"It was like some lovely game of make-believe, as he strode across the entrance hall, except only one of them knew they were playing."

   [ Lucius and Molly; two very different eighteen-year-olds, one Christmas Eve, one bottle of wine ]

  Beta - Kechara
  For - the Restricted Section's Slashers Do Het challenge

"Cranking the barred iron gate takes all the strength in his narrow back, one long strain with the mask clinging tight about his mouth as he sucks air."

   [ Lucius, in Azkaban, has a visitor ]

  For - Cassie, who wanted Lucius in a straitjacket

"He has a terrifying amount of control over my body. It took him weeks to insinuate himself, to force my surrender into a habit."

   [ a brief look at Quirrell ]

  Beta - Ayla Pascal

"The locket's hinge is broken and the painting is empty. Tom Marvolo Riddle throws it into the lake without a backwards glance as he leaves Hogwarts."

   [ Tom, finding inspiration of sorts in Dumbledore ]

  Canon - written before bk. 6

"Quarter past midnight as the two boys laze about; the old cat sleeps in the corner; Gellert leans against the inlaid coffee table in his thin white under-robe, spinning his wand slowly in one hand and smiling."

   [ Albus, Gellert, and magic tricks, during that summer together ]

  Spoilers - bk. 7

"Sunday: you are playing out the conversation that will never happen."

   [ Percy, being hypothetical ]

  Canon - written before bk. 5
  For - Cedar, for her birthday

"Of course I know he plans to be an Auror--everybody knows. He wants to walk up to evil, stare it in the face, and beat it into submission. But he will never defeat me."

   [ Tom Riddle and Alastor Moody do the Gryff/Slyth thing; unfinished WIP ]

  Canon - written before bk. 6 and not retconned
  Beta - Minerva McTabby

"People become prefects here because they're ruthless, or blue-blooded, or have simply mastered the subtle art of making people both love and fear you, which is something Cornelius has never gotten the hang of."

   [ Tom provides counsel in a most Slytherin manner ]

  Canon - written before bk. 5
  Beta - Minerva McTabby
  Ref. - recording (by myself)

"Magic runs in wizarding veins. It is not a mere by-product; it suffuses a wizard's life, plays a role in everything he does, from the mundane to the sublime, from the pedantic to the erotic."

   [ Snape/Harry surreality ]

  Canon - written before bk. 5 and assuming Snarry-tinted lenses
  For - Icarus' ficdrive for Cybele

"His mother drops by for afternoon tea and asks him why that awful girl is still here, and Tom snarls that she's his wife and doesn't answer when she asks why."

   [ Merope, sometime in 1926 ]

"This was his life, in five digits and a silver palm."

   [ Peter and his hand ]

  Canon - written before bk. 5
  Beta - Ayla Pascal

"They walk on. Gellert kicks stones with his pointed German shoes; Albus is chewing on a blade of grass. The sun is blood-red between the hills."

   [ concerning the fear of death ]

  Spoilers - bk. 7

"When you talk to snakes, everything comes in long stripes, and everybody stares at you as the little scaly garter winds around your wrist and flicks its tongue and murmurs about how blades of grass go this way and that..."

   [ Tom at ten, the crazy boy ]

  Canon - written before bk. 6
  Beta - Dester'edra

"The priest could not rid himself of the fear that the boy was going to kill himself."

   [ an ordeal in the lost years of the Dark Lord ]

  Beta - strange fire

"Go teach your children, eat your candy, preen your bird and bury me. But we were brilliant together, Albus, and not even you can change history."

   [ a correspondence between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald ]

  Spoilers - bk. 7
  Beta - Mattador of the Hot Pants
  For - Blogathon 2007, to benefit Heifer Project International
  Ref. - author's notes - art by Black Adder