kelly_chambliss

Here's my double drabble for this year's hp_halloween fest. My recipient was my good friend iselima. She asked for "drabbles about cold, foggy, spooky nights. Romantic, angsty or melancholic."

It's not too hard to come up with foggy spookiness (or spooky fogginess) on Halloween! I've written better HP Halloween entries; I've written worse. I had fun, which is the main thing.

Title: Goodbye
Characters: Filius Flitwick, Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank, Minerva McGonagall
Rating: G
Word Count: 200
Summary: Professor Flitwick and Professor Grubbly-Plank help a friend on Samhain.

( Goodbye )

I'm a bit behind at reposting my fest entries this year. Here's my contribution to hp_halloween, the double-drabble fest that has been my Halloween tradition for quite a few years now. Written for my friend _hannelore, who asked for "fond childhood memories of holidays."

Title: Samhain's Child
Characters: Minerva McGonagall, OCs
Rating: G
Summary: Minerva and her grandmother always spend Samhain together.
Notes: My thanks to my always-excellent beta, therealsnape.

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( Samhain's Child )

This year was my fifth to participate in hp_halloween, a delightful exchange fest in which fifty to sixty 200-word drabbles are posted all day long on Halloween. It was rainy and cold on Halloween night, so I had a fine time sitting in my cozy recliner, drinking tea, handing out candy to the local kiddie ghoulies, and reading drabble after drabble. There's always a fascinating range of pairings, ratings, and genres, and I particularly appreciate the chance to write characters who are outside my usual wheelhouse. In 2012, it was Septima Vector; last year, it was Bellatrix.

This year, it's the Grey Lady. I had the opportunity to write for pauraque, who gave me a fascinating list of characters to choose from: the Grey Lady, Luna, Lily, Hermione, and Minerva. (In a fun twist of fate, pauraque was assigned to write for me. I've linked to hir really fine drabble below, along with a few other recs).

But first, here's my own entry:

Title: Chromatic
Author: kellychambliss
Characters: The Grey Lady, Luna Lovegood
Rating: PG
Summary: Every year, the Grey Lady waits for Samhain.
Notes: For some reason, writing this drabble gave me fits this year. The first version was unusable, the second was not much better, and the third. . .well, the deadline was upon me, so I had to send it out regardless! Several of you were kind enough to lend your beta expertise, and I thank you. You saved me from embarrassment: ragdoll, magnetic_pole, iselima, and Boadicea12.

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( Chromatic )

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Here are a few recs from the fest. I'm limiting myself to only four, because otherwise, I'd be linking to at least half the entries or more.

Let me start with my excellent gift. It's a triumph of form and content, with superb characterizations, and all in 200 words. I love it:

Title: The Margin
Author: pauraque
Characters: Minerva, Filius, Pomona, Severus, Horace
Rating: G
Summary: After the children are asleep, the Heads of House have their own Samhain ritual.

~ ~ ~

Title: Absence
Author: hikarievandar
Characters: Tom Riddle, Founders
Rating: G
Summary: The Founders sealed the wards with their deaths, but one of them is missing. Tom finds Hogwarts’ weakness.

~ ~ ~

Title: white as death, fresh as snow
Author: lumosed_quill
Characters: Narcissa, Pansy
Rating: R
Summary: Narcissa visits her husband's grave on Samhain... with her new lover.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Title: Dearly Beloved
Author: _hannelore
Characters: Neville, Augusta
Rating: G
Summary: Neville's Gran has always been a part of his life. Now that he's a Hogwarts professor, she couldn't be more proud. She's still a part of his life, but it's become a problem.

Here's my drabble from this year's hp_halloween. My recipient, donnaimmaculata, listed Aberforth, Fleur, Bellatrix, Minerva, and/or Remus as her characters of choice, asked for either horror or drama as the genre, and offered "cats, haunted house, masks" as her prompts.

Well, of course I was going to write something with Minerva and flirted for a moment with the notion of a Minerva/Aberforth pairing. But then I thought, "come on, it's Halloween. And I'm being offered 'Bellatrix' and 'horror' as options. Why am I even thinking twice about what to write?"

So I came up with an over-the-top, Gothic scenario, gave Bella her mad head, and let her run with it.

Hope you enjoy it as much as she did.

(Many thanks to the excellent magnetic_pole for beta-reading.)

( To and Fro )

(Note -- It's official: pairing/characters make all the difference in terms of response. My drabble for last year, which featured Minerva/Septima Vector, got all of five comments at the comm. This year's mad Bella got 22. Of course, there could be other factors at work, too; last year's fest, iirc, was more subdued overall.)

I've had a successful weekend: 27 papers graded and 1200 snapelyholidays words written. Yes, I should have written more. But I didn't.

It's still Halloween for another 30 minutes (at least in my part of the world), so I thought I'd treat you to a couple of drabbles in honor of the day. (Or maybe it's actually a trick; you never know.)

I actually wrote them both for the one-day hp_halloween drabble fest; I thought a silly one and a serious one would make a be nice set of bookends.

But the trick was on me, because it turns out that we were allowed to submit only one drabble per person. So I submittted the serious one, and I was going to save the silly one until next year, when I remembered that last week's challenge for the snape100 drabble fest just happened to be. . . "Snape and Halloween."

What a treat! Now I could post both drabbles in different communities. So I did.

If you haven't had a chance to read any of the hp_halloween entries, nip on over there and enjoy yourself. They're all fun, but here are some of my favorites:

--At Home (Severus/Percy) by starstruck1986
--Darkness Chasing Darkness (Severus/Lucius) by snapelike
--and my own excellent gift, Don't Look Back (Minerva/Severus) by scribbulus_ink. (It's really interesting to see the similarities between the gift I wrote and the gift I received.)

And now that the HP Halloween fest is over, I can post both my drabbles here for you:

This one was written for nimrod_9 at hp_halloween

Title: With You Always
Author: kellychambliss
Characters: Minerva McGonagall
Rating: G
Summary: Minerva attends a Halloween Feast.
Notes: Nimrod_9 wanted Halloween traditions, pumpkins, graveyards, loneliness. Many thanks to my excellent beta, tetleythesecond.

Oidhche Shamhna = Scottish Gaelic for the Celtic Samhain/New Year's festival.

~*~*~*~

( With You Always )

And this one was posted at snape100

Title: Aaaaahhhhh
Author: kellychambliss
Challenge: #357 -- Snape's Halloween
Pairing: Snape/McGonagall
Length: 100 x 2
Rating: NC-17. Ish.
Warnings: Dialogue-only
Summary: Ever wonder what the teachers did to celebrate Halloween after they settled the business of the troll in the dungeon?
Notes: Written with much authorial snickering, lots of porn clichés, and no excuse. Many thanks to my excellent beta-reader tetleythesecond.

~*~*~*~

( Aaaaahhhhh )