Rare Pair Shorts

Hello everyone! This is just a quick announcement to let you all know that posting for the winter fic exchange is finished! We are not going to do a guessing poll this year; the masterlist and reveal will simply be posted in a couple of days. We apologize for this and the fairly erratic posting, but would like to thank you all profusely for being the first exchange either of us has ever run with absolutely no drop-outs! You are all AMAZING!

While you wait for the masterlist and reveal, please take the time to read and comment on all of the wonderful entries for this year's exchange.

See you in a couple days.

Author: uniquepov
Recipient: martinius

<<1>>

Title: Portrait of Love
Pairing: Luna/Hermione
Rating: G
Word Count: 701
Summary: People think they’re polar opposites, but they know the truth.
Author's Notes: This is a bit different than my normal style, but I couldn’t shake the idea. I hope you like it. <3

( Portrait of Love )


***


<<2>>

Title: Rituals
Pairing: Luna/Hermione
Rating: PG
Word Count: 765
Summary: Hermione and Luna observe the Winter Solstice.

( Rituals )

Author: gelsey
Recipient: absolutelybatty
Title: Ring A-Ring O’ Roses
Pairing: Severus/Molly, Severus/Lily
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~1033
Summary: Her red hair fascinates me, as red has fascinated me since the day I met Lily Evans.
Author's Notes: This is one of the weirdest fics I’ve written in a long time. I do hope you enjoy it. This version of the rhyme comes from the UK, or so says Wikipedia. It’s not a fairy tale, but I hope it works. I know S/L isn’t rare, but it hooks into the S/M at least for me.

( Ring A-Ring O' Roses )

Author: dexstarr
Recipient: scarletladyy
Title: Toujours Fidèle
Pairing: Narcissa/Pansy
Rating: R
Word Count: 2474
Summary: ‘Soon’ can’t come quickly enough for Pansy.
Author's Notes: Thanks to S. for beta’ing; D. for Brit-picking; J., P., and S. for support and assistance. Thanks to the mods for being understanding.

( Toujours Fidèle )

Author: a_shadow_there
Recipient: deathjunke
Title: Some Kind of Nothingness
Pairing: Narcissa Malfoy/Vittoria Zabini; mentions of Narcissa/Bellatrix, Narcissa/Lucius, and Lucius/others.
Rating: R; angst, hurt/comfort, infidelity, sex
Word Count: ~1140
Summary: After Draco takes the Dark Mark, Narcissa is anxiety-ridden. She seeks comfort in the embrace of an old friend.
Author's Notes: I had something completely different in the works for you deathjunke but as I was working on it this popped into my head and simply would not be denied – still, I hope it meets with your approval! Mrs Zabini has no canon first name, so I've picked one out for her. And I nicked the title from the Manic Street Preachers song of the same name.

( Some Kind of Nothingness )

Author: ellielove_x3
Recipient: briony_tallis
Title: The Ladies in Red
Pairing: Lavender/Parvati
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1100
Summary: Eleven 100-word drabbles documenting Lavender Brown’s intensely close friendship with Parvati Patil.
Author's Notes: Dani, as always, you come through for me; thanks for the beta. And briony_tallis, I hope you like it! I decided to go out of my comfort zone and write all these drabbles that each pertain to at least one of your requests instead of writing a straight up, 1000+ one-shot. The romance is subtle and nothing is too slutty. I had fun writing my first 100-word drabbles and I really hope they are what you had in mind since I always have trouble staying with canon.

( The Ladies in Red )

Author: alley_skywalker
Recipient: scarysnapey
Title: Count To Ten
Pairing: Antonin Dolohov/Bellatrix Black-Lestrange
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,470
Summary: Three times Bella resorts to the old “counting to ten” trick.
Author's Notes: The first scene is misleading; it’s not all fluff :p

( Count To Ten )

Author: leigh_adams
Recipient: restlessme
Title: White Blank Page
Pairing: Bill Weasley/Pansy Parkinson
Rating: R
Word Count: 2,419
Summary: Can you lie next to her and give her your heart, as well as your body?
Author's Notes: Many, many thanks (and virtual cookies) to my beta, E, for her suggestions and notes. Couldn't have done it without you, sweets! This was a pairing I'd never written (or even thought about writing) before, so I hope it turned out okay. The title is based off the song White Blank Page by Mumford and Sons. restlessme, I hope you enjoy!

