sigune | Art & Drabble: November

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Art & Drabble: November

My entry for the Pure-Blood Prince Fest at

e_prince_snape, and cross-posted there...

Title: November
Author/Artist:

sigune
Rating: G
Pairing(s)/character(s): Eileen Prince (& Tobias Snape)
Challenge: Pure-blood Prince fest. My prompt was #63, "photograph".
Summary: In November 1959, Tobias Snape gets it into his head to take a photograph of his wife.
Warnings: none whatsoever.
Notes: I signed up for art, but ended up writing a 100-word drabble alongside it :).

November

When he entered the house whistling, Eileen groaned. He had fixed the thing, as he had said he would. She knew there was no escape now.

“Go on, into the light with you!” Tobias ordered, triumphantly waving the old camera at her.

“Sentimental nonsense,” Eileen muttered; but she hoisted herself out of her chair, and pulled on a coat and hat against the crisp November cold.

Once outside, watching her husband fidget with the camera, she could not stop a faint smile of amusement from curling her mouth. Very well, then. But she refused to look at the stupid birdie.

~*~*~

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oh, this made me smile so broadly :DDD
I always think of tobias being cruel to his wife and now you created such a lovely scene + a very nice picture.

this is ♥

Thank you :D!

Yes, I belong to that very small minority of people who believe that Tobias is not a bad lot. Before HBP, I used to roll my eyes at all those people who said he must be a Dark wizard, haha, and canon proved me right ;P! That said, maybe I like him too much, and canon will prove me wrong in that respect... *g*

hehe, well I don't know exactly... I just remember that memory of severus where his parents argue, though that doesn't prove tobias being cruel *scatches head* and now I can't remember where I got that info from, lol.

try to convince me some more ;D
although an abusive father seems to fit into the picture..

I don't have a lot of proof or anything - just my belief that a man who shouts at his wife doesn't necessarily beat her and/or his child. Also, we just get this one image; we don't know what has gone before. Some readers argue that the fact that Eileen cowers and that little Severus is crying points at physical abuse; but a small child will cry when a parent so much as raises his/her voice, and words alone can be hurtful enough to make an adult cower too.

I guess I just saw too many stories in which Snape père is a drunkard and Dark wizard who hits and humiliates his wife and son. That always compels me to paint a different picture with the same evidence ;).

I agree on what you said, but unfortunately I can't think of it the way you do :-\ not in severus' case. we just get to see (/read) some glimpses of his past and to give us something which is actually not as bad as we think it is on first sight would be kind of unfair, wouldn't it? 8D;
I know jkr is good in making us believe certain things and then leaves us gobsmacked :P and I wish for severus' sake that he had a nice childhood, but as hard as it is I think there were many bad things going on at his parents' home :(
(btw, isn't tobias a muggle?)

I can understand your pov though and as I said, it made me smile reading and seeing it for once the other way :) very sweet.

(btw, isn't tobias a muggle?)
Of course he is! But we didn't know that before HBP. I wrote my first fic about Snape's father (and read lots of them) before HBP came out. I'm just saying that most, if not all, stories I read about him then pictured him as a Dark wizard (because all mean people are Dark wizards, right? ;P), a drunk and an abuser. Oh, and a pure-blood of course. I never went with any of those. Because my guesses of mixed blood and no Dark witchcraft were right, I considered myself sanctioned to continue with my other intuitions as well ;D.

I have to tell you frankly that I abhor melodrama, and I am just not interested in telling a story that excuses Snape's behaviour by blaming everything on his evil daddy. Besides, there are other ways of having a horrid childhood than having a father who beats you. I like to go for the less straightforward reading :).

Now it's just a matter of getting my WIP of Doom written to show you what I mean... *g*

Of course he is! But we didn't know that before HBP
oh true! my fault, I should definitely read hbp again. I'm still stuck with the 5th book, I wanted to reread the last two to refresh my mind on the events again :)

but yeah, most likely people think a bad person also means a dark wizard in this case, but that severus isn't a pure-blood after all surprised me greatly, I remember. but it gives his whole backstory so much more depth, don't you think? well, I love the fact that he isn't part of the whole 'pure-blood' generation.

Besides, there are other ways of having a horrid childhood than having a father who beats you
of course! I wasn't just blaming his dad, there are (or can be) more things for sure, but since you were right on the mixed-blood-part already, perhaps I should trust you some more ;D
haha. I hope there'll be some more details about him in the last book, but I'm afraid, there won't.
everything will mostly concentrate on HP, the horcruxes and voldemort probably.. not much space left for snape-backstory :P (unfortunately). imo there could be an entire book series about his past (and I'd so read it, lol).

Now it's just a matter of getting my WIP of Doom written to show you what I mean... *g*
ooh, how interesting, now you made me really curious! :D
let me know when you finished it!

Outside? Does poor Tobias have no flashlight? ;)

Both the drabble and the painting are very lovely.

