Fic: Head of the Tempest
This is my Quotation Roulette challenge fic. My quote was:
If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you'll be fired with enthusiasm. Vince Lombardi
Naturally, this to me meant Regulus.
Title: Head of the Tempest
Author: spessartine
Pairing: Snape/Regulus, sort of.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: He must have known they would not kill him in his own country.
A/N: A bit of an experiment. Unfortunately I can't get my fancy formatting to work, so I'll post it like this. I'd been listening to too much Kate Bush.
And the great bright sheets of ice groaned and shrieked as the massive gunmetal prow split them, let them settle heaving in chunks in the gelid, grey water, and the grey sky was empty, featureless, and he rose from his knees and wiped the frozen blood from his chin. I never saw anything so beautiful. He must have known of course they would not kill him in his own country. On the great metal deck of the ice breaker his blood froze where it fell, and cold sucked the colour from him. Pretty, nonetheless.
They spread out a massive tarpaulin on the deck, stink of oil and streaks of rust along its yellow length, pinned down from the snatched grasp of the wind with stray lumps of iron, pieces of machinery. The ship rolled lazy and low in the water. Snow was small and cutting in the air. He's silent, good boy, good, but I could not smile. What use was there in that? Behind him they led out a multitude: shaking and clinging to one another like beasts. Kill, said our lord. Regulus killed. (Of course, of course, we had done it all before.) He waded to the centre of the crowd, where steam was rising from their naked bodies, animals, like animals, and he felled them like wheat, like animals: the children silent and the mothers twisted like something broken (something breaking)
what was it your mother had said to you that day before you left on the train the first time? What was it she had said, and later you told me with the rain washing , washing everything away? (everything dies, my boy, everything. Even beauty. Your brother knows, I showed him as he will show you, and he does it because he loves you, I do it because I love you, no don't hide your eyes, be brave, be brave and it will all be as it should be, but you must see, Regulus, you must see - Sirius, hold him, hold him still.) And the rain was washing everything from you, and you were shaking, your shoulders so narrow and your clothes so wet (that's it, hold him now) so cold, but when I reached out, when I reached out you turned and walked away.
(Sirius, his hand on your arm, his wand rising, rising, and the caged birds falling from their perches, and the caged birds falling and twisting, the spasms of their wings, the pretty tinkling of their bells the bells around their ankles ringing ringing ringing before he let them die.)
And on the bloody deck, our feet slipping in oil and blood and the unravelling viscera of those you felled (opened) killed on the tarpaulin, our lord deemed it not enough, and Malfoy's voice called up the pain in you and would not let it rest. He would not let it rest, though soon of course you broke and pleaded (and you always were brave, always brave, but never stupid, you knew, you must have known what was -) and the ice boomed and broke apart and the lolling heads of the dead rolled on the deck and spoke their silences from slack mouths and you
you were beautiful, spattered in blood. You were beautiful in blood. I thought it a shame. You were made for our lord, made for it. He broke you anyway, because you were pretty when you cried, pretty when - and that was enough. Such a waste, such a
(and the bells around their ankles ringing ringing ringing before he let them die)
They put you in the water, only half-dead.
Of course, of course it could not be otherwise,
it could not
could not
and I couldn't look away, even as the black drift of your hair faded into the grey water, even as the perfect pale slice of your jaw (blotted as it was with blood) angled up and your gaze seeped out through the water, through the cold blank water
I could not look away
I could not look, I
and you rose to the ice-churned surface, white against black against white, hair netted in spume, trailed over the waves, and you turned your face to the sky (where the stars where growing, their glow slowly brightening) turned your face to the sky and whispered (quiet under the wave sound, quiet, or did I only imagine it?)
let me sleep
let me be weak
(and the stars were rising, rising)
Oh, let me be weak.
And the sea rose grey and massive, rearing its great head and calling its open-toned roar. And I did not hear you. I did not. I turned to the others (Malfoy with his moon-pale hair was watching, watching, the jolt of his gaze cold on my skin) as they walked from the deck (turn back, turn back, oh, don't, don't) and I followed, I followed. When have I done anything else? (I wanted you.)
I followed (wine spilled onto metal, that darkness of spilled blood) turn back I followed him his steel-eyed gaze always on me did it break inside me was it then (turn back) I turned, I turned
Oh, don't
I turned back to the sea and called out over the railing, but there was nothing, only the sea, only the sea (I wanted)
(I wanted you)
But there was only the sea. Malfoy linked his arm through mine and pushed back the wet wing of my hair. His hand was cold against my cheek. 'I loved -' I gasped. And he smiled and answered 'really? You should have said. He was really rather talented.'
