Fic: Taking Stock

[hbp_sockpuppet]

Title: Taking Stock
Author: lyras
Characters and pairings: Horace Slughorn
Rating and warnings, if any: PG-13
Prompt, if any: Loosely based on this from lyras: "Something to do with Slughorn and Tom Riddle. Did Riddle ever make Slughorn's wall of fame? When did Slughorn admit that Riddle was evil?"
Summary: After his Christmas party, Horace takes stock.

Comments

[magnetic_pole]

Oh, wow, this is amazing! I can hear Slughorn talking here. What a wonderful glimpse of him, with such telling, off-hand comments:

One can't fault his egalitarian attitude to friendships, at least. A chip off the old block in that way - his parents never cared who their friends were, either. Funny attitude.

and:

Of course, if they'd kept Muggleborns out of the school, as they ought to have done in that political climate, she need not have died. But, ah, you don't like to think too deeply about these things.

Brava! Fabulous ficlet, mystery author (and could you e-mail me with your name?). Maggie

[lyras]

Thanks, M! As I mentioned to you last week, this kind of took hold and demanded to be written.

Slughorn isn't an entirely likeable character, but he is interesting, IMO.

[werewolfsfan]

Oh, this so sounds like Horace's voice! You sucked me in and lead me right along until you got to the knock out punch!
And how I love you for this, mystery author!

If on occasion you have let yourself get too close to someone or other, you've always distanced yourself, at least until they were out of school. You have your failings, but you'll never be one of those.

[lyras]

Thanks so much! I felt rather sorry for Slughorn here - I was so quietly nasty to him. *g*

[kellychambliss]

Superb Slughorn voice. I like the second-person pov: he keeps his distance, indeed. The way he asks rhetorical questions of himself: this just seems so IC to me. In particular, I like the and if you've given in paragraph. He's not unaware, and he's not free of pain, but he's arranged his thoughts to make himself as comfortable as he can, just as in life.

The host must be up to scratch at his own gathering!

Such an IC Slughorn comment.

Good job.

[lyras]

Thank you so much! Really glad you liked this.

he's arranged his thoughts to make himself as comfortable as he can, just as in life.

Yes, that's exactly how I see him.

[veritybrown]

Beautifully done!

[lyras]

Thank you very much!

[vegablack62]

Very impressive picture of Slughorn, his character, attitudes and likely history, but also a very enjoyable read.

[lyras]

Thank you! I really enjoyed writing this, for some reason, so I'm glad it came out well.