29 August 2009
[Hermione Snape’s diary]
I’m still at the Tower House as I write this, although it’s late at night.
There’s so much I want to write, so much I—
I will write what I must.
Where I am.
What I have done.
I’m not at home yet because it’s Soup Night at the Three Broomsticks.
Hannah came knocking on our door late this morning, during the lull between breakfast and lunch. Her jaws set, her chin thrust forward, she marched into our kitchen and plunked an armful of parchments on the table.
“Martyrdom isn’t my thing,” she announced. “But I’ll be damned if I let the bastards win who killed the first lad that kissed me.”
Her documents prove that even if the Three Broomsticks will lose all guests due to the identity of Hannah’s soup cook, she can last at least one year until bankruptcy.—Until after the DLME will have reviewed our cases to ascertain we still meet the conditions of our probation.
“Tonight’s the first ever Soup Night at the Three Broomsticks,” Hannah added and turned to Severus. “Advertised with posters in Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley. Trouble is, I have no soup cook.”
She crossed her arms under her breasts and faced Severus with a fierce expression on her face.
Severus, arms crossed in front of his chest, stood and scowled at her.
He abhors pity—sympathy—
For each and every “kindness” ever extended to him, he has paid with a pound of flesh. And interest carved out of his soul.
He fears favours.
And fools.
…especially faithful fools.
(He is one himself; faithful to the point of foolishness, for all his snide snappishness.)
(That’s how I fell in love with him. When I discovered he was trying to heal Albus after the headmaster’s hand was cursed—and not kill him, as Harry believed.)
Severus glowered at Hannah.
“Barefoot Broth,” he declared at last. “Mussels Soup. And Cheddar Soup.”
Hannah nodded. “We’ll have Rumbledethumps, too. And Tipsy Warlock for pudding.”
They left for the pub; I took Schroedinger and Apparated to Minerva’s house.
Severus has his job back, but how can he find someone to vouch for him in just two days, in just—? When even his Slytherins have deserted him?
We—
But we mustn’t give up. Not until—
And for that, we are—
Another surprise: Amrita Agan was here this afternoon.
Schroedinger and Minerva hissed at her.
I pointed my wand at her.
She fixed her unblinking gaze on the wand. “Do you realise what powers this wand possesses?” she asked me in her soft, sibilant voice.
I couldn’t help myself. I shook my head as if hypnotised.
Suddenly she swung her head towards Minerva. “It could heal the pussy cat,” she hissed.
She smirked. “It can reveal my secrets.”
“…when the time is right,” she continued dryly. “Tomorrow you must go for lunch at the Three Broomsticks.”
“—I invite you to tea for Tuesday,” she added, before she slid away and disappeared without waiting for my reply.
Well! I must say I’m impressed by this development. As unlikely as these things are to occur, this kind of upsprung friendship where there was only the opposite before can and does happen. You portrayed it quite nicely, and I’m also glad it’s a positive plot point. Good things happen even to people who are depressed and have gone through the mill. I hope this means there’s some hope!
Too bad the picture at the top of the chapter gave it away. Seeing Maggie Smith as McGonagall in the (admittedly nicely-done) artwork at the top took all the dramatic force away from the end of the chapter. Still a positive development, though, even if it wasn’t a surprise. I’m glad for Hermione, and by extension, for Severus.
Ah, Christ, I can feel you sharpening your knives for another gloom-fest. Only five more chapters left, and already I can feel you poking holes in whatever limited happiness or security they’ve found.
Amazing! A happy ending! I love it! See–hope isn’t so bad, is it? It does seem a trifle sudden, your ending. And we never did find out about the mystery woman. But I feel able to let our Hermione and Severus go, knowing that whatever further vicissitudes they face, they have each other on a more solid, saner basis. Thank you for your writing, and thank you for the hope you left our favorite couple (and us!) with.
I had wanted to delete the third review I left (“Ah, Christ…”), but I’ve been having problems with my computer, and it didn’t allow me to send my reasons back to you, so it (the deletion) could be done. I had read “Apprentice & Necromancer” first, and was deeply disturbed by how damaged so many of the characters had been at the end of that fic. I was therefore afraid that any positives that were about to jell in this story were all going to fall apart, instead. Once I came to the end of this and found it wasn’t going to end badly for them (yay!), I was sorry I’d been so negative in that third review. So I ask your pardon, and that you disregard that one. You really are quite a special writer, and even though I hated the fact my fictional friends suffered so badly by the finish of “A&N”, I must say your plotting is excellent, and so are your characterizations. I will come back to read more of your writing. Thank you for sharing your gifts with us!
Nice to see that you’re still reading!
One thing puzzles me: You must surely be aware that the characters in “Prisoners” are much, much more damaged than those in “Apprentice”.
Of course “Apprentice” leaves key-characters badly damaged … they have been to Death and back, after all. But that story has an ending that assures readers that yes, everything will be just fine one day, this is something we can cope with, eventually.
While in “Prisoners” the challenge of the plot is met, and superficially the characters and readers are rewarded with a fairly straightforward “happy ending”, the story is really much, much worse if you take a moment to think about it. There is no way back, no matter how much they heal. Hermione will for the rest of her life live under the compulsion of counting things. Severus will in times of crisis always drift off to his parallel world. They will always remain unable to live in an emotionally stable fashion without Draco anchoring them …
I don’t mind at all that you dislike or even “hate” the dark turns and twists of my story/stories. Some people like sweet milk chocolate, others like bitter dark chocolate, it’s as simple as that – different tastes and preferences.
Anyway, from your remarks I gather that you might be interested in hearing a bit about my motivation concerning my stories, so here are a few comments about that:
What I loathe in many fanfiction stories in various fandoms is how authors make light of consequences. People are tortured, traumatised, injured … and there are no consequences. Everyone is right as rain again in one and the same chapter. Personally, I find that not only ridiculous and boring, but somewhat despicable. It doesn’t work like that. As a reader, and therefore also as a writer, I’m simply not interested in fluffy lies, I’m in it for the hard-won happy ending, like the one I wrote for “Apprentice” … I prefer characters who have looked, heck, *jumped into* the abyss of despair and have crawled out of it again and persevered. I am interested in how characters will act when they are pushed far beyond their limits, and how that will change them, and how they will move on from there.
So if you’re looking for fluff, you will rarely find that kind of thing in my stories. But I do try to come up with interesting, twisty plots, and heroes who find the strength to go on no matter what.