“I can only try to do what is best. Not everyone is a hero who does big things like Mr. Potter. Some of us do little things and that’s all we can do.”
That's one of my favourite lines EVER. And those "little things" are so big, aren't they? Reading it made my gut twitch.
I love your characterisations of George and Viktor, and little Alexander! And the way the rest of the family really does walk on eggshells around George... Viktor's forcing the issue of George getting to be him-self is such a gift to everyone.
Also, one of the things I've always loved about the twins is that they are really creative inventors, so I adore how you worked that into the story.
(This story reminds me a little of annafugazzi's Leave Out All the Rest, though perhaps taking place later. I mean, clearly, it's NOT the same 'verse, but there's a similar tragic, broken feel to both stories. I say this as a huge compliment; LOATR made me cry in almost every chapter, and I know that having read that one coloured my reading of this. If you haven't read it yet, you really ought to.)