Fic: Appreciate Being a Friend
The collection for this year's Festive Fun Fest is closing tomorrow, on the 1st of January. The Rare Pair Shorts Winter Exchange is still posting on DW and on LJ. I've barely managed to craft something for these two events. Unfortunately, because I worked on an unexpectedly long fic for the 
hprarepairfest until the 19th of December, a set of prompts remained my only contribution to mini_fest.
After ten days of no words of fiction written (but most of those days spent happily on reading at hoggywartyxmas), I finally came up with a little thing based on the first two random prompts I'd got from the Rare Pair Shorts mod. (I hope it's okay I used them although I'd already resorted to asking the mods to change my prompts.) This is the most festive thing I achieved. To be sure, the pairings are as rare as anyone can expect (and have no tags in the community yet), but they are all only implied and/or unrequited.
Title: Appreciate Being a Friend
Author: PaulaMcG
Pairing: Amelia/Tonks, Tonks/Tiberius, Arthur/Molly, Amelia/Molly
Summary: In mid-December 1995, after romance has eluded her once again, Amelia Bones must host a dreary Ministry function.
Word Count: 940
Rating: G
Read here on AO3
or right here:
Appreciate Being a Friend
The bright runes swirling against the deep winter gloom on the Atrium ceiling now make you only dizzier. While you try to keep your shoulders back and your chin up, the best alternative to scanning the crowd has been to shift your gaze high above it. As the head of your department you must endure what bloody Fudge has come up with for festive fun.
On a mid-December Friday afternoon everyone, for sure, would rather leave the workplace without delay. But here they remain, the diligent witches and wizards from your three divisions, finally sipping their single drinks: fizz gone flat while they listened to you deliver the inane speech written by Fudge for all the departments' Christmas parties.
This is hardly Fudge's worst blunder. At least nobody can blame him for splurging public funds on extravagant gifts and on abundance of free spirits to the Ministry employees. Everyone will receive one present - from Secret Santa.
It's taking vexatiously long for Eric to sort out the presents stacked around the security stand. You've chosen to stay next to him instead of mingling, but you need at least to plaster a smile on your face and to nod every now and then, no matter if you're making eye contact with anyone or not.
Ah, there's Kingsley, and you find it easy enough to exchange grins with him. The two of you have got a good reason. Eric's just levitated a present to him, and he's, of course, immediately guessed it's from you, because it's the new Queen album he heard you rave about a month ago. Nobody will realise you share some secrets with him. Not that you are familiar with what else he does for the Order of the Phoenix besides only pretending to look for Sirius.
If only you could celebrate Christmas with Order members at their headquarters! You must be grateful that - just like in the first war - Dumbledore has allowed you to know who are members. And that now recently you've got to know another one among them well - even intimately, at least almost.
Your love... Yes, you continue to love her, to call her your Dorothy in your mind. Maybe soon you'll regard it as a small blessing that you can see her at the Ministry. But now that you still measure the slow torture of days, these of the rest of your life that stretches bleak ahead of you when only a week has passed after she pointed out that your relationship couldn't possibly work... Since July you had lived believing... You had lived, and you had become young yourself when touched by her brilliance, her vibrancy...
That change has cruelly not been undone. And it has brought forth this fixation on an unrequited... crush. At your respectable age - and when you hope that your plain looks and sensible style, as well as the skill and ambition that have enabled your successful career, give the impression that you are a lot older, or at least forty - you now feel like a teenager.
You mustn't act like one. Even if you fell in love seriously, you can put it behind you like a silly crush. You are able to admire Nymphadora Tonks as the Auror and Order member she is, and to appreciate being a friend to her. Yours is hardly the greatest tragedy in these troubled times, and it won't bring tears to your eyes when you now turn back to watch her among the other...
No, she's no longer over there, chatting with the other Aurors. Now you yearn to spot her, and that can't be difficult unless she's left. Today her hair's not pink, or any of the purple shades she sometimes favoured in your company, but scarlet.
And there it is, shining next to the grey head of a Wizengamot elder. You should have been prepared to see Tonks together with her special old friend, as you've addressed the members of the Wizengamot, thanking them for accepting the invitation and joining their administrative staff at the party. As Tiberius Ogden presses a kiss on her fingers, she laughs aloud and her hair stands up in fiery spikes.
The scene is suddenly obscured - to your relief, or not - by a large parcel hovering in front of you. You wish the present you receive were a bit more unobtrusive. And hope that at least neither Tonks nor Ogden has drawn your name.
"Merry Christmas, Madam Bones!" Perkins has raised his voice and guided your attention towards a small group of employees from the Improper Use of Magic Office.
Just as you catch the wrapped present in your arms and feel its comforting softness, he elbows Arthur Weasley beside him.
Perhaps you'd better not open the present now. It can be far too personal. At least you want to give such a meaning to it, because now you are sure that Arthur has asked his wife for advice, and perhaps she's been happy to knit something specifically for you.
Your fingers sneak under the edge of the wrapping paper and stroke what must be the neckline of a jumper. You can't resist taking a peek, too.
Ah! You barely manage to lift your gaze back to Arthur so as to convey some of your joy. Molly's chosen your favourite shade among the colours of lupin flowers. Mauveine, the glorious mauve aniline that was preferred by last century's powerful witches.
Such a thoughtful gift! And a reminder of how friendships continue to blossom, enduring all your relentless romantic love. Molly and Arthur's visit will make you feel less lonely this Christmas, too.
