Snape After Snape After Snape: Harry/Snape in Classic Fanon Novels
By regan_v

When I first discovered HP fanfics, it was like being dropped into a vat of chocolate. The sheer quantity of HP fan fiction available is just staggering, and although much of what is published online is not of great quality (this is true for any genre), even the 5% that is outstanding is a large number of stories, in absolute terms. I like Snape/Harry stories the best of all, and was thrilled to see what a banquet was laid before me.



Since I “came late” to well-known Snape/Harry stories like Sushi’s “Civil War-verse” stories (on the Master List of the snarry_reader, like the other novels I refer to here), I had the advantage of reading them at one gulp, not in chunks and pieces. This made it easier for me to see the forest for the trees, since I could evaluate the most prolific slash writers’ stories holistically, as substantial bodies of work. And I’m fascinated by some of the recurring motifs or problems that are there in all the major HP fan novels, the ones that have become “canonical” in fandom in their own right. I’d like here to compare how certain themes or characters---especially Severus Snape---are handled in four of the most important HP fan slash novels: Telanu’s “Tea” stories; Sushi’s “Civil War” series; Cybele’s “If You Are Prepared” novels; and Icarus’s “Primer to the Dark Arts.”

Disclaimer: I want to make it clear from the start that my discussion of these works should NOT be taken as a criticism of these authors. They have accomplished something, after all, that I have not: they have each gifted us with a fully realized, unique vision of the HP universe. I was hypnotized while reading each of these novels, glued to the screen, scrolling down in suspense, ignoring the growing discomfort in my back (and the pleas of my family to LOG OFF and rejoin them!). Each of these series is good fiction: they are so much better crafted than many of the SF series for sale at my local Barnes and Noble that it makes me sad to know that these authors can never make a penny off their art. My discussion/review of these works is intended as a tribute, and as my own way to “give back” a little, by offering an analysis of commonalities and trends I see in these novels.

Snape Redux

Although HP fanfics offer a breathtaking smorgasbord of pairings to suit any taste---up to and including sexual congress with Dementors and the giant squid---any newcomer to HP online notices quickly that Severus Snape is the focus of more erotic stories than any other single HP character. His importance in fanfics is indeed incomparably greater than his role in the actual canon. Slash fanfics in particular tend to focus on Snape in a way that reminds me of the dominance of Spock in classic Star Trek fandom. Snape is most often paired with Harry, of course (although Harry is also and often paired with Draco Malfoy in slash fandom). The major slash fanfic works considered here all focus on a Severus/Harry pairing, as do the three other well-known slash HP novels that I chose not to include in this essay: Jade’s “Compromising Positions,” Midnight Blue’s “The Mirror of Maybe,” and Minx’s “Lost Feeling” series (although Minx’s stories also emphasize the Sirius/Remus pairing, as well).

One of the strengths of all four of these authors is that although they envision Snape rather differently, none of them fall into the trap (as I see it) of presenting Snape as a hero in the mold of Charlotte Bronte’s character, Mr. Rochester, who set the standard for dark, haunted leads in gothic romances. It’s easy to see why many fans perceive Snape through this prism: like a gothic romance hero, he has dark coloring, seems to suffer from a great deal of anger and unhappiness, and has a terrible secret in his background. The tendency to see him as a gothic hero a la Rochester (or worse yet, as Heathcliffe) was probably only reinforced by Alan Rickman’s film portrayal, which showed Snape (contra canon) dressed in a distinctly 19th century costume. I myself prefer works that present Snape in ways that clearly develop off of canon!Snape---or at the very least do not contradict what we have been told about Snape in JKR’s books---and GothicRomance!Snape is incompatible with canon. Even worse: he’s boring. junediamanti offers a lucid and detailed analysis of what we know about canon!Snape’s background and discusses the ways in which many fanfic Snapes fall into the Gothic Romance trap (or other flagrant errors of fact) in this essay; I cannot improve on her summary.

