Babblings and Giggles

Title: Troth

Author: celandineb

Excerpt:

It wasn't a wizarding restaurant, nor even a particularly high-class Muggle establishment for that matter. Cheap and mediocre Italian was the cuisine on offer, but the place close by and perfectly adequate for the days when neither of them felt like cooking. Severus confessed to liking the tagliatelle alla bolognese, while Remus was fond of the bread basket placed on every table. The owner's son was the baker, and the bread was always hot, fresh, and delicious.

Commentary: Bread. Good Italian bread with rosemary - how can you go wrong? And I would totally have Remus's response to Severus, having been fed this bread first. (Well, I would anyhow, but you know what I mean.

Source: Cook's Illustrated, May/June 1997 - Rosemary Focaccia

( Rosemary Focaccia )

Title: Breaking Bread Together

Author: celandineb

Excerpt:

Remus glanced down and realised that he had reached across the table and taken Severus's hand in his enthusiasm. It was warm and bony and he could feel the calluses on Severus's skin before he hastily let go, murmuring an apology. To cover his embarrassment, he took a sip of wine. Severus had already had a bottle open, and it was excellent.

They changed conversational topics to the less sensitive one of Quidditch as they ate the main course, another dish that Remus had never had and that Severus called a quiche. It was a sort of an egg pie, with bacon and onions and cheese mixed into the egg, and seasoned with subtle herbs as well. Like the rest of the meal, the flavour was simply marvellous, so much so that Remus was unembarrassed about asking for a second slice. Accompanying the quiche were cooked tomatoes, their sweet acidity complementing its richness.

Severus, not having taken an additional helping, finished eating first, and watched Remus as he ate his last few bites, again with that inscrutable expression on his face. Remus's breath quickened under the heated gaze, and when he laid down his knife and fork, aligning them neatly on his plate, he ran his tongue over his lips to see how Severus would react.

Commentary: Again, not exactly what Severus cooked, but I don't make real quiches. *g* This onion pie has onions and cheese and tomatoes (although no bacon) so it's kind of a combination of the two dishes mentioned in the story.

Source: Anna Thomas, The Vegetarian Epicure - Cheese and Onion Pie

( Cheese and Onion Pie )

Title: Breaking Bread Together

Author: celandineb

Excerpt:

Remus stood uncertainly in the kitchen doorway, watching Severus bustle around. His movements were deft and sure and altogether he gave off a rather depressing air of competence. Well, he had been first in their class in Potions every year, doubtless earning an Outstanding N.E.W.T., and cooking wasn't perhaps so different from potion making, when you got down to it.

He didn't like to interrupt Severus's concentration and so he stood silently as Severus worked.

"You could carry these to the table now, if you would." Severus indicated the several bowls and dishes that were ready, and Remus gladly complied.

"It all looks marvellous," he complimented Severus as they sat down.

Severus flushed. "Thank you."

They began with three oysters on the half shell each, something that Remus had never before eaten, but which to his surprise he found delicious. The starter was followed by a light yellow soup, potato, he thought, but with something else as well, and bits of what he guessed might be mushroom, woody and complex in flavour.

"This never came out of a tin, did it?" Remus asked, although he was certain in his own mind as to the answer. "Is it difficult? Do you have a recipe?" Not that he himself was much of a cook, but for something like this, he would be willing to put in more effort.

"My own invention," Severus muttered. "No recipe. Er. How is new your job going?"

Commentary: The color of this soup is very much what I imagined the soup Severus makes in the fic to have looked like, although there are no mushrooms in this recipe and certainly no aphrodisiac herbs!

Source: Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Soups and Stews - Russian Potato Soup

( Russian Potato Soup )

There is exactly one set of Snape/Lupin offerings in hp_art_tales, and it's mine. Submissions close today (November 29).

