FanficTalk Archive
Unleash Your Fandom
heyyy here for rvg
omgggg i love the call out to the ministry's incompetence - i can 10/10 see them not putting a hold on sirius's accounts even though they're continuing to look for him, since, you know, they didn't notice him taking like 1000 galleons out or something to pay for the firebolt in the first place. (like. come on, ministry. SERIOUSLY. ffs they are the most incompetent government.)
i also do really like the fact that you're not just brushing off the fact that they've had so much time apart and that virtually all of that time was spent with remus, at least, thinking that sirius had killed their friends - but also that you're moving them past it without just dwelling on it. it's so, so adorable - amazing job! <3
Hey Mel! Here for RvG POGS edition--and your lovely writing as well. Thank you so much for writing this wonderful piece for me with one of my favorite Harry Potter universe pairings.
This is such an utterly heartbreaking moment. It's morning, a time before you start your day, a quiet moment of catching up on the news. Similar to our times now, Andromeda and Ted's time isn't good and is filled with dreadful news. The establishment of the Muggle Born Registration Comission is horrific, and for it to be reported so... complicitly by the Daily Prophet truly reflects the grim situation. Sure, Ted and Andromeda are aware that this is in fact the Death Eater regime, but they also know they are targets because of their wonderful daughter, Dora, and the very demographics of their marriage: pureblood and Muggle born.
The way the Ted and Andromeda discuss this current event shows how much they care for each other and for their growing family. They way they communicate with each other reflects years of learning how to communicate and adjusting expectations and learning how to compromise. There isn't much compromise here: Ted needs to go alone. Andromeda needs to stay for their only daughter, who is pregnant with their first grandchild. And yet, despite their language and interaction showing just how long they've been together, it is abundantly clear how much Ted and Andromeda still care for each other. The carefulness of their words, the tenderness of their touches, the desire behind them staying together, being together... and the heartbreak at the prospect of them now being separated by events beyond their control...
I can relate to Andromeda very well--not in the sense of what happens to her in Deathly Hallows, but before that. Growing up in a conservative, narrow-minded community, raised to be a certain way... and then falling out of it, being disowned by it, the process of losing what you know and being tossed into liberation, which is the great unknown. While I don't have a life partner like Ted, I, too, have a support system. I understand Andromeda's position and the heartbreak and pain she's gone through to get the liberation she needs in order to live the life she wants.
And now? After years of reinventing herself, of living the life she wanted, of establishing her being and worth--everything she's worked for is being taken away by the very ideology that outsed her to begin with. My heart breaks for Andromeda, for that suffocating ideology is terrifying when it threatens everything that you've built.
We know how the story of Ted and Andromeda ends. You write their feeling of inevitability so incredibly well. It does take fortitude to continue going on, despite what's to come, despite the odds, despite what's out of your control. Ted and Andromeda will need a lot of strength for what's to come, so yes, of course, they must make their final moments together count.
Lovely snippet of a quiet and heartbreaking moment. Thank you again for writing this. <3
Mel,
This was just the cutest thing that I've seen. My heart feels so warm from reading this. I love how bittersweet the whole piece is. Molly is struggling to cope with the battle and obviously it is still very painful. I'm really impressed that you've shown Molly is something who is obviously trying really hard to find those positive within a horrible period. I imagine Molly from what we know about her in canon to be a positive person so I think you're capturing that part of her personality. She is thinking about her family changing and how good things are happening like Percy bring back a new girlfriend who I assume is Audrey.
Molly and Arthur's relationship is just so wonderful in this piece. I can't get over how sweet it is that these two people have been through so much. You've crafted these little moments between the two which shows how in love and devoted they are even though this piece isn't really about their relationship but you still find space to explore it.
I think you're such a good angst writer that I tend to forget that you're really good at being a fluff writer too. I think you've taken these character brought out the best side of them to celebrate their mum's birthday. I think as you get older than birthdays aren't as important as more but I'm happy this was one to remember. I think my favourite toast was Bill's toast about letting go. I think that's the most difficult thing to do as a mum like letting go so they can live their lives. It rung true to me anyway.
