InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "i'm neurodivergent and a minor"

snapelyhols_mod (snapelyhols_mod) wrote in snapelyholidays,
@ 2012-01-01 02:23:00

Entry tags:

2011_fic, fic4:prayer_at_night, pg-13, snape/hermione

gift fic for prayer_at_night, Snape/Hermione, p-13, worksafe

Recipient: prayer_at_night

Author: leni_jess
Title: Time and Again
Characters: Severus Snape/Hermione Granger (or, more accurately, Severus, Hermione near-as-dammit gen); some background unexplicit Ron/Hermione
Rating: PG-13, worksafe
Content Info: *Epilogue compliant in the letter if not the spirit; no squicks; work safe*
Summary: Three ways Hermione Granger failed to rescue Severus Snape, and one way she did.
Disclaimer: The world of HP and its characters belongs to Rowling. The author of this fic has borrowed them for the purposes of storytelling. No profit was or will be made.
Word count: ~11,904
Author Notes Sorry, prayer_at_night, I skipped over the latter part of your prompt for this pairing, fixed on one of your (slash) "likes" instead, and adapted it. I hope the fic pleases you, as you seemed open to whatever I fancied writing! I also hope you don't mind the absence of smut, which I know you would have liked; the story just didn't seem to go beyond hints of UST.

Thanks to my patient beta reader! Thanks also to the endlessly patient Mods, for (what else) endless patience. For the reader's information, Easter in 1998 began on 10 April. The battle of Hogwarts, JKR assures us, began on 1 May.

For other credits, see the End Note.

( Time and Again )

(Post a new comment)

	gingertart50 2012-01-01 08:01 pm UTC (link)
	What a splendid fic! I loved this, loved your determined, clever Hermione weaving her way through canon and putting everything right. Excellent work, mystery author! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	leni_jess 2012-01-11 05:03 am UTC (link)
	I'm pleased you enjoyed all the complications, and Hermione getting there. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	atdelphi 2012-01-02 04:40 pm UTC (link)
	What a clever idea! I really enjoyed this story, and I especially enjoyed your Hermione, who has all her cleverness from canon with the agency to finally indulge it in such a satisfying and meta way. Marvellous! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	leni_jess 2012-01-11 05:04 am UTC (link)
	Thanks! I'm happy you liked the story, and my Hermione, and all the meta (which I very nearly warned for). You'll note it took her a long time to get full agency; in that, the wizarding world isn't so different from ours. (Reply to this) (Parent)

prayer_at_night
2012-01-02 09:05 pm UTC (link)

*takes deep breath* SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
Yeah, so that was my first reaction. *g* My gift is there, *finally*, and it's so AWESOME! <3
Oh, my dear mystery author, I love you for this! You were right in believing that I don't mind the scenarios and pairings mixed up - brilliant time-travel fic with all the brilliant time theory in it will always reduce me to a squeeing little girl! <3 <3 <3

I don't really know where to start, so I'll just throw all the awesomenesses at you, right?

So, I *adore* that Hermione has the idea to save Snape by time-turner right away, but that it doesn't work then - and that she doesn't give up on it, but that the Snape Project is kind of the red line in her life, sometime postponed but never forgotten.

It's absolutely brilliant that you let Hermione live her Canon life! It is kind of horrible, of course, to think that they were not really happy together... But Hermione/Ron not working out in the end is something I can totally see, and since Hermione never really put everything of herself into the marriage, I guess it's okay. *laughs*

The long, loooong time you need to spend in the Department of Mysteries until you finally become a "proper" Unspeakable is really realistic! I honestly never throught about that, but now that I do I think it would be exactly like that. *loves the details of higher magical education*

The talk with Headmaster Snape! <3 I love the identification card hidden in the photograph, and how Severus took Hermione serious.
Oh, and how hearing that he won't survive is a real blow for him - I always imagine Severus to kind of know that he will die saving the universe, but that it is still a kind of surprise to know for certain. ...Did that make any sense?

I adore how Hermione feels for Rose and Hugo - how surprised she is that caring for them is quite fun. :D Alas, I'm rather disappointed in Ron, pressuring Hermione for kids and then losing interest because the children are smart like Hermione. *shakes fist*

Oh man, there is so much more I love here... the ending, of course, because there is so much of what could happen next in the air! <3 Don't worry about the lack of smut, by the way; there is brilliant time-travel (and its limits, and ways around those limits, and arithmantic approaches to time itself *squee*), which makes up for the absence of everything. :)

Now I ran out of things to write down, which is definitely my poor memory's fault, because the whole fic is full of things to love. <3

Just let me say it one more time: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE! ;) Thank you very, very much, dear mystery author, for this wonderful gift! <3

(Reply to this) (Thread)

leni_jess
2012-01-11 05:05 am UTC (link)

Thanks so much for that detailed response, telling me all the things you liked, and your thoughts on so much of the story. I'm so glad that Time-Turner meta was a satisfactory substitute for smut. And that you didn't mind there was so much about Hermione and Ron's marriage, which seemed to be required, given the premise that she lives her canon life and then some. And always with this secret life that Ron never enters into.

It's always an extra pleasure to find a recipient so happy to share her responses with the writer.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

kelly_chambliss
2012-01-03 06:27 am UTC (link)

A very clever, interesting story with deft characterizations; you do a good job with the implications of time travel. I'm particularly fond of the scene with Minerva and of your idea that the teachers deal with the workload by using time-turners. It makes perfect sense: in canon, the school is absurdly understaffed, and unless we're willing to believe that the Heads of Houses work 80-hour weeks, there's no other way they could manage everything.

Here's one of my favorite lines: The determined good cheer dropped away, and for a few moments Hermione saw a very weary woman, who was conscious of her own mistakes and losses, before McGonagall said quietly, "They would forgive you, I think, as I shall pray they will forgive me, with far less reason. We all make mistakes, Miss Granger."
This is the sort of very real moment that gives effective texture to a story.

I like that your Hermione isn't perfect, that Ron is given some depth, and that Severus is. . .Severus.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

leni_jess
2012-01-11 05:06 am UTC (link)

Thinking about Time-Turners, and for a long time discussing potential implications (for, after all, there's only very basic data in canon), turned out well in the end. My brother's notion that you go back in your own lifetime as well as in time enabled me to give the story structure: the first story I've had an actual outline for in yonks.

It's always seemed to me that Minerva, after the revelations from Voldemort and especially Harry, would be a chastened woman. I imagine she'll spend a lot of time rethinking the last year. She might even be a bit less Gryffindor. And perhaps in 24 years she'll be a glad woman, relieved of burdens at last.

Hermione isn't perfect; I didn't want her to be, but to show her maturing, intellectually and emotionally, learning to be (fairly) calm and open to compromise in her marriage, and to be adult and hands-off with Severus.

Thanks!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

winterwitch
2012-01-03 02:13 pm UTC (link)

Truly a wonderful and inventful story! I like time-travel really much if it's done well, and this one was excellent! I'm particularly intrigued by the possibilities and differences with and about time travellers you brought into the story and explored. Your Minerva is wonderful.

Just a note FYI: the link to your time turner idea "source" doesn't work, the journal has been purged.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	leni_jess 2012-01-11 05:07 am UTC (link)
	Thanks for the generous compliments on the story, and for liking all the meta that came out of my brooding over Time-Turners (never again, I tell you). I'm very pleased you liked Minerva, too. Thanks also for telling me the link can't work (I had the file saved); I've amended the reference in my own journal posts for the story. (Reply to this) (Parent)