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beholder_mod (beholder_mod) wrote in hp_beholder,
@ 2011-04-15 13:20:00

Entry tags:

beholder_2011, dawlish/scrimgeour, fic, john dawlish, rating:pg13, rufus scrimgeour, slash

FIC: "The Ministry's Man" for injustice_worth
Recipient: injustice_worth
 Author: musamihi
 Title: The Ministry's Man
 Rating: PG-13 
Pairings: John Dawlish/Bartemius Crouch (Sr.) (unrequited); John Dawlish/Rufus Scrimgeour. 
Word Count: 11,300
 Warnings/Content Information (Highlight to View): * Canon character deaths, dark themes.*  
Summary: John Dawlish has spent his career in the shadows of the Ministry's greatest men. One of the only things they all have in common is that they never stay for long. 
Author's Notes: I hope you enjoy, injustice_worth! Your inspiring list of characters was a joy to work from. Many, many thanks to melusinahp for beta-reading – all remaining mistakes are my own. And thanks, of course, to the wonderful mod, for running such a fantastic fest.

"The Ministry's Man"

(Don't forget to return to this post to leave feedback for the author!)

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	lash_larue 2011-04-15 08:44 pm UTC (link)
	damn. This is astonishing, whoever you are, mystery author, you have a fan. So many lines that simply brought me to a halt, it took an unconscionably long time to read this. It's marvelous, beginning to end. This is what this exchange is about to me, laying bare the souls of characters barely mentioned in canon. Kudos Maximus... L (Reply to this) (Thread)

	musamihi 2011-05-31 05:45 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. :) Dawlish needed some love! (Reply to this) (Parent)

injustice_worth
2011-04-15 09:02 pm UTC (link)

Scrimgeour and Crouch and lovesick Dawlish and disjointed moments and glimpses of Auror business and new, Auror-based angles and ACH. :D Quite a ride, there, and just… Loving on the glimpses into each man’s life. And am-indeed intrigued by the Dawlish you’ve drawn here, the man who knows what he admires but feels also that he can never be like them, that he can only follow and so only remain suspended in his position as Auror, blown every which way by figures in control (almost a sort of puppy dog seeking love and direction and a pat on the head, more than anything). A-and the situations into which he happens to be thrust offers such intriguing illustrations of moments only seen or referenced briefly in the books… Dawlish’s presence at the moment of thefting Barty Jr.’s soul seemed particularly striking, especially after his response to the courtroom scene, and since you’d built such an affection for Crouch Sr. (and much a fan of seeing some repercussions of that “yeah, let’s just let a Dementor mosey on into Hogwarts” muss-up), yars.

Erm, yes. Apologies for the scattered response, and a thousand pardons if I’ve misread/misinterpreted, but on a very basic level would like to note that this was verrah much enjoyed. :D And has brain going all *whirr* over Auror-related activities and relations, which is always a plus, aheh. Much intrigued by many of your turns and phrases, O Mystery Author, and of the fact that you’ve shown us so, so much here… Always tilted to Dawlish’s eventually-Confounded point of view, and so always just a bit (or more than a bit) suspect, which makes the entire work all the more fun (or at least brain-provoking). And the relationships that you’ve created here… Really. Friggin’ really. You’ve got some Dawlish and Crouch Sr. lurking, some Dawlish and Scrimgeour more than lurking, and am really kind of digging the way you’ve made ’em work. Oh, and in general? So, so much love for overworked AUrors, heh.

Right, and the end, just… Especially after the neigh-on-horror of Scrimgeour’s office, rather hurt to see Dawlish so ready to give in and move along. Pain of, what, admitted to the self what ye are? So, yes, painful but so-very in the character you’ve made of Dawlish (and ye have indeed made of him a full-blown character, individual… well, individual without the assertion to really act and just be on his own, ne?). Then hearing from the Death Eaters (surprise attack by Dolohov, zay!), a mocking sense of what Dawlish has, presumably through the charm and his own (in)action, become. And Dawlish searching so fervidly for memory, for some solid recollection after all of this... Nngh, the BROKEN. NNGH. O_o

MMKAY. Also, just… A few specific lines/moments that were all “!!!” Not noting all that did, just because could-then be here for a millionsy years, but wanted to note some, anyvay…

"He's too popular now (how poorly it suits him!)..." The parenthesized details? Yus. Bits like that throughout, character details as noted by Dawlish. Aw.

