I recently read The Apprentice over in For Review and it gave me a desire to read some more Snape centric stuff. I think he's a great character, but rarely gets the characterization he deserves in fanfiction. http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6306296/1/The_Apprentice

I checked out the stories in Taure's thread on this board, but I'm not looking for do-overs. Most of the stories mentioned in there were not good at all, one was downright vomit inducing and I closed it 5 paragraphs in.

I checked out River of Dreams which I saw in the almost recommended thread http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2779678/1/River_of_Dreams

It's not bad, but not great either. It's an above average fic. I got 42 chapters in but don't really feel like reading the rest, especially since I know there's no ending.

I should clarify that I'd prefer to read about and adult Snape. I saw Wrath Of The Half Blood prince in Taure's search thread, but I'm just not that interested in reading about a teenager right now. A do-over would be fine, so long as it's not any of the ones already recommended in that thread.

 

I wish I could recommend something else, but there's unfortunately little material outside of slash or severitus.

 

Really? Cause I don't. Fuck Snape. Fuck him with a baseball bat with aids covered glass glued to it.

 

I'm sure I'll get some flack for even suggesting this, but maybe you should take a look at the Snape/Hermione ship. There are some fics out there with an in character Snape and a believable romance between those two, some of them even with acceptable plot and adventure/action. One example:

Survivors by Dyce

..Complete.. After the war is over, lives must be rebuilt. Hermione sets out to help someone who nobody else will, and winds up helping herself as well. HGSS

Harry Potter - Fiction Rated: M - English - Drama/Romance - Chapters: 10 - Words: 48,163 - Reviews: 609 - Updated: 8-28-05 - Published: 8-21-05 - - Hermione G./Severus S. - Complete​

 

Fixed.

/10chars

 

This is a personal favorite of mine- while it isn't purely about Snape, it definitely fits in the 'appreciates his character' mold.

Will He Be Happy? by KafkaExMachina

Sometime in Harry's sixth year, Dumbledore and Snape sit down for a drink and consider the horrors they've imposed on Harry's life.

From there, Snape has several opportunities to wax poetic on everyone's individual and collective insanity. It has a Harry-Hermione focus but doesn't abusively exaggerate anyone's character flaws (aside from Dumbledore's, I suppose).

 

You cannot be serious. Are you honestly claiming that /any/ story with that pairing could be either "in character" or "believable"? Really?

Yes, Snape is a very smart bastard, and one might think that would appeal to Hermione's character. Yet, she ended up with Ron. Ron is a good-hearted person, which appeals to her. See where I'm going with this? Snape: "good-hearted" is not the adjective that springs to mind.

If it's flimsy justifications we're after, a better case could be made for Hagrid/Hermione.

 

Why not? An enduring relationship between them obviously needs some plausible character development later on, but it's not outside the realm of the possible if you take into account that Hermione was attracted to dour and dark Victor Krum and Snape was fixated on "good girl" and top student Lily Evans...

Do you call this epilogue worshipping an argument? Since when is Rowlings "HG/RW for evaaar" the gold standard of ships? I don't think it holds much water if you take a closer look at the teaspoon personality of the Weasel, his all around mediocrity and the HG/RW dynamics we actually see starting in PoA, like constant bickering and fighting, not to mention Rons jealousy complex. Hermiones attraction to Ronald may've been enough for a teenage affair. The saccharine "happy ever after" of canon is BS- and your argument from authority falls with it.

Sure. Hermione would just love the mental stimulation offered by discussing Blast-Ended Skrewts with an alcoholic possessing the vocabulary of a medieval hick.

 

NS has a point, however much it pains me to admit it. Snape would probably need to tone down his acerbic personality, though.

 

Define "plausible" please. Comparing Krum to Snape is like comparing Bush to Cheney. Or a Camaro to a Porsche. Krum is inherently a good person if a little stand-offish, and Hermione saw the person inside him. Snape is a grown man and still bitter and petty over his lot in life, however deserved or undeserved. He's not some "bad boy" to be "saved" as if this were some Harlequin romance "novel."

And he's *still* fixated on Lily Evans! Lily Evans and Hermione are less alike than you'd seem to think, and Snape very much dislikes Hermione because he sees her knowledge as nothing more than regurgitating what she's read and not inherently creative, and this is backed up by Hermione's jealousy and disdain over Harry's using Snape's potions book and its non-standard methods.

For your information, the relationship between Ron and Hermione was hinted at as far back as book 3. It's painfully obvious by HBP that they have a complicated but strong relationship, with *both* needing to do a lot of growing up. I was in no way saying the Epilogue is the proof, because they're together earlier in DH. You yourself are saying that "character development" would be necessary for Snape/Hermione, but suddenly that is out of the question for Ron??

Look. The point is that Ron is a good person, whereas Snape is not. End of story.

Again, you miss my point. Hagrid/Hermione is ridiculous. Just a little less ridiculous than Snape/Hermione.

And then he would no longer be Snape, but a greasy, sallow OC.

 

Among the more disturbing Snapecentric fics is this little gem.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4393872/1/Rewritten

 

Wow. 'Little gem' indeed. I honestly thought, after reading the first bit, that he would have swapped bodies with James. Then as James, screw it up again. But this...is a different can of worms entirely.

