crack_van | Truth Beyond by kellychambliss (NC-17)

Fandom: HARRY POTTER
Pairing: Minerva McGonagall/Rita Skeeter
Length: 4250
Author on LJ:

kellychambliss
Author Website: Kelly's HP page at AO3
Why this must be read:
I'm fairly certain this was the first of Kelly's fics I happened upon, and I was smitten on the spot. Kelly's a fantastic representative of the Old Woman Smut brigade (fans who concentrate on older female characters rather than the stereotypically hot young things), a virtuosic, versatile writer who combines wordsmithing with complex character insight. She can saturate a fic with erotic tension while never stinting on the psychological exploration and social commentary that makes for a multifaceted, memorable read. Her artistic eye is satisfyingly sharp; there's always something extra inscribed below the surface for the discerning reader to speculate upon, a bit of meta, a world or a backstory revealed in a flash.

This is one striking example from Kelly's pantheon of Minerva-centric fics, and it brought me to attention like a slap on the arse (a good slap—you'll understand when you read the fic). In part it concerns what SF writer Alice Sheldon dubbed The Women Men Don't See, the brilliantly capable, unappreciated women pushed into the background or rendered invisible by societal assumptions. It posits a network of hidden traditions and passionate lives pursued behind the scenes, showing readers what it means when these discounted figures discard or reclaim the tight buns, tight corsets, and dismissive restrictions, when the strict manners translate deliberately to sexual pleasure. It's a tale of torches (and touches) ignited, of torches passed, an older woman's sponsorship of a younger, of self-possession tutoring lusty ambition. I love Minerva's arc of discovery, the way she's initiated into a secret world within a secret world, of private lesbian clubs within the small, circumscribed borders of wizardkind. And I love how in her turn she eventually takes a risk and performs the same service for Rita Skeeter. Rita's the neophyte here, the upstart, hungry and calculating, an overachiever who needs some means of directing her energy. Minerva, while harboring no illusions about Rita's scruples, is ultimately happy to oblige and do what she does best: teach. It makes a pairing I'd never considered before strike sparks by being so deliciously, irrepressibly true to themselves.

~~#~~
Rita Skeeter likes the sound of the lash -- the crack of leather on skin, of words on parchment. "Scourgify," she whispers as she flicks her quill, welting ink onto vellum, and she's not talking about cleaning charms.

Or perhaps she is -- to Rita, her writing is a way of cleansing a little of the bullshit from the world. Some might call her work sensationalised; Rita calls it truth beyond facts. Did she fudge a few of the facts of Albus Dumbledore's life? No doubt. But did she tell the truth about him as an obsolete, manipulative old fraud? No doubt again. Her pieces on Hagrid, Dippet, Potter? All truer than true.

With her quill, with her truth, Rita stripes all their backs raw -- all the power-boys, all the hero-boys.

And with her lovingly-oiled, pliant lash, she sometimes leaves her mark on the smooth skin of women, or asks them to leave theirs on her. These are marks of a different kind.

But they are truth all the same.

Truth Beyond