Severus Snape

Should anyone wish to send Severus an owl, this is where it will arrive and he will attend to it very shortly.


Contact information:

email is murduck at gmail dot com
AIM is mirorthauma
MSN is miror_thauma
Yahoo is miror_thauma
Twitter is Slytherenclaw
my journal World of Wonders
Severus' live journalVerus Janus
my live journalWorld of Wonders

December 16, 2009
Title: The Christmas Robin
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Severus/Poppy
Rating: G
Words: 125
Prompt: Christmas Robin. Click on the link! It is worth it!
Author's Note: With kind thanks to 00sevvie for being my beta. I don't think I thank her enough. This is another offering for her Severus/Poppy canon.

( The Christmas Robin )

December 15, 2009
Title:  The Holly and the Ivy
Fandom:  Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters:  Severus
Rating:  G
Words:  541
Prompt:  Holly and Ivy
Author's Note:  With kind thanks to Pyjamapants for working as beta in the middle of the night.

( The Holly and the Ivy )

December 14, 2009
Title: Always the Cause
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Misc. Death Eaters
Rating: R for Dark Ideas and Bad Philosophy.
Words: 100
Prompt: Naughty or Nice

( Always the Cause )

December 13, 2009
Title: Dance with a Real Friend
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Severus/Rabastan
Rating: PG
Words: 792
Prompt: Yule Ball
Author's Note: With kind thanks to Slytherinlaurel, my beta.

( Dance with a Real Friend )

December 12, 2009
Title: What Is an Angel?
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Severus, Abraxas
Rating: G
Words: 175
Prompt: Angel
Author's Note: The quote at the bottom, not counted in the word count, is from Hermann Hesse's Demian.

( What is an Angel? )

December 11, 2009
Title: Hansel and Gretel
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Severus
Rating: G
Words: 250
Prompt: Gingerbread House

( Hansel and Gretel )

December 10, 2009
Title: A Prize, a Hat and a Motto
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Regulus, Sirius, Narcissa, Andromeda, Bella
Rating: G
Words: 400
Prompt: Christmas Crackers

There were many traditions at the Black family Yuletide dinner, but a favourite of both boys had always been the Christmas crackers. They sold special wizarding crackers in Diagon Alley, and these were elaborate and popular, especially among the better families. Kreacher had been sent to purchase them, after he had consulted with an eager and happy Regulus. His brother was at school.

They were green with a net of old silver filigree thread. The whole family and their cousins crossed their arms around the table to pull the crackers together. Their old servant clapped his hands excitedly. Clouds of smoke shot through with green and silver sparks exploded, glittering with ribbons of light, accompanied by a clash of silver cymbals.

At every plate fell a simple silver instrument. A green and silver hat appeared on each head, and a scroll of cream parchment unrolled before each member of the family.

Regulus had a mouth organ, Sirius a silver penny-whistle. Narcissa had a xylophone, Andromeda a handful of bells, and Bella a tambourine. Sirius took off his green hat, throwing it down by his plate and turning it rebellious red. He looked at his brother's prize. Ever the peace-maker, Regulus offered him the mouth organ, by far the better instrument to Sirius' mind, he knew.

Ever since he had been Sorted, their parents had looked askance at their elder son, favouring the younger. Regulus was perceptive and regretful. Even if he had made foolish choices, Sirius was still his brother. He would come around, Regulus was sure.

"I already have one," Sirius tossed him the whistle as he slammed his way out of the room. "Here's your extra little toy!"

There should have been a band, and the girls were tentatively experimenting. Even Andromeda was included, though Narcissa, cool and simply quiet, had interjected herself between her sisters. Why did Sirius have to be so... dogmatic? Family was family to the younger boy, as it seemed to be to Narcissa. Strange, he thought. Though they would hate to admit it, Sirius most resembled Bella with his temper, his misplaced will and his strange battles.

He tried the little pipe and the sound was pure, piping and high. The notes seemed to lilt and ripple. It would have been beautiful, but it was tainted now by Sirius' bitterness. Regulus mourned already. His motto read mockingly:

Golden moments: precious treasure.
Fill your box beyond its measure.

December 9, 2009
Title: Parody Denied
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Severus, Lucius, Narcissa, Bella, Rodolphus, the Dark Lord,
Rating: G
Words: 200
Warning: Suggested mental infidelity (Bella/Rodolphus)
Prompt: Santa's Lap

It was the annual Death Eater Yuletide party and one of the attendees had recklessly drunken more than was decorous. Bella was petitioning the Dark Lord for added entertainment. Beside the fireplace Severus was decidedly sober. He stood next to Lucius, who was sipping an almost-clear Reisling, raising it elegantly at occasional intervals. Narcissa was at his other side with her sparkling mineral water and an open cucumber sandwich on thin rye.

