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snarryhols (snarryhols) wrote in snarry_holidays,
@ 2008-12-07 10:17:00

Entry tags:

fic, giftee: florahart, rated: nc-17

Fic: The White Road
Title: The White Road
Author: perverse_idyll
Giftee: florahart
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 45,044
Pairing: Snape/Harry, also Lily/Snape in a totally unconsummated sense, Lily/James
Warnings: Hettishness but no outright heterosex, voyeurism, accidental incestuous overtones, a bloody moment. I'm sure, in some universe, this is epilogue compliant.
Disclaimer: Is not, never was, never will be, mine
Summary: One day, comfortably set up in the afterlife, Lily Evans Potter switches on the telly and gets hooked on the Harry Potter show.
A/N: So, this was supposed to be short and cracky. The Muse apparently had other plans. Dear Flora, I truly did start out with your requests in mind, but the fic wandered far afield. I hope you enjoy where it ultimately ended up. Thanks to L for encouraging me to change horses midstream and for urging me to sing, R for reading the early fragments and loving them. The mods have been unbelievably kind about my deadline panic. Absolutely every single mistake here is of my own making.

The White Road

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	lamusadelils 2008-12-17 04:11 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, Merlin! I love this fic, I absolutely love it. And please, someone tell me where I can subscribe to the Snape Channel. All Snape, all the time! That would be my perfect christmas gift. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	perverse_idyll 2008-12-22 08:44 pm UTC (link)
	Hee! Yay! Thank you for the love! And I agree - I laughed when I wrote that line about the All Snape All the Time station. Because wouldn't that be grand? (Reply to this) (Parent)

	okydoky 2008-12-19 09:25 am UTC (link)
	Umm. I have no words. I loved this so much, I am so jealous of your talent, and ability to tell a story... this was perfect. Thank you very much for sharing. ♥ (Reply to this) (Thread)

	perverse_idyll 2008-12-22 08:42 pm UTC (link)
	purrs with pleasure You know, when a reader says, "I loved this," it's pretty much a writer's version of heaven. Thank you for such heartfelt praise. (Reply to this) (Parent)

juushika.livejournal.com
2008-12-20 02:48 am UTC (link)

Incredible, truly incredible. I have to admit, before reading this I wouldn't have believed that a Snape/Harry love story from Lily's point of view could be possible, much less enjoyable—but you exceeded my imagination and then some. Writing of such still is rare both in and out of fandom, and to see it used here to tell a story of such grace, such detail and thought and emotion and ingenuity, impresses me beyond words. The story rings true to the very core.

Bravo. This is one of the best HP fics I've ever read. What a wonderful gift it must be!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

perverse_idyll
2008-12-22 08:17 pm UTC (link)

Wow, thank you! (And shame on IJ for not notifying me about this comment!) I knew I'd be walking a fine line here by having Lily behave like a voyeur. But in truth, although Harry's her son, she scarcely knows him. And I gambled on the fact that keeping her erotic focus on Snape would defuse the squickiness somewhat. Not entirely, but I think it's part of how Lily comes to accept that Harry's not merely going to re-play the life she and James had wanted for themselves. He's got needs of his own. Also, once I started writing, the emotional tension among the three of them - Lily as the link that initially ties the other two together, until they outgrow the memory of her - well, it just became more and more obvious the further I went. It was interesting to me that as the fic and Lily's feelings evolved, the implicit sense that Harry was the prize gradually shifted until it became clear that, in terms of redemption and possessiveness, it was actually Snape.

The story rings true to the very core.

This - oh my, what a bloody marvelous compliment. Thank you, I'm absolutely thrilled by your words.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

inell
2008-12-20 04:55 pm UTC (link)

I've had this bookmarked to read based on Flora's urging, and I finally had time today. Snape/Harry isn't my 'pairing', but she said I should give it a chance. I'm glad that I listened to her. This fic was so beautiful. I can't really say anything that others haven't said in previous comments (and probably better), but it was such an amazing bit of storytelling, and the characters and the way you worked in canon with future bits etc. was just wonderful. Thank you for writing something so good!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

perverse_idyll
2008-12-22 07:46 pm UTC (link)

Wow, I'm delighted that you were willing to try a pairing that doesn't interest you - I often feel that reluctance myself. And it makes me hum with pleasure that you found it beautiful, because I'm a bit compulsive about trying to create beauty in my fics. It can be a challenge when Snape's in the picture. Thanks also for your praise of my storytelling. I never would have pegged myself for a plotty writer, but so far the only way I've been able to balance the overload of imagery is to wrap it in layers of story.