( White Blank Page )

Author: absolutelybatty
Recipient: gelsey
Title: To Make Fit Again
Pairing: Arthur/Bellatrix with a huge heaping of Molly/Arthur and hinted Voldemort/
Bellatrix
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,321
Summary: Arthur finds that all things can be broken, but not all things can be fixed.
Author's Notes: This story is canon compliant (up to and including the epilogue) except for the part where Molly kills Bellatrix during the final battle; for the purposes of this fic, Bellatrix was only severely incapacitated. Thank you to A. and S. for betaing this for me.


( To Make Fit Again )

Author: restlessme
Recipient: uniquepov
Title: Unexpected Beginning
Pairing: Hermione/Neville
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1017
Summary: When she was younger, her mum had always read her fairy tales.
Author's Notes: Such a difficult pairing to write, I sincerely hope I've done it justice. Enjoy and happy holidays!

( Unexpected Beginning )

Author: flaminia_x
Recipient: jessicaqueen
Title: Daydreaming
Pairing: Harry Potter/Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter/Gilderoy Lockhart (sort of)
Rating: R
Word Count: 2470
Summary: In addition to Memory Charms, Lockhart had a few other specialities up his sleeve. But when people starts noticing odd changes in Harry's behavior after detentions with him, will they figure out what's going on?
Author's Notes: I hope this is along the lines of what you'd like, jessicaqueen! I don't write this pairing so I appreciate the challenge. Also, everyone's of age, as it's sort of an 8th-year fic, so feel free to create your own version of why Lockhart is teaching at Hogwarts.

( Daydreaming )

Author: scarletladyy
Recipient: dexstarr
Title: Loneliness
Pairing: Narcissa/Astoria with background Lucius/Narcissa and Draco/Astoria
Rating: R
Word Count: 1,562
Summary: When two women are left alone for so long, it seems only fitting that they combat their loneliness together.
Author's Notes: Many thanks to my beta.

( Loneliness )

Author: seatbeltdrivein
Recipient: a_shadow_there
Title: The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth
Pairing: Ginny/Cho
Rating: R
Warnings: Infidelity, implied sexuality
Word Count: 810
Summary: The world was so often an unfair place that she couldn't bring herself to feel guilty.
Author's Notes: Thanks to A for the quick beta work. Your prompts were amazing, a_shadow_there! I hope I did them justice.

( The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth )

Author: luvscharlie
Recipient: fiery_flamingo
Title: Dream Weaver
Pairing: Tom Riddle/Ginny Weasley; Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley (used as a background pairing to keep this canon-compliant, as requested)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,142
Summary: Ginny Weasley has grown up to marry her childhood crush, but it isn't her husband who haunts her dreams. It's a first love that drags her into darkness when he comes to visit her nightly dreams.
Author's Notes: For fiery_flamingo who asked for drama, angst, canon compliant, and non-happy endings and a prompt of the quotes below. I hope this meets your approval, dear. It didn't exactly go as planned, but I was still happy with where it went and I hope you are as well. Thanks to A. for the beta work!

( Dream Weaver )

Are you excited? We're excited! Posting for the Rarepair Shorts Winter Fic Exchange 2010-2011 is going to start in a few minutes. First, though, we'd like to thank you all so much for making this such a smooth exchange. There are only a few more gifts left to come in, much better than in previous years.

Secondly, we'd just like to remind you all that this is still an anonymous exchange – so please don't reply to the comments posted on the gift you created until after the reveal.

Thirdly, make sure you comment on the gift created for you! A lot of hard work went into each and every one of these gifts. Make sure you comment on the other gifts, too!

And lastly, have a Merry Christmas, and happy holidays to you all!