Happy New Year: Fics for you

[icarus]

Thank you to underlucius for the beta review.

This is goseaward's fault. We got on the subject of music and piano months ago, and I wound up with the image of Lucius Malfoy, practicing on the harpsicord, surrounded by his life of privilege. I wondered... why would he give it up? Why follow and be humiliated by Voldemort? He already has everything.

Title: The Metronome
Author: Icarus
Website:
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Lucius, Tom Riddle, Gen
Warning: None
Summary: To everyone else, Lucius had everything. But he only saw what was out of reach. An unknown dark wizard makes him an offer.


Read the rest here: To everyone else, Lucius had everything. But he only saw what was out of reach. An unknown dark wizard makes him an offer.


Snippet of 'The Metronome'

Afternoon sun pooled on the plush oriental rug, warming burgundies and greens to a soft glow. The open window beside Lucius let in barely a breath of wind, playing with the curtains in an unkind tease of freedom. Behind him books lined mahogany shelves, interspersed with artfully arranged family trinkets, most of which were cursed, the work of centuries of dark wizards. The deadly displays were interrupted here and there with low tables and the occasional heavily framed mirror. A candelabra on the harpsichord was unlit, given the lovely summer's day, while a metronome beside it clicked an insistent, steady beat.

Lucius sat straight-backed, his fingers poised over the keys as his tutor paced the room, nose in the air, hands folded thoughtfully behind his back.

"That was better, Mr. Malfoy, much better," he crooned, buttons stretched over his potbelly. "Let's have it once again."

The subtle slump of Lucius' broad shoulders was barely detectable, an unheard sigh, though his eyes remained fixed on the music in front of him.

He was a tall young man, all elbows and angles, with the uncomfortable apologetic manner of one who'd grown very suddenly over the summer and was still surprised. With a tap of Lucius' wand the notes crawled like insects across the page, tumbling over each other until they reformed into the beginning of the piece. His eyes narrowed as a final quarter note, tardy, scrambled into place.

Click, click, click…. The metronome set the pace.

With cold, crisp precision, Lucius' hands floated over the keys, his body unmoving, mouth a firm disciplined line. His teacher's head bobbed; one finger circled, mapping the notes in the air.

Lucius completed the crescendo and the final chord, finally seeming to breathe as he glanced up, steady gaze wary, but hopeful. Sometimes he was released a few minutes early. He'd had ten years of this weekly torment.

The man nodded. "Good, good." He reached over and tapped the sheet music with his wand and the notes scrambled in circles again. "Now let's try an adagio, something with a little more, hmm, feeling for a young man like you, eh? A little more evocative?"

He gave Lucius a tight-lipped smile completely at odds with the praise. He always asked for more feeling. The metronome continued its steady beat.

Jaw set, Lucius' glance flicked only briefly at the window, as the curtains stirred once again.


Read the rest here: To everyone else, Lucius had everything. But he only saw what was out of reach. An unknown dark wizard makes him an offer.

Comments

[pushdragon.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes yes!!!! Such an important question - why *would* Lucius give up his life of privilege to follow a wizard of dubious ancestry? You've answered the question so well by setting their first meeting with Lucius at an impressionable and reckless age where he might just be hungry for something more than the familiar. I'm fascinated by this mediocre Lucius, too. It resonates with his constant thwarting in canon. There were just too many exciting ideas in this to articulate - I love his attraction to Bellatrix, and his initial disdain for Riddle is deliciously ironic. And as usual you capture teenage boy dialogue charmingly, from the faltering bravery to the locker-room sexual bragging.

You haven't told us a lot about Lucius' father, other than a few throwaway lines, but he comes across as an ineffectual presence. Which is unusual characterisation for a Malfoy patriarch in fic. Is that part of the reason for Lucius' decision, in your thinking? Desire for a strong father figure, a powerful masculine role model?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Lucius grew up around so much bullshit, anyone who's willing to tell him the harsh truth is someone he'll listen to. He looks down on Avery and is offended by him, but he's friends with someone of slightly lower class because Avery is refreshing.

Having that kind of honesty from someone he respects, even if it's unflattering (actually, especially if it's unflattering) evokes a level of dedication that's almost trust.

For Lucius, there's not only the usual B.S. of a high class veneer (the fact that his tutors praise him for what he knows is just average work, though occasionally he starts to believe it...) but also the fact that, for all that he's the center of attention, Lucius is invisible to his family.

They really believe he's going to be a star Quidditch player, they really think he's a great musician, they really think he's just like his father. They're proud of him, but they're proud of non-existent accomplishments. It doesn't seem to matter what he does or doesn't do, he always gets a gold star. Lucius is a little hooked on the perpetual praise at the same time doesn't trust it.

Deep background but not in the actual fic: He's compared to his father constantly, yet his father's a brilliant Arithmantist, a businessman with an uncanny ability to predict the future who has little interest in people. His son is a set of magical calculations to him, as is everything else. Lucius' father married late and spends most of his time in his office tower, fine-tuning his Arithmancy. He's a respected eccentric.

This left Lucius' mother as the one who runs the household and as the sole point of human and social contact for the Malfoys. You begin to see why the Malfoys are blind to who Lucius really is. She's a mother and thinks, naturally, that her son is perfect. Everyone who wants something from her goes along with that, reinforcing the illusion. She's also a bit disappointed in the husband she has, so poured out her attention, ambitions, and projected her own fantasy onto her son. When she says Lucius is just like his father, really, she just wants it to be that way. Her husband is distant enough that she can imagine that he's more like her son than he is.

Lucius and his father are not even remotely alike and Lucius knows it. He has a choice of either looking down on his father or considering himself a failed version of the man. Lucius is smart enough to know that his father is flawed, so to defend his own ego, looks down on him. And he's picked up on his mother's disappointment in his father without even noticing it.

Lucius needs a father figure, badly, but what he wants is something that's true, that's real. Voldemort doesn't care about anyone's feelings and, like most sociopaths, he's startlingly accurate in his assessments of people. He's everything Lucius craves like a dying plant.

But Voldemort gave him something more. He proved Lucius' one talent -- didn't tell him about it. Proved it, in a way Lucius couldn't doubt.

The biggest problem with all the BS is that Lucius didn't believe in himself. In his own bizarre way, Voldemort did (unintentionally) Lucius a lot of good. Then he gave the bored dissolute kid a challenge; a real one, where he could test himself. Oh yeah, Lucius swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.


By the way, Lucius is a much better father to Draco. He makes a point to at least pay attention to the kid and notice his faults. If he played out his own fantasy of being Slytherin Seeker by buying Draco's place on the team, well, who can blame him? Parents do that. It's scary that he learned how to be honest from Voldemort though.