#snape_potter

Secret Snarry Swap Secret Snarry Swap is an anonymous fic and art fest hosted by snape_potter. All entries will be cross-posted directly to snape_potter on LJ, IJ, and DW and at AO3.

The Odd Jobs fest has just completed at the Snape_Potter community over at the journals (LJ/IJ/DW). Two weeks of Harry/Severus offerings, all of them easily consumable and most work safe. Fest entries had to feature Harry/Severus in jobs other than the typical (professor/teacher, Auror, Quidditch Player, Potions Master, etc.) If Snarry is your thing, check these out. No - read them all! I’ve got one in the mix, too, and reveals go up on Friday the 25th.

Week 1

Week 2

As always, there were a few I particularly loved, though each and every one is lovely in and of itself. Following are the ones that stayed with me the most, or touched me in some way due to the particular jobs, the writing style, or the characterization and point of view.

The fest opener, A Turn of the Page (NC-17/21,000 words), brings us a Snape shaken after the death of his mother, and Harry raising a son alone. They meet at Flourish and Blott's, where Harry is working on a project with Hermione involving digitizing Wizarding books. Lots to love in this slow build, with a well-drawn AU James, and a great sex scene. Not many mature/NC-17 entries in this fest, and this was certainly one to enjoy.

One of the shorter entries is A Magic Beyond All. It's about 3500 words, PG, and a non-magical AU in which Severus is a violinist and Harry a sort of masseuse/PT who specializes in musicians. I'm a sucker for musician stories, and non-magical AUs, and this one delivered for me.

Completely fun, semi-cracky is How Severus Got his Groove Back. Severus and Harry are in an established relationship and Severus is career-hunting. Harry is a stylist with a salon and Severus has magic fingers. I loved Severus going through one potential job/career after another before finding his true place. Another shortie at 2600 words, rated G.

You may see a trend here - I love bookstore Harry/Severus. Faded Pages has Severus landing in a Muggle town after the war with 5000 pounds in his pocket. He helps rebuild a bookstore (love his "free" work cleaning up the book shelving before he is hired), hires a squib and is eventually found by Harry, who is repairing the Black library. 7200 words, PG. I love the development of Severus here, even before Harry shows up. A very nice read.

The fest closed with another of my favorites. Hector’s Arms. It's a coming out story, remarkably done, with a Severus who runs into Harry at a Muggle gay bar, and a Harry living at Grimmauld Place and dealing with the ghosts of his past. PG-13, 10,000 words.

There have been some rather nice entries in the Snape-Potter First Time Fest, but this one really stood out for me. 

Standing on the Shoreline (NC-17, 20k, postwar)

I think one of the reasons that I come back to Snape/Harry as a pairing is that so many of the very best stories are about growing older and living with one's mistakes, and still finding a purpose in life - passions, love, and all those things that we tend to think are the sole purview of the young. In this lovely, literary story, Snape has inconveniently survived the war and retired alone to Cokeworth, where he distills and sells (illegal) alcohol by day, and cross-dresses in pursuit of anonymous sex on the weekends. During one of his nights out, he comes across Harry Potter, who slowly begins to weave his way into Snape's Muggle life. It's a common enough trajectory for a Snarry story, but what really soars here is Snape's internal dialogue - the way he reluctantly begins to give himself over to vaguely terrifying feelings for Harry that the young man clearly returns - as well as a lovely Harry who's himself less poster-boy than just an adult version of the haphazard hero he's always been. 

Books are also an integral part of the story; interwoven into character exposition and growth rather than just an accessory, and they're the icing on this really exquisite exploration of a tentative romance between erstwhile enemies.

He leaves Potter clearing away the last of their strange mid-afternoon meal. In the living room, Our Lady of the Flowers is lying on the sofa. Severus picks it up, stares at it—it must have been the book in Potter's hands when they fought earlier. He wonders if Potter opened it, read anything Severus wrote in it, or if he just wanted something in his hands.  While he couldn't say what's in every book he's ever written in, this one stands out regrettably clearly. He is torn between hiding it under the sofa and throwing it in Potter's face. Don't you dare make excuses for me. I know what I am. What I've been. "I didn't quite mean what I said earlier," Potter says from behind him. Severus turns. Potter is standing in the doorway, hands in his pockets. He's looking straight at Severus now, no avoidance. "Which particular bit?" Severus asks. "I seem to recall your saying all sorts of things." "I do kind of care who you sleep with," Potter says. Shrugs. "But it's not exactly a moral thing. It's just that I'd like to keep having sex with you." "What a deeply romantic proposal." Potter laughs. "Oh, because romance is exactly what you look for in a person." "And you'd know, I suppose." "Well," Potter says, "I have a few theories I'd like to test, anyway." Severus considers this. He hasn't looked for an intimate relationship with another person in decades, hasn't longed for someone to come along and sweep him away, can't imagine romantic dinner dates or blushing declarations of love. But sex. A few theories. Some more cups of tea. Would it really be so bad? He is still holding Genet.  "I am not pleasant," he says, feels the solid truth of the words as he speaks them, though they are also wholly inadequate.  "You think I don't know what you're like by now," Potter says with a lopsided smile.  The book between Severus' hands is a celebration of sorts. Genet's, and his own added to it, 1977, 1978. One of the only Muggle books he touched those years. It is entirely vile. Potter thinks he knows. He really believes it. And Severus could probably let him believe it; who would contradict him now? The list of people who even remember that time has grown incredibly short. "Here," Severus says, and tosses the book in Potter's direction. Potter's reflexes are still good; he snatches it easily from the air, flips it over to stare at the cover. Opens it, perhaps noting ancient library stamps, the last dates. He never bought his books in those days, and never got them stamped out by librarians either; took furtively, considering Muggle literature in general inherently pornographic, impossible to show another person. In this case, not entirely incorrect. "Homework. Come back when you're done."