Amanuensis ([info]amanuensis1) wrote,
2005-09-05 22:36:00
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  • Mood: misty
  • Music: Loreena McKennitt, "The Wild Swans"

FICLET: Left Unfinished (Harry/Draco, G, ~600 words)

Title: Left Unfinished
Author: Amanuensis
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Rating: G
Category: Angsty Schmoop
For [info]the_eros_affair's sex cheque finale premise: I promise to marry you.
A/N: Thanks to [info]bookshop for giving all of us a chance on this one. Am sucker for weddings.




"Seven years ago you could have had this," she grumbled, wincing as she forced her arthritic knees to bend, setting herself in a chair. "I'd have been seven years younger. You two have no respect for the elderly."

"Special dispensations are for cowards," Harry grinned, his spectral shape twirling about her and her chair in an equally disrespectful manner. "You're so smug about it you have to pretend to be annoyed with us."

Hermione could not help but take a sober tone. "And if I'd died before the universal law went through?"

Draco had nothing of her hair free to tweak as he once used to, bound as it was beneath her sober witch's wimple, and so he merely blew her a raspberry--dry, of course. One of the advantages to being teased by someone ectoplasmic. "Then you'd have been the first ghost on the ministry's council. You wouldn't have gone on without that seen to."

"He's right, you know. We'd nothing to worry about." It meant a lot to her that Harry kept looking at her with his next words, rather than at Draco. "We didn't want to be granted an exception because we're war heroes or what have you. We wanted it for all ghosts."

"And you weren't about to let Harry down, silly bint. At least you came up with a better acronym for your efforts than S.P.E.W. this time."

"I was fourteen," she protested.

"You're still as beautiful as you were then," Harry said, and tears pricked her eyes. They could say things like that, frozen in ghostly semblance at the ages of twenty.

"And besides," Draco said, pretending to be petulant, "you're the one who's made us wait six days after the law went into effect. What was so important we couldn't be the first posthumous wedding on the books, I ask you?"

She blinked back the tears, fetched her handbag from the table, and took out the drawstring pouch, smiling. "This. Here, open it."

Draco had opened his mouth to say something--likely and how are we supposed to do that or somesuch but was forestalled by Harry trustingly taking the pouch. Draco closed his mouth as he saw its spectral sparkle. The contents clinked against each other.

None of them spoke for a time once Harry had the rings on his palm. At last, Harry said, "You made them," and his voice was as choked as Hermione knew her own would be if she spoke, so she had to nod instead.

Draco bit his lips before he said, in a deceptively neutral tone, "Goody-goody Granger, dealing in necromantic magic. Never thought I'd live to see the day. Of course, I didn't, did I." But he ducked his head away so that she couldn't see his face, before saying, "So can we get on with it? This bloke owes me a promise sixty-six years overdue." There was a catch in his voice like an overtight harpstring.

They got on with it. Hermione served as both officiant and witness, there being none else they wanted present for this moment. No press, no spectacle--nothing but the shades of two people who had refused to rest until they had this, and the one person left alive who understood them better than anyone.

She had not said good-bye, had not asked them to say it, had not begged them to stay just a little longer. Could not. When the last words of the ceremony were spoken she knew they would be gone at last, not willfully or selfishly but ineluctably, their needs within the world of the living at last complete.


-fin
Tags: fic

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  • 50 comments

[info]zedmeister

September 6 2005, 03:04:38 UTC 6 years ago

Oh God, you made me cry.

[info]amanuensis1

September 6 2005, 03:06:49 UTC 6 years ago

*hugs you* Thank you, dearheart.

[info]kaptainsnot

September 6 2005, 03:05:16 UTC 6 years ago

Aw man. Lovely concept -- just bitter enough, perfectly sweet. Beautiful.

[info]amanuensis1

September 6 2005, 03:08:52 UTC 6 years ago

Sometimes I am much with the schmoop. Believe it or not. ^_^

[info]_hannelore

September 6 2005, 03:19:33 UTC 6 years ago

their needs within the world of the living at last complete.

You had to have it be H/D, didn't you? Evil, just...

*cough*

oh hell, it's amazing. You rock, par the usual. *humble awe*

[info]amanuensis1

September 6 2005, 14:38:39 UTC 6 years ago

Well, of course it was H/D; those were the community requirements, hee! You're awesome. Thank you so much.