Thanks for this lovely comment. :)

(Reply to this) (Parent)

gatewaygirl
2008-12-21 05:01 pm UTC (link)

Okay, now I know why this got rec'ed all over the place! I admit, by the time that this story was posted, I was opening things I wanted to read in tabs and ordering the tabs by fic length, so I didn't get to this until last night, and that was with skipping over two shorter ones. (Only three to go!) I didn't review last night because by the time I finished this, I was not only too sleepy, but too emotionally exhausted from reading it.

Anyway, this is phenomenal. Lily is so multilayered, and so real, with her hate and her love and her accumulated small regrets, retreating into a construction of her own past when she can't take James and Sirius recreating theirs. I love the way she feels guilty about her (re-)growing affection for Severus, as if she were cheating on James -- and how James is intrigued when she fights with him. (Oh, and "desecrating" the trysting spot by fighting in it? That was a great image.)

I also love how you showed Harry and Ginny's relationship -- there's nothing particularly wrong with it, at least at first, but there's nothing particularly right with it, either. (Whereas Harry and Severus has so much that's wrong, but even more that's right, making it an overload in comparison.) I read some of your early review replies, and yes -- fanfic can grow out of what JKR showed, but didn't seem to see; sometimes we want to take the complexity that was hinted at and actually develop it, rather than cramming everything back into a formulaic ending. This is one of those stories that does that beautifully.

Lily, I think, won't mind the loss of the tuner so much. Now that Remus is around to distract Sirius some of the time, James should pulled her into (or away from ;-) things more often! (Oh, and I like the hints of Regulus/Tonks.)

There are dozens more things I could say, but I must clean for company. Thank you for writing such a marvelous story!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

perverse_idyll
2008-12-22 06:40 pm UTC (link)

Oh, what a wonderful comment. It makes me bounce for joy! Because yes, the construction of Lily's character became a major fascination for me in this fic - all the unanswered questions about why she chose James over Severus, why she was even friends with Severus in the first place and vice versa, her odd position as the one woman in the band of Marauders, her weird, smiling silence when Harry summons them with the Resurrection stone - it all started sprouting as her voice took shape. Then the whole question of her extremely mixed feelings about Harry and Snape - and the fact that she doesn't really know Harry at all, and that Snape was so obviously hers, and what it meant to let them both go and not insist on debts of penance or family name or maternal sacrifice.

Also, although I still feel that I gave Ginny short shrift, I'm glad that you picked up on my attitude toward her. I hate it when writers turn her into a shrew. I don't particularly like the way the character ended up, but that's JKR's fault. It just feels as though everyone got forced into a mold at the series' conclusion, when in fact there's very little evidence in the books to persuade me that Harry and Ginny are "meant" to be together. Just authorial fiat. So I wanted to suggest that the marriage isn't horrible, but neither is it great; it's a mistake, and Harry's stuck in it forever, because I don't see him ever being unfaithful. (At least in this fic.)

Whereas Harry and Severus has so much that's wrong, but even more that's right, making it an overload in comparison.

I love this, because it sums up pretty much how I feel about Snarry in general. The trick is to convince readers that the good outweighs the bad.

It's one of the great pleasures of fanfic that it can acquire complexity through intimate foreknowledge, because we all realize when something's being bounced off canon or when it's referencing the original outcome. . . It's a borrowed sense of depth, because we all share these comparative layers.

Also, I agree that Lily won't mind not having the telly to tune into anymore. It's why she's pretty sure she'll never summon the house again. She doesn't need the past, and it would be unhealthy - it would be perpetuating a triangle - to live vicariously beyond this point through Severus and Harry.

