Comments | gilpins_tales: Drabblefic #5: Remus/Tonks, "For the Sake of the Daughter"

gilpins_tales

Drabblefic #5: Remus/Tonks, "For the Sake of the Daughter"

Apr 06, 2009 12:33

Title: For the Sake of the Daughter
Genre: General; angst
Ratings & Warnings: PG - mild swearing
Word Count: 2145
Summary: It’s strange to be so afraid of someone you’ve always liked. Even harder when your daughter’s smile comes easily again, and the inner calm and resourcefulness is back in her eyes after months of strain.
Author's Note: For tegdoh, ( Read more... )

half-blood prince, angst, general, nymphadora tonks, andromeda tonks, rated pg, remus lupin, ted tonks, remus/tonks

Comments 29

nell_aria April 6 2009, 17:15:20 UTC

LOVE, gilpin, absolutely love this. I love how you've shown Andromeda's fierceness and her wisdom, her fears for her daughter, and the conflict that goes on inside her heart as she battles with a mother's natural urge to protect her daughter whilst knowing that what is needed now is forgiveness, trust and support.

I particularly liked:Even as she says that, she feels her heart plummet still further. A bad man she could have fought against. A good man would have his weaknesses as well, and they might be even worse ones, in a way, but he’d find the strength of will to overcome them.The resolution - tentative, anguished, only a sort of truce is made with her doubts and prejudices - is perfect, knowing as we do that there will be more tests of her trust in her daughter and Remus Lupin very shortly ( ... )

gilpin25 April 8 2009, 21:15:46 UTC

Oh, thank you SO much for such kind words. Not least for your sense of timing as I was feeling pretty rough when this arrived in my inbox - and suddenly I forgot the coughing lurgy whilst grinning, lol ( ... )

sspring92 April 7 2009, 04:28:00 UTC

So nice! I can just picture Remus expecting at every turn to be asked to leave. Just heartbreaking. I think Ted and Andromeda were right on too. Andromeda knows their situations are o similar, so she can't really object with out looking like a hypocrit.

gilpin25 April 8 2009, 17:54:44 UTC

Thank you very much for the nice comments. I rather like imagining them all having many thoughts going through their heads at this point in time, and not necessarily attributing the right ones to the others involved. I think Remus will just assume he's the last person they'd want as a son-in-law because of the obvious stumbling block, but that Ted and Andromeda are themselves a very long way from the romance of the boy and girl who married against her family opposition - and know how very hard it is in its own right. Even before they get to the part where they know how upset Tonks has been, even if not exactly what's been going on.

So it's all a lot of family fun leading into Deathly Hallows, lol. Many thanks again! :)

mrstater April 7 2009, 13:26:14 UTC

I think what makes this such a painful read is knowing that Andromeda isn't seeing the real Remus, that normally this is a man who's incredibly at ease with people and knows just how to make them comfortable, but a combination of what he's been through in the past year, and his own sense of not being good enough for Tonks being magnified by the thought that for sure her parents won't think so, has turned him inside out and upside down. That exceptional run-on sentence was to say: I think this characterization really makes sense as a bridge between HBP and DH.

I always think the parallels between Ted and Andromeda and Remus and Tonks are so fascinating, and you've drawn them out to great effect here with the way Ted and Andromeda don't want to equate the two situations. And really, they can't. Though those hints of how Andromeda learned it's not that simple make me want to know more about how the world tried to break them. I think you've made it clear, though, that the biggest difference between Ted/Andromeda and Remus/Tonks is ( ... )

gilpin25 April 9 2009, 14:38:39 UTC

Am really pleased to hear that you think this works as a lead-in to DH. The aim was to show or hint at many doubts for them all bubbling away under the surface, but pushed to one side for now - pending the further developments which we know will come, lol. Except I've tried to show Tonks herself not outwardly having any (or not allowing herself to), and that it's because they all care so much for her that there's this almost temporary truce and fragile acceptance going on at the end ( ... )

mrstater April 9 2009, 15:35:42 UTC

It's encouraged me to want to write the wedding right now, lol.

You should!

drumher April 7 2009, 15:07:11 UTC

What she said...

