Serpents, Chapter Six

[mrstater]

Title: Serpents (6/6 + Epilogue)
Author: MrsTater
Rating & Warnings: R for sexuality
Prompts: weakness; "In the light of Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided."
Word Count: 6828 words
Summary: Two years into a relationship with Remus, and the correct way to deal with full moons continues to elude Tonks

Comments

[gilpin25]

I must admit I do enjoy a good R/T quarrel and this is an absolute cracker. As well as one that's been coming on for about five chapters, lol.

Seriously, I also love it when I'm so absorbed in what's going on that I want to yell at the characters, "Don't say that!" or "That is the worst possible thing you could say at that point, dear!" ladybracknell has already mentioned how they both play dirty, getting right to each other's weak spots, even though they don't really intend to go there at all. But isn't that exactly what happens in quarrels, how they esculate, before you're even quite aware what's happening?

In fact this idea, that Remus and Tonks are always a step behind realising where the other is coming from - and as they do, they're already on to something else - is also something that seems very realistic. It seems to me that he thinks the quarrel is all about him making her unhappy, while she's thinking she hasn't made him happy enough to want to marry her, and out of everything they do say to each other, that's the one crucial thing they don't. I think I ended up slightly on Remus' side in this, infuriating though he is, because his You're so young seems achingly sad when taken alongside his realisation that her reasons for getting married are seriously flawed. Whereas his for not doing so are just ... serious.

Really liked this bit and the tie in with OotP canon:
Without eating more than a few bites of toast and taking a couple of sips of tea, Remus rose from the table. He looked down at Tonks with business-like detachment and asked, "How are you going today?"

Tonks knew the necessity of disguise for this assignment of accompanying the kids back to Hogwarts, but in the context of the last words she'd whispered to him, the question struck her like the opening spell in a duel.

A cracking read, indeed, and how you managed to write all this on that hectic final day, I have no idea. But I'm very glad you did. :) Btw, is Hestia going to live through the epilogue? ;)

[mrstater]

And to make up for my tardiness with Ch. 5's reply, I do Ch. 6 on the day you left it. Of course, LJ's gone down, and I'm having to do this in Word and paste when it's back, so I might be thwarted!

Thank you so much for your feedback! I'm always so nervous about writing fights, though I do really love how quickly they happen and how you can step back from the internal monologue and just let them ping-pong rapid-fire at each other (in fact, that's probably the only saving grace that allowed me to get this done in a day, lol), not thinking about what they're saying or how it will land on the other's ears. I'm really delighted you feel the fic had been building to this point and that it felt realistic and caught you up in it!

It seems to me that he thinks the quarrel is all about him making her unhappy, while she's thinking she hasn't made him happy enough to want to marry her, and out of everything they do say to each other, that's the one crucial thing they don't.

Which is rather the crux of the whole R/T dilemma, isn't it? I have to believe that Tonks gets so dejected in HBP and is so desperate to make him see because she thinks that in "a million times", she ought to have dispelled those doubts he has about whether she could really want to be with him despite everything -- and at this point, especially, she doesn't even know how deeply his insecurities go, because he's hidden them from her. And Remus just can't believe that what little he has to offer could be enough to make another person happy.

It interests me that you ended up on Remus' side, because while I don't really think either of them is right, I think that in being older, he should make a little more effort to help her understand. But of course, if he did that, then he wouldn't be Remus, the intensely private, and there'd be no story, would there? ;)

And I’m so pleased you liked the canon tie-in, with why Tonks does that older woman morph. You might have guessed that I intend to do that both times to tweak him...

Again, I so appreciate your feedback. It means so much coming from you.

Btw, is Hestia going to live through the epilogue? ;)

You'll just have to read and find out. ; ) DH has given me some fun ideas for her....