Art of Darkness (a concept)

[sigune]

I'm not bringing a story and I'm not bringing finished art - I'm bringing the skeleton of an illustrated story. It was going to be my "magnum opus" (;P), but then DH broke loose and I lost my fanfic-writing muse because I didn't 'get' canon Snape anymore. But time and again, I catch myself thinking of that story and find myself doodling some characters and situations. They're below, if you're curious :).

Title: Art of Darkness
Author/Artist: sigune
Rating: G
Warning: kinda image-heavy (6).
Characters/Pairings: Severus Snape, Desmond Avery, Brynhild Bromley (OFC)
Summary: Severus Snape has friends. Real friends. Slytherin friends.


I always wondered about Snape's Slytherin friends. Surely he must have had other friends than Lily. He joined the Death Eaters, after all, and I can't believe he did that because he was so very keen on torturing Muggles. There must have been something else - he must have felt that somehow, he belonged with them. So I was thinking: who else was in his year? We have a picture of Mulciber in canon, but what kind of person is Avery? Is it possible that he was, you know, not such a nasty character? The glimpses we catch of him in canon hardly suggest a badass terrorist. We see him blunder on Voldemort's return - he is so terrified that he is over-eager to please, and that earns him a Cruciatus Curse. Does he sound as though he might be the Dark Lord's greatest fan? I don't think so.

Like many other readers, I am appalled at the treatment of Slytherin House in canon. That is one reason why I thought I would build up my story about a Slytherin Trio that could work as an equivalent to Harry, Ron and Hermione. Severus's best friend in my original scenario was Toby Wilkes, but The Prince's Tale made me change him into Desmond Avery. I also needed a girl, of course. As far as I can tell, we know only three female Death Eaters: Narcissa, Bellatrix and Alecto Carrow. Narcissa and Bellatrix are older than Snape; Alecto, I don't know - but she seemed an unlikely candidate to be a good friend to Snape. So: in waltzes my OFC, Brynhild Bromley.

Et voilà:



Desmond is the scion of a prestigious old pureblood family. His father thinks Lord Voldemort is The Man. If there was such a thing as Junior Death Eaters, he would already have bought a membership card for his son.

Brynhild is the daughter of a Muggle-born entrepreneur called Berengar Bromley, a great name in the broomsticks business, and of Gunhilda von Bork, a Dark witch with a pureblood father and a hag for a mother. From her hag granny, Brynhild has inherited a large, beaky nose, a long, sharp chin, a set of very pointy teeth and no curves worth speaking of.

Severus Snape - well, him you know already.

Guess who was just walking by when that picture was made? Right, a red-haired Gryffindor. Severus has fallen out with her and he is ever so eager to make it up again. Desmond and Brynhild are not sure why. Desmond thinks it is not particularly prudent to associate oneself with a Mudblood. Brynhild thinks that girls who have both looks and smarts must have Cheated Somehow and the fact of their existence is Unfair. No boy should be allowed to be friendly with them.

What brings these three together? All of them have a penchant towards the Dark Arts. Because Dark Arts are just more exciting than the other stuff. The Trio are confident and competent and not afraid. But of course something has to go wrong.

Brynhild gets expelled because she has cast a Cruciatus Curse on a fellow student because she is not admitted to the all-boys Slytherin Quidditch team. (I know, she's a bit extreme. There's a story behind it.) Before DH, I thought that an Unforgivable Curse would warrant expulsion and exclusion from the wizarding community. Now I'm not so sure anymore :(. -Anyway: she goes to live with Muggles and it's just Desmond and Severus now.

The boys join the Death Eaters because they think the Dark Lord is going to teach them all about Dark Arts and because just about anyone seems preferable to Dumbledore, the Man Who Moralises But Always Leaves You To Your Own Devices. Oh and Desmond will of course be disinherited if he doesn't join Daddy's service club.

