Chivalry

(1) The Guiltless (Harry Potter)

By Branwyn
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 23rd September 2009 (1)
Tags: Novella, AU, Reconciliation, Friendship
Characters: Severus Snape, Harry Potter
(149K)

Summary: When Harry appears at the Welcoming Feast wearing a glamor only Snape notices, Snape decides to find out what the glamor is hiding. His investigation leads to a number of shocking revelations - both about The Boy Who Lived, and about Snape's understanding of himself. Sixth year AU.

I like this. A good proper Harry-Snape reconciliation story where Snape is snarky and tossing multisyllabic insults, and Harry is resigned and defiant in turns, and yet they still manage to come to an understanding. The style was a bit disconcerting at first - I'm not used to third-person present-tense - but I got used to it.

(2) The Poor of God (Harry Potter)

By Branwyn
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 23rd September 2009 (2)
Tags: Novel, AU, Reconciliation, Friendship
Characters: Severus Snape, Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood
(557K)

Summary: After Snape's visit to Surrey, Harry writes a thank-you letter that triggers an extended correspondence and a tentative friendship between the two of them.

I really liked this. Yes, it does have the third-person present-tense of the previous story, but as with that story, one gets used to it. And, yes, the ending was more of an overview, an epilogue; as if the author wanted to satisfy people with what happened next, but didn't want to write another story to do so. So, yes, not perfect, but really good anyway.

This story has awesome Luna as well as more Snape & Harry, with highs, lows, angst, snark, misunderstanding, unexpected insight, unconditional love, self-loathing, injuries, self-revealing nightmares, curses and brushes with death. The characterisation of Snape, Harry and Luna was more than spot-on. There were also flashes of lovely prose.