Subterfuge

[shimotsuki]

Title: Subterfuge
Author: shimotsuki
Format: One-shot
Rating: PG
Warnings: Mild violence
Prompts: Healing Paste; Fred/George, Mad-Eye; think; action/adventure
Word Count: 3036 words
Summary [revised]: Tonks answers a summons from Remus. It's the first she's seen him since he left to join Greyback's pack, and George Weasley, along to help out, picks up on

Comments

[mrstater]

Oh, this is wonderful. Barely anyone writes Remus underground fics that deal with him interacting with the other werewolves as people trying to survive, as opposed to the monster stuff. I would think that just having to scavenge for the bare essentials, and to basically have a rough, shiftless existence among the poor and uneducated and disenfranchised would be the worst thing of all for Remus; he's doing a job but has nothing to do really, and so it becomes easy for him to empathize, or to identify with them

[shimotsuki]

Thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a detailed, thoughtful comment! I was really nervous about trying action/adventure and having to handle multiple prompts, so I'm happy to hear that you thought it worked okay as a plot. I have a feeling that the ratio of true "action" or "adventure" to dialogue and emoting is still pretty low, but at least I got my feet wet, and now it's less scary to think about doing another a/a fic sometime.

(By the way, I am so impressed that you've managed a four-part mystery story, and I can't wait to read it, but I may not have a chance to do much reading until the weekend.)

[jncar]

This is a really great little fic! Using George's POV was a wonderful choice. Watching the tension between Remus and Tonks from his uncomrehending point of view made it a little more painful, because they couldn't even speak plainly in front of him.

And I really like your take on the werewolves--this was much closer to my own ideas of them than most of the other stories I read where they're more vicious and more truely "feral." I really like this idea of them as ordinary people struggling to survive, just like other homeless people.

Nice job!

[shimotsuki]

Thanks! I'm really glad you liked it (even though I didn't end up using the Diagon Alley plot...I do still want to try that one sometime).

ordinary people struggling to survive -- I'm sure some of the ferals are pretty horrible, like Greyback himself, but I'm guessing most of them are with Greyback only because they have nowhere else to go. And going back to the point you raised in your rt_challenge post about Remus and failure on this mission -- I don't think he has a huge and resounding success, at least not by the end of HBP, because surely Harry would have heard about it. But I totally agree that he's likely to make some amount of headway with at least some individual werewolves. It would be nice to see some werewolf allies turn up in DH...

(BTW, I'm really looking forward to reading your Jumble fic -- it sounds like great fun. I may not have a chance until the weekend, however.)

[devonwood]

I loved this from George's POV-- an interesting view on the R/T situation. Also, the bit about Remus 'not being good at roughing up' was great, even though he acted well with Tonks.

Lupin was right about half the time, which meant he was only guessing which twin was which.

XD Absolutely hilarious!

Great work! :)

[shimotsuki]

Thanks -- glad you liked it!

Remus 'not being good at roughing up' -- It's interesting to imagine ways for Remus to try to earn the respect of the other werewolves without having to do (too many) things he would find repugnant.

[lady_bracknell]

This is really great. I thought your characterisation of George was spot on, and I loved the scene of him running through the forrest.

I really liked that although this was set during Remus' mission, it wasn't written in a really doom and gloom way - Remus has a tough job ahead, but he's doing what he needs and surviving - and that was really refreshing to read.

I loved the moments of R/T interaction, too, particualrly Remus' hesitancy to reach out and touch her.

A really enjoyable read :).

[shimotsuki]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you liked the running scene -- that and the next scene are probably the only "real" a/a in the fic, and the running scene was particularly hard but fun to write.

Remus' hesitancy to reach out and touch her -- This story is set in my Blindsided/Unattainable universe from rt_challenge, where Remus and Tonks develop a deep friendship over OotP year but Remus doesn't actually realize he's fallen (hard!) for Tonks until after the fight at the Ministry. So Remus is trying not to lead Tonks on -- he honestly believes that if they choose to ignore the direction their relationship has taken, they can go back to being best mates and everything will be okay.

[shimotsuki]

Thanks! I'm happy to hear you thought the pacing was okay, because I'm very new at this action stuff.

Writing George slightly clueless was a lot of fun. I may have to try it again sometime...