Quote from Heatherlly on January 3, 2024, 5:06 am

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Hi! 

Thanks for the opportunity to be here. And before I start: beware the long, convoluted sentences. I love rambling. 

I'm Serena, a mid-20s medical student of Asian origin situated in Germany. Since I love procrastinating my studies, my following hobbies section will be… rather long.

In my spare time, I love doing music - I'm a classically-sorta-trained flautist, I can’t live without singing, and am dabbling in composition / songwriting / arranging and choir direction. 

I love reading, and also write poetry and fanfics. I have one (soon to be more) very short original story published in my uni's literary magazine of which I've become one of the editors a few months ago. 

I do some hand lettering, the only visual art form which I can pretend to be somewhat skilled in.

Hm. I feel like few of my writing-related / artistic / musical goings-on do not have at least one fandom component - more about that later, I guess, and I think I really have fandom to thank for keeping me motivated to get back into creativity time and again, and to push my creative boundaries.

Apart from these, I like trying out some obscure / exotic stuff in terms of hobbies:

For the semi-exotic, I have a  black belt in Taekwon-Do (Korean martial art) which I've done for over a decade - though I wouldn't know how much of it is still there since I haven't practiced it in a while. 

I do dragon boat paddling - simplified, 10+ people sit in two rows in a long, long canoe-like boat (that has a dragon head mounted on it for festive occasions, hence the name) and synchronize their paddling so that it all looks like a locomotive on the water. Look for gifs or videos of dragon boat paddling if you're curious, I think it looks quite impressive.

I also do Irish Dance! And, because I've been asked that quite often: it has both a soft shoe component (with a special type of flat not-quite-slippers sometimes called pumps), and a hard shoe component (with the clickity blocks both at the toes and the heels of the shoes). Even though I'm still an utter bloody noob, I've been having enough fun and motivation to stick with it even though that means being on the road for two hours each week to attend training in the next larger city for almost a year now - how time flies!

And, this is not quite a hobby, but I found myself liking to teach whatever studies / hobbies I happen to chat about. Maybe something will come out of it, maybe not. Who knows?

— Those are the things that stick out the most, for me. Think that should be enough for now. XD 

How did you discover Snape? What was it that first drew you to him?

I started off my fanfic journey with random HP fanfics I stumbled across on the internet - fanfiction.net to be precise (seeing as, for some reason, I turned out a bit of a canon fanatic for Doctor Who, and thus actively avoided fanfics…) I digress. 

Either way, I fell into HP fanfics, and soon found myself having a taste for Severitus fics. And thus, my fascination with Snape was born. (Although, now that I think about it, even before my Severitus phase, fics that cast Snape as the bad guy or that had him die were not… my personal favorites, but it's become extreme, really. I want a happy ending for my boys XD). 

Seeing as I was (and still am) going through a bit of a hard time, Snape has  become a figure who is very… relatable, understandable and awakened a lot of empathy in me. The images of the poor outcast, the perfectionist, the repentant sinner, all of the above portray a character who is both flawed and deeply good and who, I believe, comes to realize that he never has the chance to meet his own moral standards. He became a figure? A concept, perhaps? who offers (covert) guidance and protection even under the most impossible circumstances. 

Giving this character the chance to both give and receive peace was something I needed (still do) to prove to myself that perhaps the world will be okay, one day. 

(Okay, all that sounds really dramatic, but I guess that's how I psychologise it.)

What do you enjoy most about the Snape fandom?

I'm regularly astounded by the sheer number of capable (I avoid saying 'talented', for reasons) creators in Snapedom. The skill behind the writing and art is most often exceptional, not to mention all those kind people. I think I have yet to meet a Snape fan who's made me feel uncomfortable around them. [The same might not be said for the reverse, though.] The closeness of this fandom that I've nonetheless seen to be very welcoming to new members makes me feel like it's being in a big family, really. 

And the fact that people are so quick to help each other out with encouragement, bouncing off ideas, beta-reading (or listening), …

Wow. I'm truly grateful to be part of this.

What are your favorite Snape related tropes, themes, and pairings?

