Ready to rec some awesome fics that I read this month!! Feel free to add on with some of your own Bagginshield recs. 😁
March 2024 Rec List
G Rated:
A Home, A Pack, A Place of Love by Lucigoo89 (WIP, 4K, 2ch.)- You can't keep me away from puppy fics! Deciding to run away from home, Corgi Bilbo takes puppy Frodo and escapes into the streets which might not be that friendly to the small animals. The love between Frodo and Bilbo is already so adorable and we haven't even met any company members yet!
To Court a King by Porphyrios (Complete, 19K, 1ch.)- This fic has been recced a lot recently and it's totally worth it! Bilbo and Thorin have decided to court, only some are worried about the worthiness of such a match. I have reread this fic twice just this month alone.
T Rated:
Desperate Magic by BeautifulFiction (Complete, 5K, 1ch.)- This is one of those fics that is worth revisting again and again. On the brink of death, Bilbo sees it in himself to tend to Thorin's hair. It's such a unique kind of Everybody Lives fic, and I just get overwhelmed by the love in this story.
Frozen Heart by snowmissus (soul_of_blaze) (WIP, 7K, 3ch.)- When Danny first promoted this fic on tumblr I was 100% invested. Erebor is trapped in a forever winter and Bilbo is brought to see if he can help. I can't wait to see what all is in store for this fic because the setup is spectacular.
Golden Hearts Bleed Faster by LordOfTheRazzles (WIP, 3K, 1ch.)- I've been waiting for Razzy to release this fic. Bilbo Baggins is the Prince of the Shire and in need of a new bodyguard, Thorin. Bilbo is just so sassy and you can tell this is going to lead to some good antics between the duo.
There and Not Back Again (or, The Saving of Erebor) by femmbingley (WIP, 164K, 49ch.)- There's so much to say about this fic. Post-BOTFA dwarven politics where Bilbo has assumed the duties of the consort which makes things more difficult for Dain. I really love the characterizations and I just can't get enough of this fic!
M Rated:
A heart of stone and Fire in his soul by Lucigoo89 (Complete, 3K, 1ch.)- This fic is chock full of beautiful metaphors. Bilbo's introspection on his thoughts of Thorin during their first standoff with Azog. Honestly, this is one of my favorite Goo fics.
E Rated:
Kurdu 'abadaz by LordOfTheRazzles (WIP, 34K, 6ch.)- This is unlike any Post-BOTFA fic I've ever read. The magic of the Arkenstone brings Thorin back to life for a purpose: help the trapped souls of Erebor. There's such a touching scene between Thorin and his amad that has me in pieces over this fic!
Sleep Alone; Start All Over by vicious_summer (WIP, 56K, 3ch.)- I'm still thoroughly enjoying this fic so far. After an accident, Bilbo is the one who ends up losing about seven years worth of memories including the fact that he’s married to the King Under the Mountain. I’m just always so impressed with vicious_summer’s writing style as it has a more Book!Bilbo vibe.
Snape, unbeknownst to the rest of the magical world, survives Nagini and just joins the muggle world, tired of Potter's and Voldemort's shit.
Because he is very angry at the incompetence of the ministry of magic, and because he has nothing left to loose, he decides to test just how bad the ministry sucks at its job: 2005 he creates a YouTube account on which he brews potions on camera.
9 years later James Sirius Potter is confused by his first year potion class and decides to google it, stumbleing over the Snape accout which, by now, has millions of followers and is an insanely popular ASMR channel.
Harry is lead to believe that his son has inherited Lily's and Flamont's potion talents... James would rather die then betray the source of his good grades to his dad of all people, but Sev's comment sections are filled with thankful Hogwarts students all of a sudden.
This post is about the Tom x Severus ship.
It's not precisely a popular ship, so that's your first warning.
Your second warning is that they are so ooc that they can be considered different characters altogether.
That said, i've had this story idea in my head for a while, that I will probably never write but anyways...
I was thinking about the typical time-travel fanfic where Severus dies in the battle of Hogwarts and wakes up in the past. He goes back to a point in time in which he is still a child, way before Hogwarts. I was thinking it could be at a moment where he had showed accidental magic already, so Tobias was already an asshole and Eileen was already in her way to Depressionland. But, since part of his mind is still that of an adult and he retained his knowledge of his previous life, he is able to control his magic, so once he is back, he never had anymore bouts of magic.
He goes to muggle school. When he gets his Hogwarts' letter he is alone, so he writes a rejection letter and burns the one he got. His parents know nothing and life keeps going.
He graduates from high school and goes to college. I was thinking on a Chemistry mayor, what do you think?
He's been brewing since before getting his Hogwarts letter, under a pseudonym and selling his experiments on Knockturn. He got part-time jobs. He has enough money and by the time he starts college he moves to London.