"The witches and wizards you protect deserve to enjoy their lives as they once knew them, Dawlish, in peace and order – and according to the principles they have always known." Crap, and my Crouch Sr. crush has just reached new heights. THANK YOU. And the tie-in to Crouch’s thoughts on traditions… the-intrigue.

"I've felt so empty that I wanted to scream – full of nothing and surrounded by chaos, cut free from the world..." This, and so many fucking props for the lost-at-sea reference following. You and emptiness, hrmhrm, makes for thinking (as with Dawlish on Scrimgeour: "I think there must be less to him than there was to Mr. Crouch." And brain goes a-thinkin’ on Dawlish’s attraction to apparent emptiness and what the perceived emptiness might be and suggest. HOLLOW TIMES ARE FUN TIMES, and you do bring them up so well).

"I don't trust myself to be so eloquent." Aw... Just... Aw.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Continuing...

injustice_worth
2011-04-15 09:03 pm UTC (link)

Okay, not copy/pasting the entire paragraph, but the description of noises and crowded words in the Muggle city, the distractions that grab and force attention? Guah. And beyond that paragraph, the thoughts on wandering the city, finding the lowest spot... Much digging that section. Oh, hell, and whispering Johanna's name. And because we've been seeing so much through Dawlish's hope-tinted eyes, it suddenly twists everything, gives a sense of the wrenching that they both may well feel. Verrah nicely played, sai.

"I told you, Minister Fudge insisted –"
Scrimgeour yawns. "You're not much of an investigator, are you." Okay. That about made my day. XD

"I've never before had occasion to count the bones in the human skull, but they make so much noise as my feet slap again and again on the pavement that I can't help but pick them all out." Love it.

And other details and impressions. Scrimgeour reaching for the book. The way that Dawlish fails to see the bigger picture, only glimpsing it through the admired men. Opening the door to Scrimgeour’s flat, the jarring sense of the magical/non-magical worlds intersecting. The suggestion that DE hearings eventually became a sort of entertainment, that teeming life crowded out the sense of a courtroom’s austerity. Dawlish’s ever-awareness of something rather wrong in him. Dawlish’s notions of wrong and right. The distance felt everywhere. Crouch and fury, Dawlish and sorrow. The fact that Fudge is bashed (hells yes >.>), and that meanwhile, a few of his more positive traits are noted. The Scrimgeour/Dawlish dynamics, Sense of (maybe?) using (or not quite using) Dawlish for anger!sex. Dawlish just sort of being there in a different but not fully different way that he was just sort of there with Crouch (ever almost just another Auror).

Em, yes. Again, apologies for disjointed response and hope was not allll wayward or over... er, overanything, but ZAY. :D

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: Continuing... lash_larue 2011-04-15 10:36 pm UTC (link)
	So you liked this? * ducks * I wish I had written this. It's terrific, and I don't normally care a fig for any character in it. I don't wonder you're flailing a bit. L (Reply to this) (Parent)

Re: Continuing...

musamihi
2011-05-31 05:53 pm UTC (link)

I'm so glad you enjoyed this! And relieved. :D I was really inspired by how you'd written Scrimgeour a couple exchanges ago, and this was supposed to be his story, but then ... Dawlish got in my head and has stayed there ever since. Thank you for that, because I had never so much as thought of him before.

So thank you very much for your lovely comment that made me squee, and a brain-ful of characters with whom I am now obsessed. I could not have enjoyed it more.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	irena_candy 2011-04-16 12:30 am UTC (link)
	Ohhhh. What a beautifully written and horribly sad story. A wonderful job, mystery author, and you almost made me cry. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	musamihi 2011-05-31 05:54 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you so much! :) I'm glad you enjoyed it. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	alwaysasnapefan 2011-04-16 03:19 am UTC (link)
	I really enjoyed how he compared Rufus to Bartemius. This is something that rings true for me about relationships. I really liked the good picture of Scrimgeour we got here, and that we got a bit of his side of things. The end was actually quite devastating. Very well done. I liked John as the narrator, he was awkward and prone to upset stomachs when he felt anxious. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	musamihi 2011-05-31 05:55 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you! :D I'm so glad you enjoyed it. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	snegurochka_lee 2011-04-16 03:37 am UTC (link)
	That was exquisite! Loved the POV voice, and I loved Scrimgeour's take on Harry. He's sixteen! He doesn't know what he's talking about! cackle So awesome. And the rest, too, the dark tone of it... just wonderfully done. :) (Reply to this) (Thread)