The first point has been awarded in Stuff the Stockings! Remember, you have to go back to the main post and leave a link if you've been advertising snupin_santa for the contest. Don't forget, there are fabulous prizes at stake, including your own copy of Chocolate & Asphodel, v. 2. (While you're waiting for the exchange to start, you might consider perusing C&A2 and offering some comments to the contributors)

The Recipe Challenge is drawing to a close. November 30 is the last day for posts on the community. After that, it will be up to drusillas_rain's discretion if she'll accept e-mailed entries as she works on compiling the book.

Be sure to read over McKay's "Coming Soon" post for Snupin_Santa. There's lots of good information there, especially if you plan on participating in Stuff the Stockings.

There are some new holiday icons here from whitestar, but artists, we're still looking for more. In fact, Whitestar has offered to add her iconing touch to any art I can send her, so consider submitting some art soon if you want to see it receive the delux icon treatment. ~_^

If you're involved in the Print Calendar project, your art is due December 15, don't forget in all the holiday madness!

Speaking of calendars, I'm going to go ahead and remind you to switch to December's desktop calendar now. The art is by the very fun, very talented tripperfunster, and it should be very useful in such a busy month!



Finally, I want to thank all of the members here for being such great, generous participants in the community. There's been lots of searches and requests lately, and I'm seeing many new and different members speaking up to help out or volunteer. I'll never stop saying this - you are the reason this community continues to be a warm and friendly place for Lupin/Snape fans, and you're each wonderful and invaluable. Thank you all!

LJ-only users, please forgive me for not making a post with LJ links, but I promise you that all the posts linked here have a LJ equivalent post. I'm just super-rushed because company is on my doorstep!

snupin_santa in less than two days! EEEE!

love, lore

Takes the Cake by Arionrhod and McKay has been updated with another chapter. It's up to ~32,000 words. Non-magical AU, rated R.

Note: I realize this story is being updated more slowly than our collaborations usually are. It is finished, but I'm the one who does the editing and posting of our collaborations, and I'm not withholding it on purpose to make people wait for more; I'm editing and updating as I can after being body-slammed by the usual end-of-semester grading madness plus an unexpected RL event that has eaten up what little free time I have at present.

I promise I will get the remainder edited and posted as soon as I can. However, I'd appreciate understanding and patience, rather than pointed comments about withholding feedback/ratings/whatever because it isn't finished.

Thanks very much!

May I ask if anyone has on file the story "Revelations" by Adrienne? It is the third part of her (unfinished) trilogy, "Perdition", "Redemption" and "Revelations", one of the best early Snupins I've ever read, in spite of the depressing themes it addresses (incest and child abuse). I thought I had saved it, but have recently discovered that in last year's computer crash, it has been lost.

Stories added to Moonshadow, the Snape/Lupin archive, during the past two months:

Title: Alpha Male (29 K)
Author: sweetmelodykiss


Title: Back (4 K)
Author: astopperindeath


The archive is located at http://www.ssf-moonshadow.com

Also, the Crack Broom masterlist-by-author is now current.

Title: The Way of the World

Author: McKay (scribbulus_ink)

Commentary: McKay's "Way of the World" contains some wonderful domestic scenes between Snape and Lupin in the kitchen, where, for example, Lupin teaches Snape how to cook (and survive) in the muggle world.

McKay already posted a great recipe from the story, so I hope no one minds that I'm posting one for brownies inspired by this delightful scene:


Excerpt:

"Laugh at me, will you?" Severus snarled. "You'll pay for that!"

And suddenly, Severus reached into the bowl, scooped up a huge handful of batter, and advanced on Remus.

"No -- Severus, you wouldn't!" Remus stared at him, wide-eyed, as he began backing away.