Thank you so much for taking the time to review. It's always interesting to know what touched individual readers the most and to see what worked and what didn't.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

elethian
2008-12-22 12:13 am UTC (link)

OMG. This is absolutely one of the best stories I've ever read. If I sat here and quoted bits I'd go over comment limit in a heartbeat. So let me try to summarize.

There are so many awesome bits of phrasing and imagery in this, so many wonderful snippets of Severus's character and appearance and desirableness and Severusness, every so often something howlingly witty.

I love Lily's journey from hatred (which at the start had me spitting with defensiveness and wondering if it would ever dawn on her how much she sounded like Petunia condemning her "freaks") to, if not love, then at least understanding. The point where she starts referring to him as "Sev" again is certainly telling! You made Severus work hard in this story too, but somehow it's cleansing.

A couple of specific bits I'll indulge myself in:

Three pages of Hanon finger exercises, and the door bangs shut.

No wonder! God those things were bastardly. And not very much fun to listen to. Who can take minute after minute of constant arpeggiating?

"I'm afraid so," Albus says gravely. Tears sting Lily's eyes. "He has conducted himself with greater loyalty and courage than I'd any right to expect, and has paid the price. Dare I ask whether you've forgiven him enough to welcome him home?

Aaaaaagghh! you mean Albus orchestrated all this in giving her the "remote control" in the first place??? I don't know whether to want to punch him, or shriek with joy...

One thing. The Horcrux destroyed in the forest was the locket, wasn't it? You wrote it as the ring and it totally threw me.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

perverse_idyll
2008-12-22 06:04 pm UTC (link)

Oh, thank you for such a marvelous comment! I love the term Severusness, because yes. I have certain highly developed opinions about that quality, and it's partly what drives me to write fic. ;)

When I started this, I had to sit for a while just contemplating the world from Lily's POV. Because as shallow as I found her in canon, there's one huge inarguable debt hanging between her and Severus: the fact that his terrible mistakes led to her death. So unless I wanted to approach the afterlife as a place where everybody suddenly understood everything and it was all sweetness and light, the issue of Snape as an inadvertent murderer had to be addressed. Lily had excellent reason to hate him for all eternity, and the trick was in guiding her from that perfectly plausible position to one in which she understood him at last and could even love him again.

Hanon exercises, hah! I figure that Severus would devise an entire repertoire of tactics for getting Harry out of his hair when he just couldn't take it anymore.

As for Albus: let's just say that he orchestrated everything he could possibly orchestrate except for the part where Snape breaks the hold the past has on him, freeing himself by falling in love with Harry. I don't think Dumbledore ever actually intended to give Severus up, but Lily foiled him there.

The locket! *bangs head on desk* I know! Someone else pointed that out to me, but too late! Oh, the shame. I'll fix it before I repost anywhere. That was an instance of me sabotaging myself - I could swear I wrote "locket" in an earlier draft, but then when I decided to include references to Return of the King I re-read parts of the book and then I re-watched the movie, and I'd always rather thought the locket was a rip-off of Tolkien's ring . . . Anyway, apparently my hindbrain decided to slip one over on me, and I didn't even notice. *is mortified*

I'm utterly delighted by your pleasure in my fic, and especially in my version of Severus. Thank you so much for reading!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

I will always think of him as the dark unicorn

dwarfandelf
2008-12-30 11:34 am UTC (link)

After a story like this one, it is so hard to say anything, because there is so much to say so I don't even know where to start, and the emotions are so strong that I don't have a clue *how* to say even if I knew *what* to say.

So: it was all fantastic, everyone was great; but Severus... he is like the crowning glory of all Severuses ever written. (I don't know how to spell plural of Severus) He makes my heart ache, he is so wonderful. Dark unicorn... *smiles*

And how you wrote the powerful-deep-consuming love and desire, so that everyone can feel it so powerfully, that's the best thing about this fic, and in combination with the original setting, is what sets it apart. First and foremost the best thing is Harry and Severus and their powerful desire for each other. But I also really loved Lily's journey... and in the end when she saw Albus looking at her, and she concludes how he feels too about Severus not belonging to them any more. All this fills me with such strong emotions, love and sadness.

