Title: Glass Half Full
Author: pir8fancier
Rating: M
Category: Romance
Pairing: Ron/Pansy, Ron/Hermione
Status: One shot, 10k words
Summary: It's twenty years, post-war, and Ron is trying to come to terms with who he is and who he isn't.

Link

I have a weakness for stories like this, that showcase damaged people and how poisonous they are capable of being, without useless angst.

Ron is an alcoholic. He is slowly fucking his life up. And the lives of those around him. And then he tries to get better.

It's not a nice story, but it has the ring of truth to it. It reads like the author has a good idea of what he/she is talking about.

There is clarity in the writing, and sharpness, and an almost raw quality of deconstruction in how much a destructive habit can hurt others and yourself. And it's all wrapped in beautiful prose.

Characterization is amazing. I don't like Ron in general, or more accurately, I find it boring to read about him - but this, I could read another 200k words of. Pansy too comes across as a compelling character.

4.5/5, because I wanted more Ron/Pansy goodness.

(I did a forum search for the author's name and didn't find this. However, it might have been posted before.)

 

The first thing that pops into my head during/after reading this is that I want a former alcoholic (or current, whatever) DLP member to actually read and rate the story, and give their thoughts regarding it.

Any takers?

The story captivated me. As you can clearly tell, I don’t read a lot of stories (both by chance as well as choice) wherein the protagonist is an Alcoholic, but this story succeeded in grabbing my attention and making me think.

Spoiler: Part of the Story

He said what he felt; he didn't care about hurting her feelings. No, it wasn't like that exactly. He didn't try to hurt her feelings, it was that he could just say things and not worry that he was saying the wrong things. Like that morning a couple of weeks ago when he was late phoning her. She rang up and started tearing him a new one, really going to town, until finally he bellowed back, "You bloody cow, will you shut it? I'm five minutes late because I cut myself shaving. I'm not drinking my breakfast. I'm trying to cast a Healing Charm and I'm shit at Healing Charms and it looks like I've done the opposite and now I'm bleeding all over my fucking bathroom. Okay?" And instead of getting all shirty with him, she started laughing. "God, to be a fly on that wall," and then hung up on him.

The above mentioned part made me introspect myself, and I realized that I too, do the same thing that this story's Ronald does. Any story that forces you to draw parallels is, at the very least, well thought-out, if not actually good in my humble opinion.

The characters have been rendered faithfully with respect to canon, to the extent that it is believable to imagine Ronald spiraling into an alcoholic crisis long after the epilogue. Harry comes off as his usual morally perfect self and Hermione is surprisingly not as fleshed out as you'd imagine in a fic where's she's an important secondary character. Go figure.

The story has been classified as "Romance" but really, the RW/PP burn is a slow one and takes a back seat to RW's struggles with alcoholism. It has been executed fairly decently, and culminates as a satisfying conclusion (better than the Epilogue at any rate). The bottom line is, read this story for a glimpse into an alcoholic's head, not for RW/PP fluff, there isn't any.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I write this as someone who has never imbibed a single drop of Alcohol. Naturally, this goes a way towards explaining my (reluctant) fascination and appreciation for this story, and as such my words should be taken with a pinch of salt. That said, I look forward to hearing the opinion of someone at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Edit: Forgot to Rate. 4.5/5, rounded down as per the rules.

 

That read more like a bad Californication episode than a piece of Harry Potter fanfiction.

It doesn't feel very magical, but maybe that's sort of the point. Everything's bleak. Magic has become mundane. Why haven't they offed themselves yet? That sort of vibe.

The Ron-Hermione and Ron-Pansy dynamics feel familiar, but barely so. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the whole thing feels a bit cheap while managing to be inoffensive. That said, it got a bit better at the halfway mark, and the ending was oddly bittersweet. Almost comfortingly so.

It was a bit hard to read, and I prefer to avoid that type of stuff. When the mood strikes me though, I'd much rather re-read Bukowski's Post Office or Neilan's Apathy and Other Small Victories. Definitely not what I look for in a fic, and I felt like the author would have produced something better had they bothered to write this as a piece of original fiction. It was too mundane, the magic only an afterthought.

2/5.

 

This is definitely an almost recommended fic. It hits similar points and ideas as Cauterize, which is a similar short post-DH fic. It’s nice to see the inverse of a ron!bashing fic, though to be fair I may just have not seen anything similar before. The writing is solid, though sometimes it feels like time skips happen too for its own good. 3/5

 

I noped out when the author used this grotesque contortion of what I can only guess is supposed to be British slang:

Spoiler

"Look, Ron. You want to bugger this one off?"

"No, I don't want to bugger this one off. I'm fine," he snapped. Just your standard raid. It shouldn't be a problem.

Ron also uses Christ instead of Merlin. It's entirely possible that I'll be feeling more charitable tomorrow so I'll hold off on leaving a score.

EDIT: Eight hours later and I can't decide how I feel about it. This is a disappointing version of Ron, caught in stasis by the same niggling fears that caused him so much grief in the seventh book. He hasn't grown much as a person in the intervening years - but at the same time some people don't. I also can't help thinking that this has an unfinished feel to it, like it was cut off with one third still to go.

Spoiler

He makes a peace of sorts with Hermione, agrees that they shouldn't be married to each other, then goes back to Pansy's house and hugs her. Some resolution between the two of them woukd have been nice.

I wish the author could make their mind up about how British they wanted this to sound, because you have things like the dreaded "nutters", coupled with "spring break" and "cell phone".

3/5