I don't usually read Snape/OC fics, not because I dislike the concept, but because quite often I find myself reading about someone who is obviously designed to be Snape's perfect partner. They always understand his thoughts and feelings, they never make mistakes or irritate each other, there are no bumps or misunderstandings that will arise between two people who are still learning each other. And I get it; we all want Snape to get that happy ending. But if I'm reading an OC I want to read about the character you crafted -- their history, goals, warts, vulnerabilities, achievements --not what you think would be the perfect partner for Snape.
Now, all of this is subjective, of course. Write what you want to write, but these are just what I personally look for and my reasons.
No Orphans. I usually skip over an OC that is described as an orphan (unless they've got other family members, be it blood family, found family, or adopted family) because so often I've seen it as an excuse to not give an OC any interpersonal relationships outside of their partner.
I like to see a character with well-defined traits that are both virtues and flaws. If your OC is brave, I expect to see that bravery cross into recklessness at times and make mistakes.
What about Snape drives your OC batty enough that they want to strangle him for it? What is it about your OC that might make Snape want to poison their dinner? Perfect couples that never get on each others' nerves and never fight bore me.
What is your OC's ultimate goal? (Beyond snatching up Snape that is). Even in my romances, I like OCs to have clear wants and ambitions, and then go out and try to do them (regardless if they succeed or fail).
I think every character should make at least one really bad decision. And I don't mean like, "Oh no, I lost control of the car on an icy road. I'm going to self-flagellate myself forever even though this was a matter of circumstance and not actually something bad I did. Angst, angst, angst." No. What decision did your OC actively choose that fucked things up? Like, joining the Death Eaters (or rubbing elbows with them, if your story diverges before Snape officially joins up) is clearly Snape's bad decision. How has your OC fucked things up that had consequences for both them and other people? Is your OC the type to apologize or are they too prideful?
You make some excellent points. Made me wonder what you'd think of my OC if you ever read the fanfic I'm in the process of writing.
She's not an orphan - in fact there's even going to be some moments where Snape gets to meet/interact with her friends and family who are non-Brits (and not even American cause I feel like every other OC out there is American but that's probably because the author is too)
She has a number of characteristics in terms of looks and personality. I also make a point of showing that this is a woman who has specific tastes to legitimize the idea that she might finds someone who looks lile Snape te epitome of beauty.
Both she and Snape have clearly defined goals throughout the story, even if said goals develop and change over time.
The two of them do have at least a couple of major fights - and not over petty things either - but I want to convey that even when some heavy words get in the way, they don't actually hate each other, they're just lashing out because they're scared or upset.
I personally love the idea of Snape x OC in concept because I don't really ship him with any specific canon character. However, I'm yet to read my dream Snape x OC fanfic (that's why I'm trying to write one myself).
Question to those who ship their Harry potter OC with Severus snape
How do you handle the Lily situation writing wise and backstory wise?
Do you keep it in along with him still not being over Lily?
Do you make it so hes at least somewhat over her?
Do you write it out entirely?
Does your character replace lily entirely?
I asked mostly because I'm pretty curious as to what people do, im also writing a character I ship with Snape and have been wondering how i should navigate that and would like to hear ideas
I also just think its an interesting question given how important Lily was as a large driving force for Snape's actions throughout the story and how he interacts with Harry
Also, how does your character deal with/Respond to the way he treats Harry and other students?
(Currently im having my character deal with feeling like shes inferior to Lily in his eyes but that feels cruel)
I would say it all depends on when in the timeline the story you write is set and what is your interpretation of their relationship.
The story I haven't written yet but have outlined almost entirely after years in development hell takes place right after after the Battle of Hogwarts. In my interpretation their relationship was that of friends / adopted siblings. I never got the slightest romance vibes from them. I think Snape loved Lily (and that was why he took issue with her associating with the Marauders whom he knew weren't the best of people and one was even a werewolf!) but wasn't, you know, in love with her.
