Ficlets: Firefly & Harry Potter.
Huh, look what I just found on my hard drive, from that meme back in September.
For obsession_inc, Five things Kaylee fixed on Serenity that she never mentioned to Mal. (Post-movie.)
1. Jayne’s second-biggest gun, which Mal was always telling him not to bring on jobs because it tended to jam at the worst possible times. Which, granted, was true enough, but Jayne looked so morose when it stopped working, and you never knew when a wide-range spray of grapeshot would come in handy.
2. The ion capacitor when it snapped, because if Mal knew he’d insist they replace it next time they had extra coin, and she wanted to use it for one of the newer artificial-grav regulators. That was tech the likes of which she hadn’t ever got her hands on before, and she knew she could keep anything else from wearing out for another six months, with enough luck and extra wire.
3. The power strip near her cabin’s door looked as if it hadn’t seen working use in twenty years, caked with rust and riddled with worn wiring. The hour fixing it was more than worth it for Mal’s expression when he saw the fairy lights strung up ‘round her door. “Pretty, ain’t it?” she said. He rolled his eyes. She grinned.
4. “Say you’re not going away again, ‘Nara,” she said, kicking her heels against the cabinet, as Inara fussed with the kitchen wash unit. Inara smiled a little as she glanced up. “I’ve missed you too,” she said, and Kaylee shook her head. “Not just me,” she said, “Nothing’s been the same since you left. Captain stomps around like someone kicked his puppy and he won’t even let us talk about renting out your old shuttle.” Inara didn’t say anything for a long moment and Kaylee thought maybe that was the end of it, but after a minute she looked over, and Kaylee grinned at her expression. “Really?” said Inara.
5. The second day they got back on Serenity she waited ‘til everyone was elsewhere, looking for supplies or hammering the worst dents in the hull back into shape, like she’d said they should. The bridge was dim and the floor a little cockeyed so she had to prop her toolbox against the base of the pilot’s chair to keep it from sliding away. The seat itself was still mangled, the worn sheepskin of the back gashed and bloody. It was quick work to get it off, and quicker work to bundle it away into recycling. The new upholstery didn’t quite match the color of the bottom bit of the seat, but maybe no one would notice.
For tangleofthorns, Five laws Hermione Granger broke.
1. Even with Dumbledore’s blessing, she always felt faintly guilty every time she used the Time Turner to make sure she attended all her classes; surely this wasn’t Ministry-regulated use? Conversely, when she was very definitely breaking a major tenet of wizarding law to save Buckbeack and rescue Sirius she felt nothing at all, just single-minded focus, adrenaline and the weight of the Time Turner against her chest, ticking their extra time away.
2. The summer weeks she spent at the Burrow she usually woke up before Ginny or any of the boys. She would sit in the kitchen and talk to Mrs. Weasley and help set the table. One morning Molly ran out to the garage to tell her husband he’d be late for work if he didn’t Floo out right away, and left her wand sitting on the table, just by Hermione’s hand. Hermione hadn’t cast a single spell in almost two months, as per the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, so how did she know she even still could? And the porridge was burning. Her heart was pounding as she cast the Agitate, but Molly didn’t seem to notice anything when she came back. And her magic still worked perfectly.
3. Disfigurement curses so unbreakable that a girl would still be wearing them half a year later don’t get devised with purely legal magic. Hermione nearly felt badly when she saw Marietta Edgecombe at the beginning of sixth year, SNEAK written out faintly across her face, but later that week she was in the toilets and heard Marietta complaining to her friend that she had to use filthy Muggle makeup to cover up, and she stopped feeling guilty. Anyone responsible for unseating Dumbledore in favor of Dolores Umbridge deserved anything she got. She didn’t let herself think about why they’d thought it was Dumbledore’s idea, his name in her handwriting at the top of the roster.
4. Everyone always said that most people couldn’t cast an Unforgivable Curse on their first try. It required not only discipline and training, but calling on dark, powerful emotions, but when the time came Hermione didn’t hesitate and the spell sprang out of her wand as easily as anything.
5. By the time they come for her under the Harboring of Magical Creatures Act she has upward of thirty House Elves, two werewolves and a troll hiding on the property. The charges against her include domestic terrorism and conspiracy to overthrow the Ministry, by which they mean Minister of Magic Lucius Malfoy. The Daily Prophet prints her picture next to a montage of recent fires, explosions and localized weather disturbances throughout the country and she pleads guilty to every charge with her head high.
