The Willingness to Be Duplicitous

The Willingness to Be Duplicitous by R Grayjoy

Note: This link currently points to a locked post in the Friends Only community Erotic Elves.   If anyone knows of an unlocked copy of this fic, please let me know so I can change the link.  It is against C&C policy to link to locked posts, and this was done so in error.

Summary: Those who practice duplicity always suspect it in others. Oneshot, 1,200.

Why You Should Care: This is a spin on the Founders and their breaking that I have never read before — one that intrigues me and starts to poke into my own personal canon and seed. This Rowena is as interesting a character as Salazar, if not more so, and I long to know more about the how and the why of this story.

Why You Might Not Care: The reveal has been shrouded by a flash het sex fic that is somewhat explicit and probably NWS, but it’s all over pretty quickly, and my monitor didn’t steam over once. Not the best NC17 scene ever written by any stretch of the imagination, but since it’s not really the point (and indeed might have even distracted) it can be excused.

Weakness

Weakness by Alyx Bradford

Summary: “This cannot possibly end well.” Oneshot, 6,761 Words.

Why You Should Care: This is a great little oneshot fiction about the coming together of the Founders that also lays the breadcrumbs of the inevitable clash between Godric and Salazar.  The characters are wonderfully three-dimensional (well… you don’t really get much out of Helga’s cameo to be fair) and the thematic elements of this fic are tied right into the centre of it.  In addition, the writing is mindful of the era this is set in, and the dialogue fits this period piece quite nicely.

Why You Might Not Care: It doesn’t win a million points for having an original premis (the Salazar/Rowena/Godric triangle has been done plenty of times before, and I can’t help but wonder why it’s always Rowena in the centre of it — anyone got a Salazar/Helga/Godric fic laying around somewhere?) but the execution is nearly flawless.  Also, warnings for NC17 and NWS material, folks.

The Fourth

The Fourth by Twinsuns

Summary: They say that no spell can bring the dead back into the world of living, yet there is a loophole in that law… A look into a moment that spanned a lifetime. Oneshot, 1,082 Words.

Why You Should Care: This is my favourite type of fic, one where someone’s found a line in canon and a thought sparked and a thread woven and suddenly a shadow becomes a character. Ghosts in Harry Potter are important in JKR’s depiction of the understanding of death, and this fic is beautifully subtle in its depiction of death as an unknown, but more, in man’s emotion towards it. Twinsuns shows death through Nearly Headless Nick’s last moments, and through the executioner who ‘beheads’ him (“you’re my fourth–this week”). Thoughtful and mature.

Why You Might Not Care: This fic is surprisingly adult, not that there is anything more than G involved, but by the very delicate nature — nothing emotive or passionate — by which it is handled. Some might find it dull, I find it exquisite.

Dead Things

Dead Things by AcidPop25

Summary: Helena could always tell their spells apart. Drabble, 638 Words.

Why You Should Care: This is a very interesting sliver in time during the Founders Era.  In only 600 words, AcidPop manages to give us a fairly complete character summary of Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin, and Helena Ravenclaw, as well as offering (in even less words) what probably amounts to a very accurate view of Helga and Godric as well.  The interplay between Helena and her mother is well done, and quite fascinating.  This piece drips with style from start to finish.

Why You Might Not Care: Founders fic ahead!  Also, you might wish there was more.  It works very well short — don’t mistake — but at the same time, the author makes it work so well that you just want more.

Above Reproach

Above Reproach by AnotherDreamer

Summary: Helga. Godric. Rowena. Salazar. The Founder’s Four. They had fought together in the Dragon Wars. Destroyed the kingdom the Muggles had established. Then they decided to start a school, and started to fight one another. Things had been unraveling ever since. Oneshot, 4,366 Words.

Why You Should Care: It seems that I have been reccing a great deal of oneshots recently, and this is why. This fic is everything a oneshot ought to be: it develops character, and yet has plot. It sets the mood, and yet does not ramble. It’s to the point, and yet not jarring. It’s now the only way I’ll see the Founders characterised. It’s brilliant.

Why You Might Not Care: This is quite a different characterisation of the Founders and takes some getting used to. Also, there’s something of a hole where light-heartedness has been sucked out. Yet the regal quality of this fic resounds. Lovely.

Awards: 2008 Hourglass Award, Best Gen Fic — First Place

Before the Beginning: A Founders Fic, With Sugar Quills

Before the Beginning: A Founders Fic, With Sugar Quills by Arabella

Summary: A story about the beginning of Hogwarts – did you ever wonder how the ceiling in the Great Hall was created? Oneshot, 6,757 Words.

Why You Should Care: We know so much about the Founders and yet so little about their personalities except for clichés based off of Sorting Hat songs. Arabella brings them to life, and creates four people from four legends that feel like real people. Each character is strongly defined, yet not caricatured, and that is what sets this story apart from other Founder fics that wallow in indecision and cliché. You can see that these four were friends, once, but also that they will not always be and that there will be — inevitably — a “parting of the ways”. Very, very good.

Why You Might Not Care: Not everyone likes to read about the Founders, and even fewer people like to read about the Founders when there aren’t any ships involved. But if you like good characters you can sink your teeth into, then you’ve come to the right place.