One drawback to GothicRomance!Snape is that he cannot be developed into a complex character, since gothic heroes will be rather predictable to most of us, by now. And the slash HP authors discussed here seem to know this, since their Snapes are, to a man, much less stereotypical. The Snapes in the earlier works---particularly in the “Civil War” series and IYAP, but also in the “Tea” stories---however, are striking (to a newcomer) for how much angst and internal conflict that they seem to suffer from. These authors can all write humorous SS/HP pieces, to be sure: each of them has posted short stories on this pairing that are fall-off-your-chair funny. But in their major novels, these Snapes are lonely souls; each character is unable to connect with others although he'd like to, and doesn’t seem to have a friend in the world nor any previous satisfactory romantic history.

In the “Tea,” “Civil War,” and IYAP stories, Snape’s angst is particularly expressed in the conflict he feels about his attraction to Harry, and how hard and long he struggles against taking Harry to bed. In all three of these works, Snape’s resistance is such that Harry is obliged to insist on having sex: indeed, the IYAP Harry had to force the issue so persistently (cornering Snape in the bathroom) that I was surprised. IYAP Snape is then further “absolved” for having sleeping with Harry, because Harry is raped by Death Eaters shortly thereafter, and both he and Snape reflect on what a good thing it was that Snape took Harry’s virginity before the Death Eaters got there.

In IYAP and the “Tea” stories, Snape’s resistance is more understandable because he has been struggling against his attraction to Harry for a longer period (certainly, since before Harry was 16). The younger Harry was when Snape first noticed his attraction, then of course the more hesitation he is likely to have felt; furthermore, Snape then faces the problem of resolving when, exactly, will Harry be old enough (the authors both choose 16, the legal age of consent, of course). In the “Civil War” and “Primer to the Dark Arts” novels, Snape first becomes aware of Harry sexually in Harry’s last year at school (when he is 17), which does make a difference. In these two stories, Snape therefore has less hesitation about sleeping with Harry, and is seduced by Harry on his first attempt. Indeed, Icarus’s Snape has no hesitation or remorse at all (having long accepted his desire for Harry), but prudently allows Harry to commit himself unambiguously first (by kissing Snape), probably in order to minimize the risk to his own career.

Of all four Snapes, the ones in IYAP and the “Civil War-verse” are the most lonely and conflicted, and have the greatest difficulties in connecting with others. Because Snape is so emotionally scarred and isolated, Harry in these two stories is obliged to do more of the “relationship work, “ making sure that the relationship (once begun) continues, and taking the risk of expressing his feelings for Snape more openly than Snape can. In these two stories, Snape is clearly shown as being rather fond of Harry, deep down, and sympathetic towards him; but Snape cannot express these feelings. Instead, Harry has to intuit this on his own, and rely on a faith (whose roots were mysterious, to me) that his affections for Snape will be reciprocated, if only he can break down Snape’s barriers. The Snape in Telanu’s “Tea” series seems, by contrast, to accept what he feels and what he’s done, once he has actually slept with Harry (acknowledging to himself that “what’s done is done”). He stops torturing himself, and becomes primarily concerned with avoiding exposure. Of course, it helps that he is the only Snape to have Dumbledore’s tacit approval.

At some points, I felt that Snape’s angst and resistance to Harry’s advances in the first three stories was almost too great to be persuasive. In the real world, faculty members who are not even former Death Eaters have been sometimes known to seduce teenage students, or to allow themselves to be seduced. Certainly, an affair between a teacher and a 7th year student wouldn’t stun many instructors (although they would certainly condemn it). And we know from canon that Snape is hardly a pillar of rectitude. He spent years among Death Eaters (and grew up in the morally more ambiguous Slytherin milieu), and no doubt participated in a number of serious crimes. He has now turned away from that milieu, but this doesn’t mean that he’s now embraced a Victorian worldview, by any means. I have a hard time believing that a character who has Snape’s history, and who has made the choices that Snape has made, would feel such overwhelming shame and disgust at the idea of sleeping with a 16 or 17-year-old student (as long as it was entirely consensual). He would, of course, take great care to avoid exposure and the loss of his position. But this does not mean that he’d experience all the reluctance and self-loathing that we see in some of these stories.

And yet, the earlier major slash novels lay on the angst pretty thickly, and Severus’s inner doubts about his right to have a relationship with Harry form a big part of that. The most angsty series is IYAP (although “Civil War-verse” runs a close second). And the writing style of IYAP is a big part of why the sorrow is so overwhelming to the reader: compared to the other series, IYAP contains lengthy stretches of pure dialogue, along with each character’s internal emotional reaction to what has just been said. Scrolling down through IYAP, I was struck by how much of it is dialogue, compared to descriptive prose or exposition.

