The Moste Potente

Title: Patronus Interruptus
Author: alisanne
Pairing: Severus Snape/Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom/Ginny Weasley
Word Count: 100 x 2
Rating: PG
Warnings: None that I am aware of.
Beta: sevfan
Challenge: Written for neville100's prompt #97: Patronus
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.
A/N: Sometimes Neville gets the last word.

Patronus Interruptus

Going to be a short update tonight. I'm exhausted and I've been flirting with a headache all day. So no pictures, because I just don't have the energy tonight.

( Read more... ) So that was my week. A four day weekend and I feel like I barely got a weekend at all. But I had fun. And now I'm going to have some pecan pie. :)

1. Mysterious! I somehow have acquired a paid account on Dreamwidth. Hmmmm, thank you, Mystery Benefactor! **haz no clue**
You shall all be rewarded with more icons, lol.

2. Fandom progress from the wretchedly-late-on-everything Ven:
DONE: darkfest, SevShorts fic
ALMOST DONE: Snapely Hols, Snarry Hols
WELL UNDER WAY: Sev Big Bang, Kinky Xmas
NO CLUE YET: Snarry Swap

3. Lots of stuff to repost, and here comes the end of the year, yikes! Now I understand why the well organized journaler does monthly summaries! well, stay tuned for more goodies.

4. I'm gearing up for a roadtrip to Michigan. I havent done that in some years, so am dreading/looking forward to it. I'll take older dog, Seneca for company. There's a funeral I really want to attend, and I am overdue for a visit to the ancestral spawning grounds.
I need to load up on podfic and get a car charger for the ipod. Any friends along the Ohio TP east of Toledo?

5. Next post: ART SALE!

Please spread the word:  snarry_holidays  needs proofreaders. Please let us know if you have time to spare and what you would be willing to proofread. Thanks :D

email snarryholiday @ gmail DOT com or  fenghuang.jin @ gmail DOT com

Title: Patronus Interruptus
Author: alisanne
Pairing: Severus Snape/Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom/Ginny Weasley
Word Count: 100 x 2
Rating: PG
Warnings: None that I am aware of.
Beta: sevfan
Challenge: Written for neville100's prompt #97: Patronus
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.
A/N: Sometimes Neville gets the last word.

( Patronus Interruptus )

DO I NEED TO THRASH AMERICA?

This quote in my inbox made my morning. I think I need it on an icon.

Title: Troth

Author: celandineb

Excerpt:

It wasn't a wizarding restaurant, nor even a particularly high-class Muggle establishment for that matter. Cheap and mediocre Italian was the cuisine on offer, but the place close by and perfectly adequate for the days when neither of them felt like cooking. Severus confessed to liking the tagliatelle alla bolognese, while Remus was fond of the bread basket placed on every table. The owner's son was the baker, and the bread was always hot, fresh, and delicious.

Commentary: Bread. Good Italian bread with rosemary - how can you go wrong? And I would totally have Remus's response to Severus, having been fed this bread first. (Well, I would anyhow, but you know what I mean.

Source: Cook's Illustrated, May/June 1997 - Rosemary Focaccia

( Rosemary Focaccia )

Title: Breaking Bread Together

Author: celandineb

Excerpt:

Remus glanced down and realised that he had reached across the table and taken Severus's hand in his enthusiasm. It was warm and bony and he could feel the calluses on Severus's skin before he hastily let go, murmuring an apology. To cover his embarrassment, he took a sip of wine. Severus had already had a bottle open, and it was excellent.

They changed conversational topics to the less sensitive one of Quidditch as they ate the main course, another dish that Remus had never had and that Severus called a quiche. It was a sort of an egg pie, with bacon and onions and cheese mixed into the egg, and seasoned with subtle herbs as well. Like the rest of the meal, the flavour was simply marvellous, so much so that Remus was unembarrassed about asking for a second slice. Accompanying the quiche were cooked tomatoes, their sweet acidity complementing its richness.

