Goodbye Septimia, Hello Eileen...
Tuesday, 9 August 2005 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
siguneAfter the publication of a new Potter book, there inevitably comes a point at which the writer of fanfiction sobers up, recovers from her excitement and inspects the damage J. K. Rowling has wreaked on said fan writer’s cherished creations. It is a painful moment that calls for serious decisions and reconsiderations.
So here is my accident report – with pictures…
On the whole I can be fairly satisfied. By and large, the view of Snape I have espoused and written into my stories has come out quite unscathed. Ever since my first one-shot I had established that he was an impecunious half-blood with a pure-blood mother; I only had the father wrong. My Stephen Snape was a lower middle-class half-blood wizard with a Muggle mother – but at least I was right about him not being a Dark sorcerer (and that has always been a pet peeve of mine).
Fic shot down as a consequence of Mr Snape being called Tobias and not being a wizard:
Mirror Mirror (my only chaptered fic, written entirely from Stephen Snape’s point of view. Sigh. How I’ll miss the grump…)
Not only has Muggle Mr Snape entered the stage; he has also brought his wife, the not-so-delectable Eileen Prince, formerly Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Club. That means Septimia DeQuincey, Dark witch, is no more.
Fic shot down by the unfortunate demise of Madam DeQuincey:
A Lesson in Darkness and Light (essentially an exposé on Dark magic, but interwoven with the tale of Septimia DeQuincey and her family)
Fic shot down by both the above, and the fact that the scene of Severus’ childhood seems to have shifted to Yorkshire:
Purity: A Snape Tale (the wand story I submitted to the SH Spring Faire, first chapter of a WIP; has a lot of Stephen and Septimia, and a lot of London)
Hurt, but not quite lethally, as a consequence of the Parent Trap:
The Return of the Prodigal Son (my firstborn, the story of how and why Severus Snape decided to turn to Dumbledore – the core still stands, but it had quite some family history entwined in it)
Very, very slightly scratched:
The Tunnel (my angsty version of the “Prank” – contains a passing reference to Severus’ father being a member of the Wizengamot. Actually I could just make that ‘grandfather’ and the whole thing is saved…)
The Dark Night of the Soul (a character study of Snape in the wake of the events of PoA – replace ‘the DeQuinceys’ by ‘the Princes’ and everything fits canon like a glove – wheee!)
Bruised by the introduction of Professor Slughorn, of his taking up the position of Potions master in Harry’s sixth year, and by the fact that Blaise Zabini’s mother is a witch:
Professor Snape’s Address (my one sixth-year fic, which has, depending on your view of Snape, become either uncanny or particularly powerful; its survival depends entirely on Book 7.)
Two fics that remain entirely unharmed (yay! go Brynhild!):
The Good-Morrow
As She Likes It
Actually, whereas several people have clamoured that since HBP Snape romance has become an impossibility, I find that my version of precisely that has been well left alone and has, if anything, become more plausible. But maybe that’s just me. And I have to admit that it has been pointed out to me that Snape/Brynhild isn’t romance at all :o).
I am still not sure what would be the best thing to do: adapt the ‘saveable’ stories to the new canon information, or leave them to stand as they are…
HBP has luckily left my comic-in-progress (which I hope to start posting soon) alone. That is something of a relief, because honestly I couldn’t face having to re-draw any of my painstakingly crafted pages (eurgh! All the cross-hatching! I hate it!). But the news on the art front is not uniformly good: at least two of my drawings and many, many sketches have now become AU – on account of Eileen Prince. I am posting them here as a goodbye to an original character that I will miss a lot: Septimia DeQuincey. I know it’s stupid, but it hurts…
The Kitchen Scene is the first finished picture I ever did of my!Snape family. It was loosely inspired by, as you well may guess, Harry’s look inside Snape’s memories in OotP and it is an illustration to Mirror Mirror. I know Septimia is not exactly cowering; she is past that point. Her robes are what I picture to be sixties fashion for witches; Stephen is wearing what is supposed to be a Hit Wizard uniform.
I know that my perspective leaves a lot to be desired; I don’t seem to get the hang of it and this is about the best I can do :o(.
“Mama’s Boy” has remained a pencil sketch because the paper doesn’t lend itself to inking very well. Yes, I know Septimia is sitting on air – but she’s a witch, after all! – No, the lame truth is that I drew the figures first and then failed to properly draw a chair for them (perspective, sigh). I really am an amateur, you know. But despite the missing chair I have a special fondness for this picture, because for once I managed to suggest tenderness. It also shows why I cannot simply replace ‘Septimia’ by ‘Eileen’ in my stories: Septimia is (meant to be) a beautiful and soft kind of woman, an image that is hard to reconcile with the sullen/cross and unattractive Eileen as pictured in HBP. I don’t think I can keep the DeQuincey backstory for the Princes either.
