FIC: "Black, in the Smothering Dark", PG-13 to NC-17, All Parts
Black, in the Smothering Dark
Disclaimer: Harry Potter et al are not my characters, nor are the recognizable spells my spells, nor are the recognizable locations my locations. Basically, nothing is mine save the plot--which I'm sure is mine.
Rating: PG-13 (to NC-17) in later chapters for adult language, explicit sexual situations and clichéd plot devices. For the worried of you, neither Harry nor Draco will die.
Pairings: None, for this part. Implied is Sirius/Lily and James/Lily. Harry/Draco is the main pairing for part two, but there will be others--some which will surprise you and some which will not. There is no Ron/Hermione in this story, as I think they a better team without the sexual tension.
Words: This story, in total, is 103,074 words. It's like a novel in itself. I can't believe I wrote that much; this part was only supposed to be about 40,000 words, but I just kept getting new ideas. XD
Beta’d by: littlevlahgirl and amelancholykiss. They are both wonderful; any mistakes you see are mine alone. I encourage you to let me know if you read something in either of these stories that you feel is canonically incorrect, grammatically incorrect or even too far-fetched.
Summary: Below
If you have any questions, comments, love or hate, please leave them as a comment to this post. And as always, feedback on each chapter is encouraged and desired. Everyone likes to know how they're doing, after all.
Black in the Smothering Dark: Chapters & Summaries
1. Black House
::In which Harry cooks dinner, finds several surprising things in the attic at Privet Drive, makes a Gryffindor Decision that doesn't turn out well at all and is so delusional that he doesn't even question dead people showing up at his house.
8,450 words
2. Black Confessions
::In which Harry still hasn't asked the appropriate questions, Sirius accidentally reveals something he wishes he hadn't, answers something he probably shouldn't have, they try being domestic instead of actually 'talking' and Voldemort reveals his hand...maybe.
7,028 words
3. Black Coat
::In which there is a letter, Harry goes exploring, Sirius is revealed to be slightly unsure of himself, they Talk, Zach Smith isn't so bad (but he isn't so great) and there is a book.
7,416 words
4. Black, Arcturus
::In which dark magic is discussed, muggle-born are off-limits for discussion, Voldemort knows more than he should by far, the house-elf is snooty, Ron and Hermione write, and Harry turns seventeen. Finally.
6,716 words
5. Black Blood
::In which noses are pointed at, places are visited, things are found, Harry Hopes, Sirius Realizes, and Voldemort muses...a lot.
6,976 words
6. Black, Castor
::In which Harry reads a book, Sirius gushes over baby names, Harry's birthday is celebrated and Sirius acts like a Gryffindor prat. Sort of.
6,466 words
7. Black, Sirius
::In which Harry and Sirius don't Talk much, the house-elf is pussy-whipped, Harry writes to Dumbledore, Sirius tries to teach, and Voldemort comes for tea. At midnight.
7,367 words
8. Black Thoughts
::In which Sirius is concerned and confused, Harry is weary, Sirius lowers the wards, Harry talks to his friends, and Hermione feels bad for James Potter...even though she's found a really interesting book.
6,927 words
9. Black, Harry
::In which Harry and Ron acts like a couple of lads, Ginny and Mrs Weasley visit, Hermione doesn't approve of the house-elves, the house-elves don't approve of Hermione, Ginny Confides and Harry gets cheeky with Voldemort.
7,941 words
10. Black Potion
::In which Apparation Licenses are celebrated, Zach Smith seems to be everywhere, Sirius probably makes a bad decision, Harry is too stubborn to back down, and the guy at the Apothecary is pretty creepy.
7,449 words
11. Black Vow
::In which Harry and Sirius deal with the newspaper--Harry not as well as Sirius--Harry's grandparents have a lot to say on a lot of topics, Ron is sad, Harry is sad, Hermione is sad, and Harry makes An Incredibly Stupid Decision re: Voldemort, which doesn't end as badly as it might've, but ends much worse than it Harry expected it to.
7,600 words
12. Black Robes
::In which Snape will always be a traitor, there is a Death Eater meeting, Voldemort is sneaky, Harry is manipulated, there is more to Zach Smith than previously thought and Ron needs more Chocolate Frog Cards to collect.
7,035 words
13. Black Order
::In which Hermione doesn't approve of the pub, Ron gags, Harry gags, Sirius gags, Harry Can't Say, Snape is suspicious and Hermione might've heard too much.