"We can do it in parody of the Muggles, my Lord, and it will be fun! Not the presents of course... Just let us sit in your lap and tell you what we would like for Christmas. I'm sure we all want the same thing." Bella looked around at them in imperious assumption.

Rodolphus frowned into his scotch and soda across the room. He knew very well what his wife wanted for Christmas, from the way she was looking at the Dark Lord's lap.

"It would be a boon," she wheedled.

The Dark Lord frowned, and everyone stilled as he paused. Only Lucius' hand tightened on Severus' shoulder. It was not, Severus thought, in warning, but in shared offence and emotion. Father Christmas was sacrosanct to them.

"No. That would be ridicule of a great wizard, not Muggles." The Dark Lord rose to leave the company.

Somehow, he knew.

December 8, 2009
Title: The After-Christmas Tree
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Severus
Rating: G
Words: 974 (yeah, this is not technically a drabble. It seemed a simple little story, but it needed more words.)
Warning: Too much angst.
Prompt: Christmas Tree

( The After-Christmas Tree )

December 7, 2009
Title: Speculation and Certainty
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Severus
Rating: G
Words: 100
Prompt: Father Christmas
Notes references and contains spoilers for: Father Christmas, 1940

( Speculation and Certainty )

Title: Father Christmas, 1940
Author: janus
Rating: G
Word Count: 1322
Warnings: dark ideas
Prompt: Father Christmas is real, and an unlikely wizard is asked to help him out on Christmas Eve.
Notes: with thanks to my beta and dear friend, oosevvie

( Father Christmas, 1940 )

December 6, 2009
Title: Geminio Treat
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Severus
Rating: G
Words: 200
Prompt: Hot Buttered Rum

He was late to the meeting, as usual. His commitments to the Dark Lord were not such that he could move about freely. If his presence was desired elsewhere, that was where he would be. Yule was coming and even the kitchen at Grimmauld Place was cosy, presided over as it was by Molly Weasley. He could smell meat pies in the oven and hear the bubble of treacle on the stovetop for some after-dinner confection.

Everyone was already seated, nursing steaming cups of creamy drink. There were crumbs of biscuits left at each seat. Iced shortbread, he thought.

Severus seated himself quietly near the door. He had the good fortune, or otherwise, of sitting next to Sirius himself. Soon the other man naturally found an excuse to stand and move slightly off. Shortly thereafter everyone turned laughing to some jest of Tonks'. Severus had been waiting for this opportunity to cast a quick Geminio on Sirius' warm drink. He took the duplicate in his cold hands and sipped. No one would notice. It was hot buttered rum. He felt it flow through him, settling comfortably and comfortingly in his stomach. Even stolen, it was a distinct seasonal pleasure.

December 5, 2009
Title: Tinsel Findings
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Severus
Rating: G
Words: 100
Prompt: Tinsel

Sometimes, walking home from school, when the snow churned with spring mud, one of the children in rubber boots would see a shining glint at his feet. He would bend and extract a shiny magic thread. Blue was valued highly because such strands were rare, but even a silver tendril was precious, discovered in the small mill town.

They were saved carefully, wrapped around wrists or fingers, or curled tangled in a pocket. They became charms of luck.

Luck! At six, young Severus snorted internally. Real luck came from spells. Real luck came from potions. One made one's own luck.

December 3, 2009
Title: Home Fire Burning
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Severus, Tobias, Eileen
Rating: G
Words: 250
Prompt: Fire

Spinners End was not warm. It was not cheery. The ban on magic had removed the shine from everything his mother would have liked to quicken with her touch. Certainly it had removed the shine from Eileen.

The ban on the signs and signals of anything muggle and popular had removed the shine from everything his father wanted to share with his only son like smiling secrets. Certainly it had removed the shine from Tobias.

Severus studied his maths, history, science and English in front of the fire up to the end of junior school. Six years in muggle schools to make up for the seven he would spend at Hogwarts.

He liked the fire not just for its cheeriness and its warmth, not even for the white noise it provided to cover the sound of arguments and angry banging. It glowed, and not like the brutal stark glint of the bare light-bulb in his bedroom. The coal, with its black chalkiness and its distinctive scent that permeated the small house, became a friend. Lit, it glowed deeply with life, ever-changing, sometimes sparking or crackling as if it were trying to talk to him. The orange was the most vivid thing in his entire world and he liked to pretend it was magic.

Sometimes, alone, he would alter it and play with it using his tiny creative magic effects, as if they were working together. He knew the fire was science within itself, but it was still special.

