FIC: Mark

[hbp_sockpuppet]

Title: Mark
Author: kellychambliss
Characters: McGonagall
Rating: PG
Prompt: From woldy: The scene with the lit wands raised to salute Dumbles, from Minerva's POV. I'd also love to hear if there is backstory to that gesture in the context of Minerva's life.
Summary: Minerva and the thousand points of light

Comments

[paulamcg]

After reaching the end I have to wonder how you’ve managed to make all this so vivid in my mind, even though there were few concrete details in the early parts, those about what she remembered. She mainly remembered how she had felt and what she had thought. Her evolving attitudes towards war are just so essential and poignant. And the description of the current scene in front of her shines even more wonderfully against that background. You really make me want to learn more about this character.

[kellychambliss]

Thanks for the thoughtful comment. McGonagall is my OTC, so I'm glad the story makes her interesting. As for the vividness, I suspect it's probably because the film helps us visualize the scene (much as I'd love to believe it's my writing /g/)

[paulamcg]

It is definitely your writing that made those memory scenes, too, vivid! Do you mind if I friend you? I’m afraid I’ve limited myself too much (in my fanfic reading as well) to Remus fic, and I’d like to be reminded more often that there are excellent fic worth my attention in other parts of this fandom, too.

[kellychambliss]

Do you mind if I friend you?

Please do!

You're right about the need to branch-out. There are so many good stories out there, but the fandom is so huge that it's easy to get focused on just a part of it. The McGonagall community is pretty small, so I have to go beyond it sometimes (or else doom myself to endless, sappy Minerva/Albus), but even there, it's more than possible to lose track of other fic.

[magnetic_pole]

Lovely! Minerva gets such a short shrift in HBP and DH--never seen as a potential successor to Dumbledore, brushed off my Harry, even, at the end of HBP, a perpetual deputy. This is such a redeeming fic for her, showing her growing maturity and resignation to playing her part in a man's war. Brava! Maggie

[kellychambliss]

Thank you! I was really disappointed in how HBP, book and film, sidelines Minerva (I remember being very annoyed by that Harry-brush-off scene when I first read the book). So it's fanfic to the rescue.

[blueeyedgrl]

This is so beautifully done; it evoked the same response as the movie itself did, and that was to bring me to tears.

[kellychambliss]

Thanks! It really can be a touching scene -- due mostly to the actors' skill, I think.

[woldy]

Gah, this is fantastic. I love how layered the meanings are & how it both adds to our understanding of Minerva and shows the transfer of resistance across generations as the students replicate her gesture.

[kellychambliss]

Thank you for the excellent prompt; I started writing in my mind the minute I read it.

[therealsnape]

Brilliant. Particularly loved:
proclaimed her victory to the heavens. and the parallel of Bellatrix in the film, doing just that. Only it's the Dark Mark, it isn't her victory, she's old enough to know better.

The pacing of that 'She had been very young.' Even your empty lines are just so.

she stands again in war, It's so easy to overdo pathos, but this is, again, just so.

the children who will do most of the dying this time.
the quiet-that-passes-for-peace before the inevitable rise of the next dark lord. The last word in anti-jingoistic speach. I've always been surprised that JKR, after describing Grindelwald, Voldy 1 and now Voldy the sequel, still wants to give the idea that all is well now forever ... That the blood shed is actually a final solution.
but fight the fight again. Light the light again. Leave a mark.
With a soft rustle of robes, Minerva raises her wand to the sky.
The whole story is a perfect tribute to that 2-second close-up of Dame Maggie and everything she conveys in it.
Thank you.

[kellychambliss]

Such a lovely, thorough comment; thank you so much! I was sorry, too, about JKR's suggestion that all's-right-with-the-world now that Voldy's gone. Fanfic has provided a nice corrective to that view, I think.