I establish early on that what kept him going all those years wasn't romantic love but rather guilt and a wish to make right by her by protecting her child (even when said child wore the face of his past tormentor). It does, however, say a lot about him that at the end of the day he still chose to break his commitment to her for the greater good. When Voldemort is defeated and Harry actually survives, he experiences a bittersweet moment of closure. Lily would always remain in his memory but his dues to her are paid and he's free to go on with his life.
I also mention that for several years Snape had been in a mutually agreed upon friends with benefits type of arrangement with Charity (who both initiated it and then ended it after she fell in love with someone else) and had his circumstances been different, he would have considered pursuing a proper relationship with her. I then imply that he may have had other minor experiences in the past during the period between his graduation and his defection from the DE. All of this to communicate that his history with Lily never excluded him from having some kind of romantic or sexual involvement with other people.
Now when it comes to the current plotline, Dea (that's the OCs name) doesn't know who Snape is at first. Only when she finds out, his prior relationship with Lily which she is aware of (contrary to his other relationships) becomes a factor in her negative assessment of his feelings for her leading her to diminish her own feelings for him to protect herself from humiliation. Only as the story progresses over the course of about a year, it becomes clear to both parties that the other one's feelings have always been genuine, if not that deep at first.
While parallels are drawn between Dea and Lily and even more so between Dea and Charity, she is never presented as a replacement for either but rather the next one in the line of girls Snape came to care about.
As far as Snape's treatment of students is concerned, it could be a matter of my cultural background but I don't really see any major issue with it. As far as I can tell he's never put any of his students in danger or caused them any lasting harm whatsoever like, say, Umbridge or Hagrid or Lupin or even MacGonagall. His worst offenses amount to docking a few points and handling some detentions (all deserved imho) and threatening to poison Trevor which I bet he would have conveniently forgotten about had Neville actually messed up the potion.
I have an idea for a fanfic on file. In said fanfic there's a moment where Snape needs to get himself a phone to keep in touch with a muggle character. It's mid 00s so it probably IS A FLIP PHONE
I've been having so many thoughts on this ever since I saw it a couple days ago.
So I think she is definitely talking about Cooper but she isn't actually speaking to Cooper here. I think she's speaking to someone else, most likely Max.
Looking back at how S1 was structured, I expect there to be a reunion between Lucy and Max around episode 4-5. By that time Lucy and Coop will have probably reached Vegas or at least Novac (the scene takes place in what looks like a hotel room and we need at least a couple more eps for whatever shenanigans are going to happen in Vegas). Correct me if I'm wrong but LA to NV is about 2 weeks on foot. That's plenty of time for them to get to know each other and maybe change their opinion of each other.
I'm not sure if her expression reads more apologetic or sad so I'm considering two scenarios here:
Either Max comes across Lucy and says he thought she'd been taken away by Hank. Lucy replies that Hank had actually made a run for it and she'd been going after him with the Ghoul.
Or Max finds or maybe even rescues Lucy from some kind of situation. Lucy is sad because she (wrongly) thinks Cooper had been killed.
Either way, the conversation goes something like:
Max (surprised) : The Ghoul? You mean the same ghoul that tried to shoot you in Filly?
Lucy (apologetic /teary-eyed): We were actually beginning to get along
Lily Evans when it comes to throwing it in Snape’s face that his friends messed with Mary McDonald: OH MY GOD YOUR FRIENDS ARE TERRIBLE YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED YOU’VE KILLED SEVEN BILLION PEOPLE AAAAA AAAAAA AAAAAA TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLEEEE *foams at the mouth*
Lily Evans when her future husband, her future best friend, and their minions go around hexing people in the halls, using illegal spells, stripping people publicly, and committing attempted murder: you’re obsessed with your abusers, Sev, you should be grateful they haven’t killed you, Sev, it’s fine, they can commit homicide as long as it’s not dark magic, Sev, Hitler wasn’t even that bad, he didn’t cast an Unforgivable curse SEEEEV
GIRL, OUR SHIP IS EXACTLY WHERE IT WAS YESTERDAY, we've been suspecting this might be what happens ever since the trailer dropped. Some, I think, may have been suspecting this even since the teaser
You know, I think it'd be funny if the real reason why Snape would dock points from Gryffindor so much was just to see how far he could get Dumbledore to come up with ludicrous reasons to give the house he's so biased towards a shit ton of points to get them ahead of the game.
