If you have an urge to go beyond the always-available romantic fluff or angst and sink your teeth into how magic really works, you need to read this story, in which Professor Snape is confronted by Sarah Fawcett, a fifth-year Ravenclaw with some probing, basic questions about dark magic, light magic, and how it all fits together.  As you might have guessed, Professor Snape has all the answers, but he doles them out slowly, stingily, to this students who looks past his insults and scorn because of her fierce determination to know the truth.  (I did mention that she's a Ravenclaw.)

You'll come away saying "Wow!" and, like me, you might want to save this story for reference whenever you set out to write a story involving the foundations of magical spellwork.

Mottsnave perfectly characterizes the professor -- unapproachable, acerbic, challenging, but plainly desirous of teaching a pupil who proves herself worthy of his attention.

Sarah is completely believable as a student driven to go far beyond the surface, beyond the simple knowledge presented at Hogwarts School that doesn't really reveal anything, to arrive at the core principles that explain it all.  Even to the point of facing up to the intimidating Professor Snape.  And of course, in the end, as Professor Snape warns her, there is a price to pay.

This story, the result of Mottsnave's deep thinking on these questions, is not like any other I have read.  I can immediately see how these insights will inform the unfolding of my own WIP.  Glad I read it.

Link to A Short History of Magic by Mottsnave.