MMLF's Challenge Responses
My responses to AlwaysSnape challenges!
Challenge 04: Snape's Unpopular Opinion
Characters/Pairings: Snape, Mulciber, Avery, Slytherin students
Rating/Warnings: None
Summary: Snape voices an unpopular opinion in the Slytherin common room
Severus Snape was lounging in a comfy chair, making a tower from Exploding Snap cards. His face was lit by acid green light coming from the Slytherin common room's fireplace, his ears full of murmurs from fellow students.
"Well, Severus?" said Mulciber, chomping on gum, "think you'll try out for the Quidditch team this year? Got the build, haven't you?"
"No."
The murmuring turned to groans.
"Come on, Severus. Think of it, you on a broom against Potter. Catching the Snitch and making that bespectacled twit faceplant in the mud. Do our house proud, you would."
Severus cracked a smile. Very tempting. But there was just one problem.
"I can't say I'm a fan of Quidditch."
The murmurs turned to silence. All Severus could hear was Mulciber chomp, chomp, chomping on his gum. Clearly, he had said the wrong thing.
"Not a fan of..." Mulciber couldn't finish. Avery, who had been trying to decapitate a king from his chess set, gaped.
"But Severus," said a Sixth Year, "it's Quidditch. Even a mug like Potter can get famous from it!"
That was precisely why Severus despised it. But he realised now that he was treading on dangerous ground. Already, he faced a barrage of questions about his continued friendship with 'that Muggleborn redhead'. Now, a dislike of Quidditch?
He smiled again. "Fooled you."
The Slytherins chuckled and patted his shoulder. They suddenly claimed that they'd always known he was joking. No sane person disliked Quidditch. Mulciber called him a 'right old laugh', and Avery called him 'calmly hilarious'.
But when everyone finally lost interest, Severus stopped smiling.
Challenge 02: Snape's Favourite Meal
Characters/Pairings: Snape, Lily Evans
Rating/Warnings: None
Summary: Snape's favourite meal
Fish and chips.
Three words of delight. Fish and chips. The oil, the batter, the crusty burnt ends of the potatoes, the puddle of mushy peas, the rustle of newspapers containing it all... Fish and chips.
Severus Snape would press his nose to the glass of Cokeworth's Fish and Chips bar and exhale as though expelling all the hunger and desire from his body. He would note the regulars shuffling in: the unfortunately named Bob Murderton from down the road, crazy old Gladys Winterton, who was always in the middle of a council dispute, and the Higley children yelling for cod.
Even outside, Severus could hear the clinking of spare coins being tossed on the counter, the crunching sound of newspaper, and the spitting oil from the frying pans.
And he could smell everything too.
Oh, the smell.
It made his eyes water and his stomach growl. It made his hands twitch and his arms shake. It made him want to dash inside and demand the biggest portion of battered cod with a mountain of chips and mushy peas, and everything!
But he had no money.
"Severus?"
He jumped and found Lily Evans standing behind him. She was wrapped in a scarf, but her nose was pink. Soft waves of red hair flew gently around her face.
"Hungry?"
"No. Just looking."
Lily smiled. "Mum's making fish and chips tonight too."
"Oh."
"Well?" She was laughing now. "Come on! Promise it will be the best you've ever tasted."
And it was.
That was perfection. I'm just glad I ordered lunch before I read it! 😂
Challenge 08: Snape's Secret Ally
Characters/Pairings: Cho Chang, Professor Snape
Rating/Warnings: None
Summary: Snape's secret ally
Another Potions lesson. Cho Chang couldn't stop smiling as she stumbled downstairs to Professor Snape's dungeons. Numerous delights awaited her. Vials, tubes, and conical flasks full of liquids that made her eyes bulge. Liquid amber for preserving spiders and beetles. Bromides the colour of rust, sulfates the colour of pus, essences with no colour, and enticing poisons with many.
The cauldrons would already be hissing and bubbling on each desk, releasing the most enchanting odours. Lily of the valley, freshly cut grass, mint, damp earth, cinnamon, and more.
Cho loved Professor Snape's blackboard, which he adorned with strange new words, complicated lists and formulas. She loved how the chalk would squeak and how fine white powder slid down the board, often landing on Professor Snape's black robes. She loved hearing everyone's quills scratch parchment as her fellow Second-Years copied instructions for fear of detention.
But Cho Chang had no fear of detention.
As far as she could see, the professor only punished slackers. In fact, she thought he took it as a personal insult if a pupil didn't appreciate the science of preparation and mixing or see the beauty of shimmering fumes. Given the work he put into preparing their lessons, she could hardly sympathise with lazy Second-Years.
