Winter of Discontent, Narcissa, PG

[aliciadances]

Title: Winter of Discontent
Author: aliciadances
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: PG
Warnings: Mild swearing
Prompt: 33) It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality. -- Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), English novelist and essayist
Summary: "Her mother talks as if Regulus has gone somewhere on holiday, but fear feels like an icy hand on the back of her neck." Set

Comments

[featherxquill]

Oh, this is beautiful and sad. You weave such a wonderful picture of how twisted the Black family is.

[aliciadances]

Thank you! There's so much material just waiting where the Blacks are concerned :)

Winter of Discontent

[catsintheattic]

That was such a powerful telling of the events from Narcissa's POV. I liked how you interwove her feelings of guilt with her rising desperation. The sensual details of touch and smell, like for example Snape's apothecary smell or the smoking tapestry, added so much to the desolate atmosphere. I liked how all the Death Eaters were so lost and confused, no one really on top of things.

Re: Winter of Discontent

[aliciadances]

Wow, thank you so much :) Since Sirius gives the initial story to Harry that he tried to back out of the DEs and died, I always wondered how the actual Death Eaters felt about that and thus assumed that confusion must have been plenty. Especially since he was the last Black heir... not just a goon

[elvenpiratelady]

Ouch. Narcissa and Regulus seem to understand each other better than anyone else, but it's still not enough to keep the family together. The lines in the brackets are really effective as she wonders what she could have done to stop him. My favourite part I think was when she came across Sirius; they blamed each other and their respective sides for causing Regulus to disappear when Reg himself wasn't really one or the other. And it's telling that the cracks in the family were there from when they were all children - Regulus talking about Sirius being closer to James than him is just heart-wrenching. So Narcissa and Reg are both in the middle ground between breaking away from the Black family and staying with it; I'm glad it worked better for her than him.

(Also, while I know this is meant to be a gen ficathon, I like the little details about Narcissa and Lucius together - they're reserved because that's how they were both brought up, but they do care for each other.)

[aliciadances]

Aww, thank you! I always pictured Regulus and Narcissa as close by default--babies have to stick together and her complete panic with Draco has a some more history this way. I'm so glad you liked the part with Sirius!

:)) And that was exactly what I was hoping to convey with the little bit of their relationship showed. Thank you!

[rthstewart]

Very nicely done. I very much enjoyed the divisions between Black and Malfoy, how very different they are, and the sense of the despairing space the characters occupy -- the mad laughter, the rain, the gray, the water, and scents. Thank you!

[aliciadances]

Thank you :) I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

[hungrytiger11]

Gorgeous. I love the closer look at Narcissa and the structure of the story.

[aliciadances]

Thank you so much :)