Fic Post: survive its harshest hour

[darkhairedgirl]

Title: survive its harshest hour
Characters/Pairing: Justin Finch-Fletchley/Pansy Parkinson
Prompt: family history
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2280
Summary: 1998 ends with a bang. 1999 starts with her father’s face plastered over the front page of the Daily Prophet.
Author's Notes: 6/13. Title comes from the Paul Simon song “Father and Daughter.”

Comments

[hikarievandar]

This was wonderful - I adore the way you wrote Pansy. And Justin! There's so much potential between them! <3

My favourite line by far is: her father is soft and well-educated, patient with his son and indulgent of his only daughter. He collects bibles, for Merlin’s sake, old bloody manuscripts, not torture implements or antique poisons. I love it when Death Eaters are written as more than the two-dimensional villains they are in canon, and you've given Astor Parkinson some real depth.

[darkhairedgirl]

I have been stuck in Grad School Relocation Hell for the past few weeks, so my apologies for the lateness of this reply, but aaaaahhhh, thank you so much!! It makes me incredibly happy to hear that you like the way I've written Pansy, and Justin, and that you think I'm doing this pairing justice. :)

And you picked a favorite line of mine! I'm not a DE apologist by any means but I too dislike when they're written as strictly evil, one-dimensional villains compared to other characters, and I liked the idea of Pansy's father being a soft academic, more concerned with stopping the destruction of knowledge (and the well-being of his family) than "the cause" after the first fall of Voldemort. One of these days I'll get all my crazy headcanons down on paper, but until then I'll just keep sneaking it into stories like this. ;)

Thanks again!! <3

[orlando_switch]

It's good to see Justin take action because things could have gotten much worse if he had not intervened.

[darkhairedgirl]

Agreed: I was hesitant to have only Justin ride in to rescue Pansy (hence the reappearance of Amaryllis), but I'm happy to see that overall it worked for you. He has a good heart, and a strong moral center, and I'd like to think that motivates him just as much as his growing attraction to/friendship with Pansy. Thanks for reading! :)

[orlando_switch]

Well I am glad you choose to do so, because in the interaction with the prejudiced Aurors Pansy has no real chance to save herself. She would unwillingly provoke the same reaction Snape often gets, antagonizing people more instead of less.

And maybe the interference of Amaryllis might lead to some form of contact between Pansy and her estrangled aunt since I can imagine it would be helpful for her to have some adult around who actually knows the family she comes from.