Guys do you think animagi are linked solely to your personality, your deepest memories or to your patronus? Like James's Patronus and animagus were the same? So is Minerva's Patronus a cat??
Your animagus form is determined by who you are as a person. Your memories will impact it since past experience shape your personality but not in the same way memories impact the patronus.
Your patronus form is determined by what drives you forward in life to put it simply. The animal is symbolic not of an abstract concept for ex. a sense of belonging, sense of being needed and/or appreciated, sense of pride etc. Your memories indirectly impact the patronus since they serve as triggers.
The animagus and the patronus both take an animal form but notice that the former is only ever a non magical creature while we have an example of a magical creature as someone's patronus: Dumbledore's phoenix.
On another note, I can't think of a character who is a known animagus (James, Sirius, Peter, MacGonagall, Rita Skeeter, am I forgetting anyone?) that we know the patronus of.
It's never mentioned that James' patronus was a stag. It's possible considering Harry's was a stag BUT James and Harry are actually very different people so who knows.
Same goes for Lily. Harry says her patronus was a doe just like Snape's BUT how would Harry know that? In fact, if Snape's doe was supposed to represent Lily it would've made much more sense if she was a doe animagus, which honestly, is not entirely out of the realm of possibility.
MacGonagall is a cat animagus. Umbridge has a cat patronus. This only really tells us that cat us a possible shape for both.
Dumbledore's animagus is a phoenix but as far as we can tell, his animagus couldn't also be a phoenix because animagi are only non-magical animals.
Is it just me or does HP have a “Blondes are spoiled/dumb” problem?
The Malfoys? They are bad and Draco was scolded for his grades. (Not helping is Rowling I hear admitted to basing their designs off of real world bad people.)
Neville? Was treated as clumsy and forgetful during the earlier books.
Lovegoods? Treated as conspiracy theorists.
Petunia grew jealous of her sister and abused Harry.
Dudley? Was treated as stupid and a spoiled bully.
Well, I don’t know if I’d go that deep with it, it’s not something I’ve thought about much, to be honest. What has always caught my attention, though, is her clear preference for redheads, and how all the redheaded characters in her story are super important and associated with the “good side” or absolute goodness.
So, starting from there, it doesn’t seem far-fetched to think that, just as she had certain physical traits she clearly favored, she might have also — even unconsciously — associated other traits with negativity.
I can't think of a single blonde from the series that wouldn't be framed somewhat negatively. Besides the Malfoys, the Lovegoods, Neville, Petunia and Dudley consider also:
- Fleur and Lavender - both portrayed as airheads for being classically feminine
- Rita Skeeter - portrayed as a scheming piece of trash
- Mme Rosmerta - her whole character is basically "hot bartender"
- Cormac MacLaggen - I recall he was blond in the movies, not sure if his hair was mentioned in the books - portrayed as a stupid jock who can't take no for as answer
- Peter Pettigrew - a literal rat and a traitor
You're right about the redheads, they're all somehow framed positively. Even when one of them does something questionable the narrative still reminds you the are GOOD.
Things get complicated when it comes to brunettes. I'd sum it up like this :
- if hair is dark but it's also coarse, curly, bushy or, if straight, is nicely styled (for ex. in an updo) or cut short then the character is "good" . Example : Hagrid, Hermione, Harry and James, MacGonagall, Sirius (young and post PoA)
- if hair is dark but it's straight and long, lanky, sleek, or, if textured, is unkept, unruly or wild looking then the character is "bad" . Example : Snape, Bellatrix, young Tom Riddle, Sirius (during PoA), arguably Regulus
Sis, yes! Like, I too kinda hate the movie look. I never, not once, imagined him wearing whatever tf it is that he wears in the movies. I draw some buttons on clasps on his robes sometimes but not that many.
