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Dec. 7th, 2004 09:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
changeling810 words. Holy fuck. I'm usually hard pressed to write an original short story that long. This was supposed to be a flash fiction, like so many of my offerings. Quite proud of it, though. *ruffles the fanfic's hair*
It went against anything anyone ever expected - everyone had thought, when Voldemort came to power, that it would be the Slytherins, the Purebloods, who stood behind him. They were the ones most likely to stand behind a megalomaniac with an eugenics obsession, it was thought.
But four years of schooling that brainwashed small children into being everything their houses expected and only what their houses expected, with ingrained prejudices rampant, turned out to be more important by half. When the call came out for volunteers for Tom Riddle's Army of Darkness, that Potter boy with his Pure-Blooded psychopathic (it runs in the blood, you know - all that interbreeding can't be good) animagus friend stood as his first lieutenants. And that other friend of his, the werewolf - Dumbledore'd hid him all through school, kept him safe, and the boy bit him on the hand, so to speak. Well, no self-respecting Slytherin would take orders from a Gryffindor.
It was the werewolf everyone was surprised at. The others weren't that bad, you might say, but they tended to be a bit cruel to the other kids. Humiliation. Cruelty. Bullying. O'course, the school looked the other way because the other kids were Slytherins, and everyone's always mistrusted Slytherins. Suspected them of being too clever by half, and in need of being taken down a peg or two. And that Potter boy and that Black were just the ones to do it. The werewolf, though - he was a kind boy, though perhaps not inclined enough to speak out enough. But blood will out, eh? And a werewolf's a Dark Creature.
The resistance was headed up by a man called Severus Snape. He'd never been a friend of Potter and his lot - quite the contrary - and maybe that below his "Saviour of the Wizarding World" exterior, that was why he really fought.
The one thing that marks a true Slytherin is individualism, and old Dumbledore always thought that getting Slytherins to work together would be like herding cats. But when it comes to keeping the Wizard World separate from the Muggle World - because they were under no delusions that the sort of out-and-out war that Voldemort was planning would expose them to the Muggles - or setting out against Gryffindor, those are the two topics that'll bring all the Slytherins together. You watch. If you go and watch all of Slytherin's matches through the school year, you'll note that it's always their matches against Gryffindor where they shine. When it looks like they have some sort of hive mind, like a swarm of bees, and they fly as one.
There was ... one more friend of James Potter's, although most don't like to think of him as such. Name of Pettigrew. It was him sold the Potters out to Dumbledore, though he risked his life to do it. I think he surprised himself at that - he always was a little mouse of a boy, at school, who couldn't never say 'boo' to a goose. But you follow the rats - they'll lead you out of danger, and he knew which was the wind was blowing.
So maybe he never had the best reasons for doing what he did, but it's hard when you're someone who has fear imprinted on his bones. And he ended up to be the saviour of the war. He did the bravest thing a man could, and sacrificed his friends for the greater good. Didn't last long enough to see the war won, though. Sirius Black caught up to him half a week later and hexed the boy into next week. Aurors caught up with him then, and he's in Azkaban, the Wizard Prison. Like they say, like a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. That was Black all over.
Harry Potter looked down into his milkshake glass. He had no longer believed that his parents were superheroes or secret royalty who were going to come and take him away. He'd left those fantasies behind when he was six. But he had thought ... what had he thought?
'I'm sorry to be the one to tell yeh this, Harry,' said Hagrid, motioning to Florean Fortescue to bring over another couple of sundaes. 'If it were up ter me, I wouldn't. But yer going off ter Hogwarts this year, and yeh need to know ... well, that yer mum an' dad aren't too popular. That's why yeh had to stay at yer aunt an' uncle's. Dumbledore thought it better if yeh grew up away from all tha'. Give yeh a bit of a fresh start. An' maybe people won't give yeh any trouble, but just in case, yer prepared. Don't worry about the Sorting too much ... just a word of warning, though: there's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Gryffindor.'
It possibly says something about me that I think this is a far more satisfying backstory. I mean, could you imagine Harry Potter trumping all this bad history to defeat Voldemort once and for all and become the Saviour of the Wizarding World? That'd be awesome.
It went against anything anyone ever expected - everyone had thought, when Voldemort came to power, that it would be the Slytherins, the Purebloods, who stood behind him. They were the ones most likely to stand behind a megalomaniac with an eugenics obsession, it was thought.
But four years of schooling that brainwashed small children into being everything their houses expected and only what their houses expected, with ingrained prejudices rampant, turned out to be more important by half. When the call came out for volunteers for Tom Riddle's Army of Darkness, that Potter boy with his Pure-Blooded psychopathic (it runs in the blood, you know - all that interbreeding can't be good) animagus friend stood as his first lieutenants. And that other friend of his, the werewolf - Dumbledore'd hid him all through school, kept him safe, and the boy bit him on the hand, so to speak. Well, no self-respecting Slytherin would take orders from a Gryffindor.
