Fireside Chat/ Black Comedy/ Acting
Title: Fireside Chat
House: Hufflepuff
Words: 100
Challenge: Performance
Character(s): Lucius, Voldemort
A/N Set before 1981
It was a privilege permitted to only a few, this semblance of intimacy. They were sat on opposite sides of the fireplace, each swallowed in the wings of a vast Edwardian armchair. Lucius listened in silence as, across from him, a soft voice kept up a steady stream of inanities: chat about Hogwarts and Abraxas; sketches of plans for the future, promising much but detailing nothing; then back to Hogwarts again for a lurid account of the opening of the Chamber of Secrets. All the while, he felt the scrutiny of the deep-set eyes watching, weighing, judging, finding him wanting.
Title: Black Comedy
House: Hufflepuff
Words: 100
Character(s): Regulus
Regulus didn't fit in with his family. If it wasn't for his father, a sad little man who spent his life crouched in the corners of rooms while his wife and sister shouted at him, Regulus would have thought that he was adopted. The rest of the Blacks seemed to live their lives as if they were performers on a stage. Extremes of anger, loyalty, love, all acted out in the drawing room at Grimmauld Place, begging the approbation of their faded ancestral tapestry.
Swamped beneath the screamed certainties of Bella and Sirius, Regulus felt his own identity slip away.
Title: Acting
House: Hufflepuff
Words: 100
Character(s): Harry
"Is Severus Snape a traitor to the Death Eaters?" Voldemort demanded. And Harry met his eyes and answered:
"No."
A lie. Voldemort believed it and lost the war. Harry was victorious, on the strength of that single perfect demonstration of Occlumency.
The previous Christmas at Hogwarts, the remaining students had put on a school play to boost morale; Harry was given a main role. To his surprise, he found that he enjoyed performing, the chance to be someone else for one hour everyday.
"How did you vanquish the Dark Lord?" journalists asked him afterwards.
"I learnt to act," he replied.
House: Hufflepuff
Words: 100
Challenge: Performance
Character(s): Lucius, Voldemort
A/N Set before 1981
It was a privilege permitted to only a few, this semblance of intimacy. They were sat on opposite sides of the fireplace, each swallowed in the wings of a vast Edwardian armchair. Lucius listened in silence as, across from him, a soft voice kept up a steady stream of inanities: chat about Hogwarts and Abraxas; sketches of plans for the future, promising much but detailing nothing; then back to Hogwarts again for a lurid account of the opening of the Chamber of Secrets. All the while, he felt the scrutiny of the deep-set eyes watching, weighing, judging, finding him wanting.
Title: Black Comedy
House: Hufflepuff
Words: 100
Character(s): Regulus
Regulus didn't fit in with his family. If it wasn't for his father, a sad little man who spent his life crouched in the corners of rooms while his wife and sister shouted at him, Regulus would have thought that he was adopted. The rest of the Blacks seemed to live their lives as if they were performers on a stage. Extremes of anger, loyalty, love, all acted out in the drawing room at Grimmauld Place, begging the approbation of their faded ancestral tapestry.
Swamped beneath the screamed certainties of Bella and Sirius, Regulus felt his own identity slip away.
Title: Acting
House: Hufflepuff
Words: 100
Character(s): Harry
"Is Severus Snape a traitor to the Death Eaters?" Voldemort demanded. And Harry met his eyes and answered:
"No."
A lie. Voldemort believed it and lost the war. Harry was victorious, on the strength of that single perfect demonstration of Occlumency.
The previous Christmas at Hogwarts, the remaining students had put on a school play to boost morale; Harry was given a main role. To his surprise, he found that he enjoyed performing, the chance to be someone else for one hour everyday.
"How did you vanquish the Dark Lord?" journalists asked him afterwards.
"I learnt to act," he replied.