And so here is the alternative, updated portrait of Mrs Snape and her son: “Two Princes”.
This time I have given little Severus short hair. Considering that he in all probability spent his childhood in a working-class Muggle neighbourhood, I don’t think his parents would have had him wear his hair long.
As for Eileen, I hope she looks reasonably plausible. It proves very difficult for me to erase the picture, character and story of Septimia from my mind and create equally acceptable ones for Madam Prince. Who is she? Why did she marry a Muggle spinner? What does she argue about with her husband? What is she going to do about the failure of her marriage? What house was she in at Hogwarts? Was she really only good at Gobstones? And why Gobstones, of all things? What did/does she mean to Severus? Did she abandon him, like Septimia did?
I really could not begin to get a grip on her as a character until I had drawn her. Now she is slowly starting to make sense to me, and I hope to be able to work her into my two chaptered WIPs soon.
So here is my accident report – with pictures…
On the whole I can be fairly satisfied. By and large, the view of Snape I have espoused and written into my stories has come out quite unscathed. Ever since my first one-shot I had established that he was an impecunious half-blood with a pure-blood mother; I only had the father wrong. My Stephen Snape was a lower middle-class half-blood wizard with a Muggle mother – but at least I was right about him not being a Dark sorcerer (and that has always been a pet peeve of mine).
Fic shot down as a consequence of Mr Snape being called Tobias and not being a wizard:
Mirror Mirror (my only chaptered fic, written entirely from Stephen Snape’s point of view. Sigh. How I’ll miss the grump…)
Not only has Muggle Mr Snape entered the stage; he has also brought his wife, the not-so-delectable Eileen Prince, formerly Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Club. That means Septimia DeQuincey, Dark witch, is no more.
Fic shot down by the unfortunate demise of Madam DeQuincey:
A Lesson in Darkness and Light (essentially an exposé on Dark magic, but interwoven with the tale of Septimia DeQuincey and her family)
Fic shot down by both the above, and the fact that the scene of Severus’ childhood seems to have shifted to Yorkshire:
Purity: A Snape Tale (the wand story I submitted to the SH Spring Faire, first chapter of a WIP; has a lot of Stephen and Septimia, and a lot of London)
Hurt, but not quite lethally, as a consequence of the Parent Trap:
The Return of the Prodigal Son (my firstborn, the story of how and why Severus Snape decided to turn to Dumbledore – the core still stands, but it had quite some family history entwined in it)
Very, very slightly scratched:
The Tunnel (my angsty version of the “Prank” – contains a passing reference to Severus’ father being a member of the Wizengamot. Actually I could just make that ‘grandfather’ and the whole thing is saved…)
The Dark Night of the Soul (a character study of Snape in the wake of the events of PoA – replace ‘the DeQuinceys’ by ‘the Princes’ and everything fits canon like a glove – wheee!)
Bruised by the introduction of Professor Slughorn, of his taking up the position of Potions master in Harry’s sixth year, and by the fact that Blaise Zabini’s mother is a witch:
Professor Snape’s Address (my one sixth-year fic, which has, depending on your view of Snape, become either uncanny or particularly powerful; its survival depends entirely on Book 7.)
Two fics that remain entirely unharmed (yay! go Brynhild!):
The Good-Morrow
As She Likes It
Actually, whereas several people have clamoured that since HBP Snape romance has become an impossibility, I find that my version of precisely that has been well left alone and has, if anything, become more plausible. But maybe that’s just me. And I have to admit that it has been pointed out to me that Snape/Brynhild isn’t romance at all :o).
I am still not sure what would be the best thing to do: adapt the ‘saveable’ stories to the new canon information, or leave them to stand as they are…
HBP has luckily left my comic-in-progress (which I hope to start posting soon) alone. That is something of a relief, because honestly I couldn’t face having to re-draw any of my painstakingly crafted pages (eurgh! All the cross-hatching! I hate it!). But the news on the art front is not uniformly good: at least two of my drawings and many, many sketches have now become AU – on account of Eileen Prince. I am posting them here as a goodbye to an original character that I will miss a lot: Septimia DeQuincey. I know it’s stupid, but it hurts…
The Kitchen Scene is the first finished picture I ever did of my!Snape family. It was loosely inspired by, as you well may guess, Harry’s look inside Snape’s memories in OotP and it is an illustration to Mirror Mirror. I know Septimia is not exactly cowering; she is past that point. Her robes are what I picture to be sixties fashion for witches; Stephen is wearing what is supposed to be a Hit Wizard uniform.
