So This Is Romance by Gilpin25

[gilpin25]

Title: So This Is Romance …
Author: gilpin25
Rating and Warnings: R (Not very fluffy romance or language at times)
Prompts: Thing: Veritaserum; Place: Ministry of Magic; Time: A Day of Discovery; Genre: Romance
Word Count: 10,130
Summary: War gets in the way of absolutely everything, or so it seems. Especially a rather complicated relationship...
Author’s

Comments

[lady_bracknell]

I thought this was wonderful.

Romance isn't always about hearts and flowers and grand getures, never less so than in a time of crisis and with pressing committements pulling you both in a different direction - it's about snatched moments where all that falls away because of how you feel about someone, and the fact that you captured that so well here made this really powerful.

I loved Sirius in this (his line about them being as pathetic as a pair of nifflers was a classic, and made me laugh a lot) - his mixture of grouchiness and meddling concern, and I liked the slight tension you gave his relationship with Tonks, and how Remus uses him as a confident, in spite of his better judgement.

I loved the glimpse of something very much more plotty going on here - it kept the piece grounded in the reality of a war going on in the background - and whilst I'd love to read more about Simeon and Melvyn, you gave us just enough that it's compelling, without needing bags more exposition. As usual, your OCs struck exactly the right note, doing their thing, without hogging the limelight, and I thought they were all well-sketched and believable.

I loved the scene at the end (and curses on you for the starry ceiling - I was so going to do that in Werewolf. Great minds, I supppose ;)). I liked the nod to realism with Tonks banging her head and Remus catching his elbow, but the best thing was how entirely free of cliche you kept it, which is seriuosly not easy to do.

I loved this. And like all good romances, you left us with the 'nothing can touch us now', when we all know what's coming. Great stuff.

[gilpin25]

So glad you liked this because I got off on the wrong foot with it, felt as if I was doing a salvage job, and then wrote one scene which made me feel differently about the whole thing ... and meant I had to go back and totally re-jig the 'author-wrote-this-in-foul-mood' section. By the end, I was rather fond of it, but wondered if anyone else would be.

The idea behind it was to concentrate on the difficulties of having a relationship when work/war gets in the way, rather than the usual oft-explored R/T problems, although one or two of them still managed to get into it. I was also in lots of minds about what to do with the Veritaserum, but it seemed a nice twist to have everyone tell the truth because of the circumstances, and because they wanted to, rather than because they'd taken it. (Especially as you seem to become a bit robotic when you've had it, which wasn't particularly romantic;)) And I do seem keen to write that R/T-on-a-mission-one, so Melvyn's story was a good excuse to get everyone into the ministry.

I'm sorry about the starry ceiling. I needed something very romantic, and it just seemed perfect for them. Although I would quite like to see Remus get a beach into her bedroom, LOL? I did debate having Remus get cramp in his foot for half an hour, while Tonks read a book, for real realism, but decided I'd need another 10,000 words. And I'm glad you enjoyed the smutty part, because I don't get to write that very much, and it was fun to practise!

Thank you for the lovely comments - much appreciated. :) And especially for the very cuddly Akira The Don, LOL.