Fic Recs: Unusual Characterizations

Few fics have ever made me cry, but the first one on this list did (both happy and sad tears, too!) It shows us Harry and Severus through a surprising POV: Ron’s.

“Catch and Release” is one of the few fics I’ve read that takes Ron seriously and gives him an internal life that rings true to the character we meet in canon. Author roozette shows us a Ron who is finding his own place in the postwar Golden Trio — a young man who is a sensitive observer of character and who has learned how to be a supportive partner and friend. At the same time, the author expertly subverts the canon epilogue with lines like: “There was a moment, a single day of blinding clarity, when Ron knew he was going to spend the rest of his life with Hermione … and that Harry was not going to spend the rest of his with Ginny.”

Author pasi’s “Penultimate Acts” explores what it must have been like for Severus that last year as headmaster (hint: it was rough.) Many fics have been set during the DH year, but this is one of the few that shows us Snape’s character via the day-to-day moments of what must have been the worst in a series of Very Bad Years had by our own King of Pain. The characterization of Snape as somewhat detatched as he goes through the (awful) motions of being spy, Death Eater, and headmaster is perfect; I can’t imagine how he could have coped any other way. It makes the few moments when he allows himself to feel something that much more poignant, particularly the scene where he calls on his doe Patronus to deliver the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry in the Forest of Dean. The growing dread during the scenes before the final battle are masterfully done, and the scene where he duels McGongall is a special pleasure for McG fans.

The Severus in MMADfan’s longfic An Act of Love is the most in-character out-of-character (due to a spell) Severus I’ve encountered. It takes place during the year before DH, after Dumbledore is cursed, and the author takes good advantage of what we readers know of the promise Dumbledore has extracted from Severus, making the story and its premise all the more heartbreaking (yet hopeful!) It also takes the forced-sex trope and turns it into something that is both horrifying and emotionally gratifying. The act of love referred to in the title is actually many acts of several different types of love, leaving Severus changed but still very much the canon Snape we know and love or love to hate (and setting the stage for what I think is the author’s magnum opus, the brilliant DH-subverting Death’s Dominion.)