First Rec! Harry/Snape epic slash...
Sep. 29th, 2007 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miss_princeThis will undoubtedly be primarily a femslash journal, but I admit that many of the fics that have made a lasting impression on me are, in fact, slash.
So I proudly present to you my first Uber-Rec:
The Tea Series by Telanu
A Harry/Snape epic, taking place from Harry's fifth though seventh years
My History with this Fic
This is quite possibly the very first piece of slash fanfiction I ever read, way back when I first discovered fanfiction. At that point I was fairly young, and only the first three parts of this recently finished seven-part series were complete. Harry Potter was my first fandom, but I remained in it only for a year or so in the gap between GoF and OotP, and I didn't return until after reading DH. In the meantime, those three longish one-shots had grown into an epic, and though I loved a number of terrible fics in my younger days, this one truly stood the test of time for me.
Telanu, incidentally, is an author with whom I've had unique experience over the years. I meandered oddly through various fandoms, but every once in a while, I'd find another noteworthy fic, look at the author, and find it to be Telanu. This wouldn't be so strange if it hadn't occurred after such long intervals with such disparate fandoms. Harry Potter slash, then, some time later, Teen Titans femslash, and later still Sherlock Holmes slash. It feels rather like coming home every time it happens.
The Story
First, a little discussion of the plot. The first, and shortest, installment takes place during Harry's third year. Snape talks with Dumbledore and it is revealed that he cares about Harry. The second and third take place during Harry's fifth year, and deal with the discovery of their mutual attraction. They feature an angry Harry whose characterization, though the fic was written just post-GoF, falls surprisingly in line with OotP Harry. At the end there is a tangle with Voldemort, and Snape's cover is blown.
The fourth book is where the series really starts to get solid, with Harry and Snape exchanging letters over the summer - but by far the best part of the series is the fifth, A Wizard Song, which is a novel in itself. Harry deals with keeping up a relationship with Snape whilst lying to his friends (and everyone else, for that matter). Secrets keep piling on top of each other until Harry can hardly stand it, while an evil greater than even Voldemort is unwittingly unleashed.
The sixth book is the next summer, which Harry spends with Sirius, and the seventh takes place during Harry's final year at Hogwarts. I won't go into greater detail because the events of these books build directly off the events of A Wizard Song. These are also very good, and provide some interesting insight.
Why I Recommend It
Overall, I like the unique plot and the depth of the story. Also, the tone. I found, when reading the actual Harry Potter series, that the first four books had one tone, and the last three another. These stories get darker, but there is a distinct sense of the feel from the early books which I really enjoyed.
Now, A Wizard Song really sells this series. It reads uncannily like an extension of JKR's world (with more sex, of course), and it owes a lot of that to the fact that it is told firmly from Harry's viewpoint. Telanu takes time with the various aspects of a first sexual relationship, which is notable because so few writers bother to do so. This fic also introduces two potentially squicky pairings, one slash and one femslash, the first of which squicks Harry as well, the second of which is handled so subtly and tactfully that it is, in fact, adorable. It has made me love a pairing which does not exist at all outside of this fic.
The last two installments take the story in a very different direction than canon, and the sort of struggle Harry goes through, fighting his own darker urges, is quite unique. The climax is fairly satisfying, and the way Harry deals with Voldemort is very different. It wraps up without all problems being solved, but it is clear Harry will deal with them in the future, and the ending is in an appropriate place.
So there you have it. This is a classic of the Snape/Harry pairing, with an engaging and complicated plot, an effort at dealing with a student-teacher relationship and a virginal Harry that is leaps and bounds beyond what most authors attempt, and a number of surprising twists. It's a wonderful alternate version of Harry Potter's story.
So I proudly present to you my first Uber-Rec:
The Tea Series by Telanu
A Harry/Snape epic, taking place from Harry's fifth though seventh years
My History with this Fic
This is quite possibly the very first piece of slash fanfiction I ever read, way back when I first discovered fanfiction. At that point I was fairly young, and only the first three parts of this recently finished seven-part series were complete. Harry Potter was my first fandom, but I remained in it only for a year or so in the gap between GoF and OotP, and I didn't return until after reading DH. In the meantime, those three longish one-shots had grown into an epic, and though I loved a number of terrible fics in my younger days, this one truly stood the test of time for me.
Telanu, incidentally, is an author with whom I've had unique experience over the years. I meandered oddly through various fandoms, but every once in a while, I'd find another noteworthy fic, look at the author, and find it to be Telanu. This wouldn't be so strange if it hadn't occurred after such long intervals with such disparate fandoms. Harry Potter slash, then, some time later, Teen Titans femslash, and later still Sherlock Holmes slash. It feels rather like coming home every time it happens.
The Story
First, a little discussion of the plot. The first, and shortest, installment takes place during Harry's third year. Snape talks with Dumbledore and it is revealed that he cares about Harry. The second and third take place during Harry's fifth year, and deal with the discovery of their mutual attraction. They feature an angry Harry whose characterization, though the fic was written just post-GoF, falls surprisingly in line with OotP Harry. At the end there is a tangle with Voldemort, and Snape's cover is blown.
The fourth book is where the series really starts to get solid, with Harry and Snape exchanging letters over the summer - but by far the best part of the series is the fifth, A Wizard Song, which is a novel in itself. Harry deals with keeping up a relationship with Snape whilst lying to his friends (and everyone else, for that matter). Secrets keep piling on top of each other until Harry can hardly stand it, while an evil greater than even Voldemort is unwittingly unleashed.
The sixth book is the next summer, which Harry spends with Sirius, and the seventh takes place during Harry's final year at Hogwarts. I won't go into greater detail because the events of these books build directly off the events of A Wizard Song. These are also very good, and provide some interesting insight.
Why I Recommend It
Overall, I like the unique plot and the depth of the story. Also, the tone. I found, when reading the actual Harry Potter series, that the first four books had one tone, and the last three another. These stories get darker, but there is a distinct sense of the feel from the early books which I really enjoyed.
Now, A Wizard Song really sells this series. It reads uncannily like an extension of JKR's world (with more sex, of course), and it owes a lot of that to the fact that it is told firmly from Harry's viewpoint. Telanu takes time with the various aspects of a first sexual relationship, which is notable because so few writers bother to do so. This fic also introduces two potentially squicky pairings, one slash and one femslash, the first of which squicks Harry as well, the second of which is handled so subtly and tactfully that it is, in fact, adorable. It has made me love a pairing which does not exist at all outside of this fic.
The last two installments take the story in a very different direction than canon, and the sort of struggle Harry goes through, fighting his own darker urges, is quite unique. The climax is fairly satisfying, and the way Harry deals with Voldemort is very different. It wraps up without all problems being solved, but it is clear Harry will deal with them in the future, and the ending is in an appropriate place.
So there you have it. This is a classic of the Snape/Harry pairing, with an engaging and complicated plot, an effort at dealing with a student-teacher relationship and a virginal Harry that is leaps and bounds beyond what most authors attempt, and a number of surprising twists. It's a wonderful alternate version of Harry Potter's story.
