Round 3, Challenge Twelve: The Screening
Grab a soda and some popcorn, movie fans … It’s time for the week twelve screening!
Welcome all to the World Premiere of "I got a bad feeling about this one."
A couple of things to remember when deciding which drabbles to vote for (most and least favorite):
Guidelines:
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
Please remember writers, that you may not vote for yourselves.
Here we go for week Twelve!
Choose your favorite and least favorite drabbles. Favorites will receive +1 point per vote, and least favorites -1 point per vote.
Voting ends at 11:59pm, Friday,April 17th.
I got a bad feeling about this one.
Scene (inspirational movie): Saving Private Ryan
Action (must include): Wartime Setting
Theme (additional information): Courage
1
Title: Why We Fight
Author: floorcoaster
Rating: PG
Warnings: AU
Word Count: 498
Hermione started having trouble sleeping the night Draco Malfoy arrived at Number Twelve. After tossing and turning for hours, she would creep to the kitchen, prepare a cup of tea, and sit on the back steps.
Two months after his arrival, she discovered him on her steps, smoking. Gone was the pretentious sneer, the haunted eyes, the guarded mask. He just looked … tired, like the rest of them. Human
“That’s a nasty habit,” she blurted.
“I’m quitting,” he said mechanically.
Silence lengthened into the shadows.
“Good luck.” She abruptly turned and left.
- - - - -
Two weeks later, she again found him smoking on the porch.
“I thought you were quitting.” She sat on the steps as far from him as possible.
“I am.”
When he spoke, she noticed something shiny and slick on his cheek.
“You’re hurt,” she gasped.
He scowled. “I’m fine.”
“It looks deep. Someone should-”
“I said I’m fine,” he snapped.
After a few moments, he sighed. “Just doing my duty. It’s no more than what anyone else would do.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to be stubborn about it,” she retorted.
He didn’t hesitate. “But I get to feel categorically superior while at the same time feeling sorry for myself.”
She smiled despite herself. “Oh. In that case.”
- - - - -
It became something of a routine. She would meet him outside with a cup of tea, and they would sit in silence. Occasionally one of them would speak, and the other would listen.
After three months of this, Hermione did something bold: she prepared two cups of tea.
“Let’s trade,” she said, sitting on the step beside him. Scant inches separated them. “This cup for your bad habit.”
Draco hesitated, then took one long drag before stamping out the cigarette. “Happy?” he grumbled.
She beamed.
“Why are you being so … kind?” he whispered.
Hermione had been preparing for a question like this for weeks. “No one should have to go through this war alone.”
“I’ve never done anything to deserve it,” he muttered.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” She took a deep breath. “Thank you.”
He looked at her, bewilderment on his face.
“You’ve done something by coming here that not many of us would be willing to do,” she began. “You left your family, everything you knew, and entered a house full of people who disliked you at best. Every day you sit with us in relative peace. You fight for us, you’ve helped us tremendously, and you do it without grumbling. I just wanted you to know that someone noticed.”
Draco sat thoughtfully sipping his tea, then rested his hand on the step beside hers.
For the first time, she became aware of their proximity, and her stomach fluttered. When he covered her hand with his, butterflies exploded.
Though simple, the gesture was huge. This was what they were all fighting for; this was worth dying for. She only hoped they’d be able to explore it together in a world of peace.
2
Title: Lull
Author: bookishwench
Rating: PG
Warnings: scenes of death
Word Count: 499
The cacophony of battle had stopped for the brief respite as both sides tended their wounded, but the silence made the cries of the injured all the more obvious and terrifying.
Crabbe was dead. Draco had seen too much death in the last year, but never before had the victim been someone his own age. It reminded him that anyone could die: Father, Mother, Severus, even himself.
Even her.
That was why, in disobedience to the Dark Lord’s order for all Death Eaters to gather in the forest clearing, Draco was circling around the lake and back towards the castle. He needed to find her. As he walked, he passed Ginny Weasley, who was bending over an injured girl and speaking softly in a tone people used when hope was gone. He squinted at the victim in the dim light until he was sure it wasn’t Hermione, but it gave him no comfort.
He went on, almost swearing he passed someone in the darkness though no one was visible, until he reached the castle. Drawing a shuddering breath, he realized he was in the very heart of the enemy’s camp. He had entered a makeshift morgue. Everywhere he looked were people who would kill him if given half a chance, and his death might be a momentary balm for the pain of a lost loved one. He couldn’t blame them, but he had to keep looking.
