Drabble Night, March 19, 2004

[amanuensis1]

The theme: Three Little Words. Could be directly incorporated into the drabble, or just as inspiration.

I was dismayed to find that I'd made some unnecessary duplications in trying to get all the words/ideas into the drabbles, at least once, but I keep reminding myself that it's "Fifteen minutes and NO BETAS" on these things. Meh.



Plaintive, Luminary, Susurrus -- Remus/Sirius (challenge by cluegirl)

The nights are hell.

Remus knows what hell is now: Hell is not Sartre's other people; it is not even the absence of people. Hell is not brimstone or flame or nice geometrical divisions of sins and punishments.

Hell is dusk, when the candles in the parlor are poor luminaries to replace the comfort sunlight brings during the day. Hell is evening, when every susurrus of the old house is the voice of a ghost pleading to be heard, and gone the next moment. Hell is night, when there are no barriers between oneself and one's thoughts, and might-have-beens and should-have-dones and never-will-be-agains.

"I didn't get to tell him good-bye," Remus says plaintively to the quiet air.

There is no one to hear, and no one to witness him weeping.

---

Ornamental, taste, windowpane - Harry/Ron (challenge by isolde)

"Ginny had fun," said Ron.

"I think so." Harry was uncharacteristically hanging his robes up instead of tossing them on the floor, but then, these were formal and rented. "At least a dozen older witches told me how good we looked together."

Ron's reply came around a mouthful of toothpaste, but Harry understood it anyway: "You jus' go' a thing for re'heads."

"You're sure she didn't mind?" Harry asked for the thousandth time. "Being...you know...window-dressing?"

"Don' be--" *spit*--"daft. She's happy to do us favors. And she likes dressing up."

"I suppose..."

"Besides," added Ron. "she's still my little sister. I can put a toad in her bed if she refuses. D'you want to open that window; it's stuffy in here."

Nighttime rituals nearly completed, the two climbed into bed.

And, too tired for anything more that night, shared the last one:

"'Night, Harry." Kiss.

"'Night, you sexy redhead."

---

Draco/Ron, forgiveness, accident, delicate (challenge by goseaward)

"I've come to beg your forgiveness," said Draco.

"Why?" said Ron.

"Because it was an accident."

"No, I mean, why should I forgive you?"

Draco thought. "Because it was an accident," he repeated, stressing the first word just a bit differently.

"Ah."

"And I have very delicate feelings. So you should forgive me before I go and throw myself off the astronomy tower."

"Draco--" Ron shifted in the infirmary bed. "--it is very hard to cast a furnunculus charm onto someone's bum by accident."

"I know. Very, very hard. I had to practice for weeks before I could manage it accidentally. Am I forgiven yet?"

"Jesus. You know--"

"Right. Astronomy Tower. Tell my father I never loved him." He turned to go.

Ron caught Draco's sleeve. "Git. Give me a kiss. And don't mess up my pillows. It still hurts to sit."

---

Limpid, Apotheosis, Surcease -- Snape/Harry (challenge by cluegirl)

And so it has come to this.

Two days ago, Potter reached a hand out for his, and used what was surely his last conscious act to curl his fingers about Snape's.

Snape has not moved his hand in those two days. None have tried to make him do so.

He sees the remainder of his own days stretching out before him: untroubled, limpid. No one to disturb their neat order. No one to make a beloved nuisance of himself within that calendar.

No boy less than half his age climbing in and out of his bed, his rooms, his life.

Such a hideous apotheosis is not to be borne.

He watches Potter's chest rise and fall in breaths that come with ever more space between them.

Snape waits, not for death, it seems, but mere...surcease.

For both of them.

Comments

[callsigns.livejournal.com]

shit, i think the last one permanently broke my heart, and i didn't keep the receipt for it.

did i ever tell you that i adore your writing more than practically anything else?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*extends lower lip and wibbles mightily* Meep!

I shall try not to produce suckage. For you if no other reason.

[callsigns.livejournal.com]

*loves on you. a lot.*

[angiepen.livejournal.com]

They were all good, especially the Ron/Draco one. I had to laugh out loud at the ending, even though Ron/Draco usually does nothing for me. "Tell my father I never loved him." :D

The first and last, though.... I just wanted to put my arms around Remus and hold him. His sadness is like being pressed to death, slowly.

But the Harry/Snape one was my favorite. It's so... so Severus. As someone said above, grief suppressed rather than grief expressed. I could feel the internal pressure aching through him, but because he is Severus he will never release it. This one was a knife in the gut.

Beautifully done, as always.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Ron/Draco isn't a pairing I would write by preference, but it's satisfying to be able to rise to the challenges of those that ya wouldn't usually. ^_^

But Remus/Sirius and Snape/Harry...man. Bring 'em, baby. (And I'll torture them, apparently!) Thank you so much.

Theme Music In The Air....

[(Anonymous)]

1. Ohhhh. I think that's the saddest I've ever felt about Sirius! Definitely, definitely mangst. I imagine Remus sitting on the roof, sillouhetted by a huge moon, with the instrumental bridge from "If I Can't Have Her - er, Him" from Broadway's Beauty and the Beast playing in the background.

2. While I usually don't like Harry/Ron, this was cute. Unfortunately, you know how my head gets -- I can't empty my head of the phrase "Ginny the Beard", sung to the tune of "Winnie the Pooh"....

