teddy_radiator | Teddy's Desert Island Fics

A conversation on FB about favourite stories got me to thinking. I love the SSHG ship; I believe in it, I champion it, and I'm proud to write it. I fight for the integrity of it, and applaud and fangirl its writers.

I have read literally hundreds of fics. Some have been incredibly good. Some have been so bad I didn't get past the first chapter. Some left me bereft that I will never write with that much eloquence and beauty.

It made me think - what are my favourite SSHG fics of all time? What are the ones that I re-read over and over, or read only once and was so stunned, I locked it away, only to read in case of emergency and I have to read something powerful enough to jump start my heart?

And mostly, in the unlikely event that I became stranded on a desert island with only my e-reader and its charger for company, what are the fics I would want on it? These aren't necessarily the classics or the most popular fics of our ship, just the ones that I return to again and again. These are my go-to's, my comfort food fics, the ones on constant rotation on my Kindle.

So here, in a bit of order, are my top twelve (cause I can't count) favourite SSHG fics. Some are playful, some are just sexy, some will tear your heart out. I will put a link when I can find it. I'm sure there are tons more to add to this list, but as of today, July 6, 2013, these are the ones that came to mind.

12. Dear January - Redskyatnight. A two-chapter short about our pair finding themselves neighbours following Hermione's divorce. Both are perfectly in character, sexy and the atmosphere of the time itself (the last days of December, right before New Year) is amazingly whole and richly austere. Redsky took all her fics down a few years back, but I managed to snag them before she did.

11. Ressurection Man - Redskyatnight. Another Redsky short fic that is deliciously rich in humour, characterisation and story. Auror Granger is sent to investigate the sudden appearance of a creature that sounds, scarily enough, like a zombie. She runs into her former Professor, who finally admits that there is a possibility that one day, completely by chance, he may have accidentally created a zombie. Redsky only wrote about 5 fics, each one like a Rolls Royce, and this is her sexiest, wittiest and most exciting by far. Redsky loves a dirty talking Snape, so naturally, I love Redsky's Snape.

10. The Occluded Soul - Aurette. It would be remiss of me to compile this list without at least one Aurette, and this is the one I read over and over again. While it is not one of her most popular or well-known, it is one that spoke to me, mainly because it touched on the subject of how casting an Unforgivable kills the killer. Aurette's Severus is usually a broken man, and this one is more broken than usual. It is a testament to his and Hermione's characters that he can be made whole again.

9. The Secret's In The Sauce - LadyTuesday. This delicious little romp is from the 'Sex or die' trope, and few tell it with such gleeful lemons as LadyTuesday's Secret. You know the drill; Hermione is hit with a nasty curse which imprints her on the first man she sees. Of course, it's meant for Dumbledore (in those heady days when we didn't know), and of course he decides the best course of action is to put his Master Spy on the case, who just happens to have the antidote (as well as an impressive repertoire of ways to help a girl out). It's told with its tongue firmly implanted in Hermione's cheek.

8. Phlebotonum - lizzyann. Another trope romp, this time it's a massage that does the trick. Again told with a light touch, it features Severus as the reluctant administer of a special ointment that will cure a nasty hex. While it is PWP, as the reader, you feel quite intimate with them, as if you are watching from a distance. I also appreciate it for the fact that Severus is so human in it. It is such a beautifully rendered character study of a man who would rather be anyplace else than where he is, yet finds himself torn between duty and his own all-too-human attraction to his student. “I am striving to maintain some distance, Miss Granger,” he said, voice tight. “Your reactions may be hex-induced, but we both have to live with what I do.” As the reader, so do we, and at the end, we absolve him because, in his place, we probably would have done the same thing.

7. Wrapped Around Your Finger - JadeOrchid. Not one, but two of my fics were inspired by this story. It is sort of a reverse dystopian fic. The good guys won, but then became a different version of the bad guys. Hermione is given Severus Snape as a spoil of war, and the psychology of how the victor treats the vanquished is explored as Hermione tries to come to grips with why it seems so important to punish Snape, and why her punishment is taking such a warped turn.

