HAPPY H/D HOLIDAYS, SCARLETLADYY!

[hd_hols]

Author: melusinahp
Recipient: scarletladyy
Title: Love is…
Pairing(s): Harry/Draco
Summary: This is a story about love. It is not a romance.
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.
Warning(s): Deathly Hallows situated AU, dark, dub/coerced-consent,

Comments

[anna_unfolding]

This is a stunning piece of work. I was captivated by the header, and your brilliant voices of Hermione and Ron grabbed ahold of my complete attention. Fuck, Harry witnessing Draco and Pansy's togetherness and the comparison to R and H...That really was so compelling. For you to play with and return to that idea throughout the story and then bookend your work with a new couple "together" was jarring and so decidedly...well, to copy your own words, unromantic.

I have always, always had a thing for dysfunctional war time HP trio and h/d fic. I loved all that post OOTP war craziness because I never really bought what was being sold to us in HBP, that Harry could survive learning he is a tool for war and not become unglued. Your writing here is a revelation about Harry's ungluing, Harry's ridiculously childlike inability to separate, his also childlike need to put his trust somewhere. And what you do with Draco is also stunning. No one else ever gets to really know what is going on with him, not Pansy, not Harry, not his parents...so why should the reader? I can't help but believe that Draco here is his own kind of fucked up survivor, that he would do anything for his future, and that includes seducing Harry Potter, turning on Pansy, AND getting his own heart to believe he means it. (Having said that, could it also be that Draco, who felt the Dark Lord's soul against his skin, understands what Voldemort really is? And that once he learned what that locket was, he made up his mind to join Harry?)

Can I add that your descriptive writing is very evocative? I normally don't care about description; i am here for the relationship evolution, the role sex plays in that, and sometimes the action if the plot calls for it. But here, the scene were so vivid; R and H's deaths and bodies so well-drawn, that I did care; I wanted to see it all, and you painted it for me beautifully.

This is a jarring and uncomfortable read, with a stunning ending. Your own words that it is about love make me further fascinated. Well, I can only say that I think it is about not being able to be human without love, even if it's forced, even if faked, even if bought love. Even love from the lips of dead people, dead people who criticize you or bring out your worst. It's Harry's necessary thing. He won't go back to the loneliness of the cupboard. No matter what.

Thank you so much for writing this.