HP: Second Life by Lariope (Snape/Hermione)
I had forgotten how big the Snape/Hermione pairing is -- tons of authors, tons of archives, tons of fic fests. And tons of words!
Second Life by lariopefic clocks in at 240,642 words. The length is mainly because the plot closely follows the end of Book 6 and all of Book 7, but with one difference: it posits that before shit hit the fan in Book 6, Dumbledore devised a strategy to give Snape a character witness in Hermione. He does this by marrying them (note: she's in sixth year, yes, but! (1) she's at the age of majority technically for wizards, and (2) oh, just go with it -- this story is BRILLIANT).
And the length is also due to how careful and thoughtful the author was about all of the implications of this AU: what it means for both Snape and Hermione to rely on each other during their separate stories in Book 7; what it means that Dumbledore engineered the Elder Wand situation, basically playing chess with people's lives; and what it means for Snape to attempt public redemption once Voldemort is finally defeated.
The final third of the story is, basically, the perfect culmination of everything that came before it -- all the threads of character development, plot, and themes carefully and confidently woven together. I really admire an author who knows how to properly wrap up a novel.
ETA: Thanks to
oyceter for pointing out that the entire thing is available hassle-free here at the Archive of Our Own. /ETA
The story is available at multiple places online, linked below. You will likely need to register for membership at these archives (it's free!) because the Snape/Hermione side of fandom seems to prefer to keep NC-17 works under lock. Once you finish, you'll probably want to check out lariopefic's other work as well -- I highly recommend all of it, but this one is her magnum opus, I think.
http://www.thepetulantpoetess.com/viewstory.php?sid=8326
http://www.restrictedsection.org/story.php?story=2671
http://owl.tauri.org/stories.php?psid=10709
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comments at its original location at http://field-reports.dreamwidth.org/57588.html. Feel free to comment there or on the mirrored post here.
Second Life by lariopefic clocks in at 240,642 words. The length is mainly because the plot closely follows the end of Book 6 and all of Book 7, but with one difference: it posits that before shit hit the fan in Book 6, Dumbledore devised a strategy to give Snape a character witness in Hermione. He does this by marrying them (note: she's in sixth year, yes, but! (1) she's at the age of majority technically for wizards, and (2) oh, just go with it -- this story is BRILLIANT).
And the length is also due to how careful and thoughtful the author was about all of the implications of this AU: what it means for both Snape and Hermione to rely on each other during their separate stories in Book 7; what it means that Dumbledore engineered the Elder Wand situation, basically playing chess with people's lives; and what it means for Snape to attempt public redemption once Voldemort is finally defeated.
The final third of the story is, basically, the perfect culmination of everything that came before it -- all the threads of character development, plot, and themes carefully and confidently woven together. I really admire an author who knows how to properly wrap up a novel.
ETA: Thanks to
oyceter for pointing out that the entire thing is available hassle-free here at the Archive of Our Own. /ETA
The story is available at multiple places online, linked below. You will likely need to register for membership at these archives (it's free!) because the Snape/Hermione side of fandom seems to prefer to keep NC-17 works under lock. Once you finish, you'll probably want to check out lariopefic's other work as well -- I highly recommend all of it, but this one is her magnum opus, I think.
http://www.thepetulantpoetess.com/viewstory.php?sid=8326
http://www.restrictedsection.org/story.php?story=2671
http://owl.tauri.org/stories.php?psid=10709
This post has
comments at its original location at http://field-reports.dreamwidth.org/57588.html. Feel free to comment there or on the mirrored post here.