Snapedom

Original poster: bohemianspirit

Yes, I know it's January, not December. ;-) I was out of town, but still wanted to contribute a few thoughts to the subject of the December challenge. There's so much more I could write about this, and so much everyone else has already written; I will settle for posting a couple of excerpts from my story "Light Between the Cracks," which was posted in October for snape_after_dh.

1. Did Severus spend his entire life pining after Lily?

Based on the character we see depicted over the entire series, not just on what we see in the memories in Deathly Hallows, I think it unlikely that Severus Snape spent his entire life crippled by grief. I think that his sense of guilt and grief over Lily's death acted as a catalyst, a wake-up call that pulled him off the destructive path he was on and set him on a new direction that ultimately enabled him to grow and mature. While his grief over her death would continue to haunt him, I don't think it utterly debilitated him. But I also think that he would not necessarily have revealed to Dumbledore, let alone to anyone else, whatever life he may have built for himself outside of Hogwarts and the Wizarding World.

Here's one way I envision him "processing" his grief and moving on with his life:

( First story excerpt )

In my story, he goes on to meet and marry a non-wizarding woman and build a life for himself off the radar screen of Hogwarts. Details are my own, but I'd like to believe that some version of this really did happen. It certainly would be very Severus to keep his life as private as possible!

2. Putting the guilt issues over Snape's Worst Memory into perspective.

Really, the story says it all, so I'll just let the story take over.

( Second story excerpt )

Original poster: bohemianspirit

I debated whether this counts as "meta" or "fiction" for posting purposes, and in the end concluded that it's really just a form of meta, not a story, and so am sharing it here. Originally I wrote it as a response to a meme, but I thought might be of interest or amusement to a wider readership--especially on the matter of the Doe Patronus, which we were just discussing. ;-)

( Read the letter from Severus here... )

Original poster: drmm

So, I wrote a rather rambling post/essay about love in Harry Potter using the four defintions of love given by C.S. Lewis, including a bit of my perspective on Snape and Snape/Lily. If anyone is interested, you can find it here.

Original poster: geri_chan

I just came across a great essay on metafandom about "why we tend to blame Lily possibly for the wrong reasons":

http://pojypojy.livejournal.com/94529.html?format=light

The writer tries to take an objective look at who is at fault for the breakup of Lily and Snape's friendship. (Both, in the writer's opinion.)  According to the essay, the fault lies mainly with J.K.R. for the whole "telling instead of showing" thing--e.g. telling us that Lily and Snape are best friends, but not showing it, etc. Our sympathies tend to lie with Snape because we only see the Marauders acting like jerks, although we are told (not shown) that James later matured, and we don't see any real closeness between Lily and Snape even though we are told that they are supposed to be close.

Since we were just talking about "telling instead of showing" on another thread, and I know there's been Lily discussion elsewhere on the community, I thought people might be interested in this.