7,073 words
14. Blackness
::In which Harry's grandmother is chatty, the alcohol is missing, the house-elves are procreating, Harry Gets Some, Ron is hung-over and Harry Is Not Afraid.
8,630 words
Story Info:
Disclaimer: Harry Potter et al are not my characters, nor are the recognizable spells my spells, nor are the recognizable locations my locations. Basically, nothing is mine save the plot--which I'm sure is mine.
Rating: PG-13 (to NC-17) in later chapters for adult language, explicit sexual situations and clichéd plot devices. For the worried of you, neither Harry nor Draco will die.
Pairings: None, for this part. Implied is Sirius/Lily and James/Lily. Harry/Draco is the main pairing for part two, but there will be others--some which will surprise you and some which will not. There is no Ron/Hermione in this story, as I think they a better team without the sexual tension.
Words: This story, in total, is 103,074 words. It's like a novel in itself. I can't believe I wrote that much; this part was only supposed to be about 40,000 words, but I just kept getting new ideas. XD
Beta’d by: littlevlahgirl and amelancholykiss. They are both wonderful; any mistakes you see are mine alone. I encourage you to let me know if you read something in either of these stories that you feel is canonically incorrect, grammatically incorrect or even too far-fetched.
Summary: Below
If you have any questions, comments, love or hate, please leave them as a comment to this post. And as always, feedback on each chapter is encouraged and desired. Everyone likes to know how they're doing, after all.
Black in the Smothering Dark: Chapters & Summaries
1. Black House
::In which Harry cooks dinner, finds several surprising things in the attic at Privet Drive, makes a Gryffindor Decision that doesn't turn out well at all and is so delusional that he doesn't even question dead people showing up at his house.
8,450 words
2. Black Confessions
::In which Harry still hasn't asked the appropriate questions, Sirius accidentally reveals something he wishes he hadn't, answers something he probably shouldn't have, they try being domestic instead of actually 'talking' and Voldemort reveals his hand...maybe.
7,028 words
3. Black Coat
::In which there is a letter, Harry goes exploring, Sirius is revealed to be slightly unsure of himself, they Talk, Zach Smith isn't so bad (but he isn't so great) and there is a book.
7,416 words
4. Black, Arcturus
::In which dark magic is discussed, muggle-born are off-limits for discussion, Voldemort knows more than he should by far, the house-elf is snooty, Ron and Hermione write, and Harry turns seventeen. Finally.
6,716 words
5. Black Blood
::In which noses are pointed at, places are visited, things are found, Harry Hopes, Sirius Realizes, and Voldemort muses...a lot.
6,976 words
6. Black, Castor
::In which Harry reads a book, Sirius gushes over baby names, Harry's birthday is celebrated and Sirius acts like a Gryffindor prat. Sort of.
6,466 words
7. Black, Sirius
::In which Harry and Sirius don't Talk much, the house-elf is pussy-whipped, Harry writes to Dumbledore, Sirius tries to teach, and Voldemort comes for tea. At midnight.
7,367 words
8. Black Thoughts
::In which Sirius is concerned and confused, Harry is weary, Sirius lowers the wards, Harry talks to his friends, and Hermione feels bad for James Potter...even though she's found a really interesting book.
6,927 words
9. Black, Harry
::In which Harry and Ron acts like a couple of lads, Ginny and Mrs Weasley visit, Hermione doesn't approve of the house-elves, the house-elves don't approve of Hermione, Ginny Confides and Harry gets cheeky with Voldemort.
7,941 words
10. Black Potion
::In which Apparation Licenses are celebrated, Zach Smith seems to be everywhere, Sirius probably makes a bad decision, Harry is too stubborn to back down, and the guy at the Apothecary is pretty creepy.
7,449 words
11. Black Vow
::In which Harry and Sirius deal with the newspaper--Harry not as well as Sirius--Harry's grandparents have a lot to say on a lot of topics, Ron is sad, Harry is sad, Hermione is sad, and Harry makes An Incredibly Stupid Decision re: Voldemort, which doesn't end as badly as it might've, but ends much worse than it Harry expected it to.
7,600 words
12. Black Robes
::In which Snape will always be a traitor, there is a Death Eater meeting, Voldemort is sneaky, Harry is manipulated, there is more to Zach Smith than previously thought and Ron needs more Chocolate Frog Cards to collect.