LIke you I've always disliked the many stories that portrayed Snape's father as a horrible man, who abuses both his wife and his son. And in one of my stories, I felt compelled to come up with another explanation for the memory of him shouting and Eileen cowering.

And in one of my stories, I felt compelled to come up with another explanation for the memory of him shouting and Eileen cowering.

oh, I seemed to have missed this one.
where can I read it? :D

You can read it here:

http://veradee.livejournal.com/7205.html#cutid1

It's a first-person narrative, and Snape reflects how his life will go on after he took the Unbreakable Vow.

I had only 100 words so I couldn't explain everything - but no, Tobias doesn't have a flashlight :D. He's found the camera somewhere; he loves to bring home old junk and repair it, and whoever threw the camera away didn't leave the flash behind with it...

I haven't read your story yet - I'll have to follow your link below and check it out :).

Thank you!

Lovely!

I also enjoyed reading the exchange between you and

phistolemon_. I think this drabble and "photograph" could work no matter how you interpret the scene in Snape's head. I think it's even more tragic for Snape if his arrival (particularly if he was the way Tobias discovered Eileen's magical heritage) caused his parents to argue than if Tobias were just bad guy.

I love Eileen's facial expression and the reflection of the other row houses in the window.

What she said!

Both drabble and painting are lovely. I like Eileen's hat! And the blues of it & her dress against the wall. And that you can see the chimney of the mill in the window...

Thanks :D! The drabble is the first thing I've written in ages. I didn't expect it to happen, but there you go ;). Pictures always do help me *g*.

Thank you!

I just don't like characters who are plain 'bad', I suppose. I prefer tragic misunderstandings to very good versus very evil :-).

Two years after HBP, I feel like I'm finally starting to get a grip on Eileen. I'm shuddering to think what DH may do to thwart that! XD

i think this is a lovely piece of work, and a very plausible scenario. (Even if Snape's childhood was an unhappy one, the fact that a witch chose a muggle implies they were in love at some point!)

One question though is the window scene. If Eileen is outdoors, surely we should be looking into a room not a view?

Other than that Eileen is a wonderful portrayal in both drabble and pic!

Thank you!

The window worried me most, and I looked at a lot of windows in the street to try and find out how I should depict the glass. Now, glass is very tricky because it reflects as well as lets you look through. I chose reflection, (the thing that stood out to me most as I looked around), because I absolutely wanted to show Eileen's environment while still zooming in on her. The thing you can most call me to task for is not including Tobias in the reflection, but that was a conscious choice on my part; it would have ended up looking too crowded and take the attention away from what I wanted to stress. Likewise, if I'd shown the room's interior through the reflection, there would have been too much in the window.

I know - I'm always quick to throw realism out of the window for the sake of pretty simplicity :D...

*Applauds wildly for both words and art*

:D

Thanks, Grainne! :D

What I really like, is the line under the picture, "Our Eileen, November 1959" That is very sweet. Oh, of course, I like the art too! I think the reflection was a great idea. The "photo" is so bright, it contrasts nicely with the scene in the window.

I'm glad you wrote the drabble...haven't seen enough Snape fics from you lately!

As for the yelling man...there's quite a few fans out there who think it was either Eileen's brother or father.

Heh, writing... I think I'm doing too much writing for work right now; pictures are the only way to relax. I don't think I'll be doing some real, longer ficcing until my RL writing is done :/. But this picture happened to prompt a drabble, and 100 words I could manage ;P.

The reflection was tricky - somehow I was convinced that glass would shine or something, and that I could use white spaces to suggest a shiny surface, or something of that kind. But then I looked around and saw that it just reflects stuff, though in more muted tones. So I painted the mill in grey rather than the black I'd been planning, and actually that does work just fine with the rest of the picture - I got Eileen in the spotlight and the mill prominently present, but sort of ... less powerful at the moment. Or something XD.

I do think the yelling man is Tobias, primarily on account of a) the scene and b) the nose. I just like to make up a story in which his yelling has nothing to do with drink or abuse ;).

Gosh, I love your drabbles. They really come across as a loving couple here, newly married. :)

And the reflection of the mill -- squee! I think it's perfect. The sun blasting against the window pane from behind the mill would give this effect, I think. My only quibble (apart from the bricks could be grimier ;) ) is that, from this perspective, shouldn't Tobias (and his camera *g*) be in the reflection, too (and his silhouette on the wall underneath)? From the angles of the edges of the windowsill, it looks as if we're directly in front of it, which means the mill must also be. But, hey, this is minor compared to the rest! :D

You're right, Tobias's reflection ought to show in the window etc.; I chose not to add it, for aesthetic reasons - it would have been too much, and the mill was more important to me in this case than he was *g*. I'm always ready to dump realism in favour of simplicity... :P If I think I won't be able to make something look good, I just drop it, mwuahaha! It's the secret of my success ;P...

Glad you like the drabble. I haven't written anything in months now; my ficcing brain is getting rusty.

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Art & Drabble: November

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