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spfestmod (spfestmod) wrote in snape_potter,
@ 2013-10-05 12:56:00

Entry tags:

fic, first time for everything, rating: r

First Time for Everything Fest: FIC: Thus We Remember Avalon
Title: Thus We Remember Avalon
Author: gingertart50
Other pairings/threesome: Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny, (highlight for spoilers) *Hermione/Severus*
Rating: R
Word count: approx. 13,500
Content/Warning(s): (highlight for spoilers) *Adultery, angst, dubious morality, obsession, homophobia*
Summary: The Wizarding World is unforgiving of adultery and Harry is very concerned for his best friend, as Hermione risks her career and family when an Unfathomable tempts her away from Ron. But why is Harry's memory playing tricks on him, and what of Harry's own reputation? The clues lead him to the Avalon Inn in Knockturn Alley and what he finds there will turn his world upside down.
A/N: Thank you to lovetoseverus, punctuation-wrestler and plot-bunny wrangler without peer. This story resulted from listening to Matt Monro's "Walk Away" and Cliff Richard's "Miss You Nights" and remembering another age, when men could be imprisoned for homosexuality and women accused of adultery lost their livelihoods, reputations and homes as well as their families. I rather think that the Wizarding World would still be very old-fashioned about such things…

(Thus We Remember Avalon)

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lovetoseverus
2013-10-06 03:08 am UTC (link)

I wonder, what can I say about this that I haven't already? Your storytelling is so compelling. It's the rhythm of your writing, the way you weave in detail, emotion and plot -- I lose myself in it every time. Now was no exception; in fact, this piece felt far more "complete" than the 13,000 words might suggest. I don't know how you do that, but I suspect it's just part of that particular brand of magic you keep up your sleeve.

Looking forward to our next adventure.

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	gingertart50 2013-10-09 12:16 pm UTC (link)
	beams Thank you for all your help - this plot-bunny certainly was a tricky monster! Who knows what the muse will come up with next? I'm so glad that you came along for the ride. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	amanitamuscaria 2013-10-06 05:25 am UTC (link)
	Ooof - tough and hard to read - I kept dreading what was going to happen, as if I'd Obliviated myself poorly and memories were seeping back. How very sad and real - I can imagine this would be how it would work rather than a happy-ever-after version. Gorgeous writing! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	gingertart50 2013-10-09 12:18 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you for commenting! I wanted to write a realistic depiction of the situations that people can end up in, the choices that they have to make and the realities of life. I'm glad it worked, even if it was tough to read. (Reply to this) (Parent)

greenling
2013-10-06 07:43 am UTC (link)

Oh. I'm just heartbroken for everyone here. That Harry would choose to Obliviate himself to keep his family, that Severus was left behind again. It makes me wonder what happened to Hermione--was her affair discovered? Did either of these marriages survive (Harry and Ginny or Ron and Hermione)? Staying together for the sake of the kids seems more damaging in the long run than not. Mostly, I'm saddened to think of Snape sitting along in his grotty little hotel room, living such an isolated life with his memories. I'd be curious to hear your take on where Hermione and Snape ended up in the end.

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	gingertart50 2013-10-09 12:21 pm UTC (link)
	I think that Hermione would have finished it, for the sake of her children, once she realised that Snape was not committed to the relationship. But who knows? But staying together was what people used to do, in the 1950s, divorce was for film stars not 'ordinary' people; there was such a stigma attached to a divorced women. (Reply to this) (Parent)

torino10154
2013-10-06 05:36 pm UTC (link)

That the wizarding world would cling to old-fashioned and hypocritical mores doesn't surprise me and seems much more realistic than welcoming gay men or independent women. It makes me sad that Harry and Hermione, of all people, wouldn't want to change this and would willingly go along as they at least know there is something else out there. I feel bad for Severus most in this tale as at least he wasn't married and has had to carry the knowledge of his lost relationship with him daily, while Harry isn't so burdened and instead, because he doesn't even remember, can act as if he has moral authority with Ron and Hermione even though it's not deserved. Very sad tale indeed with no winners save perhaps the children. Well done.

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gingertart50
2013-10-09 12:34 pm UTC (link)

Thank you for your comments. I particularly liked your thought that Harry was able to be superior when Ron and Hermione were going astray because he had Obliviated his own, equal sins! As for Severus, although he wasn't married, he nevertheless had been involved in a homosexual relationship, and that was regarded as pretty reprehensible back in the 1950s, married or not. I imagined the Wizarding World as stuck in a Muggle post-war time-warp, where the swinging sixties and its sexual revolution never happened for Wizards and Witches. That's the time-frame that JKR used for most of Magical society - boarding school with 1950's unadventurous stodgy food, steam loco hauling the Hogwarts Express, Diagon Alley's little old artisan shops, bureaucratic Ministry staffed by silly old codgers - all straight from the 1950s. I remember, you see, I grew up in that age of peering through net curtains at the neighbours. There was incredible gossip about our neighbour who sunbathed in her garden in a bathing costume, and women who wore trousers as casual clothing (as opposed to work trousers for working on the harvest etc) were considered 'fast' and unreliable and unladylike. Truth.

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