Then at one point Severus overhears a prophecy, gets caught by Aberforth, set free by Dumbledore, reports to the Dark Lord, and runs to Dumbledore for help once he understands that Lily will be in Voldemort's line of fire. But as per habit, Dumbledore doesn't really do a thing and Lily gets killed. Everybody is disenchanted. Severus blames his bad friends, like Avery. Desmond, on the other hand, does not blame Severus for anything. He blames his father, the Dark Lord, and Dumbledore. Which really makes more sense.





Fast forward to the Dark Lord's Grand Comeback. Desmond Avery goes "aargh!" He wants out. He confides in his trusted friend Severus, who tells him he's on his own. Desmond does not for a minute believe that Severus is a loyal Death Eater after what happened to Lily. He begins to suspect that his friend is playing dangerous games.





I guess I'm a hurt/comfort kind of person. Snape in canon is so very much alone. I used to think that he had a good relationship with Dumbledore, but DH shattered that image for me. Dumbledore isn't really much of a mentor, is he? So I got Desmond and Brynhild to care about him. They are Slytherins, so obviously there is some self-interest involved. Avery thinks he has a better chance at escaping from the Dark Lord's clutches with his life when he has Severus at his side. Brynhild is a career woman with many pets and few friends who wouldn't mind having a man in her life (a Dark wizard who can cook, who is an excellent sparring partner for her sarcastic wit and who earns less than she does, ahaha! he's purrrfect! ;P). Important: they genuinely like Severus. We fangirls know that this is perfectly possible. So Desmond and Brynhild are determined to keep Severus from destroying himself.






It bothers me very much that in canon, Dumbledore seems to be the only one to put two and two together. Before I knew the word "horcrux", I had figured out that Tom Riddle's diary must have contained a piece of his soul. Pre-Halfblood Prince, I had Brynhild make her own magical notebook by ripping a sliver from her soul using a magic formula that involved a killing - though in this case, the unfortunate victim was Mrs Norris. (Mrs Norris as we know her in canon is a zombie cat, I tell you!) I'm not a witch and I'm of average intelligence. So - you know, when my characters are three intelligent Slytherins, I can't believe they aren't going to get a whiff of the business with the horcruxes and the Elder Wand. Also, even before DH I established Brynhild's mother Gunhilda as a Dark witch who was a member of the German resistance against Grindelwald. If she hasn't figured out the Elder Wand business, I don't know who could have done.

So Brynhild and Desmond have quite a good idea of how Severus is being used and what the consequences will be. They know he is going to his death and they won't let him. They give him a piece of their mind about old loves, Gryffindor foolishness and warranted Slytherin self-preservation. (Brynhild is quite, quite candid.)





Now, Severus doesn't know what's good for him. In fact, he just doesn't know what's good. He's always had other people to tell him what is good and what is bad. Lily and Dumbledore have told him what to think of his so-called friends. It's just that the people who care for him are bad guys, and the good guys are those who are perfectly willing to sacrifice him. All he has to guide him is the memory of Lily, so that is what he follows. And he goes to meet Nagini.

As soon as I had read Snape's death scene, and noticed that there was no portrait, I knew I had to find a way to get him off the hook. Trouble was, who was going to find him? Brynhild? She couldn't be on the battlefield. I cooked up a few complicated systems to warn Brynhild that something bad was happening to Severus, but ultimately it made more sense to use Avery, who would after all have been in the vicinity. Desmond would have no qualms whatsoever about leaving the Dark Lord to fight his own war and Disapparating to London with Severus's body.

The biggest problem of all with my story is Snape himself. I always pictured him as the ultimate survivor. He had gone through so much as a Death Eater and a spy, and always managed to come out alive. I loved him as an underdog and escape artist. But in DH, he sacrifices himself willingly. That's not the Snape I know. That's not the Snape I like. But it's canon Snape.

