I got to spend some time reading fanfic again, though could hardly make time for all the brilliant-looking Hoggywarty and rarepair winter exchange entries this year that look interesting - most of them do look so worthwhile! You creators have really outdone yourself this year, and the recipients must feel so lucky! Some hits from the ones I've gotten round to reading, most of you have probably already read them, but if you haven't: 

Fanfic: 
The Perfect Gift (Minerva McGonagall/Severus Snape, 8441 words, PG), which is a truly magical ghost story about a Christmas gift, a family curse, and these two rather private adult characters slowly and respectfully falling for each other. Read this, you will not be sorry.

Rest your Dream in My Dream (Minerva McGonagall/Severus Snape, 9k words, T/PG), is an excellent Minerva/Severus fanfic which tells a post-war story about how Minerva and Severus became a couple with flashbacks to relevant past interactions. You won't regret reading it if you haven't already!

and an honourable mention: Lit Match (Alecto Carrow/Lily Evans, ~2k words, R) by phantomanto , which is a very interesting take on this unusual pairing which they still manage to make work well.

Art:
Rejoicing (in the Greenhouse)- an illustration for an equally excellent fanfic (The Longest Night) set in a greenhouse.

Art for Reawakening - a delightful gifset illustrating the visitors to Severus' bedside illustrating the fic of the same title

What a good ending to last year and start to this one!

Title: Home, adrift
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 9597
Characters and/or Pairings: this is mostly a story about Severus and his father, but there is Severus Snape/Minerva McGonagall, past Severus Snape/Lucius Malfoy, Tobias Snape/Eileen Prince

Summary: Professor Snape was dead, and Severus was alone. He did not mind. He was adrift, unmoored. It was difficult to feel professorial in Cokeworth. It was difficult to feel anything but out of place. Not that he had ever fitted in. He walked up and down the high street for hours, not even getting suspicious looks from the other people. This was not an area where grown men in funny clothes walking up and down high street aimlessly in the middle of the day got funny looks. This was not the kind of place where people looked at one another at all.

Author's Notes: I did a thing. There were several things floating around my mind when writing this. Mostly how I think it is unfair that working class fathers seem to be portrayed as violent substance abusers more than middle class parents, and the fact that I can see Severus having developed his precocious and excellent Occlumency skills early on as a defence mechanism when dealing with an abusive Legilimens. Also how much of Severus's life is spent doing what other people tell him to. So, this happened. Thanks so much Crocky, for bearing with me.

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Title: Ghosts.
Characters: Lily Evans, Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Dougal McGregor.
Rating: G.
Credits: Lily by ~Gracies-Stock and Dougal by ~Johnny-Yong, texture by `cloaks, grass and flowers by !ro-stock. 
Summary: Sometimes, if the light was right, in the hours around dawn, they almost seemed close enough to touch.
A/N:  Severus and Minerva being haunted by the ghosts of their past - Lily and Dougal. Loved ones who died remain a part of you, and navigating a relationship around those still half-with you must be pretty challenging. Yes, I caved in and did something Pottermore-backstory-related and kitschily indulgent. Apologies! 



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This is a fairly unorganised collection of really great SSMM pieces I really like, and mostly a calicogoat fanpost. Some of them are quite old and you've probably seen them all already, I'm also not very articulate in my fondness for these amazing pieces and they deserve a better introduction than my uncoordinated squeeing, but they're all worth checking out. 

( One: Duellers )

( Two: Losses )

( Three: Lovers. By ~Calicogoat.  )

Also noteworthy is ~hellanim's  beautiful 12 Pictures from Snape's Life in beautiful monochromes with a dash of red and ~calicogoat's Flight of the Goldfinch which has Minerva and Severus battling a dragon on a flying machine and what could be more awesome than that?

I've decided to do a backdated pic-dump post with my ventures in April. Mostly for me, should I make some progress in the future and should wish to look back, and because this new hobby consumed some of my time in the first half of 2010.

( So. Quick sketches and more detailed attempts at stuff. )

Title: Gone.
Artist: mothwing .
Rating: G.
Notes: an illustration of Crockywock's wonderful fanfics The Prince's Tale and The Silver Cat.
Summary: After Voldemort's defeat, Severus is released from both his debt and also from his connection to Lily, which is driven home by the fact that his patronus changed with his feelings for Minerva. The loss of his old patronus as well as the meaning of the new one cause very mixed feelings.

Click for full view.



This is also the first time that I drew both humans and animals without any kind of reference, not even the trusted artist's dummy. I also practised doing rooms here, and I'm quite happy with how they turned out. Severus' face and expression, on the other hand, really still need some work. I'm rather happy with the cat, though, even though I consciously avoided doing fur, because my attempts at following Jab's pointers were pretty catastrophic and need some more work.

I like hands. I couldn't draw hands. So I drew hands. So now I can draw hands.

This is another cheesy one, Severus about to die, Lily's ghostly hand reaching out, but him being saved by Minerva who actually makes sure whether people are dead and knows her first aid spells.

It's fairly embarrassing to admit, but usually when I try drawing people and mean business I take Rebecca's wooden figure, put it in the position I want it in, take a photo, put that in a background layer and paint my human over that. ~Professional~, I know. Yesterday I tried painting without my anatomy reference. Behold. I think I'll stick to silhouettes for a while, they're fun.

So things aren't going too great with my exam preparations and I'm scared stiff (lack of concentration being a major factor here - I blame the meds), but at least I discovered what I think are good hues to use for skin colours. I realise her nose is weird, her shoulders are broader than my bishie!Severus' (because I can't do human anatomy), and the background shows that I ran out of patience and motivation, but I'm new to this stuff, and considering that I last seriously drew something in 2001 before the dog and the dragon the other day I'm hugely inflated with pride here.



Another thing that has me in raptures today was reading through isurrendered , which everybody needs in their lives and ought to consider watching. It's a community which this meme spawned:

"THE MEME
1. Comment to this post with "I surrender!" and I'll assign you the basis of some TV show idea. (Science fiction show, medical drama, criminal procedure, etc...)
2. Create a cast of characters, including the actors who'd play them
3. Add in any actor photos, character bios and show synopsis that you want.
4. Post to your own journal this community!"

The submissions are all so awesome I'm sad they don't exist IRL - they have the most interesting plots, great characters, surprisingly gender- and race-balanced casts and seem to have spawned their own fandoms and fanfics already. I might go back and do recs for individual shows on there, but everybody needs to check this out for themselves, anyway.