It's one a personal favorite and as I was listening to it lately I noticed how much the themes and motifs in could very well apply to the entire Snape + Lily + Death Eaters + Marauders situation.
Listen to it, read through the lyrics and you'll understand what I'm talking about.
I've been cooking up a fanfic but before I can write a single line, I gotta have EVERYTHING figured out and because part of said fanfic is meant to take place at the castle, I decided I needed a class schedule for the entire school to use as ref.
At first, I did what any normal person would do: I googled it and lo and behold, I found a couple of fan-made schedules. The most promising one was that created by @shorm (check it out here) - the elective class system in particular looked very neat - BUT I soon realized it had one critical flaw: it required the teachers to hold multiple classes at the same time. Whether this was intentional (the schedule could work if all the teachers used time turners) or just an oversight, that schedule wouldn't work for me so I sat down and made my own.
It took me maybe a little over a week of on and off work to create this. While @shorm's work was definitely an inspiration, I made the schedule from scratch, taking some liberties to make sure that there are no overlaps. Details will be explained below.
The schedule is FREE TO USE as a reference for your fanfics. I would, however, greatly appreciate if you COULD CREDIT ME.
It's a very long post so I'm putting it all under the cut.
CLASSES OVERVIEW
CORE CLASSES
All core classes are mandatory for years 1 to 5 and optional for years 6 and 7 (based on OWL results). Each House has at least 2 classes with one of the other Houses, presumably to facilitate inter-house relations between the students. Based on this principle the 7 core classes are put into exclusionary pairs.
Potions is always 1x week: for year 1 it's 1h, for years 2-5 2h (double period). As a result DADA which is its pair (both work with GS+RH groups) is set up in the same manner.
Herbology and Charms (both work with GH + SR groups) always have 1h lessons 2x week for all years.
Transfiguration and History of Magic (both work with GR + SH groups) have 1h lessons 2x week for all years. History of Magic has an additional lesson for years 1 and 2. This is possible because History is not part of the 6-7 year curriculum.
Astronomy has 1h of theoretical class during the day 1x week and 1h of practice during the night 1x week for all years. It can often overlap with the extra lesson of HoM for years 1-2 (it also works with GR + SH groups). The practicals take place at either 11 PM, 12AM or 1AM.
Flying is only for first years, presumably to determine the students' predisposition for the Quidditch teams.
ELECTIVE CLASSES
Students can choose 2 or 3 out of 5 available classes. The schedule allows to choose max 3 classes in any combination. If you only choose 2 classes, you will have one additional free period, which one will depend on your class choice.
The elective classes can have students from all Houses. G1 and G2 refer to group 1 and 2 which are formed based on students class choice. If a lot of students make the same choices, House-based groups can be formed.
Each class has 1h lesson 2x week. CFMC, Divination, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes run 2 sessions of each of the 2 lessons to accomodate the two groups. Muggle Studies runs only 1 session of each of the 2 lessons, presumably because it's a less popular class and a second session is not required to allow for any 2-3 class combination.
MASTER SCHEDULE YEARS 1-5
Year 1 always starts from second period (9.30) and have a free Friday afternoon. Year 2 starts from first period (8.00) or second period (9.30) depending on the day and also have free Friday afternoons. All houses have Astronomy Practical on a day that would allow them to sleep in the next morning to compensate.
Years 3 to 5 start on either first or second period, depending on the day, and also have classes on fifth period (during which year 1 had flying lessons) to accommodate the elective classes. The numbers 1 and 2 next to the class choice refer to lesson 1 and lesson 2 of the same class (see teachers schedules below).
STUDENTS' SCHEDULES YEARS 1-5
The following schedules are transposed from the Master Schedule above.
