Ficlet for Taradiane

[moonlite_tryst]

For taradiane.

Sweetie, long may you continue to gift us with stunning pics of Dan et al. Written in response to this post:

Author: Me!
Title: And So It Ends, As All Things Must (Ha! The title's almost as long as the bloody ficlet)
Pairing You need ask?
Rating PG-13
Word count: 600ish




Harry picked his way carefully across the scorched earth, nudging the smouldering debris of what he would always think of as The Great Battle aside with his foot. Long, finger-like shadows, cast by the setting sun dipping behind the bare trees, inched their way along the ground towards him, shrouding his surroundings in an eerie twilight. Acrid smoke drifted on a gentle evening breeze over to where his friends stood in the distance, carrying with it the empty hopes and dreams of several generations lost to the fanatical rhetoric of pure blood supremacy.

Despite the fires that had burned all day, many belongings - each with their own history to tell - lay strewn around him, and weighed heavily on his mind. As much as Harry had wanted everything to be gathered up and disposed of before retiring for the night, he could see through the red haze, the fog of war Hermione had called it earlier in the day, that everyone looked as exhausted as he felt. The final clearance could wait until tomorrow.

“Hey.” Warm breath tickled Harry’s ear and Draco’s fingers squeezed his arm in reassurance. “You’ve done the right thing. Stop fretting about it.”

“You think so?” Harry raised his head and searched Draco’s face for conformation.

Draco nodded. “Yes. I do,” he replied, and smiled. Harry looked around him briefly and gave a heart felt sigh.

“But so much has been lost. Things that…”

“Hush.” Draco placed a finger on Harry’s mouth, before he could protest any further, and then replaced it with a chaste kiss. “None of it matters now. Time to take off the shackles of tradition and start afresh.” Harry knew he was gaping at Draco, but try as he might, he just couldn’t get control over his mouth; his brain was still trying to process what he’d heard.

Draco frowned. “What?”

Harry shook his head and grinned. “You. I never thought I would hear such sentiments coming from you.”

Draco shrugged. “It needed doing, and you didn’t act in your usual impulsive Gryffindor manner…”

“Hey!” Harry slapped Draco’s arm good naturedly.

“It’s true. For once you carefully thought it through, with a little help of course.” Draco smirked, “Before putting your plans into action.”

Looking down once more at the glow of the dying embers, Harry sighed once more to himself and wiped the soot from his glasses, before putting them back on. “It really was a battle wasn’t it? At one point I thought we were going to lose and have to abandon this place.”

“Magic, when it’s been around for a long time, infuses everything and can be difficult to eradicate. But it’s over now. Come on.” Draco gripped Harry’s hand. “It’s getting dark and everyone’s waiting for us.”

Turning away from the fires, Harry checked his inside jacket pocket with his free hand for the small device that contained a powerful magic of its own. Lifting it out, a slow smile spread across his face when he ran his thumb slowly back and forth over the warm, pristine surface. Looking at the four letters in bold capitals at the top of the card that would help him complete the much needed transformation, he read aloud "IKEA," and grinned broadly at Draco. Popping the card back into his jacket pocket, he let Draco lead him by the hand toward the now empty house.

A murder of crows flew over head, their raucous cries carried away in the wind toward the night sky, and Harry swore he could hear Walburga Black’s shrieks of disapproval float heavenward along with the remains of the contents of 12 Grimmauld Place.

~*~

Comments

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

oooh, you are sneaky. see, i didn't realize at first this was about them burning down grimmauld place, esp. because harry calls it the great battle and all. then when he fondles the ikea card, hahaha!! and of course draco is there, too, but that's a given, isn't it? i really enjoyed this :).

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you liked the twist. The great battle was referring to getting all the stuff out and destroyed - gutting the house completely. I was going to have something along the lines of knocking down walls, sanding floors etc, but ran out of time.

Do you think the great battle is too off putting?

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

oh, i see. for some reason i thought they had burned down the house, which of course doesn't make sense if harry wants to refurnish it with ikea [you realize i'd love to see a follow-up of how harry and draco fare at ikea, right? because the idea of draco at ikea is hilarious].

nooo, it's great! it's the best part of the twist.

[sesheta-66.livejournal.com]

I can imagine all sorts of derogatory remarks about Muggles not knowing which way to go, and needing big arrows painted on the floor! Then I picture him getting lost anyway.