"My" Snape would, before he fainted from blood loss, have pulled out a vial of Draft of Living Death (so there would be a point to it being introduced in the books at all) and swallowed the contents. The potion would have stopped the blood loss just before he would have died of it - because that's how the stuff works: it all but stops your heart, so it would also all but stop your blood circulation, so no more bleeding, right? Then his friends would collect him, provide the necessary care (I bet you didn't know that Brynhild's eldest brother Brian is a healer!), and finally Brynhild would kiss him back to life. And all was well!

But... If I'm honest with myself, I don't think canon Snape would be very pleased at being saved. He was okay with dying and rejoining his Lily. So, frankly, I think he wouldn't have taken any Draft of Living Death, and if Brynhild and Desmond pulled him through at all, he'd probably only be annoyed.

*sigh*





So, now you know why I can't get my story written. I'll just keep dreaming.

Comments

[the-winterwitch.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I have to save the reading for a little bit later, since I'm still having several fest entries to read and comment (even for the Minerva fest *blushes* ), but I'm looking forward to it! The sketches look already very intriguing. I love the Snape of the fourth sketch (and his hair! ♥ Flows so nicely), and the last one is ♥♥♥. You are right, I cannot deny that canon Snape would have preferred to die/stay dead. I just hope that when I get, on one very far away day, my story written (which would certainly be my magnus opum, if I dared to use that term), I can write him sufficient reasons not to begrudge me my saving him.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Wah. I really want Snape to live and be reasonable happy - to have something of his own, as well. But it's going to be tough to fit it in with canon. I know that I can do whatever I want, because it's fiction, but I have this inexplicable need to fit everything inside JKR's universe. DH has left me thoroughly confused. In order to know if I can still make it work, I'd have to reread the books, see if I can find any openings, and iron out the inconsistencies in canon. I don't know if I can do that. But I do hope that other people will :).

[brewingtrouble.livejournal.com]

The potion would have stopped the blood loss just before he would have died of it - because that's how the stuff works: it all but stops your heart, so it would also all but stop your blood circulation, so no more bleeding, right?

Not to be gruesome here, but it IS possible to bleed out, even when the heart is no longer beating (treatment of meat animals depends on this fact, to ensure that no big, ugly clots of blood remain in your steak or chicken fillet... because if the blood pools too long, ANYWHERE, without heartbeat or some force to move it around, it will clot). It just depends on what physical position the body is in when the heart stops... same as if you had a big flexible sealed tube of water arranged in a pile, and then slashed a big hole in it at some point. If the wound area is above the majority of the water, only what is above will drain out. If the wound area is level with or below the majority... major blood loss can still occur. It's clear from prior canon that Nagini's venom is an EPIC anti-coagulant, so the blood might as well be water, in the case of anyone bitten by her. So in the case of our dear professor, even if his head and neck were kept above the rest of his body (to preserve the majority of his blood), most of the blood in his brain would drain from the neck. He'd be in real trouble unless the potion somehow preserved brain function and health without the presence of blood (which is possible... yay magic). Otherwise, best case scenario (survival), we're talking major brain damage, and I think we can agree that he'd probably rather die than be handicapped for the rest of his life. :/

[sigune.livejournal.com]

...Er... Magic Can Do Anything, then? It's good to know, though, that no rescue is going to work unless Snape collaborates with magical means - that is, that he has the wish to save himself. Otherwise, I don't suppose Avery could arrive in time to prevent any serious damage to the poor Professor :/.

I wasn't aware that Nagini's venom is such a coagulant. If I ever get it into my head to try and fix this story, clearly I'll have to brush up on my canon knowledge. Where has it all gone? :p

[brewingtrouble.livejournal.com]

... that was how I read it, of course, that they were having trouble stopping Arthur's bleeding because Nagini's venom was anti-coagulant (and probably generally anti-magical-healing), which was why they gave him stitches, to Molly's horror.

It's okay.. doesn't matter. feel free to disregard everything.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

LOL! Why would I? You make excellent points XD!