December 3, 2009
Title: Hair Ribbon
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Snape, Abraxas, Narcissa
Rating: G
Words: 240
Prompt: Ribbons

The Prince (Snape) boy was a wonder with potions. He was keen, alert and brilliant with his magic. He was learning manners under Lucius' example and tutelage. He was even grateful and glad.

His hair was proving an annoying problem. The potions with which he worked all day in the Malfoy dungeons soaked it and fouled it, no matter how often he bathed. It trailed over his forehead, over his eyes. His nose stuck out the middle of it like a hook over which a towel had been hung.

Abraxas went to Narcissa, Lucius' beautiful new wife, sublime and a true Malfoy already. She gave him a handful of ribbon from her Yule packages.

He stood behind the boy in the mirror and brushed the black hair back as he had done with Lucius' when he had been less than half this boy's age. He was almost a negative image, but he was still and acquiescent. His refinement of Bubotuber... properties... had ensured his skin was perfect. When the hair had been drawn back from his face in dark wings, he was very nearly presentable.

He bound it at the base of his skull in Narcissa's green and silver ribbons. He lay his hand on the boy's shoulder, his thumb brushing his bare white neck. "This is how you will appear in my house."

"Yes, sir." The reflection of the newly-visible black eyes looked back into his, opaque, reading him.

December 2, 2009
Title: Plum Pudding and Marchpane
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Snape
Rating: G
Words: 175
Prompt: Christmas Pudding

At Christmas feasts, Severus cherished the plum puddings, each individual, each a little hill, round and rich, gently steaming with fruits and nuts made hearty, steeped in brandy and candied pumpkin juice, the peak snow-covered with a thick blanket of marchpane. It was his very own, and he whispered the wandless spell to envelope it with a short flickering blue flame.

At home, they had never had Christmas Pudding.

"Muggle Holiday!" his mother forbid.

"A thimble, a button, an anchor and a sixpence? Fortune Telling! A wish while stirring? No magic potions or deceitful trickery in my home! Ever." His father was more than firm.

Even at Yuletide it had certainly not been part of the school lunch program he had endured before he had come to Hogwarts.

Here he seemed to crouch over it protectively, but he was unaware of his posture as he lived for a moment in a wonder of perfect flavour and redolent aroma, sweet and spiced with heavy otherworldly tang. The small hill of pudding was a Christmas vista.

Title: House Unity Candles
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Snape, Dumbledore
Rating: G
Words: 150
Prompt: Red Candles

It was Severus' first year teaching and he was not yet secure in his position, despite the vows he had sworn to Dumbledore. Apparently part of the obligatory camaraderie at Yuletide was partaking in the jollity of the Headmaster's Secret Santa exchange.

The brightly coloured bags, topped with fluffy tissue paper enticingly crowded one of the festooned end tables while they all sipped tea and nibbled cakes and sweets.

"Lemon, and sugar, just as you like it." His blue eyes twinkled at Severus as he poured.

He was shy and took the last bag left. It was red and yellow candles. "Gryffindor!" the Headmaster cooed. "A tribute to House unity."

Severus was socially nudged into a compliment. "There is... er... a spiderweb pattern. Spiders... er... kill noxious insects."

"Light it! Light it! Lets see it all lit up!" came the chorus.

Obediently he did so with a soft reluctant, "Fuego."

Title: Worth Dying For
Author: janus
Characters: Severus, Abraxas, Lucius
Rating: G
Word Count: 200
Warnings: dark thoughts, war, violence

It was war.

Severus fought and killed, and so he died a little, inside, as happens in war.

His side had the dreams. Was it always that the offensive side was the one with the dreams? Those on the defence dreamt only of peace, an end to fighting.

Perhaps Abraxas had asked or arranged it - his squire and his son - but Severus was always paired with Lucius on missions for their Dark Lord. Lucius, for all his concrete sublimity, dreamt stronger than anyone, as if his dreams were a certainty, a formula, that only needed time and this constant duty of violence to reach inevitable fulfillment. His future was assured.

Severus' own dreams were more aethereal. He dreamt of a chance, pride, a life, straining to the stars of possibility, or... beyond mere stars. He pictured a straight burning phosphorescent line into endless space, trailing an arrow of greatness. He pictured the arrow shot from his soul, his hand, his ingenuity.

This shone for him, illuminating Abaxas' and Lucius' perfect alabaster world of purity and right by magic.

Magic, freed and all-triumphant, was everything. It was worth fighting for. It was worth killing for. It was worth dying for.

