That the Science of Cartography Is Limited by rave (R)

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Fandom: HARRY POTTER
Pairing: Remus/Sirius
Author on LJ: dorkorific
Author Website: con fuego, baby
Why this must be read:

Beautiful, heartbreaking, weaving between past and present as Remus remembers what is and what was. Some great insights into Remus, into Sirius, into the whole MWPP dynamic.

A quote:

"I said it's hard to be us," says Peter again, in one of his moments of strange, unsettling wisdom. They are at one of the round tables in the common room, doing their Herbology homework, which means Peter is staring silently at his paper, and when Remus now and then says something, Peter scratches it down. Outside the window Sirius and James swoop periodically, throwing a Quaffle back and forth. They will write it at four-thirty tomorrow morning in fifteen minutes and do as well as Remus.

"What," Remus says, and coughs, and starts again. "What do you mean?"

"I mean it's hard to be us." Peter is staring at the plant that he and Remus are sketching and detailing, but he isn't really seeing it. "Not because it's so bad, you know, our being who we are; just because it means we aren't a Them."

"They're just a different sort of friends," says Remus mildly. "It doesn't make us not important." He looks down at his rows and rows of neat writing.

"Oh," and Peter sounds bitter, a strange thing coming from the amiable little bundle of nothing that is Peter-- "oh, right then, there you go, I guess it won't bother me anymore."

"We could be a Them," offers Remus, but he doesn't really mean it.

"You can't make that happen." Peter folds and refolds his parchment when he gets unhappy, until flakes start to fall off the edges and his words wear at the corners, blur with nervous sweat and finally lose all integrity. “I’ve tried.”

One of the most moving portraits of Remus - of MWPP as a group - I've ever read, told with spare, lyrical prose and a clear look at the characters as they are, faults and all. Absolutely stunning.

That the Science of Cartography Is Limited by rave