	musamihi 2011-05-31 05:56 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :) (Reply to this) (Parent)

	synn 2011-04-16 04:23 pm UTC (link)
	Beautiful, sad story. I especially loved the mention of him trying to climb into the fountain - so painful, but very well done (Reply to this) (Thread)

	musamihi 2011-05-31 05:56 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you! :) I'm so glad you enjoyed it. (Reply to this) (Parent)

melusinahp
2011-04-18 03:55 pm UTC (link)

One of the things I love most about this fic is how firmly it's set in the HP world. I realised that there are certain fics that make me forget I'm not reading canon. And that's what I want. I want to be submerged in the same world of the books, and you've done that in an entirely convincing way. I absolutely believe that this is what Dawlish, Crouch and Scrimgeour went through while Harry was off having his own adventures. It makes complete sense.

And the way you wrote John--his views of two very different but equally powerful men--shed so much light on canon events and ideas. Harry's loyalty to Dumbledore mirrored by John's loyalty to Crouch and then Scrimgeour and ultimately to the Ministry, no matter who was actually in charge. In the end, when Scrimgeour was killed, it was like John's personality disintegrated. He didn't know what to do with himself, where to focus that fervent loyalty. He broke my heart. And what became of him ground it into dust, lol. God. That one detail--John continually searching for Scrimgeour's glasses in the fountain--that will haunt me for a long time.

This is a beautiful fic, so well conceived and executed. I suspect I could read any HP pairing written by you and love it no matter what. ♥

(Reply to this)

atdelphi
2011-04-18 07:00 pm UTC (link)

Oh, wow.

This is utterly heartbreaking. And I mean that in the very best of ways. I was drawn into this from the very first paragraph and read it through in one feverish rush, and when it was done, I sat blinking at the screen with a near audible 'oof.' This is one of those stories that is both so firmly rooted in the HP world and so emotionally real that I think it's going to be firmly entrenched in my memory of canon.

The glasses...oh my.

I'm so glad I had the chance to read this. Beautiful work, Mystery Author.

(Reply to this)

leela_cat
2011-04-18 11:06 pm UTC (link)

John Dawlish is almost a two dimensional caricature in canon, rather than the fleshed-out three dimensional character in this story. You created some beautiful gorgeous moments here that will live with me for a while: the carvings of Merlin that are worn-down from people touching them, and the way that Dawlish goes back to the fountain that was and tries to find the glasses which aren't there any longer.

Lovely, sad, revealing story.

(Reply to this)

woldy
2011-04-19 11:00 am UTC (link)

Oooh, great story! I love the glimpses of both men through his eyes, the contrasts between them, and how he gets the relationship with Scrimgeour that he didn't with Crouch. The ending is so sad, although I wonder if it's kinder to him than the alternative, because memories are all that he has left by that point - especially given the loss of prestige the Ministry is sure to suffer after the war. You've done a wonderful job of tying together everything we know about Dawlish and fleshing out his character in a way that's flawed, but interesting. All in all, an exemplary beholder fic!

(Reply to this)

lookfar
2011-04-21 03:59 pm UTC (link)

Wonderful atmosphere and imagining. I confess, I'm not sharp enough on the HP timeline to have figured out everything going on here, but your creation of a worshipful, self-abnegating Dawlish stands on its own. The whole story gave me claustrophobia and made me sad for this poor little man. And you did it without explicit pron! What an accomplishment. This gets a bunch of stars for creativity and execution.

(Reply to this)

raven_cromwell
2011-04-21 11:12 pm UTC (link)

This fic is phenomenal!