Also I loved that everything was just "perfect", at least for me: Remus and Sirius - while Tonks got something probably better in Regulus, Albus and Gellert (they were great!)... Albus was great, and I like him (in books) so I liked and appreciated how you had Lily reflect on how he feels about the results of his meddling.

Another thing I'd like to tell you, is that I honestly don't get the baby Tom at all...was that a bit of Voldermort's soul that was inside Harry? And if so, then how come he was there (amongst the dead) before Harry died? Or am I completely on a wrong track... I had another question about the baby Tom but I can't remember it now, but basically that whole thing I didn't get at all. (But it's awesome that Albus is going to research the soul fragmentation and its fate issue, and how cute that Gellert was so eager to change the field of inquiry - that was such a beautiful, intelligent, and endearing little detail.) That I didn't get baby-Tom doesn't take away from the magnificence of this fic, but I'm just saying it in case you wanted to know. :-)

So I ended up being able to say way more than I originally thought I would. :-)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: I will always think of him as the dark unicorn

perverse_idyll
2009-01-05 09:22 pm UTC (link)

I admit it, I'm absolutely thrilled by the way you respond to Snape. Because it's all about Snape for me, even when it's not. Even when, as here, it's really about Lily, Snape's still the dark background to the whole story. I can't help but write him as passionate and fierce, even ugly in his passions, so I always feel I'm walking a melodramatic line. But hey, he's a drama queen, so maybe I can get away with it. ;)

I've written Snarry twice now, and for the life of me I can't imagine Snape and Harry's relationship as anything less than intense, bitchy, consuming, and probably unhealthy. They were both messed-up children. Snape didn't exactly spend his adulthood working out his problems, and Harry is, shall we say, a late bloomer, although not so twisted up in knots. All their emotional deprivation could paradoxically result in a capacity for commitment, even unto death.

It always felt to me, reading canon, that Lily had no idea what she really meant to Severus. The fact is, she wanted something else and had a perfect right to pursue it. But the loss of her friendship was probably the final blow to Severus's belief that life could ever be fair. Well, that's *my* interpretation of the glimpses we get in canon. There's really not a lot to go on where Lily's concerned. I admit to a rather underhanded desire to make the saintly mother figure more fractious and self-involved - in other words, more human. Same with Albus. And I wanted to address the fact that, each in their own way, they treated Severus as expendable, holding onto him only as long as they had need of him.

The baby. Hm. I'll try to keep this short. I decided to treat the horcruxes - the shreds of soul - as both alive and dead. It's all very metaphysical. Because what is death in the HP universe? What is the afterlife? What does it even mean to have a soul? What does it mean to have pieces of it break off and exist separately? I decided to treat Harry's horcrux-bit as a baby, because that's what Dumbledore shows him in the King's Cross scene. All right, I thought, let's make that consistent across the board. It's a baby, and it's in limbo, and it could die or it could be reborn or it could stay the way it is, an unchanging, dormant possibility. Is it inherently evil? Is it really Voldemort, or is it an uninhabited spiritual vessel? It exists on both sides of the line, and Albus is aware of it and feels responsible for it. Being Albus, he decides to spread the responsibility around.

Does that make sense? Or does it just muddy the waters? I didn't want to get too explicit about this in the fic, because I don't in fact have a convincing metaphysical system in mind for JKR's use of souls and the afterlife. I also didn't want the characters to sit around talking about the ways magic functions in relation to death - whether, for example, wizards have a different afterlife than Muggles do. And what *does* happen to damaged souls, not just those divided by the creation of a horcrux, but those torn by use of an Unforgivable? Severus, for example? Which is why I had Albus and Gellert getting all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about it - they don't have a clue, either. In the end, it comes down to: the reader will intuitively go with my hand-waving or they won't. And yeah, it may weaken the fic as a whole, and maybe I could have had Albus wax a bit more pedantic. *ponders*

Finally, I'm delighted that the comparison to a dark unicorn seemed right to you. I was halfway afraid that Snarrydom would run me out of town on a rail for daring to do that to Snape.