 

Holy crap, that's sick and twisted. After reading Will He Be Happy, I never really credited the author with being anything more than a hack psychologist with a moderate talent for writing, but this is... a fairly brilliant piece of writing. Even if it's sick and twisted.

 

Something's wrong with you.

..... .....

Seriously.

 

I thought the meaning of "plausible character development" would be rather obvious- it means a change in the behaviour and inner self of Snape, rooted in his known personality and traits and caused by events which have the power to effect him based on those. In other words: Snape changing from nasty and sarcastic potion master to romantic whimp just because of a "deep look into her eyes" would be totally unplausible.

Krum is "inherently a good person"? Please! Even if I would judge characters in such simplistic manichaean terms, I wouldn't be sure about that. After all, he IS a pupil of Durmstrang, a school known for teaching the dark arts and excluding all muggle born. There are some darker depths to Krum or he wouldn't have gone to that specific school- he is multifaceted. And the same is true for Severus Snape.

BTW- Why do you use harlequinesque vocabulary and thinking to describe Krum, only to decry a "saving/changing Snape" trope as trash a few lines later? Incoherent much?

What's the point of this sentence? Do I have to remind you that we are talking massive AU fanfiction here, not canon fetishism?

No one said that Hermione and Lily Evans are identical twins. Neither would that be a necessery condition to make a relationship between Snape and Hermione possible- the similarities just make it a bit more believable.

If you had read my posting you would've seen that I aknowledge this.

Rowling's "hints" at RW/HG since book three don't quarantee the epilogue outcome for an AU.

Now a teenage romance in war time is "proof" of a deep RW/HG compatibility? That's even weaker than the epilogue argument.

I never said that Ron couldn't change- I just doubt that any plausible alteration of Rons character could make the "happy ever after" of the epilogue possible. Ron isn't intelligent, motivated or empathetic enough to change into what's necessary.

See above, I dissected the incoherence of your simplistic view on the characters already.

One final note- you can hate on SS/HG as much as you want, that doesn't change the fact that there are some well written fics with that pairing out there. They conserve the "snapeiness" of the potions master while changing him and Hermione in a way that makes a romance between them possible.

/FIN

 

Or it could be that virtually everyone from Bulgaria goes to Durmstrang, the same way it appears that virtually everyone from England goes to Hogwarts and Beauxbatons for France.

 

I give up. Go ahead and read those ignorant fics if you like, but there's no way to make it "plausible" without fundamentally changing both their personalities, in which case it's OC/OC, not Snape/Hermione.

 

I think a few changes would need to be made for Snape/Hermione to work:

- Snape never verbally abusing Harry. Hermione, despite many short-comings, is definitely loyal. At a point in which her love interest leaves, she makes the decision to stay with Harry, even if she has no idea how to go about hunting the Horcruxes and Ron has clearly given up.

- The pairing could only come about after Hermione leaves school. She would never become involved with a teacher. It just doesn't sound right. Hermione defended Snape from Harry and Ron, even having witnessed what the guy did, on the sole reason of him being a teacher. Plus, 16 or 17 is still much too young, both for Snape or Hermione to be interested in one another. Hermione being at least 20 sounds more plausible.

- Hermione does have a romantic side. If shown what Snape went through to help Harry, all because of his love for Lily, Hermione could be moved (again, provided the verbal abuse is left out). After the war is over, perhaps Hermione could stay in Hogwarts to teach and Snape be given his old position of Potion's Master. The setting is there.

- Changes would have to be made from Snape's side as well. As canon stands, it's doubtful that he would ever be interested in Hermione. In fact, I doubt he'd be interested in any other woman, having lost Lily. But, after the war is over, perhaps a good enough writer could make subtle changes to his character, arguing the debt he owed Lily for what he unwittingly did had been paid. There's freedom in that for the first time in years.

- Snape would hardly see Hermione as a younger version of Lily; they're just too different in many ways. But perhaps the writer could bring Hermione to Snape's attention by her doing something characteristic of Lily while they are both teaching at Hogwarts. Just a little thing that in no way means she resembles Lily, but shares some traits (yes, she does share some traits).


Meh. Tons of things would need to happen, IMO, and much would have to be changed early on in the story. But with some artistic license and skill, a writer could pull the pairing off. Of course, the focus of the story would be solely in the romance. All the subtle changes that would need to be made to the characters and the alterations to the timeline itself mean the writer has no time for a bad guy. The conflict would rest in how Hermione and Snape grow closer and how others oppose them (perhaps she's already married to Ron or something? Or Harry doesn't approve but finally Snape's actions persuade him?)

TL;DR: Snape/Hermione sounds like one of those Sandra Bullock's films I would never watch, let alone write. But I understand how some people might like it. I think the pairing can be done, given the right circumstances and enough changes in Harry's timeline being made, which, after all, is all fanfiction is about; changes.

 

Not so, good sir. And here is the proof:

Sure, the characters aren't canon anymore, but to call them "OC" would be the hight of unfairness to this author.