Then he saw a cluster of red-haired people gathered around a fallen figure at the far end of the Great Hall. The Weasleys were friends of Hermione. If something had happened to her, it would explain why they were mourning in the hall of the dead.
As he drew closer, he recognized one bushy-haired figure in the sea of red, and he let out a sigh of relief. Somehow, it was as though she heard it, for he saw her deftly extricate herself from the group without drawing the least attention. In a few seconds, she was beside him.
“How dare you?” she whispered furiously as she led him to a less exposed spot. “You have no right to intrude here!”
“Who was it?” he asked.
“Fred, not that you’d care,” she said.
“I’m sorry,” he said awkwardly.
“Why are you here?” she asked, and he could tell it wasn’t just an accusation. She really wanted an answer.
“Because I needed to know,” he answered truthfully.
“Even if you got yourself killed?” she said, sounding confused.
“There’s more than one kind of death,” he said.
He looked around at the rows of dead adults and students, and the enormity of the war pressed in on him. He didn’t know what gave him the courage to place one swift kiss on her cheek, but she didn’t move, and it was enough.
“Truly, I am sorry, Hermione,” he said, “for so many things.”
He carried with him the picture of her standing perfectly still, watching him as he retreated into the darkness, waiting for dawn.
3
Title: Beware Birds Bearing Notes of Death
Author: luvscharlie
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Word Count: 492
Hermione wasn't sure how the owl found her. But, as she exited the tent, it called to her from its perch on a low branch and held out its leg to her. She removed the parchment attached.
I must see you.
That was all that the note said. A small key fell from it. She yawned and bent to retrieve it. The moment her hand closed round it, she felt a familiar tug behind her navel. She landed in a tangle of arms and legs somewhere deep in a forest. She scrambled for the wand in her pocket and was relieved to find it still there.
"I actually thought it would be more difficult than this."
She recognised the voice immediately-Malfoy-and went instantly on the defensive. "I just woke up you cheeky prat. Forgive me for not being on my best game."
"Be glad it was me. If the Dark Lord had sent you that bird, you'd be dead now."
Okay, he had a point-one she hated to concede-but a point, nonetheless. "I assume you didn't bring me out here to tell me to watch out for birds bearing notes of death." She noted the somber look that crossed his face.
"No. It wasn't supposed to be this way, you know? I've heard the stories for as long as I can remember. The Dark Lord will rise again, and we'll be ready to serve him, and all our dreams for this wizarding world will be realised. Just you wait, Draco, Father would say, just you wait. There will be riches beyond your wildest expectation. Our loyalty will be honoured above all others." He snorted in contempt. "Rubbish."
"You can still join us," she whispered. "It doesn't have to-"
"You're going to lose, Hermione. His power-it's growing faster than you can imagine. I've seen things-well, I've seen things I never hope to see again. But what chance do you have against a force that strong?"
"Is that why you brought me here?"
"I wanted to tell you to run away. To go as far and as fast as you can… before it's too late."
She noted the desperation in his voice. However misguided his deeds, they were well intentioned. "You came to save me?"
"For what little good it's done. I didn't think you'd listen. Too damned stubborn for your own good, that's what you are."
"Perhaps. But I believe in what we're fighting for. Can you say the same?"
He snorted at the ground in frustration. "I believe in surviving, Hermione. The Portkey will take you back."
She realised then, what he had risked by warning her. If his actions were discovered, he would be branded traitor and the punishment would most certainly be death. "Thank you," she whispered as he walked away.
He looked back over his shoulder. "Granger, one final piece of advice."
"Yes?"
"Beware of birds bearing notes of death."
Cheeky prat.
4
Title: Chrysalis
Author: greenschist
Rating: PG
Warning: None
Word Count: 499
Granger's magic pulls Draco from the tunnel before any traps can eviscerate him.
"Where does this lead, Malfoy?" She peers into the black passage.
He fights the Body-Bind enough to say, "Hollow oak. Forbidden Forest."
Her lip curls in disgust and she releases him, letting him drop to the floor. "Running away?"
He could tell her the truth. Wherever the Dark Lord waits during this last hour before the battle resumes, Lucius and Narcissa wait with him, and if Draco dies today, he wants to die with them. He could tell her he knows he's on the wrong side of this war, that he's trapped and scared, but their exchange is overlaid by the memory of how she writhed under his aunt's wand. Her screams echoed off the walls of his home and in his ears, and Draco figures he has lost the privilege of confiding in her, if he ever had it.
