Fic: "Let go your hand from my shoulders" for rosefyre

[springmod]

Title: Let go your hand from my shoulders
Author: dbassassin
Recipient: rosefyre
Rating: PG-13
Character(s): Helga Hufflepuff, other Founders
Summary: Thirty years after the founding of Hogwarts, there’s something funny going on in the dungeons. Helga Hufflepuff is bound and determined to find out what it is.
Author's Notes: For rosefyre, who requested a fic focusing on

Comments

[humantales]

I love Founders!fic. And i like that this is written from Helga's view; she gives the story a more balanced view than one of the other three. (And, of course, I'm curious about what happens next!)

[dbassassin]

Thanks for your kind words.

It's funny, I think my Helga is much less balanced than some of the other characters (but a lot more fun to write)! ;)

[oddnari]

Love Helga's characterisation. There's too little Founders-fic, I say!

[dbassassin]

I agree there's too little Founders fic, especially gen Founders fic. I'm glad you liked Helga, she was a ton of fun to write.

Apologies

[anonymous]

OMG, I forgot to thank my beta! Thanks again to the ever-lovely D for her always-fab assistance and eagle eye.

~ the mystery author (aka Alexander the Great :D)

Re: Apologies

[springmod]

Fixed! :>

[rosefyre]

Lovely ficlet, "Alexander." Helga's always been one of my favorite characters, and the interactions between the founders are always so interesting - we know some of what happened, but not much - there's so much room to add to the story.

I like the relationship between Rowena and Helga - most of the time, they're written as the same age, but here, there has to be at least 15, 20 years between them. It added new dimensions that I haven't seen before. And seeing Helga as tired of being the nurturing one showed her age, and worked so well.

Also, her last words to Salazar? Excellent. And I loved the mentions of the Gorgon.

I also found myself getting to know Hugo, but slightly curious as to who he is - brother, husband, friend? Clearly he's dead, but that still doesn't answer all my questions.

As I said, "Alexander," excellent fic.

[dbassassin]

Now I can finally come clean, so to say. I'm so glad you enjoyed this. When I got my prompt, I was so glad you listed a character I liked writing that I sort of grabbed that and ran off and wrote the fic without, erm, really reading the rest of the request. So I did have a few wibbles about the whole thing.

I'm glad you liked the relationship between Rowena and Helga. I admit I committed one of the cardinal sins of anon exchanges and wrote a sequal; this fic is the sequal to the fic I wrote for last year's femgenficathon, and the friendship between them is a prominent part of that fic, as well. Hugo is introduced in that fic, as well. And well spotted for figuring out that he's dead! Hugo is Helga's late husband; the epistolary sections are her diary entries, which she writes in the form of letters to him.

Thanks again; I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

[rosefyre]

I hadn't realized it was a sequel, because it does stand alone, you know. Link me to the first one? I want to read it now, even though I probably already have - actually, my femgenficathon piece two years ago was also about Helga, but with a very different background than yours (not that I mind, because seeing different versions of the founders = of the good).

And while I may not have specifically requested history!fic, it's kind of assumed in a Helga!fic request.

*shrugs* I think I automatically assumed that Hugo was dead - the tone of the letters was very much not expecting to be answered, and she always seemed to think of him in the past tense. Also, she kept saying she wished he was here, or she wished he knew someone, and while that could technically fit for someone very far away, it just seemed...like she was writing to someone who was dead. *nods*

Thanks again!

[dbassassin]

You can find the first fic here.

Cheerio!

[jiazho]

what a compelling portrait. Your rendering of Helga is so complex and satisfying to read. I only wish others (including JKRowling!) gave all their characters so much depth.

+ epistolary stories are so hard to pull off but the parts blend in counterpoint for each other so well!

+ Bonus gold stars for working in the catalyst that sets Salazar off so subtly!

[dbassassin]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Helga is tremendous fun to write. This is the second Founders fic I've written; in the first one she wasn't the main character, but she insisted on being a little spotlight hog. So this time I decided to make her the star, which made her very happy.