Happy New Year: Fics for you
Dec. 31st, 2005 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarusThank you to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
underlucius for the beta review.
This isgoseaward'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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-01 05:48 pm (UTC)But this fic gave you something you don't often see... Lucius Malfoy saying "mummy." I mean, I haven't read too many where he was young enough to still have his own parents around.
I also really liked your tag name for the piano teacher. Mr. Clavier... that is very Rowlingesque. She (and HP fanfic) have some of the cleverest play-on-word names I've ever seen.
Thanks for writing/sharing this!
no subject
Date: 2006-01-01 11:41 pm (UTC)And Lucius will cooperate, thinking he's being a tough guy.
But this fic gave you something you don't often see... Lucius Malfoy saying "mummy." I mean, I haven't read too many where he was young enough to still have his own parents around.
Yes, thank you. This story's less about the Death Eaters and Voldemort than it is about the Malfoys. They're not a great family, in fact they're pretty messed up, but they were a family and Voldemort is going to destroy that.
I've gone back and forth over the ending. I really wanted to bring Lucius' parents back into the picture, show the immediate impact of Lucius joining the Death Eaters and how it blows a family apart in subtle ways, but I couldn't get the ending to work. I have five different versions and the seams always showed or the ending was watered down. I tried to bring Lucius' father into it, but worried about introducing a new character -- especially an OC -- at the end. I thought that would be distracting. Eventually I went back to my original ending, but I find myself compelled to write and Epilogue or something... something to bring it back to the family.
Icarus
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 03:32 am (UTC)