First off, the stuff you do with pov leaves my brain in
contortions. Having Dawlish as a pov character was genius, and you
flesh him out as a three-dimmensional character, fully aware of his
flaws, with a dry sense of humor and crap self-esteem. And that's
awesome enough, giving us such a rare character, and making me believe
completely and utterly that this is what happened to "cannon" Dawlish.
But his pov is so over the top, so fanatically loyal, that it lets us
see his greatest character flaw (loyalty, and no one would have ever
thought they'd hear me call that a flaw) while seeing the two men he
loves, both as flawed people (their flaws become extremely apparent to
us because his viewing of them as perfect, as on a totally different
plane from him, forces us to analyze everything they say and do far
more carefully than we would otherwise) but also as wonderful,
brilliant, radiant people, which is how we see the people we love.
His adoration of them brings their flaws in to stark relief for the
reader, because we know no one can be this perfect, and we're really
searching for the imperfections, and we pity him so much because people you put on a pedestal like that inevitably let you down.

And the characters, the brilliant, moral, bloody-minded, flawed
characters. First off, you included Bagnold! and drew her as a
three dimmensional character in like three paragraphs! And Barty, oh
dear Gods, I was crying so hard for Barty when he's standing on the
streetcorner after imprisoning his son, all his confidence and
certainty gone, saying his wife's name over and over and over. Yes,
this is grief, more for the son he wanted and his wife than for
actually imprisoning his son, but the scene showed what a toll this
took on him; he's not an inhuman monster, but a man doing what he
believes is right.

And I love the time shift, leaving out Mr. Crouch's demotion/shunting
aside, and skipping directly to the Dementor's kiss of Crouch junior. I adored the fact that Dawlish's loyalty and love persisted through everything, and ached for him, because it could never be reciprocated.

And the fact that he essentially took justice in to his own hands with letting the Dementor kiss him, and how that ties back to the earlier
conversation with Crouch senior about the Aurors being allowed to keep
their special powers.. how the rather awful side of himself expressed
in that conversation comes to fruition in the Dementor's kiss *loves
like mad* The moral quandery implicit in that earlier conversation and then Dawlish's actions here is phenomenal; yes, there are some people like Crouch who can hold themselves back, have the ability to play God for a little while and then give it up for the greater good, but most of us can't. Bagnold was absolutely right about that. The idea of being able to rid the world of evil by giving up a few scruples is just too much for most people.

(My comment got so long here IJ is making me post the next bit separately)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Part 2 of my Comment

raven_cromwell
2011-04-21 11:13 pm UTC (link)

And Scrimgeour, oh Gods, Scrimgeour. He is one of my favorite characters of the series, and he was phenomenal in this,
from the description of him pacing the floor to the conversation he
and Dawlish have in bed. You can see his flaws here so clearly; his
devil-may-care bravery; his arrogance, that he could keep info
Dumbledore shared from Voldemort's spies. And his utter focus on the Ministry to the exclusion of everything else; makes for a rather bleak, cold life; it's funny because it terrified Dawlish that Crouch found something more important than the Ministry, but we as the reader are left wishing Scrimgeour could have found something similar.

I adored the line about byzantine tactics and marshalling facts like soldiers because this is so close to how I see him. And despite his flaws, you see that he has a point, that there really is only so much the Ministry can do unless Dumbledore helps, and that there are two perceptions of every encounter; just as
Harry thought Scrimgeour was arrogant, it's not surprising he thought
the same. And he's trying so bloody hard to defeat this nebulous enemy against terrible odds, doing the best he knows how, and I admire that immensely.

And the end.. bleak and harsh and absolutely perfect. Oh John, you lost so very much.

I can't wait for reveals so I can fangirl you madly and devour your masterlist, mystery author!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	miramiraficfic 2011-04-23 03:34 am UTC (link)
	This is fabulous. Poor Dawlish: even before his brains get scrambled (and oh, aren't those last few images full of pathos), you can see the flaws in his impression of "his" Ministers, and yet you can also see exactly where they come from and why. He's exactly the kind of character that first-person narration was made for, and you've done a wonderful job with it. (Reply to this)

perverse_idyll
2011-04-23 09:23 am UTC (link)

This is phenomenal and heartbreaking and beautifully written. It flows like water, now warm, now cool, spilling with extraordinary smoothness over the edge into bottomless sadness. The complex grasp you have on the kind of person Dawlish is, and his need to look up to someone, to have his existence (and the world's order) justified by an heroic leader, is compelling and utterly plausible. It's also so painfully sympathetic that I wanted Dawlish, whose blind faith in authority would disturb me in real life, to have somebody reward his rather child-like dependence. He's a pitiful but not contemptible figure, too weak to survive on principle alone, aware and afraid of his own limitations and almost worshipful of those he perceives as inherently pure, incorruptible, or simply imbued with righteous defiance. He's touchingly self-deprecating and self-sacrificing. Even filtered through his central, consuming need, his perceptions of Crouch and Scrimgeour catch at something I can believe worth admiring. He's not entirely deceived about them—although how very different they look through his eyes than Harry's.

