Ficlet Challenges 39, 29, 44, 64
Title: Locksley Gardens
Summary: For ficlet challenge #39 - with the Tennyson quote.
Characters/Pairings: Merope Gaunt/Tom Riddle Snr
Rating/Warnings: Err, I guess this is told from Tom's perspective as he's under the influence of Amortentia, so if that kinda thing weirds you out, then yeah. Also, this fic would be set in the 1920s, so some attiudes may reflect that.
Medium: Fic
Word Count: 523
Their first night together, Tom watched the stars twinkle brightly over the horizon as its redness faded through blue to black. He remembered the Great War just years before, and how he, barely thirteen when it ended, had narrowly escaped duty. The sky was always blacked out with smoke from the city, not to mention it wasn't safe to be outdoors those days. He shared tales of the Great War with his beloved, but when she seemed completely oblivious to it, he smiled and kissed her into silence.
She was pretty, but unconventionally so. He liked how her hair framed her head, and the way she breathed and held herself. He was a fool to have considered that trollop from high society when there was fruit to be plucked from his very doorstep!
"Do you know that constellation, my dear?" he would ask, sipping the drink from the cup he made her. The smell was delightful: marzipan, chestnut and something that reminded him of sandlewood, possibly imported from one of the old colonies to his old childhood home (that garden always made him feel safe). He was conflicted about this drink: he wanted to drink his companion's whole supply, yet didn't want it to run out.
"No," she smiled. Her lisp was endearing, too. It was almost like she barely spoke English. He wondered if her family had come from those barbarian nations (but surely not; someone this elegant must be British), he had seen her hiss at an adder in the grass, but it simply turned and snaked away.
"It is the constellation Taurus," he said proudly. Reciting stars in the sky made him feel like a boy again: free of pressure and content to show pride in what he learned, to someone who cared for him. "And that bright cluster right in the middle?
"No."
"They are the Pleiades, from mythology," he explained patiently. "And in there is one called Merope. So I can look at the skies and think of you."
She said nothing, but looked at the dash of stars. It was very relaxing, but Tom wondered if she knew much about the stars, if she ever looked up and wondered what life was like outside the valley. He would take her far far away one day.
"Tell me a story about Merope," she said, squeezing his hand. He looked down and felt his heart skip a beat (and something else twitched, too, but now was not the time; he would be with her for ever).
And he told her the story of Merope, for an educated young man such as himself was highly versed in the tales of Greek myth. The daughter of Atlas, who fell in love with a mortal. She who was cast away from her father, but found understanding in her new world.
It seemed so fitting.
She leaned over and kissed him. This stately home, Locksley Hall, so far away from the smoke of the cities, was the most peaceful place he knew. He was happy to share it with somebody so special. He knew he would love her until the day he died.
Title: Lifting the Veil
Summary: For ficlet challenge #29, "blindness and desire". Taken metaphorically here.
Characters/Pairings: Tom Riddle Snr/Merope Gaunt.
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 I guess?
Medium: Ficlet
Word Count: 380
So it was done.
She was pregnant now, and her beloved (no, her husband) was eloping with her onto a new, exciting life. He had had so many arguments behind him, but he always stayed by her side, because she meant the world to him. She, of course, kept running because she didn't know how much of a headstart she would have over her father once he returned from Azkaban.
The two of them had reached a copse, somewhere way to the north. She sat herself down off the back of his horse; they shunned motor cars, as her wand seemed to cause a lot of trouble.
Yes, she had a wand of her own now. She had dreamed of this moment all her life. She found out how to get to Diagon Alley some time back, and borrowing some money from dear Tom (he was so generous), she crossed over into Ollivander's and took one for her own (hazel and phoenix feather, brittle, eight and one quarter). She had mastered some very basic spells, ones to make his life comfortable, because the two of them would be so happy together.
Such was their desire. And they were going to have a baby at the end of the year.
But one thing was running low, and that was her supplies of Amortentia. He seemed to becoming more resistant to the dosage, they would argue once in a while, then he would cry pathetically, worried that he hurt her feelings. She would comfort him.
No, he must feel genuine feelings for her now. She was having his child.
Finally, after almost two years, she decided to stop feeding him his drug. The blinding mist she had lowered over his head was lifted. He could see again.
He called her a boss-eyed hag and spat on her. He screamed about her and her bastard spawn. He took the horse and left her desolate and penniless in the middle of nowhere. No shoes, and no man, she was no longer blind to the sort of man she had made him. It wasn't his fault, after all. The fault lay with her. Isn't that how love works?