I love both Severitus and Snarry - since I mostly want Severus and Harry to be happy together, don't care whether in platonic or romantic form. Since I do avoid mixing the two "ships", here my trope lists with some explanations:

Severitus: 

• Biological Father Snape: I just really, really like both possibilities of how this can go - both the biological connection facilitating their realization of how similar they are, and them having to work for a good relationship regardless of their biological connection.
• Snape-meets-Dursleys: This is the Potions and Snitches (Severitus Archive) way of saying Severus sees how Harry is treated at the Dursleys', and consequently rescues Harry and begins to empathise with him. Basically, I love the scenario of 'What if Snape had / could have reacted to Harry's being abused?' (I do also appreciate Silent Protector Snape, but that ends too often with Severus' canonical death which I would rather like to avoid, thank you very much.)
• Severus has to stop spying: I especially enjoy the iterations where Harry is the one to heal him after that near-death experience, and they build a rapport after that.
• Reverse Severitus: This is a more niche trope where we have a role reversal of Harry being the father figure / platonic mentor to Severus. I enjoy exploring how Severus would have turned out with "proper" guidance, with someone being there for him, especially if that someone is a time-traveller Harry who has already seen Severus' choices and their reasons.

Snarry:

• Post-war: I just can't stand the thought of Snape dying the way he does in canon, plus I avoid writing Underage. Thus, my Snarry fics so far mostly happen after the war.
• Severus fakes his death after the war: I inexplicably like the Severus-fakes-his-death trope. Maybe it's the potential of Severus building up an entirely new life, finally being able to let his past behind him. Maybe it's the pining potential for the both of them, for how can Harry want a dead man, and how could Severus, a "dead" man, want Harry Potter? How could Severus, even if he decides to approach, ever be able to compete against the untouchable ideals of him that Harry has?
• Same-age Snarry: I have one fic where I've started to explore it in the form of a time-travel fic, but I especially like time-travel-ish scenarios where Harry is the slightly more experienced and definitely more war-hardened character of the two (the romantic sibling of the Harry mentors Snape trope, I guess). 

General tropes / genres / specialties in my Snape fics (applicable to both):

• Good Severus: Explanation see above. 
• Soft Severus (at least towards Harry): Especially after some character development, I just love Severus having a sweet spot for Harry. Concurrently, I also like
• Fluff: I just love them having a happy life together.
• Angst: I love angst more than I have any right to do, and Severus is just the perfect character for both physical whumping and emotional angst. You'll find me creating a lot of stuff that is angsty and and/or emotional, but most of it does have a happy or hopeful ending (even if it takes a few miracles to get there). 
• Medically skilled Severus: How would he have survived otherwise for all these years? 
• Snape Lives: Since I'm the author or reader, I go for stories where Severus has something to live for after the war. Hence, he does not die in the Shrieking Shack, period. XD

Do you write fanfiction and/or create artwork? If so, please share a few of your creations with us.

I… do quite a few different types of writing and art, and I'm having trouble narrowing each type down to one work because every work is so different - which I'm glad about!

So, well, I narrowed it down to all in all seven, the magical number, eh? I think the summary of these works represents my current best pretty well.

Fic and poetry: 

For Severitus, I rec: 

1. The Forget Me Not series (M, Severitus-ish, WIP: part 2 of planned 5 in progress)

In which Severus Snape finds out that Harry Potter, presumed dead, has been his son all along; inspired by lesyeuxverts' fic Like poppy and memory.

This series is still ongoing, but I'm especially proud of the sonnet cycle (Ouroboros in Tribute) that I wrote for this universe. I'm really looking forward to having the spoons to finish this one day because I love making my readers cry. 

Please especially heed the warnings/tags on this one. 

For Snarry, I rec: 

1. Wish not for a soul that is full of sin (T, complete, but part of a series that is in progress)

The prologue to the post-war amnesiac!Merman!Severus fairytale AU no one asked for. 

I recommend this especially for it being my best classical music-inspired songfic so far, since I think there can never be enough classical music in HP fandom. 

Plus, this universe will also be more obvious about my medical background (though you can see where it crops up in this fic already, no squinting needed)

1. Promises, promises... (G, complete)

In which Harry is set up on a surprise birthday date with Severus by his (canon) children, and everyone ships Snarry.

I added this work just to show that Yes, I Also Do Fluff!

