Charmbreaker

[orange_crushed]

If I say anything it'll come out wrong, and I'll be trying to explain this all day*, so instead without any ado whatsoever:

*(This was based on a challenge for remus_reads, #31- Remus is forced to leave school after the Prank. I feel this should be mentioned, and I encourage everyone to check out that community for other authors' work.)

Comments

[the_grynne]

*can't stop crying*

I feel like I've been put through a wringer, from the very first paragraph up to the very end. And what an ending. AU's just don't get any better.

You warned that it would be sad, and it is, but it's not so much the terrible tragedy of just being parted from your best friends; it's the accumulated injustices and loneliness of a lifetime, which is worse somehow because there is no relieving that, no solution. The reunion at the end is beautiful and so full of knowing and love, yet it is still so sad...

Yet you also made me laugh through the tears. The detail about the James' unwashed hair the day after the prank. The amazing backstory of Remus' lost years -- because they're not empty years; things happened to him, he didn't just die the moment he went away from Hogwarts. He went on being who he was, and it seems so right that he should be an unlicensed charmbreaker.

I loved the wonderful fleshing out of Remus' parents, his mother especially (every time she is made to say the Ministry, she spits like a

[orange_crushed]

PSST James has scabies... always itchin' the crown, eh ?

I'm sorry I made you cry; but some part of me can't help but be pleased that it got under your skin. Bad me.

And you've got it, precisely. The real sadness comes from the wasted time, the years spent not actively hating, but not actively caring. I think James and Lily provide this for Remus, this window to what things are like when you connect yourself to somebody for better or worse.

And Remus comes across so strongly in the books and films as a man who did something with his time, however secretive he remains- there's this amazing collection of dark objects, his suitcases charmed to go, a kind of distance and wisdom that you can't imagine coming from somebody who spent twelve years sitting in a cluttered apartment

[the_grynne]

I think James and Lily provide this for Remus, this window to what things are like when you connect yourself to somebody for better or worse.

A mixed blessing, really. I wonder if he wouldn't have been less unhappy without that link, speaking to him of somewhere he is strictedly forbidden. But friends are like that; they're about the shared pain as well as the summers and the bright laughter.

And Black!archness is always welcome.

there's this amazing collection of dark objects, his suitcases charmed to go, a kind of distance and wisdom that you can't imagine coming from somebody who spent twelve years sitting in a cluttered apartment.

You're utterly right, and it's this canon-but-not quality that makes a good AU for me; the more real it feels, the more grounded in the truth of the characters, the more powerful the story is. Sometimes of course, reality is what you create for yourself, but the cue comes from the text

[orange_crushed]

OOOH Do it, do it now, you're commanded. Hermione portrait-lecturing-Simon-yes. Okay, I have no authority on the internets so there is no commanding. ;) But I'd love to see you make it work (because I know you can- you have such a pitch-perfect grasp of the Serenity universe.)

And the friendships enduring shared pain comment, which you said above, how true. I think shared pain could even be the theme here, heh. The loss and sadness they felt, they felt pretty much only because they couldn't totally seperate themselves.

I want to know more about those things in Remus's office, the time he exposed a witch-doctor as a fraud in the jungle, the time he waited all night in the moor for a lock of bean sidhe hair.

But maybe we'll have to fill in that bit ourselves. ;)

[heartsncraftslb]

Ho-ly-helllllll.

This was FANTASTIC. I adored the plot (and no, you do not suck at plot; this was beautiful), and the language was amazing. Your characterizations were spot-on. I especially loved your Lily; her voice was strong and kind, and her letter about the drafty house full of James' Quidditch crap was perfect.

Sirius and Regulus, OMG, perfect. The ending damn near had me whimpering.

Amazing. In short, I loved it.

And may I friend you? Between this and the wonder that was the burning of the Witch Weekly by Polyjuiced!Hermione, I'd like to keep your LJ close at hand. The Alien Overlords were disgruntled at my losing the transceiver, but they said friending you would make up for the loss of the ever-important spleen.

Brilliant, dahling. - LB

[orange_crushed]

I secretly adored the idea of the brothers Black being super-secret charmbreakers.... and now it's not a secret anymore. ;) I'm very flattered and happy that you liked it so well.

And I would be honored to get friended, and I would be happy if you'd let me return the honor !

(Also, psst, I can get you another spleen, but it is going to cost you a pretty penny in tinfoil. OVER AND OUT.)

[doomandnachos]

Also here via slippyslope's rec...

Wow. I really love the way you've portrayed Remus - I'll admit that I was a little leery before reading, as the premise of the story could easily be made into an angstfest, but you kept a Remus that is very much in accordance with canon-Remus. He's clever, capable, and above all a survivor, y'know?

Plus, the end absolutely killed me. As soon as Sirius showed up with the hand and the ring and...yeah. I started with the wibbling.

(Random curiousity - what's your Sirius' middle name? :))

[orange_crushed]

Thank you for the compliment to my Remus (he will get vain !) And yeah, I don't see him in canon as a big pity-party, more like someone who deals with it, and gets through it (even if he doesn't always get over it.)

MOOWAHAHAHAHA secret wasted ring-hand. Heee. And I actually have no idea what the middle name would be, I put down R, and was thinking something like Rigel (maybe named for family) or perhaps Rasalas ("head of the lion") since his little brother's name is "heart of the lion."

[orange_crushed]

Eeep, yay, no rambling is bad rambling here. ;) Thank you.

I am always happy and flattered to be friended. Please do. And if you're not opposed, may I add you as well ?

here via daily_snitch

[marginaliana]

Wow, this is absolutely fabulous. I love the details - Remus' parents, the muggle woman's locket, etc. I love the ambiance of the wizarding world. I love the way you get at the connections we have to each other, even when we break off everything, we can't escape each other, we are intimately involved with people we have ceased to speak to and about - and the way Remus comes to realize how he's been trying to deaden a part of himself, putting those letters away. Lovely and sad. And I think the ending is very satisfying.

Re: here via daily_snitch

[marginaliana]

And to add, now that I've puttered around your journal a bit, would you mind being friended? I like your writing.

Re: here via daily_snitch

[orange_crushed]

Thank you very much. And it's so true, we can't escape the people that shaped us. I still feel very much affected by friends from my childhood, though I may not have spoken their name out loud in a decade; I'm glad that idea came across the right way.

And of course ! I would love to be friended, and it would be neato if I could return the kindness. :)

Re: here via daily_snitch

[marginaliana]

Of course you may! How nice.