#i tried avoiding the obvious ones like lord of the rings and harry potter | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

minervahopebeyond · 4 years

Text

Blood Petals.

Hi, everyone! Just in case I need to clear up some things; Let's start with the code names... I chose them because of what they meant. *Fawn:a young deer in its first year. *Chimera:a fire-breathing monster resembling a lion in the forepart, a goat in the middle, and a dragon behind. *Deer it's obvious (prongs) and *Snuffles: James used to call Padfoot that when they were young animagi.

The second thing is that I changed some of the quidditch schedule to fit the story, It doesn't affect the story at all, but I'm warning you in case someone realize that the dates don't add up with the canon ones.

That being said, enjoy!! Let me know what you thought of this one<3

Chapter 11: Truce.

It was a particular year at Hogwarts. Days passed and the blond boy could still feel the dark atmosphere surrounding the castle. At first, he thought it was him being paranoid but, as time went by, he could still feel it in the air. To think that everything was so near... It sent chills down his spine.

The attacks were increasing. Everyday Draco checked the Daily prophet to see the list of 'missing', wishing that he wouldn't read any names from the people he cares about. He still talked to Severus about his mother weekly, but sometimes it was not enough to calm his nerves.

But you know what was the most weird and backwards thing at school in that year? Potter being good at potions. It was driving Draco mad. When he asked Weasley about it, the redhead just shrugged and changed the subject. Stupid loyal weasel, always covering scarhead at things. Clearly there was a reason, the green-eyed boy didn't even touch a book all summer, so it wasn't studying.

Days seemed to be calm besides being very dark… It was like everyday was rainy day. He almost didn’t remember what a sunny day at the castle was. Maybe you could have some days where it didn’t rain but the clouds always looked like they were preparing for a storm. Draco liked to think that, behind the clouds, the sun was shinning as always, that no Dark Lord could stop him from enjoying a sunny day if he wanted to, if he put his mind into it.

That day was a Sunday, but he wasn't playing chess. He was with Weasley outside, practicing for the quidditch tryouts. And if you would had asked Draco, the sun was shinning brightly.

"You look like a troll on a broom, Weasley"

Ron glared at him and took a hand off his broom to show him his middle finger.

"I caught everything you have thrown, you stupid ferret." Draco chuckled.

"That's because I suck as a chaser."

He throwed another quaffle at him that ended up being stopped by the boy's head.

" How graceful."

The redhead got off his broom and grabbed the quaffle. He started walking to where Draco was and hit him in the head with it. The blond boy started laughing and tried to take away the ball from Weasley's hands.

" Weasley cannot save a thing” he started to sing. Ron kept hitting him with the quaffle, it didn't stop him, though.

"He cannot block a single ring,"

The redhead put his hand over Draco's mouth, but he just kept singing the lyrics from the song. The blond boy pinched Weasley's hand and as his friend whined from the pain, he kept on singing.

"That's why Slytherins all sing: Weasley is our King"

"I could punch you."

"I know."

The redhead looked at him with a smug smile on his face.

"I'm going to get on the team, and I will enjoy seeing your stupid ferret face when we win the quidditch cup."

There it was, he had annoyed Weasley into determination. Good, with confidence he stood a chance.

"Malfoy."

The blond boy turned around and saw Potter standing there with an envelope in his hand.

"Potter. Whatever it is make it quick so I can keep mocking Weasley."

He heard the redhead yelled a 'hey' from behind him, but Draco ignored him. Potter extended his arm and offered him the letter he was carrying. The blond boy took it and started to open it.

"I got that this morning. I guess it's meant to be for you too."

Draco nodded and started to read the parchment.

Dear Fawn and Chimera,

We are happy to hear that you are both alive and well. Sorry if the letter is short but we agree with Chimera that this form of communication is a risk. Fawn, if Chimera doesn't know, teach him our other way of sending messages.

We miss you arguing around the place all the time.

Snuffles and Deer

The blond boy turned to look at Potter.

"There is another way?"

The green eyed boy nodded at him. He leaned a little closer, Draco could feel his breath on his ear. Fuck, he was blushing and Weasley was looking at him with an amused expression as he raised one eyebrow. Stupid weasel. Then Potter whispered on his ear:

"The Patronus charm. You can send messages through them."

He was so close. Draco could feel the fucking tickles all over his lungs. If paid enough attention, he could swear he felt the petals moving inside of him. Draco had never been so close to him, so close that if he turned his head, he could kiss Potter on the lips. The tickles got worst.

"Potter, would you kindly remove yourself from my personal space?"

The dark haired boy looked confused but did as he was told. He knew his face was as red as Weasley's hair, he could feel the heat on his cheeks and Ron was still looking at him as if this moment was the most precious and hilarious thing he had witnessed in his entire life.

