Since everybody's doing it, here's my fic round-up for 2009. I actually did manage to write three things. Fancy that!

Frozen, Poppy Pomfrey/Severus Snape, PG-13, written for HP Beholder 2009

The Full Circle, Doctor Who crossover, Remus Lupin/Tenth Doctor, rated R for some sexual contents and general emo-ness

Not the Model Boy of the Village, gen, Sirius-centric, R (for language), written for the Big Bang Blackout and based on Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer

The last one, I am rather pleased with, as I managed to create a Dumbledore who's so ambiguous that even I myself are not sure whether I can trust him or not. I found myself believing him, even though I knew I shouldn't, seeing as I wrote him and knew what he did last summer.
I think I am beating a dead horse here (i.e. Dumbledore = Uber-Manipulator), but I was thinking about the Dark Mark recently and have made some assumptions that I'd like to share.

Quite possibly it's [livejournal.com profile] pauraque's re-reading of GoF which triggered this thought, because I can't otherwise explain what made me wonder about the Dark Mark and its implications at this stage. GoF is an old hat, and I should rather have continued writing my ideas on postHBP!Bill, but there you go. This theory appeared from thin air and required being written down.

I've always worked on the vague premise that the Dark Mark triggers reactions of other Dark Marks in its vicinity. It's not in the text, but what is in the text is:

"It was a means of distinguishing each other, and his means of summoning us to him,"

says Snape when explaining the Dark Mark to Fudge in Chapter 36, The Parting of the Ways, in GoF. But how exactly it is used by Death Eaters to distinguish each other?

The books imply that all wizard robes have long sleeves, which sort of rules out the possibility of accidentally spotting another Death Eater's Dark Mark. Besides, as the Dark Mark tattoo features the same motive as the Dark Mark spectre that is used by Death Eaters to indicate that they've just murdered people, it would not be wise for Death Eaters to flash it at the unsuspecting public, who are familiar with the motive and not very fond of it.

Sneaking up at random strangers loitering in dark corners in Knockturn Alley and pulling up one's sleeve to show them one's tattoo in the hope that they, too, are Death Eaters might work, but is still risky and is bound to be futile. - There are more random strangers loitering in dark corners in Knockturn Alley than there are Death Eaters, and it is not a very efficient way of recognising possible allies.

The Dark Mark might be used in lieu of a password to authorise Death Eaters to enter Dark Revels™. It's certainly very handy for people like Crabbe Sr. and Goyle Sr. who are - as the text implies - not terribly bright and incapable of remembering complicated sequences such as, say:

"The significant owl hoots in the night."
"Yet many grey lords go sadly to the masterless men."
"Hooray, hooray for the spinster's sister's daughter."
"To the axeman, all supplicants are the same height."
"Yet verily, the rose is within the thorn."
"The caged whale knows nothing of the nighty mighty deeps."
"The ill-built tower trembles mightily at a butterfly's passage."


So yeah, flashing your Dark Mark at the doorman instead of rattling down elaborate passwords does make sense - especially when you consider that Lord Voldemort does not seem to select his followers on account of their intellectual prowess.

But I thought - as Voldemort uses the Dark Mark to summon his followers by activating one Death Eater's Mark (Peter's in GoF) to which the other Dark Marks react thus indicating to their bearers that they have to Apparate at Voldemort's side - that it would make a lot of sense for individual Dark Mark's to activate each other, too. If a (masked and robed) Death Eater bumps into another (masked and robed) Death Eater, they know instantly that they work for the same side. I used this concept in The Last Resort, where Snape realises that Peter's just entered the room by the reaction of his Dark Mark.

What does that mean for GoF? )
Title: Glowing Embers (The Phoenix from the Ashes Remix)
Author: Donna Immaculata
Characters: Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Character Death
Summary: "To the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure"
Disclaimer: Not my characters, I'm just playing
A/N: Written for the Remix/Redux Challenge, remixing [livejournal.com profile] bethbethbeth's story The Man Who Lived

Glowing Embers
Here's the second part of my Snupin fic. I can't explain the ending. It sort of... happened.

Part I

Part II )

I have followed the discussion resulting from [livejournal.com profile] marinarusalka's Dumbledore essay on [livejournal.com profile] hp_essays (and have contributed a lengthy comment which basically is my Dumbledore essay), and in combination with the other Dumbledore essays I've read, as well as the fact that [livejournal.com profile] mimine once pointed out the similarity between Dumbledore's and Lupin's characters (i.e. manipulative liars), I realised something that I feel the need to address.

Everyone who has read more than one entry on my LJ will have noticed that I do like Remus Lupin. In fact, I rather adore him. I've discussed his characterisation with several people by email and I have posted comments (most often rather lengthy ones) on other people's journals. I do hope that everyone who has read my opinion on Remus realises that I don't like him because he is nice, essentially good person, but because he is a smooth liar who tends to dodge responsibility. He withholds important information all throughout PoA. We all know it, we all criticise it.

What strikes me as rather mysterious is why everyone accuses Remus on not telling Dumbledore about Sirius' Animagus form, when not one anti-Dumbledore essay (unless I missed it) lists the fact that Dumbledore knew about the tunnel leading to the Shack because he was the one who had it built as one of Dumbledore's many failures. Remus didn't have to give that information. He had it from Dumbledore, after all.

The fact that Sirius is an Animagus is certainly very important, but it isn't how he got into the castle. It is how he escaped Azkaban - and travelled the country. He would have been able to get into the castle even without being able to turn into a dog. He moved around the castle human-shaped. Being able to turn into a dog made it easier, but the major reason he was able to get on the grounds was the tunnel which Dumbledore himself had built and yet not blocked - although he had Filch supervise/make inaccessible all the other secret passages to the castle, just in case.

Remus is guilty of withholding information in many instances, but not of withholding from Dumbledore how Sirius got into the castle.

BTW, [livejournal.com profile] marinarusalka, this doesn't refer to your essay, which focuses on quite a different aspect of Dumbledore's character. It's merely something-I've-always-wanted-to-say.

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