Sheesh, I've been gone for a while. I've been away both for fun reasons (a long sailing trip with D, yay!) and for more annoying ones (feeeling really icky, bleah). But I'm having a very good productive day today, after feeling yucky for over a week, so I'm plowing through all kinds of to-do's on my list.

Apropos of which, as I went through all the junk I have to work on, I noticed some problems that make me fear my iBook laptop may be about to give up the ghost. Its touchpad has stopped working much of the time so that I have to work with a mouse attached, one USB port has gone on the fritz, and its screen display seems to be slowly fading into nothingness. I put it next to my sister's newer iBook a few weeks ago, and her display was much much brighter. Now it looks even worse. I really don't remember having to squint this much to use it before. Anyone know what the life expectancy for my poor iBook might be? I'm pretty sure that getting the display fixed would be so pricey I might as well replace the whole computer, but this is a bad moment moneywise to do that. Also, it irks me on principle that I haven't even gotten 3 years' use out of the thing - it's only 2.5 years old. I don't *need* the increased speed and power of a new machine right at the moment, and the idea of transferring everything to another computer sort of fills me with dread. Any suggestions or advice?

*hugs* to my flist, I see lots of stuff going on with you all!

Happy birthday dphearson!!!!!!!!!!!

Go read marinarusalka's sexy, funny Snape/Black ficlet, one of several she's written for those who will sponsor her in the Revlon Walk for Women. Her offer is still open, I believe! Since Snape/Black is what I'd have asked for, I sponsored her for free. *g*

Check out trickofthedark's mischievous bit of art, Hot cocoa with Alastor, the fun and easy way. Heh!

kaiz asks Who Really Killed Sirius Black? Very interesting stuff.

tinderblast discusses accidental magic, a theme I really love and agree isn't used very often. And fluffyllama has an accidental magic meme here.

norah posts another in her very cool series of polls/discussions about sex, this one about sexual wiring (for monogamy or for other possibilities). And in case you missed it, her buttsex poll was also fascinating.

isiscolo posts a meaty review of five fics here. It contains spoilers for the fics in question, several of which are on my to-read list, so I have not read the essay other than skimming it so I could pointer it. But it looks very thorough and analytical, and I'm looking forward to reading it. (The link is, I think, safe to click on. You'll see the list of stories and a spoiler warning, but unless your text is set to teeny-teeny-tiny, no spoilers should show up on the first page.)

Do any other Mac users have help for idlerat's mystery desktop symbol? I've racked my brain, but I have absolutely no idea what it is.

In world news, score one for the cause of unconventional beauty (and this girl is quite cute, if you ask me!)

If I owe you a comment, email or response, I haven't forgotten you! Am working on clearing my backlog...

sine_que_non767 recs some HP gen, with nice, detailed commentary on each story. The ones I've read I loved, and the rest are new to me, yay!

atdelphi mourns that Canon Ruined My Boy!Smut, a short post I found intriguing (and funny!) in light of recent discussions on canon. Comments to the post empathize muchly.

prillalar considers how and why one chooses between past vs. present tense when writing, and the general effect of tense on stories. Lots of great comments here too.

mctabby asks Why did Scabbers bite Goyle? Theories abound!

Coming soon (soon being a relative word here) in darkkitten's journal: the wimpified characters post, a movie vs. book Faramir post, a Boromir/Faramir post with recs, a post on some of the hidden virtues of ff.net, one on patterns in Aragorn/Legolas gen h/c, and a topic I know I promised cathexys - but I forget what the topic was!

If you aren't in my LOTR filter but want to be, let me know; if you want off, ditto.

ETA: to save folks lots of querying, here is my LOTR filter list: _lore, aleph_0, aretina, babycakesin, bowdlerized, caras_galadhon, castalie, cathexys, chasehunts, cursive, dejla, dragon_light, edigo, ellen_fremedon, gotham_syren, ithiliana, jeddy83, jjtaylor, juxiantang, kitsune13, laurelwood, laylah_r, libitina, little_needle, lolaperhapslex, lolaraincoat, louiselux, luthien67, lyricalnights, makesmewannadie, marinarusalka, mimine, naomichana, narie, pii, prillalar, rane_ab, rivetcat, rohandove, savageseraph, semielliptical, spiderine, strangerian, sweetrickkitten, thisveryinstant, wordhouse.