"Do you know how to produce one?" Draco returned his attention to the boy in front of him. Those green eyes were looking right at him. Stop you useless daffodils, he just whispered like ten fucking words to my ear

"Clearly I don't know. It's not on the curriculum." Potter shrugged and pushed some of his hair off his face.

"Well, I know how to cast it and I can teach you. I taught it at DA last year too."

Yeah, no. Absolutely not. He would not get private lessons from Potter in empty classrooms or whatever. The stupid flowers would not leave him alone, ever. He turned to the redhead then.

"You know how to cast it then, weasel?" The boy walked towards them, nodding his head.

"Great, then Weasley can teach me and I save you all the trouble, If they ask I'll say it was you who taught me. Problem solved." The blond boy turned around and grabbed the quaffle that was on the floor. " So... Practice?" He said as he turned his head a little to look at the redhead.

Weasley was doing that face he did when he thought that Potter would be mad. The blond boy didn't understand how they could be best friends if the redhead was always so bloody careful of not upsetting him or insult him by accident, most of all because the dark haired boy had so little filter to speak his mind. It should be two-way street.

"What? I, literally, didn't say anything wrong." He huffed. Weasley groaned and put his hands on his face as he took a deep breath. Well, excuse him, he didn't have a manual to understand the prat who lived.

"I am telling you that I helped the entire DA to cast it and you choose Ron to help you, just so can avoid spending time with me? Are you serious?"

Draco frowned at that. Who could understand this nutter? Two weeks ago, he was saying that he only apologized to be polite and now he was mad at him for saying that he prefers to have extracurricular classes with someone that was actually his friend.

"Do you want me to spend time with you, Potty?" He said as he raised his eyebrow. The green-eyed boy sighed and passed his hands over his face. Then he looked at him and said:

"Whatever. Do whatever. Why do I even bother? You are impossible." And he turned around and left both boys standing there.

Weasley sighed too, grabbed his broom, and did a little gesture indicating to follow him. They walked for a while in silence until they got near some trees. Ron laid down on the grass and sighed like he was tired. Draco sat beside him with his back resting on the trunk.

"Ferret you need to see that he is trying. It's exhausting hearing him complain about you when you do shit like this." He said with a calm voice. Draco didn't say anything, so Ron kept talking. "When you outright say that you don't want to be his friend or that you don't even want him near if you can help it... " He sighed. " It upsets him. Harry gets in this weird mood when I'm around because It bothers him that you don't have any problem spending time with me." Suddenly, the redhead incorporated and sat down too. "OH, that reminds me! Harry said to us that you don't speak to him or Hermione because of the blood status. I told him that it was rubbish, but then Mione said that you don't normally speak to her or that you didn't tried to apologize for second year and-"

"Your girlfriend literally punched me on the face, I don't see her apologizing either."

Ron's face went so red at that, he widened his eyes and looked at him and hissed a response.

" She is NOT my girlfriend. I don't know what the bloody hell made you think tha-"

"Please, you are so in love with her! It's so obvious it hurts my eyes, weasel." If he thought that the boy couldn't go any redder, he was wrong. He saw him pulling his knees to his chest and looking away.

"Do you think she knows?" He asked in a quiet, shy voice.

Draco, honestly, didn't have the slightest idea. Gryffindors were so oblivious to things like this... but Granger was the smartest witch from their year, the blond boy supposed she would at least imagine it being a possibility.

"I don't know... I don't hang out with her that much, and she is not as transparent as you are about things.” He took a deep breath before continuing (at least as deep as he could). “And about Potter ridiculous theory, I don't talk to them because they don't want to talk to me. It's like they expect me to beg them for a chance and I'm not like that. And your prat of a best friend knows that this is not about his stupid blood status, he is just playing dumb.”

He looked over at his friend, the boy had this worried look on his face as he was playing with a little rock he found beside him. Draco sighed and laid down. He didn’t want to lose Weasley over the other two thirds of the stupid golden trio. He would regret this.

“Fine.” He said while rolling his eyes, the redhead looked down to where he was. “I’ll ask Potter to help me with the bloody charm, and if this doesn’t get him to like my beautiful personality then I’m out. AND you must promise not to bother me with this again. This is me trying; take it or leave it.”

Ron smiled brightly at him and nodded enthusiastically. Draco rolled his eyes again. They were in silence for a while, he could feel that the redhead wanted to say something. Maybe something about Granger.

It wasn’t about her.

“Saw you blushing over there when Harry got close to you.” And he said it in such a smug way, so Weasley. Draco glared at him. “It’s that why you don’t want him around? Because you fancy him?”

DENY, DENY, DENY.