The voice pulled me in from the first paragraph, a fascinating mix of pitiful, stubbornly conservative, and strangely humble. The cross between hardline law-enforcement rhetoric and existential fear, each feeding off the other, and Dawlish's conviction that the Ministry is the only thing holding back the forces of nihilism, whisper of his weakness, his denial of a larger picture, the fact that he's a follower who longs for a black-and-white morality. Yet his devotion is almost moving; deluded, yes, constantly shadowed by his lurking sense that the world will fall apart without the supremacy of law. But you do a brilliant job of making us feel what Dawlish feels, and it's difficult to condemn him. His fixation from afar on Barty Crouch, the way he idealizes the singlemindedness and rigid purpose that make Crouch's public actions a personal tragedy, the way he goes from idealizing to idolizing, so that Crouch becomes his sole moral checkpoint, is breathtaking in its naturalness, its pathetic need. You describe Crouch—in fact all of those within Dawlish's orbit—with a masterful double vision: what Dawlish sees, and how Dawlish builds up a private emotional mythology, versus the shortcomings and shortsightedness, the inadequacy and sheer, exhausted human error of his heroes.

The trial is harrowing. Johanna Crouch's grief and Crouch Sr.'s insistence on presiding over his son's sentencing are terrible, and the aftermath is saturated with despair. Dawlish's wish to comfort Crouch, and the betrayal he feels when he hears Crouch calling upon his wife, which prevents him from humiliating himself by offering more than Crouch would ever expect or tolerate—it's all so intensely sad. Even if Dawlish's motives are largely selfish, his agonized wish to comfort a man shorn of his family and his purpose twists my heart. Which is why his ruthlessness is all the more hideous. Dawlish's susceptibility early in the fic to the Dementors' soulless horror makes it even more unbearable that he unleashes them upon Barty Crouch, Jr., revenging himself for what happened to the man whose crusade he embraced and whose downfall robs him of his sense of direction.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

pt 2

perverse_idyll
2011-04-23 09:23 am UTC (link)

His more jaded and critical view of Scrimgeour is equally insightful, and Scrimgeour's pragmatic employment of him, as both a dupe and a sexual outlet, implies that the new Minister has got Dawlish's measure. I like this portrait of an irascible, overbearing Scrimgeour, thwarted by Dumbledore's refusal to join forces and unwilling to abandon his post despite all the signs pointing to his impending doom. The detail about the crushed wire-framed glasses makes his death horribly vivid. All of your details are emotionally memorable and saturated with a fatalistic aura. I love the whole description of Scrimgeour's flat, the long, dusty hall and distracting doors, as paranoid and symbolic of the man's temperament as Crouch and his randomly chosen Floos flaring green in the dusk. Your handling of atmosphere throughout is spellbinding, and adds enormously to the desolate sense of futility and longing and crumbling certainties. The demoralizing of John Dawlish is executed with grace and inevitability, and the fact that he's self-aware enough to know how much is due to his own spinelessness, his lack of a genuine moral center, just kills me. The ending is, in a sense, poetic justice visited upon a man who can't withstand the emptiness of the universe on his own. Without someone else's example before him, without a focus for his devotional impulses, without someone standing fast between him and the void, Dawlish was bound to fall into the enemy's hands. The ending is his nightmare come true. This very fact implies that he was, to some degree, right to be afraid. The structures have failed; the good have been o'erthrown. His Confunding is therefore merciful, because as heartbreaking as it is that he longs for something and can't recall what haunts him, at least it spares him the knowledge of what he has become.

Dawlish ends submerged, a-drift in all he's lost and all he's betrayed. The fear that drives him at the outset, the looming Darkness he believes is threatening to swallow up the civilized world, is personally prophetic. The Darkness does consume him, and it doesn't spit him out; in darkness he stays, confused, not knowing what he seeks but searching compulsively.