Life is good, tranquil, he has friends and does what he likes.
One day he's coming back from classes and finds Dumbledore waiting for him at the door of his own fucking apartment.
He goes, pretending he doesn't know who the old man is, planning on telling him to go away. He is about to do it when the Dark Lord appears behind him.
Next thing he knows, Dumbledores is appareting the three of them to his office at Hogwarts where a mixture of the Order and some death-eathers is waiting for them.
Now, Severus pretty much cut all ties with the Wizarding World. Aside from his dealing in Knockturn he is not really aware of anything there and has no idea of the current political climate. So, he doesn't know about Grindelwald coming back.
That surprise is coupled with a, not totally recovered, but mostly sickly-looking human form of the Dark Lord.
Now, this is the part where I can't decide. I have, so far, come up with three possibilities:
1. Severus literally tells them everything. Well... mostly.
He tells them he is from the past and is reliving his life. He tells them he used to be a death-eather but then he became a spy. He tells them how he died.
Lastly, he tells them not to bother him.
He goes home, and finds his apartment was a mess. Someone forced their way into it. He hears screaming on the floor above his own and finds some of Grindelwald men attacking his neighbors.
He kills two and takes one to Hogwarts for interrogation. He will help Dumbledore and Voldemort. Apparently there is no option. Fuck.
2. Is the same, except that Severus tells them nothing about his coming from the future.
And then, some time into actively helping Dumbledore and Voldemort fight, he finds out Tom is also from the future.
Fair warning: It's awkward.
3. Into the first half an hour of being in the headmaster's office, Tom says or does something that makes Severus realize Tom is also from the future.
Severus practically freezes for a good minute before glaring at Tom. Then Severus says something that he very well knows will tell Tom when Severus is from.
And Tom looks at Severus with what could only be discrabed as terror.
Severus then punches Tom in the face, hard. He may had broken the man's nose. A second later, he takes the other flying to Merlin knows where to have a conversation.
No need to say it but, Sev is mad.
From here, everyone else can conclude that the two of them already knew each other. This, coupled with future interactions that show Severus' lack of fear of Tom and Tom's apparent hesitation, leads everyone to the conclusion that Severus was Tom's ex. They tried to deny it with varying degrees of success.
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So? What wpuld be better?
Soulmates au,, Tom tries to kill his soulmate but his soulmate is suicidal so every time Tom get close to kill him, Sev would smirk and Tom's urge to kill him would disappear because Sev seems happy and he doesn't want him to be, and Sev would scowl at him for not killing him and it would be Tom's turn to smirk. Like Severus would constantly try to anger him and mock him for their soulmate bond and Tom would fall for it for a sec but then be like "oh no darling, you're stuck with me. This punishment is worse for you than it is for me."
Y'all
Imagine if Bilbo lost his lil acorn once Smaug was dead.
Throin sees Bilbo looking around all panicked, digging through some pile of gold or gems, and asks about it, and this is where he learns about the acorn.
So of course he offers to help look, while they're looking for the Arkenstone, and eventually they've got the whole company looking for both. Thorin's head seems a little more clear suddenly, so everyone's more looking for the acorn than the arkenstone, because yeah they're looking for the arkenstone, but they'll know it when they see it, they have to CONCENTRAIT to find a lil acorn, and it's important they find IT soon or it'll get crushed, or die or rot. The arkenstone has lasted this long. It'll last a little longer.
And because they've all got he mindset if "yeah thats a bit of gold, but it's not an acorn. Sure sure some pretty gems but it's not an acorn!" In there heads, they stave of the gold sickness.
When Fili shouts, "I found it!" They're all rather disappointing when they realise he means the Arkestone. Thorin pockets it, but they return to their search for the acorn right away.
Then, one day, Thranduil shows up demanding the white gems and Thorin's standing up on the barracks like "Sure, if we come across them."
And Thranduil's like "what do you mean if you come across them?"
"There was a dragon in the mountain for over a century! He wasn't exactly cleaning and we're a bit preoccupied with our own search at the moment! I'll send them your way once we find them! If takes a day or a year, you'll live!" And then he disappears from Thranduil's sight.
Only to reappear after a moment, looking slightly irritated. The hobbit is by his side looking, perhaps hopeful? With a roll of his eyes, Thorin says, bitting out the words like they physically hurt to say "If you would like, perhaps you could send a select few of your most trusted guard, and if they might help us in our search, they can also look for your gems as well?"
Thranduil has never been more caught of guard in his life. Did a dwarf, one whom he'd had imprissoned in his dungeon less than a month ago, just invite his people into his most recently reclaimed treasurey?
"I'm sorry. What?" He blinks up at the dwarf- most elegantly, he assures you.
