Faces of Pride, Feelings of Fear (eight Harry Potter women, PG)

[catsintheattic]

Title: Faces of Pride, Feelings of Fear
Autor: catsintheattic
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Prompt: 35) We were all developing the same stubborn pride, behind which our frightened selves hid, pretending everything was all right. Esmeralda Santiago (born May 17, 1948), Puerto Rican author, co-founder of film and media production company

Comments

[kellychambliss]

Impressive! I really, really like this. You have presented all these characters at such perfectly-chosen, key moments and provided striking insights in just a few, tightly-constructed words.

Minerva and Pansy are my favorites, because in both cases, you've chosen exactly the moments that most makes me wish we'd seen something of their povs in canon. I've always been troubled by McG's and Harry's casual use of Unforgivables in that DH scene; I've wanted to know what she was thinking, and you've explained it in a way that makes me believe not only your McG, but your take on Harry as well. Both of them are so IC: of course he's still thinking like a boy in many ways; of course she thinks as both teacher and soldier.

In canon, I've taken moral hope from that little textual pause that JKR gives McGonagall: "very. . .gallant." A world of complex thoughts could occur in between "very" and "gallant," and you've shown them beautifully and convincingly here. (Although in the next canon instant, McG uses an unnecessary Unforgivable herself...maybe you can take up that point next time /g/).

And Pansy...of course there's more going on with her in this scene than canon suggests; there are any number of complex reasons that she might considering giving up Potter, and I love the way you go beyond the canon implication that the mere fact of her being a Slytherin and friend of Draco is enough to explain her motivations. You capture her anger and her voice very well.

Love Narcissa, too; everything ties in so perfectly with canon, even her clutching fingernails.

These lines are probably my favorites:

Minerva felt like screaming, too. The look on Potter’s face was one of absolute satisfaction, the face of a man at the height of orgasmic bliss. Some got it in the bedroom, others on the battlefield. She’d seen it on too many faces in the first war.

It was shocking to see the expression on the face of one of her students. Of course, Minerva knew that they harboured romantic infatuations and dreams of glory; it was part of growing up, after all. But to see Potter’s face distorted from the bliss of torturing someone, even if it was a Death Eater, made her want to sit down for the first time in years.

Great job. I do hope you'll write up the other episodes.

[catsintheattic]

Thank you for such a generous and detailed comment!

Minerva and Pansy were my favourite scenes, too, the first because I never believed that McG wouldn't at least feel the impulse to say something when I read that scene in the books, the second because of the continuously unfair way we are told "Slytherin equals bad" in canon.

I'm incredibly pleased that you found my take on Minerva believable, because I know that you like her a lot, this is a very high praise. *happy dance* This is the first time I wrote her, but she is a truly intriguing character, so ... who knows?

Fleur and Tonks would have been wonderful to make more points about being a woman who gets put back to child bearing and household stuff, but they didn't even have lines in DH, which is why I didn't use them in the end.