a last curse in - Harry was cursed to bear the guilt of Voldemort's crimes. Can they help each other? In the beginning Harry's just using his power in the situation to make Severus suffer. But how much of his actions is his own and how much is because of the ghosts of Voldemort's crimes? Harry's obsessed with Severus.

For one searing second, as pure and without conscience as a flame, a tiny smoulder in the corner that could burn down a house, Harry knew for certain he would someday fuck Snape. He wanted it, and he would make Snape want it, too. Even if it meant choking him into submission. Even if he had to use the collar to persuade him.

The fic is intense and complex. But it has a bittersweet and hopeful ending. Harry manages to free Severus from the wards. Severus frees Harry from Voldemort's curse. How are they doing that? Arithmancy. No, really.

Because the power to do so is based in the arithmantic complexities and interactions of emotions you can't control.

If In Between Days has the Snape characterization of the 2000s before the last books came out, When the Rose and the Fire Are One has the Snape characterization post-Hallows for me. I'm kind of used to getting my heart broken for either Harry or Severus in Snarry fics. This fic got me crying for both of them. Like I mentioned on another blurb, it's pretty common for fics with Snape as a MC to focus on his characterization more. He's definitely one of the most complex characters in canon so I see why the fics focus on him more. This fic has brilliant and an unforgettable characterization for him. But it's also got an equally powerful and unique one for Harry which matches the intensity of the Snape characterization.

Rec note - Sometimes a fic kills you with its intensity so much and you cannot really think about anything else. This fic made me take a break from reading Snape centric fics for ages because I didn't want to read another type of characterization for him. It was just perfect for me. With all that said, this is a heavier fic. It had such a total Never Let Me Go movie vibe to it. Uncomfortably human in a place where you least expect it.

Pairing - Severus/Harry

Length - 81000 words

  Your Eyes Close

by NecromanticNoir

Genre - Dark, postwar, reality travel, bittersweet open ending

Blurb - Severus Snape is standing trial for his crimes. The prosecution have got their case figured out - they have got evidence of the sexual fantasies he has created in potions. Harry Potter is the object of his fantasies. His potions are actually more complicated than creating fantasies. They help him travel to alternate realities. He is sentenced to death. Harry saves him. Things go south from there. This is a dark fic with a lot of unpredictable twists and turns.

“So you do want… all those things.”

“Not those exact things, no,” Snape sighs.

“You don’t want them? But they’re your fantasies!” Potter cries. “I can’t understand why someone as intelligent and gifted as you spends all his free time making sex fantasy potions! Don’t you have anything better to do, or are you just that twisted?”

Pairing Severus/Harry

Length 21000 words

  Dates are best effort. Let me know if you have suggestions for J, Q, V, X, Z!

 AO3 Collection

Short fics. Less than 5K words

Fortress, An Anatomy

by tehtarik (2014)

Summary: There is a fortress in the mountains and it watches the world. It watches its beloved Master and it watches itself. Nurmengard is the name of that place.

Sentient Nurmengard! I love sentient buildings so much and this one is great! I really like reading about how authors think about sentient Hogwarts, Grimmauld Place, Nurmengard and other places.

Clear as a windowpane Nurmengard remembers the first sight of its master all those years ago when it was rising out of dirt, feet and foundations and torso and ribs and shoulders of granite. And the Master, Gellert Grindelwald they called him, glowing gold in the dirt-coloured skies of winter, untroubled by wind and rock, wand held above his head in glee.

Himnusz

by eldritcher (2011)

Summary: Before there were wars and wands, before Ariana and Nurmengard, there were two boys who loved lemon-drops.

Gellert is deeply patriotic in this fic. The Hungarian national anthem is used beautifully to show the two great loves of Gellert’s life: Albus and his motherland. This fic tells a lot of story without actually telling a lot of story.

“I was born by the riverside, you know,” I told him softly. “My father often told me the tale of Moses, of a babe found by the river who grew up to be a leader. My mother named me after her Magyar grandfather who was slain in a skirmish with the Habsburgs.”

“Gellert - the spear, the weapon of your people,” Albus murmured. “She named you aptly. You will be powerful.”

Hair of the Dog That Bit You

by occamybites (2017)

Summary: “Gellert should have turned and walked away. It had been ten years. Gellert was the fifth most wanted man in Europe and rising, and Albus was a schoolteacher. All promises were already broken. There was no going back.”

Gellert runs into Albus in Vienna. Albus wants to have sex one last time to get Gellert out of his mind. Tragic. I keep saying that a lot in this post but that’s because this pairing is tragic.

He and Albus had discussed Sacrifice. They had always known there would be sacrifices. They had mostly imagined that they would be other people’s sacrifices.

Medium length fics. 5K to 20K words

Thirty-five Owls

by letterblade (2008)

Summary: Being a correspondence between Albus P.W.B. Dumbledore, Grand Sorcerer, Supreme Mugwump, etc., and the prisoner Gellert Grindelwald, of some decades in length.