It was the werewolf everyone was surprised at. The others weren't that bad, you might say, but they tended to be a bit cruel to the other kids. Humiliation. Cruelty. Bullying. O'course, the school looked the other way because the other kids were Slytherins, and everyone's always mistrusted Slytherins. Suspected them of being too clever by half, and in need of being taken down a peg or two. And that Potter boy and that Black were just the ones to do it. The werewolf, though - he was a kind boy, though perhaps not inclined enough to speak out enough. But blood will out, eh? And a werewolf's a Dark Creature.
The resistance was headed up by a man called Severus Snape. He'd never been a friend of Potter and his lot - quite the contrary - and maybe that below his "Saviour of the Wizarding World" exterior, that was why he really fought.
The one thing that marks a true Slytherin is individualism, and old Dumbledore always thought that getting Slytherins to work together would be like herding cats. But when it comes to keeping the Wizard World separate from the Muggle World - because they were under no delusions that the sort of out-and-out war that Voldemort was planning would expose them to the Muggles - or setting out against Gryffindor, those are the two topics that'll bring all the Slytherins together. You watch. If you go and watch all of Slytherin's matches through the school year, you'll note that it's always their matches against Gryffindor where they shine. When it looks like they have some sort of hive mind, like a swarm of bees, and they fly as one.
There was ... one more friend of James Potter's, although most don't like to think of him as such. Name of Pettigrew. It was him sold the Potters out to Dumbledore, though he risked his life to do it. I think he surprised himself at that - he always was a little mouse of a boy, at school, who couldn't never say 'boo' to a goose. But you follow the rats - they'll lead you out of danger, and he knew which was the wind was blowing.
So maybe he never had the best reasons for doing what he did, but it's hard when you're someone who has fear imprinted on his bones. And he ended up to be the saviour of the war. He did the bravest thing a man could, and sacrificed his friends for the greater good. Didn't last long enough to see the war won, though. Sirius Black caught up to him half a week later and hexed the boy into next week. Aurors caught up with him then, and he's in Azkaban, the Wizard Prison. Like they say, like a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. That was Black all over.
Harry Potter looked down into his milkshake glass. He had no longer believed that his parents were superheroes or secret royalty who were going to come and take him away. He'd left those fantasies behind when he was six. But he had thought ... what had he thought?
'I'm sorry to be the one to tell yeh this, Harry,' said Hagrid, motioning to Florean Fortescue to bring over another couple of sundaes. 'If it were up ter me, I wouldn't. But yer going off ter Hogwarts this year, and yeh need to know ... well, that yer mum an' dad aren't too popular. That's why yeh had to stay at yer aunt an' uncle's. Dumbledore thought it better if yeh grew up away from all tha'. Give yeh a bit of a fresh start. An' maybe people won't give yeh any trouble, but just in case, yer prepared. Don't worry about the Sorting too much ... just a word of warning, though: there's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Gryffindor.'
It possibly says something about me that I think this is a far more satisfying backstory. I mean, could you imagine Harry Potter trumping all this bad history to defeat Voldemort once and for all and become the Saviour of the Wizarding World? That'd be awesome.
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 06:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 06:28 am (UTC)...could be fun, though ...
no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 06:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 06:38 am (UTC)But seriously! It'd have to stick too close to canon! It'd be boring!
(I meant to say "Stealing Harry/Laocoon's Children TYPE AU" up there, by the way.)
no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 07:01 am (UTC)But why would it have to stick thatc lose to canon? Just extrapolate off that background.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 07:11 am (UTC)... I guess I just don't have any plot bunnies that would fit. Except I suspect the nature of Draco and Harry's relationship would change ... or maybe it wouldn't. Harry's and Ron's probably would.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 09:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 04:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 12:25 am (UTC)...pity I still have no plot bunnies leaping for my attention, though.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 02:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 09:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 01:35 pm (UTC)I think the problem is that Harry isn't the only prejudiced one. And I'm sick of Slytherin = evil. As someone else in the fandom commented, why not just get rid of the house? I mean, wouldn't it be easier to get the kids "accidentally" knocked off or into Azkaban if all of Slytherin is evil? Really.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 04:33 pm (UTC)Everytime I wind up trying to argue the Slytherins being evil vs. Slytherins being forced into the role, I wind Eminem's "The Way I Am" stuck in my head. Hmmm, pissy, pointy-featured platinum blond who writes insulting songs about people he hates... nope, no connection there.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 12:20 am (UTC)*nods* It really, REALLY pisses me off. Sure, lots of them are bastards, but that's what going to happen when you have 1) smart, driven people, and 2) when everyone else treats them with at least suspicion, if not actual hostility.
Can't say I know that particular Eminem track. Might hunt it down.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-09 01:34 am (UTC)(Note the capital "N", please.)
(You should go here (http://www.livejournal.com/community/hunkwarts/39357.html), look at the picture, then scroll down to my comments to see where I propose to put the HP charactures in the Wild West, because I am insane.)
no subject
Date: 2004-12-09 01:55 am (UTC)You are Incorrigible. (Go ahead, write and/or illustrate it.)
no subject
Date: 2004-12-09 02:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-09 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-09 02:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-09 02:44 am (UTC)