Various people have been posting about and discussing canon and fanon over the past month or two, and each time the discussion has come around I've missed it! Argggh. I've been drowning in my RL recently. But I've finally managed to compile some of my thoughts on the issue here.

( Canon, Fanon and Why I Love Both )

( tradescant interviewed me. Here are the answers )

pauraque made me this lovely icon in Amiu. Isn't it elegant and beautiful? It says "sailor", and it looks like a sailboat! For more explanation of the language (and culture) he's created and how to read this icon, go here. He's also made "schadenfreude" for caesia390.

rohandove, your meme is propagating nicely! It's all over the HP side of my flist now. ( my answers to rohandove's fandom meme )

LJ comment mails seem to be fixed now, which is good, because I can never recall quite where the hell I commented in order to go back and check on the thread.

prillalar has posted her desk, where she writes all her emails and stories. I love this. I love looking at people's spaces, at what they choose to have around themselves every day. I want you all to do this, go take pictures of where you work and create. I want to peek into your world. (And I've taken mine and will post it as soon as D can help me figure out how to access a picture on my stupid mac.com web space, where I cannot for ANYTHING figure out what the URL of a photo is.)

tradescant interviewed me! Answers will be in their own post, coming up next.

My flist has been busy!

norah's vocabulary smut challenge stories are in, and the polls are open through Feb 9. Go read, enjoy, and vote!

laylah discusses "mild bloodplay" and the problems of kink warnings here. In the comments, cathexys also links to a fanfic symposium essay on warnings, which explores related ideas.

justacat talks about betaing as a non-writer here. (The second half of her post is Due South recs, if you are a DS fan.) I am a firm believer in non-writers as betas *grins at cathexys* and I liked this commentary on the process.

tinderblast seeks Snape/Harry stories which do not rely on the usual conceits to get them together (detention, private lessons, etc.) Her discussion of what such conceits lack, and of what she's looking for (older Harry, relationship which takes much time to build, among other things) is really neat. And don't miss the link on the SW Emperor's sexuality!

snapetoy has a lovely post about fannish Lego, with lots of fun links. Hee!

The first set of essays are up on hpmetalist. This week's topic is "Hermione Granger", which I think I'll write for if Faramir and Aragorn can manage to make room for her in my brain. Which is another way of saying that if you are on my LOTR filter, brace yourself for teh meta over the next few weeks. idlerat are you planning to post for this? You have tons to say about Hermione, which I'd love to read.

pauraque has the most organized posting filters this side of idlerat I've ever seen. Amazing.

hpsquick100 is flourishing under its new management. My favorite so far on the topic of Smell is the first Remus/Sirius in a set of two by elsajeni here.

And finally, ( a little rambling on fannish obsession and 1.4 million word fanfic reading days )

D and I are off for a few days of sun and weather warmer than 6 F. Will be back Sunday, when commentary, conference stuff, and other replies/projects will resume.

I am issuing general hugs and wellwishing to all of you, as this looks like it's been a tough month for a lot of people. Please take care of yourselves while I'm gone, eh?

Also, go read maeglinyedi's and isiscolo's threads on feedback stats in their respective LJs; quite interesting. And this is from a bit ago, but marinarusalka has a lovely rant on the Cruciatus curse here if you missed it.

And millions of thanks to castalie and _riz for the use of their pretty icon! (Sheesh, LJ is SLOW tonight!)

OK, I am setting up an LOTR filter, because after watching the 2 extended movies and acquiring a brand new set of the books, which is now in my hot little hands, I think I have some stuff to say. Especially about Faramir, but yes, everything else too. :) I will still subject all of you to any posts that are multifandom/ comparative, but the straight LOTR stuff and any LOTR recs will go under this filter.

So far, the following people are on it: idlerat, lolaraincoat, ellen_fremedon, mimine and castalie. prillalar, semielliptical and cathexys, I also put you on it, squeak only if you want off.

Poll #235173 Want to be in my LOTR filter?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Want to be in my LOTR filter?

cathexys and I had a great conversation the other day wherein she came up with some neat ideas connecting her liking for fics that include body-switching, time travel, gender-switching, and AU's, among others. I'll let her post it, as it is hers, but I thought it was quite cool. isiscolo, you might be interested when she does, as you share some of these preferences. I am in fact a counterexample: I'll read 'em if the stories are good, but I don't seek any of them out.

