Rectober No. 12 - Disturbing Fic is Disturbing

[nia_kantorka]

banner by raitala

Title: Merlin Works in Mysterious Ways
Author/Artist: lordhellebore
Pairing(s) Harry/Draco
Rating: R
Word Count: ~ 83,500
Warnings: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Minor Character Death, Implied Torture, Disability, Forced Bonding, Forced Marriage
Summary: When Harry is forced to form a Blood Bond with Draco Malfoy under threat of death, he thinks his future will consist of a cold home and sexual frustration. But when a group of left-over Death Eaters decides to stir trouble, their lives change completely – and it takes them both some years to figure out whether it’s for better or for worse.

Why I loved it:
This story is … different. Over a very long time it’s not charming or heart-warming but disturbing. Nevertheless it will worm its way into your mind and won’t leave, ever again.

The wizarding world in here is one of the cruellest post-war scenarios you can think of. What the Ministry, ruled by Muggleborns, does to the former Death Eaters and their families is so sick. And its ideology is just as bad as Voldemort’s [or insert a crazy dictator of your choice] was. So, it’s not very shocking that Draco wants to leave this behind the only way he can think of. But forced bondings and cruel circumstances aren’t the recipe for a happily ever after. And Draco is making Harry’s life very miserable and himself even more so. And then Harry gets cursed, nearly beyond recovery. And everything changes– not only for him but for Draco too.

And this is the wonderful thing here, the reader can fell it and goes through it just like Harry does. It’s a frustrating experience, with a hell of backslides and it's never going to be all good and pretty and carefree. This fic is just not that kind of story.

But it’s extraordinary and the author tells this heart-breaking and long journey of our heroes so vividly that you’ll get all the feels. The sad ones, the bad ones, and the happy ones.

It’s a story about endurance, about adjustment to this often very cruel thing called life, and about love. How love can blossom in the darkest corner, in the least possible scenario, and how love is a way to make circumstances of life bearable.

Merlin Work in Mysterious Ways made me think a lot and, though I haven’t re-read it completely since the first time, I’m coming back to it on a regular base and re-read parts of it. Sometimes I’m reading just the start or only the happy ending (it is a Smoochfestfic after all!) but most often I’m re-reading the parts of Harry’s disability and how he gets better over time, because this part is just … WOW.

So, yes, even if it’s hurting and I’m feeling a bit like a masochist about it, I’m in love with this story.

Excerpt:
“I think . . . I think that’s one of the main reasons why I fell in love with you.”

Harry must be hallucinating. Or maybe he was asleep and dreaming, a bizarre dream his subconscious had cooked up for whatever inexplicable reason. This couldn’t be real.

“I watched you,” Draco whispered. “I watched you go about your life, and I realised you were nothing like what I’d thought you were. Or maybe it was that I had got it wrong and that I liked the things I thought I hated about you. I’m not quite certain. Oh, you were still annoying, but I liked that, too. I liked bickering with you. It was a bit like back at school, when everything wasn’t so difficult. It was . . . comforting, as if things were back to how they were supposed to be, in a way. I was no longer working illegal Muggle jobs trying to feed my sick mother; I was bickering with Harry Potter again. It made me feel safe. That sounds silly, doesn’t it?”

Comments

[blithelybonny.livejournal.com]

This is such a great rec. You captured exactly how I felt about this brilliant fic!

[nia_kantorka]

Thank you, bb! Good to see that I could put my feeling into words. Doesn't always work out that way.

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I have read this one and you're absolutely right in how it just gets its hooks into you and won't let you stop thinking about it. What an awesome rec, I may have to give it a re-read one of these days.

(ps I remember the only reason I read it was because it was a smoochfest fic and guaranteed me a happy enough ending, lol! But I'm so glad I did!)

[nia_kantorka]

Yes, it's not an easy fic but that's ok. And it was good that not everything was perfect (or back to 'normal') in the end. Would habe been illogically and just not right for these two. :)