Podfic:

For podfic, I recommend two Severitus-adjacent podfics I created with two amazing writers for Pod_together:

1. [Fic & Podfic] Surrender (M, Severus & Harry, complete, together with SanctuaryAngel who's also here on AlwaysSnape)

[[summary in spoilers, trigger warning: suicide]

Harry ends his life within the Veil after losing Sirius, and Severus spends every day visiting, wondering if he should follow.]

I decided to put this here because I'm particularly proud of how the soundscape came together. I also rambled a bit on how I fell in love with the background music that I added.

Please especially heed the warnings/tags on this one. 

1. [Fic & Podfic] Reconditioning (T, pre-Severitus, complete, together with BinteMuhammad) 

In which Harry blows up more potions than he plausibly could, Snape grows worried, and Umbridge fuels the fire under the exploding cauldrons by being Umbridge. 

This one is my best so far in terms of voice acting, I think. I had a very fun time podding this at 5 am (because that's the best time for recording podfics where I live) 🙂

Music:

For music, I recommend the following two works: 

1. [Filk] Embers and Soot (G, complete)

An a cappella mashup of Chim Chim Cheree (Mary Poppins) x Once upon a December (Anastasia) x In Noctem (Harry Potter) that I wrote / arranged. 

This is my most recent creation, and I'm really, really proud of this. 18 people contributed 82 parts, in the end, which I all edited together. It was a fair bit of work for just 3 minutes of raw content, but so, so worth it.

And yes, since In Noctem is actually a Snape song, I thought of Severus frequently when creating this.

1. [Filk] Nocturne (G, Snape x OC, complete)
   Flute solo filk (fanmusic), written for EtherealTrail's Snape/Reader fic Remedial Venom.

The fic ticked all my boxes: Victorian Era, thus (late) Romanticism (my favorite music era), Vampire Snape (I found vampires hot before I understood what hot is, okay?), Dark academia (all the mysteriousness!). I couldn't help but write this flute solo piece both inspired by the fic, and as a tribute to my flute education. I can especially recommend the live recording. 

You can also find a lot of bonus content: meta (read: rambling) about what I was thinking when composing this piece, inspiration playlists, spectrogram art, and, of course, cover art.

I'm especially proud of the cover art, to be honest, which is my most complex lettering / calligraphy piece so far. 

For the semi-frequently updated masterlists of my content where everything is sorted according to ship and, if it's not fic, by creation type, please refer to this tumblr post: https://serenaew.tumblr.com/post/713759962545963008/where-to-find-me-and-what-to-find

Is there anything else you’d like to share or promote?

Yes, please!

1. Together with two friends, I'm hosting the Severitus Big Bang 2024, and phase 1 - pitching has begun on January 1st! 

If you want to collaborate with fellow Severitus enthusiasts to create a set of intertwined fanworks for Severitus, here's your opportunity to do so!

Check us out at https://severitus-big-bang.tumblr.com, or on our discord: https://discord.gg/eVeDDvrBKW

I've also got two more challenges running: 

• Play the List! Bingo (@play-the-list-bingo), a cross-fandom music bingo cards challenge (with mostly that bit of classical music that Serena knows)
• Poem of the week (@poem-of-the-week-challenge), a weekly poetry challenge that's currently on hiatus (though there's half a year's worth of poetry forms on there, so enough inspiration to catch up with for a while)

2. If you have talked to me before, or have had a look at my profile, chances are that I have already approached you about creating a Transformative Works policy. 

A fanworks permission statement, also known as transformative works policy, basically tells other fandom people (writers, podficcers, artists etc.) whether they are allowed to create derivative fanworks based on yours. For any art form you can think of, your options would be "yes", "no", and "please ask me first". 

It gives creators who are anxious about reaching out a guideline on whether and how to approach you should they want to create something based on your works. 

Please refer to https://fanworkspermissionstatement.tumblr.com for more detailed explanations, and a "build your own permissions"-template! 

I would love for you to add a transformative works statement to your profile if you feel comfortable doing so!

How can other fans connect with you?

You can find me here: 

• AO3 | fanfiction.net (*) | Potions and Snitches (the Severitus Archive) 
• Always Snape 
• Tumblr | Discord (Serena's Discord server) 
• Dreamwidth (*) | LiveJournal (*) 
• Spotify 
• The Internet Archive (where I host my art and audio)

((*) means I'm not quite active on that platform (anymore))

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