*cracks up*

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

hahahah! yeah! also, draco's indignant reaction to learning they have to assemble the furniture themselves, lol.

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

I always take great pleasure in going the wrong way round to annoy the lemmings - how small minded am I?

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

Oh no. Something of that size and age (I imagine georgian/early victorian townhouse) fully renovated, would sell for over £1,000,000 in the gentrified area of Kings Cross.

There is a sequel to the original drabble. It's simpler in form than my later writng but I'll dig it out and give it a going over for you.

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

ah, good point. although i could imagine harry might not really care about real estate value [that's much more draco's thing]. i didn't realize grimmauld place was supposed to be near king's cross.

aww, yay! thank you ♥.

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

i didn't realize grimmauld place was supposed to be near king's cross.

yeah, it's around 20 minutes walk - about a mile away, though no one knows which way. Very nice property around and about, although a few years ago large parts of Kings Cross were no go areas and the red light district, until they put in an extension to the channel tunnel at King's Cross/St Pancras.

Virginia Wolf lived within the mile radius in Bloomsbury Square. Have a nosy here:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv=2&q=bloomsbury++london&btnG=Search+Images

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

oh yeah, i've been to that area! i went to a conference there :). we never walked from king's cross, though, we always took the tube.

[sesheta-66.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

IKEA truly is magic, isn't it? And at least they have real magic to put all the stuff together!

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

Haha. Yes! Ikea's instructions do defy logic at times. Glad you enjoyed it. Never, in a month od sundays, would I have thought that IKEA would be responsible for my fandom writing career. There are about 4 other fics in the original series. *goes to blow the cobwebs off them*

[sesheta-66.livejournal.com]

More IKEA fics? Bah! Must. Exit. LJ. Now. Have done nothing today! (Note to self to return later). I'm looking forward to reading them ... and the ones on your recent meme that I haven't read ... and my ridiculously long friends page.

*resists urge to read more*

*goes to finish beta work* - I'm a very bad beta today!

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

Hee! Have no fear. They are over 2 years old and need looking at before I point the way.

There are soome cracking fics on that meme. I'm sure you'll enjoy them.

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

Hell yes! I'm v. happy you liked it.

re your post: is it meant to be wallpaper, because several of the faces look burnt off, like the tapestry.

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

Oh. Yeah. *slaps self* Definitely how I imagined it. Someone mentioned this thought the other day: if the Blacks hated Muggles so much - why is their house in a Muggle area sandwiched between 2 muggle houses!

ps Dan chose to wear the pearl earrings today to match his cardigan.

[snottygrrl.livejournal.com]

v. v. cute. ♥

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

Thanks! *bows*

[cornmouse.livejournal.com]

awwww...ikea!! I loved this, darling! ♥ Tara is a lucky lady.

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed getting the original drabble out of the closet and reworking it. I'm happy it wasn't too corny.

[mordyn4]

XD

*has mostly Ikea furniture at the mo'*

You have such a way with words. The opening paragraph is warfic poetry. ;)

Murder of crows. Heeheehee. Melodramaculous. :D

And always with the Magic Theory. I LOVE IT!

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

The opening paragraph is warfic poetry

*Grins* Now there's a compliment. I will agree that it is a tad appocolyptical, but I didn't want it to be obvious. I think I got a little carried away.

As for 'murder' is sounds dramamtic, but is the correct collective noun.

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec. *hugs*

[mordyn4]

:D No problem.

D'aw, that's a cute icon. I'm such a sucker for him. :P

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

Me too. I will answer your last matty pic spam now I've got those bloody reports done. I've been looking at the last lot you sent, and I do agree that matty has the right colouring with the pale lashes and eyebrows for Draco, but Boyd is so pretty.

[drusillas-rain.livejournal.com]

ahahhaha...how did I miss this? Great twist at the end ^_^ And I agree, renovating does feel like a massive battle! We're going to (finally) refinish our basement this summer - right now it's just being used to store junk, and we need to get some work done on the foundation, and...
*goes to work on battle plans*

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

Heee! I'm glad this ficlet brought a smile to your face. :) I don't think anything in our house is quite the way we planned it. A flexible mind is definitely called for. Good Luck!