milady22

Go and download an amazing Brokeback Mountain vid by dkwilliams HERE.

And when I say amazing, I mean amazing:-)

BTW, we're going to Manifa (a feminist manifestation) on Sunday (noon) and THEN, maybe, to see Brokeback at the theater - finally.

For all Snarry fans, there is a new very good fic by ac1d6urn and sinick HERE. The title is Commonplace Magic and one can say it's an AU to the wonderful but still WIP Price of Magic.

pen_and_umbra's Conduits of Sorcery: again I do wonder how it was possible that I missed it (you know how I love fics of novel-length). Adult Harry returns to Hogwarts as a Triwizard Tournament organiser, sees Snape again and... you know the alchemy:-) Only it isn't all that simple, because one Lucius Malfoy simply refuses to die and leave Severus and Harry alone. And Severus has issues. It's really well written and actually has plot apart from the romance (which is rare). I like this mature!Harry and ambivalent (tender yet broken and harsh)! Severus. Wonderful read.

tryfanstone's Humour, Melancholia and Consanguinity, the best post-HBP Snarry I have read so far (alright, this and caligryphy's Fourth Year). The first part, Humour, had truly amazing portrayal of Harry's and Draco's feelings showed both from the outside (all the little gestures!) and from the inside, but still with distance (like here: Hate caresses the chambers of Harry's heart). The ending left me really scared, though. The second part, Melancholia, scared me even more and I couldn't really decide whether all this was a very promising beginning of the relationship or of the turn of events I would most certainly not like. The feelings conveyed made me keep reading. And, ah, Consanguinity, made it really worth it. This is the type of narration I love most, showing you the outside so that you, together with all the narrators that are NOT Harry or Snape, can start making sense, reading all the little gestures, grimaces, confusing words to reach to what is hidden beneath. And, god, there is so much hidden beneath.
I loved all the narrators. Jonathan was such a good friend. Kate's perspective gave as even more distance but it was wonderful to see her start caring, too. Paul was such a surprise, both for Severus and for the reader. And the scene in the Potions lab...
Thank you, tryfanstone, thank you SO MUCH!.

Oh damn. There is more. More of wonderfully written fan fiction on this site. On Wednesday is short yet intense, with Harry suffering from amnesia/postwar shock/having been obliviated and Severus coming after him. I don't think I will ever look at my coffee the same way.

OH MY GOD.

Sorry, but I'm writing this almost while reading and I have just read Apricot Dreaming and actually started crying. Before you start: I don't really cry often when reading fan fiction. And I can't remember the last time I cried because of the sheer beauty of... words. And, again the distance, the narration moving from describing Snape as a species and Snape as a... lover. I can't really say anything more.

On the Naming of Names, again, how do I say it, do you know this feeling when you suddenly read something and you just know: this is it, this is right, this is made for me? This is the feeling. I love everything about this style. Everything. Prague's description is amazing, I feel like I'm standing on Charles Bridge at the moment.

I thought I would start working on compiling such a list since Occlumency is one of my favorite themes and since painless_j doesn't have time at the moment : it's for you, dear. Please spread the word and give me more fics and LJ names of the authors:)

### - fan fiction particularly recommended by yours truly

( ON TO THE LIST )

I'm not being original with my recs, every Snarry fan is reading the same things these days:-) It's Cambiare Podentes posted by jordangrant this time.

It's another of Snape-and-Harry-hating-each-other-but-being-forced-to-bond-extremely-realistic-if-not-naturalistic-at-times fics that I love so much. EXTREMELY long. Maybe not as long as wikdsushi's Civil War series, but it's close. Especially if you count the novel to come. Actually, it's quite interesting: this seems to be the only Snarry novel I have read with such slow a pace. Everything is taking its time to happen and it certainly makes the novel more realistic: Snape and Harry start very antagonistically (for me this Snape was really canon and I didn't find his behavior exaggerated) but they DO change; the slow tempo may be a bit tiresome at times, though.

What now? I'm looking forward to the continuation. Unlike maramara1, I didn't find the ending disappointing, everything progressed as planned and I can't wait to see how Severus is going to deal with Harry's trauma. When he finds out, of course.

Go read it. But be warned, it took me two days and a half. Reading about 12 hours a day;-)

I'm hopelessly behind with Merry Smutmas because of the paper on digital literacy I'm STILL writing, and I'm even more hopelessly behind with the damn paper because of all the slash I'm trying to read:-)

But.

I managed to find time to read caligryphy's The Fourth Year, which is a very long, extremely funny and even more heart-breaking (not to mention post-HBP an dealing with it well) Snarry novel. What we get here is Snape living with Auror!Harry's custody: no wand, no magic, house arrest, doing house elf chores (not because Harry makes him, just because Severus is as he is). We have initial dislike, getting used to living together, becoming a sort of friends and, well. Yeah. Go and read it. It's amazing.

