The Heart's Obligations by SchemingReader (PG-13)

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Fandom: HARRY POTTER
Pairing: Snape/Lupin (plus other canon/non-canon pairings)
Length: 66,000 words
Author on LJ: schemingreader
Author Website:
Why this must be read: Just in time for Rosh Hashanah (which, for any interested parties, begins at sundown tomorrow night) comes my rec for a story that's one of the most original and smart AU's I've seen in this or any other fandom. Let me say right at the start that while this is most definitely a Snape/Lupin romance, it's anything but a conventional one, and the romance is not the only point of interest in the story. In fact, if there were no focus on the decades-long relationship between the two men at all, this story would still be a triumph of world-building.

"The Heart's Obligation" begins in a shtetl in Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th century - where both the brilliant young Severus (here called Shammai Gruen and the son of an agunah - an "abandoned woman") and the spiritually strong, but physically weak Remus (Zev Volf Edel) live. [note: for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Yiddish terminology used so far in this rec, schemingreader has thoughtfully provided a useful - and necessary - set of author notes for her story, linked on the main story page.]. The yeshiva in which Shammai goes to study is run - in practice, if not officially - by Rav Leibl Dworkin (think Dumbledore with a prayer shawl), and it is he who decides that Shammai and Zev Wolf will be chevrusah (or study partners).

When Shammai first sees Velvel, he feels like he's been punched. The other boy is beautiful! He didn't even know boys could be beautiful like that. His eyes are grey-green and long lashed and set wide apart, and his plump lips are curved into a slight smile all the time. Shammai usually doesn't notice what other people look like at all, and now he can't stop staring at this boy. He knows that he is ugly so it shouldn't surprise him that another boy could be beautiful, even though he thought only women could be beautiful.

He tries to explain it to himself. It's like when he would go with his mother to the house of some rich client, and they would give him cake and tea. He didn't notice he was hungry until he started to eat, he never does. Suddenly he would realize he was hungry and chilled, and then it was cake he was eating, not black bread, cake. Every bite was something rich and beautiful and rare, and the tea hot and sweet. He knew he was savoring something that other people took for granted, being warm and full of the sweetest things. Perhaps that's why he thinks Zev Volf Edel is so beautiful.

Velvel is a very gentle boy; his manners are perfect. Shammai feels like a rude inkblot next to a pristine signature. Even Velvel's laugh is gentle and quiet. Shammai generally doesn't laugh when he's studying. Except when he studies with Velvel, they actually do laugh, often just from pleasure. Velvel has a great way of asking questions. He knows the personalities of the commentators and can anticipate what they are going to ask. Shammai loves this.

What amazes him, finally, is that Velvel seems to like him. It happens gradually, but Velvel begins to wait for him part way to the yeshivah, though he walks in from further out of town and at an earlier hour. Shammai still has to rise early to chop the wood for his mother's stove so that she can sew. Velvel waits to meet him in the town square where he lives in his family's big house, casually, as though he just happens to be awake at dawn.

Shammai says, "You, um, you don't have to wait for me. Your lips are blue." Then he thinks, Why did I say that, I'm so graceless. I should thank him first.

Velvel looks embarrassed and a little panicked. "My lips are blue?" He is worried this is a sign that his heart is not pumping the way it should. Sometimes when his heart skips he loses circulation.

Shammai says, "It's cold," and looks at the ground.

Velvel is relieved. "Yes, it's just cold out, that's why my lips are blue."

What? Shammai is confused. "I just meant, you don't have to…"

Velvel says "It's good for us to go over the reading before we get to the shiur. You know when we get there, it's time for shacharis right away, there's not a minute to review. I like to review with you. Also it's a mitzvah to arrive early at the house of study "

Oh. Velvel slides his hand into Shammai's hand. Shammai can't think. They walk for a moment this way, and then it's too cold and they have to put their hands in their pockets. Velvel starts asking Shammai about what he has studied since Shabbos.

***

I've read many excellent AU's over my years in Fandom, but I think this story is the one that's going to stay with me the longest. It is, at the same time, as fresh and creative as any work of original fiction and utterly true to the spirit of the HP canon. - and it has, at its heart, the kind of emotional truth in its characterizations that is only found in the best fanfiction.

Read "The Heart's Obligations."

Comments

[alphadelt.livejournal.com]

Ah. I had this bookmarked for a very long time now, never got around to reading it. :x Every time I see it, the whole story - the names, the whole Jewish aspect, everything - just goes right over my head.

But I'm gonna give it a try now, starting with the author's notes!

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Do give it a try! There's no arguing that it's not a particularly easy world for most readers to enter, but it's definitely worth it (I actually looked up some words as I was reading the first section, but after that, it all started to feel familiar).

[jedirita.livejournal.com]

This is one of my absolute, all-time FAVORITE Snupins. Utterly brilliant. Totally original, yet unmistakably Harry Potter. Can I throw in any more adverbs? Let's not, because Schemingreader has such a pure, spare writing style that adverbs would only pollute it. It was like, reading this story cleansed my soul.

I really need to carve out a week to reread it.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

*nods* That was one of the great things about doing recs this month: getting to re-read all these excellent stories (because, yes...I'm just obsessive enough to need to re-read 665,000 words of HP fanfic *g*) - and this is one of my very favorites.