InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I can hear you..."

snapelyhols_mod (snapelyhols_mod) wrote in snapelyholidays,
@ 2011-12-16 01:06:00

Entry tags:

2011_fic, adult, caning, frottage, h/c, snape/mcgonagall, spanking

gift fic for someoldcat, Snape/Mcgonagall, adult

Recipient: someoldcat

Author: kelly_chambliss
Title: To Some a Gift
Characters: Snape/McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore, OCs
Rating: R, adult (NWS)
Content Info: *Spanking, caning, frottage (sort of), hurt/comfort. Corporal punishment of a child.*
Summary: After Voldemort's first defeat, Severus has a great deal to atone for. Minerva finds a way to help him.
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: ~6,330
Author's Notes someoldcat, your prompt proved to be quite an interesting challenge. Here’s what I tried to include from your want list: "redemption stories, Severus confronting his demons, all manner of hurt/comfort, and some darker elements…[Severus] portrayed as awkward, inexperienced, and shy." I'd intended to write more of a dom!Minerva, but she wouldn't cooperate. Still, I managed to include a few of your kinks (spanking, frottage), and I hope this Severus is the character you wanted to see. In any case, I really do think he feels better now!

My super-grateful thanks to my two betas, T and V.

( To Some a Gift )

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tetleythesecond
2011-12-16 11:52 am UTC (link)

Oh, I really like this! The whole part from Minerva's musings about her possible own role in the making of Severus Snape until her realisation that Severus wants punishment (which you build up beautifully!) is everything I love to see in Snape fic -- complexity, moral dilemmas, and ultimately the impossibility to judge in terms of essential good or bad. Your Severus is both a human being with agency and a drive of his own and a victim of his circumstances.

There are any number of passages that illustrate what I mean, but these are the ones I found among the strongest:

Yet over the years she'd discovered that the situation between Severus and the Gryffindors had been more complicated than she'd ever realised at the time, and she had come to question her own role. Had she allowed herself to be swayed by Severus's unprepossessing exterior or by his adolescent sullen posturing? Whatever the reason, she very much feared that she had not done right by Severus the boy.
Minerva straightened her shoulders and took herself sternly in hand. Such regrets were useless. Not even a time-turner would let her unmake Severus's difficult past. -- Perfectly Minerva, insightful and sober.

Then there's the scene with the three of them, with Albus's criticism of Severus's teaching (I'm glad someone at Hogwarts actually paid attention to that; from the books it seems as if he'd been given a free rein), and of course Minerva would acquiesce to his proposed remedy, while Severus would get a bit worked up.

"You most certainly need something!" she shouted. "Look at you, behaving like a foul-mouthed, emotional teenager. Do you think you have a corner on unhappiness?" -- Oh, brilliant! Of course he has reason to be angry, but yay for Minerva giving him some perspective.

"Yes! No! No, of course not. But I wanted...I mean, I did want..." His eyes glittered, and as he let go of her to wipe an angry hand across his face, she knew, all at once, what he needed. [...]
He wanted that clarity, that firm line drawn between wrongdoing and atonement, a line one could step over, leaving the mess of error behind, to stride into the clean light of a new start. -- This. So much this!

The way you wrote Minerva's POV during the spanking is also intriguing. You see her Gryffindor ambition, and also a motherly/fatherly element to it, but in a way that doesn't clash with the arousal that she feels and denies (at least so long as she's in Severus's presence.) And it is simply great that Minerva is aware that this was but one step in a long process of atonement, much of which will not involve her because while she can help, it is not in her power to fully redeem him.

Of course she would do what she could to support him, though she feared it would not be much. Whatever forgiveness he found could not come from her, not from someone he'd never wronged and who had sufficient sins of her own.

