7 August 2009
[Hermione Snape’s diary]
The first shock was breakfast: Hannah Abbott served it! She was not on my list; but after eleven years or 135 months or 587 weeks or 4,115 days or—the Calculus spell works well with my new wand—around 98,760 hours after Voldemort’s victory, I can’t know who’s still alive, even if they were on my list of the living.
…if I’d had a list of the living.
I remember Hannah. I can still see her on 14 February 1998. At breakfast. In the Great Hall. Eleven years or 138 months or 598 weeks or 4,192 days ago she was a plump, pink-cheeked girl kissing Neville Longbottom for Valentine’s Day until he blushed redder than the roses he gave her. Now he’s dead, and she’s a thin, worn-down woman with weary eyes. Her right cheek is marked with a purple curse-scar. Her left cheek is branded with a faded version of the Dark Mark, the letters H and B for “half-blood” curling in black ridges over her cheekbone.
Hannah has taken over the Three Broomsticks after Madam Rosmerta died during a routine Control of the local Death Eater squad. The Prophet claimed it was just a heart attack, according to Hannah.
I expect her heart did give out.
Hannah was helpful. Draco had some papers; but living as a recluse, he’s not up to date concerning the rules and regulations of the wizarding world in 2009.
Since we are on probation, she is not allowed to let us stay longer than three nights.
But Miss Violet Puddifoot—Madam Puddifoot’s niece—rents out rooms, too.
Madam Puddifoot’s square is in the second column from the left, thirteenth from the window. I never knew her first name. Hannah told me. She was Isobel. She died when Death Eaters attacked Hogsmeade on 14 February 1998. Eleven years or 138 months or 598 weeks or 4,192 days ago.
Thus we have almost a week here, where at least the names of the shops are still familiar, even if not much else is.
We must register our wands at the Death Eaters’ office today, and turn them in for inspection once a month. Priori Incantatem will be cast on them. Every spell we cast will be registered and Traced.
But we do not have to be branded like Hannah. Minister Malfoy abolished that law on 27 June 2009. A month, nearly six weeks, or 41 days, or 984 hours ago.
I wonder why they didn’t brand us. Severus says they likely forgot about us. For eleven years or 135 months or 587 weeks or 4,114 days or 98,736 hours.
Why did they remember us now?
We got our wands registered and looked at the bulletin board of the post office. With Draco’s galleons we can afford three houses listed for sale. Then we went to the apothecary—my left hand is inflamed. No luck; Murtlap’s Essence is a forbidden substance now.
But I don’t mind the pain.
It means I am alive and almost, almost free.
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.