perverse-idyll (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
perverse-idyll.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
crack_van2009-06-29 07:56 pm
perverse-idyll.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2009-06-29 07:56 pm
Entry tags:
Hard Bargain/A Valediction Forbidding Mourning by magnetic pole (Gen)
Fandom: HARRY POTTER
Pairing: None, although there's a hint of Severus Snape/Albus Dumbledore
Length: 500 and 1,000 respectively
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
magnetic_pole
Author Website: Maggie's list of fics on her LJ
Why this must be read:
Thus we come to my final rec, lovely readers. Perhaps it's cheating, but these two fics are yoked together in my mind, despite being written nearly two years apart. One is Severus at the beginning and one is Severus at the end, the perfect bookmarks to an imperfect life.
magnetic_pole's style is spare and careful, restrained, pragmatic. She's honed her skill at picking out tiny psychological details, unexpected moments of clarity, and setting them unadorned on the page. Put enough of these together, and you get cascading echoes of implication, ringing silences, pauses, and possibilities caught between the lines. It's the reader's job to intuit these gaps and connect the dots. There's a slight sense of mystery to Maggie's characters: depths and pasts hinted at, desires barely spoken aloud, if at all. There's also humor and forthrightness and a fleeting touch of poignancy.
Maggie's Snape shifts in a twinkling from simple to complex and back again. He's not polished, not refined, not typically noble. But I root for him like hell, and to the not-so-bitter end I love his attitude. "Hard Bargain" has a moment of revelation that snaps everything into perspective for the reader, just enough to twist your insides with sorrow and pride. In "Valediction," the small moment of shock belongs to Snape himself. It taps the surface of this fic like a pebble dropped into a pond, sending out concentric ripples of light. It makes me glad for him, which is good, because the author's note, "Happy birthday and farewell, Severus Snape," is bittersweet.
These are both precise and haunting little fics, which is a trademark ofmagnetic_pole's. They say a lot by saying little, and that's a talent so alien to me, I gasp as if it's magic. *g*
So this wraps up my month of HP recs. I had a fabulous time spouting off, and these fics and vids are all dear to my heart. Some came down rather heavily on the angsty side, but I hope you enjoyed them nonetheless. Thank you all for taking a chance, and don't forget to leave the authors your comments!
~~~
As the ceremony finished, Potter placed a bouquet of white lilies on the grave.
Severus snorted. Lilies, indeed. He would not be rid of those children, even in death. Granger had been sniffling so loudly he hadn’t been able to hear what Minerva had to say about him.
Next to him, Dumbledore chuckled. "He's grasped something essential, Severus, you have to admit."
"Even a broken clock is right twice a day," Severus replied, sour. Potter had caught his memories in a phial, but in the end he had stared at Severus blankly, taking his last words literally, searching for something meaningful in a dead man's eyes.
He would not be the one to tell Severus' story.
The idiot.
As Harry stood up and rejoined his friends, the group of survivors moved back toward the castle, disappearing one by one into the forest.
"That's that," Severus said once he was certain they were alone. He and Dumbledore had been sitting side by side on a fallen tree trunk, watching the funeral from a distance. Neither moved to get up.
"I thought it was touching," Dumbledore said, turning to face him, eyes wet. It would be flattering if Severus did not know the old man so well; funerals always affected him this way. His kind of sentimentality would have got Severus killed years ago.
"Touching." Severus sighed. His head hurt. "That's one word for it."
~~~
Hard Bargain and A Valediction Forbidding Mourning
Pairing: None, although there's a hint of Severus Snape/Albus Dumbledore
Length: 500 and 1,000 respectively
Author on LJ:
magnetic_poleAuthor Website: Maggie's list of fics on her LJ
Why this must be read:
Thus we come to my final rec, lovely readers. Perhaps it's cheating, but these two fics are yoked together in my mind, despite being written nearly two years apart. One is Severus at the beginning and one is Severus at the end, the perfect bookmarks to an imperfect life.
magnetic_pole's style is spare and careful, restrained, pragmatic. She's honed her skill at picking out tiny psychological details, unexpected moments of clarity, and setting them unadorned on the page. Put enough of these together, and you get cascading echoes of implication, ringing silences, pauses, and possibilities caught between the lines. It's the reader's job to intuit these gaps and connect the dots. There's a slight sense of mystery to Maggie's characters: depths and pasts hinted at, desires barely spoken aloud, if at all. There's also humor and forthrightness and a fleeting touch of poignancy.Maggie's Snape shifts in a twinkling from simple to complex and back again. He's not polished, not refined, not typically noble. But I root for him like hell, and to the not-so-bitter end I love his attitude. "Hard Bargain" has a moment of revelation that snaps everything into perspective for the reader, just enough to twist your insides with sorrow and pride. In "Valediction," the small moment of shock belongs to Snape himself. It taps the surface of this fic like a pebble dropped into a pond, sending out concentric ripples of light. It makes me glad for him, which is good, because the author's note, "Happy birthday and farewell, Severus Snape," is bittersweet.
These are both precise and haunting little fics, which is a trademark of
magnetic_pole's. They say a lot by saying little, and that's a talent so alien to me, I gasp as if it's magic. *g*So this wraps up my month of HP recs. I had a fabulous time spouting off, and these fics and vids are all dear to my heart. Some came down rather heavily on the angsty side, but I hope you enjoyed them nonetheless. Thank you all for taking a chance, and don't forget to leave the authors your comments!
~~~
As the ceremony finished, Potter placed a bouquet of white lilies on the grave.
Severus snorted. Lilies, indeed. He would not be rid of those children, even in death. Granger had been sniffling so loudly he hadn’t been able to hear what Minerva had to say about him.
Next to him, Dumbledore chuckled. "He's grasped something essential, Severus, you have to admit."
"Even a broken clock is right twice a day," Severus replied, sour. Potter had caught his memories in a phial, but in the end he had stared at Severus blankly, taking his last words literally, searching for something meaningful in a dead man's eyes.
He would not be the one to tell Severus' story.
The idiot.
As Harry stood up and rejoined his friends, the group of survivors moved back toward the castle, disappearing one by one into the forest.
"That's that," Severus said once he was certain they were alone. He and Dumbledore had been sitting side by side on a fallen tree trunk, watching the funeral from a distance. Neither moved to get up.
"I thought it was touching," Dumbledore said, turning to face him, eyes wet. It would be flattering if Severus did not know the old man so well; funerals always affected him this way. His kind of sentimentality would have got Severus killed years ago.
"Touching." Severus sighed. His head hurt. "That's one word for it."
~~~
Hard Bargain and A Valediction Forbidding Mourning