I'm glad that we have a stronger relationship between Molly and Fleur here. I think it is the natural that war would put into perspective things that are worth fighting about. I think it was a lovely little announcement. It gives Molly hope for the future and her growing family. This was so lovely.
Abbi xx
Heyyyy back again :)
This was a lot cuter than I expected it to be? And definitely a lot more upbeat! :) Which, honestly, I loved - there's something lovely about a post-war story which doesn't shy away from the difficulties of surviving a war and losing a family member (and celebrating events like birthdays in that context) but which also kinda allows the characters to be happy and to start healing from it and working through everything which happened. It's a different kind of post-war theme and I loved that it was sweeter and softer - and it was nice to see that done with Molly, as well, who's a character who goes through so much herself (losing Fred, becoming a killer by stopping Bellatrix - however unintentional it was, all the stress of worrying about all her kids and their friends like Harry and Hermione) but isn't written so much about.
Molly herself was so well written - I loved how she thought of Fred and still feels his loss so strongly (because how could you ever get over that? Even if rationally you know it's better than expected, in a cold way, because as she says, there's so many of you and you're all involved in a war and a big battle and people die and it's just a case of luck, mostly) and how celebrating her birthday feels so pointless given everything that's happened. And how she struggles to let go of controlling the cooking and arrangements to focus on herself (gosh that reminds me of my mum, haha, she's exactly the same :P), and Arthur has to remind her to let it go and just relax and enjoy it because everything will be fine :P It's exactly the way she is in canon: fretting and worrying and so instinctively maternal that it's kinda like a setting she can't switch off.
And her and Arthur are so sweet - there's something so incredibly domestic and familiar about them in this which is just so right for them (because they just are the most domestic couple in HP, haha, by far), and there's this sense of a really time-honoured argument as he sends her away while he sorts things out and reassures her and then tells her how she's beautiful.
I really really loved the way the kids all then make their own toasts to her, thanking her for everything she's done for them and helped them with over the years - and how George is the one to start it all. It felt so poignant that it was him to start it, especially after you said how he'd been so lost and struggling so much with losing Fred. And Fleur ending it by making her own toast - to a woman who struggled so much herself with accepting her into the family - and announcing her pregnancy! Ahhh that was such a sweet touch and I loved how excited Molly was for it and how she'd been so suspicious when she saw Fleur wasn't touching the wine :P
Ahhh honestly, this has been a real real joy to read: so sweet, so familial, so domesticly adorable - and it's a lovely reminder that there's often good things beyond the bad, too :)
Laura xx
Hey! J So I’m finally stopping by here! (I suppose better late than never, maybe? :P)
Anyway, I love this. You must know I love this – it’s your writing and one of my favourite ever rare-pair pairings, and it’s just such a good combination. One of the things which I think I love most about it is how different it feels to all of the other stories you’ve written in this collection: some of them are sad, heartbreaking almost, or tense, or ultimately uplifting with a kinda sweet, hopeful ending. And then there’s this one, which is kinda angry, irritated and a bit uncomfortable, but kinda sexy and flirty as well – especially by the end :P There’s a real kind of bite and heat to it which I just love – there’s this sense that they’re kind of people who compete and argue about things almost instinctively, and that their friendship-relationship revolves around that: they’re never going to have a nice, sweet, domestic kinda life, yk? And ahhh I love that, it’s so good and you write it so well – and it works so well with the way you write them.
