Fic - Three Wishes - 1/1

[evandar]

Title: Three Wishes
Author: Evandar
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Gen/Angst
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am making no profit from this story.
Warnings: Reference to abuse and torture.
Summary: Three wishes for three brothers. The story of the Deathly Hallows isn't quite what Beedle made it out to be.
AN: An exercise in headcanon, basically, because the Hallows were no where near explored enough in canon. This was written for the 'Three Wishes' prompt on my GenPrompt Bingo table.




“I wish for power.”

A twig was taken from an elder tree by the bank of a river and crafted into a wand. It had no core; it had no innate power. An enchantment was whispered over the wood as small hands wove a temporary spell to increase the power of its wielder.

Its first spell was the Cruciatus – aimed at its maker, who writhed and sobbed “brother!” – and its second the Killing Curse. When it was stolen and Antioch killed, the enchantment broke, but half of all magic is belief.

“I wish for control.”

Small hands took a pebble from the riverbank and bathed it for three nights and three days in tears and moonlight. On a whim he scratched a symbol into its side – every artefact needs some sort of symbol; they always did in the stories – and he gave it as bidden to his second brother who turned it thrice in hand.

“Is this how you see the world?” he asked, staring at the spirit of his lost love.

“No,” he panted. The spirit, he knew, would look whole to his brother, but the dead cannot lie to necromancers, and he still saw the ravages of the Pestilence that had killed her. Cadmus saw her beauty because half of all magic is belief.

“I wish to be free.”

He wove a cloak from the hair of the dead, stolen from the family mausoleum in the night. He’d crafted the items that would fulfil his brothers’ wishes and it was time to fulfil his own while they used his gifts to destroy themselves.

The day after Cadmus was buried, he left the prison their riverside home had been, drew his cloak about his shoulders and escaped into the world he’d been kept from. Necromancers were hunted, reviled in their society, but without his brothers he was free.

He believed it, and so he was.

Comments

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

You are? Wow, I've found a professional. XD
True, I'm still improving my English and do keep playing with the thought to do the CPE Certificate. Not sure though, if I'm good enough. Some say yes, do it, some say do TOEFL. :/

It's my favourite HP/LotR Crossover. There are some others that are good, or let's say readable, but few use the world beyond what was shown in the movies. Few use the possibilities of the world at all. :|

Yes, if noticed that Ron fans tend to be "older" fans with family connections or high empathy.

True, that is annoying over the time, though I have grown to like her anyway. But then, I'm a trio fan. I do think they work best together.
Also, am I the only one bothered by Hermione's decision to erase the memories of her own parents in book 7? ^^" I thought it pretty ruthless.

:D So many possibilities. Maybe he mastered his own Death - but now has to actively learn to die. ;)

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

Websites for things like CPE, TOEFL and IELTS usually have past papers. If you're really unsure, take a couple of those - sticking to the time limit as best you can - and see how it goes. You might do better than you think you will. TOEFL and IELTS are the standardised ones for international study; CPE isn't, but it does have the Cambridge University stamp of approval, which makes it very desirable. Whichever one you go for, it'll be a great thing for your resume (and, no doubt, for your self confidence).

It's a great fic. You're right that it peters off towards the end before its abandonment, but it was very promising. That it wasn't another rewrite of the quest made it a lot more interesting. I get that people focus on that because it's what they know of LotR, but more variety (like there was in this) should be a possibility. Tolkien's universe is ridiculously well developed and underused.

The Trio do work best together, though I love reading alternate Trio fics (ones with Neville, Malfoy, whoever) because of the way that they alter characters (if not timelines, because hardly anyone seems willing to move away from the overarching plot of the books).

