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atdelphi ([info]atdelphi) wrote in [info]hp_beholder,
@ 2013-05-05 08:26:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:alastor moody, beholder 2013, fic, rating:r, remus lupin, remus lupin/alastor moody, slash

FIC: "A Dictionary of Silence" for farad
Recipient: [info]farad
Author: ???
Title: A Dictionary of Silence
Rating: mild R
Pairings: Mad-Eye Moody/Remus Lupin
Word Count: ~2500
Warnings/Content Information (Highlight to View): *[mention of canonical character death]*.
Summary: Moody is a man of few words, but he has a hundred varieties of silence.
Author's Notes: Most of the dialogue in the final scene is taken from Chapter 5 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I've been wanting to write this pairing for ages and was thrilled to get the chance. I hope you like it, Farad!



Never drink alone, his dad said. Remus was twelve the first time he heard it, sneaking downstairs after bedtime to open his parents' drink cabinet. He still remembers the scent of brandy as he unstoppered the bottle, the heavy taste of it, and then his dad's voice behind him: "It's not the drinking that bothers me, Remus. It's the fact that you didn't ask."

Heart racing, glass clutched in his guilty hand, Remus turned slowly. His father was frowning, an owlish figure in his glasses and tweed jacket. After a long moment his dad sat down in the armchair.

"Pour me a glass."

Remus did, hand unsteady. He passed it over.

"Don't drink when you're angry at somebody, and never drink alone," said his dad, and took a sip.

Remus lifted his own glass, which felt odd in his hand. He gulped another mouthful of brandy, stifling the urge to cough. They sat there together in silence until Remus found himself talking: about being the least adventurous person in a bunch of cool friends, about Sirius's family, about James's pranks and Peter's smuggled Butterbeer. His dad listened, nodded, and smiled his crooked smile. Little by little the tension in Remus' chest eased, until he was yawning and his dad was lifting the glass from his hands.

"Next time, talk to me first," his dad said, hand warm on Remus's shoulder.

For the next decade he had people to drink with. There were Hogsmeade weekends with James, Sirius, and Peter, and the tunnel into Honeydukes' basement. There'd been parties in the Common Room, then later in pubs and houses. The four of them were a constant until James went into hiding and Sirius — well, it didn't help to dwell on that. Now he was here.

Never drink alone.

Being sober is more than Remus can handle at the moment, and since there's no Peter, or James, or Lily to drink with, and Sirius is never getting out of Azkaban, he's back in Hogsmeade.

"Pint of bitter," he says, pushing a coin across the bar.

It's the first time Remus has bought a single pint instead of a round, but he tells himself that he's not drinking alone. He knows the name of the barman and that counts as company.

Aberforth grunts in acknowledgement and picks up a grimy tankard. Remus watches him pour the beer, letting the foam settle, and then he deposits it on the bar with a thud. Remus nods his thanks, takes the beer, and turns to look for a seat.

The Hog's Head clientele look the way he always imagined them: a motley crew of the seedy and well-worn. He identifies an empty table in a quiet corner and is moving in that direction when a voice barks, "Lupin."

He swivels and finds himself looking into the grizzled face of Mad-Eye Moody.

"Oh," Remus says awkwardly. "Didn't see you."

Moody jerks his hand at the table, and it takes Remus a moment to realize that it's an invitation.

He's not sure that he wants company, and this isn't the company he would have chosen, but the words never drink alone echo through his head.

"Right. Thanks," Remus says, and takes a seat.

Moody's mug is half empty already. Remus watches him take another swig, face impassive except for that constantly spinning eye.

He ought to make conversation, but everything they have in common is about the Order and James and Lily and Harry and Peter and don't mention Sirius, which is still so raw that he aches with it. His throat closes up.

There's a whizz and then a bang outside, the sound of fireworks, and a few of the customers look up. Moody scowls.

"Seen enough explosions for a lifetime," he mutters.

It's true. In the week since James and Lily died there have been fireworks every night. Remus has been startled awake by the noise, still nerved to expect hostile spells.

"Yes," he says, voice rasping.

After the fireworks subside the silence doesn't feel so awkward. When Moody finishes his pint he walks to the bar and returns with two tankards. Once they drink those, Remus buys a round. It's not companionable, exactly, but it's better than being alone.