The schedules for years 1 and 2 appear a bit empty, but this is due to a lack of teachers' availability. At most, you could have an additional Potions and/or DADA lesson on period 3 on Wed/Thu.
The schedules for years 3-5 assume a student follows 3 elective classes. If they follow 2, then in place of a 3rd class, they will have a free period.
STUDENTS' SCHEDULE YEARS 6-7
6 and 7 year students will only attend the classes they qualify for based on their intended career path and OWL results. Each class is scheduled 2x week in a different time slot to allow for a student to follow any class combination.
TEACHERS' SCHEDULES
The following schedules are transposed from the 1-5 years master schedule and the 6-7 years schedule above.
CORE CLASSES TEACHERS
The numbers in the slots refer to the year and the letters refer to the House. So for ex. 1 GS = 1st years Gryffindor + Slytherin. 6 and 7 years are always a mix of all Houses.
Potions and DADA, which are paired up (they teach the same House combinations GS or RH), always have 2h lessons scheduled for either period 1-2 or period 4-5. This way the students can either start later (8.30 instead of 8) or leave earlier (16 instead of 16.30). Year 1 has 1h lessons because no more consecutive periods are available. This way, both Potions and DADA teachers have 3 days where they have a free period before lunch. If you wanted, you could use it to have year 1 have a second 1h DADA and/or 1h Potions class on Wed/Thu, leaving the teachers with only a single free period like all the other teachers.
Astronomy has 3 nighttime slots between 11 PM and 2AM to accommodate students from all years. Years 1 and 2, being the youngest, will always have the earliest slot. Years 3 to 5 take either the second or third slot based on whether they have classes on period 1. Years 6 and 7 always have the late slot. Astronomy teacher has no classes on period 1 except for the theoretical for years 6 and 7 which always falls on a day after a night where she was teaching no class (Sunday and Thursday) allowing her to sleep through the night and wake up early.
ELECTIVE CLASSES TEACHERS
The numbers in the slots refer to the year. Les 1 and 2 refer to Lesson 1 and 2. Gr 1 and 2 refer to group 1 and 2 (which can have students from all houses based on their choice of subjects).
6 and 7 years are always a mix of all Houses. The lesson earlier in the week will be the first one and the one later in the week will be the second one.
Elective classes teachers have 9 free periods they could use - if necessary - to schedule an additional session of either lesson 1 or 2, based on students' availability. This, however, is unnecessary if students choose no more than 3 classes. An additional session would not be scheduled for a single student that decided they want to follow 4 or 5 classes.
Muggle Studies teacher has 15 free periods as they have only 1 session for lesson 1 and 2 for each year. A second session is not necessary unless a large number of students (more than half) signed up for the subject. In that case, they would be split into two groups based on their other class choices and availability, and up to 6 of those 15 available slots would be used to schedule additional sessions (see "Additional Availability" table above to determine when for which year).
If we don't make any modifications and leave MS with 1 lesson 1 and 1 lesson 2 and the other classes with 2 lessons 1 and 2 lessons 2, each student will be able to follow either one of the below class combinations:
EASY MODIFICATIONS
Since the core classes are set in pairs, you can swap them to better suit your needs.
To give an example: I have Potions set for year 1 RH on Monday period 3. Meanwhile GS has DADA. Then I have Potions for year 1 GS on Friday period 3. Meanwhile RH has DADA. If for some reason you need year 1 GS to have Potions on Monday, all you have to do is swap these two slots around.
You can also swap the electives around. The elective class slots in the master are better left where they are but you can easily swap the classes available for each slot. You will only need to reference both the electives table and additional availability table to determine which classes are available for each slot and set them up in three blocks of three classes each just like I did. You only have to make sure that each class except one appears twice for each three-block set. The single class doesn't gave to be MS. If in your story a lot of students take MS but few take CMC, you can rearrange the classes so that CMC only appears once.
Any changes you make will obviously need to be transposed to the relevant student and teachers schedules.
