A Metaphor For Change

A Metaphor For Change by Sahara Storm

Summary: Five things Albus Dumbledore could not bring himself to say to Gellert Grindelwald. (One of them is a lie.) Drabbles, 1,000 Words.

Why You Should Care: Ah, the “Five Things” meme… what an awful lot of fic it spawned.  It is fortunate that quite an impressive percent of it turned out to be quite good.  Dumbledore is hard enough to characterise as a wise old man, and tracing him back through the years to his younger self is nigh impossible.  Sahara Storm does, I think, a reasonable job, and what’s more the drabbles she creates around her theme of things not said are well worded.

Why You Might Not Care: Obviously a Dumbledore/Grindlewald, and an R-rated one at that.  This may or may not slip over into NC-17 territory, depending on your point of view.  I would say it’s probably not worksafe.

World Without End

World Without End by Kitestringer

Summary: Albus has no need for Legilimency to know this, to know what Remus and Sirius were to each other. He’d might as well be looking in a long-ago mirror. Drabble, 645 Words.

Why You Should Care: It’s so patently obvious when she points it out, and yet you feel like she’s slapped you in the face. Ever word of this drips with dreadful, raw emotion. Every bit of Albus’ pain is laid bare, reflected in Remus’ loss, and you start to understand just what must happen when good people are deceived by their own hearts. This piece rips you to shreds. Beautiful, but terrible.

Why You Might Not Care: Major angst. Major angst. Beware.

Atonement

Atonement by ChristyCorr

Summary: “Sometimes I think a curse should rest on me—because I love this war.” Oneshot, 3,437 Words.

Why You Should Care: A fabulously revealing character piece about Albus Dumbledore and Grindlewald. It is, perhaps, not quite canon except for the slight chance that it just might be completely canon. Original, with masterfully written dialogue between two kings of manipulation who have their own tangled history to contend with. One of my new favorites.

Why You Might Not Care: Slash pairing undertones, but they’re so under they almost don’t exist. This has more to do with each character as individuals than as any sort of couple. All conversation, but the wonderful kind that’s been carefully sculpted.

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

A Correspondence Between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald

A Correspondence Between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald by M’lah Sihfay

Summary: As two men try to rebuild we read the letters between 1951 and 1997. Approx. 9,500 Words.

Guest Rec’d By: Christy (ChristyCorr – insofar that it was on her Livejournal and I jacked it and put it here.)

Why You Should Care: I’m not a huge slasher and I’m not a big Albus/Gellert fan at all, but I really like this fic. It’s got these fabulous nuances – epistolary styles in general are tricky because you’ve got to show the character, but it’s not like speech where things are blurted out – in letters everything is weighted and thought through. There are clear characters here and I really like that. The way the two rationalise themselves through the first war, the second war – every moment of weakness and strength and the way that neither can ever stop writing, can ever break away. There’s a theme throughout the fic of being ‘broken’ by events and it’s eloquently and interestingly expressed.

Why You Might Not Care: I want to go through this fic and cut out every slightly graphic moment. They’re few and far between, but they’re there and they’re pointless. But it’s a slash fic, and the slashers need their kicks from somewhere, I guess. Probably rated R for the occasional mention of boysex.

Awards: 2008 Hourglass Award, Admins’ Choice — Slash Romance