I lovelovelove your Regulus. He has so much pride – in his family, in his surname, in himself (because, honestly, regardless of any, er, fixations-which-are-definitely-not-fixations-because-that-would-be-beneath-him :P, he’s definitely proud enough to want to look his best, even if it means taking a super circuitous route to dinner) – and I love the way the sort of shame or kinda angry disappointment he feels at those family members who didn’t make the cut (Dorea and Sirius) is juxtaposed against it. It’s a really heavy thing for him to feel and it’s so complicated and you bring that to life so so well. Also I love how he kinda relies on the mantra of ‘I’m a Black, Blacks don’t do x or y’ to hide his feelings behind, because perhaps it’s an easy shield or a crutch or a simpler way of thinking about things – but, honestly, I think Barty’s the only person he’s fooling :P
Speaking of which – I actually really like that Barty had no idea up until the kiss? Like, poor boy is desperately oblivious because it doesn’t sound like with all the staring and the trying to get close and things like Regulus was being particularly unobvious, but I love the confusion he has about it all: why is he staring at me and needling me? Why do we end up arguing about nothing really for the sake it? Mahaha, idiot boy :P It’s a good thing for him that Regulus made the move in the end, otherwise they might have ended up just staring and arguing across the dormitory, which would have been honestly ridiculous :P
You really do have a gift for making things emotional – and I love the bite in this, the sense of confrontation that’s laced through it, but the nervousness too: it gives a real suggestion that neither of them are really sure about the other, that it could all so easily go wrong and it still doesn’t really feel totally friendly at the end, haha, there’s still fire there, even if it’s changed into, er, a different kind of fire :P But they’re both teenager and they’re such perfectly written teenagers too: they’re idiots, insecure and nervous and high-strung, emotional and complicated and not that good really at dealing with emotions or feelings they haven’t necessarily felt that often before. And, of course, really not that good at actually being sensible and talking things through :P But hey, if it works for them I guess… :P
So yes. I loved it. As always. You’re such a talented writer and it shows so much – and thank you so so so much for this, it was such an incredibly lovely and generous thing to do and I’m still over the moon about it <3
Laura xx
Hey - it's me again! :)
This is so heartbreaking! :( Poor Ted and poor Andromeda - this really makes me feel so much for them, because we know how their story ends and this is really the last time they ever see each other and ughhhh it's so cruel :/
I love the way you write Andromeda: her pride at Tonks being in the Order, despite the danger it puts her (and the whole family in); how she was initially not super keen on Tonks marrying a werewolf and the nervousness perhaps about whether Teddy would also be a werewolf, and then everything with Ted: how she just assumes they're going on the run together, how they're a team and she doesn't really grasp immediately that they just can't - and how she feels so torn at the thought that she has to stay for Tonks (which she wants to do) and the future baby Teddy, but that that means she has to sort of let Ted go and kinda wait and hope that he makes it through on his own. It's a real kinda Sophie's Choice situation, yk - there's no good answer, there's no real right answer, and sort of whatever you do will hurt somehow. And how it reminds her so much of having to choose between her family and Ted during the last war - and ugh, she just seems so isolated and she seems to feel that too, that she's so alone but for Tonks and the new baby, and that must be so incredibly difficult to deal with: it just being you, with everyone you love in danger and you just kinda sitting at home and waiting for them, hoping that they're safe :/
And Ted! He seems so practical, so sensible and just so clear-cut - in his head, there's no other option but for him to go on the run, alone, to keep his family safe, and if that's what it takes, then he'll do it, without even really thinking about his own safety and his own life and what it'll mean for him - being separated from his family, not being able to go home and meet his grandkid and see his daughter with her own completed family, husband and baby and grandparents. I'd sort of forgotten that of course he missed all of that and it kinda really brings it home, that war makes you miss those things, not just people - but the things which matter to them and to you, which normally you would have been there for to celebrate with them :/
Ughhh this is so harsh and such a cruel sort of story - because there's this kind of shred of hope through it that maybe he'll survive and we know that of course he doesn't - but then, neither do Tonks or Remus (or even Bellatrix) and Andromeda's sort of left on her own with Teddy, the last ones left in her family, having lost everyone else to war and ideologies she never agreed with. The idea of that is so awful, even if there's a sad kinda realism to it that that's what happens in war - family's get broken and destroyed and people die or get lost or vanish - and I still kinda wish that their story could have ended differently :/
Ahhh this is so heartbreaking and so emotional - as all of your writing is - but it's so good and it makes me feel so much and I love that about it, even as much as I wish it wasn't so damn sad :P
Laura xx
Hey - back again! :)
Omg omg omg so I loved this? I've read it two or three times now and every time I find more things I love about it, honestly - it's so layered and so heavy and so light-hearted and hopeful at the end - and I love that it's a story which delves into physical and mental scars and how, sometimes, mental scars can be so much harder to heal when there's no physical damage going with it, but also how they can play off each other and effect each other. It's a really, genuinely thought-provoking story and I love that so much.
