Name: RonsGirlFriday (Signed) · Date: 21 Dec 2022 08:22 AM · For: do what you have to do and to hell with the rest

Oh my god, the way you write characters with such layers. I love how every character in this is behaving like a jerk in some way (i.e. in terms of how they speak to one another, the near-spite-fucking, etc) and yet you can see clearly why each of them feels the way they do and does the things they do. Like I can hardly wrap my head around it to comment on it properly. The way this ends is likely the most just way things could have ever turned out, with Sev paying for what he did and the Potters safe because of it, and Lily's actions are understandable and justified, but even so, that ending just leaves a sour taste in your mouth (in a good way).

 

I LOVED the interaction between her and Sev, the way there's just so much animosity and distrust there now that even with the spell she can't bring herself to try to seduce him a little more strategically -- she's downright hostile in how she does it, in no little part due to his spiteful words. There's no love lost there, even though both are irreparably wounded by the other. And I liked the description of how even when they were friends it was never "sweet" between them. There's just like a jagged edge to this whole thing.

 

I was super into your descriptions of his body language, how he's undeniably tempted but in a way that probably just pisses him off even more. And then for a moment he lets himself get sucked in and is overcome by the sensation and the possibility, and almost gets carried away, but then the hot water snaps him out of it and he realizes there is no way this is genuine. And that's great because it's like... he could have had her, he could have done anything he wanted, but there's a whole litany of reasons he may have restrained himself, from the benevolent explanation that he felt it wrong to take advantage (even though she was the one who cast the spell anyway) to him knowing that if he went too far he'd lose his good decision-making, to him maybe even just getting some pleasure out of frustrating her.

 

This is a brilliant display of your writing and will be an underappreciated fic but I have to say it's truly brave of you to concoct and share this, given how on their high horse the fandom can get about Sev-Lily matters. These are emotions and dynamics worth exploring, and it's a talent to be able to reveal the humanity in them without sugarcoating or romanticizing it.

 

<3 Melanie

Author's Response:

AHHHHHHHH THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! :')

 

I know this fic is off the rails for most people, but dark Lily is my favorite Lily, so here we are. I just love to see her rough around the edges, and acting with more agency than we see her act with in canon. 

 

I love your insight that one of the reasons Sev says no to her advances is to frustrate her. I definitely believe it's part of it.

 

Thank you so much for your encouragement and for this lovely review!!!