August nest of spiders: gen ficlets
Oct. 23rd, 2007 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lesyeuxvertsTitle: One Month
Author: lesyeuxverts00
Word Count: 300
Rating: G
Prompt: #1, Lammas
Characters: Peter-centric gen
Warnings: No DH spoilers.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Crinkle-crisp parchment and unblurred ink, the collection of letters went into Peter's secret box. He'd spelled it to be large enough – it contained multitudes of treasures, from smooth river-rocks to Chocolate Frog cards to battered, long-forgotten birthday presents.
Lily's letter was the longest, her handwriting the neatest, and so Peter set it on the bottom of the pile, a base for the others to build on. Remus's came next, the moon-shake of his hand having spoiled his tiny letters, and on top – the messy scrawl of James and Sirius, the letter they'd sent together half as long as the others. He bound the letters up with a piece of twine, setting the bundle at the top of his box.
All the letters blurred together in Peter's mind. James and Sirius falling into the lake on a lark and coming home soaked, long past curfew – Remus's visit to the bookshop, his nights of pain, his half-crooked smile – Lily, baking bread with her sister, the summer-hot, summer-sweaty kitchen made fresh by the nutty smell of flour – it all blended into one scene, one family, one letter.
They would be together soon – one month left of summer, one month of letters, one more month spent alone, nothing to do but gather river-stones and hoard the perfect ones in his box. August marked the turning of summer, and it would be one month until they were reunited – Peter held the date in his mind, clutching it.
He dipped into the box, drawing out a handful of lost buttons and smooth stones. He took them down to the riverbank, finding his favorite willow tree hidey-hole, and skipped them across the water. His letters were safe in his treasure box, his friends blended together into one united family. One month was not too long to wait.
-----
Title: Summer Home
Author: lesyeuxverts00
Word Count: 300
Rating: PG
Pairing: Sirius-centric gen
Prompt: #6, "Mother, Summer, I"
Warnings: No DH spoilers
Disclaimer: Not mine.
There are dusty corners in Grimmauld Place, long-forgotten caches of rings and twigs and oddments, long-forgotten pools of dark magic and lost hideaways. Sirius finds them all and claims the attic for his own, throwing the windows open wide and letting the sun-swept wind catch the dust motes.
His mother is three floors down, her voice piercing through wood and plaster. Regulus takes the brunt of her anger, bending before her will and confessing Sirius's sins.
Sirius slumps in his corner, drawing patterns in the dust and using a filched wand to Silence the screams that rise from his mother's strong throat. This refuge, dust-strewn and open to all of summer's dozing dreams and hot blisters – this is his summer home.
With one finger, he catches splinters and scrawls a letter to James in the dust. The wind carries it away, dust motes rising to the sun, and Sirius sucks the splinters from his fingers. The old oak tastes of ashes, of fire-hardened sap and summer's sultry endings.
He will go to his mother this evening, slipping unseen down the stairs, and kneel near her chair, head bowed. Her hands, weighted down with rings, will work deep furrows through his hair.
Mother's never found the sunbeams through the dirty attic windows or written looping letters on the floor. She never chased dust motes in the obscure nooks or knelt, window open, to breathe in the fresh air and soak up the light.
Her voice pierces the Silencing spell and rises into his attic.
Sirius takes a deep breath before descending. A twitch of his wand, and he's wreathed again in the air of Grimmauld Place – dark and dank, all traces of light blown away. He trusts his secrets to the wind and seals the attic, wrapping tight wards around it.
-----
Title: Easy to Bear
Author: lesyeuxverts00
Word Count: 400
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: a few preslashy hints, but nothing concrete
Prompt: #22, "Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it." -Dumbledore, Goblet of Fire
Warnings: None, no DH spoilers either
Disclaimer: Not mine.
It's the same argument, Sirius knows, and he pushes the hair out of his face. Sweat-slick and storm-curly, it's the hair his mother always wanted cut – it's the hair that he keeps to spite her.
Peter is the worst – he insists that for every reference James finds, there are ten that contradict it. He's always dragging them back to the library to double check.
James is patient with him, slinging an arm around his shoulders and helping him navigate the secret passageways and shifting stairways, letting him get lost in shelf after shelf of books.
Peter's never trusted his intuition, but Sirius knows he's right. He persuades James time after time, and there has been enough of this. Enough books, enough tedium, enough arguments – Sirius pushes his hair back and concentrates.
It twists inside him, magic breaking him and making him. He's turned inside out, and the world turns upside-down, flat and strange. The colors mix together, and there's a strange sharpness to the air, a blending of scent and taste.
The strange, pinching feeling is what Remus feels. Bones shift, nerves pinch, his skin prickles and it hurts. Sirius's mouth opens, a high whine escaping.
It hurts and he mustn't let the others know – he leaps into the pain, not giving it a chance. This is for Remus, this is to end the arguments, and this is the way that it's meant to be, the way it's meant to feel. Sirius lets it settle on him, and the pain fades at last.
