Wow, thank you, thank you! I'm sorry to be so late responding to this excellent gift, but I've been swamped with RL work and wanted to wait until I could relax and give these characters all the time they deserve. I was thrilled to see the summary, and the story has lived up to all my hopes.
What a fine read. I think the only people who are more satisfied than I am are your wonderfully-characterized Minerva and Pomona. I suspect you know me and guessed this prompt was mine, because you've hit so many of my bullet-proof kinks, I can't tell you -- gloriously strong older women, beautiful and imperfect and lovingly-described; voyeurism; power issues; bondage; long hair! (omg, I have such a long-hair kink in fic, and you have given me much joy with it.)
I love the way you combine believable humor with equally-believable tension, anxiety, and darkness. These are the kinds of fics I prefer, ones that take the HP world seriously and that explore the characters fully and realistically within the context of that world. (And it doesn't hurt when they're hot, hot, hot, either. Would this sort of thing actually happen in canon? I don't know, and it doesn't matter. If it did happen, it would happen exactly like this.)
I love your characterization of Neville, too, so decent and strong; I love his endearing, IC reminders to himself to use his former professors' first names. I love the background details you give, about the castle and its reconstruction, and the timer, and especially about the staff -- "RB" and "LB" and all the rest. (Little Bastard, which for various reasons stuck better. -- haha! "Various reasons," indeed.) Foul-mouthed Minerva is a delightful idea, too.
I simply must list some of the lines and images I loved:
The hand-holding -- beautifully painful, painfully beautiful
her ampleness made the corset seem a harder casing by contrast, like grasshoppers' wings so delicate that they make the outer, hard wing-covers look tougher in comparison.
(That whole Pomoma paragraph is to die for.)
his instructor there tightly laced and on her knees.
*thud*
their hands were turned to the protection of the younger students, not one another. Their strength had to turn downward and outward.
Excellent insight.
Someone had to stand up for the plants, too.
I love Neville.
And thin ropes round her wrists and ankles spanned the floor, holding her to the foot of a study table, the lowest of one of the nearby bookshelves, and the base of the formidable medieval librarian's desk.
Perfect use of the setting!
"people who are destroyers of books, desk-carvers and shelf-climbers and users of inappropriate types of bookmarks"
Ahaha!
she was wet and flushed and secret and bold
"Secret and bold" -- love that; great list.
Incredulous, faint with the pressure of his cock against the fabric of his soil-dusted trousers, knuckles white on the book-covers, Neville watched.
Beautifully paced and worded.
"Suspension of loaning privileges."
Haha! I love Irma.
But he couldn't blush when the blood necessary to color his cheeks was aching in his cock.
Great line.
What a wonderful kinky holiday treat, Mystery Author. I can't thank you enough -- for writing it and for doing such justice to the characters I love.
What a fine read. I think the only people who are more satisfied than I am are your wonderfully-characterized Minerva and Pomona. I suspect you know me and guessed this prompt was mine, because you've hit so many of my bullet-proof kinks, I can't tell you -- gloriously strong older women, beautiful and imperfect and lovingly-described; voyeurism; power issues; bondage; long hair! (omg, I have such a long-hair kink in fic, and you have given me much joy with it.)
I love the way you combine believable humor with equally-believable tension, anxiety, and darkness. These are the kinds of fics I prefer, ones that take the HP world seriously and that explore the characters fully and realistically within the context of that world. (And it doesn't hurt when they're hot, hot, hot, either. Would this sort of thing actually happen in canon? I don't know, and it doesn't matter. If it did happen, it would happen exactly like this.)
I love your characterization of Neville, too, so decent and strong; I love his endearing, IC reminders to himself to use his former professors' first names. I love the background details you give, about the castle and its reconstruction, and the timer, and especially about the staff -- "RB" and "LB" and all the rest. (Little Bastard, which for various reasons stuck better. -- haha! "Various reasons," indeed.) Foul-mouthed Minerva is a delightful idea, too.
I simply must list some of the lines and images I loved:
The hand-holding -- beautifully painful, painfully beautiful
her ampleness made the corset seem a harder casing by contrast, like grasshoppers' wings so delicate that they make the outer, hard wing-covers look tougher in comparison.
(That whole Pomoma paragraph is to die for.)
his instructor there tightly laced and on her knees.
*thud*
their hands were turned to the protection of the younger students, not one another. Their strength had to turn downward and outward.
Excellent insight.
Someone had to stand up for the plants, too.
I love Neville.
And thin ropes round her wrists and ankles spanned the floor, holding her to the foot of a study table, the lowest of one of the nearby bookshelves, and the base of the formidable medieval librarian's desk.
Perfect use of the setting!
"people who are destroyers of books, desk-carvers and shelf-climbers and users of inappropriate types of bookmarks"
Ahaha!
she was wet and flushed and secret and bold
"Secret and bold" -- love that; great list.
Incredulous, faint with the pressure of his cock against the fabric of his soil-dusted trousers, knuckles white on the book-covers, Neville watched.
Beautifully paced and worded.
"Suspension of loaning privileges."
Haha! I love Irma.
But he couldn't blush when the blood necessary to color his cheeks was aching in his cock.
Great line.
What a wonderful kinky holiday treat, Mystery Author. I can't thank you enough -- for writing it and for doing such justice to the characters I love.