Fic: The Unusual, Exceptional, and Statistically Remarkable Hermione Granger, Age 21

[magnetic_pole]

Title: The Unusual, Exceptional, and Statistically Remarkable Hermione Granger, Age 21
Summary: Hermione assesses her life on the morning of her twenty-first birthday.
Characters: Hermione-centric gen, background Hermione/Pansy
Word count: 3,000
Rating: PG
Notes: Belated birthday fic for the lovely liseuse, loosely based on her fictional universe. Give

Comments

[magnetic_pole]

Thanks so much for reading and for leaving such a perceptive comment! I especially liked this: The way she finds personal goals pale in comparison with everything else, and the way her mother reacts to her coming out, for example. Personal goals *are* a bit dubious for Hermione, aren't they? Thanks again! Maggie

[visoka]

♥'s. Hermione is absolutely fabulous and wonderfully exceptional :D

[magnetic_pole]

Thank you! (Yay, exceptional Hermione!) Maggie

[fictualities]

Here from schemingreader. This is wonderful -- such a sympathetic and detailed picture of Hermione. Like everyone else I love the statistics. Without turning Hermione into a caricature, you've shown us someone who not only habitually turns to books, but turns to them in a particular way -- for answers, for the authority of experiences that can validate her instincts. She's not a thinker who operates by flashes of insight or inspiration, and she can't trust an idea until she's mulled it over for a good long time and put it into words. Her notebooks are her consciousness, in a way.

Just beautifully done, and there were so many other lovely touches. It's true that Hermione would have thought it tactless to complain about her circumstances when Harry has dealt with so much loss: but you quietly show her dealing with and overcoming a series of deprivations. Ron's death of course, but beyond that, the total lack of anything in common with the girls she had to live with for seven years at Hogwarts, and her parents' jolly dismissal of her

[magnetic_pole]

Thank you for such a fabulous comment! Your description of Hermione here is perfect--someone who not only habitually turns to books, but turns to them in a particular way -- for answers, for the authority of experiences that can validate her instincts. Thank you; I'm not sure I would have had the insight to put it this way.

liseuse's stories are very good about striking this balance between acknowledging the very difficult shared experience of the war and recapturing the exuberance of being in your early twenties and living on your own for the first time. I like to think that Hermione is a strong person who deals with her losses without wallowing or angst. *nods*

Thanks again for the great comment! Maggie

I love your icon. Yay, art nouveau!

[nyxfixx]

Ah, what an utterly beguiling story! I tell ya, I don't normally read this pairing at all, but you've put such life and such character and such heart into it that I was captivated. I loved the way Hermione's quest to quantify the unquantifiable went so far beyond just her relationship w/ Pansy and her discovery of new aspects of her sexuality - in a way, she was also trying to make sense of life in general too. Also loved how she wound up logically "proving" to herself that the answers couldn't all be found on paper. Really, just a wonderful story!

[magnetic_pole]

Thanks for reading, Nyx! I'm feeling a little odd outside of my usual time period, as well, but Liseuse's post-war scenario has brought me a great deal of delight. I hope I've done her characters justice.

As someone who's still struggling with the fact that all the answers can't be found in books herself, *cough* I can assure you that the excessive rationality is a healthy transition. *smile* Thanks again for reading and commenting! I appreciate it. Maggie

[lyras]

I do like Hermione's tie for greatest achievement in the PoA year!

Harry could do some thinking about Goals and Accomplishments of his own, now that Voldemort was gone.

That's a brilliant line, and so Hermione!

a vague feeling that no ambitious, career-oriented woman would mention lots of cuddling, lots of sex as her greatest accomplishment of the year.

Oh, no, but she should, I feel.

I want to quote more lines to show how much I love your Hermione, but I'd end up with a very, very long comment.

she had shown so much courage in the last battle with Voldemort that she was entitled to take the easy way out for a few years.

Oh, I love this, and the entire conversation between Hermione and her parents made me giggle.

I like the observation of how it's easier to refer to Ron and Percy as "two sons" than by name.

Altogether, I really, really enjoyed this! And I'm very intrigued by all the background information - I'll have to check out liseuse's stories when I have some time free.

[magnetic_pole]

a vague feeling that no ambitious, career-oriented woman would mention lots of cuddling, lots of sex as her greatest accomplishment of the year.

Oh, no, but she should, I feel.

*whistles innocently* No agenda here, keep on moving, folks. *smile*

Glad you like the story, Lyras! I'm also very glad it seemed to pass muster with you, because I don't think about this generation very much and feel a bit out of my element. But Liseuse's stories were a fabulous starting point--I like the way she envisions childhood enemies coming together under the pressures of war and politics and then staying together afterward.

Again, thanks! M.

Also, I shall be by soon to read your latest. I'm hopeless behind these days but looking forward to it very much.

[lyras]

Glad you like the story, Lyras!

I loved it - seriously, for sheer joy in reading it doesn't get much better than this. I think you should take on this generation more often :).

And no worries at all. To be honest, I wasn't expecting many people to read that one, because I know it has the potential to push a lot of uncomfortable buttons. No pressure!

[magnetic_pole]

And no worries at all. To be honest, I wasn't expecting many people to read that one, because I know it has the potential to push a lot of uncomfortable buttons. No pressure!

It's a lovely story, fierce and sympathetic and not afraid to look at uncomfortable things, which I admired. To be honest, my reservationw were much more selfish--I'm working on a Lily/Alice fic and am still trying to figure out what happened to Alice in my version of events. There are certain people--you and lupinslittlesis some to mind immediately--whose versions of events (for one reason or another) are so compelling to me I find them a little distracting sometimes. *sheepish smile* M.