I always like to hear a reader's perceptions, because sometimes I'm so deep inside a story that I'm not clear on what I'm doing. You've provided me with a mirror. Thank you for your marvelous comment, and for making me think about my assumptions in this fic.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	saturn92103 2009-01-03 08:24 pm UTC (link)
	This was marvelous. It's wonderfully inventive and heartbreaking and perfect. (Reply to this) (Thread)

(no subject) -

perverse_idyll, 2009-01-06 06:36 pm UTC

ishtar79
2009-01-05 06:59 am UTC (link)

I finally got around to reading this and...I don't even know what to say. This was simply *glorious* and had me entranced in a way that no HP fic has managed to in ages.

I don't think I can adequately convey how impressed I am by your style, except to say this: while I appreciate atmospheric and stylistic writing on an aesthetic level, it usually has the side effect of blunting the emotional impact for me as a reader. Your writing is one of the few examples I've encountered where immediacy is not sacrificed for lyricism. Emotionally, this fic had me in its grip from the moment I started reading, and will stayed with me long after I read it (actually read it two days ago, but since I finished reading it at about 7AM, I thought I'd spare you my sleep-deprived ramblings).

I love how you took a seemingly cracktastic premise and turned it into a masterpiece. Your Snape is so canonical it's almost scary: all bitterness, and sharp edges, and nearly impossible to love (well, for the characters around him; as a reader, it's a whole other story), and just *painfully* right. Harry seemed to have jumped straight out of the book's pages, yet still managed to achieve a certain *growth* and three-dimensionality he never quite got to in canon. I could use this fic as an example of exactly *why* I adore Snarry-because it's never easy, or healthy, or balanced, but at the same right it seems almost unavoidable on some visceral level. And did I mention the sex was hot? It seems almost shallow to focus on that in a piece of such literary merit but...damn it, it WAS.

But more than the *superb* Snape/Harry dynamic, which I kind of expected from you, I was surprised at how much this story made Lily real to me. It was like an unflinching, unforgiving light was shone on her character, on her flaws and weakness, mean streak and superficiality, on her both emotionally selfish and oddly sweet relationship with Severus (to say nothing on the complexity of her feelings for his adult version), and even as I despaired from her immaturity and myopic insistence that Harry get his 'right' future (perhaps understandably, giving all that she knows of Severus), I found myself, almost without realising it, falling a little bit in love with her character? How did this happen? I can safely say your Lily has forever become the 'true' Lily in my own personal canon, and I'm finally able to use this icon for reasons other than I like teh pretty fanart.

I truly appreciated the touches of humour in an otherwise emotionally draining (and I do mean this as a compliment) fic. I'd attempt to go back and quote my favourite funny lines, but then I'd end up rereading the whole thing, and I do need to leave the house soon! ;-)

And I just have to mention how much I loved all the secondary characters and little details: I find the image of Albus and Gelert working things out in the afterlife oddly heart-warming, and Lily taking in disfigured!baby Voldemort was, while INCREDIBLY DISTURBING, inspired. And thank you for giving us THIS ending, even though I was unsure, until the last few paragraphs, of whether Lily would make that choice. The alternative would have probably left me an emotional wreck.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

(no subject) -

perverse_idyll, 2009-01-19 12:18 am UTC

And a little more, since IJ cut me off -

perverse_idyll, 2009-01-19 12:22 am UTC

Another Brilliant Work!

amenaneri
2009-01-05 11:39 pm UTC (link)

This was truly an amazing story--totally unique, fascinating, satisfying...please sir, can I have some more?

I loved the conceit of this story--Lily surfing the channels of Harry's life, stopping on fairy tale endings, soft porn, difficult moments, being repelled, yet strangely compelled, then finally getting completely enrolled in the drama and love story that could be Snape and Harry's life together. And overcoming her adolescent reaction to Snape that she never grew out of, and seeing who he really was.

And that final scene with her and Severus at the swings was brilliant--playing the part of adolescent pique, instead of really believing it, to goad Snape into going after the happiness he was denied all of his life.

