Between Ruin and Salvation (HP), NC-17

[kihinranno]

Title: Between Ruin and Salvation
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: NC -17
Characters/Pairings: Draco/Luna, Ron/Hermione, Harry, Sirius, Remus, Fenrir
Genre: Romance, Drama, Angst, Dark
Word Count: 42,705
Summary: It was only one second. One second where Remus took his eyes off Harry to stare at the rigid body of his last best friend falling through the

Comments

[madderbrad]

Whew.

Believe it or not, I *had* thought that the reported deaths of Draco's parents was suspicious, but I was too hung up on or shocked by other events to note it in my review. But I enjoyed your bringing it up here, it dovetails nicely into the Machiavellian ploys of Dumbledore and Snape, their complicity in the three deaths at Hogwarts and so forth.

One other concern I have ... in this messed up world of yours the good guys don't know for sure exactly how many horcruxes there are for them to destroy. Of course, this was always a deliberately fuzzy thing in Rowling's canon ... she couldn't have an exact number, or a convenient 'detect horcruxes' spell, because then the big surprise of Harry harbouring a soul fragment would have been out of the bag. So instead she had the sloppy plot point of Slughorn's memory giving them the number '7', when in fact it could have been 70 or 77 ... and was, in fact, 8. All part of the general mess that constituted Rowling's canon and which frayed horrible as she got towards the end of her series.

Anyway, that number is even more fuzzy in your world, since no-one ever got to see Slughorn's memory.

Mind you, if I were our intrepid heroes I wouldn't worry at all about the bloody horcruxes - just kill Riddle, reduce him to a helpless wraith, take a few years off as a holiday, then starting looking for horcruxes. Plenty of time (hopefully) before Riddle's shade gets a new body.

A good story, although yeah, it falls short of the 'happy ending' I desired. But I feared that would be the case before I clicked on the link to this final chapter.

Okay, ideas for a sequel ... well, I only have one, it's what I mentioned before - Harry goes to St. Mungos and hugs Hermione back to health. :-) You then give H/Hr eequal billing to your Draco/Luna, of course. :-) Then our two couples soldier on and hit on a way to launch Harry at Voldemort. You'll need to work out a 'power the dark lord knows not' for Harry to employ ... and for God's sakes I hope you keep well away from [i]deus ex machina[/i] 'Elder Wand' gimmicks. PLEASE!?

It would be interesting to see if, in the end, you have Snape decide to switch to Riddle's side. Dumbledore's gone, Riddle's in control ... what would a good Slytherin do? But I never found Rowling's reason for his loyalty to Dumbledore in the canon very convincing ... feelings for a girl he'd crushed on 20 years ago, a girl who'd not only spurned his affection but had married his worst enemy and born him a son? Please.

I'll friend this journal - I'll have to see if you've already written a sequel (always hopeful) - if I should look elsewhere please let me know. Did you mention you had non-angst-fests hiding somewhere? With happy endings to boot? :-)

Well, it was a fantastic story that really pulled me in. How long have I been here reading this? I had work to do!! Still, it's the sign of a great story - and great author - when one just can't drag oneself away. Thank you for the story. Cheers!

Late comments are late....

[dark_branwen]

I am so sorry for not responding to these sooner. I think I must have said I would do so when I had time, and then forgot about them naturally. So sorry!

Haha, I was hoping people would be too busy reeling from everyone else to think that the timing of Narcissa and Lucius's deaths were suspicious. xD Happy to know my evil plan worked.

Heh, that's certainly an idea. But I don't know if anything short of the fluke that happened with baby!Harry would have the juice to do that, sadly. I kind of think AKing him would just give him a bad migraine.

This isn't really a story for happy endings. I do tend to swing more towards 'bittersweet' or downright sad endings when I can, but a lot of times, stories need more concrete resolution. I think this is one instance where I could get away with it. Not to mention the fact that personally, I have no idea how to wrap this up. ^^;

Any ideas I have on a sequel I'm going to keep under wraps. :X However, just so you're not getting your hopes up, I'm not an H/Hr shipper myself. So the likelihood of that happening is preeeeeeeetty slim. :/ Sorry. To each their own, I say.

And thank you so much for the lovely reviews! They never fail to make me smile. :) I will let you know if and when a sequel starts germinating in my mind.