Instead he says, "We can't all be heroes. Someone has to be the villain of the piece."
Her contempt deepens, and she does something complex and wordless with her wand to seal the tunnel-something Draco's certain he couldn't break even if his mother's wand hadn't been destroyed.
She hesitates, and he sees a familiar expression cross her face. It's the expression he saw as Bellatrix raised her wand for another Cruciatus: fear, exhaustion, and the brittle edge of despair.
"Have you seen Harry?"
"Not since before." He doesn't have to say it was before the Dark Lord's ultimatum. In war, everything is before or after one horror or another. It dawns on him why she's asking. "Potter isn't going to give himself up. He's not that stupid."
Her anxiety morphs into anger in an instant. "You think it's stupid to be brave enough to sacrifice yourself for others, no matter what the cost?" Her voice rises. "What do you know? You've never done a brave thing in your life!"
I tried, he wants to say, but he's embarrassed by his sorry attempt to help her and her friends at the Manor. He wants to tell her he's not the same boy he used to be. The Dark Lord is mad and evil. Pureblood pride is an empty lie. Granger is incredible, fearsome, more powerful than Draco will ever be, and it's all right for her to be so. The chrysalis of accepting these thoughts takes all the courage he possesses. She's right. He's never been brave.
He slumps against the wall. "Don’t worry. Potter always wins. Typical Gryffindor."
She lifts her chin at that, and Draco knows she will fight to the end, even if Potter is never seen again. Typical Gryffindor, indeed. He doesn't know what impulse leads him to take her hand or why she lets him.
"Good luck, Granger. Stay safe." He squeezes her hand, wishing he had a fraction of her strength.
She looks down at their clasped hands for a moment before she says, "You too, Malfoy."
And squeezes back.
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 round 3 challenge #12
For readers, supporters, lovers of everything dramione -
Copy & Paste from the Box
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Come See Draco & Hermione in Their New Movie
Click the Ticket to Read & Vote!
This Week: Saving Private Ryan
To Get this Pretty for your Journal - Spread the Drabble Love!
Come See Draco & Hermione in Their New Movie
Click the Ticket to Read & Vote!
This Week: Saving Private Ryan
Please spread the word and thanks for dropping by!
Welcome all to the World Premiere of "I got a bad feeling about this one."
A couple of things to remember when deciding which drabbles to vote for (most and least favorite):
Guidelines:
- Which drabble best incorporates the prompt?
- Is the drabble clever, different, fresh? Does it evoke an emotional response (good or bad)?
- Does the drabble contain grammar, canon or spelling errors?
- The movies merely serve as inspiration for the prompts. The requirements and theme are most important.
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
Please remember writers, that you may not vote for yourselves.
Here we go for week Twelve!
Choose your favorite and least favorite drabbles. Favorites will receive +1 point per vote, and least favorites -1 point per vote.
Voting ends at 11:59pm, Friday,April 17th.
I got a bad feeling about this one.
Scene (inspirational movie): Saving Private Ryan
Action (must include): Wartime Setting
Theme (additional information): Courage
1
Title: Why We Fight
Author: floorcoaster
Rating: PG
Warnings: AU
Word Count: 498
Hermione started having trouble sleeping the night Draco Malfoy arrived at Number Twelve. After tossing and turning for hours, she would creep to the kitchen, prepare a cup of tea, and sit on the back steps.
Two months after his arrival, she discovered him on her steps, smoking. Gone was the pretentious sneer, the haunted eyes, the guarded mask. He just looked … tired, like the rest of them. Human
“That’s a nasty habit,” she blurted.
“I’m quitting,” he said mechanically.
Silence lengthened into the shadows.
“Good luck.” She abruptly turned and left.
- - - - -
Two weeks later, she again found him smoking on the porch.
“I thought you were quitting.” She sat on the steps as far from him as possible.
“I am.”
When he spoke, she noticed something shiny and slick on his cheek.
“You’re hurt,” she gasped.
He scowled. “I’m fine.”
“It looks deep. Someone should-”
“I said I’m fine,” he snapped.
After a few moments, he sighed. “Just doing my duty. It’s no more than what anyone else would do.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to be stubborn about it,” she retorted.
He didn’t hesitate. “But I get to feel categorically superior while at the same time feeling sorry for myself.”
She smiled despite herself. “Oh. In that case.”
- - - - -
It became something of a routine. She would meet him outside with a cup of tea, and they would sit in silence. Occasionally one of them would speak, and the other would listen.
After three months of this, Hermione did something bold: she prepared two cups of tea.
