Snapedom

Gasp, gasp, just in time. :)
As usual, the banners are under the cut. This time, most contributions were right underneath the introductory post. Oh, and a reminder: there's the hair challenge still on. ;)

And: geri_chan has completed her set. Congrats!

A young half-blood wizard with a miserable home life in a Muggle neighborhood is excited to be going to Hogwarts, a place where he feels like he'll be able to fit in for the first time in his life. He encounters an arrogant bully along the way, and is determined to be Sorted into a different House than the bully.

From the above description, you might assume that the boy is Harry Potter, but you would be wrong--it's Severus Snape. Of course, in Snape's case, I believe that he had already decided to go into Slytherin, but meeting James on the train only reinforced that desire and further prejudiced him against Gryffindor. Even Lily's being Sorted into Gryffindor wasn't enough to tempt Snape into asking the Hat to put him there. In any case, the same general description fits both Harry and Snape remarkably well. In my essay on Snape and the Marauders, I wrote:

I've been awful about participating lately. One of the many things that's been eating my time has been doing Crack Broom recs on LJ for October and November, and so I thought I'd share those recs here as well, just so I'm not a *complete* lurker.

( Snupin fic recs )
( Snupin art recs )
( Snape/Hermione fic recs )
( Snape/Hermione art recs )

The December Challenge brings you a topic that's been long overdue and was suggested by mary_j_59:

Severus and Harry Potter

Mary writes: What does the constant compare and contrast between the two in all 7 books actually convey? Does it convey anything, after all? I had thought it was a subtle type of character development, and that it also pointed to the need for healing between the two, because they are 'soul mates'. Severus, more than anyone else, is Harry's spiritual father, IMO. At least, that's what I thought before DH. Now I don't know what to think - and yet the comparisons are there, in the text. Why?

Of course you can go beyond that and include anything you want.