Words fail to express how beautiful this was! It's not just the crispy freshness of this ship itself - the writing is so vivid that you can *see* Godric's Hollow in summer, and delve right into Albus's mind and emotions. Oh, I adored those conflicting emotions, and my line by far was
Albus had been held by too few people to refuse it; he didn't even know how.
It just explains so very much about him!
And the language and style and images were just gorgeous throughout. Brilliant writing! I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams that someone could attribute 'poor drooping violet' to Albus Dumbledore and make it work :).
And omg, the violets! I've never read anything like this flower-and-hair bondage, and it was so awesomely hot, and Albus's reactions so wonderfully ambiguous!Your Gellert, too, is quite a character - I found him both immensely charming, very attractive, and just a tiny bit repulsive, and loved the combination.
Another thing I really, really liked about the sex was that you put in a lot of the 'un-beautiful' physical things, and made them *work* - loved the bits of realism.
And I *loved* the double-edged challenge at the end, and the way poor, emotion-starved Albus falls for it!
Definitely my favourite among the Christmas exchange fics so far, this year. And damn, do I wish I'd know who you are, mystery writer. There are two people I could imagine writing this, but one is not taking part in the fest, and the other's the recipient... Argh! When's January?