"Elves have very keen eyes, do you not?" Asks the little hobbit. "We're looking for my acorn, you see, that I got from Beorn the skin changer, I seem to have lost it in the dragon's chase, and we fear it'll be crushed. Throin says your box would likely be in the front of the treasurey, and we haven't searched there yet, though Smaug did follow us through there, so it's a fine place for your people to start. It would be greetly appreciated."
And really. The argument could go on, Thranduil's really not sure he believes there IS an acorn, but if it gets him those damned white gems, fine. He sends Tauriel and her guard, and Legolas volunteers himself.
When Bard shows up asking for aid for the town Thorin throws his hands up. "Your just as bad as the elves! We just got our montain back! Fah! At least you asked for nothing so specific!" And practically chucks a chest full of randomly scooped up gold and gems over at the man. "But if there is an acorn in there, you are to return it immediately!"
There isn't an acorn.
"Why would there be an acorn?" He asks Thranduil that evening as he takes tea with the Elven king who's made camp outside the Lonely Mountain as a statement to the dwarven king he doesn't mean to leave without what's rightfully his, regardless of their compliance.
"His husband appears to be rather attached to it." Thranduil shrugs. "I don't pretent to understand the ways of haflings, but if the hobbit has half so strong a love for that which grows from the earth, as the dwarves do that which is mined from it, and I was a king who'd dragged my consort half way across Middle Earth to risk his life battling a dragon for its hoard, I'd think it wise to have the Mountain turned upside down for one measly acorn as well."
Dain shows up and is about ready to storm the peacefully-aiding-the-humans-at-this-point-because-we're-here-what-else-do-we-have-to-do elves on principle, but Thorin puts a stop to it quick.
It takes Dain a day and a half to realised that Thorin did infact say "they were all looking for an Acorn," yesterday, and several minutes to understand that he was saying "no, we found the Arkenstone days ago," today.
And of course, the orcs and goblins show up and are defeated by the forced of them all, united under Acorn Peace Treaty of 2942
Sadly, weeks go by, and they do not find the acorn. They do eventually find the Gems, and Legolas and the majority of the elves return to Mirkwood, Legolas having made good friends with the Company, especially Gloin (this is a suprise tool that will help him later) but Tauriel remains, and if Thorin wasn't smitten with the hobbit, he might comment on just how close Kili is growing to her. At least she's respectful. Might just teach that boy a think or two. The opposite is, of course, true, and Tauriel becomes just as much a menace as the princes.
As the weeks go by and proper cataloging of the treasury commences, every dwarf who comes to help is shows a picture of the acorn every single morning, and promised a just reward for its discovery.
Eventually, Bilbo has to concede they aren't going to find it, but, well, by then he's not exactly planning to return to the Shire for long enough to care for a sprouting tree.
He does return long enough to stop all his things being auctioned off, no he's not a ghost, thank you very much, and have Bag End transfered to his cousin Drogo and his wife, before setting back out for Erebor with the things he intends to keep.
It's years before anyone thinks of the poor lost little acorn again, decades, infact.
One day, in the early morning of the 21st Durin's day after the reclaiming of Erebor, a dwarf comes rushing from the treasurey to find the Royals preparing for the celebration.
"Is it one of these, your highne- uh, Bilbo, your lost acorn?" He asks, stuttering over the title he knows the hobbit dislikes. "I can't really.... tell them apart."
And Bilbo just blinks, because in the cupped palms of the dwarf's are perhaps 15 or 20 little acorns...
"Where did you find these?" He asks.
"They were in the back."
"The back?" Thorin repeats, then catches himself and shoos the dwarf back the way he came "Show us."
They all- Bilbo and Thorin, the princeses, and a handful of the company who'd been present- follow the dwarf down into the treasurey, and then through the treasurey, past all the neat piles of gold and the many chests of organized gems and stones and all manner of other treasures, until they're presented with a very familiar back door.
Or rather, a hidden passage, tucked away in an alcove, where another handful of acorns' the few the Dwarf who'd brought them the first had likely missed- are scattered about.
"You did... just have the one, right Uncle Bilbo?" Fili asks.
"Or course I just had the one!" Bilbo retorts. "I couldn't have possibly carried that many with me all the way from Beorn's!"
With a resigned sort of sigh, as he begins to piece together the answer to a decades old mystery, Thorin steps forward and follows the tunnel up, up, up, and out of Erebor, the others- save the dwarf who brought them, dismissed by Bilbo with a smile, a thanks, and an oh, no, you may keep those- right behind.
As they walk, the acorns start to increase. Though there's never so many as to begin piling up in the tunnel, by the time they reach the end, the majority of the ground is covered in a solid layer if the little things, and the crunch underfoot as they all emerge onto the ledge which they had all once stood, with batted breath in the moon light as they realised they were at last, truly home.
"Was that here last time?" Kili asked, studying the impressive Oaktree shading the entire ledge that sat in front of the secret entrance to Erebor.
