HOLY HELLFIRE AND LITTLE GREEN ANGELFISHIES WITH SIGNS AND RAINS OF FIRES FOLLOWING. Y'know, I'm trying to be a bit more coherent here, but my mental state is turning out to be alkjasd;lkfajas;ldkfjas;klYAYAYAY, so forgive if this is disjointed. (Also, author, dunno if you're following this on LJ or IJ, so I'm commenting both places.)
'scuse me, I need to go have a cigarette.
Okay, back. NOW. First of all, author? When it comes to something like this? "Darker than what you expected" can and should be translated as WHAT YOU REALLY MEANT TO ASK FOR. Because I didn't know I wanted this, but HELLO, turns out that I did all along. I wouldn't have thought to ask for this, but I'm glad it's what I got. XD
I was a little cringy about the diet pills, because I'm anti-drug, but they worked into the story smoothly and didn't turn out to be gratuitous, (and with the Fight Club influence, it's a bit of an organic growth of circumstances, clearly) so yay. Also, I am so not a fan of Ginny, so MWAHAHA, I like what you did with her here. >:D *is sometimes evil, yes*
KAY KAY KAY, the bit about Draco having the nerve to show up to his own funeral, and Hermione's huge red dress and veil? Srsly? SRSLY? That whole thing, all the pieces of it, made my jaw hang open a little bit, no lie. Loved it, most definitely.
Rage at himself for not having stopped it. <---- YES. It's not often that I see a darker Draco I can understand, but this is a motivation that I love. Working with that motive is extra delightful in knowing the twists of his mind, and thank you for including it. XD
This whole thing is just dysfunctional and twisted, and I seriously mean that in the most complimentary way possible. It's dysfunctional and twisted and I like it. I don't read a lot of darkfic, tend to stick to domesticity and romance, but this sort of piece could influence me to read a little more in that area, because WHOA, it did a little mental flaying for me. Also, even with the darkness, there's some hope at the end there, and thank you for that. I'm a big big fan of happy/optimistic endings, so I'm verra verra glad that the option was there in this. I like thinking that they can find a way to work it out.
Author, I'd squish you mightily with joy if I could, so here, imagine yourself thoroughly joy-squished. I'm really looking forward to the reveal!