Seven Drabbles--and a Gripe
Seven drabbles, all done for the "Swollen" challenge at hp100:
Title: 1970s Torch Song
Characters/Pairings: MWPP
Summary: "At seventeen, Peter fell in love."
At seventeen, Peter fell in love.
It was hopeless; he knew that. But he couldn't get enough of this regal girl whose eyes blazed with dark fires, swollen with all the pride and confidence and unthinking arrogance of her caste. Peter suspected that even if the war she'd been fighting for so long should end (and not in her favour), she would never quit.
James didn't see what he saw in her. Sirius rolled his eyes. Remus thought he should try for someone...attainable.
Nevertheless, his heart ached with cruel, impossible love.
Why in Merlin's name did he love Princess Leia?
***
Title: A Matter of Trust
Characters/Pairings: Peter and Regulus
Summary: In the aftermath of the Prank, Regulus wants information. Peter can't provide it.
"What happened?" Regulus demanded. "Severus won't talk, Potter glares at everyone, Lupin has been half slashed to death, my brother looks as if he's being Crucio'd, and Dumbledore won't explain a thing!"
Peter bit his lip. "I can't tell you, Reg. For everyone's sake...I can't."
"He's my brother. If he's done something--damn it, I've a right to know."
Peter said nothing.
Pride swelled in the younger boy's tone. "I thought you trusted me. I thought we were friends."
"I do! We are!"
Regulus shook his head ponderously. "Evidently not. There's a time and a place for keeping secrets, Peter."
***
Title: Astronomy Lesson
Characters/Pairings: MWPP
Summary: The Marauders really do comprise their own private universe.
Author's Note: This is what happens when I try to come up with something for hp_literotica and all I have is an extended metaphor.
James is the blazing, searing sun in their heliocentric universe. Like the sun, he makes life possible for them, but he's perilous; suns are, even to their worshippers.
Remus is the moon--perpetually changing, constantly inconstant. His emotions fluctuate like the ebb and swell of moon-pulled tides, withdrawal concealed in each advance.
Peter is a planet--glimmering, but unlikely to be spotted among the sun, moon and stars that surround him.
Sirius Black is a cepheid, a variable star, operating on a cycle uniquely his own--sometimes scarcely visible in the sky, other times burning brighter than ten thousand suns.
***
Title: Credo
Characters/Pairings: Sirius and Dumbledore
Summary: "Sirius struggled to believe in Dumbledore."
Though his grey eyes were swollen with unshed tears, Sirius struggled to believe in Dumbledore.
He suppressed the words that battered at his heart: You're the head of the Order. You're a Legilimens. You have enough influence to buck the sodding Ministry. But you never demanded that evidence be examined, that I be questioned under Veritaserum, that I have a public trial. I served you and the Order, and you assumed I was guilty, and abandoned me to a living death.
Sirius refused to ask the old wizard why.
He could face the betrayal of one man. But not two.
***
Title: Unhappy Holidays
Characters/Pairings: Petunia and Peter
Summary: Petunia gets bad news.
Petunia didn't expect to hear the doorbell ringing on Christmas Eve. She certainly didn't expect the person on the doorstep to be a wizard.
One of Lily's crowd, Petunia thought grimly. She crossed her hands over her swelling abdomen, as if to protect her unborn child from the presence of magic.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, her voice shrill with tension. "Vernon and I don't have anything to do with your kind!"
The short blond boy swallowed twice. "Petunia," he said in a gentle voice that terrified her. "Your parents--there's been an...on purpose. I'm so sorry."
***
Title: After the Funeral
Characters/Pairings: Petunia and Lily
Summary: What really matters is the blame. Somebody to blame.
Author's Note: I think of it as following "Unhappy Holidays" but it could just as easily stand alone.
"This is all your fault!" Petunia shrieked at Lily.
Lily glared at her with red, swollen eyes. "Why is it my fault our parents were killed by Death Eaters?"
"They died because you defied Voldemort! Mum and Dad died because his followers wanted to punish you!" Jagged sobs choked Petunia. "You could have protected them with your magic. You could have sent them to safety. But you didn't care!"
Lily stood up. "I think you'd better go."
Petunia's eyes grew small with hate. "Stay away from me and mine. We'll be safer if Voldemort doesn't know that you're my sister."
***
Title: The Truth in the Myths
Characters/Pairings: Umbridge, Poppy Pomfrey, Hermione
Summary: What happened to Umbridge.
When Umbridge was found lying on the forest floor, she had no visible wounds--only twigs in her hair and a swollen mouth. She shivered constantly. Poppy Pomfrey asked her what had happened, but Umbridge could not speak, save to scream at the hollow clip-clop of hooves.
"An accident," the teachers said, as though saying so could make it true. The students wondered why she'd been in the Forbidden Forest and what the centaurs had done to her.
Guiltily, Hermione Incendio'd Bulfinch's Mythology page by page, striving to obliterate myriad legends she'd memorised of kidnapped women, irate centaurs and rape.
***
Note to self: I have a two o'clock appointment with a Doctor Prasad today in Room 604 at Hartford Hospital. Prasad is the doctor who took over when my neurologist retired. I am REALLY not looking forward to this--Hartford Hospital is huge, and it will take me a lot of walking to get to his office, and it snowed last night, so everything is snow and ice and slush, none of which combine well with orthopedic canes. And I KNOW he's going to look at my legs with sheer horror. Doctors always do. So, bleh.
Oh, and my car stalls out every time I have to put the brakes on for the duration of a red light. It works fine otherwise, so I suppose something's clogged. Have I mentioned that I'm not looking forward to driving to the hospital? Yeah.
