Worldcup and team EWE, post 3
May. 14th, 2008 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blamebramptonOh cock! ... which is my word for the day ... Due to my commitment to doing these in order, only two today, since I have two unfinished reads coming up. Most of the way through both ... but it's getting late again.
Lamp in the Cooling Room, Prompt: The Lovers, Wordcount ~9000
Draco stumbles across some of the last of his father's magic, alas shortly after an innocent Muggle girl has already tripped the trap. Auror Harry Potter is quick to respond to the stirring of deep Dark magic, and he, too, is confined within the small house, where any may enter, but only one may leave alive.
Beneath Boundless Skies, Prompt: Death, Wordcount, 29,800
Life is a series of funerals and media intrusions for Harry in the weeks after the War, so when Minerva suggests he act like a proper English teenager and sod off to Australia for a gap year, he takes her up on the offer. And he's not alone.
Lamp in the Cooling Room, Prompt: The Lovers, Wordcount ~9000
Draco stumbles across some of the last of his father's magic, alas shortly after an innocent Muggle girl has already tripped the trap. Auror Harry Potter is quick to respond to the stirring of deep Dark magic, and he, too, is confined within the small house, where any may enter, but only one may leave alive.
Seen through the eyes of the young innocent, the two men try to puzzle out the spells, with some help from the outside.
I adore this story, and I am not alone! The voice is marvellous, an idiosyncratic child who has obsessions and insights far beyond her years. So much of the boys' character is revealed in response to her, especially for Draco. The writer's style is tight and sure, and so compelling. Huge swathes of backstory are told, not in exposition, but in snaps of dialogue, or quick gestures. Draco's loneliness in the intervening years, Harry's increasing sense of unwelcome solitude ... Don't listen to me, listen to this writer:
Malfoy's hand returns to stroke her head. With infinite slowness, she melts into him until she's curled against his side, ruining the pleats in his coat. "Magic," she says, "is the most perfectly wonderful thing! Belle lived in an enchanted castle. The candles talked. And the furniture. And the cups and plates." She claps her hands together and laughs.
"And did any of those cups or saucers grow insane with power and try to take over the world?" Malfoy asks.
She considers. "No." Her eyes flick to his stick, gripped between his fingers. "Have they been known to do that on your planet?"
Potter laughs, but Malfoy is all business. "Oh, yes," he says. "I'm afraid they have."
Though they are referred to throughout as Potter and Malfoy, there is an intimacy in these two characters that I rarely find in fic. And the ending is just ... well ... splendid. To see the two of them perfectly happy to accept this moment as a completion ... oh go and read it!
I adore this story, and I am not alone! The voice is marvellous, an idiosyncratic child who has obsessions and insights far beyond her years. So much of the boys' character is revealed in response to her, especially for Draco. The writer's style is tight and sure, and so compelling. Huge swathes of backstory are told, not in exposition, but in snaps of dialogue, or quick gestures. Draco's loneliness in the intervening years, Harry's increasing sense of unwelcome solitude ... Don't listen to me, listen to this writer:
Malfoy's hand returns to stroke her head. With infinite slowness, she melts into him until she's curled against his side, ruining the pleats in his coat. "Magic," she says, "is the most perfectly wonderful thing! Belle lived in an enchanted castle. The candles talked. And the furniture. And the cups and plates." She claps her hands together and laughs.
"And did any of those cups or saucers grow insane with power and try to take over the world?" Malfoy asks.
She considers. "No." Her eyes flick to his stick, gripped between his fingers. "Have they been known to do that on your planet?"
Potter laughs, but Malfoy is all business. "Oh, yes," he says. "I'm afraid they have."
Though they are referred to throughout as Potter and Malfoy, there is an intimacy in these two characters that I rarely find in fic. And the ending is just ... well ... splendid. To see the two of them perfectly happy to accept this moment as a completion ... oh go and read it!
Beneath Boundless Skies, Prompt: Death, Wordcount, 29,800
Life is a series of funerals and media intrusions for Harry in the weeks after the War, so when Minerva suggests he act like a proper English teenager and sod off to Australia for a gap year, he takes her up on the offer. And he's not alone.
Harry and Draco Malfoy accompany Hannah Abbott on her return to Wollongong Wizarding University, where every serious groundbreaking magic is studied, and everyone plays Quidditch and strange animals go bump in the night.
Though at first glance the device seems obvious, this story has excellent internal logic. The opening sections in England are a time of closed difficulty, with little possibility for change, while once they shift continents, anything can happen. The Australian scenes are lighter and brighter in every way, and, thrown together, the boys have no choice but to be there for each other in ways that begin as pragmatic and end up as sincere. Though there are a number of scenes that are very moving, there is an abundance of well-crafted comedy in this story, even through the funerals (well, at Fred's, because how would you properly remember Fred otherwise?)
I especially love this writer's assured use of dialogue, which is particularly evident in her use of minor characters (Neville and Hannah in particular), and her OCs:
“There was an Australian Prime Minister name Holt, who disappeared,” said Charlie, who had been very quiet until then. “He went for a snorkel off the Victorian coast, and was drowned, or taken by a shark.”
She paused, and Malfoy and Harry looked at her expectantly, unsure if they were missing some obscure Australian joke.
“So,” she went on. “They built the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre.”
Though at first glance the device seems obvious, this story has excellent internal logic. The opening sections in England are a time of closed difficulty, with little possibility for change, while once they shift continents, anything can happen. The Australian scenes are lighter and brighter in every way, and, thrown together, the boys have no choice but to be there for each other in ways that begin as pragmatic and end up as sincere. Though there are a number of scenes that are very moving, there is an abundance of well-crafted comedy in this story, even through the funerals (well, at Fred's, because how would you properly remember Fred otherwise?)
I especially love this writer's assured use of dialogue, which is particularly evident in her use of minor characters (Neville and Hannah in particular), and her OCs:
“There was an Australian Prime Minister name Holt, who disappeared,” said Charlie, who had been very quiet until then. “He went for a snorkel off the Victorian coast, and was drowned, or taken by a shark.”
She paused, and Malfoy and Harry looked at her expectantly, unsure if they were missing some obscure Australian joke.
“So,” she went on. “They built the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre.”
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Date: 2008-05-14 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2008-05-14 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-15 09:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-14 10:59 pm (UTC)It's possible I may have committed a 'fanfic' re the first one - I blame Cal. >.>
The second makes me warm in all my happy places. It feels like home - and not just because part of it is set so delightfully in Aus.
So yeah, this rec could well be sub-titled 'Mere's happy place, with angsty bits'
*hugs*
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Date: 2008-05-15 09:18 am (UTC)I missed Lamp fanfic? Point me in the right direction! (You clever clogs, you!)
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Date: 2008-05-15 11:51 am (UTC)Bubba
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Date: 2008-05-15 12:16 pm (UTC)Bubba
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