Round 6 Challenge 3: Voting
Confused about which fork to use? Generally speaking, you start with the outermost one, and work your way in. Don’t forget to put your napkin in your lap … It’s time for the week three Feast of Love!
Welcome all to the sumptuous 5 course meal of "Out of Mind."
A couple of things to remember when deciding which drabbles to vote for (most and least favorite):
Guidelines:
As a voter, you have the option of leaving a brief statement about why you voted the way you did, for both most and least favorite. Your feedback will then be given to the drabble writer (if they want the feedback) ANONYMOUSLY.
Example: Most - #40: the ending was brilliant - OR - Least - #57: the ending fell flat
Please remember writers, that you may not vote for yourselves.
Here we go for week three!
Choose your favorite and least favorite drabbles. Favorites will receive +1 point per vote, and least favorites -1 point per vote.
Voting ends at 11:59pm, Friday, March 6.
I eat merely to put food out of my mind
AND - must be written in Draco's POV.
1
Title: A Small Gesture
Author: dracodew17
Rating: PG
Warning(s): AU Seventh Year
Word Count: 498
It wasn’t unusual for Draco to see dinner already spread out on the table when he entered the common room these days. In fact, between Head responsibilities, studying for NEWT-level courses, and tutoring the younger students, he and Granger would quite often take their meals within the confines of their suite on the sixth floor to save time rather than trek all the way down to the Great Hall and back again.
He was just returning from a tutoring session now, but his thoughts weren’t focused on anything but the events of the next day and a knot of apprehension tightened in his stomach. Worrying about it would do no good, he knew, but knowing something and putting it into practice were two completely different things.
Scooping bits of food onto a plate, he plopped down in front of the fire and started eating listlessly without once looking at what was going into his mouth. After only a few bites, he pushed the still nearly full dish away from him, uninterested in consuming any more.
“What’s wrong?” Granger asked from just over his left shoulder where she was curled on the couch, her own empty plate placed on the side table. “This is the third day you’ve barely touched anything, and you look like you’ve been eating merely to put food and everything else out of your mind.”
He felt his lips twist into an instinctive sneer as he watched the flames dance in front of his eyes. “You should already know what tomorrow is,” he replied scornfully.
The sound of her scoffing reached his ears while she cleaned up the remnants of their meal, her annoyance coming through clearly.
“Honestly, boys are all alike! It is just a game.”
His head snapped around at that. “No, it’s Quidditch, and perhaps the last time I’ll have to beat Potter.”
Only the back of her was visible as he watched the brunette disappear into her room, her heavy satchel of books dangling from one arm.
“Fine. See if I care when you starve.”
The statement was finalized by the slamming of her bedroom door, and he was left alone with his thoughts.
-
The next afternoon saw him entering the common room dripping wet, his Quidditch robes soaked through from the inclement weather during the match, and disappointment weighing heavily on his shoulders.
Potter had once again managed to beat him to the Snitch.
However, the scene before his eyes soon had him distracted.
Roasted chicken, buttered asparagus, and the most delicious-looking strawberry trifle--all of his favorites--were decorating the table with Granger nervously standing next to it, a shy, indulgent smile lighting up her face.
“Now that the match is over, I thought you might regain your appetite,” she explained as she tugged him towards the warm fire. He found himself delighted by the flush turning her cheeks scarlet.
Maybe losing to Potter and the Gryffindors wasn’t so bad when he had Hermione Granger to cheer him up.
2
Title: A Taste of Freedom
Author: vox_rowan
Rating: G
Warning(s):
Word Count: 495
The first week in Azkaban I promised myself a lot of things: endless hot baths, rolling about on downy beds coated in silken sheets, a cold, fresh wind as I raced my broom to the sun.
The first month in Azkaban I promised myself vengeance: Potter cast down, the Minister kissing the family ring, my father and I striding through the world once more, heads high.
Near the end I promised myself air and light.