"Good to see you," Remus says, after the third pint. By then the bar is almost empty and Aberforth is grumbling quietly as he pushes a brown rag back and forth across the bar-top.

"And you, Lupin," growls Moody. The magical eye, which has been whirling all evening, settles finally on Remus's face. He has a slightly uncomfortable sense that Moody can see through him, more than Remus wants people to know, but Moody's voice is softer when he says "Watch out for yourself."

***


Remus can't exactly explain why he goes back next week. He's just tired: tired of being lonely, tired of grieving, tired of being so fucking tired all the time. Half the week he was pretending to be a functional human being by dragging himself out of bed and into a suit for James and Lily's funeral and then again for Peter two days later. He spent the rest of the time staring at the ceiling, the curtains, the carpet as it all churned in his head. At least this will be a change of scenery.

The Hog's Head is quiet when Remus enters, but he hasn't been sitting there for long before the door creaks open and Moody comes in. He orders his beer, hesitates, and then stomps over.

"Lupin."

"Good to see you," Remus says politely, and then realises it's true. He pulls out a chair and Moody sinks into it.

Silence settles over them again.

It's nice, Remus realises slowly, to be with someone who knows what he's going through. People outside the Order can't really understand the fear, exhaustion, and loss. Looking into Moody's face, Remus knows that he understands the costs of war. Between the Order and Aurors, Moody must have lost a dozen friends to Voldemort. It's not the same as Remus's situation, but it's something.

***


After that, he expects Moody. Sometimes Moody is waiting with an extra pint when Remus arrives. On other days Remus buys the beer himself, a mug of bitter and one of dark stout, and finds a table. He's never there for long before Moody joins him, his arrival announced by the squeak of the door and uneven footsteps.

Moody doesn't waste words, but his body language is eloquent. As the weeks pass, Remus learns to read the silences between them. On bad days Moody stares too long into shadows, fingers gripping his tankard, and shoulders hunched. On good days his hands lie open on the table and he meets the gaze of the other patrons, his magical eye skittering from face to face. Moody never invites anyone else to join them.

Remus drinks his beer and watches the expressive lines of Moody's mouth, the bushy curve of his eyebrows, and little by little builds up a picture of the man beneath. If Moody minds him looking then he never mentions it. Besides, Moody watches Remus. It's hard to identify the line between constant vigilance and a different kind of interest.

***


There's nothing special about the night that Remus follows Moody home. They're standing outside the Hog's Head making their standard goodbyes and then Remus lays his hand on Moody's shoulder. He waits a beat, two beats, the beer and pork scratchings churning in his stomach, before Moody Apparates them away.

They land in a dim hallway. Remus doesn't have a plan for this and doesn't know quite what to expect — Moody is older, tougher, so perhaps he'll get shoved back against a wall, or pressed down onto a bed. He doesn't anticipate what actually happens: the way Moody looks at him a moment too long in the flickering light, then raises a hand to run his thumb down Remus' cheek.

Moody's hand is callused, as though the war has scuffed every inch of his skin. Remus turns his face into it and kisses the pad of Moody's thumb as it sweeps across his lips. Their breathing sounds ragged, too loud in the quiet house.

Then Moody steps in closer, his physical presence as solid and tough as weathered teak. Remus feels the warmth of a body against him, and then stubble brushing his cheek. He hears Moody take a deep breath, nose buried in the soft hair behind Remus' ear, and the exhale flutters over his skin, raising goosebumps.

Everything seems to happen in slow motion. It's nothing like the sex he had before the war, stilted instead of rushed, not laughing but silent except for the squeaking bedsprings.

Afterwards, as they lie on Moody's bed, Remus watches for tiny hesitations, for the narrowing of Moody's good eye, for the hard line of his mouth or the curl of a lip. All he finds is silence and the loose muscles anyone experiences after orgasm. When Moody bids him goodbye his tone is no different to normal.

***


Going back to Moody's becomes part of their routine. They don't talk about it, and their public behavior doesn't change, so he doubts that anyone realises. Even within the walls of Moody's house they never kiss; Remus knows how Moody's mouth feels on his cock, but not on his lips. He doesn't ask why.

Silence after sex is never as comfortable as silence in the bar. Remus is acutely aware of the scars on his body, some silvery with age and others barely scabbed over. Still, Moody doesn't shy away. His eyes dart across Remus's skin without judgement and his hands don't hesitate. Remus thinks that Moody has always seen more than he lets on.