As I said, there's so much I have forgotten in the meantime - even from OOTP, which was my favourite in the series :/.

[cabepfir.livejournal.com]

So this is the epic fic of doom, isn't it? Thanks for telling it to us!
Putting together the pieces of "canon" Snape is a desperate entreprise. I don't get how a person who should be supposedly heartbroken over a long lost love could also enjoy being sarcastic. Snape should have been depressed from the start, not just snarky and sharp-tongued. I don't understand the need for the Order to use Snape as a spy - couldn't he just kill Voldemort in one of their meeting? Oh, right, there was the Prophecy, that litany of bullshit that DUMBLEDORE turned into action by sending Snape reporting it to Voldemort! It's so absurd. I'm sure Dumbledore, Snape, Frank Longbottom, Moody etc could have defeated Voldemort during the first war, had Dumbledore allowed Snape to pour something into Voldy's tea. Ah, but no, there were the Horcruxes. It seems to me that each one of these devices were created to prevent the only logical course of action: to let Snape kill Voldemort back in 1980, and then to take immediate care of the Horcruxes (Regulus knew about them!!! How could Dumbledore care about their existence only twenty years later?) .

Sorry for the rambling. It's all so messed up in canon.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

It is. So many elements in the plot are just not logical - it seems to me that JKR had a list of things that needed to happen, and didn't really care how her characters got there. I doubt that I can find good explanations for all the strange leaps, and for some reason I can't rid myself of canon.

I have always had a problem with the prophecy - probably because I don't understand how anyone can believe in that kind of stuff. Prophecies are things that come true when people make them come true. I always thought that Snape only told Voldemort what he had heard because 1) he thought it was nonsense and wouldn't hurt anyone, and 2) he thought the thing had no value because Dumbledore couldn't be bothered to detain him over it. That's how I would reason, I think :).

Most problems with canon come down to shallow world-building, I think. The fact that we never get a proper definition of what Dark Arts are, that we don't really know what Grindelwald did, and some magic that we do know gets changed along the way (Secret-Keeping being a prominent example). Very frustrating, that. Especially if you have as little imagination as I have :(.

[cabepfir.livejournal.com]

As we say, Rowling put too much meat on the fire, and then forgot to explain why such things were there, because the story was about Harry, you know, not about all the other characters she invented as backgrounds.
What did Snape do as a Death Eater? Mystery.
Why does Slytherin house exist if all the teachers believe they're evil, and actually put this belief into the young people's mind? As Snape tells Dumbledore in a one-shot by *ls269:

""You can't pull children away from their friends at the age of eleven, pronounce them to be ambitious, make them sleep, eat and socialize with other children you've decided are ambitious, disapprove of everything they do, show preferential treatment to their enemies, and then pretend to be surprised when they turn out to be ambitious enough to kill. You decided, ten years ago, that I would kill for my own advancement." He leaned his chin on his upturned palm, and muttered sourly: "And everyone said you were the cleverest wizard in the world. I didn't realize I could argue with you, until now." http://ls269.deviantart.com/art/Days-of-Dunder-156614308 (how do you add links on lj?)

Why doesn't Dumbledore Obliviate Snape after overhearing the Prophecy? Only to make him feel guily because of the red-haired Gryffindor's impending death? (you already wrote, once, about the inconsistencies in the timing of the Prophecy's delivery and Snape's overhearing Trelawney.

And I can't understand how someone who should be devastated by sense of guilt could at the same time be also self-confident and dignified.

