Brain Flotsam V2.007

One of the things that bothered me about the end of DH is that Snape never has any idea what happens at the end, and Harry never gets any kind of true closure with Snape or with Dumbledore.
So when I was working on Nanowrimo, I did a lot of writing to try to create some of that closure for them both, and to address the emotional fall-out Harry might have gone through as he processed events.
It really burned me up that there wasn't any mention of consequences for anybody, emotional or otherwise.
Also, hey, hello, has anybody else noticed that except for the moment when he is working explicitly on Dumbledore's orders, the adult Snape does not use an Unforgivable Curse on camera? (Correct me if I'm wrong, here. The only place where it's unclear is in Chapter 1 of DH where there is no dialogue attribution on the "Avada Kedavra" that kills Charity Burbage. But I think we're meant to believe it was Voldemort?)
Harry uses the Imperius and Cruciatus. Heck, McGonagall uses the Imperius! With no fall-out! No straight-to-Azkaban, do-not-pass-go, do-not-collect-Order-of-Merlin. Are they Unforgivable, or not? That's a level of relative morality that I find problematic. Which, I suppose, is why I'm still rewriting the same things over and over again in my fics.  LOL.
So anyway, here's 1700 words or so from my Nanowrimo craziness, in which Snape survives long enough to be put in St. Mungo's in a coma, and Harry tries to work through some of his baggage...

Title: hm, I should have one of those... let's call this "Visiting Hours"
Author: zephre
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,709
Characters: Harry, Snape, mention of others.
Summary: In the days following the Battle, Harry finds that visiting a comatose Snape at St. Mungo's brings some small comfort.
Warnings: angst, oh the angst!

( June, 1998, High-Security Wing of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries )

A re-post from October, when I was confronted with some interesting comments on the issue of fan entitlement and authorial privilege in the fan-book relationship.

reading in a connected world:

But does having such immediate and pseudo-intimate access to an author cause a shift in the way I read their books? Can knowing details of the book's long writing process alter the essential interpretation of the words on the page? Do authorial comments at readings or in blogs trump the basic text, or merely augment the reader/fan experience?

I may have more to say on this if it gets any discussion... It's mostly questions now.