Still, all I can imagine with Hermione, is being handed an essay three times longer than I asked for every single week. Maybe it's just the teacher in me, but people like that are annoying - not only for the increased workload (and in the end, I'd do what my teachers did and penalise everyone who went more than 10% over the requested wordcount) - but because if only one person answers the questions, you can't tell how well the other students are learning in the classroom. Do they understand? Do they need to ask a question (without being patronised ala Ron in Philosopher's Stone)? Do they have a point to make that they won't because this one student demands all of the teacher's time or because they've come to see that they matter less? We don't see Hermione in class a lot, but given what we know about her - as well as her friends' attitudes to their own work, where they don't bother and she ends up correcting them or taking over - I can imagine her being awful in the classroom.

Also, yes. Her decision to erase her parents' memories was absolutely horrific. Not just for the massive disregard of trust and ethics, but because it's basically her saying "I know best; your opinions in this are irrelevant".

I imagine a fic that explored him learning how to die could be pretty interesting. It's easy to be killed, but if you can overcome that, how do you learn to let go?

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

I did the test online for CPE and thought it surprisingly easy. Also I contemplate to go abroad for my Master's degree. But I haven't decided yet where or how, and then there were so many degrees suddenly I was a bit surprised.
Many years ago I did the PET test with Cambridge. :) That's why I knew about the Cambride certificates. And well, TOEFL many other studets did who wanted to go abroad. But IELTS, I have only heard in passing before.
If you say it makes no real difference on the resume, i think I'll do TOEFL.

Exactly. Tolkien hasn't just written books, he described a world and it would be a pity to not use it.

Alternate trio fanfics can be very interesting and fill the lack of truly good trio fanfics. There are several, yes, but not many.

About timelines and alternatives: I think I might take Master of Death Harry and send him into an alternative universe and a bit into the past. A world where Grindelwald won the magical war, probably. Main reason? Because I thought it funny if Harry as the Master of Death lands in a place where his sign is used everywhere. Though, there are other reasons too. Grindelwald is mostly undescribed, he can be developed into any directions. Dumbledore is in prison. And Tom Riddle is full of dark potential but not yet completely insane (just... slightly, psychopathic insane).
I know you don't like such stories much, so if I write it, you wouldn't need to beta it. ^^" But at the moment I throw the ideas at you and would love to hear your opinion.

I think that's really the teacher in you. ;) But it's true that such a person would just demand too much of your time.
I was one year bored in my history lessons and in the first weeks just answered every question to not fall asleep. In the end I was the only one in the room who was allowed to doodle around and things, while the others had to listen. XD Still knew the answers, though, but didn't answer them anymore. It was an arrangement we both could live with.

About Hermione, I think she is sometimes awful, especially to teachers she doesn't like. In fifth year Dolores Umbridge clearly hated her, so did Snape for the matter.

Yeah. I mean, what if her parents had said: We accept the risks, but we stay for this or that or just as a statement? Or if they had said, "we help and print flyers?" There might have been discussions before, but the way she said it... didn't imply those at all.

Not fast and not easily. Imagine that you can only die, if you really want to. Interestingly it would tie in well with the HP verse, after all magic is all about the intention (as Bellatrix pointed out well).
I imagine it would be unimagineably difficult to intent your own death without any doubt, any fear, only determination and will.
I really like this angle of thought. :D

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

The Cambridge certificates are good, but in my experience, universities in English-speaking countries usually ask for foreign students to have either a 6.5 or a 7 on IELTS or the TOEFL equivalent. IELTS is the one that I've taught people for, so it's the one I know most about: there's a reading, writing and speaking section (kind of like every foreign language exam ever) where you have to give answers that progress in length and complexity to show off your ability with simple and complex English. The reading ones are occasionally nasty because they're known to use some pretty specialised academic language that you'd have to guess from context - though for the most part you're not expected to know the exact meaning.

I've been looking into a Masters as well, and yeah. There's a huge choice of what to do and where to go, and it all gets a bit baffling after a while.

It sounds like something I'd read :) I don't like a lot of stories like that because they don't tend to world-build or characterise enough for my liking. But it's a fascinating angle - Grindlewald would give an automatic connection to the Master of Death (maybe it's his symbol being used everywhere that drags him to that universe), and Grindelwald winning could have massive implications for Muggles as well as wizards depending on which route you wanted to take that down.

