Snapedom

For Snape's birthday. A bit insubstantial, and a bit late - but ultimately cheerful, which was the remit!

Happy Birthday Snape!

littleblackbow

Author: Severed Lies
Word Count: 1140
Rating: G
Characters: Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy

Original poster: red_day_dawning

Here is my very late birthday offering for Severus Snape.
Happy birthday, Severus!  I thought I would give you a new life and an old lover...

It may be found  here: http://community.livejournal.com/lupin_snape/1343779.html?#cutid1 ;

Original poster: sylvanawood

Ok Underground. We've had a great, long bithday party and Severus was pleased.

Now we go back to normal procedure.

No fanfic! You can post on your journal and link here every Friday. Short passages as teasers are allowed, of course.

No fanart! You can also post on your journal and link here. Thumbnails as teasers are allowed.

This is mostly to keep the community 'clear' for the discussions, otherwise it's difficult to find things. As reply of a challenge or party, meta-fic or drabbles are of course allowed. Likewise art of all kind.

To avoid clutter, I'm also asking you to put longer entries under a cut.

'Transgressions' will be persecuted by me, so don't count on detention with the Potions- or Defence- or Headmaster. As you all know, I'm tough as butter in the sun when it comes to that, so better be good!

---

And now: let's get prepared for Valentine's Day. I don't think I'm mistaken when I think that you'd want to show your Snape-love? I thought we could have a party again. A bit smaller this time. I'll post a table of prompts, and you chose one (no limits or other restrictions, no announcing that you chose it necessary) and then post what you did with it on Valentine's day (or how long it takes.)

And so I'm asking you: please give me prompts. We'll collect them here in this post, and I make a table of them all next week. We'll collect prompts until the 30st, midnight, and I make the table on the 31st or 1st of Feb. That way you have time to pick your prompts. The prompts don't have to be specific, it's up to the ones who chose them what they do with them.

Original poster: karendetroit

CHAPTER 6: IN SORROW BORNE

The house on Spinner's End slowly succumbed to the grief of its inhabitants. 

Eileen sought exhaustion in the mill to blank out her grief. She and Toby had lived so little time together and every day was a precious memory that she sought to keep fresh and unfading. After work and dinner, if sleep eluded her, she would study her father's grimoires for spells and charms to hold fast each golden minute. She was distracted in her manner, ignoring her son and her father, only because seeing them brought fresh pain. Eileen kept people at arm's length.

Septimus Prince could feel his vigor dissolving with each day that passed. He refused to seek a Healer, and resorted to alcohol to deaden the pain and to keep memories of his previous foolishness and his long-dead wife at bay. Living with Eileen and the boy was a sweet pleasure and a horrible penance for the bad things he'd done. In his depression, Septimus longed for death, but not too soon. He had to see to the boy's education, get him settled into adulthood. Then he could die peacefully and beg the dead for mercy and forgiveness. 

He broke the protective spells and sold his cottage, banking the funds for Severus' education. He sent the Prince family Elves to Hogwarts to await their opportunity to serve the Half-Blood Prince. And he brought his library to Spinner's End and started teaching Severus the fundamentals of the magical arts. 


SCENES FROM A PENSIEVE


...".the quality of your materials and the accuracy of your preparation determines how good your finished potion performs," Septimus concluded. "Now, let's see how your Swelling Solution does."  

Grandfather and son watched as the earthworm grew to ten times its size. 

"Now a drop of the Deflating Draught," he prompted. The earthworm returned to its original dimensions.

"Well done, boy! Arsenius himself couldn't have done better!..."




...." And that's the first spell all students of Charms learn. Let's see you try. Take my wand, speak clearly and move firmly and confidently!" 

"Wingardium Leviosa" chanted Severus, and the duck's feather rose in the air barely an inch and then flopped back on the table.

"Eileen, where is your wand? Mine doesn't respond to the boy!" Septimus called. 
 
Eileen came in, wiping her hands on her apron. "Father, he's too young for wandwork. He's not even 6 yet, let alone 11!"

"Poppycock! Princes are renowned for their precocity. He has the charm mastered, he just doesn't mesh with a phoenix core,"  Septimus gestured. "Let him try your wand."

Reluctantly, Eileen handed her son her unicorn hair wand. "Wingardium Leviosa,"  Severus chanted again.  The feather twitched on the table but did not rise.

"That's worse than before. We may need to go to Ollivanders, boy, and find a wand that suits you,"  Septimus confided. "Perhaps one with a dragon's heartstring would suit you better." 

Eileen snatched her wand from Severus' hand. "There's the ebony wand I had from my mum, it's dragon's heart-string." She climbed to the attic storeroom and rooted in a chest marked "EP".  Grandfather and grandson heard thumps, creaks and sneezing, and the crackle of magic as Eileen cleaned the attic room.

She returned, somewhat the worse for it, and handed the ebony wand to her son. "It was my grandfather's wand, Severus, the man you were named after." 

They watched as the lad cast his spell, and the feather glided through the air at his command, responding to the slightest change in direction.

"I think we have found your wand, boy," Grandfather Prince declared. "Good! One less expense!"....




....."Why do I have to go to school? I don't want to be a Muggle!" Severus protested. 

"It's part of being a wizard, boy. You are living in a Muggle community, and you don't want to call attention to yourself, therefore you WILL go to school with all the other children," Grandfather said. "I won't teach you any more unless you do."

"Mum, can't I stay home? Tell them I'm sickly, or something," Severus whined.

"Severus, part of being a wizard is knowing how to act around Muggles. You don't have to live as a Muggle, when you are all grown up, but you will not be able to hide from the wider world unless you know Muggle ways," Eileen hugged him. "Besides, a growing boy needs exercise and some friends, and every other child will be in school having fun and learning things and you will have no playmates available."

"Give it a week, boy, and see if you can stick it out. You'll turn eleven and be off to Hogwarts before you know it, and they will expect you to have mastered reading, writing, arithmetic and such before you get there," Grandfather added. "We'll continue our lessons after dinner."

Eileen's sharp eyes looked him over. "What's this?" She plucked the ebony wand from under his shirt. "The wand stays home, Severus. No magic, no discussion of magic, and no wand! Remember that you are trying to make friends, not enemies. Now, give your grandfather a hug and let's get you to class...."