this is an sshg post
Shiny: I am so in love with Fade to Grey. I’ve been a little sad lately that I’ve been through all the really great SSHG fics and craving a new epic-length fic and feeling frustrated that I can’t find much good fic for my OTP anymore- then I found this. My SSHG flisters, if you haven’t read it, you really should! (And if you have, why the hell haven’t you linked me before?!)
The first of my prompts for the SSHG exchange was for Hermione to be friends with Severus when he’s younger. I specified no Time-Turner because I’m rather sick of that trope and it aggravates me no end (if it’s that easy to go years back in time just ‘coz someone jostled your elbow or shoved you, how come nobody’s used it to kill Voldy or Harry Potter, depending which side they’re on? Ridiculous) and I appreciate that this fic has time-travel that doesn’t appear to be based on a Time-Turner. It’s very ~mysterious~ and intriguing and has me curious to see what will happen next and how it will be explained.
More than that, I LOVE that the fic is not an excuse for Hermione to go back in time for teenage sexytiems with Severus. It’s not contrived to set the scene for age-appropriate sex, there is a proper friendship that is built carefully and very believably and taking into account all the obstacles that are present, without rushing the characters.
This is rarer than you might think. It outrages me no end how often Hermione winds up in the Marauder era and hooks up with Severus in no time. I mean, THINK ABOUT THE TIMELINE, for one. Look how adamant she was in PoA about not messing up the flow of history (even for catching Peter Pettigrew, the man who got Harry’s parents killed!), and then think about the ramifications of her getting with Snape as a teen. *headdeskwallfloor* Besides timeline integrity, like, wouldn’t that be majorly weird? Wouldn’t you be a bit thrown at encountering the younger self to a teacher who really didn’t like you and be wary and steer clear? Why oh why for the love of sanity does Hermione pretty much instantly drop her panties knickers(?) for him, ARGH.
So this already won props for being a unique time-travel fic, and then it goes and adds a whopping layer of extra awesome by making her an amnesiac. HOW. FABULOUS. I CAN’T EVEN. So Hermione’s randomly hopping through time, doesn’t know who she is or what’s happening to her, and the only constant in her world is Severus Snape. For some reason, her appearances take place in his vicinity- and I adore how he mistrusts her from the start because she instinctively said ‘Snape’ when she saw his father, and he thinks she’s some floozy involved in an affair with the elder Snape, lol!
But despite his cynicism and dislike, he reluctantly helps her out and then when she begins mysteriously vanishing and reappearing near him, his curiosity’s piqued and he’s fascinated by her and the puzzle she presents, and they become closer over time. I just love the way the friendship slowly develops. He’s hardened and emotionally closed off by his experiences and loss, but she’s an unknown quantity with no alliances and no bias and is predisposed to be on his side, and she’s so genuine and unaffected, and he warms up to her as they get to know each other, and it’s just AMAZING and FANTASTIC and SO SQUEEFUL. *heart!splodes*
Seriously, this fic took something I wanted to see- Hermione/Severus friendship, because that lonely, miserable boy desperately needed someone to care about him, damn it-and made it even better than I ever thought it could be. Everything is perfect.
And the latest chapter (er, ch16, she just updated and I've not read the now-last chapter). I could die from the awesome. Throughout the fic, we’ve seen her encounter him as a teen- and then she meets him as a man and the dynamic’s totally changed, but she’s still his ‘childhood friend’ in a way and just their interaction is… *swoons* READ IT. YOU BETTER LOVE IT. HOW CAN YOU NOT?
On a less excitable fangirly note, lol, I really really like the amnesia angle. IDK if it’s a Memory Charm or what, but it’s so refreshing. Thank god I don’t have to read another fic where Hermione’s angsting over what to do, because she has knowledge of the future and is uncertain what she should do and having to see Peter Pettigrew and not being able to blast him to smithereens and so on. In fact, she does the smart thing and limits her interactions with people as much as possible. Lots of time-travel fics have Hermione being enrolled at Hogwarts under an oh-so-clever pseudonym *eyeroll* and going to classes, and I really like the unique approach this fic takes by having her mostly at Spinner’s End and wandering around with Severus or in his bed (in the platonic sense!). WAY TO GO, AUTHOR. Blaze your own trail, I am with you every step of the way. I approve all your choices.
