Worldcup and team EWE, post 4

[blamebrampton]

One more day to go until I can work on a sane publication again. And spend some time flitting around on aeroplanes. Yay! In the meantime, did you catch up with these magnificent Team EWE fics? Go on, there's still time!

To begin with, I am an idiot and forgot two, so I am giving up on my in order theory and concentrating on the ones I have finished first! Yay! Will have the others finished by Saturday morning US time, I hope!

Potter's Interference, Prompt: The Magician, Wordcount 8500
Draco Malfoy runs a tidy little business trading magical animals, often legal, sometimes not. Animal law activist Harry Potter has Malfoy in his sights. For lawbreaking, obviously.

The magical animals in this story were simply delightful, one of the most developed uses of the theme I have ever seen. And Draco makes such an authentic businessman, especially with his delightful friend and trusty sidekick Ms Parkinson. Add in a lightly treacherous crump and a sense of real wonder and joy in the writing and the whole package is a tiny little bundle of joy.

Told from Draco's point of view, this is a world of actual magic, where mundane reality is several steps away, and unmissed. Above all, it's  certainly one of the best openings in the fest:

"The erumpents were stampeding.

Granted, there were only four of them, and they had run off in four different directions, so perhaps stampede wasn't the right word. They would eventually be forced to stop by the magical barriers surrounding the Manor and yet, there was something rather impressive and intimidating about an erumpent in the heat of a mating frenzy."

The Most Important Thing, Prompt: coins, Art
A soft, dreamy style of art for a scene that is so gentle, loving and domestic that it represents the dream of reconciliation between our two lads. Full of beautiful details, especially the photographs. Ron and Hermione's wedding shot is a simple joy. And, of course, armchair sex.


The Arc of the Pendulum, Prompt: The Hanged man, Wordcount 30,262
Lucius Malfoy has his last revenge against Harry Potter. A curse turns him into a reverse werewolf, the body of a man with the mind of a beast, save for once a month ...

Another from Draco's point of view, this story has a sustained pitch of slight distance which works perfectly with both the story and the prompt. The tone is splendid, a combination of pride and despair that is absolutely right for this Draco. Trapped in the ruins of Malfoy Manor, with an increasingly wolf-like Potter, he searches desperately for a clue to undo the damage done. What starts as a story of the healing of Harry morphs as it progresses into a story of the healing of Draco, too.

To be a stinker, I did not expect to enjoy this story from the author notes (which is amusing, because it seems they are what won over a lot of younger readers). The author makes reference to Disney's Beauty and the Beast in her notes, and I LOATHE most Disney, but in fact the story has more in common with the much-older and much more complex and mature Villeneuve version. Like all proper fairy tales there is a hyper reality that permeates the story, and one that is brilliantly revealing as to character and motivation:

"Just—try, Potter."

Potter turned around at that, looking fierce. "I'm tired of trying. I've been trying my whole life. Nothing was ever easy for me, Malfoy. Nothing. And it was supposed to be over, I was supposed to be able to—if I killed him, things were supposed to be—okay, but they're not, even before this happened—it was already bad, and now it's worse, and I just—I'm tired of it, of trying to fight things, Voldemort in my head or the Ministry or your father or the other Aurors or—and now it's worse. So just go. Go get Hermione to fetch the Aurors. She'll listen to you."