FIC: Mutability (NC-17)

[snapecase_mod]

Title: Mutability
Category: Four
Characters and Pairing: Severus Snape/Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore, Lord Voldemort
Author: kellychambliss
Beta Readers: therealsnape and mountainmoira
Rating: NC-17
(Highlight to View) Warning(s): None.
Note: My grateful thanks to my beta readers, who save me from countless blunders and who notice everything from a missing letter to OOC moments

Comments

(Posting for Iuls)

[snapecase_mod]

I like very much how carefully descriptively this unfolds; you build real tension and characters with every word, and each one flows seamlessly from the last. Your Severus and Minerva, and their changing relationship, read in about as real a way as I've ever encountered them in a story, and I admire your authorial restraint in the telling of this one. Excellent.

Re: (Posting for Iuls)

[kellychambliss]

Thank you!

read in about as real a way as I've ever encountered them in a story

This comment pleased me no end.

Too Long a Comment, Part the 1st

[albalark]

This is probably the most canon Severus/Minerva I've ever read - as unsentimental as both protagonists and very much in character for both.

Dumbledore's words filled the Great Hall of Hogwarts, soaring to the enchanted ceiling almost as if they were owls on the wing, and Severus Snape gritted his teeth against the sanctimony of it. "A choice between what was right and what was easy. . ."

As if the wrong choices weren't equally difficult. As if one could even tell what the right and wrong choices were.

Gods, what a great beginning this is - Dumbledore's self-righteous piety in the books got up *my* nose more than once - I can imagine that was particularly hard for Severus to deal with.

He deliberately turned his back towards her. There were many things Severus didn't need, and one of them was to witness the expression of desperate hope that he was sure he'd find on Minerva's face as she listened to Albus--because he knew that only years of hard-won self-control enabled him to keep a similar expression off his own face

Too Long a Comment, Part the 2nd

[albalark]

There was so much about the scene between he and Minerva as she proffers her apology for not acting on his behalf after the Shrieking Shack incident and the growth of their relationship that I really liked. It's more than clever turns of phrase (though there are so many: He didn't like gifts of any sort, viewing them as simply prepaid expectations.; With the typical Gryffindor air he hated--that of a martyr bravely about to mount the pyre--she'd got directly to her point.; Severus had welcomed the chance to push her harder, though he let his voice go quiet. There was no need to shout facts as damning as these; the words themselves were loud enough.; She’d seemed sincere, which to his mind was a sure indication that he ought to be suspicious.; And so he had kept the bottle, not as a gesture of forgiveness--he honestly had never understood what that word meant--but as an indication that he was willing to let them be on an equal footing with each other. That he was willing to give up the advantage over her that her failure had given him

Re: Too Long a Comment, Part the 2nd

[kellychambliss]

I know I've told you this before, but I'll say it again: I just love learning which lines you liked. Thank you, thank you for quoting them. I know it takes time to put together detailed review like this, and I want to let you know that I appreciate it fully!

a mutual attraction that's organic and believable

And I was very pleased to read this comment. I love Severus/Minerva as a pairing, but it can be a challenge to make them believable. I'm always so glad to hear when they seem to work.

Thank you so much!

Re: Too Long a Comment, Part the 1st

[kellychambliss]

I can't tell you how much this comment made my day! Trust me, there's no such thing as too-long a piece of feedback, especially one as thoughtful and detailed as this one. I was so pleased to receive it.

I'm also very pleased with some of the points that you find realistic -- such as the notion that the power of Lily's memory diminished over time for Snape. One of my goals in writing fanfic is always to complicate the characters, make their thoughts and actions more believably adult. I'm glad you seem to think I succeeded here.

the most canon Severus/Minerva I've ever read

I added this line to my "favorite bits of feedback" file.

(And I love your amazing icon).

[pasi]

Entirely believable, with prose as smooth as silk. Well done!

[kellychambliss]

Thank you! I'm so glad you found it believable -- that's always a challenge, with Severus/Minerva.

[emrys_mk]

A nice read. I love the idea of Minerva being a mentor to Severus, so taking it a bit further and having them be lovers is not as big a leap as some might think.

[kellychambliss]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[squibstress]

Tremendous story.

Love the way Severus is always tallying, always plotting, even when he's not certain what he's plotting for. So much lovely ambiguity, too!

Bravo/a!

[kellychambliss]

Thank you! I love your own Minerva/Severus dynamic, too, so I'm particularly glad you liked this. Always-plotting Severus: that's exactly what I hoped to suggest.