Father was released a few hours before me, leaving a note with the promise that all would be prepared for our homecoming. The Manor. Hot baths and silken sheets. Endless tables of plums, spiced wine, and trifles flashed through my mind. But when I stepped into the Floo the words fell from my lips without a second thought: Diagon Alley!
It was crowded, full of families, running to and fro, loaded down with quills, cauldrons and books. I knew the exact date of my release, but I hadn’t comprehended that autumn had come again with a new crop of children heading off to the school that I had helped destroy.
I wandered aimlessly, emptying crowded stores within moments of my entry.
Finally, I went into a tea shop. I had lost my appetite for much of anything, but I was tired of my brain granting my empty stomach full priority in the queue of thoughts that filled my head.
I ordered something, possibly a scone or a muffin. The waitress set it down carelessly in front of me along with a cup of tea and skittered away. I ate automatically, chewing, staring ahead of me, dry crumbles filling my mouth and mixing with hot liquid.
“Malfoy, you look like a man who just escaped the chopping block.”
I raised my eyes slowly to meet those of Ronald Weasley who stood in front of my table, sneering down. She was standing slightly behind him, frowning with disapproval, although not at me. For me her large brown eyes mostly held pity.
“I suppose I do,” I replied without intonation. I watched his face fall and he stalked off towards the shop door, irritably reaching behind him for her to follow. But she did not, her eyes fixed on my plate.
“You were released today.”
“Yes.”
“I’d have thought that you’d want more than a scone.”
I paused and glanced down at the plate, sheepish.
“For some time it was all I thought of, my first meal as a free man.”
“I see.”
“So… you and the Weas-Weasley?”
“Yes.”
“Happy?”
She smiled faintly, glancing behind her as he impatiently waited by the door.
“Sometimes the things we long for turn out just to be a scone,” she murmured.
I nodded. It wasn’t my place to comment.
3
Title: Now
Author: terrayn
Rating: R
Warning(s): AU where Harry didn't defeat Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts
Word Count: 498
There is madness in the air.
How else to describe the kaleidoscope of light, lethal, corrosively beautiful, bending the space around him? He is slowly drowning in fear.
Two years ago, that fear would've been for his parents, helpless before an indiscriminate lunatic.
One year ago, it would've been for himself, stupid to betray the Dark Lord-he's already killed Mother for letting Potter escape-what use was it to carry on in vengeance?
Today, it is for the woman who took him in after the massacre, a holocaust razing his home, his everything, into the ground.
Draco knows it's all wrong. He's heard of Nightingale Syndrome, patients deluded enough to mistake bedside manner for caring, and he sees its symptoms in himself, but knowing and believing and feeling are continents apart; it doesn't make the sight of her burn any less. Granger is his anchor in a world that won't stop convulsing, keeps ripping the ground from beneath his feet, and he thinks that maybe, maybe he loves her.
One hour after Potter enters Hogwarts, hunger rules his every thought, more primal than food. He is starving for a glimpse of her, just one to put her out of his mind. She has to be alive so all of this, any of this, will be worth it-
"Draco!" shouts a voice that pounds joy into his chest.
Granger leaps from behind a pillar in the crumbling courtyard, shooting jets of light over her shoulder, grim smile lit with conviction and hope. "Voldemort's coming!"
He kneels to draw the last rune with his blood. A black shadow bursts through the courtyard, and Draco can see its pale face, agony lacerating his left arm. The Dark Lord flies after Granger, and for a cutting heartbeat, Draco thinks the monster will make it, but then the runes cresting the battlefield glow and the Dark Lord smashes into a wall of lightning, each second he is ensnared draining a year of Draco's life.
Then Potter emerges from the castle, bleeding, bruised, battered, yet still gripping his wand in a steady hand. "Only one way to find out who's the master of the Elder Wand, Tom!" he cries. "Avada Kedavra!"
The Dark Lord hisses the same, but the collision of light rips the wand from his skeletal hand, leaving him barren before the maelstrom of unrelenting, unforgiving green. When his body falls, Draco's lightning vanishes, air pulsing with the smell of burnt ozone, and its loss pitches him to the ground.
