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small_gifts2017-12-04 08:59 am
ocelotting) wrote in small_gifts2017-12-04 08:59 am
Organized Winged Letter Carriers’ Union for Dustmouth
(For subject line: Fic: Organized Winged Letter Carriers’ Union for Dustmouth
Title: Organised Winged Letter Carriers’ Union
Author:ocelotting
Recipient:dustmouth
Rating: Gen
Contents or warnings (highlight to view): *NONE*
Word count: 1000
Summary: Lies, good and bad
There’s an old saying ‘When owls strike, rumours fly.’ Take away proper news, take away the chance to check and counter check and lies become as good as truth - better if the liar is good at stories.
There’s another saying almost as old that only Fawkes remembers now: ‘Watch out when there’s no owls about.’
Lies are a problem at Hogwarts. Up there in the mapless wizard-highlands, with Apparition impossible and damn few floo-adapted fireplaces and even Hogsmeade out of bounds most of the time, with hundreds of teenagers living on top of each other and half of them having grown up thinking that magic was impossible only to find that it ran in their blood; lies flourish.
So it was unlucky that owls went on strike at the start of sixth year, when Remus still wasn’t talking to Sirius and Snape was looking everywhere for a way to get back at them both - Sirius for having tried to murder him, Remus for having been the murder weapon.
He couldn’t get revenge with the truth. Dumbledore had made that clear - snitch on Remus being a werewolf and Snape could wave Hogwarts goodbye with a broken wand. Snitch on Sirius and the werewolf story would come out anyway. A lie, though. A lie had promise.
Snape waited for the night of the full moon and stole Malvolio Fiendfyre’s book on cursed potions from the library - one of only three books whose taking merited an automatic expulsion. He read it and memorised it (the Wolfsbane potion was on page 19) and when the moon set he threw the book into the lake.
In the morning the library was wreathed in ‘Danger Do Not Cross’ red tape and lessons were replaced with lectures on the danger and wickedness of stealing THAT book. Remus, asked where he was the night before, looked so sick that the story started itself and all Snape had to do was feed it.
He told Hufflepuffs that Remus was an oddball - that there had to be something unwholesome about any one who would rather read than do jolly things in company. He told the Ravenclaws that it was curious that someone as clever as Remus wasn’t a Ravenclaw - almost as though the Sorting Hat hadn’t trusted him with knowledge. He told Griffyndors that stealing the book was typical Gryffindor - too brave by half. He didn’t tell Slytherins anything, he didn’t need to.
Soon the whole school was watching Remus, who went quieter and more pale until he looked more ghost than boy and everyone said it must be guilt.
Almost everyone. Lily offered to fight Gruntface Goyle when he said Remus was guilty. Gruntface (Aloysius) Goyle had six inches and five stone of muscle on Lily and was a mean bastard, but something about the look on her face made him back off. James came up with more and more madcap schemes to fix the blame on someone else, ideally Snape, and Peter bravely tried to keep up with him.
Sirius said nothing. Sirius had been avoiding his friends since the Prank - sleeping in the Astronomy Tower or the Room of Requirement as often as not, spending his free time swimming far into the lake or in hidden away corners in the library, stealing food from the kitchens to avoid eating in the Great Hall, sitting at the back of class on his own. Bellatrix was taking bets on how long it’d take him to admit he wished he was in Slytherin.
And every day the full moon ticked closer and every day people watched Remus more, until one morning Remus asked the James, Peter, and Sirius to stay behind after Runes. When the classroom had emptied of everyone else Remus, looking uncannily like a schoolteacher, made this speech.
‘I’m going to leave Hogwarts tomorrow’, he said. ‘The official story will be that I’m tired and ill. The story everyone will believe is that I stole the Fiendfyre book. I need you, all three of you, to back up that story. Say that I’d been acting strange. Say that the night the book was stolen I came to bed late and looked guilty. Better that than the truth coming out.’
‘I won’t do it’ said James. ‘We’ll stand up for you’ said Peter.
‘You will’ Remus said. ‘You’ll lie because it’s the only thing you can do that’s any use. I’ve got a chance if I’m expelled as a thief. More than if I’m outed as a werewolf, anyway.’
‘Please’ Sirius said.
‘Just lie’ Remus said, ‘ You’re good at that.’
James, for the first time in his life, was lost for words.
That evening Sirius made it down to the Great Hall, but instead of taking his place at the Gryffindor table he jumped onto the statue of Godric the Glutton, took a theatrical bow and announced to the entire school that he had stolen the Fiendfyre book and burnt it in the Gryffindor common room. ‘Ah my foes and oh my friends, it gave a lovely light’ he said. ‘That’s a lie’ said Remus and James together, with Peter a beat after. ‘My friends’ said Sirius. ‘So loyal.’