Remus finds his eyes traveling over Moody's body too, noting the puffy curse scar on his left shoulder, the angry pink skin beneath his knee where the prothesis attaches, how the muscles of his face twist to accommodate the magical eye. It's a record of battles fought and won, with the price paid in blood. Moody is still hunting the remaining Death Eaters, and Remus wonders how much more he'll lose before it's over.

Right now, Moody is a solid weight on the mattress beside him, all hard muscle and sinew. Remus can't imagine anyone better able to survive. There's a lesson in that, if only he can find it.

Moody is a man of few words, but he has a hundred varieties of silence. Perhaps one day Remus will enumerate them, give them names, and put together a dictionary of silence. As he watches Moody's chest rise and fall in the candlelight, Remus begins to imagine the entries.

***


In the last week of January, Moody doesn't show. Remus buys two pints as usual and takes a table near the inadequate fire. When he finishes his bitter, Moody still isn't there.

Never drink alone, he thinks, then corrects himself: I'm not alone, I'm waiting. He orders a second pint, and drinks it, unable to stop himself from looking up eagerly every time the door squeaks. Perhaps he's imagining it, but Aberforth's expression seems pitying when he leaves.

Outside, snow is fluttering down. Remus turns up his coat collar and tries not to think of building snowmen with his parents, of snowball fights with his friends, of love and laughter around a crackling fire. His flat feels lonelier than ever.

***


Moody doesn't come the next week either. The front page of the Daily Prophet describes an Auror raid on a bar in Knockturn Alley that had been slipping potions in the drinks, and speculates that it was a Death Eater plot to poison couples on Valentine's Day. They quote Moody warning everyone of the need for caution, and perhaps that's the reason. Perhaps Moody simply tired of his company. He'll never know for sure.

Drinking in the Hog's Head without Moody is worse than being lonely at home. Remus tries the Leaky Cauldron instead, but it's not the same. Maybe it's better not to drink so much anyway.

Don't drink when you're angry at somebody, Remus thinks, and pours the half-finished bottle of Firewhiskey down the sink.

***


He should have seen this coming. Remus knows better than anyone that you can't escape the ravages of war for long. Yet he never expected this — never expected Moody to be a victim.

Remus closes his eyes and lets himself remember Moody's naked body against him, all muscle and scarred skin; Moody's callused fingers on his mouth, his stomach, his hips; Moody's breath rasping in his ear. It's almost impossible to believe that he's gone.

Inside his head, a voice that sounds too much like Moody says get a grip, Lupin.

He opens his eyes, picks up his glass and takes a gulp, Firewhiskey burning his throat.

Moody is right, he needs to pull himself together. He's the most experienced person here, the grizzled survivor amongst a bunch of shell-shocked children. They hardly know what a battle is. He has no excuse.

"There's work to do," he says, catching Bill's eyes across the table. "I can ask Kingsley whether—"

"No," Bill says, "I'll do it, I'll come."

The others look bewildered, and Lupin is suddenly furious at them — at their youth and naivety, their ignorance of how hard Moody worked, how much he paid to keep their generation safe.

When Fleur and Tonks bleat "Where are you going?" it's all he can do not to snarl.

"Mad-Eye's body," he says, fighting to keep his voice level. "We need to recover it."

"Can't it—?" pleads Mrs. Weasley, glancing over at Bill.

"Wait? Not unless you'd rather the Death Eaters took it?" Bill replies.

Nobody says anything after that. Remus can feel their eyes on him as he leaves. Outside, everything is dark and silent. It's hard to tell whether Voldemort is still circling out of sight.

Bill hands him a broom, and says "Ready?"

"Stick with me," Remus answers, listening hard and scanning the sky. He's searching for a metallic glimmer, the flutter of a cloak, the edge of something not-quite-concealed by a Disillusionment Charm.

Constant vigilance Moody's voice says, inside his head.

Together, in silence, they kick off into the night sky.


(Post a new comment)


[info]squibstress
2013-05-05 05:06 pm UTC (link)
This is one of those fics that make me wonder why we don't see more of this pairing.

It's a wonderful portrait of two characters, done with that seemingly impossible combination that always makes me squee, economy and detail.

Lupin's lonliness and depression are so authentically presented and palpable--I almost needed a pint myself.

