house of the rising sun

read it on ao3 part 3 of the Volte Face series pairing: n/a setting: volte face AU word count: 2,392 written for: n/a warning: n/a notes: daphne, pansy, and hermione are ready for this war 

summary:

Hermione knows fear.

She knows what it is that drives Harry further into the sky on grey evenings and she knows the tremble in Ginny’s fingers when she reaches for him in the temporary warmth of their common room. She sees it reflected in Ron’s eyes when he lies in bed memorising each moving pixel of a photograph of his family and she smells it in the scent of hippogriff manure that clings to Neville after he emerges from the greenhouses after six hours straight of re-potting plants.

Hermione’s scared, too.

And so when she’s accosted by none other than Pansy Parkinson just outside Slug and Jiggers, she doesn’t wrench herself away and slap the girl, even though she wants to.

(you need a) big god

read it on ao3 part 2 of the Volte Face series pairing: n/a setting: volte face AU word count: 2,256 written for: n/a  warning: cassius warrington dies notes: hermione has way too much internal dialogue, which leads her to an EPIPHANY / also draco malfoy needs a hug 

summary: 

Admittedly, Hermione’s usual interactions with Slytherins are with Malfoy, Parkinson, the Thickheaded Thugs and Bulstrode, so it’s not like she sees how any of them behave in normal social settings (i.e. when they aren't being racist bigots). But – she registers, absently, that this is the first time that she’s seen a Slytherin laugh, pure and easy.

When she picks at this scene later, when she’s savouring everything about the night like a sherbet lemon nestled in her cheek, she wonders a little why she’s never thought of Slytherins knowing joy the same way she does.

(you lived your life) like a candle in the wind

read it on ao3 part 1 of the Volte Face series pairing: daphne greengrass x cassius warrington setting: volte face AU word count: 1,624 written for: myself as therapy  warning: cassius warrington dies notes: daphne is really fking sad but there will always be a spare in that graveyard, and this time it’s cassius 

summary: 

Daphne notes that Cassius had died with his eyes half-closed in a squint, as if he’d been taken aback, but not afraid. He’d died too quickly to be afraid. There is still soil on his face, fanned under his eyelashes, grit under his fingernails.

The metal of the tray bites into her palms as she leans over and tries to close his eyes. They won’t shut – of course they won’t – trust Cassius to be obstinate even in death – and so she gives up and kisses his forehead, feeling his body cooling. She kisses his nose, and then his lips, one last time.

There is no need to speak. The dead do not listen in the same way as the living.

never felt / like any blessing

read it on ao3 part 4 of the Volte Face series pairing: N/A setting: volte face AU word count: 12,176 written for: the pansysquad and all y’all who are here for Pansy Parkinson being a badass  warning: canon-typical violence, implied child sexual abuse, off-screen suicide, depression (war is dark AF, basically)  notes: the pansy “jesus christ it’s jason bourne” parkinson AU that nobody asked for 

summary:

Lupin spaces the missions out, so it doesn’t look like high ranking death eaters are suddenly and inexplicably fatally clumsy, but those remaining beef up their security around June, anyways. Pansy can’t blame them. They’re fanatics, not stupid.

Still, no one is guarded against a girl who doesn’t exist.

Pansy slides through wards designed to keep out anyone less than pureblooded, and draws on her knowledge of every dark hex she memorised while hiding from her father in the library as a child.