Bring Back the Bastard

Banner by featherxquill, based on art by akatnamedeaster

Huge, huge thanks to all of our participants - you pulled together a whole slew of amazing entries in less than a month. And what an incredibly fun mini-fest it was. Thrills! Romance! Chills! Never before has the love life of Mr. Severus Snape been described in such full dysfunctional glory in all manner of story, poetry, and art. I cannot begin to tell you what a delight it was to see each new entry come in. Huge thanks, too, to dysfuncentine and featherxquill for their generosity and help in putting this fest together - we could not have done it without your soiled, well-used prompts. I'm afraid we've left the garlands of dead Cupids up long enough that they've turned into Cupid skeletons, rather than tidying them up in a timely fashion, but... well, it's an object lesson, I suspect Snape would say. (I, for one, will be deeply sad to retire this banner and miss out on seeing his cranky mug pop up on my flist every so often.)

Let's stick a little masterlist in here:

• The Minister Will Hear of This by of_anoesis (DW)
  
• The One That You Loathe by julesdrenages (DW)
  
• Peace and War by notearchiver (DW)
  
• Prenatal Developments by goddess47 (DW)
  
• Broken Toys by pretty_panther (DW)
  
• The Ballad of Severus Snape by writcraft (DW)
  
• Still in love with you by julesdrenages (DW)
  
• Snap by gamma_x_orionis (DW)
  
• As Time Goes By by writcraft (DW)
  
• Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before by dueltastic (DW)

So that's it! Not much last-minute business, I think. Leave comments for all the wonderful writers and artists - they deserve it. If you've recced things on your journals, let me know (here is fine), and I'll see if we've got enough to pop on over to Daily Snitch with some hot recs. Any feedback, drop us a line. Just want a little Deeply Horrible chat? Leave a comment below, and we can probably have a little wrap-up cocktail party or something.

Congratulations to the winners of our guessing game! The GOLD MEDAL goes to cabepfir (with twelve correct guesses); SILVER is a tie between bvizen and enname (both with ten correct guesses); and the BRONZE MEDAL goes to kellychambliss (with eight correct guesses). Hooray!




Since our top three winners did, ahem, cheat a little capitalise most admirably on previous knowledge, loads of points have been awarded to Slytherin House in recognition of their skill. Professor Snape is rather proud of you lot.

In fact, let's just write this whole fest down as a big WIN for Slytherin House and Professor Snape, shall we not? You, dear friends, took up a challenge and made something fierce and surprising and insightful of it. Your forty-three entries remembered a side of Professor Snape that often, in these post-war halcyon days, is more easily left forgotten: that he was not always a hero, and not at all a pleasant sort of person. Instead of decrying this side of Professor Snape, you analysed it, aimed it a level gaze, proved it need not be unenjoyable or unworthy of interest. You proved there were still lessons here to be learned, that goodness and nastiness can coexist, that ambiguity and paradoxes and yes, even horrible acts still have much to teach us. This is tremendous, simply tremendous, and you should all treat yourselves to an enormous round of applause. That includes you, dear readers and reccers and commenters: you made this fest come alive.

Speaking of which, a special award goes to cabepfir for commenting on every single entry!

Heartfelt thanks are also due to the many, many patient souls who helped me behind the scenes and without whom this fest would not exist: bvizen, cabepfir, dueltastic, enname, iulia_linnea, kellychambliss, o_mayari, pale_moonlite, perverse_idyll, shyfoxling, and wandlorean, amongst many others.

You're absolute gems.

But now, onto the Reveal (this means you may now post your entries under your name and wherever you like, dear creators):

( Reveal beneath the cut )