"Draco," murmurs Granger over him, eyes wide, elation warring with fear. "He's gone. Harry did it. We all did it!"
Now, he thinks. Somehow he finds the strength to curve a hand behind her neck, tugging her closer. "That was ten years," he tells her, breath ghosting over her cheek.
"What?"
"That snake bastard took ten years. So it's only fair, I want ten from you. With you," he says, and kisses her like it is the first, last, only time.
4
Title: Angelically Sinful
Author: queen_violet
Rating: G
Warning(s): none
Word Count: 117
Draco had always loved strawberries. They reminded him of springtime, of new beginnings and close friends. Now, they also reminded him of her.
And he’d recently come to enjoy the slightly tangy sweetness of lemon shortcake. Add in whipped cream, and he was sure he'd died and gone to heaven.
"Gods, Hermione." Taking another bite, he couldn't help the slight moan that broke free. "This is positively sinful."
"Quit exaggerating, Draco," she says, laughing a little. "It can't be that good."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "And why not, angel?"
"Because my triple chocolate cake is better,” she informed him, smirking.
He groaned and did the only thing he could. He leaned forward and kissed her.
5
Title: Meeting the parents.
Author: open_atclose
Rating: PG
Warning(s):
Word Count: 405
"No, honestly, I couldn't possibly eat another bite."
I watched as Mrs. Granger approached the dining table with a large glass bowl filled to the brim with trifle in her hands, the white cream mixing beautifully with the berries scattered across the top. My mouth positively watered just as my stomach let out a loud growl of satiation.
"Nonsense," Mrs. Granger said, a strange glint in her eye that reminded me of the head house elf at Malfoy Manor whom had spent countless days trying to fatten me up. "I've never met anyone who hasn't been able to make room for my trifle."
Beside me, Hermione giggled under her breath and I noticed that she wasn't being force-fed sweets. I threw her a look that simply shouted 'help me!', but she resolutely turned away. Clearly, if I was in trouble with Death Eaters I could count on her, however when it came to the matter of too much food, I was on my own.
Giving up on my protests, which admittedly had been half-hearted at best from the very beginning, I allowed Hermione's mother to spoon a large dollop of trifle onto the plate in front of me. Ignoring the voice in my head shouting that I would regret it later, I tucked in to the dessert, smiling with some difficulty at Mrs. Granger, who had sat back down opposite me.
"I can see why everybody makes room for your trifle, Mrs. Granger," I said, feeling my stomach twist painfully, and I eyed the rest of the trifle with trepidation.
****
As we stepped out of the Granger home an hour later, having waved goodbye to her parents and Apparated back into our living room, Hermione laughed aloud at the expression on my face.
"See, I told you it wasn't going to be too bad," she said, still chuckling as she hung up her coat.
"Not too bad? I'm going to be working off all that custard for a year!" I pouted.
Hermione took my hand and smiled slyly, gently pulling me towards the bedroom.
"Well it's lucky that I know a great way to exercise," she said, a mischievous expression on her face. I grinned back at her before sighing and shaking my head.
"We'll have to start that exercise tomorrow I'm afraid. I think if I do any strenuous activity I'll have a heart attack. Meeting your parents was a harrowing experience, you know."
ooo
REMEMBER: Vote for the NUMBER of the drabble, NOT THE NAME. It just makes it easier on the mods!
Please leave both a MOST favorite and a LEAST favorite vote. We must have both in order for your votes to count.
Poll Round 6 Challenge 1
For readers, supporters, lovers of everything dramione -
Copy & Paste from the Box
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Eat, Drink and Be Merry at the Feast of Love!
Click the Ticket to Read & Vote!
This Week: Out of Mind
Voting ends Friday 11:59 EST (GMT -4) March 5th
To Get this Pretty for your Journal - Spread the Drabble Love!
Eat, Drink and Be Merry at the Feast of Love!
Click the Ticket to Read & Vote!
This Week: Out of Mind
Voting ends Friday 11:59 EST (GMT -4) March 5th
Please spread the word and thanks for dropping by!