[info]catrinella

September 6 2005, 03:21:57 UTC 6 years ago

Aw, geez. And Draco was crying and everything.

*sniff*

[info]amanuensis1

September 6 2005, 14:42:32 UTC 6 years ago

The snide little critter. I love doing that to him!

[info]pocketroxy

September 6 2005, 06:57:43 UTC 6 years ago

This was very hot, and set in Draco's bedroom with all the angst that goes with it - lovely!

[info]amanuensis1

September 6 2005, 14:47:07 UTC 6 years ago

He had to do something to make that bedroom less unnerving, poor kid. Thank you so much!

[info]amanuensis1

6 years ago

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[info]pocketroxy

6 years ago

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[info]djin7

September 6 2005, 07:00:19 UTC 6 years ago

K. That was really sad.

Damn you. And thank you, too.

[info]amanuensis1

September 6 2005, 14:47:58 UTC 6 years ago

I understand and take that as a deep compliment. ^_^ *hugs you*

[info]hilarita

September 6 2005, 08:03:21 UTC 6 years ago

Unusual. And very good. And moving. *sniffle*

[info]amanuensis1

September 6 2005, 14:48:41 UTC 6 years ago

I go all gooey for weddings. ^_^

[info]sorion

September 6 2005, 10:31:29 UTC 6 years ago

Damn... Now, that was beautiful! I loved it *sniffles*

[info]amanuensis1

September 6 2005, 14:58:42 UTC 6 years ago

Aw, thank you for the sniffles, if you know what I mean! ^_^

[info]kennahijja

September 6 2005, 10:33:49 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, that was beautiful. So sad it made me wipe away a few tears, but utterly beautiful. You captured the longing there perfectly - the 'overtight harpstring', Harry's gentle affection, Draco being oh-so-careful to sound casual...

And while it's as close to perfect as writing can get, I love the meta aspect - it says more, with more impact, than several dozen pro gay marriage essays ever could. You're wonderful. And this is too.

[info]amanuensis1

September 6 2005, 15:01:23 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, thank you so much! I try to remember that essays are often what is called for, but that fic is often a better medium. And more fun. Except that it still has to be a story. Can't have "MORAL" all over it. "If you want to send a message, use Western Union," as someone clever has said.

[info]lilka

September 6 2005, 10:52:22 UTC 6 years ago

This was fantastic, and I don't even like H/D. And wow, your Hermione rocks.

[info]amanuensis1

September 6 2005, 15:02:46 UTC 6 years ago

Hee, Hermione is like built-in author insert, in this fandom! Thank you SO much.

[info]ariadneelda

September 6 2005, 11:36:00 UTC 6 years ago

You know, you're one of the few people that can make me read things I wouldn't normally read and love them. I have to admit I am not a sucker for weddings but this was so unusual and wonderful and moving it made me cry. So bittersweet, happy but sad at the same time. What an amazing little ficlet. Brilliant concept. *sniffle*

[info]amanuensis1

September 6 2005, 15:03:49 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, you dear creature. You take my silly schmoopy efforts and make them almost...legit, you know? *hugs you hard, for own sake even more than yours*

[info]josanpq

September 6 2005, 21:00:19 UTC 6 years ago

OMG! Where's the tissue box? You should provide virtual tissues while I hunt down the real ones.

[info]amanuensis1

September 6 2005, 22:27:20 UTC 6 years ago

You are too nifty. I shall remedy this lack of virtual tissues immediately! *hugs*

[info]lirren

September 7 2005, 00:36:25 UTC 6 years ago

I love it. And it was just bitter enough to be lovely rather than fluffy. Of course, what else should I expect from you? You're one of the queens of my fanfiction world. Who else could take a subject that should be rife with cloying sweetness and turn it instead into something achingly beautiful. Excellent work, my dear. Just wonderful.

[info]alyndra

September 10 2005, 17:42:55 UTC 6 years ago

*sporfles at icon*

[info]amanuensis1

6 years ago

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[info]lirren

6 years ago

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[info]aiji_yuywell

September 7 2005, 11:25:54 UTC 6 years ago

"...This bloke owes me a promise sixty-six years overdue."
*sniffle* How like him to mention such things. *blows nose* It was so beautiful. I love when love surpasses all odds. I'm such a sucker for romance.