His new skin is warm and comfortable. His unmanageable hair is sleek and shining fur. Peter protests, and James finally brushes aside the dangers and the worries – their voices echo through Sirius, a warm buzz through his bones, and he knows that this is right.
Sirius twists, looking himself over, and chases his tail until James laughs. It's a strange, tinny sound that Sirius hardly recognizes, and he leaps onto James's lap, licking his face until it stops.
Sirius shifts back, wrapping an arm around James's neck – their lips are close enough for a kiss, and James's eyes are bright.
"We're agreed then," Sirius says. "We'll do it this full moon." He holds James's gaze without flinching, and no one disagrees with him.
Sirius pushes his hair back out of his eyes, settling back into his human form. Once it's past, the pain is easy to bear.
-----
Title: Permanent Sticking Charms
Author: lesyeuxverts00
Word Count: 300
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Sirius and parents
Prompt: #24, "Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go by any rules. They're not like aches or wounds; they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Warnings: None, no DH spoilers.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Sugar spilled on the staircase from Sirius's latest prank, dripping like drool from the open mouths of the house elves – his mother rent the silence with her scolding.
Her lips were pinched together, the skirts of her full emerald robes sprinkled with clinging, sparkling white crystals – the permanent sticking charm had been a brilliant addition to the plan – and she held her wand like a whip, raised and ready.
"You dare to suggest – you want to defile your house, your family, the purest of blood and the noblest of lineages, a thousand years of history and honor. You, who have failed every expectation, every reasonable demand, you –"
Sirius's father put his hands on her shoulders, framing her and controlling her, and then he broke the silence. "You disappoint us beyond belief."
"Fine," Sirius said, tossing his spell-books onto the drifts of sugar. "Fine. May I have leave to go visit James at his house, then?"
"Reflect on your sins, your impertinent behavior, your disgrace," his mother said, pointing her wand at him again. "Then you may ask to have privileges restored."
"The privilege of walking around with my nose in the air, believing that my own shit doesn't smell? The privilege of dehumanizing other wizards and abusing the –"
"Enough." Sirius's father dragged his mother away, down the staircase and off to the latest and most fashionable ball.
He paused at the bottom, looking back up at Sirius. "You will stay here tonight and reflect upon your misbehavior," he said. "I expect to see a change in you come morning – a change for the better, mind."
When they had left, Sirius snuck through the library wards and spent the evening alone. He tore a page out of every dark book there, feeding them to the flames one by one.
Author: lesyeuxverts00
Word Count: 300
Rating: G
Prompt: #1, Lammas
Characters: Peter-centric gen
Warnings: No DH spoilers.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Crinkle-crisp parchment and unblurred ink, the collection of letters went into Peter's secret box. He'd spelled it to be large enough – it contained multitudes of treasures, from smooth river-rocks to Chocolate Frog cards to battered, long-forgotten birthday presents.
Lily's letter was the longest, her handwriting the neatest, and so Peter set it on the bottom of the pile, a base for the others to build on. Remus's came next, the moon-shake of his hand having spoiled his tiny letters, and on top – the messy scrawl of James and Sirius, the letter they'd sent together half as long as the others. He bound the letters up with a piece of twine, setting the bundle at the top of his box.
All the letters blurred together in Peter's mind. James and Sirius falling into the lake on a lark and coming home soaked, long past curfew – Remus's visit to the bookshop, his nights of pain, his half-crooked smile – Lily, baking bread with her sister, the summer-hot, summer-sweaty kitchen made fresh by the nutty smell of flour – it all blended into one scene, one family, one letter.
They would be together soon – one month left of summer, one month of letters, one more month spent alone, nothing to do but gather river-stones and hoard the perfect ones in his box. August marked the turning of summer, and it would be one month until they were reunited – Peter held the date in his mind, clutching it.
He dipped into the box, drawing out a handful of lost buttons and smooth stones. He took them down to the riverbank, finding his favorite willow tree hidey-hole, and skipped them across the water. His letters were safe in his treasure box, his friends blended together into one united family. One month was not too long to wait.
-----
Title: Summer Home
Author: lesyeuxverts00
Word Count: 300
Rating: PG
Pairing: Sirius-centric gen
Prompt: #6, "Mother, Summer, I"
Warnings: No DH spoilers
Disclaimer: Not mine.
There are dusty corners in Grimmauld Place, long-forgotten caches of rings and twigs and oddments, long-forgotten pools of dark magic and lost hideaways. Sirius finds them all and claims the attic for his own, throwing the windows open wide and letting the sun-swept wind catch the dust motes.
His mother is three floors down, her voice piercing through wood and plaster. Regulus takes the brunt of her anger, bending before her will and confessing Sirius's sins.
Sirius slumps in his corner, drawing patterns in the dust and using a filched wand to Silence the screams that rise from his mother's strong throat. This refuge, dust-strewn and open to all of summer's dozing dreams and hot blisters – this is his summer home.