Maybe she didn't know. She probably never knew true love.
The hazel wand was never used again.
Title: Investigation
Summary: For ficlet challenge #44 "Aragog/Mrs Norris". Yeah.
Characters/Pairings: Aragog/Mrs Norris. Implied non-con... with a cat.
Genre: Weird crack
Rating/Warnings: Errr... the prompt is Aragog/Mrs Norris. Don't say you weren't warned. =/
Medium: Ficlet
Word Count: 386
She wasn't inclined to walk into the Forbidden Forest, but there were students out of bed, and her master was wrought in the Hospital Wing with some kind of hex.
She assumed it was those Weasley twins. They were forever getting up to no good. She knew that calling it the Forbidden Forest was like holding a red rag to a bull: give them one reason to prohibit going there and they will take it.
She hadn't seen the dog-man for a while, either. He used to meet her in the Forest. That had been a while, too. She sniffed in the darkness, trying to follow a scent. The dog-man would have been handy here: his sense of smell would be much better than hers.
A few spiders ran in front of her path. She batted at them with a paw, and they scurried away even quicker.
Suddenly, one much taller than her crawled out of nowhere. She hissed at it, hackles coming up down her back. She turned to retreat, but no! More of them! She swatted at a few, but tried to dodge their pincers.
Then there was a rustling.
"Ohhh..... you.... you are that-t. That-t Cat-t."
It spoke. The voice spoke, barely English, so she could barely understand it. It sounded much like her master, reedy and slow and steady, but a lot, lot colder.
"Yesssss. Hagrid.... he told me... lotsss of thingss about-t you. And your masss-ter. Yes."
Mrs Norris plucked up all her courage and tried to reason with the acromantula, trying her best pleading voice:
"Mrrow?"
"I need you to sssssend a mess-sage to Filch," said the spider, almost spitting Filch like it was something dirty. "Pass a message on to him.... yess. Think of Filch."
Out of nowhere, a hairy long arm appeared out of nowhere and hoisted the cat up into a web. She shrieked and struggled, but only succeded in tangling herself into the web even deeper. The eyes, so many eyes, they emerged from the darkness, pincers clicking hungrily.
The following morning Filch returned to the corridors, padding round in his slippers.
"Ah, all better now, pet!" he said brighly. "Say.... why are you walking funny?"
The cat ignored him for the rest of the week. Filch got pissed off, but paid her no further heed.
Title: Penguin
Summary: For ficlet challenge #64: A Penguin in the Slytherin Common Room?
Characters/Pairings: Most of the Canon Slytherins in the Trio's yeargroup
Genre: Crack, I guess
Rating/Warnings: Penguins? And a cuss word. Once.
Medium: Ficlet
Word Count: 699
"Do you reckon it's an Animagus?"
Malfoy prodded the penguin with his wand. It sort of quacked at him, and waddled away to the window.
"There's some kind of spell that reveals Animagi," Pansy said, staring over her shoulder. "I don't know what it is though, but apparently it causes unbearable pain to a human, but not a true animal."
Crabbe's ears perked up at the mention of 'unbearable pain'. He grinned, offering a rare bit of insight. "I don't like it. It could be a spy for the Order of the Phoenix."
"Don't you think the Order have bigger things to spy on than the school common room?" Malfoy said angrily. "Even if that were some kind of spy, they wouldn't have gone for something so bleeding obvious, would they?"
The penguin was now jumping on the spot; it could probably hear the weight of the water behind the walls, and wanted to get through it to the Great Lake.
"Crabbe might be on to something," Pansy said thoughtfully, closing her book and brushing down her skirt. "I mean, there's loads of people in here who are close to people of interest-" offing saying anything untoward incase it truly was a spy- "so perhaps we are worth eavesdropping upon."
"Fat chance, Parkinson," Malfoy snapped. He had been growing very impatient with her this year. His stress from the Vanishing Cabinet and the threats over his parents was wearing him down, and her voice cut through him. She was shallow and quickly losing her purpose in his life. "We could just kill it right now, you know."
"Does it want a fish?" Goyle piped up.
Everyone gawped at him "A fish?"
"Yeah, a fish," Goyle said. "They serve fishcakes on Saturday, don't they?"
Malfoy shook his head, not even wondering why Goyle has the school menus memorised. "I don't think penguins eat breadcrumbs and parsley sauce."
"I wasn't going to-" Goyle babbled, but was interrupted by Theodore Nott and Daphne Greengrass. "What?"