[info]amanuensis1

September 11 2005, 16:07:44 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, me too, dear one, me too. *hugs*

[info]smaragdgrun

September 8 2005, 15:37:24 UTC 6 years ago

Beautiful, sniffly, what they said... and what was the acronym?!?

[info]amanuensis1

September 11 2005, 16:09:18 UTC 6 years ago

Oh! I don't have one made up; it seemed that it would be too expository for Draco to say it, not like real speech. So I stopped trying to invent one as soon as I realized it wouldn't get said in the story. ^_^

[info]alyndra

September 10 2005, 17:44:11 UTC 6 years ago

Sweet. Original. Don't usually like the pairing, but this was really good. :))

[info]amanuensis1

September 11 2005, 16:09:53 UTC 6 years ago

Aw, thank you so much!

[info]sobriquet_99

September 11 2005, 21:30:11 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, this is just so damn sweet. And sad. And I don't think I'm wrong to detect an undertone of H/Hr.

"... Never thought I'd live to see the day. Of course, I didn't, did I." And I can see the film version of the last two paragraphs, clear as day.

Gorgeous.

[info]amanuensis1

September 11 2005, 22:24:53 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, the film version! This shot that pans up, as Hermione begins to speak, and then it's overhead, and Hermione's voice is too faint to be heard under the swellng music, and the shot starts this slow overhead one-eighty, coming down focused onto their hands--and Harry and Draco's are clasped, and resting lightly in hers--and H & D's hands start to mist, and they dissolve as the music swells, and the shot pulls back and swivels so we can see Hermione's face, and that she's alone in the room.

[info]adrianabr

September 18 2005, 04:03:37 UTC 6 years ago

It was beautiful. And kinda of sad too. Now I need some time to recover, probably reading something very slashy about these boys. Well done job, girl!

[info]amanuensis1

September 18 2005, 11:52:44 UTC 6 years ago

Go find something cheery and slashy to follow, yay! Thank you so much for this. ^_^

[info]fabularasa

September 19 2005, 07:38:37 UTC 6 years ago

. . .their needs within the world of the living at last complete.

There it is. The perfect iambic pentameter of the last phrase, the rhythm jarred off-center deliberately, wonderfully, perfectly, by that lame-legged anapest "of the living" inserted so carefully, underlining the promise of another world, the one that isn't the province of the living. And I'll wager your brain didn't even know it'd done that, so brain, take a bow.

Also: take note, all you earnest writers (like me!) of 35,000 word sagas. Behold how effortlessly your lumbering self-important plots can be pared to eighteen elegant lines of dialogue.

[info]amanuensis1

September 20 2005, 02:05:09 UTC 6 years ago

eighteen elegant lines of dialogue.

She counted. *melts*

[info]smoo_001

September 20 2005, 19:02:45 UTC 6 years ago

oh sheer brilliance.

and i like the nod you gave to the current politics surrounding the issue as well.

[info]amanuensis1

September 20 2005, 19:13:41 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, thank you! It was one of those things that felt better reflected in fic than lectured about in essays. ^_^

[info]arisingstarlet

July 8 2006, 06:41:02 UTC 5 years ago

i read this when it was included in the 'i promise' part of the eros affair. i didint know it was you! i just thought i would comment and tell you that i still think about this segment of it to this day because its just beautiful.

[info]amanuensis1

July 8 2006, 19:41:23 UTC 5 years ago

That's SO sweet of you! Seriously, what a day-maker. Thank you so much. *hugs*

[info]star_faerie

April 22 2007, 03:20:05 UTC 5 years ago

I just wanted to say that I thought this piece was really beautiful. Heart wrenchingly so. I loved the way you captured the three of them; it was done masterfully :)

[info]amanuensis1

April 25 2007, 12:54:46 UTC 5 years ago

Oh, you are so sweet, thank you so much! *hugs*

[info]sisika

October 28 2008, 15:52:23 UTC 3 years ago

Oh! This was heartbreaking, in a good way. And I can't even be mad at you for making the boys and I cry!

You're just too good. :)

*sniffs*

[info]amanuensis1

October 28 2008, 16:00:39 UTC 3 years ago

You sweetheart, thank you! I've always has a soft-spot for this kind of angst-fluff. ^_^
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