6. Caged Bird Sings - Literary Beauty. I was just getting into SSHG fanfiction when this story was originally posting on Ashwinder, and LiteraryBeauty not only posted regularly, but told us how many chapters to expect. I read each one eagerly. Hermione wakes up in a cell, held captive by none other than her former professor, Severus Snape. She’s scared, alone, and confused about her feelings for her unwilling captor. How can she know what is real and what isn’t when he won’t tell her anything? It is a story with hints of Stockholm Syndrome and the most ambiguous Severus Snape there is. He is also mesmerising and so compelling you completely understand why Hermione falls for him. The ending, I'm afraid, left me feeling very dissatisfied, but it is a testament to the story that I still read it, even though I wish the ending had been a little more developed.

5. An Army of Snapes - Ladyofthemasque. Another author I would be remiss not to include is LOTM, who, despite becoming a very successful o-fic author, has graciously left her SSHG fics available for another generation to enjoy. Again, probably not her most popular or well-known, but Army of Snapes is one I love to read to have a laugh, a sigh, and enjoy some non-stop smut. Heavens, but that woman could write sex well.

4. Spatial Transformation - Camillo. This charming, sparkling one-shot is one of my absolute favourites. A witty, warm story of love and transfiguration, it shows the growing love Headmaster Snape has for Hermione, even though everyone thinks he's either joking when he's serious or serious when he's joking. He's so damn lovable and real you just want to take him home with you, especially when he confesses he has no clue about some of the acts Hermione is talking about. It's Argus Filch who has the best line of the story, though.

3. Out of the Depths - Laurielove. Again, this was one of the fics being posted for the first time as I was just getting into the ship, and it has stayed with me. It is lush and frankly sexual, but so intense and erotic I love reading it. Her Severus and Hermione are so on fire for one another that you can't help but enjoy their passion. I love how Hermione draws a very broken Severus back together, and how his growing pains are so very painful in the early stages. It is thrilling to see him pull himself together in the end.

2. That Language He Has Never Spoken - madqueenmab. Words fail me when I try to explain this story. It's so stunningly heartwrenching. Snape is a man running on empty; he has accepted his fate, until he truly gets to know his irritating student Hermione Granger. Told completely from his POV, he is cold, and ruthless and frightened and resigned, puzzled that he's getting away with his flagrant affair, knowing he needs to end it, and falling desperately in love with her, even as he dreams of her making love to Lily. It is psychologically disturbing in its emotional wrenching. You ache for him, even as he coldly tells himself why he does what he does. It is deceptive as well; you don't realise it is killing you until you are reading the last few sentences and gasping for breath, wondering why you can't see the screen and discovering it's because you are sobbing so hard your tears are blurring the words. One of the most devastating stories I've ever read, and I masochistically return to it over and over, knowing it's going to break me all over again every time. It haunts me.

1. Seven Preposterous Things - Bloodcult. As if there could be another number one for me. I have never made it a secret that of all the stories I have ever read, this one is my all-time, without-a-doubt favourite. Aside from the fact that Bloodcult has created the most interesting, flawed, amazing, bloody-minded, brilliant Snape that has ever walked the literary earth, the story itself is so rich in characterisation and storyline that it flies by like the roadtrip movie it is. It really is a foursome of a novel, with Millicent Bulstrode and Draco Malfoy as the brilliant and amazing co-stars. It is cinematic and epic; I 'see' this fic every time I read it. The prose is wonderful, and Bloodcult pulls no punches and gilds no lilies. She looks on both the Magical and Muggle world with a gimlet eye, and you are forced to do the same. And underneath the actual story, which sings like the Mormon Tab and Apple Choir, is the magic itself. Bloodcult brings the entire concept of magic to life; how magic manifests itself in different individuals, and how it can be used and syphoned from wizards into witches. She also touches on the secret life of Purebloods, and why their way of life and the Muggle mindset are so different. She asks questions that zoom so far past JK Rowling's original ideas as to become their own Lexicon.

What makes this even more astounding is that it is a WIP. Now, Bloodcult has hinted that she plans to finish it, or at least put us out of our misery as to how it ends, but I do not want you to do into this story without knowing this, and I don't want you to be put off by it, either. This story is good enough to read even if you don't know how it's gonna end. For most of us who love this story, we read it anyway, and adore it and read it over and over. If you look at my kindle at the moment, this is what's currently being read. I cannot tell you how much I love it. If you start it, you will too.

There will be other top tens for me; I haven't even touched on the Exchange fics I adore, or other fest stories I fell in love with, and I will try to give you that list one day, but this story will be number one on every list. Every.List.

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