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Tweak says, "wow, fantastic baby"

Beth H (bethbethbeth) wrote in hp_beholder,
@ 2012-05-18 12:17:00

Entry tags:

beholder_2012, binns/walburga, cuthbert binns, fic, het, rating:pg, walburga black

FIC: " Professor C. Binns: A Personal History" for odogoddess
Recipient: psyfic
Author: ???
Title: Professor C. Binns: A Personal History
Rating: PG
Pairings: Cuthbert Binns/Walburga Black, Walburga Black/Orion Black
Word Count: ~13,300
Warnings/Content Information (Highlight to View): *Strong language (one use), one moment of domestic violence *
Summary:Transcribed from back cover of book:

Professor Cuthbert Binns (living: 1865-1963, haunting: 1963- ) is the leading Magical Historian of his day. He has published widely on topics ranging from, 'The origins of magic in native rock art,' to 'Wizard-Muggle relations through the ages', and was awarded an Order of Merlin (second class) in 1936, when his seminal work, 'A History of the magical world in 100,000 pages' became the best-selling Historical text on record.

This volume, however, is - for the first time - autobiographical in nature. It is thus somewhat experimental in nature, but serves to remind both the author and the reader that we each build the fabric of History, in our own ways, however small.

"Being in love with a person is more difficult than being in love with a book. You can carry a book with you wherever you go, but a person moves around on their own, and one is never sure where they are or where one will see them, next. Also, books get older in a predictable way: if you take good care of them they don't seem very different at all - aside from the odd scratch on the cover or a looseness to the spine - but people can change their thoughts and feelings and opinions, such that what was once written there disappears altogether and is replaced by information of an entirely different sort.

That is why people are so difficult."

Author: C. Binns.
Dictation: Gluey the House elf.
Production: A.P.W.B. Dumbledore, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
Published, 1964; Revised, 1991.

Author's Notes: Cuthbert, Walburga and Orion belong, of course, to JKR. This tale is also somewhat inspired by 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' by Mark Haddon.

Many thanks to

bethbethbeth for once again running this marvellous fest, and to

psyfic - whose request included 'friendship' and 'a meeting of the minds' - for giving me the freedom to write this.

Professor C. Binns: A Personal History

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albalark
2012-05-27 01:18 am UTC (link)

Wow. This is just amazing, and so very *true*. This is the first story I have ever read from Binns' point of view, and it just makes so much sense! I know I'm flailing, but the way you inhabit him is simply extraordinary. I couldn't help nodding like a bobble-head doll throughout this whole thing, as painful as it is to read at times. It seems you've really captured the way autistic people view and interact with the world, and it fits so well with what little we know of him from the books.

Your Walburga, too, is unexpectedly human, trapped in a world where prejudice is simply the air they breathe, and her *not* ending up the way she is would have been the more unbelievable outcome. The seemingly unlikely friendship the two of them make is as logical as Cuthbert says it is, and Walburga's unexpected act of kindness toward her friend is a lovely spot of light in a person we know falls all too deeply into Darkness in the future.

Finding Binns a position on the Hogwarts staff also gave him other friends, ones he could turn to when the inevitable happens. The cameos of Albus, Slughorn and Flitwick (I adore your Filius!) are such perfect captures of their respective personalities, and I love how they support him in their own ways when his friendship with Walburga comes to an end.

I never thought I'd feel sad for Walburga Black, but I can see how the class and gender constraints, along with Pureblood culture, combined to lock her into a situation where she must accept an unwanted marriage to a brute or become an outcast. I felt even worse for poor Cuthbert, who never thinks to try to extricate his friend from the violent situation in which they find themselves, nor to try to persuade her afterward that what happened to her was wrong and she doesn't have to accept it. Instead, the only thing he could think to do was to keep as far away from her as possible to prevent it from happening again, in the naive belief that his presence in her life was what had made Orion Black behave as he did, and that if he just went away, he'd make things safe for her. That really is heartbreaking.

Brava, Mystery Author - this is simply outstanding! This is definitely going in my 'missing canon' file, and I'll be rec-ing this later. :-)

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