[Fic] Stumbling in the Dark

[shimotsuki]

For fandomfusion's Harry Potter genfic challenge, "Beware the Ides of March."

Title: Stumbling in the Dark
Author: shimotsuki
Rating: PG
Warnings: mild profanity
Word count: 1450 words
Characters: Snape, McGonagall
Prompts: #42 (Ovid); #54 (Tom Waits)

Summary: Dumbledore set the wheels in motion, but he left no map. All they can do is hold on tight and hope that

Comments

[zia_montrose]

And 'Oh Look!' you've pulled off your submission! Kudos on overcoming the odds. I'm looking forward to checking this out. Off for a run while it's light out though... (And part of me is still deluding myself with completing my PartIII by tomorrow :I )

[shimotsuki]

Thanks for the kudos! And best of luck in getting your Part III done. Parts I and II are the very next thing on my reading list, and I am very much looking forward to reading them. (Maybe not tonight, though; it looks like it's going to be a working evening, although I'd been hoping it wouldn't be.)

[train_lindz]

Your Snape is amazing. I love his disgust at Dumbledore's portrait being vacant and the frustration of trying to decipher what to do and sifting through the options in his precaretious balancing act as super quadruple spy.

Also love McGonagall - always in the dark and still trying to do the right thing. Dumbledore created a hole in everyones lives.

Wonderful!

[shimotsuki]

You made me so happy by picking up on the decipherment metaphor as well as the more obvious (title-signaled) darkness one, heh. I'm glad you like this Snape -- I know JKR keeps telling up he's nasty and we shouldn't fangirl him, and mostly he is, but two things make me rather fond of the poor thing: that anguished "Don't call me coward!" in HBP, and the delightfully snarky "...or shall I let you write your obituary first?" in DH.

Thanks for the kind words. :)

[anonymous]

Kudos for this one. You captured Snape's good-guy/bad-guy side(s) well, here.

It seems like I'm not the only one who thinks that Dumbledore and McGonagall may have had something going on between them 'romantically.'

It's nice that Dumbledore is there to speak with Snape and guide him through his "double agent" role. And to give Minerva some comfort and company.

Again, nice job! Thanks! :)

[shimotsuki]

Thanks again for the kind comments! I have to admit a deep fascination with Snape, heh.

I wasn't actually imagining a past relationship between McGonagall and Dumbledore here (although it's certainly open to interpretation!). In my mind, McGonagall loved him as a mentor, but was frustrated most of the time, knowing he was probably being manipulative, while not knowing to what end. I think he'd have made a very difficult boss! And it would have gone on all year in DH, too -- Dumbledore's portrait would have been much more honest with Snape than with McGonagall, not that she would have known that, of course. *sigh*

[hrymfaxe]

*what I don't have a Snape icon!? Tribal Harry will have to do then, running around and infuriating every one else*

Yay fellow deadline-beater!

I really like your portrayal of these two soldiers in Dumbledore's machinations. Especially Snape balances nicely, doing the good deeds, but bringing all his sneering unpleasant personality to bear. :D I'm not sure why that endears him to me, but let's not delve too deep into that... Poor Snape though, trying to follow Dumbledore's direction and not even being able to read his accounting.

And Minerva being all sneaky and getting a meeting with Dumbledore which amounts to absolutely nothing, except glinting in the half-moon spectacles. I also liked the speculations about how much a portrait can actually know, and how it gets its knowledge. Very interesting.

So well done! Thank you for sharing this. :D

[shimotsuki]

I'm very fond of Tribal Harry. :)

I'm not sure why that endears him to me, but let's not delve too deep into that...

Heh, I feel exactly the same way. He's a great complex character for us to play with. I'm glad you like him here.

I'm happy you liked McGonagall and the speculations about portraits, too. I think JKR has said somewhere that portraits are like recordings or impressions of people -- but can they feel anything? Dumbledore's portrait did cry when it/he saw Harry at the end of DH...

[katyhasclogs]

Oh! I feel so desperately sorry for them all. Even Snape.

I really love the way you've created a dark and hopeless feeling without heaping the angst on with a trowel. I particularly like Snape being as much in the dark as everyone else, as it's easy to assume that he was the one person who knew everything, but atually much more likely that (like Harry) he only knew 'his bit' as it were.

Oh, and your Snape dialogue was fantastic, reminds me of how much fun he is to write!

[shimotsuki]

Thanks so much for the detailed feedback. I did have a lot of fun writing Snape here. I so wish we'd been able to see more of him and what convoluted things he got up to during DH year in order to protect the students without blowing his cover.

And for all he seems to have been Dumbledore's main confidant, I don't think Dumbledore really told him anything much about the Horcrux hunt -- he had to get Harry the sword, and he had the instructions about delivering that last awful message to Harry when Voldemort started acting protective of Nagini, but that seems to have been about it -- not that he might not have guessed some of it eventually, of course. But I was imagining that at the start of the fall term he might not have worked it all out yet!