To have and to hold - a HP drabble

[2_4_joy]

Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters, Pairing: Snape/Lucius, Lucius/Narcissa
Summary: Snape makes one last attempt to stop Lucius from marrying.
Challenge: hate potion at slytherin100
Word Count: 100
Rating: PG-13, for one bad word
Warning: If you think the Malfoys are meant to be together, you'll probably hate this.

Comments

[akamine_chan]

Poor Snape. Thinking that a hate potion would change anything...

He couldn’t change with hate what was decided without love.

And again, a great ending line. Liked this a lot. Thanks for sharing...

[2_4_joy]

Thanks. I think at least half the time spent writing this drabble was used tinkering with that sentence, trying to make it elegant and sparse, instead of awkward and confusing.

Since you're my most regular reader, I have a question for you, if you don't mind. When you read this, what did you think was the reason they still got married? When I posted this elsewhere, I had some interpretations I didn't expect. If you have the time, I wondered what you thought.

[akamine_chan]

...trying to make it elegant and sparse...

Personally, I think you accomplished that wonderfully.

As for my interpretations of why Lucius still married Narcissa...you have to realize that I am not a Harry Potter fan and I am just barely familiar with the characters. Deep, complex rationales are going to sail right over my head...

Having said that...it's obvious that Snape's hate potion didn't work because Lucius already hates (or at least doesn't love) Narcissa. It's a marriage of convenience, two people of similiar class and backgrounds, both desiring to carry on their pureblood families...if it had been a love match, then Snape's potion would have worked...

I'm curious as to how other people were interpreting it...

[2_4_joy]

Thanks for responding. Your casual HPness is why I wanted your opinion; I figured your reaction would be based primarily on the writing, not on what you already thought about the characters. Your interpretation is pretty much what I was thinking when I wrote it

[captivus_sensus]

I really like this! I always imagined that their wedding would be absolutely heart wrenching for Snape... The last line (that you seemed to have been worried about) is perfectly clear and effective : )

Although you didn't pose the question to me, I'm going to go ahead and add my two cents: I figured the wedding proceeded, despite the hate potion and lack of love, for 'pureblood obligations': an heir, social status, etc etc etc.

But then again, I am extremely biased ; )
--A very similar idea was explored in the series of Snape/Lucius drabbles I wrote for the 'seasons prompt' for slytherin100 a couple months back...
--And somehow I worked the idea of Lucius and Narcissa marrying out of obligation into a Draco/Theodore fic for potterprompts.

So maybe I'm seeing what I want to see o_O
(And I always want to see Snape/Lucius!)

[2_4_joy]

That is exactly what I was thinking when I wrote it. An heir for Lucius, a trophy husband and money for Narcissa.

I remember those seasons drabbles at slytherin100. I think that was the first thing I ever read of yours, and I liked it a lot. That's definitely the same reasoning I'm working with here, though I wasn't thinking of it at the time.

I think for me the idea started with a Snape/Lucius PWP. Although it wasn't significant in that piece, I had to justify it to myself in order to write it. Snape's reasons were hinted at in the PWP, Lucius' reasons were in a ficlet, and I'm starting to think about Narcissa's here.

Thank you for reading, and helping answer my question. Also, which of the Draco/Theo stories has that idea in the background? I'm reading your series, but I'm a little behind. I don't think I've gotten to that one yet.

[captivus_sensus]

It was this one. Actually, it's not really even in the background. The relationship between Lucius and Narcissa is quite in the foreground for the first quarter of it... And if you squint really hard it alludes to Snape/Lucius.

[militantstemmed]

wow that is a really great ending line. that scene in GoF at the world cup where Narcissa is described. She looks like she's smelling something awful. And when I read that I always thought the source of the smell was at least a little ambiguous. She could hate her husband.

anyway, i like Snape watching the mingling, very good image of Narcissa dragging around Lucious at the reception-type thing.

[2_4_joy]

Yes, in canon she is definitely focused on her family, but her world revolves around Draco, not Lucius. I think there's a lot of room for interpretation there.