Draco chuckled and shook his head. ACT ALOOF, IT DIDN’T EVEN CROSSED YOUR MIND. “The stupid tickles were acting up. So, if he talked about him, he also could have a reaction. Great.

“No, Weasley. I just never had a boy whispering things in my ear, it could happen with anyone.” That was a lie because Theo use to do it all the time, and Draco would get nervous or whatever but not that much. That was all Potter.

The redhead didn’t look convinced, but he said:

“Okay, I was just curious.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------

This was the weirdest thing ever. He was with Weasley at the entrance of the Gryffindor common room, the stupid petals were moving all over, and his breathing was so shallow he could faint in any moment then.

Weasley got in and he waited there for Potter to come out of the Lion’s Den. He wasn’t feeling good. Scarhead was taking his time and Draco started to think that maybe it was because he didn’t want to see him at all, not even to insult him. One, two, three, four… He tried to breath, but the air was barely getting to his lungs.

What was weird was that he didn’t feel like coughing. The good tickles were there, they were not so soft anymore, but he didn’t have the need to cough. It was like they were pulling him to Potter, like that afternoon when the boy whispered in his ear… they were encouraging him to be near him.

That was not good though, Draco always had problems at controlling himself when the green-eyed boy was there. If he had something pushing him towards him it would be bad. It would be so obvious that whatever truce Draco could manage would be annulled when Potter realize that he is pathetically in love with him. Maybe he would even be disgusted of him. The strong tickles were appearing at the thought when he heard the boy’s voice.

“Ron said you needed something.”

Potter was arms crossed, bored expression on his face. He was clearly pissed off.

“Can you teach me the Patronus charm?” The dark-haired boy snorted.

“I thought you wanted Ron to teach you.” He said as he raised an eyebrow.

“Weasley says that you want to teach me, otherwise you wouldn’t have offered. I thought you were just being polite, like when you apologized for the train ride. I wasn’t going to bother you with this.”

The boy then looked a little guilty. He uncrossed his arms and passed a hand through his hair, leaving it messier than before. Then, he spoke quietly.

“The thing on the train was a mistake and I really am sorry. I kept thinking that it couldn’t be real: you putting your life at risk for us, helping us, just because… I mean-“ He changed the weight between his feet a little. “I know you must have your reasons, but I don’t know them. Everything I don’t know about you is in this grey area and I keep trying to find explanations. That was what the train was about and I’m sorry.” Then he gave Draco a beautiful smile and the stupid flowers kept tickling him, they were a nightmare, he can’t even remember what was breathing like, before all this. “To be honest this month was rather boring without you calling me a prat all the time.”

For Salazar’s sake, Draco was going to die from tickles on his lungs. That was what the newspaper would write as headlines: ‘Ex- Malfoy heir dies from tickles’. He touched his ribs, pet them, like if that would calm down the petals that were inside of him.

“It’s okay, Potter. I know who I am, and I understand why you did what you did.”

The boy nodded at him and seemed to be more relaxed now. Then he spoke again.

“Okay… good. And just to be clear: I didn’t just apologize only to be polite.” Draco chuckled.

“Yes, I got that, Potter.”

“So… when are you free for the lessons?”

#drarry #prongsfoot #fanfic #fic

13 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 6 years

Text

The Golden Compass Movie: What Went Wrong?

https://ift.tt/2L6qYDc

With His Dark Materials set to become a TV show, we look back at what went wrong with the Golden Compass movie.

facebook

twitter

google+

tumblr

Feature

Books

Andrew Blair

Dec 10, 2018

His Dark Materials

With His Dark Materials set to get the TV show adaptation treatment, we're taking the time to look back at what went wrong the last time someone tried to adapt Philip Pullman's beloved trilogy of fantasy novels to the screen in the 2007 flop The Golden Compass. Here's hoping the BBC adaptation avoids these pitfalls...

Pullman's His Dark Materials was much praised for its rich, imaginative fantasy world, nuanced and ambiguous characters, and powerful anti-religious themes. Critically acclaimed, award-laden bestsellers with a young heroine in the form of Lyra Bellacqua, the trilogy seemed an obvious choice to follow Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings and become a blockbuster movie series. New Line bought the rights after bringing Lord Of The Rings to the screen, hoping for a similar success. The two stories are very different high fantasies, however, and The Golden Compass contains concepts less familiar to audiences than wizards, monsters, and swordplay. His Dark Materials was also occasionally categorized in shops as a children's book, unlike Lord Of The Rings.

Further reading: His Dark Materials Season 2 Already Greenlit

This is an important factor when it comes to the adaptation. Say something is for children and for a lot of people you automatically impose limitations on what it can be. Consider how many times "for kids" is used as a derogatory term, even if that means you have to ignore the sheer abundance of brilliant stories that match that description.

