I held off on reading this story for a while, wanting to wait until you had much of it posted--I don't object to the horror genre (I read Stephen King and lightningwave, after all), but it looked like a deeply mysterious story with high tension and many cliffhangers, and I didn't want to torture myself with waiting for updates. But today I caved and read it.
And boy, you weren't kidding about the darkness or horror. *shivers* Some of it is so graphic that it's hard to visualize simply because what the Unspeakables were doing is so incomprehensible, but at the same time, you paint terrible mental pictures. Draco, fingerless and rib-less, what they did to him, what he did himself... it is all so heartbreaking.
And what Harry said right after he first found Draco... "Didn't they learn anything from Voldemort?" That set the stage for me immediately and told me that this would be as bad or worse than what Voldemort was capable of, and it sums up the point of the entire story right there. The quest for immortality costs one's humanity.
I can understand Harry's denial, how he doesn't want to be gay. I know some people who have gone through that, and it's hard. He thinks that accepting his sexual orientation means giving up the dreams he's had for his life. But he's wrong if he thinks that being gay means that he has to give up love, marriage, and family. I hope that he comes to understand that eventually. I'm glad that he's not focusing on his denial so much at the moment.
I am wary about his "plan", though. I suspect it is noble and self-sacrificing, and that it would hurt Draco even more, particularly given that Draco will need Harry's help for a long time after they escape from the maze. So I hope that they manage to avoid it, or that Draco clues in on it and stops him from sacrificing himself.
I also hope (though I'm not very optimistic) that Harry manages to find and rescue Ron and Hermione. Their appearances as manipulations in the maze thus far have been gut-wrenching.
Also, completely unrelated to this, I like how politically timely this story is. How the government is using torture as a means to advance supposedly "noble" goals, how you are showing how horrible and inhumane it is to use torture as a means to an end, no matter what that end is. And how the "goal" of the torture (immortality) is dark and twisted, just as the goal of our government's torture (power and control over the public--because we know that is the real goal, not their professed cover of stopping terrorism,) is dark and twisted... both of them being wrong. I don't know if you meant this story to have a touch of political commentary, but it's there.
Anyway, this is getting dreadfully long, but I do have to say that I like this story. It is awful, but at the same time, you show how someone can do terrible things and try to make up for them. I love how flawed and human both Harry and Draco are (too often fic writers make them too idealistic and perfect), how they are stronger together than alone, how they take turns saving each other. They are building a relationship that is far stronger than anything Harry could have had with Ginny, and I love that Harry is starting to realize that. So now I will agonize over waiting for the next chapter and hope they all get out of this alive and as sane as possible.
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And boy, you weren't kidding about the darkness or horror. *shivers* Some of it is so graphic that it's hard to visualize simply because what the Unspeakables were doing is so incomprehensible, but at the same time, you paint terrible mental pictures. Draco, fingerless and rib-less, what they did to him, what he did himself... it is all so heartbreaking.
And what Harry said right after he first found Draco... "Didn't they learn anything from Voldemort?" That set the stage for me immediately and told me that this would be as bad or worse than what Voldemort was capable of, and it sums up the point of the entire story right there. The quest for immortality costs one's humanity.
I can understand Harry's denial, how he doesn't want to be gay. I know some people who have gone through that, and it's hard. He thinks that accepting his sexual orientation means giving up the dreams he's had for his life. But he's wrong if he thinks that being gay means that he has to give up love, marriage, and family. I hope that he comes to understand that eventually. I'm glad that he's not focusing on his denial so much at the moment.
I am wary about his "plan", though. I suspect it is noble and self-sacrificing, and that it would hurt Draco even more, particularly given that Draco will need Harry's help for a long time after they escape from the maze. So I hope that they manage to avoid it, or that Draco clues in on it and stops him from sacrificing himself.
I also hope (though I'm not very optimistic) that Harry manages to find and rescue Ron and Hermione. Their appearances as manipulations in the maze thus far have been gut-wrenching.
Also, completely unrelated to this, I like how politically timely this story is. How the government is using torture as a means to advance supposedly "noble" goals, how you are showing how horrible and inhumane it is to use torture as a means to an end, no matter what that end is. And how the "goal" of the torture (immortality) is dark and twisted, just as the goal of our government's torture (power and control over the public--because we know that is the real goal, not their professed cover of stopping terrorism,) is dark and twisted... both of them being wrong. I don't know if you meant this story to have a touch of political commentary, but it's there.
Anyway, this is getting dreadfully long, but I do have to say that I like this story. It is awful, but at the same time, you show how someone can do terrible things and try to make up for them. I love how flawed and human both Harry and Draco are (too often fic writers make them too idealistic and perfect), how they are stronger together than alone, how they take turns saving each other. They are building a relationship that is far stronger than anything Harry could have had with Ginny, and I love that Harry is starting to realize that. So now I will agonize over waiting for the next chapter and hope they all get out of this alive and as sane as possible.