TUPPERWARE??!!!
Author: janus
Recipient: wyomingnot
Prompt: Snape/anyone. timing. temerity. Tupperware.
Word count: 100
Rating: none

Severus bent, frowning, to the first years' scrolls. None of them read their books beforehand. None. He blinked. Two stood out, written cheekily in rainbow-coloured ink. Fred and George Weasley.

Someone knocked. "Enter."

"Excuse me, sir. My father discovered these containers. They have snap-down lids to keep food fresh. You could use them for your potion ingredients, sir. To preserve them. Look - different colours!"

"You have the temerity to disturb me with this muggle rubbish? Plastic? PLASTIC? Do you have any idea how that would taint even the simplest material? GET OUT!"

Percy's timing could not have been worse.

Recruitment Strategies
Author: purplefluffycat
Recipient: verus_janus
Prompt: A cheery merry Gellert breaks out of Nurmengard in '79 luring Snape and Abraxas to his cause.
Word count: 108
Rating: Um, PG-13 for implications, perhaps?


**************************************************************************


The manor's drawing room was dark and foreboding; it's crackling fireplace barely emitted warmth. No, to Severus, the only source of light was the stranger lounging in the wingbacked chair - golden curls a halo, smile a crescent moon.

“A little more wine, Abraxas? I have so missed it.”

Their host poured graciously. “I do hope you'll stay with us awhile, Herr Grindelwald. It is indeed a privilege to welcome Prussia's future ruler.”

The stranger chuckled. Glancing at Severus: “The dark haired boy is a delight. And I hear that your son is equally lovely. May I?”

Abraxas smiled, home and dry. “Please do.”

Title: You Could Have Knocked Me Over with a Feather
Author: janus
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey
Rating: G
Word Count: 150
Warnings: het
Prompt: Severus/Poppy, September, feather, kiss,
Notes: Poppy stories are a gift to my dear friend 00sevvie and in no way extend the world of my otherwise consistent Severus.

( story! )

Title: Whisked from Death
Author: janus
Characters: Sirius, other characters unlisted for surprise value.
Rating: G
Word Count: 300
Warnings: silly. remember that these Saturday Night Drabbles are funny challenges and not what I would usually write. canon character deaths. Dark Magic.
Summary: Sirius escapes the veil and is thrown forward in time into an awkward situation.
Challenge: Saturday Night Drabbles

( story! )

Title: Black
Author: janus
Characters: Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore
Rating: G
Word Count: 300
Warnings: out of character
Summary: Severus is obliged to don a Halloween costume for the feast. He does.
Challenge: Saturday Night Drabbles

( story! )

Title: Medicinal Cocoa
Author: janus
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey
Rating: G
Word Count: 200
Warnings: het
Summary: Poppy encounters Severus outside on a cold night collecting ingredients for her potions.
Challenge: Saturday Night Drabbles

( story! )

Title: Contrast
Author: janus
Characters: Gilderoy Lockhart
Rating: G
Word Count: 100
Warnings: none
Summary: Gilderoy gathers writing inspiration.
Challenge: Saturday Night Drabbles

It was a dark and stormy night. No, it was... pre-stormy. Gilderoy Lockhart drank fine brew in a small County Kerry pub. At length, the pub's warmth and the excellence of the ale went to his head. He needed a short break from his telling of tales. Some country fool was stealing his thunder.

From a hedge, a horrible, aching, unmistakable scream erupted, cutting his very heart and throttling his very soul, presaging death and terror. He reached in, valiantly tearing from its tear-shaped nest: a thin bedraggled bird.

The pub advertised Augery Soup.

Gilderoy published Break with a Banshee.

---

prompt by Stefdarlin: "What really happened when Gilderoy Lockhart met the Banshee featured in his book: Break With A Banshee?"

Title: Contrast
Author: janus
Characters: Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, misc. OC
Rating: NC-17 for violence
Word Count: 717
Warnings: Extreme violence, Dark ideas
Summary: After a Death Eater murder, Severus and Lucius demonstrate the differences in their characters.
Challenge: For the_iscariot

( story! )

You may see it drawn HERE.

Title: Loss
Character(s): Regulus Black, Narcissa Black
Pairing(s): Gen
Rating: G
Warning(s): None
Challenge(s): Brothers and Sisters
Word count: 100
Author's notes: 1972.

Regulus had waited months. He visited his uncle’s home, where they sat uncomfortable in the drawing room nibbling insubstantial finger foods with elaborate politeness.

Finally, he was alone with cool blond elegant Narcissa, walking in the garden.

“How does it feel, cousin? What should I do?” His curly head lowered earnestly, his normally cheerful face serious and confidential. “What did you do, when your sister deserted the family?”

“There is nothing that we can do. They made their choices.”