Did I say less fangirly? I lied. :P
tl;dr, this fic is seriously awesome and you should all read. Go!
Yes, I made this banner. I’m not the greatest artist out there, but I did my best. ^_^ (an alternate version of the text and w/o text) Thanks to woodchoc_magnum for holding my hand and assuring me it did not suck. *squish*
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Less shiny: I’m having a lot of trouble with my fic for the SSHG exchange. Like, my prompts were a bit of a challenge, and I fixed on the one that looked easiest. Only…I’m totally blank. I have no clue what to write for it at all. And one of the other prompts, which is convoluted and sets the stage for a long and involved fic, is speaking to me. I really don’t want to bite off more than I can chew, but I have ideas for that one, which is something. So…I think I’m gonna go for it? *winces and clutches head* At least I’ll have something to show for myself, as opposed to being totally uninspired and having a blank page, right? *frets*
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The ramble:
From the sshg_exchange: If you were considering creating a post detailing your likes and dislikes for your assigned author/artist/crafter, now is the time to do it. Everyone has received their prompts, and plots are percolating. Be aware that your assigned author/artist/crafter may not be on your flist and may be checking out your LJ, trying to determine what sort of story/artwork/craft to create for you. It would be a nice thing to make a public post, detailing what you like/dislike for the benefit of your gifter, especially if your LJ is otherwise flocked.
Yeah….this is not really that. At least, it’s not like the other posts I’ve seen people do. Most are a collection of kinks/plot clichés summarized in a couple words. ‘No scat, no necrophilia’, etc. I’m a bit concerned, ‘coz I haven’t bothered to include those disclaimers, but if I warned for every single kink/fetish I’m not into, it’d take me a long time and taint my innocent mind even more. (I don’t really wanna know half the things I’ve seen on people’s lists, lol) Besides, I don’t think any of those apply, given my prompts, so I’ll trust in my giftee’s good sense.
Art: in contrast to pretty much everyone else in the exchange, Alan Rickman and Emma Watson are my Snape and Hermione. :P Of course, no need to make Snape as… ‘sturdy’ (struggling for euphemisms here!) as Alan, I think he’s rather a lot leaner, lol. As you can tell from my various rotating headers, I am fond of photomanips/blends if they’re done well, so if that’s your thing, go for it. That’s prob more for prompt #1, I don’t think the other two would be too easy to do in that style. (I suppose ‘well-done’ is subjective, but…like, make sure everything’s in proper perspective instead of elongated here or too wide there, etc.) In general, art that kinda resembles movie!Snape and movie!Hermione would be lovely, because they’re who I picture in my head, y’know?
This started off being a few general observations on the kind of fics I enjoy reading and then became more of a lengthy ramble with a bunch of fic recs to illustrate my point. It’s not really a response to the comm announcement, because this is really detailed and kind of a shopping list of things I love to see in fic and canon shows. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a lot of things, but this is what I generally like to read.
I prefer a younger Hermione, like, DH age or a few years from that. Mostly because I am 22 going on 23 and I find it easier to relate to her as a teen or young woman as opposed to middle-aged mother of two, y’know? I can’t get into that mindset at all, it really throws me off. (with the romances mother and I read, I tend to go more for regency romances which feature more young women/older men couples, and she reads these, but also branches out into widows, mothers, old flames, ex-partners, which I don’t touch at all)
I don’t find the age gap scandalous and I’m really not fond of fics where they get together or almost get together but Snape rejects her because she’s too young and hasn’t enough life experience or whatever and basically wants her to go out there, get with other guys and then decide if she wants him. Um. They just went through a war, life’s too short, YKWIM? Take your shot at happiness! (does anyone in RL ever do that? ‘You’re young and beautiful and I love you, but I refuse to be with you because you can do better. GO FIND SOME YOUNGER HOTTER DUDE, OKAY?’)
