Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings

HP Beholder, my favourite HP fic exchange ever, is over for good. I'm incredibly glad I decided to participate after all. I did dither for a while and, back in February, wrote: Now: do I sign up for this year's HP Beholder or not? It might give me the opportunity to write a sweet tale of underloved, underappreciated souls finding love. But knowing me, I would only end up writing a painful and awkward encounter between two unpleasant people who learn nothing from that experience.

Well, quite. I ended up writing an unpleasant encounter between two people, one of whom mercifully did learn something from it. Still, the whole thing did turn out pretty nasty:

Not being much into Draco Malfoy, I've never given it a thought, but maybe someone else (... slippyslope?....) has: How did Draco really feel about Umbridge's crusade of denial? I mean, it is pretty obvious that he quite liked the idea of Dark magic (Borgin & Burkes, CoS), that, in his opinion, there was something thrilling about the whole Heir's of Slytherin affair? I by no means assume that Draco is evil, but he grew up within an environment which idolised Voldemort. So how would the stupid, deluded kid react to Umbridge and the Ministry's propaganda? One should think he wasn't too happy about it. I honestly don't give him enough credit to think that he can mask his feelings well enough to support Umbridge even though he disagrees with her policy, because Draco tends to display his likes and dislikes very openly, without considering possible consequences. Is he on her side because it's not Dumbledore's? Or is it merely because Rowling makes Draco take the wrong side, regardless of the the quality of the individual 'wrong'?

And where are Ted and Andromeda Tonks? They are not dead - Tonks uses the present tense when talking about them ("My dad's Muggle-born and he's a right old slob." "My mum's got this knack of getting stuff to fit itself in neatly - she even gets the socks to fold themselves ..." The Advance Guard, OotP) - but they never get mentioned as Order members/supporters. Are they relevant at all? They should be. Andromeda is Bellatrix and Narcissa's sister, after all.

Hm, yes. That is what I think about when I should be working instead.