"I don't know if you guys have spotted, but there's a penguin in the common room," Nott said.
"No! Seriously?" Draco snapped, waving his arms in the air. "I wondered what that was, you know. I thought it was one of those Creevey brothers."
"So you guys don't know how it got in either?" Daphne said, munching on a cockroach cluster.
"Nope," Pansy said, laying a quill down. It's a relief all the younger kids are at Hogsmeade, otherwise we'd never hear the end of it."
"Doesn't your cousin changer her opinion at will, Malfoy?" Daphne said.
"Who? The half-blood with the Order?" Malfoy shuddered. "I don't think she can change into anything non-human."
"This is a really stupid idea," Nott said, "but maybe someone should report this to Snape. It's not right."
"You want to interrupt Snape on a Saturday?" This cry of incredulity came not from Malfoy, but from Pansy. "You need your head checking, Nott."
"Yeah, stupid question," he shrugged. "Hey, someone's coming in."
The bricks on the Slytherin Common Room door slid back, revealing a tall figure carrying a bucket. The penguin waddled up to him happily.
"Zabini?" Pansy yelled. "That penguin's yours?!"
"What, Roy?" Zabini said. "Yeah. Sorry, he should have been in the dormitory. Shouldn't you, eh?"
"The fuck?" Crabbe grunted, blinking stupidly.
"He's my pet. Mum got him me for my seventeenth on Monday."
"Your mum gave you a penguin?"
"Yeah, well, cat fur makes me come out in a rash, and I don't like owls," Zabini explained, tossing a fish into the bird's mouth. "It's their eyes. Bloody weird. Besides, if I need to send a letter, I can use the school ones. Anyway, I wasn't exactly going to get a toad, was I? Do I look like Longbottom?"
"No, you've got a symmetrical face for one," Pansy chuckled, now highly amused.
Malfoy just gawped like a fool. "You got a penguin?"
"His name is Roy. Say hi!"
Malfoy blinked a few times, then announced he was going to the library. Crabbe and Goyle took turns in tossing fish into the penguin's eager mouth. Considering how moody Draco had been lately, this penguin could well become their replacement friend.
Rob//Gryffindor//66.27 + (4x 5pt challenge bonuses) = 86 points GET!!
Summary: For ficlet challenge #39 - with the Tennyson quote.
Characters/Pairings: Merope Gaunt/Tom Riddle Snr
Rating/Warnings: Err, I guess this is told from Tom's perspective as he's under the influence of Amortentia, so if that kinda thing weirds you out, then yeah. Also, this fic would be set in the 1920s, so some attiudes may reflect that.
Medium: Fic
Word Count: 523
Their first night together, Tom watched the stars twinkle brightly over the horizon as its redness faded through blue to black. He remembered the Great War just years before, and how he, barely thirteen when it ended, had narrowly escaped duty. The sky was always blacked out with smoke from the city, not to mention it wasn't safe to be outdoors those days. He shared tales of the Great War with his beloved, but when she seemed completely oblivious to it, he smiled and kissed her into silence.
She was pretty, but unconventionally so. He liked how her hair framed her head, and the way she breathed and held herself. He was a fool to have considered that trollop from high society when there was fruit to be plucked from his very doorstep!
"Do you know that constellation, my dear?" he would ask, sipping the drink from the cup he made her. The smell was delightful: marzipan, chestnut and something that reminded him of sandlewood, possibly imported from one of the old colonies to his old childhood home (that garden always made him feel safe). He was conflicted about this drink: he wanted to drink his companion's whole supply, yet didn't want it to run out.
"No," she smiled. Her lisp was endearing, too. It was almost like she barely spoke English. He wondered if her family had come from those barbarian nations (but surely not; someone this elegant must be British), he had seen her hiss at an adder in the grass, but it simply turned and snaked away.
"It is the constellation Taurus," he said proudly. Reciting stars in the sky made him feel like a boy again: free of pressure and content to show pride in what he learned, to someone who cared for him. "And that bright cluster right in the middle?
"No."
"They are the Pleiades, from mythology," he explained patiently. "And in there is one called Merope. So I can look at the skies and think of you."
She said nothing, but looked at the dash of stars. It was very relaxing, but Tom wondered if she knew much about the stars, if she ever looked up and wondered what life was like outside the valley. He would take her far far away one day.
"Tell me a story about Merope," she said, squeezing his hand. He looked down and felt his heart skip a beat (and something else twitched, too, but now was not the time; he would be with her for ever).