Notes: This was written on the basis of these two random prompts I was given at Festive Fun Fest: jumpers and secret santa. The Queen album released in early November 1995 was Made in Heaven.
hprarepairfest until the 19th of December, a set of prompts remained my only contribution to mini_fest.
After ten days of no words of fiction written (but most of those days spent happily on reading at hoggywartyxmas), I finally came up with a little thing based on the first two random prompts I'd got from the Rare Pair Shorts mod. (I hope it's okay I used them although I'd already resorted to asking the mods to change my prompts.) This is the most festive thing I achieved. To be sure, the pairings are as rare as anyone can expect (and have no tags in the community yet), but they are all only implied and/or unrequited.
Title: Appreciate Being a Friend
Author: PaulaMcG
Pairing: Amelia/Tonks, Tonks/Tiberius, Arthur/Molly, Amelia/Molly
Summary: In mid-December 1995, after romance has eluded her once again, Amelia Bones must host a dreary Ministry function.
Word Count: 940
Rating: G
Read here on AO3
or right here:
Appreciate Being a Friend
The bright runes swirling against the deep winter gloom on the Atrium ceiling now make you only dizzier. While you try to keep your shoulders back and your chin up, the best alternative to scanning the crowd has been to shift your gaze high above it. As the head of your department you must endure what bloody Fudge has come up with for festive fun.
On a mid-December Friday afternoon everyone, for sure, would rather leave the workplace without delay. But here they remain, the diligent witches and wizards from your three divisions, finally sipping their single drinks: fizz gone flat while they listened to you deliver the inane speech written by Fudge for all the departments' Christmas parties.
This is hardly Fudge's worst blunder. At least nobody can blame him for splurging public funds on extravagant gifts and on abundance of free spirits to the Ministry employees. Everyone will receive one present - from Secret Santa.
It's taking vexatiously long for Eric to sort out the presents stacked around the security stand. You've chosen to stay next to him instead of mingling, but you need at least to plaster a smile on your face and to nod every now and then, no matter if you're making eye contact with anyone or not.
Ah, there's Kingsley, and you find it easy enough to exchange grins with him. The two of you have got a good reason. Eric's just levitated a present to him, and he's, of course, immediately guessed it's from you, because it's the new Queen album he heard you rave about a month ago. Nobody will realise you share some secrets with him. Not that you are familiar with what else he does for the Order of the Phoenix besides only pretending to look for Sirius.
If only you could celebrate Christmas with Order members at their headquarters! You must be grateful that - just like in the first war - Dumbledore has allowed you to know who are members. And that now recently you've got to know another one among them well - even intimately, at least almost.
Your love... Yes, you continue to love her, to call her your Dorothy in your mind. Maybe soon you'll regard it as a small blessing that you can see her at the Ministry. But now that you still measure the slow torture of days, these of the rest of your life that stretches bleak ahead of you when only a week has passed after she pointed out that your relationship couldn't possibly work... Since July you had lived believing... You had lived, and you had become young yourself when touched by her brilliance, her vibrancy...
That change has cruelly not been undone. And it has brought forth this fixation on an unrequited... crush. At your respectable age - and when you hope that your plain looks and sensible style, as well as the skill and ambition that have enabled your successful career, give the impression that you are a lot older, or at least forty - you now feel like a teenager.
You mustn't act like one. Even if you fell in love seriously, you can put it behind you like a silly crush. You are able to admire Nymphadora Tonks as the Auror and Order member she is, and to appreciate being a friend to her. Yours is hardly the greatest tragedy in these troubled times, and it won't bring tears to your eyes when you now turn back to watch her among the other...
No, she's no longer over there, chatting with the other Aurors. Now you yearn to spot her, and that can't be difficult unless she's left. Today her hair's not pink, or any of the purple shades she sometimes favoured in your company, but scarlet.
And there it is, shining next to the grey head of a Wizengamot elder. You should have been prepared to see Tonks together with her special old friend, as you've addressed the members of the Wizengamot, thanking them for accepting the invitation and joining their administrative staff at the party. As Tiberius Ogden presses a kiss on her fingers, she laughs aloud and her hair stands up in fiery spikes.
The scene is suddenly obscured - to your relief, or not - by a large parcel hovering in front of you. You wish the present you receive were a bit more unobtrusive. And hope that at least neither Tonks nor Ogden has drawn your name.
"Merry Christmas, Madam Bones!" Perkins has raised his voice and guided your attention towards a small group of employees from the Improper Use of Magic Office.
Just as you catch the wrapped present in your arms and feel its comforting softness, he elbows Arthur Weasley beside him.
Perhaps you'd better not open the present now. It can be far too personal. At least you want to give such a meaning to it, because now you are sure that Arthur has asked his wife for advice, and perhaps she's been happy to knit something specifically for you.
Your fingers sneak under the edge of the wrapping paper and stroke what must be the neckline of a jumper. You can't resist taking a peek, too.
Ah! You barely manage to lift your gaze back to Arthur so as to convey some of your joy. Molly's chosen your favourite shade among the colours of lupin flowers. Mauveine, the glorious mauve aniline that was preferred by last century's powerful witches.
Such a thoughtful gift! And a reminder of how friendships continue to blossom, enduring all your relentless romantic love. Molly and Arthur's visit will make you feel less lonely this Christmas, too.
Notes: This was written on the basis of these two random prompts I was given at Festive Fun Fest: jumpers and secret santa. The Queen album released in early November 1995 was Made in Heaven.