Lavender, to me, is such an under-rated character. Yeah, in the books she's silly and kinda naive: she likes astrology and the kinda 'fun' bits of Divination, she giggles a lot, is very flirty and a bit boy-obsessed, and likes make-up, clothes - seems to value her appearance a lot - but she's brave and open-hearted and just, well, just really kinda a normal teenage girl? So I love to see stories which kinda reorient her for the fans, where she's more than just a giggly prop for another character, yk, and which explores her character and how she might have changed - growing up and maturing, living through a war and coming out the other side.
And I love the way you had her grow up: her appearance still matters to her, but she's trying to practice what she preaches - trying not to let her scars bother her so much, not covering them up with heavy make-up as she perhaps could do but instead wearing a veil to say 'I'm like you. I have scars and injuries too. You too can get through this' which is such a thoughtful and sort of selfless thing to do? Because I can't imagine a veil doesn't attract attention, even in the wizarding world. And then how she cuts Oliver down for him getting over-excited at knowing who she is and thinking he knows why she wears the veil, thinking he's got her all figured out - which is just so Oliver, haha, that over-confidence which is almost arrogance, the thoughtlessness to say something like that (and it's almost an accusation), but then the courage to go and apologise even when he hates hospitals, because it's important that he does - and to him, not just to her.
Oliver was so good as well. I loved all the little details in here about him: how he moved bodies after the battle (Colin and Fred and Snape and Lupin); how he hates hospitals - and who wouldn't? after seeing what he's seen in them and spending time there himself, working through things he doesn't really understand and suffering from illnesses he doesn't really think are real until he suffers from them (and by the sounds of things, gets a tongue-lashing from Professor Sprout, which I loved as well as a note: I can imagine her being super motherly up until she hears some rubbish and then she just has. yk, no patience whatsoever :P) - how he grows through the story to become a bit more sensitive and a bit more clued-up about Lavender and how she actually feels and what he wants. It's a lovely, honest journey he has through the story and I love that it ends with them starting a friendship - or perhaps a relationship? It's open-ended and I love the idea of them having this very cute, very tentative romance because they're both still so fragile and so damaged but they're better together and they understand each other. It's such a sweet ending, and I lovelovelove this kind of hopeful ending for them :)
As always, your writing is so good. You have a real, real gift for pulling emotions out of your readers and this is absolutely no exception. This is such a genuine, thoughtful, introspective kind of story, which puts it right up my alley and you just do it so so so well and I love it to pieces :)
Laura xx
Hey hey hey! :)
You know, I always love seeing what people make of other people's OTPs - because it throws up some beautiful, fascinating stories - and this story is pretty much exactly why: it's so bittersweet and so cruel for poor Remus and so emotional, and ugh, but I just want them to be happy but ofc, we all know that's impossible - because Peter's the spy and from the beginning, there's this tension laced through it because as the reader we know that, and it only heightens at the end because that conversation Sirius is having about switching is the one which kills the Potters, and ahhhh, if only Remus had stayed, it might have been easier for him to deal with it all?
