Be the Light in My Lantern, chapter 11

[starfishstar]

BE THE LIGHT IN MY LANTERN

Summary: In which Remus and Tonks fight battles, arrest criminals, befriend werewolves, overcome inner demons and, despite it all, find themselves a happy ending. A love story, and a story of the Order years. (At long last, my Remus/Tonks epic, which has been years in the making!)

Comments

[shimotsuki]

*sigh* Oh, Remus -- blowing hot and cold, indeed. I really like the way their conversation showed exactly how confused he is -- calling her a fool in one breath and sensible in the next, grr. I'm glad Tonks called him out on some of his ridiculousness.

Oh, that image of the two of them looking sadly at each other across Tonks's doorstep -- poignant, and perfectly evocative.

Poor Sirius, mischievous and sullen in turns. I'm glad Andromeda has kept up the visits.

I think the thing I like the most about this chapter, though, is how strong the connection is between Remus and Tonks, even as they're going through some ups and downs. And the way Tonks suddenly understands, even through her anger, just how broken Remus has been -- brrr. And lovely.

[starfishstar]

Thank you! Glad this works, despite Remus being so frustrating. (And, unfortunately, he will continue to be frustrating often!) Trying to strike a balance here of being true to canon, with the ups and downs they surely go through, but without descending into nothing but angst, or creating a really unconscionable relationship that I myself wouldn't want to be advocating...

[shimotsuki]

Trying to strike a balance here of being true to canon, with the ups and downs they surely go through, but without descending into nothing but angst, or creating a really unconscionable relationship that I myself wouldn't want to be advocating...

Heh. That's exactly the line I'm trying to walk in the Kaleidoscope chapter I'm currently working on (and have been for an embarrassingly long time now). In my ficverse the sticky point comes in early HBP rather than during OotP, but it's exactly these same questions.

And so, I do really like the way you've approached it here.

[starfishstar]

Oh, man, we should totally sit down someday and discuss at length the dynamics-of-writing-Remus-and-Tonks! This is something I think about a LOT. I love the characters of Remus and Tonks, both individually and together, but given what we've got to work with from canon, it can be quite a challenge to write them without it turning into an unhealthy relationship of a sort I would cringe to see a friend of mine in in real life. (And of a sort which I don't in any way want to be advocating, especially knowing how many impressionable young folks read fanfiction, and how much creepy/awful/unhealthy stuff there already is out there!)

Oh, believe me, this was even more of an issue in writing the HBP half of this story. Ugggh, canon, JKR, why.

[shimotsuki]

This is just as much fun on the reread! I'm already up later than I was supposed to be tonight so I could read "just one more chapter". And this time I will actually get to the end, lol.

Anyway, briefly popping in to say:

his eyes full of tender things he wasn't allowing himself to say

...my heart is now lying in several pieces on the floor.

[starfishstar]

Ah, this is lovely of you, thanks for coming through and re-reading + commenting! And sorry for the heart-shattering. :-( Yeah, Remus has a long, long way to go before he's able to say the stuff out loud...