Round 2 Challenge 10: Voting
We’ve searched all over the world to bring you the drabbles for week 9!
A couple of things to remember when deciding which drabbles to vote for (most and least favorite):
Guidelines:
Which drabble best incorporates the prompt?
2. Is the drabble clever, different, fresh? Does it evoke an emotional response (good or bad)?
3. Does the drabble contain grammar, canon or spelling errors?
The “feedback” option.
As a voter, you have the option of leaving a brief statement about why you voted the way you did, for both most and least favorite. Your feedback will then be given to the drabble writer (if they want the feedback) ANONYMOUSLY.
Example: Most - #40: the ending was brilliant - OR - Least - #57: the ending fell flat
Here we go for week 9!
Choose your favorite and least favorite drabbles. Favorites will receive +1 point per vote, and least favorites -1 point per vote.
Remember: Just one elimination, and no skips!
Voting ends at 11:59pm, Friday, November 7, 2008.
Out of the UK
1
Title: Transatlantic
Author: inadaze22
Rating: G
Warning: None
Word Count: 497
A/N: Iqaluit is the territorial capital and the largest community of the Canadian territory of Nunavut.
The December sun was setting in Iqaluit, but the coldness of the world beyond the windows could never compare to the frost that covered her heart. Music poured from the wireless. Hermione sighed. What a melancholy ode to what her love life had become….
Loneliness.
It appeared around every corner in her cottage. She longed to reach out for him, but Hermione knew better. How could she expect him to be there after six months of unreturned letters?
They had argued the night that she’d left. Draco wanted her to stay. Iqaluit wasn’t just four thousand and sixty-seven kilometres away; it was too large of a test for their new relationship. He didn’t care that the fossils of an ancient dragon had been found there. He didn’t care that her job as the head of the Dragon Research Department meant that she had to be on location to oversee the excavation.
Draco had wanted her to stay, but Hermione had ended the fight by leaving.
She hadn’t been warm since.
Now, she wished things had happened differently.
Hermione wrapped her blanket tighter around her body. She was tired of being so cold. And alone. The flood gates of her heart were finally open, and all she could do was stand there and cling to his final letter.
I’ll be waiting. That was all the four month old letter had said. I’ll be waiting.
She read those three words repeatedly before she tossed the letter on the table, walked away, and shook her head to rid herself of his words. But Hermione’s gaze returned to his letter.
I’ll be waiting. His words continued to plague her. I’ll be waiting.
Hermione couldn’t get away from them, and it forced her to accept the truth. She was wrong to leave the way she had. She was wrong for ignoring his letters. She was wrong, period.
But what could she do? There was an entire ocean between them and - was he still waiting? So much time had passed since Draco had sent that letter. Things could have changed, and Hermione didn’t know if her pride could handle - someone started banging on her door. Hard.
It was probably someone from the excavation team with extra firewood. She’d had more than enough, but it would be days before they could leave their cottages once the storm hit. Hermione opened the door, ready to put on her best smile for the person at her door. What she found instead made the fake smile, her heart, and the blanket fall around her ankles.
“Draco?” He was almost unrecognizable under layers and layers of winter apparel, but the unmistakable blond hair sticking out of the hat answered all questions about his identity. “How - what are you doing here?” she asked over the howling wind.
He let himself into her house and shut the door before he turned and answered. “I got tired of waiting.”
And for the first time since she’d left him, Hermione was warm.
2
Title: Searching for Draco Malfoy
Author: ilkee
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Word Count: 498
She wanted to remember this.
All of this.
The biting cold laced with wood smoke, the fuzz from her scarf stuck in her mouth, the wet black asphalt layered with broken leaves - pumpkin, mustard and ketchup colored. She wanted to fix these things in her mind, to remember the slow heavy pounding of her heart that marked the close of a long and twisted journey.
She had found him. Here. In this sleepy New England town.
Four years of searching had finally ended.
Hermione stood on the sidewalk across the street from a small café, a knot of apprehension twisting her stomach. She stuffed her hand in her pocket and fingered the worn parchment that had started everything.
It was the blood that had caught her attention. A tiny smudge of dried brown-red blood in the corner, next to a black fingerprint.
Can we be done now?
Unsigned. And at the time, meaningless. But the blood, and the sense of despair and exhaustion had stayed with her. It was the day someone saved Neville from a killing curse.
The second letter arrived three months later, when Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy were both found dead in Hogsmeade. She recognized the handwriting.