I loved every word, but since I can't quote the whole thing back at you, here are a few lines I particularly loved:

Moody doesn't waste words, but his body language is eloquent. As the weeks pass, Remus learns to read the silences between them. On bad days Moody stares too long into shadows, fingers gripping his tankard, and shoulders hunched. On good days his hands lie open on the table and he meets the gaze of the other patrons, his magical eye skittering from face to face. Moody never invites anyone else to join them. Just love this whole paragraph.

Remus thinks that Moody has always seen more than he lets on. Indeed.

Moody is a man of few words, but he has a hundred varieties of silence. Perhaps one day Remus will enumerate them, give them names, and put together a dictionary of silence. Gah, I wish I'd written that!

The others look bewildered, and Lupin is suddenly furious at them — at their youth and naivety, their ignorance of how hard Moody worked, how much he paid to keep their generation safe. This has the feeling of something Moody would say; it underlines the connection between them so beautifully.

Bravo/a!

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[info]woldy
2013-05-29 09:51 am UTC (link)
I'm glad you enjoyed it & thanks for the lovely comment!

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[info]venturous
2013-05-05 09:13 pm UTC (link)
loved this. the palpable grief, the barely companiable silences, the never-debated relationship. that one moment of Moody breathing against Remus' ear is so erotically potent! lovely Beholder fic.

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[info]woldy
2013-05-29 09:52 am UTC (link)
Glad you liked it!

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]selmak
2013-05-05 10:36 pm UTC (link)
Absolutely amazing. I love it - it's sad, poignant and a powerful read. Lovely job.

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[info]woldy
2013-10-06 02:32 pm UTC (link)
I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]chaos_rose
2013-05-06 03:24 am UTC (link)
This was awesome and so very perfect for both of them. Wonderful story!

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[info]woldy
2013-10-06 02:32 pm UTC (link)
Glad you liked it & thanks for the comment :-)

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]dandru
2013-05-07 02:14 pm UTC (link)
What an intriguing pairing! They're so very human here, both damaged from the war and finding solace in each other. Remus' reaction to Moody's death, that backlash of memories and feelings, was really well done. Lovely fic.

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[info]woldy
2013-10-06 02:32 pm UTC (link)
I'm really glad it worked for you!

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]lyras
2013-05-07 02:58 pm UTC (link)
I really enjoyed this - a plausible bringing together of two damaged characters. The brief moments of understated tenderness between them melt my cold, dead heart, and I love that you pushed this right to its inevitable (given canon events) conclusion.

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[info]woldy
2013-10-06 02:33 pm UTC (link)
I'm glad you enjoyed it :-)

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]farad
2013-05-07 11:21 pm UTC (link)
This is *beautiful*! Such lovely writing, very intimate; I can feel Remus' pain, his waves of pain from the loss of his closest friends through, ultimately, the loss of Moody. Poignant and melancholic, with the memory of his father's words - of that wonderful scene with his father - running through it, binding it together.

So nicely done, all the way to the ending. Perfect.

Thank you!!!

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[info]woldy
2013-10-06 02:34 pm UTC (link)
I'm so glad you liked it! I loved your prompts and it gave me an opportunity to write a pairing I've been wanting to explore for years :-)

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[info]smallbrownfrog
2013-05-08 07:38 am UTC (link)
You make me believe, not just in this pairing, but in the larger world of your story. People were truly dead and dying, and the pain was palpable.

And the language itself was beauttiful in a spare way that didn't get in the way of the story. It's hard to identify the line between constant vigilance and a different kind of interest. Aahh yes.

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[info]woldy
2013-10-06 02:34 pm UTC (link)
I'm really glad you liked it, & thanks for taking the time to comment :-)

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]magnetic_pole
2013-05-09 05:19 am UTC (link)
What a compelling pairing! This is Beholder's great virtue every year: I run across fics like this one that cause me to think "Why had I never put these two together before? Because they just make sense."

Love the way you've dealt with an inability to express oneself here--so often (especially in m/m slash), it's a attractive quality, a brooding mysteriousness that's meant to draw the reader into the story. Here's it's just pain and a kind of stuck-ness--nothing attractive, just a central quality for these two characters, driving them forward, side by side, even as it keeps them apart.

