Comments | mini_fest: A Part of Yesterday [Petunia/Severus - NC-17

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A Part of Yesterday [Petunia/Severus - NC-17 - 6655]

Dec 12, 2015 00:30

Title: A Part of Yesterday
Author/Artist: delphipsmith
Pairing(s): Petunia/Severus
Prompt: 2015/53: Petunia/Severus - It's the night before Christmas Eve, and Petunia is in the attic to fetch her boxes of Christmas tree ornaments. She finds a black box containing the small Christmas presents Severus had sent her every year until his death. Her thoughts drift ( Read more... )

rating: nc-17, -fic, pairing: severus/petunia, 2015, character: severus snape, character: petunia dursley

Comments 23

candamira December 12 2015, 08:27:40 UTC

Dear MA, what a beautiful surprise in the wee hours of morning! Thank you so much for picking my prompt and writing this ultimately beautiful and bittersweet fic. I know mini_fest isn't a gift exchange fest, but your story feels like the perfect gift - it contains everything I love: beauty, sadness, heartbreak, poetry and wonderfully vivid and beautiful descriptions. Usually, I don't quote much in my comments, but this time I really felt the urge to give everybody else a glimpse into the beauty you wrote and the strong emotions your story evokes:

Inside was a small glass globe, black as midnight; tiny glittering snowflakes were falling across its surface, turning and drifting endlessly, just as the snow had fallen that night so long ago...
There's so much loneliness in these words, just wonderful.

The scent that was uniquely Severus teased her nose: a mixture of wood smoke, herbs, a coppery tang, and beneath it all something bitter, like unshed tears.
My new head-canon scent of Severus Snape. I love it when characters are given unique ( ... )

candamira January 11 2016, 06:35:03 UTC

Ah, reveals, finally! I was dying to find out who wrote this piece of awesomeness. Fantastic work, I returned several times to re-read parts of it and am as excited about it as I was the first time. :) Thanks again for chosing my prompt! ♥

delphipsmith January 12 2016, 04:12:44 UTC

Your original comments made me so happy -- I was so gratified to see that I'd filled your prompt in a way that pleased you and met your expectations :) And since I've never written this pairing, it was also highly satisfying to me as a chance to stretch myself in new directions.

snegurochka_lee December 12 2015, 16:36:16 UTC

I really enjoyed this! It's a wonderful backstory for Petunia and Snape, and I loved how Harry and Ginny reached out to Petunia for Christmas. :)

delphipsmith January 12 2016, 04:18:51 UTC

Thanks! I like to think that the reconciliation with Dudley hinted at in DH, and led to better relations with his parents, too. I hate to see families fall apart.

alisanne December 12 2015, 19:30:02 UTC

What a lovely, bittersweet tale!
It's always nice to see Severus in his younger years and I enjoyed this portrait of him, fierce arrogance covering crippling shyness. I also loved that he sent gifts to Petunia despite never directly contacting her again. This strikes me as being very him; he's definitely the loyal sort.
This characterization of Petunia was interesting, too. You made her sympathetic, which is hard to do given her treatment of harry growing up.
I do like that Harry and Ginny reached out to her, and that she accepted.
She really chose the perfect gift to take to them.
Well done!

delphipsmith January 12 2016, 04:19:55 UTC

This strikes me as being very him; he's definitely the loyal sort. Yes, I think that's clear, even in canon. It's also clear that he would never want to endanger someone he cared about, so his staying away from her I thought would be credible. Thanks :)

nursedarry December 12 2015, 20:39:15 UTC

Not being as big a fan of older Severus as the younger version, when I saw this, I had to read it; there's so few fics of his around. And this pairing - I was sure it wouldn't work from the get-go, and by the end, it felt like the greatest love story that never happened but should have in the HP universe. Also, het? I never read it, but this? This was just lovely.

delphipsmith January 12 2016, 04:13:54 UTC

I got you to read het -- now THERE is an accomplishment lol! Thanks for the kind words, and of course for you awesome speedy beta-ing and Britpicking. I see that I did miss one sweater/jumper fix; I'll get it when I post to AO3 :)

amorettea December 13 2015, 01:50:17 UTC

As someone in my late fifties, I can tell that the phrase "He was young. We all were." Resonates. Original, tragic, and beautiful. You made me like the horrid Petunia. I still loathe James Potter, though.

delphipsmith January 12 2016, 04:23:47 UTC

As someone who will be in their fifties in less than two weeks, I'm beginning to see it myself :/ Thank you for letting me know that it works as well as I hoped it would when I wrote it!

I found that I liked Petunia a bit more after I wrote this. But yeah, I still hate James "arrogant toerag" Potter :)