Yay! Even though we're doing the same tarot card, we're looking at it in different perspectives.. Love the one-shot! At least my art fits the beginning of your fic! :) Good job!
Hmm I'm not sure. I just finished reading A Little Intelligent Conversation, which is brilliant and funny, by the way, and I still think this one shows more. Hmm maybe it's in between.
I can't help but wonder if Merope had survived, how Tom's life would have turned out. If he'd had someone there who loved him and knew what love was, if "Lord Voldemort" would have ever existed.
Love, love this quote. Perhaps it is her belief in his worth that was the first step to his power. If Merope didn't believe in his worth, he might not be the Lord Voldemort we know now.
I really liked this fic. The writing is clear and concise. I always assumed Merope was dumb or couldn't speak, or both. But this fic has convinced me otherwise. If we go with Dumby's theory she love potioneered Tom, she must have some smarts up her sleeve. Smarts for the potion, smarts to trick Tom into drinking it and smarts for her survival. So yes, I can see her slowly reason her life out. I'm sure being the Gaunts' silenced and suffering daughter would of given her loads of time to contemplate her existence and Tom.
Ah, but you're forgetting something... Tom never knew his mother, or what she thought of him. Merope's belief in her own worthlessness comes directly from her father, who canonically told her so and reinforced that belief. Normal parents just don't do that. Go ahead. Ask your parents if they think you're worthless. :) They won't. The Merope of my story loves her son, so in her eyes, he's worth the world.
A continuing theme in JKR's world is child abuse, and it can't really be ignored. (She gave us four, possibly five, examples of abused kids and how they turned out--Tom, Severus, Harry, Merope, and possibly Sirius) While Merope was an adult the first time we met her in canon, she was still very much under her abusive father's thumb. You'll find that abused children can behave quite differently in the presence of their abusers.
Merope is, above all, a survivor. She just didn't survive her son's birth. I imagine that if she had, things might be a bit different in Harry's world.
"Tom never knew his mother, or what she thought of him"
Oh yeah! Heh, forgot that. Sometimes canon gets smudged with fanon. Anyway, yes we don't really know what she thought of him exactly.
"You'll find that abused children can behave quite differently in the presence of their abusers."
That makes me wonder what Merope was like once Morfin and Marvolo were gone. We know she had maladjusted social patterns (drugging and raping Tom) but her personality too might of changed a bit.
Very true. We have only one glance of her at home... Not really much to go on there. As much as I'm in complete denial of HBP, it did have a few useful things about What's-his-Name's background....
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Love, love this quote. Perhaps it is her belief in his worth that was the first step to his power. If Merope didn't believe in his worth, he might not be the Lord Voldemort we know now.
I really liked this fic. The writing is clear and concise. I always assumed Merope was dumb or couldn't speak, or both. But this fic has convinced me otherwise. If we go with Dumby's theory she love potioneered Tom, she must have some smarts up her sleeve. Smarts for the potion, smarts to trick Tom into drinking it and smarts for her survival. So yes, I can see her slowly reason her life out. I'm sure being the Gaunts' silenced and suffering daughter would of given her loads of time to contemplate her existence and Tom.
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A continuing theme in JKR's world is child abuse, and it can't really be ignored. (She gave us four, possibly five, examples of abused kids and how they turned out--Tom, Severus, Harry, Merope, and possibly Sirius) While Merope was an adult the first time we met her in canon, she was still very much under her abusive father's thumb. You'll find that abused children can behave quite differently in the presence of their abusers.
Merope is, above all, a survivor. She just didn't survive her son's birth. I imagine that if she had, things might be a bit different in Harry's world.
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Oh yeah! Heh, forgot that. Sometimes canon gets smudged with fanon. Anyway, yes we don't really know what she thought of him exactly.
"You'll find that abused children can behave quite differently in the presence of their abusers."
That makes me wonder what Merope was like once Morfin and Marvolo were gone. We know she had maladjusted social patterns (drugging and raping Tom) but her personality too might of changed a bit.
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