And I thought of you. Your slow smile, your eyes like softly melting metal, your hand against mine
against mine
I loved -
(and the bells around their ankles ringing ringing ringing before he let them die)
If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you'll be fired with enthusiasm. Vince Lombardi
Naturally, this to me meant Regulus.
Title: Head of the Tempest
Author: spessartine
Pairing: Snape/Regulus, sort of.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: He must have known they would not kill him in his own country.
A/N: A bit of an experiment. Unfortunately I can't get my fancy formatting to work, so I'll post it like this. I'd been listening to too much Kate Bush.
And the great bright sheets of ice groaned and shrieked as the massive gunmetal prow split them, let them settle heaving in chunks in the gelid, grey water, and the grey sky was empty, featureless, and he rose from his knees and wiped the frozen blood from his chin. I never saw anything so beautiful. He must have known of course they would not kill him in his own country. On the great metal deck of the ice breaker his blood froze where it fell, and cold sucked the colour from him. Pretty, nonetheless.
They spread out a massive tarpaulin on the deck, stink of oil and streaks of rust along its yellow length, pinned down from the snatched grasp of the wind with stray lumps of iron, pieces of machinery. The ship rolled lazy and low in the water. Snow was small and cutting in the air. He's silent, good boy, good, but I could not smile. What use was there in that? Behind him they led out a multitude: shaking and clinging to one another like beasts. Kill, said our lord. Regulus killed. (Of course, of course, we had done it all before.) He waded to the centre of the crowd, where steam was rising from their naked bodies, animals, like animals, and he felled them like wheat, like animals: the children silent and the mothers twisted like something broken (something breaking)
what was it your mother had said to you that day before you left on the train the first time? What was it she had said, and later you told me with the rain washing , washing everything away? (everything dies, my boy, everything. Even beauty. Your brother knows, I showed him as he will show you, and he does it because he loves you, I do it because I love you, no don't hide your eyes, be brave, be brave and it will all be as it should be, but you must see, Regulus, you must see - Sirius, hold him, hold him still.) And the rain was washing everything from you, and you were shaking, your shoulders so narrow and your clothes so wet (that's it, hold him now) so cold, but when I reached out, when I reached out you turned and walked away.
(Sirius, his hand on your arm, his wand rising, rising, and the caged birds falling from their perches, and the caged birds falling and twisting, the spasms of their wings, the pretty tinkling of their bells the bells around their ankles ringing ringing ringing before he let them die.)
And on the bloody deck, our feet slipping in oil and blood and the unravelling viscera of those you felled (opened) killed on the tarpaulin, our lord deemed it not enough, and Malfoy's voice called up the pain in you and would not let it rest. He would not let it rest, though soon of course you broke and pleaded (and you always were brave, always brave, but never stupid, you knew, you must have known what was -) and the ice boomed and broke apart and the lolling heads of the dead rolled on the deck and spoke their silences from slack mouths and you
you were beautiful, spattered in blood. You were beautiful in blood. I thought it a shame. You were made for our lord, made for it. He broke you anyway, because you were pretty when you cried, pretty when - and that was enough. Such a waste, such a
(and the bells around their ankles ringing ringing ringing before he let them die)
They put you in the water, only half-dead.
Of course, of course it could not be otherwise,
it could not
could not
and I couldn't look away, even as the black drift of your hair faded into the grey water, even as the perfect pale slice of your jaw (blotted as it was with blood) angled up and your gaze seeped out through the water, through the cold blank water
I could not look away
I could not look, I
and you rose to the ice-churned surface, white against black against white, hair netted in spume, trailed over the waves, and you turned your face to the sky (where the stars where growing, their glow slowly brightening) turned your face to the sky and whispered (quiet under the wave sound, quiet, or did I only imagine it?)
let me sleep
let me be weak
(and the stars were rising, rising)
Oh, let me be weak.
And the sea rose grey and massive, rearing its great head and calling its open-toned roar. And I did not hear you. I did not. I turned to the others (Malfoy with his moon-pale hair was watching, watching, the jolt of his gaze cold on my skin) as they walked from the deck (turn back, turn back, oh, don't, don't) and I followed, I followed. When have I done anything else? (I wanted you.)
I followed (wine spilled onto metal, that darkness of spilled blood) turn back I followed him his steel-eyed gaze always on me did it break inside me was it then (turn back) I turned, I turned
Oh, don't
I turned back to the sea and called out over the railing, but there was nothing, only the sea, only the sea (I wanted)
(I wanted you)
But there was only the sea. Malfoy linked his arm through mine and pushed back the wet wing of my hair. His hand was cold against my cheek. 'I loved -' I gasped. And he smiled and answered 'really? You should have said. He was really rather talented.'
And I thought of you. Your slow smile, your eyes like softly melting metal, your hand against mine
against mine
I loved -
(and the bells around their ankles ringing ringing ringing before he let them die)