Ask Us Anything!

[alt_moderator]

The cast thread is filling up rapidly, and while we don't have to fuss about comment collapse, it is getting difficult to navigate...

So here's a new post, where we're asking YOU to ask US: WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?

Comments

[synecdochic]

Snape totally knew about Hermione's crush on him, yes. :) He found it vaguely flattering and hellaciously awkward and would not in a million years have dreamed of acting on it because of the terrible power differential in play, both because of Hermione being raised in slavery and because he was her Master. (He'd seen people take advantage of the master/student relationship before and it offended every last one of his ethics.) So he did her the favor of just Not Noticing so they didn't have to have an awkward conversation about it. (And because he's Snape and he's very good at giving the impression that emotions happen to other people, she probably never knew he knew.) He thought it was probably healthy for her to have crushes on people, so he didn't do anything to try to dissuade her, but he knew that she'd never act on it and neither would he, so he was careful to let her know that he loved her but not Like That without coming out and specifically calling attention to the Like That.

If he'd lived and Hermione and Draco hadn't wound up together and Hermione had wound up saying something about it in, like, twenty years or so (once she was well-established as a professional and their dynamic was no longer master/apprentice and Hermione had had a chance to figure out more about who she was as an adult and as a free person) they probably could have been quite happy together! (I am fond of Snape/Hermione as a pairing, but only once you fix the power imbalance inherent to the relationship, both in canon and in Alternity.) But, well.

Snape was definitely celibate between when he got out of Azkaban and when he died, but it was less "still hung up on Lily" and more "I have other shit to do and there's nobody I'm interested in who's worth the distraction from The Cause and wouldn't be horribly unethical to begin a relationship with". (Part of what I disliked about Snape's storyline was the way that JKR portrayed him as still hung up on Lily after twenty years -- I don't think it's romantic, I think it's unhealthy.) Romantic/sexual relationships just aren't very important to him; he wouldn't identify as asexual or aromantic (if he knew the concepts), but he just had more important shit to do. He felt vaguely that there'd be time enough for a relationship after they overthrew Voldemort, and if he died in the process without getting there, oh well.

Charlie, on the other hand -- if he'd ever figured out Hermione had a crush on him -- would have happily taken her to bed, showed her a great time, and stayed great friends with her after, because that's how he rolls.

[(Anonymous)]

Don't get me wrong. I'm not sorry nothing ever happened between them! Like Severus, I'm pretty much just happy that she was well-adjusted enough to form crushes on semi-suitable people. (I kind of wish the Charlie thing had happened, though.)

By the way, I love your take on Severus. He's much more likable without all that baggage. He's still a very damaged man, but it's almost like he's too PRACTICAL to waste his time on self-pity. :)

[synecdochic]

Aw, thanks! I liked to say that it's amazing how much HAPPIER Snape is in Alternity: turns out that 12 years living inside your head in Azkaban leaves you much less fucked up than 12 years of double agenthood and teaching first-year Potions.

[naomikritzer]

Charlie definitely seems like the sort of guy who'd follow the campsite rule!

I'm not sure if Remus ever realized that Hermione had a crush on him. He was not good at noticing that sort of thing, in general.

[gwendolyngrace]

Sirius knew, though! I thought at one point Sirius mentioned it. Maybe not - if not, probably because he knew Remus would go all awkward about it.

Sirius, ftr, also ignored it, but wasn't above using her crush now and then to try to turn it to more of an "he's my uncle / older brother" so she'd grow out of it.

[synecdochic]

Charlie is totally a good camper. And he's pretty much unflappable, which helps. :)

Remus is indeed not good at noticing that sort of thing. He sort of needed to be hit over the head.