“I miss my brother.”

Almost quiet as breath: “I miss my sister.” She took his ten year old hand, sadly, comforting.

Severus was the big hit of the Magic Convention Cruise!
All the magicians were amazed and impressed with his levitation trick!

Watch it being drawn HERE!

I'm having computer problems with the heat, but Severus was counting on me to give him a proper holiday! How could I let him down? I'm giving him my holiday.

Rabastan

Rabastan stands by the open window, curtain drawn slightly to the side so he can peer out onto the street, lost in thought. Today they are going out to buy the plants that they had decided on, having poured over all the books and debated over what would be best for their garden. Though Rabastan has been outside whenever he has had the chance, the only person he has interacted with has been Severus. And seeing children running up and down the street, the occasional adult talking to another over hedges, and groups of teens walking up and down the block like small gangs, makes him a bit… apprehensive. He doesn’t like the thought of walking amongst people, about the inevitable brushes of shoulders or bumps into his person, and he somehow feels as if he is too weak to handle such indifferent interaction. Each will jar him to his bones, it feels, until they rattle them from their sockets and Rabastan will be left skeletal on the sidewalk. It doesn’t help that he is not allowed his wizarding robes, as shabby as they are, for they are going to a muggle market and undoubtedly he would stand out. But now he is even more aware of how thin he has become, the bones in his wrists jutting out like the end of a wand, and he can feel his ribs beneath his fingers when he breathes. And though the clothes fit as well as he could have hoped, they are alien. Strange. He walked a few curious paces around the room to see how they felt, and it was disjointed. The top and the bottom were separate entities, and it looks odd to be able to see his legs go through the motion of walking. Bellatrix would scoff, he knew, if she would see him dressed such, would narrow her dark eyes as if she could burn such offending garments off of him with her disdain alone. The old Rodolphus would have laughed, delighted at his no doubt clownish appearance. For a moment he is both sad that they are not here, disapproving and mocking, and glad that they are not. They are not the same people anymore, either. It would be hard, to know how they would react. Everything feels odd, surreal, as if Rabastan is not here. But where else would he be?

But, he reasons to himself as he lets the curtains fall closed, turning to head downstairs, that he has kept Severus waiting long enough. He is a convict yes, but not to muggles. He is nobody to them. The thought is as comforting as it is terrifying. He can be anyone now. He can be no one. It is all up to him. And for the moment, he wants to be a nobody. He feels as insubstantial as one, as foreign. Being here has already been therapeutic, he is excited to start a garden, he can safely say, but a trip to the market? What can he expect? But even prisoners have to be let out sometime, he supposes, or else they just wilt and die. And Rabastan has fought too long and hard to do the latter. So, nervously, ignoring the urge to fidget like a child in hand me down clothing, he descends the stairs, looking for Severus.

“I am ready.” He says when he finds his friend, even if the words are rather far from the truth.

You may watch it being drawn HERE!

Title: Severus Visits Paris Alone
Character(s): Severus
Pairing(s): None
Rating: G
Warning(s): None.
Challenge(s): snape100 #287: The Solar System: Mars
Word count: 100
Author's notes: April 5, 1794 Danton, Desmoulins et al were beheaded at the Place de la Révolution. Desmoulins had led the assault on the Bastille in 1789. You probably know, but just in case...

Usually, Severus takes vacation at school, which is home; or Spinners End, which is not. Easter, 1994 he crosses the channel to Paris - 200 years after another failed revolution.

He stands in the centre of the Champ de Mars, his black high-buttoned clothing appearing almost revolutionary. Marat perhaps, though he is the age the young adjutant - Desmoulins - died.

He stretches out his arms in shape of crucifixion, to feel some trace of surging idealism gone awry, ending in rivers of blood. He tries. The breeze touches his cheek, but no finger of the cold past.

His friends are in Azkaban.

When... we stormed through the wall - of the prison - they told us - would outlast us all.

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Though you may not have time or inclination to sign up to write, do artwork, or make something special, we enthusiastically welcome betas and cheerleaders!

by Arrogant Mage


"I'm not your imaginary friend," the brown-haired boy insisted.

"There's no such place as Midgard, or Flenceburg. The most famous wizard is not some woman named Lorenta, it's Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of my school. There's no such place as Valhalla except in mythology and folktales. And there is no way you can do the things you say you can do." Severus rattled off the list of his reasons, eyes shut tight against the once-welcome visitor. "I don't believe in you. I made you up when I was lonely, and I don't need you any more."

The brown-haired boy laughed. It was no longer a comforting sound. "You made up my name?"

"That's why it's such a preposterous name. Lezard Valeth. Like a fairy-tale name."

