A living ganglion of irreconcilable antagonisms (original) (raw)

The Comfortable Wound (31075 words) by nimmieamee
Chapters: 18/18
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Characters: Harry Potter, Regulus Black, Ginny Weasley, George Weasley, Narcissa Malfoy, Andromeda Tonks, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Kreacher (Harry Potter)
Additional Tags: slashy subtext, Epistolary, Racism
Series: Part 1 of The Family Skeleton
Summary:

Harry Potter has a lot to contend with: a failing relationship, a life debt to Narcissa Malfoy, unpleasant family secrets, a grieving George Weasley, babysitting duties imposed by Andromeda Tonks, and a supremely unheroic postwar world. He can be forgiven for passing the Resurrection Stone off to Kreacher without a second thought. He might not have done it if he'd known the stone was meant to work on Inferi.

I love this fic. The world is not divided into good people and Death Eaters, and nor are these characters. They are complicated, and families are complicated, and Regulus Black has more than a touch of Lord Peter Wimsey about him (had Lord Peter been a teenager who had joined magical terrorists, and then backed out).

If it hadn't had me at:

The Weasleys of Ottery St. Catchpole scattered the nest with bits of genuine Egyptian mummy, adverts for a new joke shop, head boy badges, ancient and tottery broomsticks, dragon scales, useless plugs and round-peg sockets, bits of knitting in every color and variety, and scrapbooks full of moving photographs. The photographs’ captions: Our Ginny’s First Bit of Magic, Our Ginny & Our Bill With Aunt Muriel, Our Ginny in Her Dress Robes, Our Ginny & Our Ron in Maroon Jumpers, Our Ginny’s Tonsils Removed, Our Ginny & the Twins Trying to Wake Scabbers, Our Ginny Gives Dad a Hug, Our Ginny Crying Because I Said Quidditch was Awfully Dangerous & Have Told Charlie a Dozen Times to Leave the Younger Ones Out of It, Our Percy Reads Our Ginny Hogwarts: A History, Our Ginny Falling Asleep Because Our Percy Insists on Reading Her Hogwarts: A History. Presumably the nest also contained a genuine Our Ginny, though following the last battle everything within was shrouded in grief and it became difficult to find Our Anyone, every Weasley having taken to flying in and out at odd times to avoid each other. Seeing each other required speaking of or thinking about That Was Our Fred. This individual was nowhere to be found in person, though he did manage to wave at them from the pages of the scrapbook bound in black.

It would have had me at:

Plans for a foolproof hideaway were discussed. Hermione’s research indicated that such a powerful artifact could cause madness and ought to be hidden away. Dumbledore’s tomb was suggested and vetoed because it already contained the Elder Wand, and Ron felt that two of the three Deathly Hallows in one place was a strategic error designed to make life easier for future Dark Lords and also that Harry needed to realize that Dumbledore’s tomb was not a rubbish bin.

Next suggestion: Snape’s tomb. Harry felt this was a fitting complement to giving Dumbledore the wand, and also neatly echoed the fact that Snape had faithfully loved his dead, pretty mother and resurrected her memory within him all his life, etc., etc., poetic whatnot that he felt but couldn’t verbalize well because he wasn’t really a poetic fellow and also because this was Snape and his Mum. Hermione thought that was beautiful, but really Harry, Snape’s tomb wasn’t even built yet. Also Ron thought tombs were still not rubbish bins, c’mon people, have some respect for the magically deceased, what would Mum say.

And then, there is the point where Ron discovers that, for years, the Wizarding World was terrorised by the crack team of Bibby and Blonty...

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