And he told her the story of Merope, for an educated young man such as himself was highly versed in the tales of Greek myth. The daughter of Atlas, who fell in love with a mortal. She who was cast away from her father, but found understanding in her new world.
It seemed so fitting.
She leaned over and kissed him. This stately home, Locksley Hall, so far away from the smoke of the cities, was the most peaceful place he knew. He was happy to share it with somebody so special. He knew he would love her until the day he died.
Title: Lifting the Veil
Summary: For ficlet challenge #29, "blindness and desire". Taken metaphorically here.
Characters/Pairings: Tom Riddle Snr/Merope Gaunt.
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 I guess?
Medium: Ficlet
Word Count: 380
So it was done.
She was pregnant now, and her beloved (no, her husband) was eloping with her onto a new, exciting life. He had had so many arguments behind him, but he always stayed by her side, because she meant the world to him. She, of course, kept running because she didn't know how much of a headstart she would have over her father once he returned from Azkaban.
The two of them had reached a copse, somewhere way to the north. She sat herself down off the back of his horse; they shunned motor cars, as her wand seemed to cause a lot of trouble.
Yes, she had a wand of her own now. She had dreamed of this moment all her life. She found out how to get to Diagon Alley some time back, and borrowing some money from dear Tom (he was so generous), she crossed over into Ollivander's and took one for her own (hazel and phoenix feather, brittle, eight and one quarter). She had mastered some very basic spells, ones to make his life comfortable, because the two of them would be so happy together.
Such was their desire. And they were going to have a baby at the end of the year.
But one thing was running low, and that was her supplies of Amortentia. He seemed to becoming more resistant to the dosage, they would argue once in a while, then he would cry pathetically, worried that he hurt her feelings. She would comfort him.
No, he must feel genuine feelings for her now. She was having his child.
Finally, after almost two years, she decided to stop feeding him his drug. The blinding mist she had lowered over his head was lifted. He could see again.
He called her a boss-eyed hag and spat on her. He screamed about her and her bastard spawn. He took the horse and left her desolate and penniless in the middle of nowhere. No shoes, and no man, she was no longer blind to the sort of man she had made him. It wasn't his fault, after all. The fault lay with her. Isn't that how love works?
Maybe she didn't know. She probably never knew true love.
The hazel wand was never used again.
Title: Investigation
Summary: For ficlet challenge #44 "Aragog/Mrs Norris". Yeah.
Characters/Pairings: Aragog/Mrs Norris. Implied non-con... with a cat.
Genre: Weird crack
Rating/Warnings: Errr... the prompt is Aragog/Mrs Norris. Don't say you weren't warned. =/
Medium: Ficlet
Word Count: 386
She wasn't inclined to walk into the Forbidden Forest, but there were students out of bed, and her master was wrought in the Hospital Wing with some kind of hex.
She assumed it was those Weasley twins. They were forever getting up to no good. She knew that calling it the Forbidden Forest was like holding a red rag to a bull: give them one reason to prohibit going there and they will take it.
She hadn't seen the dog-man for a while, either. He used to meet her in the Forest. That had been a while, too. She sniffed in the darkness, trying to follow a scent. The dog-man would have been handy here: his sense of smell would be much better than hers.
A few spiders ran in front of her path. She batted at them with a paw, and they scurried away even quicker.
Suddenly, one much taller than her crawled out of nowhere. She hissed at it, hackles coming up down her back. She turned to retreat, but no! More of them! She swatted at a few, but tried to dodge their pincers.
Then there was a rustling.
"Ohhh..... you.... you are that-t. That-t Cat-t."
It spoke. The voice spoke, barely English, so she could barely understand it. It sounded much like her master, reedy and slow and steady, but a lot, lot colder.
"Yesssss. Hagrid.... he told me... lotsss of thingss about-t you. And your masss-ter. Yes."
Mrs Norris plucked up all her courage and tried to reason with the acromantula, trying her best pleading voice:
"Mrrow?"
"I need you to sssssend a mess-sage to Filch," said the spider, almost spitting Filch like it was something dirty. "Pass a message on to him.... yess. Think of Filch."
Out of nowhere, a hairy long arm appeared out of nowhere and hoisted the cat up into a web. She shrieked and struggled, but only succeded in tangling herself into the web even deeper. The eyes, so many eyes, they emerged from the darkness, pincers clicking hungrily.
The following morning Filch returned to the corridors, padding round in his slippers.
