Therealsnape

Dear Shadowycat,

My warmest congratulations on this, your birthday! May the new year be filled with laughter and sunshine.

And perhaps this little gift of mine will be a first step towards laughter, or at least a wry chuckle ...

It's not much of a story. It all started back in September, when TRS approached me, all starry-eyed enthusiasm, with a request to use my correspondance in a story for you.

Of course I acquiesced. I like that little Christmas do of hers, and one always tries to contribute. And I also thought it would not be a bad thing if you were to think of me a bit more - Minerva and Severus may be famous war heroes, but there are more stories to tell, and, perhaps, pictures to show.

You'll forgive an old man his vanity, I'm sure.

But alas, the story was beyond TRS's meagre talents, and she, too, ended up scribbling about what we oldsters begin to call The Golden Duo.

For your birthday, I've selected some of those letters I gave TRS. Together, they offer a little vignette - it really isn't much more than that, but one hopes to please, regardless - of a small yet not quite insignificant thread in the grand tapestry of Hogywarts' History.

Enjoy, my dear Shadowycat, have a wonderful birthday and a wonderful year! TRS joins me in the congratulations, of course.

Yours most fondly,
Horace Slughorn

Title: How Gilderoy Got Hired
Summary: assorted correspondance of Horace Slughorn, edited by TRS and properly edited by kellychambliss, who did a brilliant job. All remaining flaws are TRS's. What can one say? The poor thing really tried.

Below the cut you'll also find the wonderful illustration shadowycat did for this story.

( How Gilderoy Got Hired )

Title: A Story of Warnings and the Ignoring Thereof
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Irma Pince/Horace Slughorn
Word Count: 5800
Warnings/Content Information: none
Summary: Horace has a strange story to tell. A story that might even surprise his old friend Albus. A story involving Irma Pince. And then Albus had to go and die in that highly dramatic fashion. But Horace is not a man who lets a mere trifle like the Veil stop him. When he has a story to tell, he tells it.
Author's/Notes: My thanks, as always, to my fabulous beta kellychambliss. For many improvements, endless patience, and soothing my fevered brow during a particularly vicious attack of Writer’s Insecurity.

Originally written for hp_beholder, that most fabulous of fests.

( A Story of Warnings and the Ignoring Thereof )