This is the very first Grindeldore fic I read! It is funny, romantic and tragic. This is a great intro to Grindeldore fic if you are new to the pairing! The Grindeldore fic for a lot of folks, rightfully so!

But I am nothing to you anymore but an ear. Writing ancient lovers tearful letters in your Christmas sherry again, Albus? Back & forth we go, back & forth.

The Prisoner’s Remorse

by Miss M (2011)

Summary: After Sirius Black’s betrayal, Professor Dumbledore finds work for Remus Lupin as a prison guard in Nurmengard, where there are quite a few things to be learned.

I love Remus in this fic! He’s younger than we usually see in fics. More innocent and less jaded. Gellert and Albus are very much obsessed with each other. Neither of them are easy characters here to sympathize with but they are very much human in their relationship. Remus is caught in the middle. It’s also got a Wolfstar theme. The reason why Albus sends Remus to Nurmengard is because he thinks Remus understands what it is like to obsess over somebody like Gellert.

Tragic…but Wolfstar is always tragic. Grindeldore is usually tragic. So the combination is double the feels and double the angst.

“How is that old vanquisher of mine, Albus Dumbledore? I expect he played quite a part in this struggle?”

“Quite.” Remus felt strangely self-conscious, as if there were something almost inappropriate in discussing Dumbledore with this man. “He’s very much admired.”

“Of course,” Grindelwald said. “Of course. But then again, he’s always been most admirable.”

The Sultan and Scheherazade are one

by eldritcher (2021)

Summary: Albus Dumbledore is irresistible. This is merely the first of Gellert Grindelwald’s problems.

This is probably my favorite Albus. He’s a contradiction of being shy and bold. Gellert is head over heels for him. Lots of discussions about anarchy and socialism. Reading poetry to each other. Lots of world events seen through Gellert’s eyes - World wars, Spanish Flu. The second part of the fic is set in Nurmengard. Gellert gets only one visitor. It’s not Albus. There’s tragedy of course, because this is Grindeldore after all! A sweeping and brilliant story told without a lot of words. This one is brand new and got me on a binge read through my Grindeldore favorites.

“Trothed under a yew,” he said solemnly.

“Romantic,” I tried to say in dismissal, but my insouciance fell flat before his earnestness.

We crowned each other, under his whore mother’s roof, with berries from his sister’s favorite yew.

Long fics. 50K+ words

Let Perpetual Light

by tehtarik (2016)

Summary: In the village of Godric’s Hollow, the Dumbledore family is falling apart. Kendra Dumbledore is dead under mysterious circumstances, and Albus is the unwilling guardian to his wayward brother Aberforth, and Ariana, their mad sister in the attic. But everything changes with the arrival of Gellert Grindelwald, violently charming juvenile delinquent with an obsession for the fabled Deathly Hallows.

This is a longfic. Since completed longfics for this pairing are pretty hard to come by, it’s a treat whenever we get one. It’s set around Ariana Dumbledore’s life being the driving force in Albus’s and Gellert’s lives. The characterizations here aren’t the ones I am used to seeing for Albus and Gellert but the author makes it work great. It’s well written and definitely recommended!

Albus remains in the churchyard, beside Ariana’s grave, long after the last guest (Bathilda) leaves. A number of the other attendees had milled around in a rather infuriating fashion, pretending to examine the names and inscriptions on the ranks of headstones. He rather suspected that Aberforth’s public outburst had stirred up some excitement among them, and they lingered, scavenging for gossip. Ariana is in the earth now, still unacknowledged by life.

random thoughts

When I did this post, I realized how the fandom characterizations of Albus and Gellert changed between Thirty-five Owls back in 2008 to later characterizations like Let Perpetual Light in 2016. It’s so amazing to see the pairing evolve and get reinvented by talented authors over the years!

I also noticed how fics by the same authors evolve over time. Let Perpetual Light is more ambitious and darker than Fortress, An Anatomy by tehtarik even if they are both equally great reads and actually part of a series!

Equally interesting is how some authors keep the same headcanons over time. Himnusz and The Sultan and Scheherazade are one by eldritcher are both very similar in characterizations even if they are written in 2011 and 2021 respectively.

Finally I also noticed how much creativity the authors use in filling the years between 1899 and the big showdown. After Gellert’s imprisonment, epistolary fics are so creative when they fill in the gaps!

Another thing I noticed is that unlike Snarry this fandom doesn’t have a lot of portrait fics or Patronus fics.

Literature! Literary references are everywhere in Grindeldore fics compared to other ships! Whether it is Thirty-five Owls and its literary references to Everybody’s Autobiography and Gertrude Stein or The Sultan and Scheherazade’s and its reference to a ton of books about solitary confinement from Napoleon and Marquis de Sade to Princip who assasinated the Archduke which began World War I, literary references are everywhere in these fics!