Springfic: "As Clever Does" for swissmarg

[springmod]

Title: As Clever Does
Author/Artist: igrockspock
Recipient: swissmarg
Character(s): Horace Slughorn, Seamus Finnigan, Pansy Parkinson, Luna Lovegood
Rating: PG
Warnings (highlight to view): None
Wordcount 2700
Summary: By negotiating a contract, pulling a prank, starting a small business, and discussing justice and death, four characters demonstrate what being

Comments

[swissmarg]

This is just beautiful. Each character is so deliciously themselves. I especially like that although you switch the focus from one character to the other, they are all connected by a continuous narrative. It's like each one hands the story off to the next

[igrockspock]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it so much! These are mostly characters I've never written before, so it was a fun opportunity to explore them. Thank you for a prompt that encouraged me to work outside my comfort zone and try new things in this fandom :)

[woldy]

This is gorgeous and the way each scene leads into the next is so cleverly done. It's a wonderful exploration of the theme, and we see so many different types of wisdom - Slytherin calculation v Gryffindor boldness, and then Luna, who is really a class unto herself. From a house qualities POV it's a bit of a shame not to see a Hufflepuff amongst them, but the story works beautifully as it is and I wouldn't want to miss any of the scenes you've described here. Great work!

[igrockspock]

Thank you so much! I was a bit nervous about the format, so I'm glad it worked for you! And yeah, it would have been nice to have a Hufflepuff, but that did not really fit into my recipient's request, so I did not want to add someone extra...

[minervas_eule]

Great characterizations! I especially like your Luna: the way you make sense of her is just amazing ♥

[igrockspock]

Thank you! Luna is my favorite character, so it means a lot that you like her here!

[miss_morland]

This story is just as clever as the characters -- humorous, well-structured and wry. Your characterisations are amazing, for instance in lines like these:

“I want a twenty percent raise. Not a knut less.”

He would settle for fifteen percent. Education of today's youth, after all...

And then there are all the other delightful bits, such as Seamus's old exams (loved that whole paragraph), Pansy's profitable exploits, and Luna's simple, yet wise insights. What a gem of a story!

[igrockspock]

Thank you so much! These are almost all characters I've never worked with before, so it means a lot that you liked them :)

[kellychambliss]

Excellent story; I really enjoyed this. As the others have said, the movement from one section to another is really well-done and epitomizes the "cleverness" notion. Each person is beautifully-characterized: Horace with his self-justifications; Seamus with his perfect-adolescent mix of smarts and foolishness, bravery and recklessness (and already thinking of breasts at age 11 -- ha!); Pansy showing all the strengths and weaknesses of the classic Slytherin; Luna so perceptive and yet so plausibly having to remind herself of what others want from her.

I liked so many of the lines:

No, he did not support the Dark Lord. Only, it was wise to have a strategy, to know what to say if the need arose.
Perfectly Horace.

that Umbridge was gone, there weren't many opportunities for paid informants. On the other hand, if she set up some kind of surveillance system, she might be able to charge a small protection fee to the people who used the tower most frequently.
Haha! I love your scampering Pansy.

It wasn't so hard, really. She watched.

[igrockspock]

Thank you! It is so kind of you to quote the lines you liked, and I'm so glad to know that the format worked for you - it was an experiment for me, and I wasn't sure how people would react.