"You never had any use for fairy tales," said the brown-haired boy. "You were always too old for those stories, even when you were young. You and I are alike in that too. Those books are only good as quarries for what's true in them. The Deathly Hallows, for instance, hmm? The Philosopher's Stone? I'm still looking for the Philosopher's Stone, here in Midgard, and one day soon I'll find it, you know."

Severus resisted the temptation to plug his ears with his fingers. It would be childish, and the imaginary boy would laugh at him, if he did that. "Go away. I have a real life now. I'm going to have a patron, and be a potions master."

"I will be a greater patron than any old man your world can offer," the boy insisted. Boy, really, still; though he and Severus were both sixteen now -- Severus sixteen, anyway, and the other boy at least that old. "And I will have more wealth than any of them, too. Forget Slytherin; what other friends do you need? I can travel between dimensions already, and soon I'll be able to bring you back with me..."

"You're imaginary," Severus snapped. "Enough!"

The voice was silent for a moment, and behind screwed-shut eyelids Severus wondered if that had done the trick, banished the illusion. This time there was not even the laughter he'd grown half to love, half to dread.

Instead -- a weight tugged the pillow his head rested on, a soft clove-scented breath stirred his lank hair. Lips brushed Severus' ear.

"Can an imaginary friend do this?"

"Silent magic" (Severus, G, Word 100)
Title: Silent Magic
Character(s): Severus
Pairing(s): None
Rating: G
Warning(s): None
Challenge(s): Free-for-all: Coin
Word count: 100
Author's notes: None

Eileen had grudgingly handed him a pound note. "Beans and cigs. Mind you bring back every extra penny. I'll be counting."

But his pockets were torn. One hand for the tin, one for packet and change.

Tobias waited on the porch. "Where've you been, boy?"

Severus jogged jerkily, dropped the coin, watched it roll beneath the step. Sixpence. There it shone, beyond his fingertips. His eyes darted to Tobias, who forbade magic with violence.

Accio. Accio. Accio coin. Wandless, desperate, he willed. It rolled back to nudge his bare toe. He thanked the stars he had not yet started school.

Werewolves. I believe that Severus' antipathy to werewolves was due to something he believed to be Remus’ betrayal. Remus had never tormented him. That would have meant a great deal Severus, as a lonely teenager. There are two times we read about Severus following someone and spying on them for his own ends. One is Lily, in the playground, (which naturally implies more such incidents.) The other is his spying on the Marauders.

The books speak of him hiding in the bushes, watching Lily with hunger. He was not a predator, but despite everything, despite planning and cunning, he was something much more innocent. He wanted a friend.

I believe it was in the same spirit that he watched the marauders. It is true, he was amongst a gang of Slytherins, who nearly all turned out to be Death-Eaters, but they were Slytherin. They were the powerful rich old families, pure-blood, wanting for nothing. The demands put on the neglected boy we see on the train must have been enormous, and they would have had to be hidden, must be demonstrated immediately even as they were developing.

How lonely he must have been, would have been, even had Sirius, James and probably others, not tormented him while their followers jeered.

He would have noticed Remus with them, shabby and poor as himself, another boy who would have been an outcast. He would have seen the apology in Remus' eyes, the awkwardness, the inability to prevent his friends, the disinclination to participate. Intrigued, he would have watched, noticed the illnesses, the absences, perhaps scratches and minor wounds. In his mind he would have conjured sympathy in Remus - not pity, but possibility of understanding, fellow-feeling, even... even friendship.
( cut for 728 words )

There are many Severus'. And each Severus has his own canon. In that of my Severus, I have made certain choices. It is certainly due to the influence of my friend's story that I have taken these positions. Since it was written the Snape-shaped hole appeared. This delighted me.

Voldemort is the only other person in the books who is mentioned as flying, and when they learn of it everyone is amazed. He is in the habit of arbitrarily punishing and rewarding. Snape had killed Dumbledore, the only person who Voldemort feared. In my world, it is not only Headmastership of Hogwarts he is granted, and a seat at the Dark Lord's right hand, but the gift of flight.

It has been argued, when I mentioned this in the Voldemort writing, that the Dark Lord was not inclined to give or to share knowledge or skills. I think, however that he was capricious, and it pleased him to act with benevolence as well as cruelty. 'A Merciful Lord,' he said, and perhaps he wanted to prove himself a generous one also. He would want to bear positive attributes, to show himself that he was a wise and good leader of men. If he had been a hard and vicious man always, I do not think he would have gained power and followers from the high old families.