Severus, not having taken an additional helping, finished eating first, and watched Remus as he ate his last few bites, again with that inscrutable expression on his face. Remus's breath quickened under the heated gaze, and when he laid down his knife and fork, aligning them neatly on his plate, he ran his tongue over his lips to see how Severus would react.

Commentary: Again, not exactly what Severus cooked, but I don't make real quiches. *g* This onion pie has onions and cheese and tomatoes (although no bacon) so it's kind of a combination of the two dishes mentioned in the story.

Source: Anna Thomas, The Vegetarian Epicure - Cheese and Onion Pie

( Cheese and Onion Pie )

Title: Breaking Bread Together

Author: celandineb

Excerpt:

Remus stood uncertainly in the kitchen doorway, watching Severus bustle around. His movements were deft and sure and altogether he gave off a rather depressing air of competence. Well, he had been first in their class in Potions every year, doubtless earning an Outstanding N.E.W.T., and cooking wasn't perhaps so different from potion making, when you got down to it.

He didn't like to interrupt Severus's concentration and so he stood silently as Severus worked.

"You could carry these to the table now, if you would." Severus indicated the several bowls and dishes that were ready, and Remus gladly complied.

"It all looks marvellous," he complimented Severus as they sat down.

Severus flushed. "Thank you."

They began with three oysters on the half shell each, something that Remus had never before eaten, but which to his surprise he found delicious. The starter was followed by a light yellow soup, potato, he thought, but with something else as well, and bits of what he guessed might be mushroom, woody and complex in flavour.

"This never came out of a tin, did it?" Remus asked, although he was certain in his own mind as to the answer. "Is it difficult? Do you have a recipe?" Not that he himself was much of a cook, but for something like this, he would be willing to put in more effort.

"My own invention," Severus muttered. "No recipe. Er. How is new your job going?"

Commentary: The color of this soup is very much what I imagined the soup Severus makes in the fic to have looked like, although there are no mushrooms in this recipe and certainly no aphrodisiac herbs!

Source: Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Soups and Stews - Russian Potato Soup

( Russian Potato Soup )

...is nearly upon us!

And by that of course I mean FEST SEASON!

::runs around in little circles and throws Santa-shaped confetti::

In case it isn't obvious, I'm just a little bit excited about the holiday fests starting. I've already created spreadsheets for keeping track of what I've read. ::is a big dork::

From the mod end of things, everything for Kinky Kristmas is caught up and ready to start running on Tuesday. The stuff we've received so far is fantastic. No matter what other fests you plan to follow next month, you definitely want to keep an eye on daily_deviant!

Aside from that, the only fest I'm participating in this year is snapelyholidays. So of course I'll be trying to read/view and comment on as much as possible over there. It was a fab fest last year, and I expect it to be awesome again this year. Other than that, I'll be picking and choosing from hp_yule_balls, snarry_holidays, harry_holidays, and lupin_snape's Snupin Santa. And I'll be posting recs, of course! We'll see how long I can keep up with all that. ;)

So, f-list, tell me: What fests are you participating in this year? Where will you be reading/viewing and commenting?

And remember: No matter what fests you watch and participate in this year, be sure to take a few moments to express your enjoyment of the works you view and read. Without the wonderful authors and artists, there would be no fandom as we know it. ♥

So, as you might have noticed, I've been out of fandom for a while, then a "omg sorry I'll be back soon!" post, then nothing again for months. Rinse and repeat.

Well, there's a reason for that, and the reason is that I work for a software company that has no idea how to develop software. In places where they know how to make software, there are four stages:

1. Go find out what the requirements are. Talk to the people who need it and figure out what things they absolutely have to have or you may as well not bother.

2. Develop the specs. Decide how the software is going to work. Make wireframes to get some feedback from the people who are going to be using it, so they can tell you that they really don't need Field X but they have to have Field Y.

3. Work out a timeline. Estimate how long each task is going to take, figure out how many programmers and how much time you have. Remove the least important features to make sure your ship date works.