Seriously, though, this is such a good story in its own right. There's a real emotion to it: the sense of them hiding, of not having so much time - having to make time, almost, for the two fo them to spend together - of being in so much danger, so secretive and furtive (and not just in their relationship - every moment they're hiding because they're frontline fighters in a war where anyone could be someone who wants to kill you), and kinda split off from their friends as the tension takes its toll. The softness of that first section makes such a contrast to everything else in this: the pace is slower, there's this kind of gentle, almost fragile sense to it which I just love. It feels like they're something incredibly delicate about them and their relationship - like it's new and easily broken, and it's kinda heartbreaking :/
I lovelovelove the little nods to bits of canon which are kinda often glossed over too: that James and Sirius are kinda rude about Peter - that everyone sort of is, seeing him as just some idiot kid bumbling along behind handsome, talented James and Sirius - that Remus hurts himself most when he's alone on the full moon, that Remus suspects Sirius of being the spy (and I loved the mention of the horror he feels when Sirius says 'I'm going to be secret keeper' because it's something I'd never thought of: if Remus thought Sirius was the spy, how would he feel learning he's going to be secret keeper? Knowing that he can't really say anything because James would never believe him and perhaps Dumbledore wouldn't and people around him are dying and you're meant to trust your friends in times like those :/), that Peter's so torn when Remus goes to leave - does he suspect then, that Sirius is going to ask him to be Secret Keeper? Does he think Sirius suspects him in turn?
Ughhh this is so emotive and powerful, and I really, really loved it. Honestly, it's making me want a lot more Peter-centric stuff from you, because you write him so well: sympathetic but not. Maybe human is the best way to describe it? And your writing just really evokes the tension and the fear and the stress of the war so so well.
This is such a great story! :)
Laura xx
Hi Mel!
I'm so excited about this story especially the pairing because it's my fave though I really haven't read much of them together. I really like how you've drawn from your stengths as a writer to make this slightly more ununusal pairings. I know you generally like canon pairings but I think that you've done a wonderful job at having a go at making this as close to canon as possible. I just mean in the fact that the way that they've met and some things that we've been together seems like very realistic. I think them meeting and bonding over some aspects of the War is in my personal headcanon.
I really think how you've explored grief was really powerful. I think everyone does it in a different way but I really thought how Oliver was there speaking the names of people that were lost and that he knew was really emotional. It's really effective at getting into his mind set. I don't think Oliver is something that you would associate with the War straight away but we don't really ever to get to see the effect of the world outside of Harry's bubble. I really like Lavender's entrance into this piece because you're already showing the growth in her character over the years by her statements about Lupin and Hermione. I do like to believe that characters do grew and change. I don't think Lavender really did anything wrong as she was only really a child but it's always positive to be able to reflect on your behaviour.
I think Oliver probably doesn't quite realise that he is being quite blunt that he is being when he is placing Lavender in his memory. I can see why she doesn't quite response that well. It's almost cutting. I really like that fact that you made her a specialist in facial reconstruction though. That's a really cool idea. It's probably not a branch of medicine that you might think of but it's very important. I like to think that lavender would want to give people their confidence back.
I love the natural rapport that you've build between the two. It's important to build that trust and support between each other. I love that little moment when he realises that he wants her. It's so cute. Great job at this little story and thank you so much for writing this for me. you're a gem <3
Abbi xx
Hey there Mel, I'm here for the reviewing event, and also representing team emerald in this month's Slytherin EvS review battle.
Firstly, I have to thank you for this story (as well as Abbi for her donation). As an Australian, I really appreciate what you have done in raising awareness for the bushfires that are ravaging my country. SO THANK YOU, truly, from the bottom of my heart.
Now that that is over, I can give your story a proper review. AND I LOVED IT. Lavender Brown and Oliver Wood fanfictions are one of my guilty pleasures - and it is a true shame that there aren't more on the archives, so seeing this one had me really excited.
I think you did an excellent job of depicting the grief, anxiety, recovery and sheer horror of what war can do. Reading that Oliver carried the bodies of the dead, people that he knew, was heartbreaking. I think setting it five years after the war was a great decision as it gave you enough room, and time, to show how the longer term effects have impacted those in the wizarding community.
