"The Redemption of Jake Barnes": One Possible Epilogue for "The French Connection"

[bluestocking79]

Oh, don't worry. I haven't gone crazy and self-indulgent and started scripting Severus and Hermione's adventures in Paris for the next 19 years. Actually, I didn't write this piece at all; it's a beautiful, Hemingway-inspired gift from bohemianspirit entitled The Redemption of Jake Barnes. I sent her "The French Connection" near Christmas for her perusal, and

Comments

[bluestocking79]

I'm so glad you enjoyed reading this! I liked it for exactly the reason you pinpoint: it captures exactly what is sublime in the ordinary. I also felt like it captured what I hoped to show in "French Connection", in the way that Severus and Hermione are so comfortable in one another's presence that they hardly even need to speak in order to communicate--Hermione understands that Severus says in fiction what he can't say out loud, Severus understands the meaning of Hermione's little announcement without needing further explanation.

We yearn for his redemption, and write tales that, in the main, give him the happy ending that he so deserves; we want to make up for all the cruelty and abandonment he encounters in Canon.

Well, I can't speak for everybody, but for me, this is it exactly. One of the cruelest things in canon, to me, was the way Snape was deprived of any sort of regard, affection or reassurance at every turn. One would hope that he found as least some of that with Lily as a child, but frankly, that's not what's in the book. We have to invent that on our own, in an effort to make sense of a narrative that lacks it. It's too cruel to think of Snape sacrificing what he does, after enduring a life without any love!

When Hermione adds "And Bumby", that was just icing on the cake.

I felt the same way! Severus' reaction is priceless, too. :-)