It is true, he punished his followers, either with immediate Crucio, as with Thorfinn, or with long-term elaborate harm such as turning Draco into a murderer in vengeance against Lucius. Nevertheless, I believe that the service Severus rendered him, of that he believed Severus rendered him, was significant enough to warrant significant reward.

In my canon, Severus is aware of what price he paid for his gift. He knows it is blood money or meant to be blood money. On the one hand, when he flies he thinks of Dumbledore, of killing him. On the other hand, flight is wonderful, and the physical feeling is free, the control and solitude - all are at once triumphant and peaceful even in the midst of war. It is a beautiful miracle. It is another tool in an array of personal tactics. It allows him to... escape, to literally rise above. Wonder and horror.

( cut for length and more prosaic details )

words: 1019
warnings: none

Title: Inertia
Character(s): Severus
Pairing(s): None
Rating: G
Warning(s): None. *edit: Exhausting, even Sisyphusian*
Challenge(s): snape100 #284 Random Word (the Third)
Word count: 100
Author's notes: My word was obviously 'inertia.'

Inertia was his enemy. Most followed its lead as if it were the pied piper. They whiled away their waking hours in sports rivalries or trading... paramours. Those working seriously tended to be still more firmly grasped by Severus' arch enemy, cramming themselves with rote and the obvious curriculum.

Severus mind was quicksilver. Rather than succumbing to secure relaxing absorption of coursework, he wrested usefulness from it, teased it, bent it, broke it, used it as a springboard for his aerial cartwheels of innovation.

To him inertia provided a touchstone. While he was challenging it, conquering it, he was justified.

You can watch it being painted brush-by-brush HERE

Sev has used his potions to make his special polishing materials for his precious beloved wand. And there he is, cradling itin his Slytherin-decorated room. In love.

Title: Motive for Metaphor
Character(s): Gellert, Albus
Pairing(s): Albus/Gellert
Rating: G
Warning(s): hint of dark ideas
Challenge(s): Motive for Metaphor by Wallace Stevens
Word count: 2x100
Author's notes: for lemondrop_party on LJ

This time was worth anything, in the best place in the wide world to be. Sleep was a waste. Gellert leaned, head on his elbow, arm stretched out, hand splayed in the air, index finger raised, curved as if suspended from the ceiling. His sleepy eyes smiled, intrigued, appreciative. Almost cheeky. His hair curled over the desk.

Albus sat opposite, smiling too, leaning forward, close, a slight crease of thought between his brows. He had not smiled in the beginning, responsibilities smothering him. Gellert wanted to embody promise - life. Albus was beautiful, richness of mind lighting even this sad house.



"We are beacons. Doesn't it waste... history, if we don't shine? Doesn't it waste us, to the world's sorrow, to leave it in darkness? We should illuminate it - not just for us - for our brethren; for those like us, not yet born; for those helpless ones, scrabbling in their dirt.

"We could instigate true glory forever - fulfilment of the potential of...everyone. And ours!

"Waiting to be, waiting to do, waiting... That is eternal February - almost aware, waking eternally, eyes half open. The pain of desolate winter is gone, but summer... summer never comes. My friend."

Gellert's voice mused, cajoling.

Title: For Scarring Left by Thoughts
Character(s): Severus, Draco, Albus, a misc. Gryffindor, and Goyle jr.
Pairing(s): None
Rating: G
Warning(s): None
Challenge(s): Cauldrons and Snitches
Word count: 100
Author's notes: Team Cauldron!

Severus had nurtured the Oblivious Unction long evenings, patiently brewing its components, adding precise variations. For Draco, it must be perfect. This night was the last, most delicate phase. He had skipped supper. Albus would understand. They wanted to save the boy what they could.

Some intrepid Gryffindor rapped on his door, telling tales again. Goyle had taken his sweets again. Entitled, he pushed on the door.

Severus risked a half-second glance from the creation in his cauldron to look for the flash of a shining white head, like his father's, his grandfather's. Not seeing it, he snarled.

"Get Out!"

"Oaths and Vows" (Severus Snape, G, 2x100)
Title: Oaths and Vows
Character(s): Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore,
Pairing(s): None
Rating: G
Warning(s): None
Challenge(s): Seal
Word count: 2x100
Author's notes: A series of two interconnected drabbles. X-posted.

His eyes emptied everything into those of his new merciful lord. Dumbledore. The bottomless void gaped, terrifying. He poured out loss, fear, selfishness, guilt, broken pride. His mind lay naked. He knelt, eyes red, face wet.

"A teacher? But... even with... How will they accept..." He thrust back his sleeve to reveal the yawning skull, the twisting snakes - seal of committed treason.

"Do not fear. You'll work for me. I'll make you Head of Slytherin."

Their hands clasped. Dumbledore's wand bound them in fire.