And that ‘too young and inexperienced’ thing isn’t a factor, I tend to see Hermione as emotionally mature enough to be able to deal with him (Snape’s the one who’s never been loved or had anyone truly in his corner, y’know, I think Hermione’s the more secure of the two and def able to handle a relationship). I guess it’s just I have RL relationships to point to- my 22 yo friend’s just gotten engaged to a dude in his late-30s and my aunt was 19 when she met my uncle, who was in his mid-30s. So with the right people, it can work- and obv as SSHG is my OTP, I think they are well-suited! Snape’s a difficult man to get to know, but Hermione doesn’t give up easy and she’s not going to let his brusque attitude scare her off or make her quit. She’s got perseverance in spades, and she’s not a doormat, she won’t let him walk all over her. (this is not the same as those ghastly fics where Hermione is bratty and immature and sasses him relentlessly because OMGFEISTY. I hate those. There’s a difference between showing respect and being nauseatingly subservient, just like there’s a difference between being confident/self-assured and being a shrewish harpy)
I like my Snape snarky. This is important. Fluffy!soft-hearted!Snape is really…another character masquerading as Snape, y’know? Not that he doesn’t have feelings or isn’t capable of tender emotions, just that his first impulse ain’t gonna be to buy flowers and try out a few smooth lines on Hermione. He’s not the most sociable fellow around, he’s not going to be Lockharting her!
And for that matter, Snape’s not traditionally handsome. He’s not the guy that girls swoon over. His classroom won’t be filled with gaggles of girls sighing with starry eyes at his magnificence. I don’t get fics where the author’s love for Snape become inseparable from the characters, who all start to fangirl him as well. O.o I do believe that love is in the eye of the beholder, that people become more attractive and more appealing to the idea when you care for them, but god, all those suddenly!handome!Snape fics just… *shakes head* (there’s this trope where Snape put a charm on himself to detract from his attractiveness- I CANNOT STAND IT. Yes, I adore the man, but let’s be real)
I love UST. Like, it is the oxygen to my lungs, y’know? It’s all about the journey with me. I don’t even need them to reach the destination as long as it’s clear they will get there- with me, sometimes a simple grasping of hands can mean more than a torrid sex scene. Forced, contrived resolution of sexual tension is uber-frustrating. I DON’T KNOW HOW TO WIN THIS ARGUMENT, SO I’LL CUT YOU OFF WITH MY LIPS. And you will like it and not fight off my sexual assault. *headdesk* Okay, I admit, this is less a fanfic trope and more romance novels. UGH. How the hell do people manage topublished, it’s unbelievable.
I am a sucker for intimacy that is platonic or that can be interpreted as platonic-but-meaning-slightly-more. Doesn’t cross that line into ‘yeah, I am totally into you, let’s exchange ILUs’, but merrily tap-dancing inches away. Incidental touches that aren’t sexual but still have some impact…oh, yes. (this is why I squee over those ‘tackle someone to the ground’ moments, for instance, or the ‘an enemy’s close by, so I’mma grab you and cover your mouth’ kinda thing, lol, lots of lovely close contact but without crossing the line into RST)
Touchage aside, small things like automatically fixing a hot drink just the way the other person likes it, customs like stealing food off one another’s plate (IDK, that’s what comes to mind, just an example!), just…little details they notice about each other that most people don’t know or take the time to learn, that’s powerful in its own way. It may not be all romantic and tender, on the face of it, they’re prob still business as usual and all professional, but little concessions or courtesies show some development. I cannot get over how much I love it when they’re still all ‘Professor Snape’ and ‘Miss Granger’ but there’s like a rapport there and IDK, like he finds just the right book that she needs for a project or whatever.
