fic for pasi: Black and White (James, Lily, PG)

[genficsanta]

Title: Black and White
Recipient: pasi
Character(s): James, Lily
Warnings: None.
Author's Notes: None.

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Comments

There is not enough squee in the world...

[pasi]

...to do justice to this subtle little gem. This story is a lesson in how to write suspense. The way those dead birds and mice kept showing themselves among the everyday paraphernalia of milk bottles, reading the daily paper over breakfast, doing the laundry magically so a sharp Muggle kid caught on to you, having your toddler throw rusks at your head...

Those little corpses, and that magpie chattering over them. You just knew that magpie was a Death Eater Animagus, didn't you? Well, I thought so, anyway, because my wonderful Mystery Author played me like a fish on a line, and I loved every minute of it.

Then, when James solved the mystery, the exchange between him and the milkman's son was just so real. You can't pack much more feeling in a few deceptively simple lines than this:

The boy frowned. He chewed his lip, as if choosing his words carefully. 'I seen you,' he said at last. 'You didn't see me, but I seen you. When you put that washin' out. You had a big basket but you wasn't carryin' it. You just waved at it and all them clothes just danced on to the line, like in Fantasia.' He gave James a wistful look. 'It was magic, wasn't it?'

And this:

...James pulled out his wand.

The boy stared greedily at it. 'I knew you couldn't fix 'em, not really,' he murmured. 'But I thought, just maybe -'

Still, I was relieved, even with all the worries about explaining Death to a child who will soon have a ringside seat at the reality show, that it wasn't really DE's leaving those corpses, just Flossie the naughty kitty.

Until, at the very end, Lily said this:

'We had an owl while you were out, from Dumbledore. He says he's got news. He's coming round tonight.'

Oh, I loved this story. I just loved this story. Thank you!

Re: There is not enough squee in the world...

[pasi]

Aha, now that I see the author, I know why this story was so good. Thank you again!

Re: There is not enough squee in the world...

[lazy_neutrino]

Didn't I just say that to you, earlier on? :)

Re: There is not enough squee in the world...

[pasi]

Actually, that was how I found out the reveal had happened, when I got your comment notification in my mailbox.