Welcome all to the sumptuous 5 course meal of "Out of Mind."
A couple of things to remember when deciding which drabbles to vote for (most and least favorite):
Guidelines:
- Which drabble best incorporates the prompt?
- Is the drabble clever, different, fresh? Does it evoke an emotional response (good or bad)?
- Does the drabble contain grammar, canon or spelling errors?
As a voter, you have the option of leaving a brief statement about why you voted the way you did, for both most and least favorite. Your feedback will then be given to the drabble writer (if they want the feedback) ANONYMOUSLY.
Example: Most - #40: the ending was brilliant - OR - Least - #57: the ending fell flat
Please remember writers, that you may not vote for yourselves.
Here we go for week three!
Choose your favorite and least favorite drabbles. Favorites will receive +1 point per vote, and least favorites -1 point per vote.
Voting ends at 11:59pm, Friday, March 6.
I eat merely to put food out of my mind
AND - must be written in Draco's POV.
1
Title: A Small Gesture
Author: dracodew17
Rating: PG
Warning(s): AU Seventh Year
Word Count: 498
It wasn’t unusual for Draco to see dinner already spread out on the table when he entered the common room these days. In fact, between Head responsibilities, studying for NEWT-level courses, and tutoring the younger students, he and Granger would quite often take their meals within the confines of their suite on the sixth floor to save time rather than trek all the way down to the Great Hall and back again.
He was just returning from a tutoring session now, but his thoughts weren’t focused on anything but the events of the next day and a knot of apprehension tightened in his stomach. Worrying about it would do no good, he knew, but knowing something and putting it into practice were two completely different things.
Scooping bits of food onto a plate, he plopped down in front of the fire and started eating listlessly without once looking at what was going into his mouth. After only a few bites, he pushed the still nearly full dish away from him, uninterested in consuming any more.
“What’s wrong?” Granger asked from just over his left shoulder where she was curled on the couch, her own empty plate placed on the side table. “This is the third day you’ve barely touched anything, and you look like you’ve been eating merely to put food and everything else out of your mind.”
He felt his lips twist into an instinctive sneer as he watched the flames dance in front of his eyes. “You should already know what tomorrow is,” he replied scornfully.
The sound of her scoffing reached his ears while she cleaned up the remnants of their meal, her annoyance coming through clearly.
“Honestly, boys are all alike! It is just a game.”
His head snapped around at that. “No, it’s Quidditch, and perhaps the last time I’ll have to beat Potter.”
Only the back of her was visible as he watched the brunette disappear into her room, her heavy satchel of books dangling from one arm.
“Fine. See if I care when you starve.”
The statement was finalized by the slamming of her bedroom door, and he was left alone with his thoughts.
-
The next afternoon saw him entering the common room dripping wet, his Quidditch robes soaked through from the inclement weather during the match, and disappointment weighing heavily on his shoulders.
Potter had once again managed to beat him to the Snitch.
However, the scene before his eyes soon had him distracted.
Roasted chicken, buttered asparagus, and the most delicious-looking strawberry trifle--all of his favorites--were decorating the table with Granger nervously standing next to it, a shy, indulgent smile lighting up her face.
“Now that the match is over, I thought you might regain your appetite,” she explained as she tugged him towards the warm fire. He found himself delighted by the flush turning her cheeks scarlet.
Maybe losing to Potter and the Gryffindors wasn’t so bad when he had Hermione Granger to cheer him up.
2
Title: A Taste of Freedom
Author: vox_rowan
Rating: G
Warning(s):
Word Count: 495
The first week in Azkaban I promised myself a lot of things: endless hot baths, rolling about on downy beds coated in silken sheets, a cold, fresh wind as I raced my broom to the sun.
The first month in Azkaban I promised myself vengeance: Potter cast down, the Minister kissing the family ring, my father and I striding through the world once more, heads high.
Near the end I promised myself air and light.