"Ah, all better now, pet!" he said brighly. "Say.... why are you walking funny?"
The cat ignored him for the rest of the week. Filch got pissed off, but paid her no further heed.
Title: Penguin
Summary: For ficlet challenge #64: A Penguin in the Slytherin Common Room?
Characters/Pairings: Most of the Canon Slytherins in the Trio's yeargroup
Genre: Crack, I guess
Rating/Warnings: Penguins? And a cuss word. Once.
Medium: Ficlet
Word Count: 699
"Do you reckon it's an Animagus?"
Malfoy prodded the penguin with his wand. It sort of quacked at him, and waddled away to the window.
"There's some kind of spell that reveals Animagi," Pansy said, staring over her shoulder. "I don't know what it is though, but apparently it causes unbearable pain to a human, but not a true animal."
Crabbe's ears perked up at the mention of 'unbearable pain'. He grinned, offering a rare bit of insight. "I don't like it. It could be a spy for the Order of the Phoenix."
"Don't you think the Order have bigger things to spy on than the school common room?" Malfoy said angrily. "Even if that were some kind of spy, they wouldn't have gone for something so bleeding obvious, would they?"
The penguin was now jumping on the spot; it could probably hear the weight of the water behind the walls, and wanted to get through it to the Great Lake.
"Crabbe might be on to something," Pansy said thoughtfully, closing her book and brushing down her skirt. "I mean, there's loads of people in here who are close to people of interest-" offing saying anything untoward incase it truly was a spy- "so perhaps we are worth eavesdropping upon."
"Fat chance, Parkinson," Malfoy snapped. He had been growing very impatient with her this year. His stress from the Vanishing Cabinet and the threats over his parents was wearing him down, and her voice cut through him. She was shallow and quickly losing her purpose in his life. "We could just kill it right now, you know."
"Does it want a fish?" Goyle piped up.
Everyone gawped at him "A fish?"
"Yeah, a fish," Goyle said. "They serve fishcakes on Saturday, don't they?"
Malfoy shook his head, not even wondering why Goyle has the school menus memorised. "I don't think penguins eat breadcrumbs and parsley sauce."
"I wasn't going to-" Goyle babbled, but was interrupted by Theodore Nott and Daphne Greengrass. "What?"
"I don't know if you guys have spotted, but there's a penguin in the common room," Nott said.
"No! Seriously?" Draco snapped, waving his arms in the air. "I wondered what that was, you know. I thought it was one of those Creevey brothers."
"So you guys don't know how it got in either?" Daphne said, munching on a cockroach cluster.
"Nope," Pansy said, laying a quill down. It's a relief all the younger kids are at Hogsmeade, otherwise we'd never hear the end of it."
"Doesn't your cousin changer her opinion at will, Malfoy?" Daphne said.
"Who? The half-blood with the Order?" Malfoy shuddered. "I don't think she can change into anything non-human."
"This is a really stupid idea," Nott said, "but maybe someone should report this to Snape. It's not right."
"You want to interrupt Snape on a Saturday?" This cry of incredulity came not from Malfoy, but from Pansy. "You need your head checking, Nott."
"Yeah, stupid question," he shrugged. "Hey, someone's coming in."
The bricks on the Slytherin Common Room door slid back, revealing a tall figure carrying a bucket. The penguin waddled up to him happily.
"Zabini?" Pansy yelled. "That penguin's yours?!"
"What, Roy?" Zabini said. "Yeah. Sorry, he should have been in the dormitory. Shouldn't you, eh?"
"The fuck?" Crabbe grunted, blinking stupidly.
"He's my pet. Mum got him me for my seventeenth on Monday."
"Your mum gave you a penguin?"
"Yeah, well, cat fur makes me come out in a rash, and I don't like owls," Zabini explained, tossing a fish into the bird's mouth. "It's their eyes. Bloody weird. Besides, if I need to send a letter, I can use the school ones. Anyway, I wasn't exactly going to get a toad, was I? Do I look like Longbottom?"
"No, you've got a symmetrical face for one," Pansy chuckled, now highly amused.
Malfoy just gawped like a fool. "You got a penguin?"
"His name is Roy. Say hi!"
Malfoy blinked a few times, then announced he was going to the library. Crabbe and Goyle took turns in tossing fish into the penguin's eager mouth. Considering how moody Draco had been lately, this penguin could well become their replacement friend.
Rob//Gryffindor//66.27 + (4x 5pt challenge bonuses) = 86 points GET!!