Fanfic: "Quality of Mercy" by Maya . [Genfic: Harry/Ginny, Harry/Draco, others] . [N8]
"Quality of Mercy" by Maya. (currently offline)
First read: 17-09-2008.
Notes: 260.000 words. The thing about Maya's fics is that they alternate the tragic and hilarious moments perfectly, creating a balance of extremes and making even the most mundane moments interesting. This fic, which is, at heart, a genfic, does that very well, although, having read it as a WIP, I don't feel it's structurally solid. I get the feeling it needed a couple more chapters to really wrap up. *Spoilers: The ending was quite a dissapointment, in part because of the pairings involved, in part because of the message of "anything can happen now, who knows who we will be dating next year?", which seemed forced just to satisfy the fans. But also, the Harry/Ginny dynamic, that, as Draco said, could work, is never shown to do. Ginny magically grows an spine and Harry magically grows more tactful. War or no war I do not find these changes realistic in such a short period of time. I was ready to believe in the H/G relationship, and Maya did put good fundations as to why it could work (if they got to know each other, which, ehem, can't happen so fast, but she never quite finished that equation and that left us with Harry having an extremely superficial relationship with Ginny in contrast with his relationship with his friends, Draco in particular. Like
marguerite_26 said: The slashtastic scenes of Harry and Draco putting each other back together when there was no one else. That stuff MADE the fic for me. However, there were NO scene's when Harry did the same for Ginny (or vice versa) IMHO. As a Gen fic it had too much focus on H/D, as a H/G fic it had too little H/G Also, the fact that the attraction Harry might feel for Draco is never explicitly mentioned and the whole lot of hints about it (his jealousy) are just left hanging there it's annoying in the extreme. Too many details where left hanging in these fashion, I think, due to time constraints, and it's truly a pity because Maya was trying to tell a similar story that in "Underwater Light" and as a whole the older story it's better.* It's still a wonderful read, of course and a total rec.
c "Stop trying to break my ribs," were the first words Malfoy said, in his most autocratic tone, and Goyle made a gleeful sound and lifted Malfoy, tall though he was, off his feet for a moment. After a moment, Malfoy said: "I didn't mean, stop trying and just do it. I meant let me go."
“Draco,” she said, and then reached out from underneath the Cloak and held his hands. He looked down at her, his face pinched, as if he would’ve liked to do something to make her happier but he couldn’t think of anything.
c “Here’s the pen,” Hermione said. “Here’s the book. Sit down. Start researching.”
Malfoy took them both, and lay on the sofa admiring his green biro for a while to make a point. The point might’ve been that he was obnoxious.
*Comment on Quality of Mercy: You know what? I love your writing. It's like I read this stuff and you just wonder how Harry and Draco can wake up every morning and have a horrible fight. I sit here and hope that they won't fight, and when they do it just kills me and it's devastating and you want them to like each other again. But then they both make up and they are better off after the fight than they were before the fight. It makes me want that for myself, and it kind of makes me wonder if I'm a bit masochistic. But I want that, to fight with someone like that every day, come out of that fight a better person and there's just so much passion that you wonder if they just won't die of it.
More on the story HERE
First read: 17-09-2008.
Notes: 260.000 words. The thing about Maya's fics is that they alternate the tragic and hilarious moments perfectly, creating a balance of extremes and making even the most mundane moments interesting. This fic, which is, at heart, a genfic, does that very well, although, having read it as a WIP, I don't feel it's structurally solid. I get the feeling it needed a couple more chapters to really wrap up. *Spoilers: The ending was quite a dissapointment, in part because of the pairings involved, in part because of the message of "anything can happen now, who knows who we will be dating next year?", which seemed forced just to satisfy the fans. But also, the Harry/Ginny dynamic, that, as Draco said, could work, is never shown to do. Ginny magically grows an spine and Harry magically grows more tactful. War or no war I do not find these changes realistic in such a short period of time. I was ready to believe in the H/G relationship, and Maya did put good fundations as to why it could work (if they got to know each other, which, ehem, can't happen so fast, but she never quite finished that equation and that left us with Harry having an extremely superficial relationship with Ginny in contrast with his relationship with his friends, Draco in particular. Like
marguerite_26 said: The slashtastic scenes of Harry and Draco putting each other back together when there was no one else. That stuff MADE the fic for me. However, there were NO scene's when Harry did the same for Ginny (or vice versa) IMHO. As a Gen fic it had too much focus on H/D, as a H/G fic it had too little H/G Also, the fact that the attraction Harry might feel for Draco is never explicitly mentioned and the whole lot of hints about it (his jealousy) are just left hanging there it's annoying in the extreme. Too many details where left hanging in these fashion, I think, due to time constraints, and it's truly a pity because Maya was trying to tell a similar story that in "Underwater Light" and as a whole the older story it's better.* It's still a wonderful read, of course and a total rec.
c "Stop trying to break my ribs," were the first words Malfoy said, in his most autocratic tone, and Goyle made a gleeful sound and lifted Malfoy, tall though he was, off his feet for a moment. After a moment, Malfoy said: "I didn't mean, stop trying and just do it. I meant let me go."
“Draco,” she said, and then reached out from underneath the Cloak and held his hands. He looked down at her, his face pinched, as if he would’ve liked to do something to make her happier but he couldn’t think of anything.
c “Here’s the pen,” Hermione said. “Here’s the book. Sit down. Start researching.”
Malfoy took them both, and lay on the sofa admiring his green biro for a while to make a point. The point might’ve been that he was obnoxious.
*Comment on Quality of Mercy: You know what? I love your writing. It's like I read this stuff and you just wonder how Harry and Draco can wake up every morning and have a horrible fight. I sit here and hope that they won't fight, and when they do it just kills me and it's devastating and you want them to like each other again. But then they both make up and they are better off after the fight than they were before the fight. It makes me want that for myself, and it kind of makes me wonder if I'm a bit masochistic. But I want that, to fight with someone like that every day, come out of that fight a better person and there's just so much passion that you wonder if they just won't die of it.
More on the story HERE