"Oh, wouldn't I." Severus' voice was a silky purr now, but his smile was pure evil.
( Remus couldn't help but think that batter-covered Severus would have been even better. )

( Easy Brownies recipe )

Title: Smooch
Author/Artist: jin_fenghuang 
Rating: PG
Pairing(s)/character(s):Snape/Lupin
Summary: Just a sweet little kiss
Warnings: none
Notes: This drawble is for r_grayjoy  , who writes the most awesome limericks ever XD

But, um, mostly to the Americans amongst you! ;D

Title: the invisible line
Rating: R
Pairing: Snape/Lupin
Warnings: unbetaed, post-DH.
Word Count: ± 2,050 words.
Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just borrowing them for my twisted means.
Summary: maybe one day we won't need to stay in the dark.

Arionrhod and I are looking for a story that's Remus/Severus/Regulus, but it starts off with Remus and Regulus together, not Severus/Regulus, and Severus was brought in later. Remus hated the way Sirius was treating his brother, and he and Reg got involved. Marauders Era, not very long (we think).

Any help would be appreciated!

Oh my dearest Snupineers, I don't do this often... but it is driving me (and Zephre... who I've bugged) CRAZY.

I'm looking for a fic where Remus is confined to a wheelchair, and Severus is forced to care for him. Dark!Harry, who is clearly trying to both keep Remus secluded and get Severus thrown into Azkaban.

Help??? Pwease?

Title: Takes the Cake

Author/Artist: Arionrhod and McKay

Excerpt: [Remus admired] the large photographs of cakes which decorated the corridor. They were all winning confections from past shows, and he couldn't help a small feeling of pride at the sight of his own two winning creations. He always did his best to create cakes which tasted as good as they looked, and he rather thought that his own specialty, which was fondant, made his compare quite favorably to the other winners...

...When Severus entered the conference room in the wake of his network liaison, Pansy, he swept his gaze around the room, curious to see whom he'd be competing against since the network had kept the participants list hush-hush. He'd only competed against one of them - Potter, whom he considered an arrogant little snot - but he knew the other two by reputation. It took considerable will power not to roll his eyes at the sight of Trelawney, whose works were praised as being "avante-garde", but which he called "artsy-fartsy". He'd take great satisfaction in seeing her eliminated, especially since he could scarcely believe she'd scraped a win to qualify her to be here in the first place.

He was better pleased by the sight of the third competitor; he'd never competed against Lupin, but he'd seen the man's work in other competitions, and he could - albeit grudgingly - admit that Lupin had deserved his wins. Severus himself had two photographs of winning cakes hanging on the wall of fame he and Draco had passed on the way in, which put him ahead of Trelawney and even with Lupin, if he remembered correctly.

Commentary: Well, it's cake! Granted, it's not as cool or as fancy as those created by the competing chefs in the story, but still... cake!

Source: Hershey's Classic Recipes cookbook

( Hershey's  )

Title: Snark and Bark RPG

Author/Artist: Arionrhod and McKay

Excerpt: When Severus stepped out of the Floo, Remus turned to him with a smile, taking his arm and heading toward "their" table. It had been some time since they had been to the pub, and even longer since Remus had been there with his memories intact. "I have to admit, I'm dying for a cognac," Remus murmured as he slid into a chair, loosening the sling so that he could rest the baby's weight in his lap. "I'm looking forward to us having a drink and relaxing. But no pea soup. Gah! I can't believe I actually ate that stuff!"

"Not only did you eat it," Severus said with a smirk, "but you craved it." He might let Remus forget that in another thirty years or so, but not before.

Commentary: Arionrhod and I began writing Remus (her) and Severus (me) in the RPG in 2004, and pea soup became part of our characters' story. It began when Remus craved pea soup during his pregnancy despite not actually liking pea soup; Severus discovered he did like it, and it became one of his favorite dishes. The love it/hate it dichotomy is now a long-standing foundation for teasing between them that continues to this day.

Source: Fix-It and Forget It Lightly, by Phyllis Pellman Good

( Split Pea Soup )

snupin_santa is coming and he's bringing presents to all us good little girls and boys. And for one especially enthusiastic Snape/Lupin fan, a hard-copy of Chocolate & Asphodel, v. 2!


