A Grateful Mind

[gilpins_tales]

Title: A Grateful Mind
Genre: General
Ratings & warnings: PG
Word count: 4104
Summary: Remus Lupin has the chance of a lifetime; more than that, he's being given a life. But does he know what it will cost him? (Set at the start of PoA.)
Author's note: Written for fandomfusion's Harry Potter genfic challenge, "Beware the Ides of March." I've used a famous

Comments

[hrymfaxe]

You know I was so happy when you said that your idea for this challenge was Remus during PoA. This is such an interesting period in his life

[gilpin25]

PoA is such a fascinating period in Remus' life - my big regret is that I only covered about the first two months of it! I never even got to teaching Harry, or a planned snarky conversation with Snape, or even the Marauders' Map, though I suppose it's good excuse to try and return sometime, lol.

It is lovely to hear you enjoyed reading the parts I did manage to cover. Like you say, I think this must have been very nearly the best time possible for Remus, with such a lot apparently within his grasp, including a longed-for career, except that the faces and memories of the past are never very far away and some are about to literally turn up in person. And it was great to write him happy, and so happy teaching; in fact, relishing every moment, even when confronted with essays by pirates.

*makes me think of a certain vampire story. How much would Lockhart give to sparkle in the sun?

I was going for the Best Superfluous Use Of 'Dazzle' Award. ;) Though I do think Lockhart probably naturally sparkled quite a bit. LOL.

(though there

[under_crisis]

hello! i've been out of the loop for a long time, so thank god mrstater put this on her rec list and i had a prompt for that. i can't give a worthy review right now, all i can say is that it works. it works really well. and i'll just leave it at that before i mess it up. :D

thanks for a great story.

[gilpin25]

Hey, it's good to see you again! :)

And thank you for reading this and leaving such nice comments. They're much appreciated.:D

[zia_montrose]

This felt like such a nice stroll down memory lane and I appreciated your bits of dry humor along the way--or rather, Lupin's dry humor: "Twelve inches of writing rarely equaled three feet" and I've always wondered if it was true that the teacher's got the best biscuits.

Flitwick and McGonogall, especially, warm my heart in this. It's nice to see them both behind the scenes in their secret little staffroom, which of course, Remus has not entered until now. ; ) Sweet tooths, preferences for special students, worries...

You write about Remus's internal struggles over Sirius quite well. I appreciated how he'd compartmentalized his old memories so that he could enjoy them apart from the current Sirius Black mania and guilt and I find it plausible that he'd check the passageways before bed.

I liked these bits, among others:

"I--I lost someone who I thought was a friend," she added. "Trusted somone I shouldn't have and he wasn't a friend at all, it turned out

[gilpin25]

Apologies for the delay in replying: RL has been inconveniently hectic and I'm only averaging reading one fandomfusion fic a night. (I think I'm two away from yours, bearing in mind I seem to be working backwards in posting order

[shimotsuki]

Oh, Remus! The whole time I was reading this, I kept thinking that this is exactly how it must have been for him at the start of PoA. It would be hard enough to go back as a teacher instead of a student, even without the matter of Sirius hanging over his head.

I really enjoyed the parallels you've drawn, especially those between Remus's thoughts of Sirius and Ginny's thoughts of the diary (there's a big canon regret, that we don't see more interaction between those two). And between grindylows and werewolves. And the line about Once you doubt, you’re halfway to accepting something as fact, which Remus applies first to Sirius and then to himself.

This bit was a particular favorite: He didn’t kid himself that the room welcomed him, but he certainly welcomed it. Perhaps it could tell. Along with being a clever new take on a classic idea, it's also such a fitting sign of Remus allowing himself to start to feel that he does belong there at Hogwarts

[gilpins_tales]

Thank you for the kind words! I think this story is fated to forever annoy me, because of the last part which screams cobbled together in a panicky hurry to make an ending, after it all seemed to start out quite promisingly - but then I rather think that's how Remus must view the whole of his PoA year...? ;)

So, before any last minute cobbling took place, it was very nice to write Remus at this time, as I've always wanted to, and even nicer to hear that it seems to make sense for you that this is how he'd feel and act. I'm glad you like the scene with Ginny, I actually had another one planned and perhaps one day can come back to it. I'm also rather sorry that we never got to see these two interact in canon.

it's also such a fitting sign of Remus allowing himself to start to feel that he does belong there at HogwartsEven allowing for Harry not being the world's most reliable narrator, I always think that Remus reads as though he's at home straight away and, unlike Hagrid, makes an immediate impact as a teacher for all the right

[s0mmerspr0ssen]

This made me very calm, very close to sad. If I didn't know that Sirius was innocent... I'd cry, I guess.

But after all, a glimpse of very subtle humor, I adored, like this one:
“You’ll find Severus isn’t much of a cake person,” he said.

Thanks so much. A wonderful piece of ficition.

[gilpin25]

Thank you for such nice comments. PoA is such a fascinating time in both Remus and Sirius' lives - talk about a turnround in fortunes for both by the end of it. But one of the many things I love about the book is the humour in it, so I'm chuffed you like the cake line, lol.

Many thanks for letting me know you enjoyed reading this! :)