Also, I found Lavender's growth completely believable. After what happened to her, I highly doubt she would have been the same frivolous, vain school girl we knew from the books. You gave her a real depth, which felt natural, and not rushed. Oliver too. He is often portrayed as a quidditch obsessed, player, and breaking of hearts. To see him so - well, broken was hard. The struggles he still has, five years on goes back to what I said about you showcasing the long term effects and PTSD from war. My heart was breaking for him. In fact, I loved this so much that I would love to read more - it wasn't enough to satisfy the giant Lavender/Oliver hole in my life.
Fantastic job, and thanks once again for taking the time to write this one-shot.
Rhi x
Hello, Mel, my dear! Finally here to review this lovely story! Thank you so, so, so much for writing this for me and more in general for taking the time to contribute to this initiative! It's so generous! <3 <3 <3
Way to break my heart, anyway... only from the date I'm already breaking a little... reading about this intimate moment and knowing what's going to happen tomorrow... it's just so hard... :(
I think you played with the betrayal theme so well, btw. Remus wondering about the spy, and there comes Peter, who is the person Remus was waiting for, the person he would never suspect. I love the chemistry and the tenderness between them! And I love how they both see in each other something more than what other people see. And I hate, once again, the double meaning this has in Peter's case... One day they would understand. Ah, indeed they would...
And then comes Sirius and that's when you know that it's all wrong... did he say that he was going to be Secret Keeper in front of Remus because he thought he'd trick him that way? I hate so much that they didn't trust each other! If they had, everything would've been different... and then Remus leaves, not knowing that this is the last time he'll see his friends alive... (okay, technically not the last time, but you know what I mean...) it's just so cruel... :(
You did such a wonderful job with this! It's a very short piece but has so much depth and I love it! Thank you for indulging in my OTP, as crazy as it is, and for writing this heartbreaking but perfect stolen moment! <3
Snowball hug,
Chiara
Such a bittersweet little moment about what appears to truly be a strong, loving, and respectful partnership. My heart is just torn with the last couple of sentences.
I think my favorite line here must be this:
Slowly, though, they'd begun to get back to their old rhythms. Learnt to trust each other again, with the little things as well as the big ones. Sirius had learnt that Remus now had fewer sugars in his tea, and Remus had learnt that spending as much time as a dog as Padfoot had done had given him a taste for meat somewhat rarer than he used to eat.
It's such a sample but effective way of commenting on how much time has passed, and what it's like trying to get back into a relationship with someone who you used to know so well but have been away from for so long.
This was a sweet little moment. <3
Melanie
Lex, WHYYYYY is so this so adorable? I love some good fluff, and this is it.
I think my very favorite thing here is this idea of this restaurant run by an old magical family and their fortunes actually being fortunes that are known to come true.
The way you tied up Harry's original fortune with Draco's at the end made me just grin ear to ear, it was so cute. Such a fun read!! <3
Melanie
I think this is a gorgeous romance, the slow build (even for a one-shot) to trust and mutual respect, which I will always find just as sexy as physical chemistry, if not more so. I thought you painted a fantastic portrait of Oliver as someone struggling with his psychological trauma from the war, and really gave a lot of depth to Lavender. The first time I read this, I was not expecting the twist as to why she wears the veil!
he and James had always been dismissive of Peter, had never recognised his true value and abilities. Ah well, they would one day, he thought. One day they would understand.
Oof, the irony!
I enjoyed this little missing moment, Mel! Shipping Remus with Peter makes this entire situation worse because it's yet another personal betrayal. I like how you set it the day before the Potters' deaths. I've never been able to figure out the actual timeline of when the Potters send into hiding and the Fidelius Charm was performed, and canon information is self-contradictory. But setting this scene the day before makes the whole thing feel so high stakes.
Despite my hatred of Peter, I like how you wrote their little interaction here, especially Peter knowing immediately which marks on Remus's body are new.
Melanie
Any access or use of the FanficTalk Archive is conditioned upon compliance with our Site Guidelines and Terms of Service and the Copyright Policy and Privacy Policy contained therein. Should you have any questions about them, you are very welcome to contact any of our archive validators. For advanced searching, please click here.
Any characters, source code, text, or titles contained herein which are recognizable as copyrighted material are the sole property of their owners.