7,035 words
13. Black Order
::In which Hermione doesn't approve of the pub, Ron gags, Harry gags, Sirius gags, Harry Can't Say, Snape is suspicious and Hermione might've heard too much.
7,073 words
14. Blackness
::In which Harry's grandmother is chatty, the alcohol is missing, the house-elves are procreating, Harry Gets Some, Ron is hung-over and Harry Is Not Afraid.
8,630 words
Story Info:
- This is the prequel to The Hush of War (After Defections). It explains several things, including an idea I had to create a sort of derivative of Severitus fics by writing my very on 'Siritus' fic. (Wherein Sirius, instead of Severus, is Harry's biological father.)
- This part, Black, covers the initial 'Harry and Sirius find out' part of the story as well as introduces several important plot points. It is slightly possible that you will be able to pick up the storyline in The Hush of War without having read this part, but I imagine it would be a lot like reading CoS before reading PS.
- This story is canon-compliant up until OotP where it becomes slightly AU. It assumes that Harry experienced a relatively action-free sixth year (which is covered in the prequel, but I'd rather not disclose, as it will ruin part of that particular story if you haven't read it), and merges HBP into his seventh year, but in a twisted way. This part is a story about Harry finding family -- a family that includes Sirius as his father. The problem with this is that Sirius never learned how to be a good father and Harry, in turn, never learned how to be a good son. By the time Harry does find Sirius, he's already learned to rely on someone else--the wrong someone else. By the time Sirius appears (seemingly from beyond the Veil) Harry is already the pawn of a strange Devil's Advocate game involving a Voldemort who is very much human--a cruel, selfish, blasé human--but human nonetheless, and what lengths he might go to to accomplish what he meant to accomplish.
- At the age of seventeen, Harrt is world- and war-weary. He looks for an ending to the war, and he finds it in the wrong place. But, sometimes, the wrong places can end up being the right ones, at the end of all things.
- In this story, Harry is very much what I consider a Gryffindor to be: brave, stubborn, slightly illogical at times, but usually well-meaning. The problem with this is that even though he does mean well, he does make mistakes, and sometimes very big ones. Sometimes mistakes that seem like they're mistakes, but might not be at the end of all things. He's faced with several alarming situations--Sirius appearing out of nowhere as his father and Voldemort temporarily not trying to kill him only a few of those things. Through this all, Harry receives very few answers.
- I've tried to take several clichés that I am guiltily addicted to and write a story that is more plausible than some that I've read (this is not to say that these stories are bad; I would be lying if I said I didn't like them, I'm just trying to write one for all of those people who would never believe it). I'm not sure if I've accomplished that, but then again, it is quite difficult to write a plausible story where Harry decides he wants to let Voldemort live after all. It's also quite hard to write a story where someone other than James was Harry's parent. And whether anyone wants to believe this or not, it's hard to write a plausible story where Harry and Draco get together and stay together--especially if Draco is irredeemable.
- I would just like to say that so many other possibilities have been explored re: the ending of the war, but hardly anyone ever writes about Harry joining forces with Voldemort and not going dark. I felt it needed to be written. Harry's not going become a dark lord here, but he's going to be determined to win the war and Voldemort's going to help him. I'll let you take that how you will until the ending.
- This part of the story is gen, but it introduces the slash that will take place in the sequel. Harry knows that he's gay, but there will be one instance of het-sex in it. It is unimportant to the plot, and I have noted in the chapter if you should like to skip it. The second part, The Hush of War, is very definitely slash, and the final Harry-pairing will be Harry/Draco, but Harry will have been with other canon characters before anything like that happens with Draco and their relationship will not be the focus of the story. This is for several reasons, the most important being that Draco has been raised to hate Harry Potter, and I cannot, in good conscience, let the fuck until Draco learns to think for himself and Harry learns that everything is not black and white. (And yes, there will be fucking: lots of it and in great detail. Please keep this in mind as you are reading and refrain from doing so if you are under-aged or if reading this sort of thing is illegal in your country.)
- There are several very big plots in this story. One, you know (that Sirius is Harry's father) and others you will learn as you read. Most of these have nothing to do with Death Eaters or Dark Marks or anything like that at all, so if you are wary of reading a story where Harry joins Voldemort, I ask you to keep that in mind before you click away.
- Bsically, this is a story of 'what-ifs' and 'could-have-beens' but most of all, it's a story about family. More importantly, the Black Family.