Old Skool Rec: Harry Potter
July 2nd, 2009It’s from 2007, which I guess is maybe old in internet years? I’ve been thinking about Harry Potter and its (crazy) fandom, thanks to the new movie previews everywhere. HP was my first crazy fandom, and the first fandom that I read vast amounts of fic in. Good fic, bad fic, and everything in between. The HP fandom was a lot of firsts for me, and I love fanfic for its power to make me look at things (particularly societal/cultural expectations/norms/taboos) in different — and hopefully more open-minded — ways.
When I first tiptoed into HP, the whole HP/SS thing was all, “Ick, no thank you.” But, in the way of these things, it turned out that lots of good authors were writing HP/SS, and (as I told myself at the time) after all, they magically have extra-long lives, making the age difference less significant. Anyway, I got over it.
And then I read this story, which turns the whole age dynamic thing around the other way, which made me look at it all over again, and see how I felt about it. I think of this story frequently, as an example of how perceptions shift.
The Living Years, by DementorDelta
HP, Harry/Severus, post-war, Severus was de-aged to an infant and is taken in by Draco, Harry becomes part of his life as he grows up
“Severus wants to meet you,” Malfoy said as Harry shook himself out of the memory. Malfoy looked over his shoulder and Harry followed his gaze. Snape was holding on impatiently to Gabrielle’s hand, craning his neck to see them both.
“Oh,” Harry said not sure why he was suddenly nervous of a seven year old, “Sure.”