2021 Update: Some language from Chapter 9 of Just to Be is being mildly edited and included in an original novel due to be published in 2022. This is 100% with my permission (if you catch my drift).

EDIT: Hey, look, I updated!

"Headmaster Snape" is not abandoned and never will be.

I appreciate the frustration that HMS is not being updated as frequently as I had hoped. I share your frustration. My fandom time is severely limited these days, and the nature of the story has a couple of things going against it: 1) I have to plot it VERY carefully, so more planning goes into each chapter than would normally happen; and 2) I have to be in a very specific frame of mind to write it (the tone is just off otherwise). I'm also working on an original novel and I'm committed to finishing a draft before I return to HMS. I'm within 10,000 words of the finish on my original work but man oh man are the last 10,000 words the hardest!

I figure that I can write the story quickly, or I could do it properly. I have chosen the latter. I hope it's worth the wait. Thank you for your patience.

The German Translation of "Just to Be" by the amazing upac is now complete can be found here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8565203/1/Just-to-be

upac has also created a gorgeous cover for it that accompanies the translation.

The Czech Translation of "Just to Be" by Lupina is complete and can be found here: http:///Preklady&new_topic=279

"Just To Be" is also up on:

TPP: http:///viewstory.php?sid=21032. Posting on TPP is on hiatus due to the huge backlog for verification. If moderators can start taking less than three weeks to approve a single chapter, I will start posting there again.

Ashwinder: http:///viewstory.php?sid=25384.

Beautiful banner for JTB courtesy of the amazing Bandgeek252: http:///d6jjf6q

I'm a featured author on the SSHG Quiz: http:///morethansirius/10616016/64573/64573_original.jpg

I'm fine with people printing out or downloading my stories for their personal use, but I ask that you not distribute them to others. I acknowledge that I can't actually stop anyone from doing it, so I'm just going to ask nicely and hope that does the trick. Thank you for understanding.

It's also come to my attention recently that a couple of people have cut and pasted "Just to Be" and put it on their own sites. While they've given credit, I really don't like the idea. Feel free to post links, recs, etc., but please do not actually post the story on your site. If I ever have to take the story down for any reason (I'm not planning to, but it's always possible), I would like to retain the option to do so. Again, thank you for understanding.

Note accompanying Chapter 5 of "Headmaster Snape":

I have said three times in this story (twice in chapter notes, once on my profile) that this is an SSHG. Meaning that I see them as an OTP. I am also on the record as a Ron fan - I think he's a dumb-but-ultimately-decent guy. Ron is immature and selfish for 6 3/4 of the 7 HP books. Most teenage boys are. It's the human condition. That doesn't make him evil. Many of you will disagree, and that's fine. Write him however you want in your own stories. I'm not going to change my mind or my characterization, which I think is supported by canon. Operating with these facts in mind: 1) "Headmaster Snape" is a HGSS, and 2) Amarti does not hate Ron, let's proceed.

I'll begin with an uncomfortable truth: there is not a shred of support in canon for Severus and Hermione. Not a one. True, it feels like they should be together, which is why we are all here, and had things turned out differently they could have ended up together, which again is why we are all here. But looking at canon, particularly at this point in the series? Not so much. At this point in the series (we are on the cusp of HBP right now, and Sixth Year will begin in the next chapter), Severus and Hermione are not remotely orbiting around one another. They have other things on their minds, and they don't much like one another. Those who write HGSS know that the first challenge is getting these two on speaking terms. Anyone who has either one just wake up one morning at Hogwarts during the timeline of the series head-over-heels for the other (without a love potion/spell/whatever driving the action) is being lazy. Give them a different back-story, have an alt-past year, whatever, but you can't just pick up from canon like I am and just throw them at each other. You have to take the time to develop the characters if you want to do this right. Do it in 500 words or 500,000 words, but it must be done.

In canon, Ron and Hermione have a tumultuous relationship throughout their teens and, over the next 19 years, marry and make a family. Now, many of us know from firsthand experience that the person you just know you will grow old with when you're a teenager is one you often look back on ten years later and say, "What on earth was I thinking?" Some people meet the love of their lives at 15, and more power to them; that's beautiful and wonderful. Many others grow apart as they grow older. Even Matthew Lewis (who played Neville in all the movies) thought it was unrealistic that so many characters ended up married to their Hogwarts sweethearts. Your takeaway from this paragraph: just because two people start a relationship at age 16 does not mean they will be together forever. Hell, starting a relationship as an adult is no guarantee you'll be together forever. So take a deep breath.

I'll move on to another truth: Severus Snape is one BAMF. He's also one really fucked up individual. There are hints in canon that he smokes and drinks far too much (sallow [yellow] skin), neglects personal hygiene (often a sign of a mental illness or breakdown), suppresses his emotions to an unhealthy degree, joined a terrorist group in his teens, was abused as a child, came from a very impoverished background, and lives a very dangerous and lonely existence. Throw in a war and the trauma of losing the love of his life (before you start your anti-Lily tirades, remember our discussion in the last paragraph), I'm rather surprised he doesn't spend the series curled up in the fetal position. So Severus has a lot of darkness. Personally (this is just my interpretation, many will disagree), I do not think you can effectively pair someone that emotionally damaged with someone who is so innocent in the ways of the world she's never had a boyfriend or experienced any real loss. I think someone like that would be destroyed by it. So, in my how-to-write-SSHG playbook, I feel that you have to give Hermione a bit of a history before she can see Severus in a different light. She's compassionate and a crusader for the underdog, but it's probably impossible to truly empathize with and understand someone who has that much pain and darkness unless you've experienced a taste of it yourself. Your takeaway from this: Having a life/relationship independent from Severus is good for Hermione and her eventual relationship with him. Which is healthy and true for everyone.

Additionally, I have said from the beginning: this is a long story. I don't know how long yet; I don't even have a guesstimate as to the number of chapters. I have the story mapped out, but that's it. I suspect it will be in the same neighborhood as my last long story, "Just to Be," which clocked in at over 180,000 words. To put that in context, NaNoWriMo considers 50,000 words a novel, DH was 179,000 words, and OOTP was 190,000. That's a LOT of story. So when I say "be patient," I mean it. This is a long story. Things will not happen quickly.

Still here? (This is turning out much longer than I'd anticipated. I apologize.)

Finally: this story is (currently)* not a romance. By that I mean the relationship is not the main A story here. This story is my alt-HBP/DH. Years six and seven, in which our characters have been hit with the Common Sense spell with a vial of "We learned some valuable lessons from Sirius's completely avoidable death" draught. Relationships are in this, and you will see what I consider to be some pretty heroic acts of love, but this story has an actual plot and lots of other characters. So you have been warned: there's a lot of plot and absolutely no porn.

SO... that's my manifesto. I enjoy conversations and debates, and I appreciate how much everyone likes the story and has high hopes for it and wants to see the OTP just get together already. I ask you bear with me and trust me to handle this couple and this universe with care. No more freakouts if we see Hermione or Severus with other people, alright? It'll be okay. I promise.

*I reserve the right to change my mind as the writing process continues, but I don't really think I'm going to.