Title: 1970s Torch Song
Characters/Pairings: MWPP
Summary: "At seventeen, Peter fell in love."
At seventeen, Peter fell in love.
It was hopeless; he knew that. But he couldn't get enough of this regal girl whose eyes blazed with dark fires, swollen with all the pride and confidence and unthinking arrogance of her caste. Peter suspected that even if the war she'd been fighting for so long should end (and not in her favour), she would never quit.
James didn't see what he saw in her. Sirius rolled his eyes. Remus thought he should try for someone...attainable.
Nevertheless, his heart ached with cruel, impossible love.
Why in Merlin's name did he love Princess Leia?
***
Title: A Matter of Trust
Characters/Pairings: Peter and Regulus
Summary: In the aftermath of the Prank, Regulus wants information. Peter can't provide it.
"What happened?" Regulus demanded. "Severus won't talk, Potter glares at everyone, Lupin has been half slashed to death, my brother looks as if he's being Crucio'd, and Dumbledore won't explain a thing!"
Peter bit his lip. "I can't tell you, Reg. For everyone's sake...I can't."
"He's my brother. If he's done something--damn it, I've a right to know."
Peter said nothing.
Pride swelled in the younger boy's tone. "I thought you trusted me. I thought we were friends."
"I do! We are!"
Regulus shook his head ponderously. "Evidently not. There's a time and a place for keeping secrets, Peter."
***
Title: Astronomy Lesson
Characters/Pairings: MWPP
Summary: The Marauders really do comprise their own private universe.
Author's Note: This is what happens when I try to come up with something for hp_literotica and all I have is an extended metaphor.
James is the blazing, searing sun in their heliocentric universe. Like the sun, he makes life possible for them, but he's perilous; suns are, even to their worshippers.
Remus is the moon--perpetually changing, constantly inconstant. His emotions fluctuate like the ebb and swell of moon-pulled tides, withdrawal concealed in each advance.
Peter is a planet--glimmering, but unlikely to be spotted among the sun, moon and stars that surround him.
Sirius Black is a cepheid, a variable star, operating on a cycle uniquely his own--sometimes scarcely visible in the sky, other times burning brighter than ten thousand suns.
***
Title: Credo
Characters/Pairings: Sirius and Dumbledore
Summary: "Sirius struggled to believe in Dumbledore."
Though his grey eyes were swollen with unshed tears, Sirius struggled to believe in Dumbledore.
He suppressed the words that battered at his heart: You're the head of the Order. You're a Legilimens. You have enough influence to buck the sodding Ministry. But you never demanded that evidence be examined, that I be questioned under Veritaserum, that I have a public trial. I served you and the Order, and you assumed I was guilty, and abandoned me to a living death.
Sirius refused to ask the old wizard why.
He could face the betrayal of one man. But not two.
***
Title: Unhappy Holidays
Characters/Pairings: Petunia and Peter
Summary: Petunia gets bad news.
Petunia didn't expect to hear the doorbell ringing on Christmas Eve. She certainly didn't expect the person on the doorstep to be a wizard.
One of Lily's crowd, Petunia thought grimly. She crossed her hands over her swelling abdomen, as if to protect her unborn child from the presence of magic.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, her voice shrill with tension. "Vernon and I don't have anything to do with your kind!"
The short blond boy swallowed twice. "Petunia," he said in a gentle voice that terrified her. "Your parents--there's been an...on purpose. I'm so sorry."
***
Title: After the Funeral
Characters/Pairings: Petunia and Lily
Summary: What really matters is the blame. Somebody to blame.
Author's Note: I think of it as following "Unhappy Holidays" but it could just as easily stand alone.
"This is all your fault!" Petunia shrieked at Lily.
Lily glared at her with red, swollen eyes. "Why is it my fault our parents were killed by Death Eaters?"
"They died because you defied Voldemort! Mum and Dad died because his followers wanted to punish you!" Jagged sobs choked Petunia. "You could have protected them with your magic. You could have sent them to safety. But you didn't care!"
Lily stood up. "I think you'd better go."
Petunia's eyes grew small with hate. "Stay away from me and mine. We'll be safer if Voldemort doesn't know that you're my sister."
***
Title: The Truth in the Myths
Characters/Pairings: Umbridge, Poppy Pomfrey, Hermione
Summary: What happened to Umbridge.
When Umbridge was found lying on the forest floor, she had no visible wounds--only twigs in her hair and a swollen mouth. She shivered constantly. Poppy Pomfrey asked her what had happened, but Umbridge could not speak, save to scream at the hollow clip-clop of hooves.
"An accident," the teachers said, as though saying so could make it true. The students wondered why she'd been in the Forbidden Forest and what the centaurs had done to her.
Guiltily, Hermione Incendio'd Bulfinch's Mythology page by page, striving to obliterate myriad legends she'd memorised of kidnapped women, irate centaurs and rape.
***
Note to self: I have a two o'clock appointment with a Doctor Prasad today in Room 604 at Hartford Hospital. Prasad is the doctor who took over when my neurologist retired. I am REALLY not looking forward to this--Hartford Hospital is huge, and it will take me a lot of walking to get to his office, and it snowed last night, so everything is snow and ice and slush, none of which combine well with orthopedic canes. And I KNOW he's going to look at my legs with sheer horror. Doctors always do. So, bleh.
Oh, and my car stalls out every time I have to put the brakes on for the duration of a red light. It works fine otherwise, so I suppose something's clogged. Have I mentioned that I'm not looking forward to driving to the hospital? Yeah.