"Will you serve my Order; serve my school?"

"I will."

Red flame sealed his new commitment.

---

Still, the brand on his arm - his Dark Mark - itched with the lives of his jailed, mourning friends. No remorse, no terror, not even the death of his Dark Lord himself - and all Severus' hope - could remove this bond, still precious.

No one had left that Band of Brothers save by death. They were bound by awareness indelible, by soft-hearted ties none outside could guess, their oaths sealed by darkness.

This alone, he kept back, locked. After all, the Mark had been laid upon him when this man, now offering succour, had betrayed Severus and all his House. His family.

Title: Free Fall
Character(s): Severus, Dumbledore, The Dark Lord
Pairing(s): None
Rating: G
Warning(s): None
Challenge(s): slytherin100 prompt 40 Fly
Word count: 100
Author's notes: X-posted.

Air smoothes against Severus' cheeks. Free, he streaks or glides. He floats. There is no possibility of falling, no need to clutch tense fingers around an undignified broom handle, no reliance on steed or creature. He is under his own control, with the view of a god. Escape is possible. Solitary contemplation is his. Exhilaration. Peace.

The Dark Lord rewards his faithful.

But still, the old face, familiar and fatherly, haunts him, begging him, encouraging him with imperative. To murder. Then it crumples, devoid of humanity, over and over again.

This is his reward, his bounty, his blood money - flight.

Title: Polishing his Wand
Author: janus
Characters and Pairings: Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, ___ Nott
Rating: PG-13
Challenge #280: The Lusty Month of May.
Word Count: 100
Warnings: Suggestion of auto-stimulation
Notes: Still writing gen here... poor wee Sev.

In May the dormitory became restless with expectancy. Soft movements and muffled gasps kept the room alive. Waking early, Severus observed Nott's elbow moving rhythmically, his other arm steady, close to his body. The younger boy could not quite see. It was strange.

"What's he doing?" Severus asked as they dressed.

"He's polishing his wand." Lucius moved his head dismissively.

"But that seems a good idea."

Severus approached Filch for supplies - wax, oil, fine steel wool, soft cloth. Soon his own elbow was energetically pumping in the mornings. The wood of his wand became smooth as glass, reflecting even moonlight.

Title: Reputation
Quote: 2. Gain a modest reputation for being unreliable and you will never be asked to do a thing. -Paul Theroux (1941 - )

Among young men born and trained to recognise and manipulate status, Severus was keenly aware how fragile a thing was reputation. He fed his carefully, exceeding all expectations, adopting every suggestion or task from Abraxas or his Dark Lord, stopping short only of servility - also disaster.

It was a reaction of near-paranoia. He was defensive, sensitive to any suspicion or slight.

The others had families and pride of place. He could not afford to fail anything, lest he find himself cast into a void of inactive purposelessness. He toiled, often sleeplessly, in the dungeons to bolster his right to work.

Severus thought effective masks should not conceal but reveal. Ideally they were faces themselves - visible, open, showing shadows of wariness and vulnerability, obfuscating more critical truth. Such masks would be accepted unquestioned.

These were not masks so much as threats. The smooth superior gold showed only eyes looking into those of their victims - eyes drunk on blood, violence and dark magic. No humanity of a lip caught between resolute teeth must show; no vulnerability of fine hair against a still-soft cheek.

Their natural skin and forms were neutralised, leaving only their soul-baring eyes naked to their Dark Lord.

I made banners! Click on them for the severusbigbang com!

Title: Perhaps You'll Make Your Real Friends

Severus incisively evaluated the new Death Eaters. Lucius, assuming his rightful place, was a young lord; Antonin a colleague; Bellatrix a dangerous fanatic; Regulus a prodigy; Mulciber, Avery and Nott fulfilled parental expectations. Some few, inbred, were soldiers to be led.

He found himself drawn to the younger LeStrange brother, who watched listening, thinking more than he said. His half-smile held a hint of weary knowingness. Severus felt himself judged, not with condemnation but curiosity.

He was intrigued, hungry to be known, to have a friend. Rabastan interested him in himself. Perhaps, after all, Severus could be a friend.

After other mourners had filed away, Severus returned to the sepulchre, moving across the grounds in the shadows. His superstitious fingers stroked the cold white marble above the body. The body, not the soul.

"Father." Not his father, but alone he permitted himself this. "You taught me. You made me. What will become of me now?"

He lay prostrate, cold close-cropped grass absorbing his tears. Severus never cried, but now shook silently, bereft.

"You kept me when there was nowhere else."

Narcissa found him, comforting hand at his shoulder. No one touched him. "Come. Abraxas would not have wanted this."