Anyway, then we considered my odd grab bag of likings. However, it was late by then, and what we ended up with was the proposition that ( darkkitten likes her fictional characters tall, dark and miserable. )

So, um, I signed up to do merry_smutmas back in October, received the most wonderful gift fic ever from snapetoy (whom I had not met, but need to go fangirl wildly now!), and was in the process of writing my fic for my poor recipient, when my real life imploded. The amazing cluegirl (of Mort o Merce fame, the newest Snape/Black goddess in my personal pantheon) stepped in and pinch-hit, making sure that my poor recipient, femmequixotic, had a very merry smutmas anyway, and received some lovely, hot hot Snarry art and a bonus poem. I owe her many many thanks! And I feel bad about missing the deadline. :(

But I see that femmequixotic is having a rough couple of days, so I thought I would offer her what there is of my original present anyway. I normally never post WIPs, and this fic is not finished, but this first part does at least contain a complete smut scene. So though the (paper-thin) plot doesn't reach a climax, a couple of the characters get to. It was turning out longer than I intended, and I couldn't think of a way to shorten it and still make it complete before the deadline. But, femmequixotic, it was written especially for you, (ask chase *g*, I kept hounding her about what you like!) and I wish you a merry smutmas anyway! *holds out sad little forgotten, newpaper-wrapped package*

So here are the first 3 sections of a story that will eventually have ten sections, about the first quarter of the fic. I've another 3500 words of Snarry written, but they don't work well enough yet (and aren't smutty enough) to add to this post. I do plan to fix and finish the story, but it could be a long time before that happens. Warning: this bit is unbetaed and unBritpicked, so Chase, Cathexys and Atropos have not had a chance to make it better, which they always, always do.

femmequixotic requested Snarry with a side of Tonks/Hestia, and sex in a public place. This snippet has a bit of Snape and Harry, but it's Tonks and Hestia who get the smut, so femmeslash ahoy. (And ack, I really hope it works OK, I've never tried femmeslash before.)

( For hp_femme: Tonks/Hestia, sex in a public place, SS/HP UST (if you squint hard); NC-17 (Warning: WIP )

Real life sucks. Especially in the winter when you cannot sail. I was going to rant about various things that have kept me in LJ exile, but now that I've written the above few sentences, I think that pretty much says it all, and the details would only be boring. But I'm back, and I missed you guys, much! It will take me a little while to get caught up with what's going on with all of you.

Random question of the morning: who/what is bnfmdeathmatch and why has he/she/it friended me?

And some musing this morning on the allure of the Future King, or ( why I find Aragorn/Strider insanely sexy right up until the moment of his coronation, at which point I completely lose interest. )

I'm alive, but still in self-imposed LJ exile while I attack a frighteningly long list of RL tasks. I MISS YOU ALL! Will be back this week, I hope!

I'm headed out of town to the land of no internet access, and will not be back until the 28th. Am drowning in RL, and will need to do a massive catchup on all the wonderful stuff I see flying across my flist but cannot stop and READ.

Happy holidays to all of you! See you when I get back!

Heh, someone shipped me and cathexys, here on sociofemme's LJ, some way down from whoever matched up isiscolo and idlerat. This and isiscolo's post have inspired me to confess that I do indeed ship you all with each other, but I don't ship your usernames, I ship your icons.

( Here's the True Icon Wuv I want to see )

I got my merry_smutmas gift today! Squeeeeee! I love it! Here's what I wished for:

"I'd be insanely thrilled to find the following in my stocking, fic or art: Snape, Black, Lupin in any combination *hopes wildly for all three at once*, or Harry/Sirius, Snape/Harry, Sirius/Lucius. My favorite kinks include: "must have sex or die"; non-con, especially ambivalent or quasi-non-con; bloodplay; involuntary mental/magical bonding as long as it's scary, unpleasant or dangerous rather than idyllic; plot."

And my Secret Santa gave me a beautifully written story with every kinky wish on my list: SS/SB/RL with SB/SS and SB/RL thrown in, bloodplay, non-idyllic and dangerous forced mental bonding, noncon, a little hurt/comfort and even some plot! *squees again and tosses flowers and Christmas cookies in the direction of her Seekrit Santa* Go read it here! But heed the warnings. Proceed only if you'd like all of the above in your stocking as well.

A few other neat links:

millefiori ponders nasty/nice and nasty/nasty pairings and the getting-together-thereof here. marinarusalka has a cool discussion about trouble with story beginnings, from a few days ago, here. And wickedcherub has a nice magic theory post about whether a wizard can be mute, with great comments, here.