The shifting POV, which takes us inside both Harry’s and Snape’s heads, allows us to see what both characters are feeling during each interaction; the way that their internal reactions are explicitly “unpacked” for the reader, combined with the lengthy dialogues, bares their emotions. And since those emotions are often conflicted, angry, or tormented, Cybele is able to evoke very powerful emotional reactions from her readers.

The “Civil War” stories, however, give IYAP a close run for its money, in terms of evoking angst and sorrow. Snape is wasting away here, although his death is not as presented as inevitable (as it is for IYAP’s Harry). The “Civil War” series also does interesting things with shifting POVs, but one of the strengths of this series is that there is a very fleshed-out backstory (going back generations, for Snape’s family). Sushi was also one of the first people to really think about how magic---and magical “technologies,” like photographs and pensieves---might be integrated into daily life in the wizarding world.

Both the “Civil War” and IYAP stories are, at heart, so strongly focused on the HP/SS pairing that emotional dialogue, the charged sex that flows out of these interactions, and each character’s POV dominate the stories. They are less concerned with evoking settings, or telling us about the social world that Snape and Harry live in. These latter aspects are the strengths of the “Tea” stories and “Primer for the Dark Arts.” In both of these stories, we get detailed, memorable descriptions of physical settings (for example, how the Great Hall was decorated for the Valentine’s Ball in “A Wizard’s Song,“ or the clearing in the Forbidden Forest where Snape teaches Harry Dark magic in the “Primer” series). The “Tea” series is also very strong at fleshing out the social structures of the wizarding world, offering rich descriptions of social norms, the impact of the press, and recreation in the wizarding world (balls, bands, holidays, etc.).

Between them, the first three major slash HP novels (“Tea,” “Civil War” and IYAP) did such a complete job of ringing every change and exploring every nuance of the angst! HP/SS pairing that it seems as if there is little more to be said on that topic (for me, at least). So, it’s probably not surprising that the most recent major slash novel, “Primer to the Dark Arts,“ turns away from this problem entirely. Since Angst!Snape has been fully realized by previous authors, Icarus offers us something rather different.

Her Snape actually likes himself, as far as we can tell. He is Dark, but not evil: and he seems to prefer himself that way. He is content to be emotionally self-sufficient, and comfortable with moral ambiguity. And he's not tortured by an honor code created by others that he can't live up to. Because of this, there is little angst. Thus, there is little discussion between Harry and Severus here about the fact that they must keep their sexual relationship a secret. That’s pretty much taken for granted between them, and there are no lengthy, anxious discussions about how to keep the “secret.”

Rather, the “Primer” stories are largely erotic and romantic (although never sentimental) and somewhat philosophical, exploring why and when Dark magic might be evil. “Primer” is in part an examination of situational ethics in the wizarding world. And the moral ambiguities that are explored here lead to very complex and powerful erotic relationships. This Snape has created his own rules and choices, which allows him to deal effectively with (and take care of) students and colleagues who are themselves morally ambiguous, including Harry himself.

The “Primer” Harry is NOT really an innocent, unlike the other stories’ Harry. Since he has no “innocence” for Snape to agonize over “taking,” this contributes to the fact that the story is less angsty. The other three novels discussed here all stress heavily that Harry was a virgin when he came to Snape; in IYAP and “Civil War” especially, Harry has a real innocence and sweetness to him. And in the “Tea” stories, it seems very important to Snape that Harry comes to him untouched by others. The “Primer” Harry, by contrast, has prior sexual experience, and this Snape obviously prefers it that way. The “Primer” Harry is really the most persuasively-realized 17 year old in the bunch (in my eyes): he is sometimes naïve, often inarticulate, and awkward, but not innocent.

Perhaps he didn’t need to be. Once something has been done almost perfectly, it hardly needs repetition. And the earlier major HP fanfic novels present wonderful tortured Snapes and innocent Harries. The whole field has clearly covered a lot more ground since then, and now Snape has a variety of more peer-like, complex relationships with other adults his age. But apparently, Harry was his first. And in these stories, the SS/HP first times were sweet, hot, and (in the first three) angsty. And they’re all very memorable, as first-times should be.