Name: RonsGirlFriday (Signed) · Date: 31 Jan 2021 10:30 PM · For: neither can live

Hi Noelle! Here for fairyland reviewing!

 

I see what you did here with the title. It's about the prophecy, which is the entire reason they're in the Department of Ministries, except...it's really not about the prophecy, right? Nice dual meaning here -- It's either Severus or Sirius (at least at this point in the story), and Sirius being saved means Severus dies instead.

 

I think this is a really plausible re-telling of this conflict; it seems like exactly something Hermione would have insisted on. How shocked I was to see Harry actually resort to Stunning her! I mean...maybe not incredibly surprised in retrospect because we all know how upset Harry was at that time, but still. I liked the tension of that scene and really felt poor Hermione's dismay at being addressed in that manner by Harry.

 

Everyone was perfectly in character here, from Harry to Hermione to Severus to Bellatrix. Harry's realization that he should have dialed it back and listened to someone who was talking sense is something we see all too often of him in canon. The scene involving Severus and Bellatrix was vivid and of course sad at the end -- even more sad, really, because Harry gets a chance to thank him before the final blow.

 

 

Also, the ending! It feels like a pretty incisive treatment of Sirius, and I recall you telling me before that you didn't mean for it to come off as throwing shade at him -- but you know, as much as I ultimately do like Sirius, I like what you did here. Sirius has a haughtiness and (at least at some point in his life had) a casual cruelty about him, and a ready willingness to dismiss whatever or whomever he doesn't like -- including Severus. The apathy he exhibits at the end here really isn't at all out of character for him at all. I like the way you did this because it makes Severus's death feel even more tragic -- that he dies in the way he did, and this is the way people (at least one person) continues to treat him. It makes quite a point!

 

<3 Melanie

Author's Response:

Hi Melanie! Thanks for coming by my story :D

That is exactly what I was doing with the title--I'm not sure that both Sirius and Severus can survive in any universe--although I might try to make it happen in my gryffindor!snape AU...

Everyone is so upset in that moment of OotP--and I feel that Harry especially was about to snap. I think that's why Hermione goes along with the plan to fly off to the Ministry (which is SUCH a bad idea) in canon. 

Harry is able to see his mistakes after he makes them--hopefully he gets better at anticipating them and avoiding them as he grows up :P

When I wrote the end--I didn't mean to throw quite so much shade on Sirius--but I couldn't imagine him being particularly upset or grateful to Severus...so it just sort of happened...

Thank you so much for this lovely review! And thank you for making such an awesome podfic of it! :D

Yours,

Noelle