InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "You mewling quim!"

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!)

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

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)

(Read comments) -