The story switched around then and there was nothing that Snape could do to stop it. Remus had been an okay fit as villain. Sirius was perfect. Stealing the Fiendfyre book was exactly the sort of reckless, impulsive, black-magicky thing that a Black would do. Bellatrix said it was pure Slytherin.
One thing everyone knew - Sirius would be expelled. So when he glided into the Great Hall for breakfast the next morning and sat down next to James looking as unruffled as if nothing had happened it was universally decided that the Blacks must have pulled some magnificent strings to keep him at school. ‘I told you’ Bellatrix said ‘Slytherin to the core’.
‘What happened?’ James asked Sirius in a whisper.
‘Dumbledore looked at me over his glasses - you know the way he does?’ Sirius whispered back ‘And then he said he’d fine me what the book was worth’.
‘How much?’ said James, thinking of trips to Hogsmeade and new Quidditch kit, the economy of rich sixteen year olds.
‘I don’t know.’ Sirius answered. ‘My parents disinherited me after they paid it, so it was kind of awkward to ask them’.
James, for the second time in his life, was lost for words.
‘You’d do it for Lily’ Sirius said.
‘Yeah, but’ James said. ‘I love her.’
‘Work it out’ Sirius said.
James, for the third time in his life, was lost for words. Then he saw Remus come in and Sirius look up and smile and Remus smile back and a whole lot of things began to make sense.
Title: Organised Winged Letter Carriers’ Union
Author:
ocelottingRecipient:
dustmouthRating: Gen
Contents or warnings (highlight to view): *NONE*
Word count: 1000
Summary: Lies, good and bad
There’s an old saying ‘When owls strike, rumours fly.’ Take away proper news, take away the chance to check and counter check and lies become as good as truth - better if the liar is good at stories.
There’s another saying almost as old that only Fawkes remembers now: ‘Watch out when there’s no owls about.’
Lies are a problem at Hogwarts. Up there in the mapless wizard-highlands, with Apparition impossible and damn few floo-adapted fireplaces and even Hogsmeade out of bounds most of the time, with hundreds of teenagers living on top of each other and half of them having grown up thinking that magic was impossible only to find that it ran in their blood; lies flourish.
So it was unlucky that owls went on strike at the start of sixth year, when Remus still wasn’t talking to Sirius and Snape was looking everywhere for a way to get back at them both - Sirius for having tried to murder him, Remus for having been the murder weapon.
He couldn’t get revenge with the truth. Dumbledore had made that clear - snitch on Remus being a werewolf and Snape could wave Hogwarts goodbye with a broken wand. Snitch on Sirius and the werewolf story would come out anyway. A lie, though. A lie had promise.
Snape waited for the night of the full moon and stole Malvolio Fiendfyre’s book on cursed potions from the library - one of only three books whose taking merited an automatic expulsion. He read it and memorised it (the Wolfsbane potion was on page 19) and when the moon set he threw the book into the lake.
In the morning the library was wreathed in ‘Danger Do Not Cross’ red tape and lessons were replaced with lectures on the danger and wickedness of stealing THAT book. Remus, asked where he was the night before, looked so sick that the story started itself and all Snape had to do was feed it.
He told Hufflepuffs that Remus was an oddball - that there had to be something unwholesome about any one who would rather read than do jolly things in company. He told the Ravenclaws that it was curious that someone as clever as Remus wasn’t a Ravenclaw - almost as though the Sorting Hat hadn’t trusted him with knowledge. He told Griffyndors that stealing the book was typical Gryffindor - too brave by half. He didn’t tell Slytherins anything, he didn’t need to.
Soon the whole school was watching Remus, who went quieter and more pale until he looked more ghost than boy and everyone said it must be guilt.
Almost everyone. Lily offered to fight Gruntface Goyle when he said Remus was guilty. Gruntface (Aloysius) Goyle had six inches and five stone of muscle on Lily and was a mean bastard, but something about the look on her face made him back off. James came up with more and more madcap schemes to fix the blame on someone else, ideally Snape, and Peter bravely tried to keep up with him.
Sirius said nothing. Sirius had been avoiding his friends since the Prank - sleeping in the Astronomy Tower or the Room of Requirement as often as not, spending his free time swimming far into the lake or in hidden away corners in the library, stealing food from the kitchens to avoid eating in the Great Hall, sitting at the back of class on his own. Bellatrix was taking bets on how long it’d take him to admit he wished he was in Slytherin.
And every day the full moon ticked closer and every day people watched Remus more, until one morning Remus asked the James, Peter, and Sirius to stay behind after Runes. When the classroom had emptied of everyone else Remus, looking uncannily like a schoolteacher, made this speech.