Not to mention the fact that Voldemort is the most lame villain in history.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Well, he can certainly learn a thing or two from Shakespeare's Richard III... ;)

I've had this discussion with *Vizen in your journal on dA. She says that Dumbledore doesn't Obliviate Snape because he wants the delivery of the prophecy to be Snape's choice. But that just doesn't work for me. If you are always going to leave everything up to each individual's judgement, you have to abolish law and education. For me, Dumbledore can't preach and not interfere at the same time. He should have stopped Snape. And if he doesn't stop him, he can't blame him for transmitting the prophecy afterwards. In that scenario, Dumbledore is as much to blame for Lily's death as Severus is, because he knows as much, if not more, as Severus does and he consciously refrains from acting. So my conclusion is that Dumbledore let Snape go because he wanted to create a nemesis for Voldemort. In other words, he *wanted* Voldemort to hear the prophecy. That's the only thing I can conclude from the facts as offered in canon. Ugh! Now - plot-wise, that's not necessarily bad; but then to say that Dumbledore is the "epitome of goodness"?! O_O

Ah, Dumbledore's policy of non-interference... I can't believe some characters in canon call him "a maddling old fool". He certainly doesn't meddle when he should!

Re: your quote: I just wish that conversation were canon :P.

BTW, links are scripted like this:
< a href="URL">text of your choice< /a> - without the extra spaces after the <, and obviously with a real URL where I typed "URL" :).

[cabepfir.livejournal.com]

Shakespeare's Richard III kills eleven people (only two of them with his own sword) and becomes king of England. Voldemort struts and frets in front of his Death Eaters and does nothing about actual power. Rowling leaves everything in such a vague state that I even didn't notice that he had taken the Ministry of Magic - because we were caring about Bill and Fleur's wedding.

Oh, sure that Dumbledore wanted Voldemort to know about the Prophecy; but that was ruthless toward Snape, Lily, James, Harry, Frank, Alice and Neville Longbottom. Fulfilling the Prophecy would possibly mean creating Voldemort n. 2, while Voldemort n. 1 could have been defeated by his own means - as Regulus tried to do, seeking the locket Horcrux. Snape was a spy? He should have told Dumbledore of the sudden disappearance of Regulus, or made deductions by himself.
Ah, I don't believe Snape changed sides after discovering that Lily was the target, if this wasn't clear.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

So, what's your theory about Snape's defection?

I originally had him defect when Toby Wilkes got killed by Aurors for something he no longer believed in - that made Severus realise that he didn't want to die for Voldemort's cause. Oh noez, no romantic explanation! ;P

[cabepfir.livejournal.com]

I phrased wrongly, I'm sorry. Of course what Rowling says is that Snape turned to Albus after Voldemort's choice. But I don't buy it. When did 21-years-old Severus become stupid? Are we to believe that everything DE was ok for him, a part from the little detail of Lily being in harm?

As for the troubles in the Prophecy's timeline, the explainations presented by Red Hen Publicationsmake more sense to me.

My pet theory is that young Severus joined the DE because of his love for Dark Arts - which are Dark only if someone calls them like that. (and because I have Tobias involved in miners' strikes against Thatcher, but that's another story). But he's soon bored by the fact that none of his fellows is enough interested in delving into the theoretical possibilities of "Dark" magic. I don't think he's sadistic enough to enjoy the DE's sporting activities. He's possibly disgusted by them after a few tryings. And then arrives Regulus' defection, which makes him reflect. A few people believe in a friendship between Snape and Regulus, and I don't find it improbable. In any case he's unsatisfied.

Then starts my AU trip, in which some DE go to Spinner's End to taunt Eileen because she had married a poor Muggle involved in Muggle politics. And despite his own impatience toward his father, Snape cannot tolerate something like that.
Another scenario is the one in which Voldemort, prior to the Prophecy, asks Snape to kill Lily, and Snape refuses. Voldemort suspects that Snape is going to leave him and sends someone to hurt Eileen, as a theat. Snape hadn't thought of betraying Voldemort before, but he does now. Just because Voldemort is very stupid in dealing with his own supporters.

I'm puzzled by the fact that Rowling apparently decided that every parent or grandparent had to die. We are supposed to believe that Eileen and Tobias are dead, but are they really? And Harry's grandparents are all dead? I'm almost 30 and three of my grandparents are still alive.

