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January 1st, 2008
07:23 pm - Day 7: Deadly Sins Part 1
Only two offerings today, but bloomin' heck did I enjoy writing these two!
Once again my good friend lycoris is running the 12 Days of Christmas challenge. This time she even has a community for it (also a mirror one on insanejournal).
Title: A Little Change
Author: Lord Localfreak
Fandom: Harry Potter
Ship: N/A
Summary: Another 'What If...?' similar to Pathways. They say it is our choices that make us who we are, but what of those events where the choice is made for us by accident or fate?
Deadly Sin: Pride
“And so,” he shouted over the noise of rustling of papers being put away and coats being shrugged on, “you might want to look over your work on Mulvey and in particular the theories of the camera, and of looking as the male gaze before your seminars. There are some questions up on the intranet site, along with the lecture slides from this lecture, if you download them and have a think about some of the questions in relation to the Mulvey and Metz readings. And that’s it.” He turned to face the computer, turning off the lecture screen and listened to the sounds of the students charging out the door chattering excitably. He put the DVD back in its box, the video which he’d used for clips in the lecture itself in another case and began to gather up his notes from the lectern. The light from the projector on the ceiling dimmed to a low red glow as it powered down and he turned off the dimmer lights and stepped out into the cold night air, clutching at his bag as he headed off across campus.
He dropped off the department equipment, such as the DVD, in at the main office and stopped off at one of the late-opening ‘greasy spoon’ sort of cafes to pick up a cup of hot tea. The Styrofoam of the cup made the tea taste funny, but it was hot and warm and had caffeine and tannin in it and those were more important than taste in this weather. He couldn’t help himself from thinking how much easier it would be if one could just wave a magic wand and have hot tea on demand, or to cast a warming charm on one’s freezing fingers and toes as one walked towards the car park.
Campus was quiet at this time, most lectures having finished an hour earlier than his last one, and the students all huddled inside their flats for warmth, and to get ready before any night-time activities would begin. He walked along the Perimeter looking at the dark silhouettes of bare tree branches and watched the lights of the streetlamps come on to emit a pale orangey glow.
“Lumos,” he muttered wistfully under his breath, and then sighed heavily and got into his car.
Apparition would be easier, his thoughts whispered to him as he began contemplating the stress of the rush hour traffic on the road, but he shook himself from these thoughts. They didn’t always bother him so persistently but…every now and then…
Well, perhaps it was the season making him melancholy. He promised himself a nice warm glass of mulled wine when he got in if he’d only stop dwelling on such thoughts. The echoing pain in his gut and ribs, along the scars that lived beneath the flesh there, throbbed, reminding him constantly of his loss
He had been a stupid, foolish child overawed by a world he’d never dreamed of. He’d gone from being the most detested orphan at the orphanage to the heir to one of the most powerful and influential bloodlines in the Wizarding World in the blink of an eye; it was enough to turn any child’s head. Magic could heal broken bones in seconds, could cure diseases that Muggles had barely developed vaccinations for; it wasn’t surprising that with the surge of adolescent power thrumming in his veins he’d thought himself Marvellous, Immortal, Invulnerable, Powerful.
And then he’d gone too far. He’d been so obsessed with making his Horcrux he hadn’t considered the actual killing and soul-splitting parts involved beyond the magical theory and his way of viewing scientific procedure as divorced from human emotion and realities.
Of course it had backfired. He hadn’t really been Powerful, Immortal, Invincible…just a scared and messed up child with his head turned by ideas of Grandeur and his unrelenting Pride.
Of course he fell. He couldn’t do it, his magic twisted inside his ribs and burned and ripped with a pain he could never describe it was so excruciating.
When he woke up he was in St Mungo’s, and they explained what he’d done. Only Dumbledore, who’d always watched him so, had known that whatever spell he’d tried was Dark, the rest assumed he’d been trying to create a new form of charm unattended- equally Prideful, equally dangerous. And his magic had snapped, burnt, twisted, ripped and gone.
He couldn’t stay in the Wizarding World without magic, but he couldn’t go back- he couldn’t go back to the way he was, to the places he’d come from- it was considered to be detrimental so he’d been shipped off to some sanatorium for sickly children. At first he’d felt like nothing, his life had ended with his magic, his passion had died.
But they’d had a projection screen there, and sometimes showed the children films. He’d helped work the old projector and somehow-the flickering light on the screen, had helped him.
He tucked his empty cup on top of his briefcase- a gift from a friend when he’d taken the position here, with his initials in silver on the handle.
T.M.R.
Smiling, comforted, he turned the key in the ignition and set off for the drive home.
Author's Notes: With a nod to a lecturer who just happens to resemble the character in question..:P
Current Music: BBC Radio 7- Hancock's Half Hour
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Comments:
OMG.
Oh, Tom.
The only reason this isn't canon is because it would have fucked the books up. I wonder how many previous would-be-voldeys this was true for...
*grins* Immense amounts of 'What If's I imagine :) :) *glomps you for reviewing*
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | January 6th, 2008 - 07:15 am |
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This was so original - and it makes so much sense.
Lee.
You wrote this for 12 days last year... why didn't I see it? It's really good! It's a pretty tough road for him to follow but I like the way it ended, and the description and the thought of him taking comfort from films is really good. Thanks for linking me to it!
*grins* thank you for reading it! I'm glad you liked it :) |
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