The rules are simple (sort of, hee!). Promotion posts for the exchange on other communities, comments left on Snupin_Santa entries, and recommendations will all be awarded points. Whoever gathers the most points from right now to January 6 at Midnight EST will be the Ultimate Stocking Stuffer!

( More Detailed Rules and Point Scoring Under The Cut! )

That all sounds great, but what do I win again?
The person who amasses the most points will win a bound copy of Chocolate & Asphodel, v. 2 UNLESS....

If the winner reaches more than 75 points, he or she may have their choice of the following: C&A2 bound (will need to be mailed), paid journal time (6 months, any journal or blog, even LJ), fan art from a well known Snupin artist, an icon set (negotiable), or volunteer uploading of up to 15 works to Moonshadow.

We will award second- and third-place as well with smaller, but still cool! prizes.

So, what do you think? Questions, clarifications? We made this a point-based contest so that everyone would be starting from a level playing field. It's open right now - you can make a promotional post right away - and will close January 6. I am looking for a second volunteer to count comments on the gift posts at the web site, IJ and LJ. The lovely zephre has already volunteered to be one of our counters, but we want a second one for verification. If you're interested in volunteering, please write me at the mod mail (lupinsnape @ gmail.com, no spaces).

I can't wait to see everyone stuffing the Snupin Santas' stockings! ^_^

love, lore

A week from today, posting will begin for Snupin Santa 2009, and there are just a few things I want to go over before we get started.

Posting will begin on December 1, although I can't guarantee I'll stay up until midnight in my time zone (GMT -5) to post the first gift, which means it may be late on December 1 or maybe even December 2 for those of you in earlier time zones. Sorry about that, but Santa has to sleep.

POSTNG:
I will post either one or two gifts per day throughout December with the exception of December 25 and December 31, on which there will be no gifts posted. The big reveal will be on January 7, 2010.

All gifts will be posted in full on the Fest website with announcements containing basic header information and a direct link to the gift on both Livejournal and Insanejournal, but I won't be posting the full text/image of the gift either at IJ or LJ.

So basically, you can receive updates when new gifts have been posted in one of three ways:

Snupin Santa Fest archive
lupin_snape on Insanejournal
lupin_snape on Livejournal

The gifts posted most recently will appear on the main page of the archive (scroll down until you see the red bar reading "Most Recent"), and all gifts posted within the last 14 days will appear on the Recently Added page. All gifts posted for the 2009 fest will appear on the Snupin Santa 2009 category page in alphabetical order by title.

Let me remind anyone who has not used eFiction before, if you don't like the look of the site, you can change it. There are detailed instructions on how to change the appearance of the site temporarily or permanently on the Help page (along with other useful info). There are several other "skins" to choose from, so everyone should be able to find something they like or at least can live with if they don't like the default skin for whatever reason, but if not, they're welcome to find an eFiction 3.0 skin they do like and send me the zip file of it.

Fest-related news will be posted to the News section of the website (scroll down until you see the red bar reading "Site News") as well as on IJ/LJ. The most recent news posts will be on the main page, and all news posts, including older ones, will be in the News archive.


LEAVING FEEDBACK:
Unfortunately, anonymous commenting is not enabled at the Fest site because someone posted a link to a piece of art on the site in an unprotected area (either they didn't have the "limit inclusion in searches" checked on their journal or they posted the link to a site/forum that doesn't block search spiders), which resulted in that piece of art being flooded with 4000 spam comments. The Snupin Santa Fest site itself does block search spiders, and only one particular piece was targeted, which is how I know it came from an unprotected link. At any rate, it forced me to disable anonymous commenting for the site; I didn't want to do it, but I didn't want to leave the site vulnerable to more deluges of spam either.