Hope I'm not over-interpreting here! But I've thought a lot about how central this quality is to m/m slash, and I see it subverted in a really interesting way here. Enjoyed! M.

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[info]woldy
2013-10-06 02:41 pm UTC (link)
I'm glad you liked it and thanks for the thoughtful comment!

I agree that male inability to communicate about emotions is often (I think wrongly) portrayed as a mysterious and sexy, as opposed to problematic. The lack of communication is particularly tragic for Remus and Moody, I think, because in both cases it is central to their personal tragedies. If Moody was more open with his friends then they would have known that Crouch Jnr wasn't him and thus he wouldn't have spent a year locked in a trunk. If Remus was more open with his friends then they wouldn't have mistaken him for a traitor and ended up with James dead and Sirius in prison. Your comment that it's just a central quality for these two characters, driving them forward, side by side, even as it keeps them apart captures their dynamic really nicely :-)

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]wwmrsweasleydo
2013-05-10 10:45 am UTC (link)
This is great. A very poignant, sad ending, and a lot of eloquent silences.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]woldy
2013-10-06 02:41 pm UTC (link)
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]therealsnape
2013-05-12 11:42 am UTC (link)
What a beautifully-written story. There's almost no dialogue, as befits two silent men, but we get into Remus's head in such a powerful way - his loneliness is palpable. And the way you show us Moody through Remus's eyes is both a great character study and a totally-convincing account of why this relationship works.

It's hard to identify the line between constant vigilance and a different kind of interest. It is, despite Remus's powers of observation.

Moody is a man of few words, but he has a hundred varieties of silence. On of my favourite lines in Beholder this year.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]woldy
2013-12-23 08:32 pm UTC (link)
I'm really glad the story worked for you, and thanks for taking the time to comment.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]tetleythesecond
2013-05-12 07:50 pm UTC (link)
Wow. Excellent portrait of the two men, with palpable, dense atmosphere, and the characterisation through their silence is fantastic.

Just a few examples of lines that gripped me particularly:

Moody doesn't waste words, but his body language is eloquent. As the weeks pass, Remus learns to read the silences between them. On bad days Moody stares too long into shadows, fingers gripping his tankard, and shoulders hunched. On good days his hands lie open on the table and he meets the gaze of the other patrons, his magical eye skittering from face to face. Moody never invites anyone else to join them.

It's hard to identify the line between constant vigilance and a different kind of interest.

Everything seems to happen in slow motion. It's nothing like the sex he had before the war, stilted instead of rushed, not laughing but silent except for the squeaking bedsprings.

Even within the walls of Moody's house they never kiss; Remus knows how Moody's mouth feels on his cock, but not on his lips. He doesn't ask why.

Remus can't imagine anyone better able to survive. There's a lesson in that, if only he can find it.
-- Wow.

The father/son moment at the beginning is great, too -- sets the theme, the mood, the leitmotiv, as it were ...

Brilliant, Mystery Author. Brava!

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]woldy
2013-12-23 08:34 pm UTC (link)
I'm really glad you liked it, and thanks for the detailed comment.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]kelly_chambliss
2013-05-13 01:34 am UTC (link)
Wow, I loved this. What a great pairing, these two damaged men who can almost meet each other scar for scar. The pacing is excellent, your style ditto. And that powerful ending. Well done.

Lines I loved:

Moody is a man of few words, but he has a hundred varieties of silence

Remus thinks that Moody has always seen more than he lets on.
This would make a fitting epitaph for Mad-Eye.

Moody is older, tougher, so perhaps he'll get shoved back against a wall, or pressed down onto a bed. He doesn't anticipate what actually happens: the way Moody looks at him a moment too long in the flickering light, then raises a hand to run his thumb down Remus' cheek.
Love this! So unexpected and yet so IC.

Moody's hand is callused, as though the war has scuffed every inch of his skin.
Great image.

And a great read; thank you!

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]woldy
2013-12-23 08:36 pm UTC (link)
I'm glad the combination of characters and style worked for you! I'd been meaning to write this pairing for years :-)

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]alisanne
2013-05-21 10:24 pm UTC (link)
Wow. This pairing makes so much sense, and I never saw it before now.
Two complicated men taking comfort from each other in a difficult time. *nods* It's completely plausible.
And Poor Remus. The ending was so poignant and prefect, really.
And, as someone else said, their eloquent silences and lack of dialogue was perfectly befitting for these two.
Brilliant writing. :)

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]woldy
2013-12-23 08:36 pm UTC (link)
I'm glad you enjoyed it and thrilled to hear that the pairing clicked for you.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]pauraque.dreamwidth.org
2013-05-24 04:30 pm UTC (link)
Oh, this was excellent. I love when a relationship is shown like this -- more dialogue would seem superfluous. Just the way they're present with each other makes everything clear.

