This story is a delight on so many levels – the insights, the same-sex relationships, the class depiction of dear Miss Glomp, so pitch-perfect it’s a work of art.
And one of the things I adore most is how this gives us, after all these years in fandom, so many completely new facts. And all of it firmly rooted in canon; every little detail about the portraits is used. It’s brilliant.
It's not easy to plump a two-dimensional cushion that's made of canvas and stiffened with paint, as Violet is well aware. That’s so true, yet I had never thought of it. Glad I’m still plumping 3D-cushions, but also glad to hear it can be done, albeit with an effort.
Colonal Frobisher is perfect – of course the gentleman with the mustache the book mentions a Colonel Frobisher. And ‘shabby-genteel’. *shudders delicately* it quite pains me to have to visualise such an abode I understand, dear. We visualisers don’t have an easy life.
I'll simply come out and say it: he was in trade. Perfect. The sentence, I mean, not the unfortunate background.
the charmingly-appropriate given name of Aurora That’s a very kind way of dealing with allegorical names.
I went into a gentle decline and died a most affecting death, surrounded by my loving family and several devoted, grieving admirers of both sexes, but that's a story for another time Yes, please, we’d love to hear it.
Several of the knight-portraits liberated the champagne from the still-lifes in Gryffindor Tower. That must have been a wonderful party. But Miss Glomp is right: a true gentleman doesn’t kiss-and-tell.
an object lesson against pretension and forgetting one's place. The sole purpose of his life is that his mistakes can be a lesson for others? Poor Sir Cadogan.
What a sadly unmellifluous expression. Upperclass ladies have such a fine ear for the unmelodious. I must admit that I rather agree with Violet were Wilhelmina is concerned, but Arethusa is right, of course. “Amelia Bones, a very powerful hitch.” Just that tiniest bit classier.
well, as normal as a picture based on a corpse ever looks The catty old thing.
But time heals, of course, and eventually I mended my broken heart The come-out story is all the more delightful for the fact that Miss Glomp doesn’t pine the rest of her portrait life away after one event, however sad.
but then again, I do feel a certain responsibility to remain informed of castle goings-on. So true. A distasteful duty, but not one that can be shirked.
The day Sybill Trelawney can stand up to a stiff Ogden's is the day I start believing in Divination How perfectly Minerva. And Griselda and her Salon Sapphique! The very thing.
I've only asked it at least two dozen times ♥ Amelia.
We should. We really should. ♥ voyeurism, too. Blast. Oops, I mean, good for her!. No, ‘blast’ is right. Madam Bones's impudent question was in fact a wise one True. And ‘attentive’ leaves room for speculation. Still. Blast.
Thank heavens for Pomona and her bad jokes. Gives us some real information at last.
(People of Violet's class always respond well to directives; they aren't at their best when the initiative must be theirs. This is not a snobbish statement, but merely one of fact.) Of course. I’m sure Miss Glomp doesn’t have a snobbish bone in her body, any more than a manly one.
sweet dreams perfect ending to a perfectly-tantalising conversation. Aphrodite can pack in with Miss Glomp on the case.
now defunct, which is a pity from a social point of view, but a boon for the foxes and nifflers The Hogwarts Hunt fell victim to the Ban, too? What is the world coming too? Although one sees the point about the foxes, of course. Not to mention Sir Cadogan and the Stirrup-Cup.
It isn't often that Violet becomes masterful, but I find it rather exciting when she does. Oohh, yes.
They're right -- tonight is a good night for a warm bed. And this is the perfect story to read on just such a night, and to have sweet dreams on Arethusa and Violet, Aurora and Rolanda, Vrunhilde, and who knows? Nothing wrong with a man who can fill out ceremonial dress robes.