It's self-perpetuating in many ways. So long as products for children have an air of complacency and simplicity their superiors will be tarred with the same brush, lending children's films a reputation that means some creators feel they don't have to try so hard.

The Golden Compass is one of those movies that taints other children's films by virtue of being compromised by an adult's idea of what children can cope with. With its unique aspects neutered, it becomes an anemic dirge at times, with exposition as subtle as a Michael Bay in the face. One character literally flies in just to explain a plot point before immediately leaving again.

Derek Jacobi almost salvages lines such as: "If we can save our children from the corrupting influence of dust…" but ultimately can't do anything to stop it sounding like a line from Brass Eye. Christopher Lee is brought in to say a new line by New Line, whose own dust-strewn fingers are all over the final edit and some of the casting. Ian McKellen was also brought on board to have a fight with Lovejoy, but like the rest of the film it was a bloodless affair. With Rogue One writer Chris Weitz both writing and directing, you'd be forgiven for thinking he should take the bulk of the blame, especially when he chose not to use a draft by renowned playwright (and Star Wars prequels dialogue polisher, yes, I know) Tom Stoppard. Weitz, having co-wrote and directed About a Boy, seemed a sensible choice after producing a seemingly light film punctuated by moments of melancholy and darkness, and got the job after making an unsolicited pitch.

Further reading: Mortal Engines — Everything We Know

Daniel Craig was cast well, as were Nicole Kidman and Sam Elliott. The child actors are occasionally guilty of being child actors, though it feels harsh to criticize them at all when their dialogue has the ring of a production enclave asking: "But are we sure people will get that Lyra's feisty and intelligent?"

The end result is dialogue telling us that Lyra is special in a film that doesn't always remember to show us the same thing. This is partly down to a studio imposed running time of two hours, cutting around an hour from Weitz' first draft. This came despite Harry Potter being successful with lengthier running times. You'd have thought that the studio who made Lord Of The Rings would have more faith. But faith was another issue altogether...

Weitz trod lightly around the religious aspects of Pullman's books, but still found himself having to remove even mentions of "sin" from the script, leaving an important part of the story flailing amid woolly and ridiculous euphemisms. He left the project—replaced temporarily by Anand Tucker (Red Riding, Indian Summer), who himself then left over creative differences—before Weitz returned to finish the movie he'd started.

According to Vulture, the faults of the film do not lie with Weitz. He apparently turned in a more faithful draft than Stoppard, whose script was apparently less about Lyra and more about meetings (according to a Philip Pullman interview with The Atlantic, which is well worth a read).

While only a hint of the religious subtext was left in that script, much of what made Weitz’ first draft work was cut to bring down that running time. Actor Tom Courtenay confirmed that his role was drastically reduced in post-production, with the studio editing the full-length version down, removing its original ending and staging reshoots to exposit information now lost. Ultimately, there were problems as a result of religious pressure and the studio being unwilling to risk wrath (wrath that would probably have descended on them at any rate), but this was far from unsalvageable. What really killed the film off it seems was the drive to get it under two hours, and the ensuing studio-imposed reworking of the movie. In short, it feels more like a bullet point list of things half remembered from the book than an actual film.

And we come back full circle a little here. The change in running time came because of a limited notion of what a children's movie can be, and what a younger audience can cope with. It's even more obvious in hindsight with the raft of young adult adaptations that the audience could have coped with a three-hour long version of The Golden Compass with its bleak finale, had New Line opted to go that way.

It's hard to imagine a film in a New Line trilogy ending at a point that leaves the next film with a flapping tendril of leftover story, I know, but that's what happened in 2007: the finale of The Golden Compass was to be left over for the next film in the series, based on the book The Subtle Knife. Obviously, this film never came to pass, and we have two books unfilmed. Is this a bad thing? I'd argue that it is not.

Harry Potter had to leave out a lot of details from the books over its eight films, but His Dark Materials are books that are trying to do different things, richer still in just three novels, and so there's an inevitable loss of nuance even in a good film adaptation.

There's no need to adapt every single remotely popular story, as if things don't exist until they're moving pictures on a screen, so if there's going to be an exception, it's good that it's something that rewards multiple readings. That uses prose to tell stories more effectively than cutting edge CGI even could.

Meanwhile, at New Line, the additional shoot and post-production on The Golden Compass not only increased the cost of the film, but stopped it from being good enough to recover costs. Indeed, it contributed to a financial situation at New Line that required a surefire hit from one of their properties, and lo: Peter Jackson was brought back onboard, and The Hobbit began to happen.

The decision to make three films certainly paid off in that respect...

from Books https://ift.tt/2GaodlC

#aion-rsa #Books

0 notes