Also, isiscolo posts some questions about HP doujinshi here, many of which I'd also had. Since I never did get that doujinshi post together, here are two links I was going to use. Look at covers and reviews of many HP doujinshi here and you can shop for doujinshi (and look at covers and peek at a few interiors) here.

Coming soon (when presents are bought and a small mountain of other work has been done) in Darkkitten's LJ (after answers for all those I owe replies to, which is quite a few of you at the moment): An essay on fanon. An actual fic, though it's short. Two long fic rec/essays, one on RL/SB and one on SS/SB. And then hopefully one more fic. Woo, actual content, maybe someday.

ETA: Huh. No more LJ invite codes. I never even got to use one of mine! I'm not sure what to think about that. I worry a little about harrassment, and I hope it doesn't stop the Tentacles of Love Project, which more than ever still ought be wrapping around great writers and readers and inviting them into the LJ fold, even if no codes are required.

It's been a dark icky morning here, 33 degrees and raining/sleeting, and I just walked through it for half an hour. I and all of my stuff are cold and wet. Brrr. However, now I have some hot coffee, I'm drying off a little and I think I've unfrozen enough to type. So for anyone in need of a warm-up or a quick work break, here are a few recent and not-so-recent short pieces wherein authors amuse themselves (and me! and hopefully you!) with the sillier side of Mr. Black. Certified angst-free. May contain canine dorkiness.

The Old Crowd by Louise Lux. I too have wondered exactly what Louise asks here: "A comment by Titania on snapeslash made me think of how Sirius would be received by the 'old crowd'. How would they know that he was innocent? " Louise answers the question. *snerk*

Werewolves Mate for Life by mousapelli. This Remus/Sirius MWPP ficlet pokes gentle fun at every single RL/SB cliche and then some, doesn't forget the smut, and has a terrific punchline.

Hair of the Dog by torch. This little Snape-Black story explains one of the mysteries of the universe. Even thinking about this fic amuses me beyond all reason.

And you should also go here. Hee. Hee. Hee.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CATHEYXS!!!!!!!! (for whom I have a teeny pressie but it's not finished yet.)

What House do you belong in?

Here are two neat discussions of fandom in general:

Fandom as a part-time job with benefits in prillalar's journal

Fandom as all things to all people in movies_michelle's journal, which I found through metablog. Her theory of two very opposite types of fan is intriguing.

Re feedback: My newest resolution is to clear my (personally imposed, I *want* to write these!) backlog by writing one longish feedback a day until I catch up. Trying to do them all in a wild frenzy wore me out. We'll see if it works! *g*

And here is a long ramble in response to the recent discussions of feedback and reccing in isiscolo's journal, among many others, which spun off into discussions of ways to make recs more useful for finding stories one likes, in kaiz's and cathexys's journals. One thought was for a reccer to provide a kind of guide to their recs, outlining their biases, preferences, and what they read/what they don't. I only rec in my LJ right now, but I plan to expand eventually to a sizable HP recs page. So I wrote one. Anyone else who wants to do the same, I'd read it with great interest. Also, if it inspires anyone to make a few recs for me based on my "I like" list, I'd be thrilled.

Have a wonderful holiday to anyone disappearing for a bit. See you when you get back! Me, I'm actually not going anywhere this time. Which is a nice change, for once.

( What I Like and How I Rec: A User's Guide to Darkkitten's Recs )

( Three unpopular opinons, recs and pointers, Wensleydale cheese, and so forth. )

Written for this week's contrelamontre challenge in 100 minutes. Yeah, I went over, because I'm lame. And slow. The challenge was to incorporate the concept, but not the words, "deus ex machina".

( Lupin/Black, R, 1200 words )

Is your name marinarusalka, lolaraincoat, iibnf, isiscolo, amanuensis1, thetreacletart, hannelore, kaiz, musesfool, juxiantang, prillalar, nimori, glockgal or spare-change? Because if it is, I have a mushy feedback mail started for one of your stories, and I need to finish it! (And I think there are a few others.) I feel really deep in feedback debt at the moment and I want to get caught up.

I am also trying to write. Yes, darkkitten1 is trying to write fic. Eep. Hell can freeze over now. I have promised to do two challenge stories and I am revising a short bit now that chasehunts and cathexys were kind and wonderful enough to beta for me. I owe atropos_lee a beta which I need to finish first of all. And cathexys and I have a project to do! I am going to slow my LJ posting/commenting down for a while in consequence. I will be more present when I've caught up with these to-do's, along with a few RL ones.

