Written on the Heart by who_la_hoop - thoughts
this fic acknowledges the slytherins’ grudge and resentment while talking about the house unity like none i’ve read before. it’s common in fics to talk about the trauma and regret that the people from the lost side of the war suffer with; this fic, however, takes a deep, realistic dive into this pain and brings out what’s obvious but hard to write about and convenient to omit. the slytherins are angry and hurt because of the war; and not only because of the abuse from voldemort and death eaters, not only because of the realisation that they were morally on the wrong side, but also because of the aurors, and harry, and others from the DA and the order. it is easy for us to slip into self-rightiousness and set a golden standard to which slytherins have to aspire to be considered good. but really working towards house unity requires keeping in mind that all their decisions made sense to them, that the whole worldview doesn’t disappear in a year, or over the summer, and that they’re as entitled to their hurt as our heroes are, no matter the cause. let’s not forget that during the war [in many fics] those slytherins’ families were also hurt and killed, and after the war were being imprisoned, hunted, trialed and possibly stripped from asstets and reputation. psychologically that kind of defeat is very hard to bear. for the golden trio and the slytherin squad to become friends, all those feelings have to be worked through; we can’t just force noble values on “the bad ones”, make them submit to them and call it an equal relationship. what we have to do is acknowledge the others’ pain as equally painful and valid as our own, regardless of the world-view or moral superiority-inferiority dynamic. this fic made me realise that. great job, author.