You've done a really great job painting Lupin's situation, how alone he is, feeling like the last man standing. You feel he's at risk of falling into a very dark place, maybe giving up completely and drinking himself into oblivion. But even though their relationship is brief, Moody somehow pulls him back from the edge. And that doesn't have to be exactly understood or put into words, it just is.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]woldy
2013-12-23 08:39 pm UTC (link)
I'm really glad you enjoyed it and that the understated style worked for you. Remus and Moody are amongst my favorite JKR characters and I wish we saw more of them together.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]albalark
2013-05-25 04:21 pm UTC (link)
This is amazing - a relationship that makes so much sense in your hands, and so beautifully written that everything is deeply felt by the reader, that one has to wonder why it hadn't been thought of before.

Both Moody and Lupin are complex characters, people it is easy to dislike, even as you feel a great deal of sympathy for them. They each wear masks, though of opposite character, to the world, and the silences between them are more eloquent than any long speech could possibly be. You allow us and them to glimpse beneath those masks and make the relationship which grows between them feel as natural and inevitable as the pain which drives it.

The way the relationship ended felt so very real, and that it doesn't make Lupin begin spiraling out of control speaks to how healing it was for him. It left him in better place than he was when it began, and that's about the best one can ask and he understands that.

The end was so poignant and dovetails so beautifully with the original - a perfect fit. Superbly done, Mystery Author!

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]woldy
2013-12-23 08:40 pm UTC (link)
I'm really glad you liked it and thanks so much for this lovely comment! IMHO this pairing deserves far more attention than it gets, so I'm glad it worked for you.

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[info]songquake
2013-05-25 05:30 pm UTC (link)
Oh, this is beautiful, and it left me near tears both the first time I read it and right now when I was "reviewing" (*cough* rereading closely) it in order to comment.

Never drink alone. Never drink when you're angry. Rules to live by--the elder Lupin likely trying to prevent the alcoholism that a lonely, scarred young man who feels like a perpetual outsider could so easily slip into.

I really like how you kept a bit of clinical distance between them, these men who come to rely on one another but who won't say it aloud. Two men, scarred from battle...it's terribly ironic that Remus doesn't consider how much more of a reason Mad-Eye has to be self-conscious about his looks (even as Remus observes the puffy skin abutting Mad-Eye's prosthesis). But oh, of course he doesn't. Moody, with his dictionary of silences, is the stalwart to Lupin's insecurities.

And that last scene: heartbreaking. Remus has lost not just his comrade and erstwhile lover, but the man with whom he knows how to grieve. It guts me.

Well-done, Mystery Author.

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[info]woldy
2013-12-23 08:46 pm UTC (link)
I'm really glad you enjoyed it and thank you so much for this detailed comment!

Remus and Moody are two of my favorite characters in the series, and this pairing interests me in large part because of how we see Remus develop from the young man in the first war to the veteran in the second. You're absolutely right that Remus is too busy with his own insecurities to think about Moody's, and I suspect the story might look quite different from Moody's POV, with a lot more considerations at play.

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[info]lookfar
2013-05-29 08:08 pm UTC (link)
OO, so spare and direct. This gave me a chill.

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[info]woldy
2013-12-23 08:40 pm UTC (link)
I'm glad you enjoyed it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]mindabbles
2013-06-02 05:10 am UTC (link)
This is wonderful. My heart hurts. What a perfect pairing and how perfectly your drew them. The grizzled warriors and survivors--makes sense and their connection was so subtle and right. The ending broke my heart. I loved the way you used that wonderful moment between Remus and Bill, as well. Well done!!!!!

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[info]woldy
2013-12-23 08:42 pm UTC (link)
I'm really glad it worked for you! There was a sense in which I didn't want to repeat the canonical ending, because everyone knows it, but it's a scene that tells us so much about Remus and Moody's relationship that I couldn't leave it out.

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