Given these things, it’s prob evident that I love a slow, gradual development of the relationship between them- I mean, look at their history and their respective roles! I can’t get into fics that immediately get them into sexual situations, I think they have a lot of barriers to overcome before they get anywhere near that. Hannah is superb at doing this- her fics are my favorite, like, The Sun Is Often Out and One Day Like This (these are my personal faves- I do like her other work, but the ones with divorced!Hermione are less to my taste. Really don’t like reading her having been with Ron. HOWEVER, exception to the rule- I’ve just finished reading The Diary of a Nobody and it is hilarious and really just good fun, so entertaining)
An exception to the above dislike of early sex scenes is if the fic’s an MLC- I know these have a terrible rep, but when done well…GUH. <3 I don’t mind fics where the sex comes early, not because they’re over-hormonal and so hot for each other that they can’t wait, but because circumstances force it to happen. Because then it’s plot-based as opposed to being a poor excuse for smut. I love the awkwardness and the wrongness of it all. I mean, Miamadwyn’s Care of Magical Creatures is just pure awesome, the wedding night is just…whoa. Like. I can’t even. Def not random smutty PWP. It is dark and angsty and it hurts and it's totally not the whole 'incandescent light of our souls connecting on another plane' twee-ness that makes me gag.
Another exception is the amazing WIP, The Coward’s Kiss. What I love is that even though they’re involved in increasingly intimate situations, it’s not- they don’t make that leap ‘we’re kissing, therefore we are in love and it’s all sappy and saccharine’. They’re working together on a project and at times, passion flares up between them and they’re consumed by it, but the project is the main thing they’re both focused on and they’re still all ‘Professor Snape’ and ‘Miss Granger’ and it’s utterly delicious and thrilling and I adore it. I’m due for a re-read, I think, it’s been a while. The thing for me is that after characters hook up, it’s generally downhill to domestic bliss and boredom OR contrived drama where they fight and it’s horrible and hurtful and ugh. Here, they become more and more attracted to each other and act on it to some degree, but it’s not boring because it’s not resolved, they’re still learning about each other and the relationship is still evolving. Ugh, I can’t explain it well, but yes, love.
I’m good with whump if it’s Hermione. :P Not Snape, I feel like his life’s been awful enough, damn it. I’ve been called sick for this before and I don’t think people get why I tend to enjoy whumpage of my fave female characters, but it’s…not that I get off on pain, it’s the emotional angle- especially if it involves the male character involuntarily being the cause of the whump, through possession or a spell or by proxy, through a doppelganger.
For instance, SGA’s Conversion, when Shep had an alien virus messing with his system and he wound up shoving Elizabeth against the wall and choking her. WHOA. The shock and horror of being menaced by someone who has her deepest trust, and the presumed aftermath the show never gave us but which was explored in countless fics, where he has to deal with the guilt of hurting her. DELICIOUS.
One of my fave SGA fics has Shep seriously going dark side and taking Elizabeth hostage and gosh, the mental anguish he put her through and the physical angle with a few blows and some shallow cuts of a blade- like, there’s the horror of it because this is coming at the hands of someone she knows isn’t ordinarily capable of something like that, and how twisted and warped it is that she’s being menaced by someone who has her deepest trust, and then the aftermath, when the drug wears off and he remembers everything he put her through and UGH, I really wish the author had gotten to the sequel because I so wanted to see them repairing their relationship after that. *pout*
Also, see: that X-files ep where Scully’s with Mulder and they’re investigating as usual, then she takes a call- and Mulder’s on the line. Cue the horror of realizing the man she’s with is NOT her partner. DUN DUN DUN.(yes, this is kind of what inspired my second prompt, lol)
This was a minor plot point in Abby’s fic, The Other Side of Darkness. Snape has an evil doppelganger wandering around and Hermione inadvertently strays into his path. It’s not the focus of the fic, just a small scene, but I did enjoy that being thrown in.
Same reason for why I also have a fondness for hostage situations, especially where it’s due to the dude for some reason. Like he’s after a serial killer and then someone goes after his partner to teach him a lesson, y’know? The angst of feeling responsible for getting her into this mess. MANPAIN, OM NOM NOM. (I’m a little annoyed there is not more fic for this in Iron Man, like, come on, surely Pepper would’ve been threatened or kidnapped a few times? No? Fandom, I am disappoint)
Unfortunately, with HP!fic, I’ve found that most tend to go too far. Like, seriously, there are hugely dark fics out there with gang-bangs and hardcore mutilation and- yeah. *shudder* Light angst is one thing, that’s just soul-crushing. There’s no coming back from that!