However, that does not mean you must register for an account at the Snupin Santa site in order to leave feedback for our authors and artists. You have three options for leaving feedback:

1) Sign up for/sign in to your account on the Snupin Santa Fest archive

OR

2) Leave a comment on the individual gift announcement post on Livejournal. All gift announcement posts on LJ will have comments enabled.

OR

3) Leave a comment on the individual gift announcement post on Insanejournal. All gift announcement posts on IJ will have comments enabled.


NOTE TO PARTICIPANTS:
1) Once the gift you created is posted, whether it's a story or art, if there is a major problem that needs to be fixed, you may email snupin_santa @ yahoo.com and one of the elves will fix it. Minor tweaks, such as typos, will need to wait until you can fix them yourself in January when I flip the gifts from the Snupin Santa account to the author/artists' accounts.

2) Writers might also want to check the text of their story to make certain it's all there. I double-checked to make certain there weren't copy/paste errors when uploading long stories, but accidents happen.

3) DO NOT leave any comments on IJ, LJ, or the archive that might reveal who you are! This is an anonymous exchange, and we want to keep everyone guessing until the master list is posted in January. You won't be able to answer feedback comments anonymously on the website, so you'll have to wait until January to reply, but I'm sure in the interest of maintaining the anonymous fun, no one will be offended by the lack of a speedy response.

4) I strongly advise using the comment tracking system at both IJ/LJ, even if you don't normally use one or the other. There are people who will comment only at IJ and people who will comment only at LJ, so if you don't check your gift post at both places, you might miss some feedback. If you have an account at IJ/LJ, all you have to do is click the thumbtack icon at the top of the post. If you don't have an account at both places, you can always bookmark the post and check back.

5) I will NOT accept revisions of gifts that have already been completed and submitted after November 26. If you've already requested that we use a revised version of your story/art or you send in a revised version by the 26th, the revised version will be uploaded to the Snupin Santa fest site. However, I'm setting a deadline for revisions because I've already begun uploading gifts, and I'm busy enough as it is without having to deal with a flurry of last minute changes and having to upload gifts twice. After the 26th, you'll have to wait until January when I flip the accounts to make any major changes/revisions because I need time to get the gifts uploaded and ready to go by December 1.

That's all our preliminary business out of the way, so all that's left now is to wait for the Snupin Santa sleigh to arrive! There will be over 50 new RL/SS stories and graphics posted between December 1-30 - all eras, all ratings, threesomes, long stories, short stories, smutty art, sweet art, romance, dark themes, holiday cheer, tear jerkers, and happy endings. No matter what flavor of Snupin is your favorite, I guarantee there will be something for everyone!

I found a wonderful piece of art by karasu_hime that was used for the calendar's December image. I thought it would make a wonderful icon. Please be sure to credit karasu_hime for the amazing art :)

These are the only icons I've made so far of this piece. If any of you have an idea for some simple text that a lot of you would like to see added to one of the icons, let me know and I can create it. Please do not change any of the icons in any way.


1) 2) 3)

4) 5) 6)

7)


* Credit karasu_hime for the art.
* Credit whitestar for the icon.
* Please comment (comments are love ^_^)
* Save to your own hard drive
* Do not alter
* Most of all, enjoy! :)

Title: Standing Outside the Fire
Pairings: Snape/Lupin (explicit) and Harry/Hermione/Draco (implied only)
Rating: NC-17 this section. Brought to you by Dizilla who convinced me I could write porn, Thanks Diz!
Author: azurerosa
Summary: How does a Gryffindor court a Slytherin until he wants to be part of his life?
( Standing Outside the Fire part seven, final part )

Title: Propositioned
Author: alisanne
Rating: PG
Pairing: Severus Snape/Lucius Malfoy
Summary: Lucius makes a good point.
Word Count: 100
Warnings: None that I am aware of.
A/N: Written for magialuna, who correctly guessed my snarry_ldws fic. Magia requested Snucius, prompt: distraction
Beta: sevfan
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.

Propositioned