For the Greater Good

[gilpins_tales]

Title: For the Greater Good
Characters: MWPP, Snape, McGonagall
Word Count: 2900
Rating & Warnings: PG-13, mild swearing
Summary: “He means you’re the free one.” Sirius smirked. “The one everyone doesn’t suspect because you’re the good boy. Remus really can't believe how hard it is nowadays to get a decent detention...
Author's Note: A long-

Comments

[katyhasclogs]

Oh, I do love your Marauders.

As always, this was the right balance of funny and deep, the characterisation was fab (really liked the comment about it being Sirius and not Peter who gives away conspiricies, lovely bit of foreshadowing) and the plot was engaging.

I think my favourite thing might have been dazzlingsparklyvampire!Snape, lol.

[gilpin25]

Thanks very much! It seems a long time since I've written the Marauders but it, and they, are still a lot of fun to play with - and so really nice to hear it's been enjoyed in return.

I seem to be unable to resist sticking a foreshadowing line in about Peter, and the reason he pulled the wool over everyone's eyes being that they knew him so well - and everything could equally have a perfectly normal or, as it turned out, sinister meaning. I also like the idea of Sirius giving himself away simply because he can't resist wanting to be in charge, so I'm glad you thought that worked.

I know shimotsuki has seen the Twilight film, so I was thinking she might appreciate sparkly!Snape nearly as much as Remus did. Though perhaps Snape also enjoyed his moment as SNappz?! ;)

It's always lovely to get reviews from you, and thank you again. :)

[katyhasclogs]

It's always lovely to get reviews from you, and thank you again. :)

Oh, that's very kind of you to say so. I'm sorry I haven't reviewed your autumn Meta fic yet. Since you have the misfortune of being one of my favourite authors, it means I always read your fics as soon as they're posted regardless of whether I have time to review them, which is very naughty of me.

And I'm glad you can't resist foreshadowing - I love the foreshadowing. :)

[gilpin25]

And I'm glad you can't resist foreshadowing - I love the foreshadowing.

It's okay till I can't resist the subtle-as-a-plank one. You know, "Peter entered the room bearing a t-shirt saying I Villain!, humming one day I will betray you all under his breath, and refusing to touch any knives or forks as he has a sudden aversion to silver near his hands..."

I'm sorry I haven't reviewed your autumn Meta fic yet. Since you have the misfortune of being one of my favourite authors, it means I always read your fics as soon

No apologies necessary, especially as that's as nice to hear as a review, and as I have managed to review the total of one fic at Meta this time so I know exactly what it's like to get behind and struggle to catch up. So please forget about it. :)

How's your Advent fic doing? About to start/going brilliantly/hoping (like me) the deadline is 2010...? ;)

[calyndra]

Let me start by saying I know nothing of curry. :)Who knew there were so many distinct varieties!

All those little pranks Remus tries are hilarious. I especially like the sea-sick charm. Inspired, but clearly not good enough. Poor Remus, he's so good that he can't even pull off a prank himself. He's such a nice boy, it's no wonder Dora likes him. I would have.

All the insightful bits were fantastic, particularly the part about all four of them being nervous about the future. Your "little" Remus is so good at picking up on little bits about the others. Knowing what we know and reading with hindsight, that part near the top about Sirius always giving away the prank when Peter never will is rather chilling.

It's a bit early for me, so if I haven't made sense, please let me know.

It was an adorable fic. :)Your Marauders are so cute they're almost fuzzy. Well, I suppose Remus *is* occasionally fuzzy...

[gilpins_tales]

I have to say that Mr. Gilpin is the curry expert - he likes to try them all so that came in very handy when it came to this and I needed expert curry knowledge, lol.

Am very glad you liked this as I haven't written the Marauders for ages and it's still fun! I liked the irony of Remus being so 'good' he simply couldn't misbehave, no matter how hard he tried. And that, normally, he'd have been rather chuffed with that... (I do agree that Tonks would have found this incredibly endearing. And laughed her head off.)

I couldn't resist the line about Peter at the start as I like the idea that the reason he pulled the wool over everyone's eyes was that they knew him so well - and that everything could equally have had a perfectly normal or, as it turned out later on, sinister meaning. Also that Sirius was so clever, but not clever enough to hide his own nature. But then he wouldn't think he had to.

Many thanks for such nice comments. It's always lovely to get reviews from you.:D

[purple_ladybug1]

This is so cute! I love how hard Remus tries to get detention, and that he just fails over and over. Good work! I don't quite get what was wrong with the homework, though, so that it would warrant a detention.

[gilpins_tales]

Oh, thanks very much.:D It was lot of fun to write this, and even better to hear you enjoyed reading it. It seemed about right for Remus' (lack of) luck that his attempts over the years to not stand out from the crowd would actually backfire against him in something like this.

As for the homework (am presuming you mean the line about the Charms one); I might not have made that as clear as it should be, but as it was about the importance of Memory Charms and Remus was consistently losing it, he was thinking that would be bound to get up Flitwick's nose... ;)

Many thanks again for such nice comments. It's much appreciated.

[mrstater]

Aw, this is so adorable. I love the idea of the Marauders' infamy having worn off considerably as they've grown up, and how the dynamic of James being Head Boy has really changed everything for them, mellowed Sirius out. Poor Remus, though, with that sting at not having gotten it himself. :(

All Remus' attempts at getting a detention are too funny! I cracked up about sparkly!Snape (though I have to admit, Twilight didn't occur to me, lol) and Remus' gas problem after the sodas, lol. And his delight/horror at being known as the good boy. And it's so cute at the end that McGonagall still won't believe he was behind it all, and the others so happy to stand up and get a detention with him. One last hurrah.

You do write the Marauders -- and teenaged!Remus -- so very well.

[gilpin25]

Thank you, DLF, for your kind words and, as ever, thoughtful comments. I have come to the conclusion that I have a mental block when it comes to thinking up pranks as I think I could have written this in half the time if I hadn't been obsessing on Dumbledore's underwear, lol. And shimotsuki helped me out with the last one by mentioning that she was eating curry and had had to stop grading papers for fear of dropping it on them. I am quite shameless when it comes to certain forms of plagiarism. ;)

I'm glad you found them all funny, and liked the irony of Remus being half thrilled and half absolutely horrified with his standing as the 'good boy'. I did start off with the idea of briefly making Snape into an unexpected sex symbol at Hogwarts, thanks to Remus' best efforts, then was tempted to write the word 'dazzling' about his complexion and couldn't resist the Twilight link. Snape as a sparkly vampire just seemed meant to be! But, more seriously, it was meant to read as a last hurrah, as you said, to their friendship, and so it seemed

[misanagi]

This was wonderful! I really liked the way Remus felt obligated to do something and how things never seem to work quite well for him. The ending was great, all of them standing together and James' words at the end, just great! I really loved it.

[gilpin25]

This was a great Christmas present to find in my inbox! I wanted to find a way to work the humour and irony of Remus' situation alongside the fact that they were in the seventh year and shortly to be facing an uncertain and much more serious future. Hence the 'honour' theme and the real meaning of the word to them all, as well as the more light-hearted, jokey one. I'm pleased you enjoyed reading it as it was fun and interesting to write.

Thank you for leaving such nice comments. :)