I'd like to let Eileen have a role, somehow, in this situation. It's barely plausible that she disappeared in thin air after delivering Severus and quarrelling with his father when he was 9.

[branquignole.livejournal.com]

"But in DH, he sacrifices himself willingly. That's not the Snape I know. That's not the Snape I like. But it's canon Snape."

THIS. I've always had issues with that too, the way Snape acts in DH. For me, it just doesn't fit in with my prior image of Snape and it's always kind of nagging my subconscious.

This was very interesting to read. (And the sketches are wonderful as well!) I love your take on Snape and his time as a Hogwarts pupil. You're right, he seems to be awfully alone in canon, always on his own out there, and it just doesn't seem right, it breaks my heart. Before DH, I also believed in a good relationship between Dumbledore and Snape, but in the end it turned out Dumbledore was just using him, and I thought, so that's it, yes? I just don't think it should be. Anyway, this is to let you know how much I am in love with you for making up plausible scenarios of Slytherins who are not eternally evil joining the Death Eaters. Slytherins definitely can't be the ultimate evil as which they are portrayed in canon. They need love and huggles too! :)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Yes, they do :). Mind you, when I look at my old outline of Art of Darkness, it seemed like 90% of my death Eaters were at the point of defection, which is probably a bit overly optimistic on my part ;P...

I remember that just after I'd read DH for the first time (at Sectus in London), I was completely disillusioned, disenchanted and disappointed. But I attended a panel which happened to be full of Snarry shippers. They weren't annoyed with canon at all - they had been used to ignoring it for years! I rather envied them the ease with which they invented their way around canon. Me, I have always felt bound to it, which isn't making things any easier :(.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

This was intensely fascinating! Having my own giant epic WIP languishing unfinished, I can related to this entirely.

I adore your OFC...she is so unabashedly awesome. In fanfic, so often people are afraid to make their characters even the least bit unlikeable. They don't understand that sometimes that adds such a dash of character! I love that your character is part-hag, and is a bit vain. Awesome.

You rock so much!

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Nawwww. I didn't even have the courage to revise my pr_snape story for posting in a regular archive. I really feel bad about not carrying on. I started working on it, but the mojo was simply gone. Which is probably what happened to you as well?

Brynhild is great fun to write. Of course, if I'm honest, she's rather a lot like Snape - if Snape were a woman, part-hag and with a different social background, that is ;). I think I had the most fanficcing fun when I was writing the two of them with their children for Phoenix Rising. And I'm wondering if I should give Art of Darkness another try. Then again, I have my Gawain Project. I wouldn't put it on the backburner in order to write fic - but should I have new Snapish inspiration, I'd write. You never know :).

I don't understand about people being afraid of giving their characters unlikeable traits. With Gawain, I have exactly the opposite: he's supposed to be so very nice and polite, I'll have to go against canon to make sure he's human and interesting and a teensy bit badass XD! I like my friends nice, but my characters a little bit nasty ;-)...

[blue-nadir.livejournal.com]

Extremely well thought out and EXCEPTIONALLY well drawn. :) I must agree that my fascination for the character crashed and burned when Canon!Snape turned out to be... entirely unSnapely... :( I haven't been able to force myself to draw or write anything Snape-related since DH came out. It really is as if the character died for me. I am glad that you got the electric paddles out though - CLEAR! :)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I wrote only one fic since DH, and it's beyond awful (it's the only one of my fics that makes me gag when I reread it). Art still works though, because visually Snape is still the same :). I'm less bothered by canon when I draw. Writing - just doesn't work anymore. Making this summary, though, and doing the pictures, I'm wondering if there's any chance I might one day go back to it. But I have real trouble shaking off canon - I envy people who can just ignore those bits that they don't like. Me, I have to explain them away, and if I can't explain, it's not going to work.