Special *hugs* to idlerat and cathexys for kindness above and beyond the call of duty while I was having a tough weekend. Thank you both!

Two Lupin/Snape good things:

Howdy by juxiantang. Lupin/Snape, PG-13. Written for the Master and the Wolf FQF Challenge # 83: "Snape and Lupin each (separately) make a decision to adopt a child. And they're both stubbornly determined to adopt *the same* child." I saw this listed as Juxian's challenge on the FQF site some time ago, and just grinned, because I knew that, spew-worthy as the result of that scenario might be when handled badly, in Juxian's hands it was likely to turn out beautiful, even if I couldn't imagine quite how. Juxian's writing is clear and vivid, her Snape-angst is lovely, her extrapolations form canon detailed and interesting, and her story draws you deftly along while making you sniffle the whole way.

And isiscolo has written a Lupin/Snape 15-minute ficlet (while being interrupted, no less) that imagines an alternate Shrieking Shack incident. Short and hits hard.

Two Sirius good things:

marinarusalka has written a hot, hot, hot gift fic for her beta Narcissus, which means all the rest of us get a lovely present as well. "Rough Ride" (read it here, Sirius/Lucius with Sirius a few months underage, NC-17) is fun and wryly humorous, and a bit edgy all at the same time. Remember how I keep begging for semi-quasi-noncon? Oh yes. This is just how I like it. Tightly written story, great description, hot sex, and it has a luscious young adult Lucius and an overconfident (but delectable), very teenage Sirius.

And another short piece: _hannelore has a fascinating ficlet here which considers an interpretation of the Shrieking Shack incident I'd never thought of. Neat descriptions, thoughtful magic theory, which I always appreciate, and some cool original thinking about Dumbledore, Sirius, and Snape.

And two self-indulgent good things:

I finally got that Angrygoats engine to spit out a ( haiku for my LJ that made me snicker. )

( The fandom ten meme, because I really liked reading the answers from all of you )

Fifty icons is a good thing, but I hope LJ is not overestimating the power of their poor struggling servers, as my journal reverted to a style I dislike and turned a bilious shade of mint green overnight. Ecchh.

kaiz recced this bit of Highlights slash, Gallant is aroused; Goofus is Horny. So so wrong and so so funny! (And, well, hot. Weird!) We never got this at home when I was little, but a friend's older sibling once gave me like fifty back issues of it when I was around eight, and I read the whole stack at once. Urgggh.

prillalar has been playing with an online tapestry-making tool, and created this very amusing little tale here. *eg* Snape/Black/Lupin/? - Bayeux-style!

amanuensis1 wrote a hot and frenetic Harry/Sirius ficlet, in which she explores the eroticism of feet, among other things. Involves Sirius's animagus form. I really loved the drabble she expanded to create the fic as well. I'm kinda convinced by the feet thingy! Or at least intrigued.

isiscolo posted some lovely Remus/Hermione for Protection from Porn Week. I really love sparrohawk's idea of responding to that declaration by posting smut. Her own contribution is a nice explicit bit of Snape/Harry. And donnaimmaculata posted a Harry/Sirius/George W. Bush, kinda. Hee!

z_rayne posted an interesting essay on Pensieves and the Question of Objectivity in hp_essays. Some nice discussion follows.

I actually posted something in hpsquick100, for the write your squick challenge. Snape/Black, the way it wasn't meant to be.

I've friended a few people recently, which just means I think you write smart and interesting things in your journal, and I like reading what you have to say. No need to friend back, unless you want to.

ETA: Book-based rareslash from vintagefic, for Pat Barker's Regeneration can be found here. This is a really cool community, BTW. Whew! Now I can close all those tabs on Safari.

Click the link below to see a picture of some of what we bought (click on the slideshow button or the picture itself to see a larger version):

ntamara's speculaas, lolaraincoat's Mexican hot chocolate, aleph_0's Wenselydale cheese, New Zealand thyme honey (in lieu of other suggestions by ellen_fremedon), a Cadbury Flake bar as suggested by aleph_0 and dahlia_777, rose and violet candy, and Haw Flakes, a weird Japanese candy that looks like firecrackers in the package and like disc capacitors out of it, but that we rather like the taste of.

