From the Ashes, by fourth_rose. (R)

[thady.livejournal.com]

Fandom: HARRY POTTER
Pairing: Harry/Pansy, past Draco/Harry
Length: ~ 60,000 words
Author on LJ: fourth_rose
Author Website: None that I know.

Why this must be read:

Because this is such an unlikely pairing and and an unlikely situation, and yet it works. At first I was a bit skeptical, but then I started reading and I just couldn't stop. It has great characterization, and good plot and really good dialog.

It's a very grown up story, not so much because of anything sexual but in the way the characters mature and grow. I think it's a very realistic portrayal of a relationship. I can see this happening. That doesn't mean this story is all serious, there a lot of funny and humorous moments and witty banter.

After a war, those who survived are usually too busy picking up the pieces to think much about the things they went through. That part comes later, once the dust has settled.

At least, Harry thinks as he wanders aimlessly through the bustling crowds in Diagon Alley, this is true for the Order and its allies. Now that the dead have been buried, everyone seems hell-bent to make all visible signs of the war disappear as quickly as possible, as if they could eradicate everything that happened by doing so. It's not going to work, but he supposes it will take some time before people realize it.

There is very little left to pick up for the supporters of Voldemort. All the prominent Death Eaters are dead - either killed during the fights or executed by the Ministry; their property is confiscated, their remaining families in exile. The lower ranks are filling the cells in Azkaban, guarded once again by the Dementors who have returned to their posts after Voldemort's fall as if nothing had happened. There are rumours that Headmistress McGonagall got into a screaming match with Minister Scrimgeour about it, but the Minister insisted the Dementors were no threat anymore and that they were needed to make Azkaban secure again.

Harry doesn't know what all those who belonged to neither side are doing now - the purebloods who wouldn't follow Voldemort in the first place, or abandoned him when Draco Malfoy left his father's side and claimed that the Dark Lord had betrayed wizarding tradition just as much as the Order and their Muggle-loving supporters. He has no idea what will happen to those who chose the "third way", now that the one they were following is buried in a little graveyard in Wiltshire, hated and despised beyond the grave by both the light and the dark sides.

Harry's musings are cut short when someone bumps into him - someone who was obviously in a hurry to get around the corner of Knockturn Alley. A woman, wrapped in a dark blue cloak against the chill of the clear spring evening, laden with shopping bags that are now spilling their contents onto the pavement.

"Can't you watch where you're going?" she snaps as Harry crouches to help her shove her belongings back into the bags. He stops short at the familiar sound of her voice and tries to see her face which is half-hidden under the hood of her cloak. "Pansy Parkinson?"

From the Ashes