‘I’m going to leave Hogwarts tomorrow’, he said. ‘The official story will be that I’m tired and ill. The story everyone will believe is that I stole the Fiendfyre book. I need you, all three of you, to back up that story. Say that I’d been acting strange. Say that the night the book was stolen I came to bed late and looked guilty. Better that than the truth coming out.’
‘I won’t do it’ said James. ‘We’ll stand up for you’ said Peter.
‘You will’ Remus said. ‘You’ll lie because it’s the only thing you can do that’s any use. I’ve got a chance if I’m expelled as a thief. More than if I’m outed as a werewolf, anyway.’
‘Please’ Sirius said.
‘Just lie’ Remus said, ‘ You’re good at that.’
James, for the first time in his life, was lost for words.
That evening Sirius made it down to the Great Hall, but instead of taking his place at the Gryffindor table he jumped onto the statue of Godric the Glutton, took a theatrical bow and announced to the entire school that he had stolen the Fiendfyre book and burnt it in the Gryffindor common room. ‘Ah my foes and oh my friends, it gave a lovely light’ he said. ‘That’s a lie’ said Remus and James together, with Peter a beat after. ‘My friends’ said Sirius. ‘So loyal.’
The story switched around then and there was nothing that Snape could do to stop it. Remus had been an okay fit as villain. Sirius was perfect. Stealing the Fiendfyre book was exactly the sort of reckless, impulsive, black-magicky thing that a Black would do. Bellatrix said it was pure Slytherin.
One thing everyone knew - Sirius would be expelled. So when he glided into the Great Hall for breakfast the next morning and sat down next to James looking as unruffled as if nothing had happened it was universally decided that the Blacks must have pulled some magnificent strings to keep him at school. ‘I told you’ Bellatrix said ‘Slytherin to the core’.
‘What happened?’ James asked Sirius in a whisper.
‘Dumbledore looked at me over his glasses - you know the way he does?’ Sirius whispered back ‘And then he said he’d fine me what the book was worth’.
‘How much?’ said James, thinking of trips to Hogsmeade and new Quidditch kit, the economy of rich sixteen year olds.
‘I don’t know.’ Sirius answered. ‘My parents disinherited me after they paid it, so it was kind of awkward to ask them’.
James, for the second time in his life, was lost for words.
‘You’d do it for Lily’ Sirius said.
‘Yeah, but’ James said. ‘I love her.’
‘Work it out’ Sirius said.
James, for the third time in his life, was lost for words. Then he saw Remus come in and Sirius look up and smile and Remus smile back and a whole lot of things began to make sense.
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I absolutely adore the tone of your writing, and this was certainly no exception! I woke at 4am, saw this had been posted and had to read it immediately (I have since read it several more times as I am now far more human and can understand words good).
I could not have possibly hoped for anything more than this! As I've said, the tone of the entire thing was so completely fantastic. You have a way of writing which makes everything sound so charmingly matter of fact, as though you are reading an account of what has happened, and in this story that just fits perfectly.
I really liked the idea that Snape tried to find ways around his promise of secrecy to make sure that Remus was outed in some way. The whole plan was wonderfully, slyly orchestrated, and somehow it just rang very true to his character for me. He does seem the sort to go to extraordinary, petty lengths- but a-ha! little does he know that he was a major mechanic in making sure that Remus Lupin and Sirius Black spend most of their future time making out in deserted corridors. Nice work, Mr. Snape!
I have such a soft spot for prank fics, it must be said, so having that form part of the story just absolutely did it for me. I love it when Sirius doesn't get off so easily, and the detail of him sleeping up in the astronomy tower and skipping meals was just the precise measure of sadness needed to make his gesture in the great hall the perfect thing. The idea that even when he has been on the outer, he is willing to step in and sacrifice himself was !!! so very Sirius, really. And then the detail of him being disowned for the amount of reparations his parents were forced to pay. You tied it up all very neatly and professionally!
And then the final spot of dialogue with James and the subsequent smiling at each other. Be still my heart! Literally just the most perfect handling of the scene, it had me falling about all over the place (even at 4am).
And I forgot to mention how much I loved your saying about owls going on strike at the very beginning. I fully need to start inserting in conversation in a very mysterious, knowing way. It's just so good-
Honestly, I am just so over the moon with this! I could see the entire way through how much thinking you'd put into it all. It was an absolutely smashing way to start my day, thank you so very much!!! I absolutely adore it! <3
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I also loved this bit: There’s an old saying ‘When owls strike, rumours fly.’ Take away proper news, take away the chance to check and counter check and lies become as good as truth - better if the liar is good at stories. Seriously, that was a fantastic opening!
And Sirius' actions were perfectly in character, too.
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This was fucking amazing. I love that it was open ended but clear. I love that we got so much info in so few words. I just. Love everything about this. Except Snape.
Thank you for writing this <3
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Sirius coming to the rescue and the twist of his disowning were quite brilliant as well. Love It!
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