I’m sorry.
Draco
Two weeks later, the war was over. And Hermione’s search began.
There were other letters. Longer ones. Full of secrets and secret hopes. Anguish. Loneliness. The little failures and triumphs of daily life. She supposed he felt a certain freedom knowing she couldn’t write back.
She scoured the letters for clues. Names of buildings, a food he thought was dreadful, a description of a view - the coast, the desert, or mountains. Leaves changing color. She had fallen in love with his handwriting.
Hermione couldn’t explain her need to find Draco Malfoy. It started casually, her eyes searching dark corners wherever she went, but over time it had turned into an obsession. She was consumed with her need to find him. She gave up her job, ignored her friends, and searched. Everywhere.
Australia, Barcelona, Portugal, Japan, Chile, California. And finally, here.
In a way, she was sad that it was over. Four years and a stack of letters later, Draco had become the most important person in her life. She had no idea where they went from here. Maybe he didn’t even want to be found. But she needed to do this. She needed to stand there, in front of him, and say something. Acknowledge…something.
Swallowing past the lump in her throat, Hermione crossed the empty street. A bell tinkled when she opened the door and Draco looked up, pinning her with serious gray eyes.
Her heart smacked against her ribs as she neared the booth he sat in. When she got there, when she was finally close enough to touch him, she didn’t know what to say, and for a long time Draco just looked up at her, his eyes searching hers, until finally, he spoke.
“What took you so long?”
3
Title: We Follow the Sea
Author: greenschist
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Word Count: 498
He named their boat The Sea Serpent, but Hermione, upon discovering he Confunded a Muggle into selling it to them for two Knuts and a button, insists it is named Flight From Prosecution.
Draco hides in the shade of the galley, seeking shelter from the West African sun as Hermione swims. She swims every day, wherever they may be. Since leaving England after the final battle, Hermione has slipped beneath the surface of a half-dozen seas.
He loves to watch her, especially in that moment when she dives off the back of their boat, and her body arcs into a perfect curve before slicing through the water. He spends entire days like this: watching and wanting Hermione, not thinking about the War, and searching the skies for owls. Because no matter where they go, owls always find them.
Potter found them right away, in those first crazy days in France when they had no ship and no plan, just a burning desire to get away and a green and gold bikini Draco bought Hermione in Marseille. She struggled for days to answer Potter's letter, which was full of questions and quiet concern, but she never found the words.
Weasley's letter, all red anger and accusation, found them in Venice. Hermione read a few lines before crumpling it and stuffing it in a trash bin. Draco bought her a gelato and kissed her for the first time.
They were watching the sun set over Cyprus when McGonagall's invitation back to Hogwarts arrived. He kissed the tears from her eyes and she crawled into his lap. They made love as the stars rose above them and left the letter for the tide in the morning.
Through the Suez and the Red Sea, while the equatorial sun boiled Draco like a lobster and painted Hermione in bronze and gold, they were chased by requests for interviews, politely-worded demands from the Ministry that Hermione return and make public appearances, and less politely-worded demands from the Wizengamot that Draco return for questioning. All were incinerated.
Near the bottom of the world, at a place Hermione told him was called Cape of Good Hope, Draco watched her tear letters from family and friends into shreds for the wind to snatch and carry. He likes to lay her down on the deck, to sink into her under southern skies and let the waves rock them gently together. She traced alien stars on the skin of his back, charting the Southern Cross and Carina with her fingertips. He buried his face in her sun-bleached hair and murmured “good hope” against the shell of her ear over and over.
Draco stands up as Hermione pulls herself on board. Wearing nothing but bikini bottoms and sunshine, she looks nothing like the girl she used to be, far away in England. She is tense, and Draco looks up to see a dark owl approaching with a red envelope.
They will be sailing west by sundown.
4
Title: Negotiations
Author: ravenswing34
Rating: PG13
Warnings: none
Word Count: 498
A/N: Schattenjager means "shadow hunter" and comes from the Gabriel Knight games from Sierra.
“Please, no,” Draco begged. “Isn’t enough we are in Germany? Do we really have to go see this monstrosity?”
“But it will be lovely! You know how I love castles!” Hermione exclaimed, her eyes shining brightly.
“You have Hogwarts,” he reminded her tonelessly.
“But, it’s not the same! This is THE castle in the Muggle world! This is what everyone thinks of when you say castle.” She paused for a minute and played her ace. “I did read that the entire Der Ring des Nibelungen is being played at the Bayreuth festival this week. All four operas,” she slyly replied.
