Fic: Unlocked by pelespen

[hermionemods]

Title: Unlocked
Author/Penname: pelespen
Artists: treeson & venturous1
Pairing/Characters: Hermione Granger/Sirius Black
Summary: Driven to near-insanity at the hand of Bellatrix Lestrange, Hermione finds her solace and reason to survive in thoughts and memories of her love. How will she find her way out of the safety of her own mind, however, and what does the future

Comments

[fangirlwithak]

I told you I still had to come "squee" about this story, and I apologize about being waylaid. My immune system has decided to kick the bucket

This has to be one of the best fics I've read in a while. I really enjoyed "Le Flambeau Vivant" on the Sirius Big Bang. Ceredwensirius did an excellent job writing Sirius (and I've already left her my love in reviews ;) ). However, it was absolutely amazing seeing the Hermione-side of the story that you wrote. It's not easy writing a sister piece from another point-of-view, I'm guessing, but you did it brilliantly. I fell in love with your characterizations and they fit with Ceredwinsirius's characterizations really well. And uh... is it bad that, for a while, I was on Team Viktor for a while? I was totally, "Screw Sirius. ... Actually, screw Hermione, too. -I- will take Viktor!"

I also really enjoy that, instead of directly mirroring "Le Flambeau Vivant," but in Hermione's point-of-view, you focused on bringing forth new scenes for the readers to enjoy. It kept me enthralled, entertained, and wanting to... uh... push Hermione out of the way and masquerade as her XD

Honestly, this fic is being kept under my "Favorites" because it's something I'll be able to read again.

Venturous1: WOOHOOO! Ohmigod. Hot. Like... woah. Can I just say that the expression on Hermione's face, that vision of ecstasy, is HOT. I can't pull my eyes away from it (and feel a big voyeuristic for it XD), but... *SIGH* I wish I had artistic abilities. I'm always so jealous of you people at -do-

Treeson: :( I apologize, because my computer didn't recognize the compressed file of music. However, I do recognize the artists, and a lot of the music, so I know that the list is made of absolute WIN. And uh... I absolutely adore Frou Frou. Adore. So you get a THIRD thumb's up for it ;)

[pelespen]

*squeals* I'm so glad you enjoyed this so much. It was definitely a challenge to work within not just Rowling's parameters, but ceredwensirius' as well. I really wanted to get Hermione's side of the story out there, though, so I'm glad it came across well.

And definitely don't feel bad about Team Viktor LOL - I was there myself (shhhh! don't tell!). The good part, though, is that it made me realize I had to write more of the Hermione/Sirius side of things in order to hopefully draw the reader back to Team Sirius by the end.

I am truly honored you enjoyed this. Really really. Especially after reading Temporality. And again, I don't want to bully you or anything, but if you ever want ANY kind of encouragement to write more - I'm your girl. <3

Thank you again, and oh, I hope you feel better! Sick SUCKS.

[fangirlwithak]

Soooo, out of a lack of good, new ficcage on the interwebs (and an excess of free time), I've been going back through and rereading some of my favorites. This was one of the first ones I ran to, and lemme say... It is JUST as brilliant the second time through. Except this time, I wasn't speed-reading through to find out what happens in the end, but I actually took my time to go through it and take in the little details.

I love how strong you made Hermione, and I love how much emotion you were able to put into her. I don't think I wrote about this in my first review, but I could feel her anguish and her pain and I had her indignant anger and hurt. And I was constantly jumping ship in the beginning, "Hooo I support Weasley Twins/Hermione!" and still "Viktor, you can focus your attention on me instead." It honestly makes me want to try a Viktor/Hermione... except I know I wouldn't be able to do him justice :(

Really, this story is just as "Squeeeee!" the second time through. And I mean, you pull it off SO flawlessly. The ending, where Hermione doesn't accept his proposal until some mundane moment in the future? Absolutely BRILLIANT, and it never would have occurred to me! And it's so perfect for their characters. And I absolutely love how Lavender, Ginny, and the Patil twins are. I get soooo tired of female-character bashing and you REALLY gave them personality that avoids nastiness. I mean, even Lavender was a little bit of a brat, yes, but she's a brat in JKR's books, too. And you gave her a humanistic depth that SCREAMS "Gryffindor"-- loyal, courageous, head-strong.

Baaah. So much awesomeness.

[pelespen]

Really? WOW. This was an awesome thing to wake up to. And seriously - I read this comment and said "really? with a head-cock. I have too much personal angst associated with this story, I think. It was a LOT of work to get the situation and Hermione's characterization to where I could live with it.

Part of me thinks I should never have tackled it, because all that anguish and pain and indignant anger and hurt was me "protecting" my dear Hermione, if that makes sense. It was stressful as hell, and came at the final realization that something I thought was a friendship was nothing more than a fandom acquaintance. A very incompatable one at that. At least in my efforts to save Hermione's character, what I wrote really was a completely separate story, and with the exception of one or two minor plot points, it's all mine.

And I did learn SO MUCH about my own sense of characters from this. It makes me squee greatly, all the things you said about the female characters, and yeah, everything else! If I'd had more enthusiasm and no time limit, rest assured there would have been a lot more Twins/Hermione action of some sort (probably not sex, but more of a relationship buildup), and she probably would NOT have been a virgin by the time Sirius pulled his head out of his ass. AND he would have actually pulled it out of his ass and learned what he supposedly "loved" about her, instead of Deus Ex Machina in the form of Lily/James. Lots of coulda woulda shouldas there. I don't think I've read it since HBB, so maybe I should, but maybe I'd just get distracted wanting to "fix" stuff.
Ultimately, tho, I think the stress of writing it helped me improve a bit as a writer.

I would completely and totally support you 1000% in a Viktor/Hermione fic. *cough*BulgarianBigBang*cough* If you want more encouragement for how awesome they can be, go to thimble_kiss