One fic I adored that did this trope well was where Hermione was banished to a cloud, precariously trapped in the sky, by a deranged chick who was obsessed with Snape and saw Hermione as a threat to their (non-existent) love. Sometimes That’s What It Takes. This fic was so wonderful. ♥
Umm…that went wildly off-topic. You were warned!
Let’s see, what do I not like? Characters letting emotions get the better of them. Thinking with heart instead of head. Being wildly impulsive and making the situation worse. Characters making stupid decisions just to generate angst. Just…contrived drama, I guess.
This is all YMMV. In some situations, it’d be understandable for Hermione to give in to tears or have a knee-jerk reaction (er, prompt #4, case in point), it’s just I’m tired of childish!immature!Hermione who starts ranting and raving about everything Snape says instead of being an adult about it. Like the fics where she still has a grudge about his comment in her fourth year about her teeth! How can I ship it if she’s acting like Harry and not seeing beyond that image of the nasty Potions professor, y’know? And in some situations, there’s no time to think of a better plan and you gotta go with your gut instinct, that can be fine, too. It’s the plots where people keep damaging secrets or are prone to idiocy or all melodramatic for no reason that are irritating.
I love A Murder of Crows, for instance, it’s like 95% awesome, but where it loses points is where Hermione refuses to trust Snape on multiple occasions- just the once, I’d get, even if it frustrated me- but they’re involved, she knows he cares about her, and she still thinks he’s doing something evil and follows him EVEN THOUGH IT WAS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE SHE STAY PUT and then jeopardizes everything. He was trying to save her and she blundered into danger’s path and risked blowing his cover and UGH. I know the author said it was human nature and IC and all, but…I didn’t like reading it. Again, the majority of the fic was fabulous (omg, that forced Legilimency scene just hits all my kinks, I periodically re-read it because SO ANGSTY AND FABULOUS) but that bothered me a lot.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule (I've already linked to a few, lol). I dislike a lot of clichés, but some do them really well. I never thought I’d like a reincarnation fic, what was the point, it’s not Hermione and Snape- then I read scatteredlogic’s fic and I was totally won over. GUH. ♥ I wish there was a sequel with Hortensia and Solomon, lol, but that’s what motivated prompt #1. ^_^ I’ve often thought the series should’ve been ‘Hermione Granger and the…’ and now I realize that what she needed was not Harry but Severus as her partner-in-crime. He’d be a damn sight more useful in a scrape, JS. And I’m sure Severus wouldn’t ignore Hermione for months because she turned in a broom that possibly had life-threatening spells on it. *glares at Harry and Ron*
I mentioned above I hate the Time-Turner cliche but Consequences of Meddling with Time is a joy to read. This is the only other fic I've read which does justice to Hermione in the past- she does her best not to be seen, instead of enrolling as a student (still cannot get over how stupid that is), and the friendship with Severus is so lovely.
Also, I really really do not like RST- if you’ve made it this far, you can tell I like seeing the development of the relationship, not have it as a done deal. But the exception to the rule- machshefa’s glorious T here, Where I Can Never Find You (and in pdf form with illustrations). Heartbreaking and amazing and UTTERLY BEAUTIFUL. What won me over was that Snape’s lost his memory, so even though they were in a relationship, he didn’t remember it, so it subverted the RST thing I’m not into and made it exciting. ‘coz poor Hermione’s obv angsting away and he doesn’t understand at all and oh, my heart. *pets her*
Speaking of the boys. I like fics where they have a strong friendship with Hermione and it’s not threatened by this emerging relationship with Snape. The character bashing some writers are prone to, especially with Ron, leave a bad taste in my mouth. I kind of picture them slowly growing apart, like, in my personal head!canon, she leaves for Australia to restore her parents’ memories *still snarls at the ethical issues there* and has to take time to rebuild her relationship with them; meanwhile, Ron’s dealing with his family and mourning his brother and helping George with the joke shop (auror training? Are you kidding me? Pfft. JKR’s later answer that he worked at Weasleys Wheezes Whatever was way more believable than him and Harry ‘revolutionizing the Auror Department’ *eyeroll*). And it’s never a big deal, they just fizzled out as a couple. Because it makes me sad where there’s bad blood and all this unpleasantness.