His eyes lit up with an unholy gleam he usually reserved for Christmas before they shuttered and he replied, “I am to understand that for a day of Muggle tourism at this Neuschwanstein Castle, you are going to sit with me through Wagner’s entire Ring score? 4 days of opera? Where’s the catch?”
“Catch? Can’t I spend a few days enjoying the arts with the man I love?” Hermione flashed him her most winning smile
“We really need to work on your lying. That was a poorly executed one, and I am personally offended by your lack of trying.”
“Too thick then?”
“Incredibly. I don’t think Longbottom fertilizing the greenhouses lays it on as thick as you just did. So, the catch.”
“The catch is the Firm wants us to check out Neuschwanstein. We have lost contact with the Schattenjager. The talisman is missing too."
“Damn it! We just got back from the last case. This is supposed to be our vacation! They know this!”
“Yes, but Bill is especially nervous. Apparently, there has been a resurgence of werewolves. Severus has reports of increased vampire activity in this part of Bavaria too. Both parties would love for the Schattenjager to disappear.”
“And no one else is available?” Draco demanded.
“No one with our skills and expertise. Not to mention the fact we are already here. Would it help if you thought of it as a working vacation?” She smirked at his heartfelt groan before sobering. “They need us. Badly. They are willing to give us some personal time while on assignment to make up for the lack of vacation. I was, however, able to negotiate more money and an extra two weeks of vacation in addition to the two weeks they already owe us. An entire month to ourselves.”
“Forgive me dear. Your ability to lie may be abysmal but your negotiation skills are unsurpassed.”
“Fine words, Mr. Malfoy. Now, can I negotiate continuing this discussion in our room at the Schloss? Perhaps in front of a fire, sipping firewhiskey?”
“Drop the firewhiskey, substitute another activity and I believe you may have a deal, Mrs. Malfoy.”
“You sweet talker, you.” She ducked her head to capture his lips in a breathless kiss. “Good. The portkey leaves in two minutes.”
“I resent that,” Draco pouted. “You knew I would capitulate.”
“You did say my negotiation skills are unsurpassed, dear.”
ooo
REMEMBER: Vote for the NUMBER of the drabble, NOT THE NAME. It just makes it easier on the mods!
Please leave both a MOST favorite and a LEAST favorite vote. We must have both in order for your votes to count.
Poll
A couple of things to remember when deciding which drabbles to vote for (most and least favorite):
Guidelines:
The “feedback” option.
As a voter, you have the option of leaving a brief statement about why you voted the way you did, for both most and least favorite. Your feedback will then be given to the drabble writer (if they want the feedback) ANONYMOUSLY.
Example: Most - #40: the ending was brilliant - OR - Least - #57: the ending fell flat
Here we go for week 9!
Choose your favorite and least favorite drabbles. Favorites will receive +1 point per vote, and least favorites -1 point per vote.
Remember: Just one elimination, and no skips!
Voting ends at 11:59pm, Friday, November 7, 2008.
Out of the UK
1
Title: Transatlantic
Author: inadaze22
Rating: G
Warning: None
Word Count: 497
A/N: Iqaluit is the territorial capital and the largest community of the Canadian territory of Nunavut.
The December sun was setting in Iqaluit, but the coldness of the world beyond the windows could never compare to the frost that covered her heart. Music poured from the wireless. Hermione sighed. What a melancholy ode to what her love life had become….
Loneliness.
It appeared around every corner in her cottage. She longed to reach out for him, but Hermione knew better. How could she expect him to be there after six months of unreturned letters?
They had argued the night that she’d left. Draco wanted her to stay. Iqaluit wasn’t just four thousand and sixty-seven kilometres away; it was too large of a test for their new relationship. He didn’t care that the fossils of an ancient dragon had been found there. He didn’t care that her job as the head of the Dragon Research Department meant that she had to be on location to oversee the excavation.
Draco had wanted her to stay, but Hermione had ended the fight by leaving.
She hadn’t been warm since.
Now, she wished things had happened differently.
Hermione wrapped her blanket tighter around her body. She was tired of being so cold. And alone. The flood gates of her heart were finally open, and all she could do was stand there and cling to his final letter.
I’ll be waiting. That was all the four month old letter had said. I’ll be waiting.
She read those three words repeatedly before she tossed the letter on the table, walked away, and shook her head to rid herself of his words. But Hermione’s gaze returned to his letter.
