A Change in the Weather

Side note: The ring thing seems solved - of course I couldn't keep my mouth shut, and we had it out, and I've solved things for now by wearing the rings on a chain (just like when I was pregnant, ah, the memories!).

Anyhow! I entered the Lusty Month of May this year and finished! Woo! Here's a link to the first post; each entry has a link to the next day's entry.

Title: Bits of Blue and Gold (31 chapters)
Author: summerborn
Rating: NC-17 (overall)
Main Pairing: Remus/Severus, with other pairings of Remus/OFC, Remus/OMC, Remus/Tonks, Remus alone, Severus/Lily.
Notes: Canon through HBP; I owe a big thank-you to readers who commented during LMOM to help keep me going and give me ideas.
Word count: 26,000, give or take a thousand. Haven't added it up.

Summary: Remus Lupin, presumed dead after the war, finds himself in need of rent money. He answers an ad and gets into the business of donating memories, but he soon finds them too dear to part with. So he gets into the business of Severus Snape, instead.

Chapter 1 of 31 is here!

Also, there is a poll that members of pervy_werewolf can vote in to determine the grand prize winner, so check that out if you would like! Congrats to all participants, whatever tier and however much you posted!

Why I like so many different characters paired with Snape. (Contains spoilers for DH)

If this were for a broader audience, I would need to start off with some backing-up of the statement "Snape is an interesting character." For the moment, I'm going to take it as read that Snape fascinates many in fandom.

One thing I find fascinating is that Snape is endlessly faceted. I joked once that I had a hundred Snapes in my head, and I'd written about a dozen of them at various points. I think it's absolutely true; and different pairings allow us to imagine him as completely different kinds of people.

( Part I: Why Snape? Or, Why can we speculate about Snape? )

Part II: Why fanfic?

Answer: Fanfic allows us to speculate in a deeply immersive, satisfying way: narrative. I mean, why not just write an essay describing what Snape would be like if his father had killed his mother when Snape was only four, and he'd gone to live with some distant relatives, the Blacks and their three daughters, Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa? Because it's a hell of a lot more fun as a story. Humans love stories. It's in our nature. They make us feel, and we love to feel. (It's the reason why "One death is a tragedy. A million is a statistic." -Joseph Stalin. But I'm digressing again.)

Now we have two things: an interesting character with a lot of blanks we can fill in (Snape), and a compelling method of doing so (story-telling via fanfic). This is why I love to write about him. He's so versatile.

( Part IIa: Why *romantic* fanfic? )

( Part III: How Specific Characters Work With Snape )

Now for the audience participation part of the essay! How do specific characters bring out specific sides of Snape? I will add to this section if anyone has any comments or suggestions. Let's see what you think!

( List of Various Characters )