Father was released a few hours before me, leaving a note with the promise that all would be prepared for our homecoming. The Manor. Hot baths and silken sheets. Endless tables of plums, spiced wine, and trifles flashed through my mind. But when I stepped into the Floo the words fell from my lips without a second thought: Diagon Alley!
It was crowded, full of families, running to and fro, loaded down with quills, cauldrons and books. I knew the exact date of my release, but I hadn’t comprehended that autumn had come again with a new crop of children heading off to the school that I had helped destroy.
I wandered aimlessly, emptying crowded stores within moments of my entry.
Finally, I went into a tea shop. I had lost my appetite for much of anything, but I was tired of my brain granting my empty stomach full priority in the queue of thoughts that filled my head.
I ordered something, possibly a scone or a muffin. The waitress set it down carelessly in front of me along with a cup of tea and skittered away. I ate automatically, chewing, staring ahead of me, dry crumbles filling my mouth and mixing with hot liquid.
“Malfoy, you look like a man who just escaped the chopping block.”
I raised my eyes slowly to meet those of Ronald Weasley who stood in front of my table, sneering down. She was standing slightly behind him, frowning with disapproval, although not at me. For me her large brown eyes mostly held pity.
“I suppose I do,” I replied without intonation. I watched his face fall and he stalked off towards the shop door, irritably reaching behind him for her to follow. But she did not, her eyes fixed on my plate.
“You were released today.”
“Yes.”
“I’d have thought that you’d want more than a scone.”
I paused and glanced down at the plate, sheepish.
“For some time it was all I thought of, my first meal as a free man.”
“I see.”
“So… you and the Weas-Weasley?”
“Yes.”
“Happy?”
She smiled faintly, glancing behind her as he impatiently waited by the door.
“Sometimes the things we long for turn out just to be a scone,” she murmured.
I nodded. It wasn’t my place to comment.
3
Title: Now
Author: terrayn
Rating: R
Warning(s): AU where Harry didn't defeat Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts
Word Count: 498
There is madness in the air.
How else to describe the kaleidoscope of light, lethal, corrosively beautiful, bending the space around him? He is slowly drowning in fear.
Two years ago, that fear would've been for his parents, helpless before an indiscriminate lunatic.
One year ago, it would've been for himself, stupid to betray the Dark Lord-he's already killed Mother for letting Potter escape-what use was it to carry on in vengeance?
Today, it is for the woman who took him in after the massacre, a holocaust razing his home, his everything, into the ground.
Draco knows it's all wrong. He's heard of Nightingale Syndrome, patients deluded enough to mistake bedside manner for caring, and he sees its symptoms in himself, but knowing and believing and feeling are continents apart; it doesn't make the sight of her burn any less. Granger is his anchor in a world that won't stop convulsing, keeps ripping the ground from beneath his feet, and he thinks that maybe, maybe he loves her.
One hour after Potter enters Hogwarts, hunger rules his every thought, more primal than food. He is starving for a glimpse of her, just one to put her out of his mind. She has to be alive so all of this, any of this, will be worth it-
"Draco!" shouts a voice that pounds joy into his chest.
Granger leaps from behind a pillar in the crumbling courtyard, shooting jets of light over her shoulder, grim smile lit with conviction and hope. "Voldemort's coming!"
He kneels to draw the last rune with his blood. A black shadow bursts through the courtyard, and Draco can see its pale face, agony lacerating his left arm. The Dark Lord flies after Granger, and for a cutting heartbeat, Draco thinks the monster will make it, but then the runes cresting the battlefield glow and the Dark Lord smashes into a wall of lightning, each second he is ensnared draining a year of Draco's life.
Then Potter emerges from the castle, bleeding, bruised, battered, yet still gripping his wand in a steady hand. "Only one way to find out who's the master of the Elder Wand, Tom!" he cries. "Avada Kedavra!"
The Dark Lord hisses the same, but the collision of light rips the wand from his skeletal hand, leaving him barren before the maelstrom of unrelenting, unforgiving green. When his body falls, Draco's lightning vanishes, air pulsing with the smell of burnt ozone, and its loss pitches him to the ground.
