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beholder_mod (beholder_mod) wrote in hp_beholder,
@ 2011-05-09 14:14:00

Entry tags:

beholder_2011, femslash, fic, hestia jones, hestia/petunia, petunia dursley, rating:pg13

FIC: "Fostering Witch-Muggle Understanding" for songquake
Recipient: songquake
Author: slytherite
Title: Fostering Witch-Muggle Understanding
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Hestia Jones/Petunia Dursley, background Vernon Dursley/Petunia Dursley
Word Count: 13,848
Warnings/Content Information (Highlight to View): * Adultery in a dying marriage, homophobia, a few swears, and strongly implied sex. *.
Summary: One can learn a lot from a freak, Hestia Jones discovers, if one is willing to take the time to listen.
Author's Notes: Songquake requested plot, canon compliance, homo/bisexuality, and collisions between the wizarding and Muggle worlds; the last prompt was absolutely irresistible, particularly when Petunia poked her nose into it. Hopefully I’ve done it justice here.
I’d like to thank bethbethbeth for running this fantastic fest, my fandom-unaffiliated sister for telling me that "whirly blades" is not nearly as mellifluous a phrase as I’d thought (and giving me a much-needed prod to finish), and J.K. Rowling for making the whole thing possible.

"Fostering Witch-Muggle Understanding"

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kelly_chambliss
2011-05-28 12:57 pm UTC (link)

Delightful -- poignant and funny and deep and revealing and sometimes painful and so wonderfully meta; such a satisfying read. I love your imperfect, snack-making Petunia and your imperfect, slightly-askew Hestia. Ah, Hestia -- I really enjoy the way you've created her character, her tone and her self-justifications and her hilarious, frightening, and cavalier attitudes toward little things like drugging Vernon. I love the way we come to understand her, not by a direct description, but by her so-revealing ways of looking at things and her little mental asides and oblique references to her Hufflepuff, Sprout-y past. And the way you develop her and Petunia's relationship is very effective; you bring each into human focus for the other and in the process showing how they learn each other's worlds. Petunia wonderfully surprises us as she surprises Hestia, showing her unexpected daring and fun sides at the same time that she remains perfectly IC.

I love that everything isn't perfect once Vernon leaves, that it takes them some time to find their "best of all possible worlds," however imperfect that world is going to be for them.

So many wonderful lines:

she quivered in the candlelight, a sliver of nervous energy beside her husband, like a ring peeping around Saturn's outer edge.

on the off chance that drugging drinks was grounds for a lawsuit in the Muggle world.
Haha!

"Strategy," said Hestia. "And theatrics."
Perfect.

if ulterior motives hadn't exactly motivated her decision, they were definitely peeking around the corner behind her decision's back and whispering naughty things.
Love this line.

Not, of course, that they were that silly or that love-struck. Hestia was almost certain of that.
Love the "almost"

Petunianess was a distinctive entity all its own, with a whole concert of quirks.
Great line.

suburban Muggle life--which seemed, in some way that she couldn't quite figure out, entirely about homemade lemonade and functional kitchenware
Perfect Hestia character moment and a fun insight, too.

to keep Petunia from doing exactly as she had always done.
Or rather, in this case, exactly as she chose to do.
The distinction seemed rather an important one.
Indeed.

Excellent story, one of my fest favorites.

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