I’ll be waiting. His words continued to plague her. I’ll be waiting.
Hermione couldn’t get away from them, and it forced her to accept the truth. She was wrong to leave the way she had. She was wrong for ignoring his letters. She was wrong, period.
But what could she do? There was an entire ocean between them and - was he still waiting? So much time had passed since Draco had sent that letter. Things could have changed, and Hermione didn’t know if her pride could handle - someone started banging on her door. Hard.
It was probably someone from the excavation team with extra firewood. She’d had more than enough, but it would be days before they could leave their cottages once the storm hit. Hermione opened the door, ready to put on her best smile for the person at her door. What she found instead made the fake smile, her heart, and the blanket fall around her ankles.
“Draco?” He was almost unrecognizable under layers and layers of winter apparel, but the unmistakable blond hair sticking out of the hat answered all questions about his identity. “How - what are you doing here?” she asked over the howling wind.
He let himself into her house and shut the door before he turned and answered. “I got tired of waiting.”
And for the first time since she’d left him, Hermione was warm.
2
Title: Searching for Draco Malfoy
Author: ilkee
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Word Count: 498
She wanted to remember this.
All of this.
The biting cold laced with wood smoke, the fuzz from her scarf stuck in her mouth, the wet black asphalt layered with broken leaves - pumpkin, mustard and ketchup colored. She wanted to fix these things in her mind, to remember the slow heavy pounding of her heart that marked the close of a long and twisted journey.
She had found him. Here. In this sleepy New England town.
Four years of searching had finally ended.
Hermione stood on the sidewalk across the street from a small café, a knot of apprehension twisting her stomach. She stuffed her hand in her pocket and fingered the worn parchment that had started everything.
It was the blood that had caught her attention. A tiny smudge of dried brown-red blood in the corner, next to a black fingerprint.
Can we be done now?
Unsigned. And at the time, meaningless. But the blood, and the sense of despair and exhaustion had stayed with her. It was the day someone saved Neville from a killing curse.
The second letter arrived three months later, when Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy were both found dead in Hogsmeade. She recognized the handwriting.
I’m sorry.
Draco
Two weeks later, the war was over. And Hermione’s search began.
There were other letters. Longer ones. Full of secrets and secret hopes. Anguish. Loneliness. The little failures and triumphs of daily life. She supposed he felt a certain freedom knowing she couldn’t write back.
She scoured the letters for clues. Names of buildings, a food he thought was dreadful, a description of a view - the coast, the desert, or mountains. Leaves changing color. She had fallen in love with his handwriting.
Hermione couldn’t explain her need to find Draco Malfoy. It started casually, her eyes searching dark corners wherever she went, but over time it had turned into an obsession. She was consumed with her need to find him. She gave up her job, ignored her friends, and searched. Everywhere.
Australia, Barcelona, Portugal, Japan, Chile, California. And finally, here.
In a way, she was sad that it was over. Four years and a stack of letters later, Draco had become the most important person in her life. She had no idea where they went from here. Maybe he didn’t even want to be found. But she needed to do this. She needed to stand there, in front of him, and say something. Acknowledge…something.
Swallowing past the lump in her throat, Hermione crossed the empty street. A bell tinkled when she opened the door and Draco looked up, pinning her with serious gray eyes.
Her heart smacked against her ribs as she neared the booth he sat in. When she got there, when she was finally close enough to touch him, she didn’t know what to say, and for a long time Draco just looked up at her, his eyes searching hers, until finally, he spoke.
“What took you so long?”
3
Title: We Follow the Sea
Author: greenschist
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Word Count: 498
He named their boat The Sea Serpent, but Hermione, upon discovering he Confunded a Muggle into selling it to them for two Knuts and a button, insists it is named Flight From Prosecution.
Draco hides in the shade of the galley, seeking shelter from the West African sun as Hermione swims. She swims every day, wherever they may be. Since leaving England after the final battle, Hermione has slipped beneath the surface of a half-dozen seas.
He loves to watch her, especially in that moment when she dives off the back of their boat, and her body arcs into a perfect curve before slicing through the water. He spends entire days like this: watching and wanting Hermione, not thinking about the War, and searching the skies for owls. Because no matter where they go, owls always find them.
Potter found them right away, in those first crazy days in France when they had no ship and no plan, just a burning desire to get away and a green and gold bikini Draco bought Hermione in Marseille. She struggled for days to answer Potter's letter, which was full of questions and quiet concern, but she never found the words.
