Icon ficlet the first

[pauraque_bk]

maidenjedi asked for a fic about this icon, which is a screencap of the Hogwarts Express from the PoA teaser trailer. Here ya go, luv.


Commuted Sentence

The train can't run fast enough for Hermione. She stares out the window at the jet plane tracks-- cotton-white bridges you could walk on, she's sure, if you knew the right spell. Telephone posts -- she closes her eyes against them. There's nothing she wants there.

Some people fall asleep on the train, but Hermione never does. Almost there, she says to herself, and squeezes her eyes shut tighter.

She's afraid of what might happen if she falls asleep now. She's afraid she'll wake up and it will be her 11th birthday, and none of the horrid girls from school will turn up for the party. She'll tell herself it was her mother who made her invite them all anyway, but the hurt will flood up hot beneath her eyes and in her cheeks.

And when she goes out to the wilting crocuses in the back yard to cry, this time there won't be an ancient owl sitting on the fencepost and staring at her with huge, accusatory eyes.

And so she'll cry, and the next day her father will drive her to school and she'll slump down in the upholstery and maybe today the girls will leave her alone -- big white straight grins and ribbons in their hair, and words words words slithering out between their teeth. But they'll never leave her alone. Not today, not tomorrow, not the next day or the next.

Hermione opens her eyes. The train is clacking and rattling over the long causeway now, and Neville is nattering on about how it really does seem rickety, don't you think? Hermione doesn't answer. She looks out the window, and the hills are nothing but brown and green, and the sky trackless blue.

A tense smile pulls at the corners of her mouth.

end.


isiscolo's next. If anyone else would like an icon ficlet, you have but to ask.

Comments

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

That's *beautiful.* It hurt, but in a very artistic way.

I think I'd be too much of a wimp to write *Hermione* on the Hogwarts Express, first year. It was bad enough writing Severus then. *coughnotpimpingstoryreallycough*

Has anyone requested one for the little white wax dragon yet?

[pauraque]

Thank you!

Has anyone requested one for the little white wax dragon yet?

Nope, all yours. You're after Isis.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[pauraque]

Here you go.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Marvellous. I'll bet that's just the way it happened, too.

[pauraque]

Danke. :)

Awww

[ann-mcn.livejournal.com]

And then, when she was 11, she arrived at Hogwarts, and the others still didn't like her at first.

Of course, she yearns for Hogwarts. Always.

Re: Awww

[pauraque]

True! The Hermione of the first book is a kid who desperately wants to be liked -- who bursts into tears when she's insulted by strangers, who compromises her principles to make friends. It's perfectly consistent with the way she throws herself into the magical world -- like you say, it's everything to her.

[idlerat.livejournal.com]

Ooo, fab. Love your writing, Eo, it's so tasty.

[pauraque]

Thank yew.

[dragonessasmith.livejournal.com]

She's afraid of what might happen if she falls asleep now. She's afraid she'll wake up and it will be her 11th birthday, and none of the horrid girls from school will turn up for the party.

Wow, that part made me want to cry...it was my friend's seventeenth birthday, and I was the only one who came to the party besides her next door neighbor and her parents...I wanted to tear myself in half just so there would be two people there for her...

Bah. [/ramble] Anyway, great writing, I loved it. Might I request a ficlet? I was rather amused by your 'Screw you guys, I'm joining the DE's' one. Please and thank you. :D

[pauraque]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. And sure, you can have an icon ficlet. You're after rikibeth.

[pauraque]

Here's yours. Hope you like it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

Wonderful... it's like staring out the window alongside her.

And so she'll cry, and the next day her father will drive her to school and she'll slump down in the upholstery and maybe today the girls will leave her alone -- big white straight grins and ribbons in their hair, and words words words slithering out between their teeth.

I love the repetition of "words," which makes such a bigger impact than the word itself once.

Could I request the Griffin and Sabinesque goldfish icon? Peter/Neville?

[pauraque]

This goldfish? It's actually a West Wing icon (circuitously representing my preferred canon ship in that fandom), but I take it you don't want that. Peter/Neville it is!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

I realized that after I looked at the key words. It reminded me of that postcard from "Griffin and Sabine" where the goldfish is swimming away from the smashed wined glass.

Thanks!

[maidenjedi]

Oh, damn. Eo, you never cease to amaze. This is a fantastic portrait of Hermione, and I really had no idea what you'd concoct from this icon at all. I'm delighted to read something so honest about Hermione; I often feel that while many readers "identify" with her, they don't ever write stories about her that capture the essence of who she is. I mean, Ron's not kidding when he says that Hermione is brilliant but scary. Somewhere inside she'll always be the know-it-all with the crooked teeth, the girl that no one really likes or wants to get to know. And that girl is bitter, and will haunt her in one way or another for a long time to come.

Brilliant!!! Thank you so much!!!!!!

[pauraque]

You're welcome! And thank you! I didn't know what I was going to write either; this just popped into my head all at once. I'd never written Hermione fic, and I don't even read much of it... maybe because of what you said, that most people don't have the guts to really get inside her.

Yay! I'm so glad you liked it. :)