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_van2011-02-07 10:52 am
perverse-idyll.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2011-02-07 10:52 am
Entry tags:
A Nice Symbol of the Relationship by Florahart (PG-13)
Fandom: HARRY POTTER
Pairing: Gen, no pairing
Length: 4700
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
florahart
Author Website: Flora's fanfiction
Why this must be read:
This is a quietly chilling, non-maudlin little story demonstrating that a certain moral blindness exists in Severus from a very early age; and why, even when his intentions originate in a desire to protect, he is capable of committing unforgivable acts. No motive can be entirely pure in a boy with so little experience of being wanted.
There are no ancient outside forces descending upon him here, as in the previous rec; the twisting of his destiny is all Severus' own doing, although this fic makes it touchingly clear that he's not a monster. He's a child insufficiently loved, accustomed to finding his own solutions and fighting his own battles, attempting to shoulder adult responsibilities. It's this isolation that leads him astray (with a little help from Slughorn, the only adult privy to his dilemma). He broods and thinks (which I find incredibly endearing) and copes with being left on his own, but an adult intelligence coupled with a child's limited moral resources can be a terrifying and heartbreaking thing.
Even Severus suspects this, by the end; but he can't let himself grasp the implications of what he has just done. Which is his tragedy in the series, too, and this perceptive fic traces a pattern he will spend his life trying (and failing) to unlearn.
~~*~~
He checked his precautions, because being careful with habits was itself a habit that served well, then sat with his back to the trunk and glanced up into the branches. He turned the lump of letter over in his hands several times.
There was nothing for it but to just open it, he supposed at last. He unrolled and unfolded, pressing the cheap lined paper flat, and read the short note.
Boy
I know ya sometimes helped yer mam with unplessantniss, but ya won't have cause from here on.
Severus felt a prickling sweat starting to break out on his back and chest. Unpleasantness? Which unpleasantness? There were many. Won't have cause? He could hear the hard sneer of his father speaking these words as clearly as if he were right here, and somehow the very illiteracy of the text--not that Tobias couldn't read, but he didn't, and it showed in the way he formed letters and words--gave him a chill.
He glanced at his sallow fingers and willed them not to shake, then went back to the letter.
She got nothing to make the stuff from, and yer gonna be a big brother now. She says she won't tell ya cos you'll find it worrying, but I think ya ought to know right off.
Severus crumpled the paper in his left hand and had his wand out to incinerate it before he could even properly form the intent. Then he stilled, nostrils flaring, and smoothed the paper to read the rest. He was still going to burn this, but knowledge was power, and he wanted to know what other nastiness he was supposed to hear.
She says this time she knows better then to make im a freak. Too late for the likes of you, but its about time I had a son. It will be a happy Chrismas for me.
The signature said nothing of importance, and Severus didn't bother tracing the curves and lines of it with his eyes as he retightened his fist and then tossed the balled paper in the air. Hitting it with the ignition charm was only good practice for wand-eye coordination, and the sparks and bits of ash drifted down around him into the grass.
A Nice Symbol of the Relationship
Pairing: Gen, no pairing
Length: 4700
Author on LJ:
florahartAuthor Website: Flora's fanfiction
Why this must be read:
This is a quietly chilling, non-maudlin little story demonstrating that a certain moral blindness exists in Severus from a very early age; and why, even when his intentions originate in a desire to protect, he is capable of committing unforgivable acts. No motive can be entirely pure in a boy with so little experience of being wanted.
There are no ancient outside forces descending upon him here, as in the previous rec; the twisting of his destiny is all Severus' own doing, although this fic makes it touchingly clear that he's not a monster. He's a child insufficiently loved, accustomed to finding his own solutions and fighting his own battles, attempting to shoulder adult responsibilities. It's this isolation that leads him astray (with a little help from Slughorn, the only adult privy to his dilemma). He broods and thinks (which I find incredibly endearing) and copes with being left on his own, but an adult intelligence coupled with a child's limited moral resources can be a terrifying and heartbreaking thing.
Even Severus suspects this, by the end; but he can't let himself grasp the implications of what he has just done. Which is his tragedy in the series, too, and this perceptive fic traces a pattern he will spend his life trying (and failing) to unlearn.
He checked his precautions, because being careful with habits was itself a habit that served well, then sat with his back to the trunk and glanced up into the branches. He turned the lump of letter over in his hands several times.
There was nothing for it but to just open it, he supposed at last. He unrolled and unfolded, pressing the cheap lined paper flat, and read the short note.
Boy
I know ya sometimes helped yer mam with unplessantniss, but ya won't have cause from here on.
Severus felt a prickling sweat starting to break out on his back and chest. Unpleasantness? Which unpleasantness? There were many. Won't have cause? He could hear the hard sneer of his father speaking these words as clearly as if he were right here, and somehow the very illiteracy of the text--not that Tobias couldn't read, but he didn't, and it showed in the way he formed letters and words--gave him a chill.
He glanced at his sallow fingers and willed them not to shake, then went back to the letter.
She got nothing to make the stuff from, and yer gonna be a big brother now. She says she won't tell ya cos you'll find it worrying, but I think ya ought to know right off.
Severus crumpled the paper in his left hand and had his wand out to incinerate it before he could even properly form the intent. Then he stilled, nostrils flaring, and smoothed the paper to read the rest. He was still going to burn this, but knowledge was power, and he wanted to know what other nastiness he was supposed to hear.
She says this time she knows better then to make im a freak. Too late for the likes of you, but its about time I had a son. It will be a happy Chrismas for me.
The signature said nothing of importance, and Severus didn't bother tracing the curves and lines of it with his eyes as he retightened his fist and then tossed the balled paper in the air. Hitting it with the ignition charm was only good practice for wand-eye coordination, and the sparks and bits of ash drifted down around him into the grass.
A Nice Symbol of the Relationship