Thank you for giving a plausible and interesting explanation for the Tom baby, and making it way richer than JKR ever could have dreamed of.

Other things I loved:
--James and Sirius never growing up and her amused tolerance with it.
--The incredibly rich portrait of Severus's defensiveness and humanity and worthiness.
--The detailed, rich, so clear you could feel it experience of watching things on TV that you are compelled by, want to avoid, can't help watching, know you shouldn't watch, know you should be doing something else, hiding it from friends and family--it's kind of like me and the way I am about reading Snarry! ;-)
--The relationship between Albus and Gellert--and the way you portray Albus's selfishness and ruthlessness--no soft sell for him in your story.
--The beautiful picture of Severus and Harry's relationship after 20 years--the way the Severus finally has confidence and peace about how much he loves Harry and that Harry will never leave him.
--the fierce protectiveness--I love Snape as avenging angel, kicking ass and taking no prisoners. Sooooo sexy.

Just awesome--a story I will read again and again.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: Another Brilliant Work! -

amenaneri, 2009-01-07 08:24 pm UTC

Re: Another Brilliant Work! -

perverse_idyll, 2009-01-19 02:00 am UTC

Re: Another Brilliant Work! -

perverse_idyll, 2009-01-19 01:25 am UTC

leela_cat
2009-01-12 10:35 pm UTC (link)

So, I'm running late, as usual, and am only now getting around to writing up a comment on your story. One thing is that I read this (before I'd seen the reveals) and I couldn't help thinking, I know who wrote this story. I beta'd her last story. And I was right.

It's brilliant and snarky and wild and imaginative and just amazed me quite regularly. Before this story, I would have raised an eyebrow and looked at someone funny if they suggested Lily narrating a Snape/Harry story. But now, after reading this, I'm so glad that you did.

There were so many of the little touches that I love in your writing. The way that Lily interacts with the other Marauders, and Albus and the baby. The wonderful movement of the 'show' that she's watching on TV between past and present and all of the possible futures.

And your Snape, as always, is one of the snarkiest, best Snapes being written.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

(no subject) -

perverse_idyll, 2009-01-23 12:05 am UTC

(no subject) -

leela_cat, 2009-01-24 09:53 pm UTC

anya_elizabeth
2009-01-18 04:59 pm UTC (link)

Oh, thank God for procrastinating, because if it weren't for that I wouldn't have read this and I think it may have been one of those fics that runs in to your brain and scribbles beautifully over everything you think you know. I wish I could give an appropriately dazzling review to go with the dazzling fic, but reviews are hard to do with a blown mind.

I had to repeatedly remind myself to slow down and breathe when I started this, because I was instantly hooked. And everything about Lily's voice, her feelings, the interactions with the marauders and her voyeurism... they were all perfect. And Snape, and her seeing him and realising what she'd said no to (which felt good from a Snape-fan point of view) and that scene, that scene in the marsh just seemed so real and perfectly pitched and quite frankly familiar because I'm sure in the infinitely more drab real world I've felt like that, a self-absorbed, possessive, awkward, sexual teenager – and also an adult (mostly), reflecting on what I should have done, what I would have done had I not been the self-absorbed teenager that I was.

And of course, then there was the torture of watching Snape and Harry's life and wondering if you'd be so cruel as to let us have only a little voyeurism on a doomed future, and the brief flashes of Harry's other life, which rang so true and seemed so possible... and then at the end, somehow my music player came to a song that I hadn't even heard before which seemed so completely, perfectly pitched to the soaring, wonderful end that I have absolutely no idea why I didn't cry. Possibly I was beyond crying – I'm definitely shaking. I'm so profoundly happy, my boyfriend thinks I've gone insane.