I know that my perspective leaves a lot to be desired; I don’t seem to get the hang of it and this is about the best I can do :o(.
“Mama’s Boy” has remained a pencil sketch because the paper doesn’t lend itself to inking very well. Yes, I know Septimia is sitting on air – but she’s a witch, after all! – No, the lame truth is that I drew the figures first and then failed to properly draw a chair for them (perspective, sigh). I really am an amateur, you know. But despite the missing chair I have a special fondness for this picture, because for once I managed to suggest tenderness. It also shows why I cannot simply replace ‘Septimia’ by ‘Eileen’ in my stories: Septimia is (meant to be) a beautiful and soft kind of woman, an image that is hard to reconcile with the sullen/cross and unattractive Eileen as pictured in HBP. I don’t think I can keep the DeQuincey backstory for the Princes either.
And so here is the alternative, updated portrait of Mrs Snape and her son: “Two Princes”.
This time I have given little Severus short hair. Considering that he in all probability spent his childhood in a working-class Muggle neighbourhood, I don’t think his parents would have had him wear his hair long.
As for Eileen, I hope she looks reasonably plausible. It proves very difficult for me to erase the picture, character and story of Septimia from my mind and create equally acceptable ones for Madam Prince. Who is she? Why did she marry a Muggle spinner? What does she argue about with her husband? What is she going to do about the failure of her marriage? What house was she in at Hogwarts? Was she really only good at Gobstones? And why Gobstones, of all things? What did/does she mean to Severus? Did she abandon him, like Septimia did?
I really could not begin to get a grip on her as a character until I had drawn her. Now she is slowly starting to make sense to me, and I hope to be able to work her into my two chaptered WIPs soon.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 10 August 2005 12:25 am (UTC)In your care, Tobias and Eileen will be fascinating to read. And now that all the HBP hoopla is beginning to subside, fanfiction readers are still enjoying pre-HBP stories.
I'm eager to read your back story on Tobias and Eileen, because I can't come up with any possible explanation for them getting together. Who are these two people who appear entirely unremarkable, yet produce a most remarkable son?
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 10 August 2005 09:11 am (UTC)(Sometimes I think that people who read my fics must be under the impression that in my view, frustration makes the world go round, LOL...)
Thanks for not noticing the missing chair! :-)
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 10 August 2005 05:09 am (UTC)I had no idea you've written so many fics! Wow!
There are so many new ideas to ponder about HBP. It was Snape's book! I'll be excited to see what you come up with post HBP.
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 10 August 2005 09:24 am (UTC)My two WIPs had me worried quite a bit because they were both started in the autumn of 2004, and I clutched at my heart for fear they might end up totally shredded - but apart from the wand chapter I submitted to the Spring Faire, Number One is quite all right; and Number Two is a bit bruised but is going to be fine.
So, unless solitary plot bunnies wander into my garden and upset my writing plans, my HBP-era début will consist of a chaptered fic, to be followed by yet another chaptered fic - featuring humour, Dark magic, friendship, OCs, Mrs Norris and soup, among other things.
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 10 August 2005 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, 10 August 2005 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, 10 August 2005 05:50 am (UTC)HBP canon-shafted me so badly that all the walking funny probably until book 7 comes out
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 10 August 2005 09:31 am (UTC)HBP dealt quite a few blows, but then again you at least managed to bravely reinvent yourself as Queen of the Alternate Universe instead of throwing in the towel. And judging by Emmeline Vance you aren't satisfied with the AU alone... - You are an example to many :-)!
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 10 August 2005 10:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, 10 August 2005 11:06 am (UTC)Oh Alicia, that is *such* good news! My knowledge of Yorkshire is rudimentary and I was really beginning to worry about the limitations that puts to my writing... But you will be able to save me! I always knew you were miraculous, but now it has been confirmed!
There must be a way to get Snape to say, "Eh, bah goom."
-Eh? O_o
Yes, well, that's the kind of thing I mean... It was
no subject
Date: Thursday, 11 August 2005 03:38 am (UTC)It's really "Eh, by gum." It's just a stereotypical thing for northerners to say, much like having an Irish character say, "Top o' the morning, to be sure, to be sure." (And I was only joking, I wouldn't really let you use it.)
My mother's partner (the Yorkshireman) has this on his kitchen wall, which I've been thinking about in terms of Snape:
Yorkshire Tyke's Motto -
See all, hear all, SAY NOWT
eat all, sup all, PAY NOWT
and if ivver tha does OWT FER NOWT
allus do it fer THYSEN
Insofar as the language though, adult Snape doesn't seem to have a strong accent. He's not written phonetically like Hagrid, which I take to mean that Harry doesn't particularly notice the way he speaks, and he is eloquent about his passions (his introductory speeches in Potions and DADA). So at some point, yes, he's learnt to speak posh.
no subject
Date: Thursday, 11 August 2005 09:41 am (UTC)at some point, yes, he's learnt to speak posh.
