the cover up by @Mottsnave

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if you’re looking for a dark and thrilling and most definitely morally ambiguous fic, this one has all that and more. it’s a story about post-war slytherins and neville trying to solve a mystery - gregory goyle has disappeared and nobody knows anything.

the group of slytherins i’m talking about are what’s called in-story as the eyes - student spies that snape used while he was doing his own spy-work, and they helped dumbledore’s army during the war and so neville owes them a debt.

during the course of the story you’ll see that debts and paying them and owing them are a pretty big part of how slytherins think, all of them having some sort of mental ledger to keep track, and neville has to wade through all that with his gryffindor-ish moral compass in a world of grey. it’s a super interesting exploration of slytherin culture, probably one of the best i’ve read, and the way mottsnave explores dark magic, the world-building, the additions like the good faith (a contract just shy of an unspeakable vow without the dying part…), the black market…it’s all fantastically noir and fun to read!

my favourite character has to be daphne greengrass in this, every scene with her is fantastic, especially when she starts talking because her dialogue is written in this really charismatic and charming way but at the same time probing and shrewd and zingy!

pls read this and yell at me about it, i devoured all 17 chapters of this in one day