Wow! It's over. I can hardly believe it. (22 weeks? Where does the time go?)
First off, this has been a fabulous story, and I've loved the weekly posts. Something about the serial format really works for me personally and for this story particularly. To my mind, this has always been a story about Teddy's growth, and I came to *believe* in his growth over a period of four months or so in a way I might not have, had I simply read a long fic in a sitting or two. It had that long, leisurely pace that made me feel like I was spending time with the characters, not just reading a story about their lives.
I have to admit that I had reservations about the Remus/Teddy subplot all the way through and am still sitting here wondering how I feel about the way the story ended. They finished the lessons, after all! I didn't know if they would. I couldn't decide if we were in the moral universe of the PWP, in which any two hot characters are even hotter together--perhaps even more so if there's a taboo involved--or the moral universe of the plot-driven story in which, fairly or unfairly, characters who step outside society's bounds need to deal with the consequences. It was uncomfortable--in a good way!--for me to think about my relationship with these characters, what I wanted for them, how judgmental I felt about their decisions. (I was very frustrated and angry with Remus; Teddy I tended to sympathize with and forgive.) I half expected total disaster the entire time--someone finding out, Remus or Teddy unable to break away, one hurting the other. The fact that they finished their lesson and moved on to their respective partners makes me think about why the the Remus/Teddy struck me as so wrong and made me so uncomfortable (was it, really? If they were two consenting adults, and no one was hurt?), especially in light of the fic's overall sex-positive messages. Which I loved, by the way.
Finally, I adored Teddy's frank desire to know more about love and sex and experience them fully. He was such a believable, engaging late-teen. I'll have a hard time moving on to another characterization for him.
In sum, fabulous! Congrats to you on a huge accomplishment! Hope you're cooking up something new for the new year. Maggie