Would love to have been a fly on the wall when Ted and Remus had their little chat.

Excellent writing as usual. Thanks!

gilpin25 April 8 2009, 21:26:26 UTC

Thank you for the much appreciated kind words! (How's the chocolate consumption going, btw?;))

Would love to have been a fly on the wall when Ted and Remus had their little chat.

Well... One day, I have promised myself I'll write the R/T wedding as I've had a bunny for that ever since - HBP, I think, lol. And it would probably fit quite well if they referred back to something in that chat.

But first, I have other R/T fics to do. Including what on earth they're going to do with snow in April. ;)

Thanks again!:D

drumher April 11 2009, 03:56:54 UTC

Thank you for the much appreciated kind words!

Sorry for rambling on for so long but you know how wordy I can get when leaving a review. ;)

How's the chocolate consumption going, btw?;)

Too well. I have yet to find one I haven't liked tho' I wonder if there's a coffee-flavored one just waiting to prove me wrong! I plan to tackle The Egg on Sunday...quite possibly literally!

My treadmill usage has increased since the package arrived so that's been an added bonus!

But first, I have other R/T fics to do. Including what on earth they're going to do with snow in April. ;)

Why, build a snowwizard, of course!

I'm still slogging through my Meta piece and think I was being overly optimistic by thinking I would be finished by the end of this month. I seem to be in demand this year (musically, at least) and am looking at rehearsals starting next week for Seussical quickly followed by two concerts. So, not many free evenings for art or home improvement projects. :( June's wide open, tho'. For the moment.

gilpin25 April 11 2009, 14:39:03 UTC

Sorry for rambling on for so long but you know how wordy I can get when leaving a review. ;)

LOL. It's the words and the thought that counts, not the length. (We're still talking reviews here, btw.;))

I plan to tackle The Egg on Sunday...quite possibly literally!

Br brave, be bold, and worry about the treadmill on Monday! I'm hoping sure Mr. Gilpin will be sharing some of his. We're promised a glorious and sunny day here tomorrow, so hopefully I might get some pics of the fashion parade for Hawaiian babes.

I seem to be in demand this year (musically, at least) and am looking at rehearsals starting next week for Seussical quickly followed by two concerts

Hadn't heard of Seussical till I looked it up on Wiki, but I see there's a cat involved and it sounds fun. I hope you can keep squeezing some art time in though, you know the world always needs a little more drumher R/T.

A snowwizard, eh? ;)

duck_or_rabbit April 8 2009, 01:30:48 UTC

First, this story's icon is the saddest little icon of all lj icons.

Second, I think this is wonderful. Absolutely brill. What I love is how I read the subtext here being Remus thinking, "Oh, lord, I've gotta deal with another Black." No, really, I didn't think that at all. Well, maybe a little. But the opening scene in which Remus is apologizing because he feels he ought to and Andromenda is certain he'll never be able to apologize enough is just super splendidly written. Super real and super duper tense in all the best ways.

This is my favorite bit of insight

Nothing disgusts us more than having to face our own shortcomings...

She can’t remember who said that to her once. It might even have been her own mother. Or one of her sisters. It sounded like one of their pronouncements.because it is a perfectly true principle. True for all, especially true for proud folks like the Blacks ( ... )

gilpins_tales April 9 2009, 16:18:55 UTC

It is the saddest icon ever, isn't it? But very Remus-like to me: outside on his own, and thinking he has to walk away.

But, of course, he's so very wrong, especially once I stop writing fics like this, lol. Which is kind of the temporary version of a Black lull before the DH storm, and I'm delighted you were reading the subtext as Remus probably did have a Well, surely I've had enough practice with the Black Family to handle this, haven't I? moment. ;) Shortly before he realised he's never faced one who is the prospective mum-in-law before, and where do you start with that one? Joking apart, I wanted him off balance for all sorts of reasons, and the Remus who could sort out the tension over meals at Grimmauld in OotP being totally wrong-footed by being the cause of it here.

True for all, especially true for proud folks like the Blacks.I wanted Andromeda and Ted to like Remus without going into detail of how well they know him; partly because he seems a likeable character to most others in the books, and partly because I think ( ... )