schemingreader

magnetic_pole has done some really wonderful Marauder-era long fics. She's also written at least two amazing post-war fics--you probably remember this great Harry coming-out story, Out of the Cupboard Under the Stairs--that rare thing, a G-rated fan fiction story with a gay character. The characterizations in that one were gentle but devastating.

Today she posted a new, post-war Hermione coming-out story, The Unusual, Exceptional, and Statistically Remarkable Hermione Granger, Age 21. It's Hermione/Pansy, but not sexy--Maggie gave it a PG rating.

I might be an emotionally-vulnerable mood, but there was something so bittersweet about this story. Hermione reflects on her parents' disappointing response to her revelation that she's a lesbian with thoughts about how her friends' families have even more limited emotional resources. (Yeah, if you were best friends with Harry Potter, it would be damned difficult to complain about your annoying parents!)

magnetic_pole borrowed this postwar configuration from liseuse's stories, but as liseuse generally writes from Pansy's POV, we don't see Hermione as clearly. I think I like this Hermione, as repressed and systematic as she is. This fits beautifully into that universe, but it also stands on its own. Hermione is not a Mary Sue character (as she sometimes seems to be, even in canon!) and she's not an unsympathetic noodge either. Maybe she's a sympathetic noodge, actually. Go read and see what you think.