Not a single Ravenclaw misbehaved, of course, but Professor Snape had nonetheless warned them and the Hufflepuffs about Gryffindor's ineptitude. Detentions, detentions, detentions. Everyone got the message.
Of course, Cho had also seen Slytherins turning cauldrons into twisted iron lumps and accidentally giving themselves boils. The Hufflepuffs and her fellow Ravenclaws would angrily point this out, but only when Professor Snape couldn't hear.
So he was biased towards his own house. But was that so bad? Ravenclaws were by far the most intelligent and Hufflepuffs worked the hardest, yet Gryffindor stole the glory last year. Perhaps it helped to have a professor who didn't toe the line, one who thought for himself. One who had clearly devoted himself to his subject and received very little credit in return.
Some whispered that Professor Snape was a traitor, merely biding his time before You-Know-Who returned. But You-Know-Who was dead-- or close to it. Of course, there had been that scandal over Professor Quirrell last year, and people insisted that Professor Snape was the true culprit. But Cho didn't believe that, either.
Would Professor Snape be stupid enough to work for You-Know-Who right under Dumbledore's nose? Dumbledore, the only wizard that You-Know-Who ever feared? Nonsense. If Dumbledore trusted the professor with hundreds of small children, teaching them complex and even dangerous potions, he couldn't be a spy.
So Cho ignored the whisperers.
The dungeon door creaked open, and Professor Snape seemed to float out of it. As usual, he was frowning.
"Inside," he said.
Cho smiled again. Today's lesson would be good.
Damn, Snape & Cho would be a very rare pairing. I would read a full fic with that scenario, this is really good.
I absolutely loved this! Nice choice on the character and her reasons for admiration… makes sense that a proper Ravenclaw would understand/appreciate him much more than one of those lazy Gryffindors. 😉
PS – Are you posting these on any of the fanfiction sites? If not, you should.
Quote from Heatherlly on March 19, 2023, 11:26 amI absolutely loved this! Nice choice on the character and her reasons for admiration… makes sense that a proper Ravenclaw would understand/appreciate him much more than one of those lazy Gryffindors.
PS – Are you posting these on any of the fanfiction sites? If not, you should.
Agreed, I've loved everything written so far.
Challenge 17: Bookworm
Characters/Pairings: Severus Snape
Rating/Warnings: None
Summary: Bookworm
Severus Snape found the book quite by accident. He was trudging down Spinner's Lane in his usual smock, with pennies jangling in his pocket, thinking of roast turkey. The sunlight was blistering, making his neck stick to the stiff black cloth and trails of sweat ran down his forehead.
As he passed number 56, he accidentally kicked a wickerwork basket. Free Books, said the tattered paper inside, covering a stack of well-worn titles. Nothing magical, of course. Nobody else here had his powers.
Then he saw The Secret Garden.
Just the title alone made him reach for it. Secret. It was mauve, the title written in yellow print, and it had a picture of a little girl opening a door. Severus glanced up and down the road; though the paper offered the books for free, he had often been chased away from people's doors as though he were a vagrant.
It couldn't be magic, because Muggles knew nothing of it. But as Severus crept back inside his own house, stepped around his father snoring on the floor, and retreated to his bedroom, he could feel the book calling to him. A secret garden meant escape, his deepest dream for years.
But the book did more than just offer escape. Severus read of the petulant Mary Lennox, her rudeness, her disdain for her Indian servants, yet each unpleasant quality only invoked Snape's guilt and empathy. It was as though he could provide an understandable explanation for each fault, reading in Mary's defects the broken fragments of his own life.
A girl whose mother hadn't wanted her, considered her a pain, and lived only for self-indulgence. Her sudden orphanhood. A distant uncle plagued by grief, segregated from reality. A young boy paralysed by imaginary fear and incapable of reason.
The sun was setting outside by the time Severus had reached the end with trembling fingers. A story of hope, where Mary Lennox found friends through her passion for reviving Mr. Craven's secret garden. Where little Colin Craven stopped fearing the outside world and became whole again. Even Mr. Craven could move past the shadows of his grief and recognise how much he had neglected life by fixating on death.
By the time Severus finished, he was silent. Tears stung his eyes. It was just a Muggle book, he thought, but the words held none of their usual bitterness. Somehow Mary Lennox, Colin Craven, Dickon, Martha, Ben Weatherstaff, Misselthwaite Manor, and the Yorkshire moors had crept into his soul. He pictured himself bounding on the moors, tending to crocuses, eating wholesome food, watching squirrels jump and crack nuts...
Being free.
He pushed the book under his pillow and lay down, staring up at the ceiling with its cracks and cobwebs.
One day, he would find his own secret garden.
One day.
Snape you've got a Secret garden of your own, this website 😺.
