>VERBOSE

Circumstances Being What They Are by scratchywilson
Severus, Voldemort, Dumbledore, rated Gen in AO3 system (possibly PG), 3840 words
Author's summary: GoF gapfiller. Severus Snape returns to the fold of the Death Eaters, willingly binding his fate to two masters. He wonders if the return will be worth the risk.
Author's warnings: Non-graphic violence

My comment: "Great job! Good choice of 'missing moment' - this is something so important to Severus's story."

Quote:
He did not dare speak until the Dark Lord gave him permission. But no welcome, no reproach, even no curse came. The silence stretched on, punctuated only by the hiss and crack of the logs in the fire. The Dark Lord was a cat, toying with his meal.

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Twenty Things Slytherin Knows About That Rantypants Brewery Swot With The Nose (and one thing Gryffindor never will) by potionpen
Severus, various Slytherins, Lily, basically an ensemble cast; Gen in AO3 (but it does have some coarse language so maybe PG-13 for that), 18902 words
Author's summary: Some people are Slyth enough to sort Gryff, and some are kinda sorta vey is mir zomg unbelievably not. (Does what it says on the label).
No warnings but let me quote the extensive, amusing tag list at you: Hat abuse, we're gonna win the universe!, slices of life, Severus wishes he were a sneaky bastard, I fight only for myself, that hate-on Severus has for Gryffindor, that hate-on Gryffindor has for Severus, bullheaded stubbornness vs. two-faced hypocrisy, young Severus, nongraphic, harsh world, Severus's embarrassing love affair with potions, episodic, abuse of defenseless textbooks.

I left more than one comment on this in conversation with the author (which half the time isn't exactly relevant to the story); you can read those here if you like.

Quote:
One soggy, humid November day in fourth year (and let's be fair, now, the wet chill and low barometer had even normal people surly and touchy) he walked out of a Runes exam, stiffarmed Bagman against the wall, spoke a quiet word to him, and padded away.

Right, right, a nothing, sure, and that's what everyone else thought, too, only once he was gone it took Lupin and Evans and two of Bagman's mates to lever him, quivering, out of his steaming puddle and drag him to the infirmary, where he babbled for hours about endless frozen depths of hell rising up to spear him through the nose with unholy blasting black flames of icy scornful pitchforky death.

P.S. That excerpt (not to mention the title) is pretty representative of the style; it will help your enjoyment of this fic a lot if you like that sort of on-purpose-run-on, ranty, slightly breathless and hysterical tone played for humor (as well as ha ha only serious). There really are a lot of clever phrasings in this fic.

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(Finding) Life After Voldemort by r_grayjoy in hoggywartyxmas
Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Pomona Sprout, Alastor Moody, Remus Lupin, Lily Potter, Eileen Snape, and (offscreen) Neville Longbottom; PG-13, ~3500 words
Author's summary: A series of not-so-unrelated moments in the lives of several not-so-unconnected individuals. (Largely gen with a side of femslash and a dash of slash thrown in for flavor. AU of the "Deaths? What Deaths?" sort.)

My comment: "Nice series :)" (ooo helpful.)

Quote:
There was a great deal of Eileen Snape in her son. They both had the same long, homely features and pitch-black hair that was prone to oiliness and disarray. They had both mastered the sort of withering glare that made the recipient feel approximately ten centimeters high. And they were both capable of holding a grudge for decades.

Reading TVTropes... far too much of it in fact... there's this on the Magnificent Bastard page:

As far as I'm concerned, Snape just isn't Magnificent. I mean, if he was? It would have unfolded that he secretly manipulated Dumbledore to kill himself, faked his death, guilt-tripped Harry into getting himself killed via bogus memories, and reappeared just as Voldemort was celebrating to Avara Kedavra his butt to Hell. Then he would have coolly regarded Harry's corpse and spat "it was fun while it lasted, Potter" from the side of his mouth, only to proceed to recycle Harry's corpse into potion ingredients, use an improved version of the Polyjuice Potion to permanently take Harry's shape, and return as a hero to make mad, passionate love to Ginny, Hermione and Luna all three at once while secretly putting forth his plans to conquer the world.

Magnificent Bastards are implausibly over the top. That's the whole point.

-- Karellen, in You Know That Thing Where


Alls I can say is -- that?

Would have been glorious.

(cf. discussion in babb CXXXIX about Harry Potter done as a melodrama.)

See also: Harry Potter, Tall Dark and Snarky (I knew there was a reason Auron struck me the same way), Slytherin House, Draco In Leather Pants, Wronski Feint, Deadpan Snarker.