“Let’s trade,” she said, sitting on the step beside him. Scant inches separated them. “This cup for your bad habit.”
Draco hesitated, then took one long drag before stamping out the cigarette. “Happy?” he grumbled.
She beamed.
“Why are you being so … kind?” he whispered.
Hermione had been preparing for a question like this for weeks. “No one should have to go through this war alone.”
“I’ve never done anything to deserve it,” he muttered.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” She took a deep breath. “Thank you.”
He looked at her, bewilderment on his face.
“You’ve done something by coming here that not many of us would be willing to do,” she began. “You left your family, everything you knew, and entered a house full of people who disliked you at best. Every day you sit with us in relative peace. You fight for us, you’ve helped us tremendously, and you do it without grumbling. I just wanted you to know that someone noticed.”
Draco sat thoughtfully sipping his tea, then rested his hand on the step beside hers.
For the first time, she became aware of their proximity, and her stomach fluttered. When he covered her hand with his, butterflies exploded.
Though simple, the gesture was huge. This was what they were all fighting for; this was worth dying for. She only hoped they’d be able to explore it together in a world of peace.
2
Title: Lull
Author: bookishwench
Rating: PG
Warnings: scenes of death
Word Count: 499
The cacophony of battle had stopped for the brief respite as both sides tended their wounded, but the silence made the cries of the injured all the more obvious and terrifying.
Crabbe was dead. Draco had seen too much death in the last year, but never before had the victim been someone his own age. It reminded him that anyone could die: Father, Mother, Severus, even himself.
Even her.
That was why, in disobedience to the Dark Lord’s order for all Death Eaters to gather in the forest clearing, Draco was circling around the lake and back towards the castle. He needed to find her. As he walked, he passed Ginny Weasley, who was bending over an injured girl and speaking softly in a tone people used when hope was gone. He squinted at the victim in the dim light until he was sure it wasn’t Hermione, but it gave him no comfort.
He went on, almost swearing he passed someone in the darkness though no one was visible, until he reached the castle. Drawing a shuddering breath, he realized he was in the very heart of the enemy’s camp. He had entered a makeshift morgue. Everywhere he looked were people who would kill him if given half a chance, and his death might be a momentary balm for the pain of a lost loved one. He couldn’t blame them, but he had to keep looking.
Then he saw a cluster of red-haired people gathered around a fallen figure at the far end of the Great Hall. The Weasleys were friends of Hermione. If something had happened to her, it would explain why they were mourning in the hall of the dead.
As he drew closer, he recognized one bushy-haired figure in the sea of red, and he let out a sigh of relief. Somehow, it was as though she heard it, for he saw her deftly extricate herself from the group without drawing the least attention. In a few seconds, she was beside him.
“How dare you?” she whispered furiously as she led him to a less exposed spot. “You have no right to intrude here!”
“Who was it?” he asked.
“Fred, not that you’d care,” she said.
“I’m sorry,” he said awkwardly.
“Why are you here?” she asked, and he could tell it wasn’t just an accusation. She really wanted an answer.
“Because I needed to know,” he answered truthfully.
“Even if you got yourself killed?” she said, sounding confused.
“There’s more than one kind of death,” he said.
He looked around at the rows of dead adults and students, and the enormity of the war pressed in on him. He didn’t know what gave him the courage to place one swift kiss on her cheek, but she didn’t move, and it was enough.
“Truly, I am sorry, Hermione,” he said, “for so many things.”
He carried with him the picture of her standing perfectly still, watching him as he retreated into the darkness, waiting for dawn.
3
Title: Beware Birds Bearing Notes of Death
Author: luvscharlie
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Word Count: 492
Hermione wasn't sure how the owl found her. But, as she exited the tent, it called to her from its perch on a low branch and held out its leg to her. She removed the parchment attached.
I must see you.
That was all that the note said. A small key fell from it. She yawned and bent to retrieve it. The moment her hand closed round it, she felt a familiar tug behind her navel. She landed in a tangle of arms and legs somewhere deep in a forest. She scrambled for the wand in her pocket and was relieved to find it still there.
"I actually thought it would be more difficult than this."
She recognised the voice immediately-Malfoy-and went instantly on the defensive. "I just woke up you cheeky prat. Forgive me for not being on my best game."
"Be glad it was me. If the Dark Lord had sent you that bird, you'd be dead now."
Okay, he had a point-one she hated to concede-but a point, nonetheless. "I assume you didn't bring me out here to tell me to watch out for birds bearing notes of death." She noted the somber look that crossed his face.
