get the story down
Title: By Any Other
Fandom: Harry Potter
Genre: angst, romance
Characters: Lionel Lovegood, Luna Lovegood, Marlene McKinnon, Veronica
He feels his name rolls off her lips, her tongue like no other. She pronounces it perfectly, emphasizes all the right parts. Never ever calls him ‘Li’ which, to him, has always sounded like ‘lie’, and he'd really rather not be reminded of all of his.
Coming from Marlene’s mouth, he is just simply ‘Lionel Lovegood’ and it’s all he ever wanted.
And then she dies. In his mind’s eye he sees her, still and cold with the breath his name was on frozen in her mouth like a lump of ice.
He sobs into Veronica’s shoulder, not hysterically and not stoically, just tiredly until finally everything’s been pushed out of him and he’s just…empty.
“I want a different name,” he tells her. “It’s important. I don’t want to be me anymore.”
Veronica’s a doll about the whole thing. She blinks, smiles, and says, “Xenophilius. I will call you Xenophilius.”
The name blooms easily out of her mouth, rose-like, and he can’t hardly disagree.
When Veronica dies, that terrible accident, he considers going by no name at all except for ‘Daddy-love’ as pronounced so plainly by his daughter.
But he can’t write ‘edited by Daddy-love Lovegood’ on The Quibbler so he just leaves it as Xenophilius. It would be too much effort to change it again, he’s getting so old.
He lives a long life. Wears yellow and radishes to Luna’s wedding (smiles at the Weasleys, especially the twin, because even after all these years he still feels the need to apologize). They don’t call him anything there either, besides ‘the father of the bride’ and he quite likes it.
Luna says her quiet, pleasant “I do,” and the Lovegood name dies that day.
The sudden rush of anonymity and blankness make his head spin as he sits in the front row, dabbing away tears, and he thinks that this must be what it’s like to have no name.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Genre: angst, romance
Characters: Lionel Lovegood, Luna Lovegood, Marlene McKinnon, Veronica
He feels his name rolls off her lips, her tongue like no other. She pronounces it perfectly, emphasizes all the right parts. Never ever calls him ‘Li’ which, to him, has always sounded like ‘lie’, and he'd really rather not be reminded of all of his.
Coming from Marlene’s mouth, he is just simply ‘Lionel Lovegood’ and it’s all he ever wanted.
And then she dies. In his mind’s eye he sees her, still and cold with the breath his name was on frozen in her mouth like a lump of ice.
He sobs into Veronica’s shoulder, not hysterically and not stoically, just tiredly until finally everything’s been pushed out of him and he’s just…empty.
“I want a different name,” he tells her. “It’s important. I don’t want to be me anymore.”
Veronica’s a doll about the whole thing. She blinks, smiles, and says, “Xenophilius. I will call you Xenophilius.”
The name blooms easily out of her mouth, rose-like, and he can’t hardly disagree.
When Veronica dies, that terrible accident, he considers going by no name at all except for ‘Daddy-love’ as pronounced so plainly by his daughter.
But he can’t write ‘edited by Daddy-love Lovegood’ on The Quibbler so he just leaves it as Xenophilius. It would be too much effort to change it again, he’s getting so old.
He lives a long life. Wears yellow and radishes to Luna’s wedding (smiles at the Weasleys, especially the twin, because even after all these years he still feels the need to apologize). They don’t call him anything there either, besides ‘the father of the bride’ and he quite likes it.
Luna says her quiet, pleasant “I do,” and the Lovegood name dies that day.
The sudden rush of anonymity and blankness make his head spin as he sits in the front row, dabbing away tears, and he thinks that this must be what it’s like to have no name.