4. Actually write the code.

Project managers handle stage one for a lot of projects at once, getting a list of features that need to go out and coming up with an approximate ship date. Then they get the programming team to handle stage 2, work with them for stage 3, and then when everything's settled and all the higher-ups approve, they give the programmers the green light for stage 4.

There is almost always some issue that comes up right before the ship date, which means the programmers work overtime for a week or so to get it out on time. It's just one of those things.

My company? Does not do this. They are PERPETUALLY in "OMG SHIP IT NOW THE WORLD IS ON FIRE!!!!" mode, because nobody plans anything in advance -- somebody realizes something needs to be done, some manager who's never written a line of code in his life decides how long it's going to take, and they inform tech lead, who says nobody's available (because everything *else* is on fire). At no point in this process does anybody ever gather requirements, much less design anything, because the people calling the shots don't know anything about programming and don't want to -- even though they run a software company. They just have a vague fuzzy idea that "our customers need X" and don't bother to figure out what it's going to take to get X until the customer's screaming that they need it RIGHT NOW OMG.

We do not have ship dates, because we should always have shipped yesterday. And because the world is always on fire, the programming team is expected to work insane hours to get finished with an ill-defined project as soon as possible after an arbitrary deadline somebody set without knowing what would need to be done by then.

And that is why I haven't been around, even though I always think I will soon. I hadn't yet figured out that I don't work for a normal software company but for Heads On Fire R Us.

ARRGGH.

There is exactly one set of Snape/Lupin offerings in hp_art_tales, and it's mine. Submissions close today (November 29).

The first point has been awarded in Stuff the Stockings! Remember, you have to go back to the main post and leave a link if you've been advertising snupin_santa for the contest. Don't forget, there are fabulous prizes at stake, including your own copy of Chocolate & Asphodel, v. 2. (While you're waiting for the exchange to start, you might consider perusing C&A2 and offering some comments to the contributors)

The Recipe Challenge is drawing to a close. November 30 is the last day for posts on the community. After that, it will be up to drusillas_rain's discretion if she'll accept e-mailed entries as she works on compiling the book.

Be sure to read over McKay's "Coming Soon" post for Snupin_Santa. There's lots of good information there, especially if you plan on participating in Stuff the Stockings.

There are some new holiday icons here from whitestar, but artists, we're still looking for more. In fact, Whitestar has offered to add her iconing touch to any art I can send her, so consider submitting some art soon if you want to see it receive the delux icon treatment. ~_^

If you're involved in the Print Calendar project, your art is due December 15, don't forget in all the holiday madness!

Speaking of calendars, I'm going to go ahead and remind you to switch to December's desktop calendar now. The art is by the very fun, very talented tripperfunster, and it should be very useful in such a busy month!



Finally, I want to thank all of the members here for being such great, generous participants in the community. There's been lots of searches and requests lately, and I'm seeing many new and different members speaking up to help out or volunteer. I'll never stop saying this - you are the reason this community continues to be a warm and friendly place for Lupin/Snape fans, and you're each wonderful and invaluable. Thank you all!

LJ-only users, please forgive me for not making a post with LJ links, but I promise you that all the posts linked here have a LJ equivalent post. I'm just super-rushed because company is on my doorstep!

snupin_santa in less than two days! EEEE!

love, lore

If you'd like a Christmas card and possibly share some holiday cheer with me...please reply with your address. All comments are screened, but if you prefer you can PM me or email me at sassy_cissa@livejournal.com.


In other news, I'm working on the 2010 edition of the HP Calendar similiar to the one I offered last year. The cost will be the same as last year $15 including postage within the US - outside the US there is an additional cost for postage.




This years edition will include: Harry, Draco, Neville, Lucius, Sirius, Severus, Blaise, Bill, Charlie, Cormack, Oliver, and Regulus (my interpretation of him anyway). More details to follow on the calendar in the next couple of weeks.

Okay...back to

Uh-oh.

My requestee for sga_santa requested a rarepair which I couldn't resist.

And it's ending up with a totally different rarepair in the final scene. Shit.