Although I also believe in fics where Hermione loses contact with them and has no friends. That’s very realistic and oh, I’m there at that point rn. It’s hard keeping in contact with people you knew from high school. It’s not anyone’s fault, really, it’s just life goes on and you’re moving in different directions and without the school structure to keep you together, well. *sigh*
An instance of this is Alliean’s Flattery Will Get You Nowhere. For a fic that had some sad subject matter (Hermione being a loner, Crooks dying *wibble*), it is ridiculously funny, I literally laughed out loud, omg! I usually don’t like drunk!Snape because I find it more ‘let’s make fun of him and make him look stupid’ (I’m very protective of his dignity, so that makes me cringe) but here’s a great example of taking something I don’t like and making me love it so much I go back and re-read this!
Hmm. I’ve prob left out a lot of things here. I’m sure there’s more things that I love and hate. Feel free to contribute your own preferences and pet peeves. ^_^
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Vidspam: by xSilverDreamerx.
A good SSHG is like a mythical beast; it is impossible to find vids for this ship. Everything I’ve seen so far is, at best, so-so. At worst, just cringe-worthy and embarrassing.
I hope I don’t offend anyone by saying this but SSHG vids which feature Hermione from HP 1-4 are DNW. Even OotP clips is pushing it for me. But there are SO MANY shipper vids with PS/SS-and-CoS!Hermione, it is appalling. I’m not one to criticize the ship for its obvious age difference, but when you have an eleven year old and a dude in his 30s to a love song? NO. WTF. JUST DON’T.
It baffles me that there are amazing crossover vids which do a fantastic job of portraying a ship that don’t even exist in the same movie (Morgana/Rahl, even Morgana/Snape) but there isn’t anything of similar quality for SSHG. I mean, come on.
For some reason, every single vid I’ve come across has issues- they use clips of Hermione looking way too young, they use clips of Emma and Alan from other movies (I’m not too opposed to it with Emma, given she generally looks about the same and I can pretend Hermione had a change of hairstyle, but I want to see Snape, not Alan looking totally different, FFS), they use terrible manips, they put in sex scenes obv featuring other characters (I ship SSHG, why do I want to see extraneous porn?) or the worst, they take moments between other HP characters and try to pass it off as SSHG. I can’t stand how the H/G hand-holding in the RoR and Snape holding Narcissa’s arm in the Unbreakable Vow scene is inserted as ‘SSHG’. It’s not! I know it’s not, you know it’s not, wtf is the point?!
I think the prob is that people keep trying to make it romantic when, um, I can’t recall more than two scenes where Hermione and Snape were in the same scene and directly addressed each other. And these were when she’s like, 11 and 13. So attempts at a shippy vid come off so fake and so lame and UGH.
I wish people would either restrain themselves to clips from HBP and DH, so it’s not squick-worthy, and make vids like the Morgana/Rahl ones I’ve posted (it looks good, natural, plausible) or lay off the romance angle altogether, because clearly it does not work with the material (or at least), and try making vids to songs that aren’t about love and lust and just feature Hermione and Snape. (I was working on one to Snow Patrol’s A Clock is Ticking- not even trying to pretend they’re in love, just showing their mission to protect Harry and fight off baddies and monsters, and how their paths intersect and their goals align- except my laptop died *sob* and my new one does not have WMM)
tl;dr, I am picky and uber-critical and judgmental. This is the one vid I’ve liked because it has a good plot and it’s mostly executed well. I don’t like the last few seconds, but the overall vidding and storytelling is quite good.