KA Christmas challenge dilemma
Dec. 11th, 2004 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rayvyn2kI decided to enter the KA Christmas fic challenge and had what I thought was a brilliant idea! I would do a variation of "A Christmas Carol" using the Hogwarts characters. I wanted to write a sweet story of redemption. It was all going quite well until tonight.
Tonight, I went over to Occlumency to read the latest installment of KEC when I noticed not one, but TWO other fics based on the Dickens classic.
Needless to say, I was crushed.
Mine is different than both, even though the other authors used Snape in the Scrooge role, just as I have done (I mean, really, who else needs a visit from those Christmas spirits?). But now I'm a bit deflated...and wondering if I should just abandon it all together and begin anew...
The door to [Snape's]private chamber sported a brass knocker. There was nothing at all particular about it at all except that it was very large. Snape had seen it every day, twice a day, since the day he had taken up residence at Hogwarts. It is fair to say that Snape had little of what is called expressiveness about him as anyone in the wizarding world. And yet, that night, when Snape saw that same knocker, he saw not a knocker but Malfoy’s face.
Lucius Malfoy’s face, with a dismal expression on it as if he’d smelled a bad lobster in a dark cellar. It was not angry, but it looked at Snape as Malfoy used to look—with the same haughty eyes and the same arrogant sneer.
As Snape looked closely at this phenomenon, suddenly it was a knocker again. He muttered, “Peeves!” and swept into the room, slamming the door with a bang. The sound resonated through the dungeon like thunder. From the lofty heights of the ceiling above and every dark corner throughout the chamber seemed to have a separate echo of its own. Snape was not a man who was frightened by echoes. He closed and locked the door and walked into his room, not caring that it was quite dark. Darkness was an old friend and Snape liked it.
Before he went into his bedroom, he walked through the entire chamber and checked that everything was all right. His recollection of the face in the knocker drove him to examine the sitting room, library and bathroom to make sure all was as it should be.
Thus secured, he took off his robes and donned his linen nightshirt, his brocade dressing gown and his black slippers. He poured himself a small glass of brandy and sat down with a sigh before the low fire in the sitting room. As he relaxed back in the leather wingback chair, Snape’s glance happened to rest upon a disused bell pull that hung in the room that was once used to summon the servants of the long ago lord of Hogwarts castle. It was with great astonishment and an unfamiliar dread that as he looked, he saw the bell begin to swing. Soon it rang out loudly and he jumped in surprise.
This was succeeded by a clanking noise as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the stone floor of the dungeon.
“Merlin’s magical balls! Peeves, if you’re trying to scare me, I’ll have you disintegrated!”
The noise became much louder, coming through the classroom, then his office and straight toward his door.
And then through the door came a spectre he’d never seen in the castle before. As it entered, the dying flame leaped up and Snape’s pale face grew even paler.
It was Malfoy.
Tell me what you think, please.
Tonight, I went over to Occlumency to read the latest installment of KEC when I noticed not one, but TWO other fics based on the Dickens classic.
Needless to say, I was crushed.
Mine is different than both, even though the other authors used Snape in the Scrooge role, just as I have done (I mean, really, who else needs a visit from those Christmas spirits?). But now I'm a bit deflated...and wondering if I should just abandon it all together and begin anew...
The door to [Snape's]private chamber sported a brass knocker. There was nothing at all particular about it at all except that it was very large. Snape had seen it every day, twice a day, since the day he had taken up residence at Hogwarts. It is fair to say that Snape had little of what is called expressiveness about him as anyone in the wizarding world. And yet, that night, when Snape saw that same knocker, he saw not a knocker but Malfoy’s face.
Lucius Malfoy’s face, with a dismal expression on it as if he’d smelled a bad lobster in a dark cellar. It was not angry, but it looked at Snape as Malfoy used to look—with the same haughty eyes and the same arrogant sneer.
As Snape looked closely at this phenomenon, suddenly it was a knocker again. He muttered, “Peeves!” and swept into the room, slamming the door with a bang. The sound resonated through the dungeon like thunder. From the lofty heights of the ceiling above and every dark corner throughout the chamber seemed to have a separate echo of its own. Snape was not a man who was frightened by echoes. He closed and locked the door and walked into his room, not caring that it was quite dark. Darkness was an old friend and Snape liked it.
Before he went into his bedroom, he walked through the entire chamber and checked that everything was all right. His recollection of the face in the knocker drove him to examine the sitting room, library and bathroom to make sure all was as it should be.
Thus secured, he took off his robes and donned his linen nightshirt, his brocade dressing gown and his black slippers. He poured himself a small glass of brandy and sat down with a sigh before the low fire in the sitting room. As he relaxed back in the leather wingback chair, Snape’s glance happened to rest upon a disused bell pull that hung in the room that was once used to summon the servants of the long ago lord of Hogwarts castle. It was with great astonishment and an unfamiliar dread that as he looked, he saw the bell begin to swing. Soon it rang out loudly and he jumped in surprise.
This was succeeded by a clanking noise as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the stone floor of the dungeon.
“Merlin’s magical balls! Peeves, if you’re trying to scare me, I’ll have you disintegrated!”
The noise became much louder, coming through the classroom, then his office and straight toward his door.
And then through the door came a spectre he’d never seen in the castle before. As it entered, the dying flame leaped up and Snape’s pale face grew even paler.
It was Malfoy.
Tell me what you think, please.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 12/12/04 03:58 pm (UTC)It looks fine to me, but if you're losing your enthusiasm for the story, maybe try to find a way to freshen it up a bit. Change things around so you don't follow the usual path this story takes. :)
And...which Malfoy? *hugs*
(no subject)
Date: 12/18/04 10:21 am (UTC)Anyway, yeah, I noticed those stories at Occlumency too, although I haven't read them. You might notice that they (or at least one of them) made it into the Featured Stories column right away, which indicates that there is a demand for them. And never forget that even if the idea isn't entirely original, YOUR WRITING IS!
I'd love to see a version where Snape isn't Scrooge, for instance! Obviously it's too late for you to change that now, and that's cool. But like Donna said, maybe you can change around some of the other characters, to surprise the readers? But you know what? Even if you don't change a thing, you are a talented writer and your version will kick ass on the others. So don't sweat it!
Now, when are we going to see the final result?! *hugs* ~Lee