lomonaaeren (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lomonaaeren) wrote2009-10-13 07:11 am
lomonaaeren) wrote2009-10-13 07:11 am
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Story Sketch: Ragnarok
This is not so much a full progress report as the sketch of a story that I wanted to get down. It’s gone through several permutations in my head and finally settled into what feels like a workable one, and I don’t want it to escape.
This story is about political power and magical power, but from a different perspective than I usually take. In it, Draco is the youngest member of the Wizengamot, after ten years of trying (so he would be about 30). He’s finally redeemed the Malfoy name from the mud that Lucius dragged it through and made political connections of his own. Even more precious, he has a secret from almost everyone (except his parents): he’s done experimental rituals that increased his magical strength. He has that power available if he needs it, but as a hidden weapon, since he would rather achieve his ends through other means.
As a member of the Wizengamot, of course he gets to learn the Wizengamot’s secrets. He’s especially eager to learn more about Ragnarok, the elite corps of wizards the Wizengamot has used since the war to destroy rising Dark Lords and occasionally other dangerous people or things, like artifacts the Department of Mysteries can’t cope with. Their existence is barely rumored outside the highest circles of the Ministry.
Imagine his astonishment when he realizes that Ragnarok consists of exactly one wizard: Harry, who was supposed to have emigrated to Australia years ago when the publicity became too much for him but has led a secret existence instead. Harry was investigating Voldemort’s attempts to create super-wizards after the war and accidentally walked right into the middle of one ritual, rather like the ones Draco has used, that changed his magic into a powerful, destructive, barely-controllable thing. He’s especially good at annihilating people and things, making it seem as if they never existed in that particular spot. Draco is fascinated.
Harry is not. He wants to get rid of that magic, which is slowly destroying his body from the sheer stress of channeling that much power, but all his attempts at the necessary rituals have failed because, as he has discovered, he really needs two people to do it. Now here’s Draco, whose hidden magic he senses at once, and Harry thinks he might have found his answer. In return for Draco helping him, Harry offers to complete one mission for him, thinking that Draco must surely have some enemy he wants destroyed.
But Draco has different ideas. Such as increasing his power to match Harry’s and teaching Harry about the fact that he deserves more than serving as the Ministry’s hidden weapon—essentially the same thing he did in the war against Voldemort, if for a different master—and finding some way that Harry can survive the sheer torrent of his magic.
Usually I write stories about the renunciation of power or the very careful wielding of it. This story is going to be different because it’s going to be Bastard!Draco rather than Secretly Good!Draco and Cynical!Harry rather than Worn-out!Harry. (Tell me you would not be cynical after ten years of serving as a hired murderer because it's the only thing you can do that might help instead of hurt the general public). We’ll see how it goes.
This story is about political power and magical power, but from a different perspective than I usually take. In it, Draco is the youngest member of the Wizengamot, after ten years of trying (so he would be about 30). He’s finally redeemed the Malfoy name from the mud that Lucius dragged it through and made political connections of his own. Even more precious, he has a secret from almost everyone (except his parents): he’s done experimental rituals that increased his magical strength. He has that power available if he needs it, but as a hidden weapon, since he would rather achieve his ends through other means.
As a member of the Wizengamot, of course he gets to learn the Wizengamot’s secrets. He’s especially eager to learn more about Ragnarok, the elite corps of wizards the Wizengamot has used since the war to destroy rising Dark Lords and occasionally other dangerous people or things, like artifacts the Department of Mysteries can’t cope with. Their existence is barely rumored outside the highest circles of the Ministry.
Imagine his astonishment when he realizes that Ragnarok consists of exactly one wizard: Harry, who was supposed to have emigrated to Australia years ago when the publicity became too much for him but has led a secret existence instead. Harry was investigating Voldemort’s attempts to create super-wizards after the war and accidentally walked right into the middle of one ritual, rather like the ones Draco has used, that changed his magic into a powerful, destructive, barely-controllable thing. He’s especially good at annihilating people and things, making it seem as if they never existed in that particular spot. Draco is fascinated.
Harry is not. He wants to get rid of that magic, which is slowly destroying his body from the sheer stress of channeling that much power, but all his attempts at the necessary rituals have failed because, as he has discovered, he really needs two people to do it. Now here’s Draco, whose hidden magic he senses at once, and Harry thinks he might have found his answer. In return for Draco helping him, Harry offers to complete one mission for him, thinking that Draco must surely have some enemy he wants destroyed.
But Draco has different ideas. Such as increasing his power to match Harry’s and teaching Harry about the fact that he deserves more than serving as the Ministry’s hidden weapon—essentially the same thing he did in the war against Voldemort, if for a different master—and finding some way that Harry can survive the sheer torrent of his magic.
Usually I write stories about the renunciation of power or the very careful wielding of it. This story is going to be different because it’s going to be Bastard!Draco rather than Secretly Good!Draco and Cynical!Harry rather than Worn-out!Harry. (Tell me you would not be cynical after ten years of serving as a hired murderer because it's the only thing you can do that might help instead of hurt the general public). We’ll see how it goes.
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One of the main reasons I don't want to wait until he's 40 is because a) then there would be more questions about why he wasn't married, and I don't want to deal with the complications of a wife and children, and b) I think twenty years of a secret existence, rather than ten, would probably drive Harry bonkers. Not to mention that his body holding up against that magic for twenty years is unlikely.