( more nattering about international food )

Hmm, everyone seems to be way away from their computers at the moment. However, my guy and I are headed to our very very large international grocery store this weekend, and I would love it if all of you could rec for me your very favorite (or quirky and should be tried at least once) non-American treats. We've set aside some indulgence cash for this shopping expedition so we can get a lot if we want to. The store has baked goods, wine, cheese, beer, a enormous range of candy, various other packaged foods and staple ingredients from like 90 countries, and has hundreds of brands of each. It's also got masses of unusual produce and a huge selection of seafood, and for some reason like 250 kinds of honey and an entire aisle of different types of chocolate bars. I don't eat meat other than seafood (I do eat cheese/milk/eggs), but any other kind of rec is quite welcome!

Stuff I have tried before on the advice of friends: the non-American kind of Smarties, Violet Crumbles (yum!), Vegemite (barf!), McVities' Digestives (those are - odd), Malaysian ginger candies (mmm!), Pocky (eh...), all kinds of Indian and Chinese groceries, and a slew of other stuff I am not recalling right now.

ETA: Oh, arrggh. The LJ map meme is so very cool. I love maps. But I never disclose my location online other than "somewhere in the USA." Y'all are causing me a major dilemma!

Thank you a million times to kaiz, isiscolo, aretina, lolaraincoat, idlerat, dejla, prillalar, chasehunts, bowdlerized, spare_change and everyone who wished me well. You all made my day much better, and it was really touching to come back to find all the comments. *is maudlin and all sniffly* I may have to disappear again next week for a day or two but hopefully that will put an end to the mess.

Am now feeling way better and am on medication that has convinced me there is no such thing as pain, all is right with the universe, and walking across the room without crashing into furniture is overrated as a life skill. So if I say anything really odd (well, odder than usual) just pretend you never heard it, OK? (It's also made me a crappy proofreader, which hurts my pride as I'm usually pretty good.)

( Darkkitten attempts to catch up with a week of lj in one post… )

Hey everyone. I ran into some medical problems right after getting back from that conference. I've been to the emergency room twice in three days now and have to go get poked and medicated annoyingly some more in just a minute, but things are supposed to improve soon. As soon as I can get enough brain cells online all at once, I will be back reading and posting on LJ and mailing anyone I owe correspondence to. I scanned through just now and I am missing all kinds of neat discussion. *meeps unhappily*

Vaguely HP content: I ran into a guy at the conference (which was actually not as stupid/boring as I though it would be and kind of worth going to, up until I started feeling awful at any rate) who goes by the nickname "Weremensch". Because, natch, he's a nice guy once a month.

Which of course made me think of "everyone's favorite werewolf". Remus Lupin, Weremensch!

OK, at the time it was really funny. Must take amusement where you can get it. Bleah.

My apologies for not getting back to everyone who posted in response to my questions re: Kink and POV more rapidly. I usually try to respond much faster! I was trapped with NO privacy to access a page with the title "Mmmm....erotica, kink..." on it, not to mention the subject matter. Arrghh. I have now responded to all your wonderful and thoughtful posts.

Today I have recs for you, three fics on the short side which are all exquisite bites of goodness - though be warned, the goodness may be of the bittersweet variety.

In Lieu of Flowers by Halrloprillalar (prillalar) Remus/Sirius, Remus/Kingsley. PG. Short. I will offer no more than Hal's own summary: "Remus is fine." Terse, vivid, original. Go read it, now.

A Grave Secret by jeddy83 Snape/Albus. PG-13. Short. Written from Harry's POV, which adds a wonderful canonical feel and is done with great skill. Harry's observations are keen (I really like this version of him), and what unfolds here between Snape and Albus is plausible, well-drawn and affecting. I have now been suckered wholesale into the Snapledore pairing. If you have not, also try the much-recced work of atdelphi, starting with her brillant SSFF fic, "Winter Kept Us Warm". Discard whatever you might think about oh, yuck, Dumbledore, and prepare for a complex relationship (and often, battle of wills) between two powerful and difficult men.

Dallying With the Gentry by rivetcat Charlotte Wilkes/Narcissa, NC-17. Short. rivetcat writes a female version of Wilkes whose character I really love. The sex is hot, hot, hot, and rivetcat hits dead on with her gorgeous bits of description scattered throughout. I haven't read much fic on the Death Eater side, but I'm really glad I found this story.

( someone has a secret crush on me! and more rambling on varied topics )