Can I beta? Please, please, please?

Lol, definitely the teacher side. XD I mean, even before I became a teacher I thought she was annoying, but now that I am? I just look at her and think 'oh god no, not in my classroom' because I know first-hand how much trouble a student like that can inadvertently cause. Doodling's not so much of a problem; it's if they distract or discourage the other kids or - as I can see Hermione doing - engaging the teacher in a debate during class time. Ugh.

Also, Marietta Edgecombe? She didn't deserve what happened to her. Not in the slightest. Yes, it led to trouble for the DA, but Marietta was in a horrible position herself. Thanks to Hermione, she has to suffer for that for the rest of her life.

Exactly! The way it was described made it sound like Hermione had just decided and that was that. There was also no mention of possibly contacting the Order and hiding them somewhere like they did with the Dursleys. Obviously, they wouldn't be able to do that for the families of every Muggleborn, but Hermione was pretty high-profile. Surely someone, somewhere down the line, should have realised that her parents were at a higher risk than the average and offered/arranged to help in a way that didn't involve wiping their minds and sending them to the other side of the planet. No? Really?

Oooh, that one's a potential plot that gives me chills. It really does. It needs to be done XD

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Then Toefl it is. :) But in autumn, not now. I'm already doing far to much at the moment to add this to my plate. Thanks alot for your information. It's sometimes difficult to determine the differences from afar, when you just want proof of your skills.
Funnily, the reading ones I'm not very afraid of. I've read several thesis papers and I understand them as well as I would if it were in German. That said, the chemical thesis paper a friend handed to me as her beta-reader was pure confusion to me. In both languages. But as long as it is about business or economics I'm fine.

Very true. I have no idea what Masters I want. I consider Logistics, International, IT... :|

Exactly. :) I actually want to think that Grindelwald was a lot more sane than Voldemort. Not less dangerous, surely, but sane, which is really not difficult to be. After all, Voldemort splitted is soul - seven times.
The universe is a bit like this: Dumbledore lost the duel against Grindelwald and was imprisoned. Grindelwald conquers Germany, France, mainland Europe. England, Ireland, Norway panic and a few Aurors have a brilliant idea: They research Grindelwald's sign and conclude that Grindelwald is the Master of Death. They create a summoning ritual, and a nice trap, not really expecting to work. But do get the "death" energy they decide to use a special portal in Britain...
and everything goes downhill from that.

Only difficult I have is this: I really would like to include Hermione and Ron. But obviously they're not summoned. So how would I get them into this alternate universe? Also, I wonder if all three of them should have seperate love interests - or if I go menage a trois. There are so few of that kind of story out there, that has plot and not just porn.

Of course you can beta. :D But I really take my time to built a universe. ;) And what I send you was more of a trial to get the "taste" of the story.

I can so see that attitude in my teachers. :D But some also relished in talking with the students. I think Hermione mellowed out a bit over the years. In third year with the Dementor here fear was funny - as long as one didn't consider the cause. Her worst fear was to return to the Muggle world, to leave the magic/ Hogwarts behind. I've long wondered if her homelife was all that good. Her parents seemed not especially caring, and in the books Hermione never seems to miss them. Worse, even during the summer months as the books go on, she spends less and less time at home.

... truthfully I always thought that Marietta would be fine after going to St. Mungos in the summer months. :| To curse someone like that for the *rest of their life*? That's really too much.

Mh, someone should've realised, yes. But cared enough to risk themselves to act? Nothing against the Order, but I think even the Dursleys were not hidden that well.
Worst case: Hermione didn't act alone. After all it was clearly stated in the books several times, that mind magic is dangerous, damaging and not good. So, a 6th year in Hogwarts? Even if it is Hermione it sees a bit beyond her skills to successfully pull off.
There is a very good possibility, that she asked for help and they told her to do this and gave her instructions how.

Added to the universe above. :D How long until one figures that out? How long until one truly overcomes the fear to die to the point that one really decides to die right here and now? My estimation? Long.