"Draco," murmurs Granger over him, eyes wide, elation warring with fear. "He's gone. Harry did it. We all did it!"
Now, he thinks. Somehow he finds the strength to curve a hand behind her neck, tugging her closer. "That was ten years," he tells her, breath ghosting over her cheek.
"What?"
"That snake bastard took ten years. So it's only fair, I want ten from you. With you," he says, and kisses her like it is the first, last, only time.
4
Title: Angelically Sinful
Author: queen_violet
Rating: G
Warning(s): none
Word Count: 117
Draco had always loved strawberries. They reminded him of springtime, of new beginnings and close friends. Now, they also reminded him of her.
And he’d recently come to enjoy the slightly tangy sweetness of lemon shortcake. Add in whipped cream, and he was sure he'd died and gone to heaven.
"Gods, Hermione." Taking another bite, he couldn't help the slight moan that broke free. "This is positively sinful."
"Quit exaggerating, Draco," she says, laughing a little. "It can't be that good."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "And why not, angel?"
"Because my triple chocolate cake is better,” she informed him, smirking.
He groaned and did the only thing he could. He leaned forward and kissed her.
5
Title: Meeting the parents.
Author: open_atclose
Rating: PG
Warning(s):
Word Count: 405
"No, honestly, I couldn't possibly eat another bite."
I watched as Mrs. Granger approached the dining table with a large glass bowl filled to the brim with trifle in her hands, the white cream mixing beautifully with the berries scattered across the top. My mouth positively watered just as my stomach let out a loud growl of satiation.
"Nonsense," Mrs. Granger said, a strange glint in her eye that reminded me of the head house elf at Malfoy Manor whom had spent countless days trying to fatten me up. "I've never met anyone who hasn't been able to make room for my trifle."
Beside me, Hermione giggled under her breath and I noticed that she wasn't being force-fed sweets. I threw her a look that simply shouted 'help me!', but she resolutely turned away. Clearly, if I was in trouble with Death Eaters I could count on her, however when it came to the matter of too much food, I was on my own.
Giving up on my protests, which admittedly had been half-hearted at best from the very beginning, I allowed Hermione's mother to spoon a large dollop of trifle onto the plate in front of me. Ignoring the voice in my head shouting that I would regret it later, I tucked in to the dessert, smiling with some difficulty at Mrs. Granger, who had sat back down opposite me.
"I can see why everybody makes room for your trifle, Mrs. Granger," I said, feeling my stomach twist painfully, and I eyed the rest of the trifle with trepidation.
****
As we stepped out of the Granger home an hour later, having waved goodbye to her parents and Apparated back into our living room, Hermione laughed aloud at the expression on my face.
"See, I told you it wasn't going to be too bad," she said, still chuckling as she hung up her coat.
"Not too bad? I'm going to be working off all that custard for a year!" I pouted.
Hermione took my hand and smiled slyly, gently pulling me towards the bedroom.
"Well it's lucky that I know a great way to exercise," she said, a mischievous expression on her face. I grinned back at her before sighing and shaking my head.
"We'll have to start that exercise tomorrow I'm afraid. I think if I do any strenuous activity I'll have a heart attack. Meeting your parents was a harrowing experience, you know."
ooo
REMEMBER: Vote for the NUMBER of the drabble, NOT THE NAME. It just makes it easier on the mods!
Please leave both a MOST favorite and a LEAST favorite vote. We must have both in order for your votes to count.
Poll Round 6 Challenge 1
For readers, supporters, lovers of everything dramione -
Copy & Paste from the Box
Eat, Drink and Be Merry at the Feast of Love!
Click the Ticket to Read & Vote!
This Week: Out of Mind
Voting ends Friday 11:59 EST (GMT -4) March 5th
To Get this Pretty for your Journal - Spread the Drabble Love!
Eat, Drink and Be Merry at the Feast of Love!
Click the Ticket to Read & Vote!
This Week: Out of Mind
Voting ends Friday 11:59 EST (GMT -4) March 5th
Please spread the word and thanks for dropping by!