Birthdayfic: "Children of War" [Neville, Millicent, gen, PG-13]

[kennahijja]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
LAZY_NEUTRINO!
Title: Children of War
Character(s): Neville, Millicent
Rating: PG-13
Warning(s): references to torture
Summary: “Yeah, well, I couldn’t ask people to go through what Michael did, so we dropped those kinds of stunts. (Neville Longbottom, Deathly Hallows)
Author's Note: Happy Birthday, dearest lazy_neutrino! I hope the coming year will be

Comments

[tuawahine]

Interesting look at the Slytherin view of things. And very interesting point about Aurors under Crouch, I hadn't thought about that before.

[kennahijja]

I hadn't intended to, well, undermine Neville's personal myths in his, but it sort of happened :). Glad you found it interesting.

[kellychambliss]

This is really good; I love stories that make us look at something other than the Gryffindor party line (or at least make us see that line in a new way). You complicate the HP moral universe very nicely here, and both Neville and Millicent are strongly in character.

[kennahijja]

I'm glad Neville worked for you - it was my first time writing him, and he's not one of my favourite characters. And yay for greying moral universes! It's among the most fun things in life ;). Thank you!

Children of War

[catsintheattic]

This is a brilliant comparison between Gryffindor and Slytherin. "And get ourselves in trouble for your stupidity? Why? What do we owe you?". Exactly. *nods* And yet the Slytherins help, because logic and self-protection demand it, and because at least some of them don't like what they have to do. They would never openly sacrifice themselves, but that doesn't mean that they don't care about their families and friends

Re: Children of War

[kennahijja]

I'm so happy you liked it, and the ending in particular. As my poor beta knows, I wibbled over that quite a bit.

Gryffindor/Slytherin differences and moral shades of grey are themes I seem to keep coming back to... Again, thanks for the lovely comment, and I'm glad my first try to write Neville wasn't too horrid :).

[daiseechain]

This is great. The biggest problem I have with the HP series as a whole is that we never got to see what was happening at Hogwarts during that period of the Trio blundering round in the forest.

You've made some interesting points about the backgrounds and motivations of several characters here which made me think a bit more about them. And I love that Neville is in denial that he's actually leading the army now - that the thought of having responsibility for it seems to scare him more than just running it does.

Lovely writing.

[kennahijja]

Thanks so much! You're so right that it's a pity we don't see more of 7th year Hogwarts (I remember during first reading at Sectus, there were quite a few people who went all 'this is like Amanuensis' 'And Just Plain Wrong' (just without the trio) playing in the background, *g*).

I think Neville is the type who'd think of himself just standing in for Harry until he gets back :).

[lazy_neutrino]

You are a darling.

"And if you dumb bastards wouldn't provoke the Carrows every step of the way, they wouldn't have made him curse you."

This is a conversation that every Gryffindor and every Slytherin need to have, because we only see that one Gryffindor point of view in the books. Millicent makes some fantastic points - especially about the Aurors and about the consequences even for pureblood families of disobedience - but what I admire most of all is that you've effortlessly shown us a very different way of looking at the world. That whole 'What's in it for us, if we get involved?' is just not something that Gryffindors have. And your Millicent makes complete sense.

And just thank you, thank you so much! I have been feeling very out of things. It's like sitting outside a house where a party is going on, listening to the music. And now I am happy :) *hugs you*

[kennahijja]

Aw, MIAOW to you too, and I hope you had a nice day! I felt almost bad giving Millicent all of the good points - show of favouritism there, I guess ;).

I'm very happy that it made you happy, and am really looking forward to you 'coming inside' again :). *snuggles and skritches to the beautiful*