I've just flailed incoherently all over your story, but I don't feel I've managed to convey at all how it made me feel. It's an astonishing feat of ventriloquism, walking the fine line between the character's perspective and the reader's omniscience. It chronicles the moral vacuum growing inside Dawlish, and although even the Death Eaters find him too insignificant to be worth destroying, the tale of his loss of faith is extremely moving. I read it last night, and I ached and marveled through every word. Even lesser people, the ungifted and confused and dangerously subservient, have a right to their stories. You've written a beautiful one for John Dawlish, and I'm so glad to have had the chance to read it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

kelly_chambliss
2011-04-26 02:42 am UTC (link)

Wow, this story is fabulous. I'm a sucker for minor-character povs, especially one as beautifully-conceived as your Dawlish. You've captured the essence of the "Great Man" view of the history, both its significant flaws and its compelling appeal. We see exactly why so many people, in so many times and places, have wanted their own Crouches and Scrimgeours, the men (yes, virtually always men) who are going to make everything clear and right. That they never can do so -- that such men don't even really exist -- never stops the Dawlishes of the world from seeking them. And I suspect we all have a touch of Dawlish in us -- the fear that we can't see the big picture and the desperate hope that someone can.

Whatever his limitations, your Dawlish is not a stupid man; now that I've finished reading, his perceptions continue to rattle around in my skull, making noise like the bones in John's head. So many great lines:

The strength of his knowledge fills him up and overflows, while mine just chews holes in my stomach.

They've both got presence, though. Even if it were eight in the morning and this place were packed from wall to wall, they'd be the only people here.

the pure and brutal love that mankind needs
Breathtaking wording and perspective here.

I don't know if he cares one way or the other, though, that it's right. It's hard to say what he believes. He may not believe anything.
I can't really blame him. Mr. Crouch's passionate faith was what crushed him, and what little of it was ever reflected in me hasn't done me any good, either.
Love this distinction between the two Great Men. Your Scrimgeour overall is excellent; his insights into Harry Potter make great reading -- I can just feel his astounded frustration at the sheer cheek of it. I also love the pillow-talk scene, the way the situation is all about the politics for Rufus (forget being fair, it's not working) and all about understanding the leaders for John (what do they expect? Fudge. Of course. And John's line about how following Fudge can only be to the good for Rufus. Great insights, which make his final moral and personal confusion all the more painful.)

I love your small character cameos, too -- now you have me wanting Millicent Bagnold fic, for instance. And the image patterns -- the way you weave the Fountain (and all it implies) throughout the whole piece, building us up to that shattering final scene of Dawlish searching in the fountain for broken glasses, themselves the perfect symbol for the lost hopes and clarity, not only of John, but also of the whole wizarding world.

Sometimes, when it's very late and there's no one around to bother me, I come so close to understanding.
Argh.

Killer ending.

Wonderful story all around.

(Reply to this)

tetleythesecond
2011-04-26 12:24 pm UTC (link)

Amazing! This is such an evocative, compelling story -- so intense that although I had waited until I had the time to read it in one go, I had to step away from the computer midway.

I felt exactly what Kelly describes above in her first paragraph -- you do such a fab job bringing to life Dawlish's fascination and obsession with great men, his unwavering trust in the god-like enormity of the institution of which he is proud to be a tiny building-block, and the not-always-so-latent homoeroticism of male circles of power. And it's great how you contrast that with Millicent Bagnold's dilemma, the inability even for her as the highest-ranking official to make the voice of reason and moderation heard among the populist clamour, with people who are willing give up freedom for what they perceive as the protection of a Great Man who offers an easy solution, not seeing that this creates facts that will set free a dynamics of their own. Crouch referring to his policy as a "burden", in true imperialist style, is another touch I found very effective.

Not to mention Dawlish's believable, chilling progression, the excellently-written POV, and the sucker-punch end.

A fantastic read!

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	miss_morland 2011-04-29 07:36 pm UTC (link)
	I'm not sure I can add anything meaningful to the (utterly well-deserved) amount of praise this story has already deserved, other than telling you how absolutely riveting I found it -- thank you! (Reply to this)