Drabble for kelly_chambliss: Dark Owl (Minerva/Amelia)

[bendleshnitz1]

Recipient: kelly_chambliss
Title: Dark Owl
Author: bendleshnitz1 / bendleshnitz1
Pairing/Character(s): Minerva McGonagall/Amelia Bones
Prompt: A letter
Word Count: 322
Rating: G
Warning(s): Character death. Canon. Suggested femmeslash.
Summary: Minerva founds out about Amelia's death (could be considered a missing moment from HBP).
Author's Notes: I've only written McGonagall once before and it was almost a year ago. Hope it's not as bad as I think it is. And I had a blast participating in the community! It made the World Cup more exciting than it already is ;) Also, many thanks to my awesome beta, tania_sings

Minerva felt a shiver ran down her spine as the dark owl approached her window. It was the owl no one ever wanted to see. He Who Must Not Be Named was back and there wasn't a single soul who didn't have his or her days counted.

Closing her eyes briefly, she could hear her own brain working frantically, wondering who was the victim this time. Dumbledore had gone on another secret mission for the Order, leaving her in charge of the school. There wasn't much to do during the summer holidays, but even when it was unexpected, duty called and she had to be ready for anything that may threaten Hogwarts or its students.

Opening the window, the owl flew to her desk, already offering its leg for her to untie the letter. With quivering fingers, she opened the fancy parchment. Her eyes looked over the two small paragraphs until they found a name she was too familiar with. "...the Ministry has been attacked... sorry to inform you... Amelia Bones... Madam Bones fought with remarkable courage... the memorial..."

Gasping, Minerva fell to the floor. Her whole body was shaking while she tried to breathe properly.

"Lia," she whispered as she felt the tears now running down her cheeks. "No, no, no..."

Standing up was more difficult than she had expected. Helping herself with the desk, Minerva made her way to the chair. She searched blindly in the first drawer to her right for Amelia's picture.

"You promised," Minerva said softly as she looked at the photograph in which Amelia sat, smiling at the camera, surrounded by hundreds of Cornflowers. The bright blue colour of the flowers brought more attention to her blue eyes. "I can't keep going alone, Lia. I need you. Please, don't leave me," Minerva pleaded at the moving picture over and over again until she fell asleep from exhaustion with the smiling image of Amelia on her hand.

Comments

[pale_moonlite]

This is heartbreaking! I always love to see missing moments from canon, and I can imagine it having happened that way. I especially like the idea of death lists sent via dark owls. Very atmospheric!

[bendleshnitz1]

Thanks!!
Oh, yeah. I found some WIzarding things very...theatrical (not over the top, but...) and I would imagine them setting the atmosphere even in the little details ;)

[ysilme]

Very atmospheric indeed! I love missing canon moments too, and this works really well. The dark owl idea is great!

[bendleshnitz1]

Thank you!! I'm very glad you liked it :)
Missing moments are awesome. I'm thinking of re-starting a community about them.

[ysilme]

There is already a C2 on Fanfiction.net dedicated to Missing Scenes, run by Chemistress a.k.a. minervas_eule. You'll find a lot of missing scenes in there.

[bendleshnitz1]

Thank you for the link! I have to find out how those C2 things on ff.net work :)
I'm a fan of Missing Moments and write them often

[ysilme]

I hope nobody minds me explaining that here... *looks around*

It's rather easy to make them work or work with them :wink:
First, you obviously need an account on FFnet, and you can add only fics on FFnet, too. Every user can start just one comm, for that you log into your acount, click on "communities" and on "create/edit". The rest should be easy enough.

When you have created a comm or are staff member of one (the creator can invite other FFnet users as staff), you can choose with every fic with a drop-down menu down left to add the fic to your/a comm.

If you just want to follow a community, you need to be logged in, go to the main page of the comm (like with the link above) and click on "subscribe". There is also a feed option, but I have no idea how that works.

If you've subscribed to a comm, you get alerts for every new entry (provided that you are getting alerts at all). But you also can just bookmark it and visit it from time to time.
It is always wise to change the rating to the highest possible to see all entries, as the default setting is for "K->T" only and one doesn't see all entries if some are rated higher.

I hope that helps.

[bendleshnitz1]

Oh that's great! Thanks for the explanation!! :D

[therealsnape]

Poor Minerva. And that dark owl is quite a touch. As was the contrast with the lovely, cornflower-filled picture.

[bendleshnitz1]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it :)

[tetleythesecond]

This is very moving (and not just because Amelia is one of my favourite characters.) I love cornflowers, and the contrast between the serenity of the picture and the news of the death works very well. As does the image of Minerva just sitting down and falling asleep over the picture from exhaustion.

[bendleshnitz1]

I've never written Amelia before (nor have I thought of doing so until now) so it was a nice experience :)
I'm very glad you liked it! Thanks for reading :D

[queen_of_snapes]

That first sentence is perfect! It sets the right atmosphere for the story. Poor Minerva, I feel for her! Imagining her breaking down with grief is terrible because she's such a strong character.

(Slightly OT, but I finally figured out why your nickname sounds familiar :D)

[bendleshnitz1]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it :)
And yes, Minerva is a very strong and compossed woman. Imagining her losing it hurt me a little.

(Slightly OT, but I finally figured out why your nickname sounds familiar :D)
Really? Why?

[queen_of_snapes]

Is your nick not from a Gilmore Girls episode? I thought it was on a post-it Lorelei was reading out to Rory...

[bendleshnitz1]

haha Yeah!
When they make up after their fight and Lorelai reads Rory the notes she had taken of conversations she wanted to have with her.
Bendleshnitz and Brazzlefrat. I love those words now ;)

[queen_of_snapes]

Brazzlefrat! I knew there were two :) They are just too awesome...

[bendleshnitz1]

They are :)

[kelly_chambliss]

A perfect, if painful, missing scene (one of my favorite types of fanfic). Having a dark owl deliver bad news is a great idea -- very fitting for the traditional wizarding world. Even in canon, Minerva comes across as a person with very strong feelings, and I can see her giving way to their intensity when she's alone. You create such a strong sense of her isolation and pain. Amelia is one of my favorite minor characters, and I just love the idea of a backstory romance for her and Minerva, even if it has to end this way.

Thank you so much, bendleshnitz1!

[bendleshnitz1]

Oh I'm so glad you liked it! I've only written Minerva once and she wasn't the focus on the story, so I was kind of nervous with her, lol.

[tjs_whatnot]

Poor Minerva!

Excellent moment artfully portrayed. Thanks for sharing.

[bendleshnitz1]

Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoed :)