Meme answers

[rosie_rues]

The life-eating original fic of doom is finished, a week ahead of time, and I suddenly feel less panicky about finishing blanketforts. Phew. Between the two projects I've already written over 58,000 words this month.

For clevermonikerr5 Favourite Book of All Time

I've gone for the books I love most rather than the ones I admire most. The admirable ones are less likely to be read until they fall apart. :)

1. A Room With A View - E. M. Forster - I love all Forster's books but this is my favourite. He has a rare gift for being bitingly ironic without being misanthropic.

2. The Monster and the Critics - J. R. R. Tolkien - his essays on Beowulf, inventing languages, and why people should study language as well as literature. I first read this when I was about 15, and I would never have read what I did at university if Tolkien hadn't won me over then.

3. The Dark is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper - if I had to pick just one, it would be The Grey King but I love them all. I read them so many times when I was younger than I still have bits memorised.

4. Confessio Amantis - John Gower - Gower was one of Chaucer's contemparies. He's overshadowed by Chaucer now but was equally respected at the time. He's a subtler poet, with a deliciously sly sense of irony. It's not the sort of book you can often read right through (not least because it's been out of print since 1902) but I've got several collections of selections. It's where I go first when I've been missing Middle English.

5. The Crown of Dalemark - Diana Wynne Jones - like, Susan Cooper, I'd be pushed to pick just one of hers. This is the one I'm currently reading. I could go on for hours about why I love her writing so much. I wish I could write like her.


For scoured5 Things Sirius Never Understood About Regulus

1. He never wanted to be in Gryffindor, even after Sirius told him they weren't monsters. He loves his house.

2. His father used to introduce them to guests as 'the heir and the spare.' Reggie hated being the spare as much as Sirius hated being the heir.

3. The year Sirius went to Hogwarts and Reggie was left alone in that house was the worst of his life. Even now, when his friends are dying around him and Voldemort is watching him, his nightmares are full of dark halls and the scutter of Kreacher's steps.

4. Just because he refers to Andromeda as 'the blood-traitor', it doesn't mean he doesn't miss her. He sent her a card when Nymphadora was born, though he didn't sign it.

5. He would have gone with Sirius, if Sirius had just asked him, instead of telling him he was a fool to stay.


For nassima5 Places Sirius Feels Free

1. The cousins lived in the Dowager House, hidden in the folds of the Berkshire Downs. They went there every Easter. When he was very young, Sirius thought the gardens there went on forever, mowed lawn after orchard after lawn. He would dive off the terrace and run, bellowing into the wet spring air, knowing that no wall would stop him. The others, except Andromeda, who thought they were all fools, ran with him, Reggie stumbling at the rear.
Every year Bella, older and taller, would overtake him and then they would fight and squabble back to the house. Then, the year he finally began to grow, he drew too far ahead, his mind full of blood-traitors and full moons and red banners across the walls, he left her behind. When he came at last to the end of the gardens, he was alone. The air seemed quiet, with no sounds of raised voices or traffic. Then he heard the wind rustle through the apple trees and the birds begin to sing again.
Below him, beyond the fence, the downs fell away, rolling towards the valley, mist-green and vast.

2. The Potters lived in Bosham, on the edge of Chichester Harbour. An energetic boy and his dog could ramble south from the village until they came out onto the channel. A tiny ferry ran from there to the village of Itchenor, a boating centre. Padfoot loved boats. He liked to perch in the prow and stare over the edge, tongue lolling as he sniffed the boat smell of salt water and tar and oil. Boatyards are full of fascinating Muggle things, like chains and lathes and cranes. He dragged James and Remus down to the ferry every day in the Easter holidays of their sixth year. He told himself it was because of Padfoot. It didn't have anything to do with the boat across, which was called the Itchy-Bosom ferry, or the utterly delightful way Remus blushed every time he saw its name.

3. Once a month, at night, the human guards at Azkaban marched all the prisoners out of their cells and lined them up along the shore. With the Dementors drifting along the water's edge, they counted the prisoners, to work out who had died since the last roll was taken. On a clear night, Sirius could look straight up, past the moon. For a while, until the Dementors gathered, he could see nothing but stars.

4. He had always loved the hills above Hogwarts. He and James had run there, dog and stag, even when it wasn't the moon. One night he persuaded Remus to break bounds. They found a cave and there, without the inhibiting presence of Peter and James in the neighbouring beds, they made love for the first time.
Sirius lost that memory, like so many others, in Azkaban, but when he returned to the mountains in the year of the Triwizard Tournament he found it easy to choose a cave. It was damp and dark and pokey and he had no idea why he felt so pleased with himself every time he lay on the floor to go to sleep.
Then Remus came with a food parcel and a pile of books and showed him their initials carved into the walls. It didn't take Sirius long to decide that the only way to get that memory back was to reenact it, detail by detail.

5. There's a little park, not far from Grimmauld Place. Once a week, Remus dares Dumbledore's wrath by downing polyjuice potion and taking Padfoot for a walk. It's not very big but it's wide enough that he can run and bark and leap on Remus where he sits on the bench, pretending to read.
"Snuffles!" Remus squeaks, in the silly, breathy voice of whatever blonde tart contributed her hair for the potion. "Down, boy!"
Sirius bounces off again, chasing a newspaper carried on the wind. One day, when all this is over, he's going to come back here, as a man, and sit beside Remus on that bench. They'll be a little bit older and a little bit greyer, but Sirius still intends to tell the daft bastard that one of the many reasons he loves him is because Remus is willing to don a pair of tits just to make his life a little more bearable.
For now, though, he'll make the most of this brief freedom.


For jadis315 things you would NEVER do again

1. Commute more than two hours in each direction.
2. Not take my diabetes seriously.
3. Study literary theory.
4. Write R/S confectionary smut (once is enough).
5. Be loyal to a manager who screamed abuse at her staff in public and then used emotional blackmail to make them think it was their fault.

This one was hard. I'm not a risk taker. At all.


For dollabellae5 Favourite Slytherins

Heh.

1. Regulus Black
2. Andromeda Black
3. Narcissa Black (Noticing a theme yet?)
4. Alphard Black (he's another interesting non-character in canon)
5. Pansy Parkinson