"No. It wasn't supposed to be this way, you know? I've heard the stories for as long as I can remember. The Dark Lord will rise again, and we'll be ready to serve him, and all our dreams for this wizarding world will be realised. Just you wait, Draco, Father would say, just you wait. There will be riches beyond your wildest expectation. Our loyalty will be honoured above all others." He snorted in contempt. "Rubbish."
"You can still join us," she whispered. "It doesn't have to-"
"You're going to lose, Hermione. His power-it's growing faster than you can imagine. I've seen things-well, I've seen things I never hope to see again. But what chance do you have against a force that strong?"
"Is that why you brought me here?"
"I wanted to tell you to run away. To go as far and as fast as you can… before it's too late."
She noted the desperation in his voice. However misguided his deeds, they were well intentioned. "You came to save me?"
"For what little good it's done. I didn't think you'd listen. Too damned stubborn for your own good, that's what you are."
"Perhaps. But I believe in what we're fighting for. Can you say the same?"
He snorted at the ground in frustration. "I believe in surviving, Hermione. The Portkey will take you back."
She realised then, what he had risked by warning her. If his actions were discovered, he would be branded traitor and the punishment would most certainly be death. "Thank you," she whispered as he walked away.
He looked back over his shoulder. "Granger, one final piece of advice."
"Yes?"
"Beware of birds bearing notes of death."
Cheeky prat.
4
Title: Chrysalis
Author: greenschist
Rating: PG
Warning: None
Word Count: 499
Granger's magic pulls Draco from the tunnel before any traps can eviscerate him.
"Where does this lead, Malfoy?" She peers into the black passage.
He fights the Body-Bind enough to say, "Hollow oak. Forbidden Forest."
Her lip curls in disgust and she releases him, letting him drop to the floor. "Running away?"
He could tell her the truth. Wherever the Dark Lord waits during this last hour before the battle resumes, Lucius and Narcissa wait with him, and if Draco dies today, he wants to die with them. He could tell her he knows he's on the wrong side of this war, that he's trapped and scared, but their exchange is overlaid by the memory of how she writhed under his aunt's wand. Her screams echoed off the walls of his home and in his ears, and Draco figures he has lost the privilege of confiding in her, if he ever had it.
Instead he says, "We can't all be heroes. Someone has to be the villain of the piece."
Her contempt deepens, and she does something complex and wordless with her wand to seal the tunnel-something Draco's certain he couldn't break even if his mother's wand hadn't been destroyed.
She hesitates, and he sees a familiar expression cross her face. It's the expression he saw as Bellatrix raised her wand for another Cruciatus: fear, exhaustion, and the brittle edge of despair.
"Have you seen Harry?"
"Not since before." He doesn't have to say it was before the Dark Lord's ultimatum. In war, everything is before or after one horror or another. It dawns on him why she's asking. "Potter isn't going to give himself up. He's not that stupid."
Her anxiety morphs into anger in an instant. "You think it's stupid to be brave enough to sacrifice yourself for others, no matter what the cost?" Her voice rises. "What do you know? You've never done a brave thing in your life!"
I tried, he wants to say, but he's embarrassed by his sorry attempt to help her and her friends at the Manor. He wants to tell her he's not the same boy he used to be. The Dark Lord is mad and evil. Pureblood pride is an empty lie. Granger is incredible, fearsome, more powerful than Draco will ever be, and it's all right for her to be so. The chrysalis of accepting these thoughts takes all the courage he possesses. She's right. He's never been brave.
He slumps against the wall. "Don’t worry. Potter always wins. Typical Gryffindor."
She lifts her chin at that, and Draco knows she will fight to the end, even if Potter is never seen again. Typical Gryffindor, indeed. He doesn't know what impulse leads him to take her hand or why she lets him.
"Good luck, Granger. Stay safe." He squeezes her hand, wishing he had a fraction of her strength.
She looks down at their clasped hands for a moment before she says, "You too, Malfoy."
And squeezes back.
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 round 3 challenge #12
For readers, supporters, lovers of everything dramione -
Copy & Paste from the Box
Come See Draco & Hermione in Their New Movie
Click the Ticket to Read & Vote!
This Week: Saving Private Ryan
To Get this Pretty for your Journal - Spread the Drabble Love!
Come See Draco & Hermione in Their New Movie
Click the Ticket to Read & Vote!
This Week: Saving Private Ryan
Please spread the word and thanks for dropping by!