For Meta Month last November I wrote an essay on why I like stories where Snape and Lupin adopt a child. I thought it would also tie in nicely with the ongoing Family Fest. I won't repeat the entire essay, although you're welcome to click on the link and read it, but I thought that I'll go ahead and post my list of adoption recs here, expanded to include a couple of new recs and some Teddy fic and art.
Here is my original list of adoption fic recs:
Building a Family by Anita Dapperens: Lupin wants to adopt Jasper, an orphaned Death Eater's son, but the Ministry will not allow werewolves to adopt, so Snape adopts the boy and invites Lupin to move in with him to care for Jasper. Jasper is a wonderfully intelligent and precocious child, exactly the sort that I think would appeal to Snape. As an added bonus, Blaise and Theodore (my two favorite minor characters) are Snape's apprentices.
(not) The Sound of Music by Senjy (available on the Moonshadow archive): Harry asks Lupin to run an orphanage for ten children found in Voldemort's camp; some are werewolves. Snape is enlisted to brew the Wolfsbane Potion for them. Howdy by Juxian Tang: Snape and Lupin each (separately) make a decision to adopt a child. And they're both stubbornly determined to adopt *the same* child.
Who Is Your Family? by Rain (iheartbowie): After the war, werewolves finally have a place to go. One werewolf contemplates the meaning of “family.” Severus cannot seem to understand.
Ignatia by severity_softly: Remus adopts a war orphan, only to discover the child might be Severus'. He goes to ferret out the mystery, to make Severus "take responsibility" as a father. What happens next? (This one is sort of a combination of an adoption fic and a biological child fic. I know I said that I didn't like the latter, but I really love this story. It's not a hard-and-fast rule; I can generally find at least a few stories good enough to overcome even my worst squicks, even mpreg.)
Contingency Plan by Shanti; also available at Moonshadow: Remus finds himself rescued from the tender mercies of Bellatrix Lestrange, only to be presented, as a gift, to Albus’ murderer. Maybe he’d have been better off in Bella’s hands. Then again, maybe not. (The adoption doesn't take place till the last chapter of the story. Again, it's an exception to my preferences--this time, it's Snape raising an infant. But the author quite convincingly makes me believe that Snape wants the baby and will be a very good father.)
The list also included one mpreg fic, in the interests of fairness, although I'm usually not much of an mpreg fan. (Just my own personal squick; no offense intended to mpreg fans.) But this is one that I actually liked: The Expanding Man by Undun: Sirius Black is dead but he is still ruining Severus' life, and Remus is in it up to his neck.
And here are a couple of new adoption recs:
Those I Can Save by bronze_ribbons: Snape finds that some of the poorer Slytherin parents have named him guardian of their children should anything happen to them. Now they're dead, and he's saddled with the kids. Meanwhile, Lupin recovers only to learn that some of the werewolves have left orphans with no one to look after them but him. [...] Considering the political climate, neither of them trusts the Ministry.
One of my favorite things is Snape and Lupin adopting orphaned Death Eater children and/or werewolves, so naturally I loved this story! The OC kids are well-written and engaging, and there are some nice humorous moments, especially one scene where Lupin tries to court Snape by comparing him to a cow--I kid you not! He means well, though! ^_^ trickofthedark did some wonderful illustrations for the story, including the cow scene.
Motherless Child by ellid: (on Moonshadow): Remus brings home a stray during the full moon. A wonderful story, with Lupin taking in a werewolf cub, and he and Snape trying to solve the murder of the child's mother.
And also some art by karasu_hime for the story Ignatia, listed above!
*New addition 3/30/08*: Leader of the Pack by hogwartshoney: Snape learns to love his werewolf pack--even when the pups climb all over him. This is an incredibly sweet and lovely fic filled with adorable, cuddly werewolf cubs--what's not to like? ;)
In the original essay, I said that I preferred adoption fic to Snape or Lupin having a biological child with a woman, but I'm beginning to grow fond of "Snape and Lupin raise Teddy stories," so here are a few recs:
Snow Day, a lovely drabble by bluestocking79: The snow brings unexpected pleasures for Severus, Remus and Teddy.
Cub by drachenmina: This is an incredibly funny story, and I was giggling madly all the way through it. Snape is brewing the Wolfsbane Potion for Lupin, and noticing how terrible the werewolf looks, reluctantly decides he must take care of Lupin, since Lupin is apparently unable to do so for himself. So he begins inviting Lupin over for dinner, and watches Teddy so that Lupin can get some rest. In one of my favorite scenes, Snape has put Teddy into a large cauldron (as sort of an improvised playpen), and Lupin checks to make sure that he hasn't lit a fire underneath it!
