(no subject)

[essayel]

It's over a week since I last posted! This is bad. However there are a number of good excuses for this.
First and foremost is that finally - at long last - Dissipation and Despair has been published by ajhalluk and I couldn't really be expected to do anything else at all while that needed to be read. On the slim chance that anyone who reads this hasn't yet read Lust Over Pendle, probably because the whole idea of Draco/Neville is so bizarre that they can't quite credit it, please do yourself a favour and go and read it now, then you can read Dissipation and Despair and I'll have someone else to go 'squee' with. Both stories are to be found on www.shoesforindustry.net where they can be easily downloaded as ebooks. In addition you will also find The Mark of the Beast, which has to be the best Lupin story ever and I am very picky about my Lupin fics to read, even though I'm catastrophically unpicky about what I write!
Reason for not posting number two is RL in the form of decorating and other sundry boring stuff like that.
Reason number three is that we are down to two computers with net access and the kids are banned from using Paul's so we are all squabbling over mine.
Reason number four is that I have finally started writing the sequel to Black Dog. Here's a snippet but this time I'm going to post it when it's been written properly - there's so much I regret about BD!

Remus Lupin bit his lip and reflected that no matter how well you thought you knew somebody you could still be mistaken. He eyed the man across the table from him with misgiving and Sirius looked blandly back, eyebrows raised and an enigmatic smile just touching his lips.
No clues there then, Remus thought, and sighed and made his move. He sighed again as Sirius' fighting bishop streaked across the board and sent Remus' pawn spinning with a vicious swipe of his morningstar.
"Check," Sirius said with relish. "Mate in five moves, I betcha!"
Remus frowned and studied the board - Sirius was right, his king was doomed. He shrugged and symbolically tipped the black king onto its side, ignoring its annoyed squeak, then began to set the board up again. Sirius got up and moved across to the window and looked out at the grey afternoon. After a moment he raised his hands to grip the bars and rested his forehead against the back of one of them. Remus glanced up as the chains dangling from his wrists chinked dully against the cold metal.
"Not long now," Remus reminded him gently. Sirius didn't move but somehow the set of his shoulders showed that he had heard Remus' encouraging tone and he was making an effort to relax. "There," Remus continued, setting the last pawn in place, "that makes it thirty-seven games to you, thirty-five to me and one to the warder who brought in our lunch."
"Which means you owe me two hundred thousand Galleons," Sirius said lightly, "or two pints of Theakston's Old Peculiar to be drunk in the pub of my choice - when I get out of here."
Remus smiled - at least today Sirius was saying 'when'. On too many days recently it had been 'if'. "Haven't got two hundred thousand galleons - haven't got two hundred Galleons 'til after next payday," he pointed out, "so it'll have to be the beer. Which pub?"
Sirius turned his head at that and gave Remus the ghost of his old carefree grin. "How about the Roebuck at Deeping?" he suggested and Remus chuckled.
"I wonder if they ever got the tomato sauce out of the curtains," he asked. Sirius began to laugh but fell abruptly silent as they heard footsteps approaching the door. He turned, his back braced against the barred window, and the chains clinked again as he reflexively strained against them. Remus watched in concern as his breathing shortened and the colour drained from his already pale face.
Imprisonment had not been kind to Sirius. Remus knew that the treatment he had suffered was traditional - deemed necessary, in fact, to get at the truth - but to see his friend so pale and drained, shivering in the thin short robe, which was the only garment he was allowed, made his heart ache. Six weeks before they had walked together up the steps of Auror Headquarters. Alastor Moody had been waiting for them with a small hand-picked team and Sirius had been welcomed with open arms and eager smiles. Then Sirius had been strong, sun-browned and filled with hope, now his hands shook as the footsteps continued past the door without stopping.
"What's taking them so long?" he whispered, as he had at least a dozen times already that afternoon. "Surely it's simple enough? Either they believe the evidence or they don't! How long must it take for them to make up their minds?"
Remus had no answer to this. He might have said that all the various departments of the MLES would want to have their say, that there had been upward of fifty witnesses to get through, that the technical difficulties of displaying items of Muggle technology to sceptical wizards had been taxing to say the least, that, if things had really been all that bad, Sirius would hardly have been allowed the comfort of Remus presence but he knew that Sirius was in no state to listen to reason.
"Maybe they've forgotten about us," he suggested. "Maybe they've all gone home and the man with the key in his pocket is on holiday in Whitstaple."
"Yeah," strangely Sirius seemed to find this comforting, "and maybe you'll win this next game." He leaned over the table to move his Queen's knight and then began to pace, humming. Remus smiled as he recognised the slightly off-key strains of 'Van Deimen's Land' and moved a pawn.

Comments

Unblocked?

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Ooohhh, nice! What the world needs is more Black Dog, at any rate. I take it this happens before Writer's Block?

(And dare we hope a few more glimpses of "Legate Malfoy"? *slobber* )

Re: Unblocked?

[essayel.livejournal.com]

This is actually a 'prequel' I wrote it wrong! It describes the events leading up to the beginning of Black Dog and I can't imagine being allowed to post it on FA...it might have to go to the RS. Anyway thanks for your encouragement.