Brava, Mystery Author!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	Your Review of "To Some a Gift" kelly_chambliss 2012-01-14 06:54 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you, Tetley, for this glorious comment and for your thoughtful rec. I wanted a story that would be IC for both Severus and Minerva and that could make the spanking believable for them and not just a kink without context. Your comment makes me think I succeeded in doing that. Thank you! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	atdelphi 2011-12-16 09:30 pm UTC (link)
	Oh wow - this wasn't quite what I was expecting, but what a pleasant surprise. This story was a delight to read: complex, insightful, and mature. Wonderfully done, Mystery Author! I expect to return to this story many times. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Your Review of "To Some a Gift" kelly_chambliss 2012-01-14 06:56 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you for reading, for commenting, and for your lovely choice of adjectives. So glad you enjoyed the story. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	paean_sf 2011-12-16 11:39 pm UTC (link)
	I loved the generosity Minerva exhibits here. Deliberately celibate sexuality, the appreciation for but decision not to act on one's ardour, is something rarely written so well. This is usually a pairing I avoid, but somehow I was riveted. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Your Review of "To Some a Gift" kelly_chambliss 2012-01-14 06:57 pm UTC (link)
	I'm always pleased when I can help a reader enjoy a pairing that's not their usual. Thanks for giving it a chance and for the kind comment. (Reply to this) (Parent)

akatnamedeaster
2011-12-19 06:43 pm UTC (link)

Thank you Mystery Author, this is just the sort of scenario I had in mind with regards to this prompt! I love that you chose to tell the story through Minerva's eyes, it lends an extra dimension to the proceedings.

Your Snape is wonderful and just how I picture him, a hellbroth of emotions under a barely maintained veneer of stoicism.

Oh and the bit of sex thrown in for good measure was hot too! ;)

Thanks so much, I had been hoping my gifter would chose this prompt.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	Your Review of "To Some a Gift" kelly_chambliss 2012-01-14 07:00 pm UTC (link)
	I'm glad you liked it, my dear! I felt a little bad because it wasn't Snack and because Minerva refused to be the sort of dom I'd intended her to be. Thank you for this nice comment and for your LJ/IJ rec (and for your smoking McSnape at Kinky Kristmas.) (Reply to this) (Parent)

	fluffyllama 2011-12-22 06:53 pm UTC (link)
	I don't generally read Snape het, but I couldn't resist the promise of spanking here. Very nicely done, it was a great read! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Your Review of "To Some a Gift" kelly_chambliss 2012-01-14 07:01 pm UTC (link)
	Thanks for reading and commenting; glad you enjoyed it. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	torino10154 2011-12-31 03:29 pm UTC (link)
	Wow. This is wonderful. Complex and intense. Very emotionally wrought. Well done. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Your Review of "To Some a Gift" kelly_chambliss 2012-01-14 07:02 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you! -- From one Severus/Minerva spanker to another /g/. (Reply to this) (Parent)

caecelia_
2012-01-06 10:38 pm UTC (link)

Just to say -- I have come back to this story several times now, and it is without doubt one of my absolute favourites from this fest: the beautifully written exploration of both Severus and Minerva's psyche here haunts me. I particularly enjoyed the overdue conversation with Albus -- while I sometimes think that Albus encouraged Severus' bad teaching, I also like this take on the situation. Severus' angry reaction was glorious, as was Albus' understated: "We have a complex relationship, Severus and I," Albus said finally. "He is important to me, but he is difficult. Oh, not in terms of teaching; I'm not angry about that. He did a reasonable job for a neophyte, and he can only improve. Especially with your guidance?" There is so much going on beneath the surface here, and it was an utter joy to guess at the implications behind every perfectly placed word.

I also rather liked the framing you gave this (with Finn's spanking). Minerva's shame over not receiving the same treatment as her brother rang utterly true, as did her shame over her father's silent treatment (I had a similar father).

Also, a confession: The spanking scene should not have been as hot as it was (I have never particularly enjoyed spanking in fic), but you not only convinced me that it could happen, that it could work between these two, but made me actually find it hot.

Thank you for this utterly memorable story, which has enriched my imagination and given me so much pleasure over the past weeks.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Your Review of "To Some a Gift"

kelly_chambliss
2012-01-14 07:07 pm UTC (link)

Thank you so much for this detailed and thoughtful review (and for your journal rec, too). I'm always so pleased to know what lines and elements of a story work for readers. The fact that you think the story is believable means a lot to me, because when I started writing, I thought it would be a bit of a character stretch. But then, as so often happens, the characters sort of took over and wrote it their way /g/.

Thanks again; I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)