3. What is it with you making anybody/Ron palatable, even fun? This is even more cute than #2, because I can just see Draco playing practical jokes on Ron -- and the rest of the Weasleys -- and Ron forgiving him after a few minutes of "you git". Fade out on Indigo Girls, "Shame On You".

4. ...

...

Goodness.

You just broke my heart. Again. God, that's sad. And I can't help hearing the piano music from "Steven" by Alice Cooper:

I don't like to hear you cry.
You just don't know how deep that cuts me.
So I will cover up my eyes
And it will go away.
You've only lived a minute of your life
I must be dreaming -- please stop screaming....

You're amazing, you know that? *long, sighing hug*

-------------
Sobriquet :)

Re: Theme Music In The Air....

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

1. Ohh, you're going to make me have to write the Potterverse musical, and I don't have TIME for that! 'S not good!

2.Ginny the Beard,
Ginny the Beard,
Hangs around with Potter though he's dating boys--weird!
She's...

3.I still don't know what Draco was at (but it probably had something to do with Ron's best friend Harry, who Draco still doesn't like in this universe) but, yeah, there's a lot of "you git"s spoken between those two.

4.Welcome to My Nightmare Album quote! Squee! "Please don't touch the displays, little boy. Heh heh. Cute."

Your comments are too inspiring, sometimes!

[glockgal.livejournal.com]

Wheee! Happy happy joy! Running through backwards. XD

Remus/Sirius, man. The purest slash OTP in the fandom, and you have totally, like, summed it up in this. The tragedy of their love is so touching and sad and just. Oh. *wibbles* I love the definitions of Hell you have in this, it’s so poetic and flowing and referential and I happen to have a slight infatuation with the concept of hell, so this gave me particular bittersweet pleasure. I want to bundle your Remus up and ship him to JKR and say "See?! This is what you’re done, BRING SIRIUS BACK!!!" *snuggles Remus*

And OMG I loooooooove the Harry/Ron. Love it. I love sibling antics and I love best friends and I love slash and this is all of that rolled into one and I just! Eeee! You are always so very keen and adepts at handling and establishing the dynamics between characters. Like, even your writing is more buoyant and teenaged boys and Harry/Ron. They are so cute! And Ginny! And yeah right, Ron; Ginny can out-prank like a pro, Ron wouldn’t stand a chance against his little sister. Tee hee! I adore this so much! Their love!

And then oh god, straight into Ron/Draco, which I adore with a mad burning passion. The dialogue is fantastic and so very them and Draco made me giggle stupidly to myself at work because he’s just so Draco! He had to practice for weeks, AAAAHAHAHAHA. Ron is so affectionate, but trying so hard to be stern. Like, even from the beginning you know Ron will forgive Draco, but he still wants to hear and see if Draco will be able to fess up. Awwww! *claps* Always with the happy!!!

Snape/Harry is just. The fierce loyalty Snape has for Harry is so darling and sweet and sad and endearing. Like, again, with the sternness of the writing and the staccato of the sentences, it’s just. All so abrupt and so very Snape. Wah. The love Severus feels for him is so strong, it’s, like, powerful and touching. Poor thing! Poor thing.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

YES! Bundle up Remus and send him to JKR and tell her what a meanie she is and that Sirius had BETTER be back! Gods. You know, I'm not truly in the denial camp, I'm not. The denial camp says, "No body, no death. He'll be back." But I'm in the mourning camp. The camp that can't deny that he's dead because that would be cheapening the death, the mourning of the characters. But we also don't want to write post-Sirius-death fics because it just hurts too damn much to deal with those things. Can't bear it.

Friendly boy-sex is so...different a dynamic! I like it, I admit, and that's why Harry/Ron comes out this way for me.

And you have Ron completely pegged in the Ron/Draco! Of course he'll forgive him. And Draco is like a puppy with food, just driven in that direction and unable to see anything else, even any perception that he has no idea what a real apology is.

I don't know why Snape/Harry wants to be angsty lets-kill-Harry drabblage for me so often, but I can't seem to resist it. It's like my angsty deathfic outlet. And it always aches in such a good way. If that makes any sense.

You know that I love your feedback so much that I'm completely incapable of holding back my outpouring of meta and stuff, don't you? Because you break down my internal editor with the force of my squees. ^_^

[sbbo.livejournal.com]

You're my hero.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Wibble! I musta done something right. Smooch!

[rane-ab.livejournal.com]

I love the descriptions of the first. The images are so… so gentle somehow, so pretty, and therefore so sad. It shows how lonely Remus is. And I like the opposition of hell as described by some other people and Remus's hell. It really makes you feel that he's not experiencing hell on some philosophical level -- but just his own, personal, wretched version of it, so much simpler, and so, so much worse.

Harry/Ron:
"I know. Very, very hard. I had to practice for weeks before I could manage it accidentally. Am I forgiven yet?"

Now this startled me into laughter. Too funny.

And aww, the Snape/Harry one is so sad. It reminds me a bit of IYAP, somehow. Except that now Snape has to watch Harry die. Gah.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I make only small apologies for the angst, because I loved channelling it so. Grieving!Remus seems to be incredibly cathartic for me, and I don't know why I keep offing Harry in Snarry drabbles except the pairing and length just seem made for that sort of tale. Sigh.