- love for the elegantly homicidal -

[reenka]

It's funny to read two Harry-- er, and-- Draco fics dealing with the theme of spying and intrigue in the same night-- one angst, one fluff. One of them worked for me like a 4th of July firework, and that's cupiscent's `Firebrand', which is inventive, fast-paced, gritty and gripping. The thing is, it doesn't matter how far-fetched the scenario is if one develops one's core idea to the max, and Dee really does that with gorgeous rigor in a tight, effective short story.

I really love it when I read something different in H/D which avoids sacrificing characterization for ease of realization of the scenario and realistic character dynamics for romance, as well as having a fascinating plot. I can't help but love a story which features strong characters, less than nice characters-- and not ones who're 'nice' or 'not nice' divided along their roles in the story (i.e., the 'good guys' are nice while the 'bad guys' suck). It's just so tempting to make your favorite character into a beautiful misunderstood martyr, I know, but if you buck that impulse and write people as they honestly are, the result is often a thing of true beauty.

Dee's fic is vivid, unapologetic, fierce and meaty. It makes me happy to be a shipper-- someone who wants to see these two make it together because they need each other, against all odds, rather than is willing to believe in some easy fix-- much more than any shmoopy lovey-dovey romance with remorseful Draco and charitable Harry (who make sweet & passionate boylurve at first opportunity) ever could. Because while this scenario isn't necessarily any more likely than the one where Draco 'repents', one -could- project our boys as they are into it, without much need for a lobotomy. Always a good thing.

...Let's just say that the idea of Draco Malfoy in Vladivostok, wearing a grey sweater and holding an AK-47 isn't one I'll want to forget anytime soon. There's just something oddly fitting about renegade!Draco in Siberia. There is!! Also, this greeting by said sweater-wearing person--

"Hello, Potter," Draco Malfoy says. "Fancy meeting you here."

-- made me clap my hands in glee, which is a first. I just really love Draco sometimes. I just do. But especially when he's going for elegantly homicidal. <333 And I love them together, not even in a romantic sense, but in terms of bringing them into contact because they -matter- to each other-- whatever happens, whether they'd admit it or not, whether they realize it or not, they matter. This whole story is a vodka shot-- smooth and harsh and it burns all the way to your heart with seemingly effortless precision.

I do want to see 'what happens' later on, but I don't need to. The fic is more of an image-- a feeling-- a taste at the back of my tongue. Bitter, smooth, gleaming hard like steel and glitter-dry like dust in the sun.

EDIT - Incidentally, cupiscent's post on writing angstfic was rather helpful and inspiring, but I especially loved the bit about the writer not intending angst to make the reader cry but rather to strand them in helplessness or render them incapable of expressing an excess of seething emotion. That is rather what I've noticed about great tragedy, as well. Ahahaha, resolution is for wimps!! ;D

Comments

[cellia.livejournal.com]

Whoo! Thanks for the rec. I really liked Dee's fic, but got like *no* HD or HDish vibes off it at all. I'd almost say that Ginny loomed the largest.

It's just so tempting to make your favorite character into a beautiful misunderstood martyr,

Hm, this actually made me rethink the fic's portrayals a bit. Draco wasn't *quite* this in Firebrand, it was more... all his prejudices' solid bases were justified and all the nastier aspects were ignored (it would have been nice to see a parallel drawn in the wizarding and muggle prejudices, I think, just a sentence or adjective or look or something. I think she did do well in showing the stifling bureaucracy running through both. And how natural it was to intertwine)

I could also make weenie arguments about the likelihood of Harry and Hermione doing what they did, but really, I feel like good counter-arguments could also be brought to bear. And the *story* was so powerful in and of itself that it swept away almost all my resistance as I read.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Well, it's just that I -wanted- them to get together-- which is all me. This happens whenever I read a fic which has a strong 'image' of both of them (to me), so I like their characterizations enough (and whatever their interaction is in the fic) to want to see them make it together. I don't think(?) I explicitly said it was H/D, right :> They didn't spend much space within the fic talking or interacting-- but I still feel like they have potential, I guess, moreso than in some established relationship fics. I mean, Ginny loomed, yeah, but she's dead, y'know~:))

I actually did do a double-take at myself when I wrote that line, too. I realize Draco was sleek & attractive in his dark-rebel sort of way (as was Snape, and even Pansy). Really, even though it was Harry pov, Harry was the least 'likable' character (for me) 'cause what he did was so distasteful to me-- and yeah I don't think he'd do it, but since he -did-, even though nothing would turn me off him, I was still disappointed in him, y'know? Like yeah, the story swept away my resistence... and like I sort of said, it might be a far-out unlikely premise, but it works with what it takes as a given in a rigorous way. When I said it wasn't anymore likely than the spyfic with 'redeemed' Draco, I meant that precise thing-- I don't think they'd do what they did. But then, neither would Draco Malfoy do what he did in Olivia's fic.

Like, the fic is... not quite finished-feeling and Draco's... not that well detailed/painted, partly 'cause it's not his story, precisely... and I'm usually semi-dissatisfied with Dee's Draco, anyway, so maybe that's for the best ^^;; It's not school!Draco, to be sure, but then, neither is it school!Harry or Ginny or Pansy. Snape was great, though, I thought.

[cellia.livejournal.com]

Oh Snape was mucho with the coolness. The detail about his dark mark worked into a tattoo was the one that stuck with me the most. And I found myself thinking the most about Ginny. I think I have a weakness for a character-shaped hole in a story, though, and what it does to the other characters (like in circe_tigana's "Revisionism" series).

Much agreement with your thoughts on Harry. For some authors, I just mentally adjust myself to the idea that they will handle certain characters certain ways (Draco really cool, Harry really a quivering innocent etc etc). Then it's just a matter of which interpretations I can live with and enjoy, OOC or maybe-this-is-possible-after-character-extrapolation aside. For example, quivering innocent Harry is ok by me, not because I think it's always the best characterization, but because it pushes my buttons. :D

Then again, some really skilled authors handle characters in ways that just set my teeth on edge, and I just have to stop reading. Their skill only twists the knife of their oogy idea that much deeper.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I think I was scarred by extreme badness in uke!Harry fics-- like Vinagrette's with the weepy!Harry-who's-desperate-for-Draco's-approval. That sort of still scares me ><;;; It's like, innocent doesn't mean wussy. I hate wussies. DIE WUSSIES DIE. GAR. *bares teeth* Okay, no, not really, but that was fun. :>

I know about the skill & the oogy idea (AHAHAH OOGY!!)
...Man. But I'm a whore for style so I read it anyway -.-