The trunk of the tree was wide and solid, sitting right up against the mountain side, and rather winning the battle of wills against the carved stone architecture of the dwarves. Its limbs grow twisted and wild, up and out in all directions. It's easily 250 or 300 feet tall. There is all sorts of life flittering about in its florishing branches, all covered in brilliant green leaves, and fresh green little acorns.
The growned all around them is covered in acorns as well, so many more than the tunnel.
"No." Thorin says, watching a squirrel dash down from the trunk of the tree, shove several acorns into its cheeks, and dash back up the trunk. "No it was not." He turns to Bilbo, and raises an eyebrow. "Lost it after the dragons chase, you said?"
Beet red and look quite flustered, all Bilbo can manage out is a squicky little "oops."
"'Oops' indeed." Thorin returns, smiling fondly.
Do you know what would also be interesting?
A serie of one-shots like this. A group of what-ifs. And some characters reacting to them.
So, like you said, what if Lily survived along with Harry, and not understanding his true roll in the war, sent him to Azkaban?
What if Lily helped Severus on the day of his worst memory?
What if he changed schools?
What if he left the Wizarding World?
What if he'd been sorted into Gryffindor? Or Ravenclaw? Hufflepuff?
And some others that, at the begginig, seem to focus on someone else, but they end up focusing on Snape somehow.
What if Riddle hadn't hidden his true upbringing, but still managed to form the Death Eathers?
What if James got over Lily?
What if Dumbledore found out about the horrocruxes earlier?
What if Grindelwald escaped and formed a third party on the war?
And... Well, you get it.
I just think it would be hilarious to have most people realize that, yes, Severus is important. All the while Dumbledore and Voldemort are squeezing their brains, trying to think of a way to ensure tge man's loyalty.
And Severus only thought is an absolutly miserable "Why me?"
Lily and Harry survive, Lily throws Severus into Azkaban. She watches with gleeful pleasure as the dementors suck all the happy memories away from him. She hears him beg "Please don't take her away from me" and wonders who he could be talking about. A few days later she goes to him to gloat but he doesn't recognize her. The story could focus more on Lily finding out all the things Severus did in the first war since he switched sides. One could create a few dramatic and painful choices he would have had to make then as well.
Ending with the grim prospect of the dark lord rising soon on the horizon and no spy to keep the pace of the war in check. ----
Maybe make a few known and beloved characters attempt to spy only to fail miserably/go insane/ switch sides.
Those who fail of course get tortured and killed for information, making the war even harder.
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The entire focus of the fic would be to highlight how monumental Severus Snape's contribution to both wars was.
People keep making fanarts of D-16 meeting TfP Optimus and being absolutely enamoured with him. And, honestly? Understandable, D-16, you poor, little mech.
And I've seen one of Orion also meeting Megatron and calling him ugly, which was hilarious.
But consider:
The four meet, just like in the fanart I mentioned, and D-16 is practically drooling at the sigh of Optimus while having a mayor internal freak out because somehow Orion went from chaotic and ridiculously pretty rebel to some sort of beautiful and incredible hero. At the same time he looks at Megatron, who appears so fearsome and angry, even hateful, and then at Orion, sweet, kind Orion, watching Megatron unblinking.
"You're incredible," breathed Orion, smiling up softly at the tall mech.
And both D-16 and Megatron flinched, stunned because how could he? How could Orion Pax say that? Worst of all, how could he mean it?
Megatron knew that tone of voice, he knew that look in the small mech eyes. He was being honest, he said what he thought, just the way he thought it. That awed note on his voice, the amazed spark on his optics, it was all so painfully truthful and Megatron didn't know what to do with it all.
Then he turned to his old self, the one who had finally stopped staring at Optimus to look at his best friend with confusion, paired with adoration and barely concealed longing.
Orion finally noticed D's yellow optics on him. He turned and smiled, bright and happy.
Megatron knew then that Orion hadn't understood. And it made sense, after all Pax would never expect D-16 to turn into... Into Megatron.
But maybe, the most surprising part was just how much it hurt, to realise that Orion could still look at him like this, and that if he could do it, then maybe...
Nah, that was impossible.
Everyone was panicking. The Avengers had just received a ransom video showing Tony in the hands of some HYDRA kidnappers. They were currently rewatching it, hoping to find some clues to where HYDRA was keeping Tony, as JARVIS couldn't locate him.
"What'cha watching?" a voice over Steve's shoulder said, startling him.
Behind him stood Tony. Steve couldn't do anything other than gawk at Tony, who, other than a few scrapes and bruises, looked completely fine.
"I guess you didn't want to wait for us to rescue you," Bucky remarked.
Tony grinned. "Where would be the fun in that?" he said.
Ok, I need to ask this. Am I te only person who thinks Silver looks a little bit like Chase in her human form?
It's something on the shape of her face.