And I'm reckless enough to write about him *before* that point. *sigh*
no subject
Date: Thursday, 11 August 2005 10:39 am (UTC)Have you read Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell? I loved it, and she had a game stab at an Austen-esque style of writing, but, oh! there were parts of it that made me want to shout at it, "Just GET ON with it!" Anyway, it posits a whole alternate history of England, with a kingdom of magic in the north. It's not necessarily a view of magic compatible with the Potterverse, but it's interesting nonetheless to have another view on a sense of "otherness" and a history of difference in English magic. (Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South is your sort of era for study, isn't it? It's not brilliant, but it's also a good take on the differences between, well, north and south. And there was a BBC mini-series of it last year, so you could even see actual Spinner's End-style streets!)
I'm also fairly sure that someone (possibly the Lexicon?) has worked out that Little Hangleton is in Yorkshire as well - and that opens up all sorts of interesting thoughts, doesn't it? Poor young tyke Snape, picked on by those well-off southern lads, finding out about that great northern family, the House of Gaunt...
Neville, too, is clearly a northerner, a Lancastrian. And just look at all that trouble between York and Lancaster in the War of the Roses. I wonder how Snape got on with Frank Longbottom at school?
no subject
Date: Friday, 12 August 2005 10:56 am (UTC)I'm rather fascinated by the House of Gaunt - by stupid details such as, why *Gaunt*? It's just that I happen to live in Gaunt, which is (as you probably know) a corrupted form of the city of Gent in Flanders, Shakespeare's John of Gaunt being Jan van Gent... Not that I believe JKR was thinking of 'my' city when she picked the name - she wants the English meaning, I suppose - but still, historically speaking...
I didn't know Little Hangleton was supposed to be in Yorkshire as well... Are we to conclude that the north of England is conducive to magic? Where is Hermione from, incidentally?
Longbottom - do you think he was a contemporary of Snape's at Hogwarts? I always supposed he was at least a few years older, or otherwise he must have been excluded from the Marauders for some mysterious reason...
no subject
Date: Friday, 12 August 2005 02:03 pm (UTC)Clarke's view of magic is far more detailed than JKR's. It's more like Terry Pratchett's elves. Her idea is that there is a fairyland (for want of a better world) and centuries ago there was traffic between our world and theirs (this isn't spoiling the book, by the way). Magicians were firstly students of the visitors, and later scholars who studied their works. At the beginning of the novel, there are only enthusiastic amateur scholars left, until Norrell (a Yorkshireman!) becomes the first proper English magician (ie one who actually does magic) in ages.
My source for Little Hangleton's alleged location (I also just checked about Hermione's home, but I don't think we've ever been told that). I think if you went anywhere in Britain you'd find a history of magic and witchcraft, and Yorkshire would be no exception. I wasn't trying to say that it's conducive to magic necessarily... more that if you're, say, a poor but clever young Yorkshire wizard with a huge chip on your shoulder, you might take pride in learning about past glories.
You're right, of course. I've always assumed Frank Longbottom was a bit older than Snape & the Marauders too. I was just getting carried away by my historical musings...
no subject
Date: Thursday, 11 August 2005 08:28 am (UTC)And I'm ever so excited to see that you and your beta are planning on taking on Tyke!Snape in your story, even if he does lose the accent right quick. Can't wait for that..and what's this about a comic???
no subject
Date: Thursday, 11 August 2005 09:24 am (UTC)As to Tyke!Snape, I hope Alicia will be able to add some couleur locale if necessary, because I wouldn't dare for fear of getting it all wrong :-). It will be hard enough for me already to cut down on the Victorian novel phraseology and make characters speak 'plain' - I have my reasons for always writing Snape, Dumbledore and McGonagall *grins*... I don't plan to start writing phonetically, but slipping in some vocabulary and turns of phrase would be great. Goodness, I have to start studying 'West-Yorkshirese'...! -I'm so happy that I have Toby Wilkes ready to teach young Snape literary English (and that was planned long before HBP).
The comic - well, that's a loooong-term project (because very time-consuming) now counting eight pages (yay) and essentially telling the same story as The Tunnel: that of the "prank". (I am absolutely fascinated by that episode.) The comic version allows me to highlight different things than the prose version does, and it also makes for a lot of Snape visuals and close-ups :-D. Anyway, I'd like to post it here, with sketches and comments, as "Sigune's How Not To Draw Comics". *grins*