Title: Chrysalis
Author: starcrossedgirl
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Harry/Severus
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Might be trigger-y; see author’s warnings below
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, First time,
Word Count: 84,631
Summary:
In which Harry is a tad messed up after the war, but Snape gives him a run for his money. Or: an epic tale of PTSD, recovery and gay porn!
Author’s Warnings (slightly spoilery, but not so much): Depictions of mental ill health: nightmares/flashbacks, panic attacks, depression, passing mentions of suicidal ideation (this is not a focus and brief). Non-graphic references to (past) child sexual abuse and depictions of the long-term psychological sequelae
Why You Should Read This:
Harry doesn’t do so well after killing Voldemort. A major case of PTSD forces him away from his friends, who have enough of their own problems and who don’t begin to understand.
Ron being, well, Ron (early on in the fic):
Hermione looked like she was about to cry. But Ron, picking up steam now, continued undeterred. “You put us all through hell. And I’ll come right out and say it, because I’m not afraid to: you’ve been nothing short of selfish, these past few weeks. So you’ve had a rough year, you saw a whole lot of shit go down that was nasty as fuck, but, you know what, so did we.”
“I died,” Harry said, inaudible through the force of Ron’s tirade.
It wasn’t the same. Snape, Harry thought with a bitter sense of desperation, Snape would have understood that.
Severus, obviously, didn’t die and comes back at a point where Harry is roaring drunk and not sure of what he is seeing. But Severus is real and, over time, two very broken men, who have enough problems much less being men and talking about feelings is next to impossible, manage to help each other through the worst of it.
If the trigger-y things don’t squick you, then the story is recommended. The discussion of past child abuse is gently done and not graphic.