So yeah. Amazing. This review does not do it justice.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

(no subject) -

perverse_idyll, 2009-01-27 12:09 am UTC

(no subject) -

anya_elizabeth, 2009-01-28 06:09 pm UTC

(no subject) -

florahart, 2009-01-28 07:32 pm UTC

secretsolitaire
2009-01-24 10:52 am UTC (link)

I've had this bookmarked for ages, but I've only now just found the time to read it, and wow. It's stunning. Snarry is far from my favorite ship -- I only read it because there's so much great fic written for it! -- but this is the kind of story that brings the pairing to a sort of fierce, convincing life. I can't not believe in the rightness of it.

Lily is wonderful here, beautifully flawed, as are Harry and the other supporting characters (Dumbledore and Grindelwald in the afterlife make me positively gleeful), but your Snape grabbed me by the shorthairs and wouldn't let me go. He is perfect (meaning, of course that he's anything but).

Thanks for this.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

(no subject) -

perverse_idyll, 2009-01-27 03:22 am UTC

Thank you!
(Anonymous)
2009-01-31 05:44 am UTC (link)

Thank you for such an astonishing story. The opening sequence has to be one of the best I have ever read! It’s funny but intensely challenging – the reader is given a situation that, like Lily, they may well want to leap back from. To be honest, I did. I’ve never been particularly interested in the Marauders’ era characters, and that combined with the incestuous feel that those first lines prompt, made me back off, whilst at the same time knowing at once that the quality of the writing looked so very promising.
I’m so glad I came back to it. Lily’s thoughts and emotions are wonderfully explored. Baby Tom is challenging too, isn’t he? Our instinct to be protective of a child, combined with the horror of knowing who the man he was is, the tangible feeling of threat and compassion that his presence in the story invoke , is unsettling and interesting. I enjoyed the exploration of what an afterlife might be like – if everyone, ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’, continue to exist.
The twin threads of Harry’s possible lives are beautifully woven, and even though we are seeing them at second hand, are vivid and intense. The relationship between Harry and Severus – well. What more could the reader want? Wonderful, strong, passionate, imperfect – them.
It’s a real treat to have a story so full of ideas and so well written. Thank you so much.
Philo

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: Thank you! -

perverse_idyll, 2009-02-08 05:04 pm UTC

Re: Thank you! - (Anonymous), 2009-02-09 02:52 am UTC

(Anonymous)
2009-02-18 06:20 pm UTC (link)

What an incredibly mature and well executed story of possibilities! I've never seen a story similar to this one in any way....the possibility that Albus would plot so deeply that someone he loves could finally find the love he himself could only find in death was so subtle yet practically blew me away! On top of the already incredible changes brought about so that the 'happy ending' could happen, to add that on top as the impetus for the whole endeavor makes you a master at plotting!!! By the way, what ever is Sirius going to do now that Remus has Tonks with him??? That was a laughable conundrum! Thanks from Harriverse.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

(no subject) -

perverse_idyll, 2009-02-21 09:43 pm UTC

	lorena_snape 2009-03-01 03:34 pm UTC (link)
	Wow! What can I possibly say that hasn't already been said? Except to echo the previous reviewers (who were all far more eloquent than I could ever be), and to say thank you for creating such an amazing fic! I am completely in awe of your writing, and look forward to reading more of your work. (Reply to this) (Thread)

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perverse_idyll, 2009-03-10 10:21 pm UTC

perfica
2009-03-10 02:45 am UTC (link)

I've finally, finally had enough time to sit down and give this story the attention it deserves. Apologies for my tardiness ;-)

I'm in love with your phrases. I won't quote any because I can't choose but... the way you insinuate mood and movement and feelings in objects... it's overwhelming. Your plot had me riveted and I truly had a wonderful time reading this. And don't even let me get started on how much I loved your characterisations of Lily and Harry and Severus, and your recurring story of Tom. Massive, massive kudos.

Also, I couldn't remember the name of the author as I was reading this so when I clicked around to find the original post to leave feedback and saw it was you, I did a little jig of joy!

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perverse_idyll, 2009-03-11 03:31 am UTC

	cluegirl 2009-07-28 11:09 pm UTC (link)
	I'd saved this until now. And I'm glad I did. I really needed a fantastically subtle read like this one to scrape the grime off today. Thanks so much for writing this! I love this flawed, selfish Lily so much!♠ (Reply to this)

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