July Featured Story: Tender Vengeance by margotlefaye

[margotlefaye]

Once again, I’m humbled, thrilled and blown away by everyone’s response to my writing. Thank you to all of you who voted to make Tender Vengeance one of the featured stories for July

Comments

[anonymous]

First of all, congrats for being featured! It's totally deserved, TV is an amazing story (but since it's you who is writing it, how can be any different?)

I don't know exactly what to ask, since you've already answered some of my questions and the others concern what it's going to happen now (the Femme Coverte re-activated and how/if sharing their powers in the way they did changed something about the charm itself, Ginny & her unknown state & Harry, and Hermione and Draco and how many bottles of Firewhiskey he will need to carry on, and so on and so fort...), I just wanted to re-new my compliments here.

Okay, just a lil' question or two: which has been the hardest scene to write (up to now and/or if you think there are going to be harder scenes to write in the future)? And the one you enjoyed the most writing? How much do you like tormenting Ron in this story? (And feel free to keep up his tormenting! ;) )

Thanks and congrats again,
Ys

[margotlefaye]

Thanks! I always try to tell the best story that I can, and it's beyond gratifying to learn that people are enjoying the story so much, or that they are reacting to it the way I try to craft it to make them react. So, being featured is...really icing on the cake.

As to your questions...

Which has been the hardest scene to write (up to now and/or of you think there are going to be harder scenes to write in the future)?

Hard is a relative term. If you're asking, where there any chapters that didn't come easily, where I was staring at a computer screen trying to figure out what came next, the answer is no. The core story of TV, start to finish, sprang into my mind more or less whole, at one point when I was sparking ideas from writing the other fics. The chapters all poured out of me, and while there were a few that ended up with large sections of excerpted material, stuff I cut from the story and put in a file to maybe be incorporated into some other story, some other time, none of that was particularly hard. Just part of my

[margotlefaye]

As to the other questions...

And the one you enjoyed the most writing?That's difficult to answer, because I've been writing this story for about four and a half years now, and it's difficult to remember what I felt as I wrote, because the only thing that stands out for me was the satisfaction at the end, when things worked out the way I wanted them to, and especially when I knew I was making Draco say things that Hermione was taking one way and which I knew would ultimately be revealed to be something different

[anonymous]

First of all, thanks for your (utterly exhaustive and interesting) answers :)

Then, sorry for the "hard" bit: English is not my first language (as I'm sure you may have deduced), and only now I see all the other interpretations Lol
Anyway, what I meant was about the most-emotionally draining bit, but I'm glad to have now the answers also for the other kind of "hard" scenes/moments.

As a reader, I think that the second half of ATISNH-Maelstrom and all ATISNHM-TV have been the most heart-wrenching scenes to read up to now. Hermione had managed to keep her cool so well and so strong up to that moment - even in the darkest moment during her imprisonment - that watching her breaking down had really a strong impact. Imo, even more than Draco's confession, since the story has been told more on Hermione's point of view and so part of me expected her to keep her cool (even if it's only logical for her to break down, once she is free again), while with Draco I wasn't sure what to expect from him, if that makes sense Lol

"I has a false start

[apkblack1]

So I'm still reeling from reading it (and I read it last night, had thought the bright light of day would clarify enough to review and ask questions, but maybe not LOL) but can cut through to the first thing that strikes me about it all, without the emotions of it all getting in the way: Their ages

[margotlefaye]

There are several elements that went into my thinking about age in this story. To bottom-line it, my feeling is that a) Wizards canonically mature more quickly than the rest of us, hence the younger age of majority, 17 instead of 18 and b) the experiences that Draco has lived through since he turned 16 and that Hermione has been living through every year since she came to Hogwarts, finding herself on the front-lines of a war by virtue of her friendship with Harry, have forced each of them to mature far more quickly than they would if they'd been able to have a normal adolescence. So, in a way, the fact that he's 17 and she turns 18 in the fic? Those are just numbers

[vashka_kat]

unposted are the other two Veela!Draco fics

*bats eyes prettily*

Pretty please? I would love more fic from you- even if it's not technically new!

I honestly believe that, without exception, every one of those “surprises” turned out to be one of the best things about whichever work contained the unexpected thing.

I really like this - getting so involved in a story that something unexpected happens to tie it all together!

I'm glad the story isn't over. Although you could have ended it with the most current chapters- you meanie you! I think it will be more complete to see Hermione heal after her trauma. As always- keep writing Dramione! You do such a brilliant job of it :)

[margotlefaye]

Oh, man, those other two Veela!Draco fic. I'm kind of afraid to post them, because I've got six unfinished fics out there, and it just doesn't seem fair to up it to eight unfinished fics. although, you know, maybe check your inbox in a couple of hours...?

Plus, no time right now, anyway. Let's see how things go in the fall.

There was never any danger of the fic ending at this point. There's a lot more to come. The life-and-death bits are over, and now we've got to focus on the life bits.

Sometimes, those are the hardest bits of all.

[vashka_kat]

Now you've got me excited! I understand about putting up other unfinshed work- I hesitate to work on new projects because I feel guilt that my old ones aren't done yet. But I think that anything that keeps me writing is probably for the best- my muse is ridiculously fickle. (As shown by the awful story I am writing currently for the H&V reverse challenge) I hope that you'll get around to your other stories when you have time, but honestly I am the last person in the world to sling mud at anyone for writing at a slow pace! All I ask is that you finish them eventually :)

I really love how TV is going. Getting Hermione together with Draco at this point in the story would ring false to me. I look forward to their emotional journey, and the way Draco and Hermione can now live their lives post-Voldemort, post-fear. It will be interesting to see how they adjust.

[phloxness]

I've just re-read big chunks of Tender Vengeance (mostly going back to match things up with the revelations in Draco's soliloquy), and I was so incredibly moved the second time through (and oh hell, the third time too - just keep re-reading those last two). I was apparently just pushing through the first time to get the plot, and didn't fully absorb the pathos, but...

“Which would never be long enough to spend with you sweet girl, never long enough at all."Made me burst into tears the second (& third) time. Beautiful... Painfully so

[margotlefaye]

First, thank you for letting me know that you've been re-reading the fic and that you still find it affecting. An author can't ask for a better compliment than to be told that her fic not only inspires people to re-read, but that it still moves people on subsequent re-readings.

As to "sweet girl"...it's not from my own experience in the sense of anyone ever calling me that, so far as I can recall (late 50's, here, and my first date is more than 40 years in the past, so some details have long been forgotten, lol!) It just seemed to fit, because Draco can't say what's in his heart, but he also can't say nothing, can't be utterly silent. So, this seemed to fit, and I went with it

[margotlefaye]

Thanks so much. Since I won't be updating again until the fall, it's probably just as well that you won't have time to read until August; you'll have a shorter wait. *G*