Another rec is an art one. I've finally managed to find an author of three more pics from my "lost artist art" list. Meet Egyptian Mau, who draws one of the best Snape you can find:-) I can't really speak of lines/shadowing and all this artistic jargon I know nothing about, so I'll just tell you I love her strong, clear lines and Snape's nose.

Atrata's In Between Days... What can I say. Cord, thank you for recommending. It was one of the best Snarry I have ever (ever ever ever ever) read. At the end I was like "FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, You've got to be kidding me, NO, NO, NO, and again NO" and then it was one big "WOW". She didn't spoil it! She didn't spoil this Snape! And Harry was kind of growing on me even though I couldn't stand him at the beginning...

Whoah. That wasn't just orgasm. I don't think I can describe it.

Really. One of the best. Aaaah.

Dementor Delta's Dumbledore's Folly. Why didn't ANYONE tell me about this fic? It's auctasinistra's Beech Hall and Diana William's The Courtship of Harry Potter and everything else that is exclusively Dementor Delta's. Long, hot, extremely interesting and with one of the most amazing Snapes I have ever read. I think I'm going to go through all her fics again...

Just like the previous one, I got it from Cordelia.
So Lonely Without Me by Caligryphy, Severus/Harry. It's another war-time-locked-in-one-room type, but really enjoyable and, yes, very long. I like the dialogue which is probably the strongest point of this piece. And the way they deal with Voldemort:) Check it out.

If you haven't read Kai's A Necessary Evil yet, do it NOW. It's one of the most amazing Snarry fics I've had a pleasure to read. Long, so emotional that it's choking you (exactly because all the emotions are hidden so well behind the veil of words and deeds), with great characterisation. Don't let yourself be discouraged because the warning says it's Albus Dumbledore's MPREG. It's not about Albus, and this pregnancy makes sense. Go and read it.

I found two new marvelous fics this week. I'm going to stick to the authors and not let them go until they finish both series! No, I'm not letting go even then, the greedy bitch I am:)

The first masterpiece is alchemia's and bugland's Bittersweet Potion Series. It's the best. I mean it. It can be only compared to Telanu and Cybele when it comes to the place it has taken in my heart. The pattern is well-known - Harry changes into some animal (a cat), becomes Snape's familiar, slowly breaks through all his barriers and... the fun starts when Snape realizes who his cat (The Grim Specter of Death, as he calls him) truly is. In every other fanfic of this kind this means the end of the story - of course, Snape is mad, of course, he feels betrayed, but then he realizes he can no longer live without Harry and they go to bed and live happily ever after. But here discovering Harry's identity is just a beginning - we got lots of UST, lots of angst, a very complex world of magic, lots of new Curses, training, lusting, fighting with one's demon's... I don't know how this is going to end. But I love this story to death.

The second one is vain_chan's J. Alfred Prufrock Arc. Another looong story. What we get here is a truly amazing portrayal of Snape in all his obsessive glory - "I love Harry, he's just a child, I can't have him, I hate him, I want him dead" - somehow it seems to be a perfectly reasonable interpretation, but also a very rare one. Harry... is a child here. Playing with fire, not really knowing what the consequences might be. He is broken and miserable but this is the despair of the child, he has yet to grow up and I really do hope he will manage to find enough maturity to deal both with his being childish and Snape's traumas. What is amazing is also the portrayal of the Malfoys - Lucius that has gone mad after being imprisoned in Azkaban, Draco, who is suddenly forced to find the way of his own and who is failing miserably so far and, above all, Narcissa - who the first woman in all slash fanfiction I have ever adored. The scene with her coming to Voldemort in her husband's stead is simply breathtaking. And the letter she wrote to her son... Amazing. Moooorrreeeeeee.

Love Princess Bride, LOTR, Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, and, above all, Harry Potter? "As You Wish" is a fanfic for you!!! I love and and can't wait for more parts!!!

And, just to make it even better, go here: http://www.luckystarscattery.com/Potter.swf

ROTFL!!!!

We got a web camera and now I can talk with _inbetween_ and she can see me! I want her to get web cam, too! I want to see her!

mac_lynn, you HAVE to get it, too. Think of the possibilities:)

And as for my HP mania:

I just finished reading "Homecoming" - it's a nice fic, but nothing special. I mean, the idea is good but the fanfic itself... If the author had tried to use some more complex structures and pay more attention to description, it could be perfect, really...

The same thing applies to Dragonlight's "The Paradox of Existence" - the idea with Harry coming back in time and teaching younger Severus is good, but the realization.... Maybe in the new, rewritten version... Don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't like it, I was just surprised because I know this author is capable of marvelous writing, and this one is just... The style is totally different to "To Dream These Dreams" series and it just doesn't work that way. At least for me.