Weasley's letter, all red anger and accusation, found them in Venice. Hermione read a few lines before crumpling it and stuffing it in a trash bin. Draco bought her a gelato and kissed her for the first time.
They were watching the sun set over Cyprus when McGonagall's invitation back to Hogwarts arrived. He kissed the tears from her eyes and she crawled into his lap. They made love as the stars rose above them and left the letter for the tide in the morning.
Through the Suez and the Red Sea, while the equatorial sun boiled Draco like a lobster and painted Hermione in bronze and gold, they were chased by requests for interviews, politely-worded demands from the Ministry that Hermione return and make public appearances, and less politely-worded demands from the Wizengamot that Draco return for questioning. All were incinerated.
Near the bottom of the world, at a place Hermione told him was called Cape of Good Hope, Draco watched her tear letters from family and friends into shreds for the wind to snatch and carry. He likes to lay her down on the deck, to sink into her under southern skies and let the waves rock them gently together. She traced alien stars on the skin of his back, charting the Southern Cross and Carina with her fingertips. He buried his face in her sun-bleached hair and murmured “good hope” against the shell of her ear over and over.
Draco stands up as Hermione pulls herself on board. Wearing nothing but bikini bottoms and sunshine, she looks nothing like the girl she used to be, far away in England. She is tense, and Draco looks up to see a dark owl approaching with a red envelope.
They will be sailing west by sundown.
4
Title: Negotiations
Author: ravenswing34
Rating: PG13
Warnings: none
Word Count: 498
A/N: Schattenjager means "shadow hunter" and comes from the Gabriel Knight games from Sierra.
“Please, no,” Draco begged. “Isn’t enough we are in Germany? Do we really have to go see this monstrosity?”
“But it will be lovely! You know how I love castles!” Hermione exclaimed, her eyes shining brightly.
“You have Hogwarts,” he reminded her tonelessly.
“But, it’s not the same! This is THE castle in the Muggle world! This is what everyone thinks of when you say castle.” She paused for a minute and played her ace. “I did read that the entire Der Ring des Nibelungen is being played at the Bayreuth festival this week. All four operas,” she slyly replied.
His eyes lit up with an unholy gleam he usually reserved for Christmas before they shuttered and he replied, “I am to understand that for a day of Muggle tourism at this Neuschwanstein Castle, you are going to sit with me through Wagner’s entire Ring score? 4 days of opera? Where’s the catch?”
“Catch? Can’t I spend a few days enjoying the arts with the man I love?” Hermione flashed him her most winning smile
“We really need to work on your lying. That was a poorly executed one, and I am personally offended by your lack of trying.”
“Too thick then?”
“Incredibly. I don’t think Longbottom fertilizing the greenhouses lays it on as thick as you just did. So, the catch.”
“The catch is the Firm wants us to check out Neuschwanstein. We have lost contact with the Schattenjager. The talisman is missing too."
“Damn it! We just got back from the last case. This is supposed to be our vacation! They know this!”
“Yes, but Bill is especially nervous. Apparently, there has been a resurgence of werewolves. Severus has reports of increased vampire activity in this part of Bavaria too. Both parties would love for the Schattenjager to disappear.”
“And no one else is available?” Draco demanded.
“No one with our skills and expertise. Not to mention the fact we are already here. Would it help if you thought of it as a working vacation?” She smirked at his heartfelt groan before sobering. “They need us. Badly. They are willing to give us some personal time while on assignment to make up for the lack of vacation. I was, however, able to negotiate more money and an extra two weeks of vacation in addition to the two weeks they already owe us. An entire month to ourselves.”
“Forgive me dear. Your ability to lie may be abysmal but your negotiation skills are unsurpassed.”
“Fine words, Mr. Malfoy. Now, can I negotiate continuing this discussion in our room at the Schloss? Perhaps in front of a fire, sipping firewhiskey?”
“Drop the firewhiskey, substitute another activity and I believe you may have a deal, Mrs. Malfoy.”
“You sweet talker, you.” She ducked her head to capture his lips in a breathless kiss. “Good. The portkey leaves in two minutes.”
“I resent that,” Draco pouted. “You knew I would capitulate.”
“You did say my negotiation skills are unsurpassed, dear.”
ooo
REMEMBER: Vote for the NUMBER of the drabble, NOT THE NAME. It just makes it easier on the mods!
Please leave both a MOST favorite and a LEAST favorite vote. We must have both in order for your votes to count.
Poll