For obsession_inc, Five things Kaylee fixed on Serenity that she never mentioned to Mal. (Post-movie.)
1. Jayne’s second-biggest gun, which Mal was always telling him not to bring on jobs because it tended to jam at the worst possible times. Which, granted, was true enough, but Jayne looked so morose when it stopped working, and you never knew when a wide-range spray of grapeshot would come in handy.
2. The ion capacitor when it snapped, because if Mal knew he’d insist they replace it next time they had extra coin, and she wanted to use it for one of the newer artificial-grav regulators. That was tech the likes of which she hadn’t ever got her hands on before, and she knew she could keep anything else from wearing out for another six months, with enough luck and extra wire.
3. The power strip near her cabin’s door looked as if it hadn’t seen working use in twenty years, caked with rust and riddled with worn wiring. The hour fixing it was more than worth it for Mal’s expression when he saw the fairy lights strung up ‘round her door. “Pretty, ain’t it?” she said. He rolled his eyes. She grinned.
4. “Say you’re not going away again, ‘Nara,” she said, kicking her heels against the cabinet, as Inara fussed with the kitchen wash unit. Inara smiled a little as she glanced up. “I’ve missed you too,” she said, and Kaylee shook her head. “Not just me,” she said, “Nothing’s been the same since you left. Captain stomps around like someone kicked his puppy and he won’t even let us talk about renting out your old shuttle.” Inara didn’t say anything for a long moment and Kaylee thought maybe that was the end of it, but after a minute she looked over, and Kaylee grinned at her expression. “Really?” said Inara.
5. The second day they got back on Serenity she waited ‘til everyone was elsewhere, looking for supplies or hammering the worst dents in the hull back into shape, like she’d said they should. The bridge was dim and the floor a little cockeyed so she had to prop her toolbox against the base of the pilot’s chair to keep it from sliding away. The seat itself was still mangled, the worn sheepskin of the back gashed and bloody. It was quick work to get it off, and quicker work to bundle it away into recycling. The new upholstery didn’t quite match the color of the bottom bit of the seat, but maybe no one would notice.
For tangleofthorns, Five laws Hermione Granger broke.
1. Even with Dumbledore’s blessing, she always felt faintly guilty every time she used the Time Turner to make sure she attended all her classes; surely this wasn’t Ministry-regulated use? Conversely, when she was very definitely breaking a major tenet of wizarding law to save Buckbeack and rescue Sirius she felt nothing at all, just single-minded focus, adrenaline and the weight of the Time Turner against her chest, ticking their extra time away.
2. The summer weeks she spent at the Burrow she usually woke up before Ginny or any of the boys. She would sit in the kitchen and talk to Mrs. Weasley and help set the table. One morning Molly ran out to the garage to tell her husband he’d be late for work if he didn’t Floo out right away, and left her wand sitting on the table, just by Hermione’s hand. Hermione hadn’t cast a single spell in almost two months, as per the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, so how did she know she even still could? And the porridge was burning. Her heart was pounding as she cast the Agitate, but Molly didn’t seem to notice anything when she came back. And her magic still worked perfectly.
3. Disfigurement curses so unbreakable that a girl would still be wearing them half a year later don’t get devised with purely legal magic. Hermione nearly felt badly when she saw Marietta Edgecombe at the beginning of sixth year, SNEAK written out faintly across her face, but later that week she was in the toilets and heard Marietta complaining to her friend that she had to use filthy Muggle makeup to cover up, and she stopped feeling guilty. Anyone responsible for unseating Dumbledore in favor of Dolores Umbridge deserved anything she got. She didn’t let herself think about why they’d thought it was Dumbledore’s idea, his name in her handwriting at the top of the roster.
4. Everyone always said that most people couldn’t cast an Unforgivable Curse on their first try. It required not only discipline and training, but calling on dark, powerful emotions, but when the time came Hermione didn’t hesitate and the spell sprang out of her wand as easily as anything.
5. By the time they come for her under the Harboring of Magical Creatures Act she has upward of thirty House Elves, two werewolves and a troll hiding on the property. The charges against her include domestic terrorism and conspiracy to overthrow the Ministry, by which they mean Minister of Magic Lucius Malfoy. The Daily Prophet prints her picture next to a montage of recent fires, explosions and localized weather disturbances throughout the country and she pleads guilty to every charge with her head high.