...I bet you weren't expecting that, were you?

Anyway, here it is.  I guess there are some benefits to disrupted travel plans after all.  Happy Hanukkah, everyone.

Chapter Sixteen: And Here Again He Lies

"Adieu, O soldier;
You of the rude campaigning, (which we shared,)
The rapid march, the life of the camp,
The hot contention of opposing ( Read more... )

And finally, the plot is beginning to pull itself together.

I feel accomplished.

Chapter Fifteen: Only the Dead Were Smiling

"And the stone word fell
On my still-living breast.
Never mind.  I was ready.
I will manage somehow.

Today I have so much to do.
I must turn my soul to stone;
I must learn to live again."
     -Anna Akhmatova, The Sentence

The walk to ( Read more... )

This was originally planned as a two-part chapter; however, as my laptop committed hari-kiri two days ago, I have decided to post what I have in the Internet-time allotted to me.

Thus, without further ado...

Chapter Fourteen: And the Dark Street Winds and Bends

“Among the red guns,
In the hearts of soldiers
Running free blood
In the long, long, ( Read more... )

Chapter Thirteen: Through the Bones of the Living

The first sorrow of autumn
is the slow goodbye
Of the garden who stands so long in the evening -
A brown poppy head,
The stalk of a lily,
And still cannot go.

The second sorrow
Is the empty feet
Of a pheasant who hangs from a hook with his brothers.
The woodland of gold
Is folded in feathers
With its head ( Read more... )

All right... here it is.  Sorry for the length of time between chapters.

Warning:  This chapter does contain slash.

Chapter Twelve:  After a Thousand Reversals

"Much like a force of planets and stars and black holes: this is love. 
I can remember the days of love's first, unruly birth,

moving inside of me, some gravitational ocean, 
some unnamed ( Read more... )

Chapter Eleven: That a Ghost May Him Haunt

"Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery
But baby, right now,

It's just about you and me.

You can run, you can hide
Just like Bonnie and Clyde.

Reach for the sky,
Ain't never gonna die."
- Social Distortion, Reach for the Sky

The library is enough to stop Remus in his tracks.

"Sirius," he asks after a ( Read more... )

Chapter Ten: Or Their Stretched Purpose Slacken

“Who murdered all these?
These living dead, that root in his nerves and his blood...

Is he the archive of their accusations?
Or their ghostly purpose, their pining vengeance...
...their unforgiven prisoner?”
-Ted Hughes, Crow's Nerve Fails

Molly has a routine. She doesn't quite think of it that way, but ( Read more... )

Chapter Nine: The Wounded Air Roared In

“...walking in the dark and the wind over broken earth
halfmade foundations and unfinished
drainage trenches and the spaced out
circles of glaring light
marking streets that were to be
walking with you but so far from you....”
-Denise Levertov, From the Roof

For a moment, all Remus can do is look helplessly at ( Read more... )

When We That Wore the Myrtle
first year backstory for destruction where you stand
by auberus

"When we that wore the myrtle wear the dust,
And years of darkness cover up our eyes,
And all our arrogant laughter and sweet lust
Keep counsel with the scruples of the wise..."
    -Edna St. Vincent Millay

Minerva:

In all her years, Minerva had never expected to ( Read more... )

Chapter Eight: Whose Part Was to be Gladness

“And as its going often at love's breaking,
The ghost of first days came again to us,
The silver willow through window then stretched in
The silver beauty of her gentle branches.
The bird began to sing the song of light and pleasure
To us, who fear to lift looks from the earth,
Who are so lofty, bitter ( Read more... )