With one finger, he catches splinters and scrawls a letter to James in the dust. The wind carries it away, dust motes rising to the sun, and Sirius sucks the splinters from his fingers. The old oak tastes of ashes, of fire-hardened sap and summer's sultry endings.
He will go to his mother this evening, slipping unseen down the stairs, and kneel near her chair, head bowed. Her hands, weighted down with rings, will work deep furrows through his hair.
Mother's never found the sunbeams through the dirty attic windows or written looping letters on the floor. She never chased dust motes in the obscure nooks or knelt, window open, to breathe in the fresh air and soak up the light.
Her voice pierces the Silencing spell and rises into his attic.
Sirius takes a deep breath before descending. A twitch of his wand, and he's wreathed again in the air of Grimmauld Place – dark and dank, all traces of light blown away. He trusts his secrets to the wind and seals the attic, wrapping tight wards around it.
-----
Title: Easy to Bear
Author: lesyeuxverts00
Word Count: 400
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: a few preslashy hints, but nothing concrete
Prompt: #22, "Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it." -Dumbledore, Goblet of Fire
Warnings: None, no DH spoilers either
Disclaimer: Not mine.
It's the same argument, Sirius knows, and he pushes the hair out of his face. Sweat-slick and storm-curly, it's the hair his mother always wanted cut – it's the hair that he keeps to spite her.
Peter is the worst – he insists that for every reference James finds, there are ten that contradict it. He's always dragging them back to the library to double check.
James is patient with him, slinging an arm around his shoulders and helping him navigate the secret passageways and shifting stairways, letting him get lost in shelf after shelf of books.
Peter's never trusted his intuition, but Sirius knows he's right. He persuades James time after time, and there has been enough of this. Enough books, enough tedium, enough arguments – Sirius pushes his hair back and concentrates.
It twists inside him, magic breaking him and making him. He's turned inside out, and the world turns upside-down, flat and strange. The colors mix together, and there's a strange sharpness to the air, a blending of scent and taste.
The strange, pinching feeling is what Remus feels. Bones shift, nerves pinch, his skin prickles and it hurts. Sirius's mouth opens, a high whine escaping.
It hurts and he mustn't let the others know – he leaps into the pain, not giving it a chance. This is for Remus, this is to end the arguments, and this is the way that it's meant to be, the way it's meant to feel. Sirius lets it settle on him, and the pain fades at last.
His new skin is warm and comfortable. His unmanageable hair is sleek and shining fur. Peter protests, and James finally brushes aside the dangers and the worries – their voices echo through Sirius, a warm buzz through his bones, and he knows that this is right.
Sirius twists, looking himself over, and chases his tail until James laughs. It's a strange, tinny sound that Sirius hardly recognizes, and he leaps onto James's lap, licking his face until it stops.
Sirius shifts back, wrapping an arm around James's neck – their lips are close enough for a kiss, and James's eyes are bright.
"We're agreed then," Sirius says. "We'll do it this full moon." He holds James's gaze without flinching, and no one disagrees with him.
Sirius pushes his hair back out of his eyes, settling back into his human form. Once it's past, the pain is easy to bear.
-----
Title: Permanent Sticking Charms
Author: lesyeuxverts00
Word Count: 300
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Sirius and parents
Prompt: #24, "Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go by any rules. They're not like aches or wounds; they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Warnings: None, no DH spoilers.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Sugar spilled on the staircase from Sirius's latest prank, dripping like drool from the open mouths of the house elves – his mother rent the silence with her scolding.
Her lips were pinched together, the skirts of her full emerald robes sprinkled with clinging, sparkling white crystals – the permanent sticking charm had been a brilliant addition to the plan – and she held her wand like a whip, raised and ready.
"You dare to suggest – you want to defile your house, your family, the purest of blood and the noblest of lineages, a thousand years of history and honor. You, who have failed every expectation, every reasonable demand, you –"
Sirius's father put his hands on her shoulders, framing her and controlling her, and then he broke the silence. "You disappoint us beyond belief."
"Fine," Sirius said, tossing his spell-books onto the drifts of sugar. "Fine. May I have leave to go visit James at his house, then?"
"Reflect on your sins, your impertinent behavior, your disgrace," his mother said, pointing her wand at him again. "Then you may ask to have privileges restored."
"The privilege of walking around with my nose in the air, believing that my own shit doesn't smell? The privilege of dehumanizing other wizards and abusing the –"
"Enough." Sirius's father dragged his mother away, down the staircase and off to the latest and most fashionable ball.
He paused at the bottom, looking back up at Sirius. "You will stay here tonight and reflect upon your misbehavior," he said. "I expect to see a change in you come morning – a change for the better, mind."
When they had left, Sirius snuck through the library wards and spent the evening alone. He tore a page out of every dark book there, feeding them to the flames one by one.
