For Wild Magelet

[gilpin25]

Title: One Cool Cookie.
Author: gilpin25
Format: One-shot
Rating & Warnings: PG-13 for innuendo, swearing and sexual references. Occasionally all three in the same sentence. ;)
Word Count: 9959
Summary: Sometimes all it takes is a visit from a passing Dragon Keeper to bring to the surface things that were so well hidden people didn't even know they were

Comments

[shimotsuki]

I'm a little too sleepy to be coherent just now, but I had to post to say how much I loved this story. The shift among the different voices is really nicely done, as is Tonks's temporary confusion, enjoying being "popular" where she never was, but then realizing what's really important to her.

you have to take in order to be teased and Moony gives all the time -- So wonderful, because it's really perceptive about Remus to start with; and then it gives us insight into the caring side of Sirius, that he would notice this; and finally it lets us watch right along with Sirius as Remus and Tonks care about each other without fully understanding it.

I loved the way you set up the misinformation Remus gives Charlie about Tonks's room -- it was a great red herring, to make us think that Sirius was commenting on Remus giving up, when he was really thinking about the impending prank.

Then, the angst -- but delightful angst. They go on hurting each other, without entirely meaning to, and without entirely understanding what's going on. Charlie is great in the restaurant scene -- he's honest with himself and Tonks, and helps her start to see straight, but that doesn't mean he can't enjoy a good steak!

I’m looking at his face, his lovely, intelligent face, and he’s so wary, so cautious, but I’ve seen the expression that was first there for the split second he was taken aback -- *sniff* I loved this, and where it led to, of course...

And good old Sirius, wishing his friends well. It gives a nice feeling of completion to have his voice be the last one, since he started it off.

[gilpin25]

Thank you for such a lovely, thoughtful review. Just sometimes, stories don't seem like work at all, and this was one of those rare ones so I'm quite fond of it myself! Perhaps it was because I was only able to write in short bursts because of the annoying back or something, though I'm not sure I want to try that method every time, lol.

I have to say that I hadn't really got a clue what I was going to do with Charlie when I started this; I didn't really want to make him a "Sexbomb" yet he'd got to be someone that would worry Remus, so the obvious starting point was that he was almost everything Remus was telling himself he wanted for Tonks - a young, decent guy - but couldn't bear the sight of when it came to the crunch.

I don't really like repeating ideas in fics but there was a line in Even More about Remus being a giver, not a taker, and that led to the idea of him being teased and Sirius recognising it as something out of the ordinary for him. Which I hope fits in with the Remus we see in the books, who wants so very much to be liked that he's normally the one saying and doing the right thing for others. It's nice to think Tonks gives him exactly what he needs.

The other idea was that people don't fall in love at the same time, or certainly don't realise they have. I've written Remus and Tonks getting together in quite a few ways, but I thought it would be nice if the problems they faced this time around were more on a par with what average couples do than the usual werewolf/metamorphmagus ones, so I tried to keep mentions of that to a minimum and have them more concerned with drowning rivals!

And I'm glad you liked the different voices. I was reading one of JKR's interviews and she said you couldn't fault Sirius on his loyalty to his friends so I tried to play that aspect up, the fact that he respects and listens to Remus in OotP, and hopefully does here as well.

Thank you again for your kind words. I'm really chuffed you enjoyed this so much, as I did yours!