Modern Love by immortalautumn: Lupin and Snape are living together and raising Teddy, but Snape is still filled with insecurities, feeling that he can never replace Tonks in Lupin's and Teddy's lives--especially since Lupin is always telling Teddy about his late mother. Meanwhile, Lupin mistakenly thinks that Snape can't really accept Teddy as his own child, and of course it all blows up in a huge argument. Insecure-Snape-needing-to-be-reassured is one of my favorite Snupin plots, so I really loved this story. I also liked Teddy, who is (realistically for his age) sometimes charming and sometimes bratty, and who clearly loves both his fathers.
An Empty House is Not a Home by hiddenfantasy: Five years since the fall of the Dark Lord, Severus has his own apothecary but lacks love in his life. Will his second chance at life bring him to the love that he believes he has for Lily Potter? Technically, this is more of a story where Snape slowly comes to the realization that he loves Lupin, rather than a parenting fic, but it does show Snape growing fond of an adorable little Teddy. I love the scene where the three of them are walking, Snape and Lupin each holding one of Teddy's hands and swinging him along between them.
A Sea Change By Way Of A River by sor_bet: technically, this one isn't a Teddy fic; it was written pre-DH for Snupin Santa 2006. But the author portrays a very similar theme, where Lupin allowed himself to be talked into marrying Tonks, and they had a child together. Tonks is suffering from amnesia, so Lupin is raising his son Sijay by himself. Snape runs into them by chance, and winds up helping babysit Sijay since Lupin is clearly overwhelmed as a single parent. I loved clueless Lupin, who practically has to be hit over the head with it before he realizes that he's in love with Snape. I don't want to give away the ending, but I really liked how the author handled the resolution between Lupin and Tonks without demonizing Tonks or killing her off.
Finally, I'll end with a pimp of my own Snupin fics. (Warning: this will contain some plot spoilers, so skip it if you don't want to be spoiled.)
In the latter half of my Always series (available on my website or on Moonshadow), I have Snape and Lupin take in two teenage orphaned Death Eaters' sons at the end of Phoenix Rising: Dylan, son of the late Evan Rosier, and Theodore Nott. The story picks up in Aftermaths, where Snape, Lupin, and the boys begin their life as a family together. Dylan and Theo have to deal with the grief of losing their biological familes while adapting to their new home; Snape cares for his sons, but doesn't always know how to express his feelings. Snape and Lupin get to deal with the usual teenage issues of romances and sibling rivalry, with the added complications of the boys having been traumatized by the war, and societal prejudice against perceived Death Eater allies.
And I just realized that there's also several subplots centering around the theme of families. (I should note that the series turns AU around Book 5; it was written pre-HBP, and I assumed that Snape was a wealthy pureblood, so Tobias and Eileen don't exist; Blaise Zabini is basically an OC, since there was no info in canon about him at the time other than his name, so he has a normal family, not a black-widow mother; and Lucius Malfoy is a cold-hearted ruthless bastard and most definitely not a loving father. It also doesn't take into account the information that JKR put on her website about Theodore Nott.)
So getting back to family themes in Aftermaths: Snape has been estranged from his family for years, but his mother suddenly contacts him out of the blue and wants him to return home; Theodore's best friend is Blaise Zabini, and Blaise's parents don't want him associating with the son of a Death Eater (and they don't even know yet that Blaise and Theo are secretly lovers!); Theo's cousin Aric from Durmstrang turns up at Hogwarts, wanting revenge for their uncle's death (who died to protect Theo when he was a child); Aric has to deal with expectations placed on him by his status-conscious pureblood family; Harry is adjusting to life as a family with Sirius (who didn't die in my series) and Sirius's new wife; and Draco is dealing with the death of his father--and the fact that it was Narcissa who killed Lucius, after he tried to save himself by sacrificing Draco. Whew, that's quite a bit--but it's a very long story!
The most recent entry in the series, Scars, also deals with family themes, but these revolve more around the OCs than Snape and Lupin, who have resolved most of their problems and are living together contentedly. Still, they get drawn into the problems of their friends and enemies, including the werewolf Ash, whose estranged family turns up to complicate his life, and Warren Macnair's children, who hold Snape responsible for their father's arrest and imprisonment in Azkaban. One chapter also deals with Narcissa's attempt to reconcile with Andromeda.