Any volunteers for a beta? I've been chopping at this fic rather ruthlessly trying to solve quite a few problems.

As I'm wont to do, I went away and played as someone else for a while. Now that I'm engaging in a fandom tidy-up, however, I thought that I'd move these fics here. I hope that you enjoy them. :)

fodirteg prompted me with Luna: purple, confidence, gurdy root. Originally posted under the sub-pseudonyms of ouphe (DW) and an_ouphe (LJ) on 23 August 2009.

( Ravenclaws Do It by the Book )

vegablack62 prompted me with Neville, Orange, bemused, Weasley grandfather clock with nine golden hands that told the condition of its members. Originally posted under the sub-pseudonyms of ouphe (DW) and an_ouphe (LJ) on 23 August 2009.

( The Tick-Tock of Fatherhood )

lalaith_niniel prompted me with Lucius: purple, envy, ever-bashing boomering. Originally posted under the sub-pseudonyms of ouphe (DW) and an_ouphe (LJ) on 24 August 2009.

( Splintering )

soberloki prompted me with George: red, despair, non-explodable luminous balloon. Originally posted under the sub-pseudonyms of ouphe (DW) and an_ouphe (LJ) on 24 August 2009.

( Fraternal Order )

Title: Clarity without Mirrors
Author: iulia_linnea (Originally posted under the sub-pseudonyms of ouphe {DW} and an_ouphe {LJ} on 25 June 2009.)
Character: Luna Lovegood
Rating: PG
Warnings (highlight to view): For light angst and mentions of past minor character death.
Word Count: 1830
Summary: A ten-year-old Luna teaches herself to scry (and banishes a "demon" in the process).
Disclaimer: This piece is based on characters and situations created by J. K. Rowling, and owned by J. K. Rowling and various publishers, including but not limited to: Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books, Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended by the posting of this fic.
Author's Note: Thank you, Kay, for beta'ing.

( Clarity without Mirrors )

So I've been a very busy bee the last few days.

~I helped alisanne by tagging some of the adventdrabbles from the last two years (which starts again on Tuesday--mark you calendars!! *\o/* ).

~I finished (FINALLY) my Kinky Kristmas fic for daily_deviant (thanks to jadzialove for her expert beta skills ♥)-will email that in tonight.

~I just uploaded a bunch of fic to AO3. I have to say AO3 is pretty shiny. I haven't tagged my fics properly yet. But I did put up my collection of last year's adventdrabbles for example.

Here's my list of works I've added so far. It's really cool to see the variety of fic all in one place. From fluff and romance to chan dub-con incest or bestiality. *vbg*

Takes the Cake by Arionrhod and McKay has been updated with another chapter. It's up to ~32,000 words. Non-magical AU, rated R.

Note: I realize this story is being updated more slowly than our collaborations usually are. It is finished, but I'm the one who does the editing and posting of our collaborations, and I'm not withholding it on purpose to make people wait for more; I'm editing and updating as I can after being body-slammed by the usual end-of-semester grading madness plus an unexpected RL event that has eaten up what little free time I have at present.

I promise I will get the remainder edited and posted as soon as I can. However, I'd appreciate understanding and patience, rather than pointed comments about withholding feedback/ratings/whatever because it isn't finished.

Thanks very much!

Thanks sassy_cissa for all your help!

Little Secret's scroll and eggies: ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Halo's scroll and eggies: ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Little Halo's scroll and eggies: ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Title: Always
Author: sweetmelodykiss
Pairing: Snarry
Rating: PG
Summary: Severus ponders his future with Harry
Word Count: 326
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the character herein. All are owned by JKR. No copyright infringement is intended.
Written for severus_sighs challenge: Make Torina happy.

Always

May I ask if anyone has on file the story "Revelations" by Adrienne? It is the third part of her (unfinished) trilogy, "Perdition", "Redemption" and "Revelations", one of the best early Snupins I've ever read, in spite of the depressing themes it addresses (incest and child abuse). I thought I had saved it, but have recently discovered that in last year's computer crash, it has been lost.