Fic: Unlocked by pelespen

[hermionemods]

Title: Unlocked
Author/Penname: pelespen
Artists: treeson & venturous1
Pairing/Characters: Hermione Granger/Sirius Black
Summary: Driven to near-insanity at the hand of Bellatrix Lestrange, Hermione finds her solace and reason to survive in thoughts and memories of her love. How will she find her way out of the safety of her own mind, however, and what does the future

Comments

To Treeson:

[pelespen]

I have to admit, before this experience I definitely underestimated the power of a well-made fic soundtrack. I am so in love with the songs you picked, though, and I love the album art as well. Thank you so very much for attacking this story with so much thought and enthusiasm. You really created a soundtrack that goes with the story, and I love listening to it! :)

Re: To Treeson:

[treeson]

Thank you! I'm super glad you enjoyed it! It was definitely fun making it.

<3 treeson

To Venturous1

[pelespen]

I am still kind of floored by your art. I feel like I got a real painter for an artist here, and just - wow. I know I said it in my email, but I'll say it again here - this is sooo lush and vibrant. You totally captured Hermione's bliss here, and I know that's what you said you were going for - it really comes through in her body language and facial expression. It seems like that's partly because she's really the center of attention in the painting, which is as it should be, since she's the center of attention in that scene! I love her curves, and I have to say I wish I could be in that bed LOL! Thank you again so much :)

Re: To Venturous1

[venturous1]

dear Pele, I wanted the chance to paint Hermione as Venus, the goddess of love, and your story gave the chance I needed. I love your Hermione: smart, courageous, passionate and unabashedly romantic.

[ceredwensirius]

Well, dear, I must say working together on this was a really wonderful creative collaboration. I thoroughly enjoyed it, you are a very gifted writer.

I think my favorite parts are where we see her struggling to assert herself as an adult against his overly patient, 'musn't push the dear thing too hard'-ness that he has going on. Its very rewarding to see what was going on in her mind.

I love that you fleshed out their first morning together. I was worried you might back off on Sirius' personality a bit to let Hermione shine more but you didn't and I thought you made all the right choices. He is going to push her and he really just comes right off the page.

I also loved the common room scene. He so would!

All in all a perfect sister-story to Le Flambeau Vivant, but even more than that it stands on its own. One doesn't need to read the other to be completely in love with this story.

Thank you for writing and sharing.

[pelespen]

(yes, I really am just now getting to this - ugh! will I ever catch up?)

I'm so glad you liked Hermione in this, especially since the whole underlying point to my writing it was a sort of Hermione-gets-her-groove-back thing, where she grows from being hurt by him and really comes into her own.

Thanks again for working w/me on this and letting me play with it. It's been such a learning experience, and a wild ride.

[pelespen]

Thank you! (I'm behind on comments and responses - eep!)

I had some personal angst over Lavender in particular, because I wrote her for this long before the HBP movie came out. In book-canon, we have very little character development of her, so I had my own ideas about her. Those ideas obviously did NOT mesh with movie!Lavender LOL!

I'm so glad you enjoyed this :)

[sunlitshadow]

Having read both "Le Flambeau Vivant" and "Unlocked", I will say JKR gave Sirius and Remus the short end of the stick in canon and I love how fandom has made them everything they should have been. He's perfect here - the common room scene, Lavender's comment about coming back to school when Hermione has THAT waiting at home... so perfect. He's cocky and confident, a little sarcastic, just romantic enough to make me melt into a little puddle of 'guh' without being sugar-fluff. Your Hermione is also spot-on, I love her reactions and while you show her more mature than in the books, she's still very much the character we love. Great job!

[pelespen]

Thanks so much - I'm glad I got that balance across with both Sirius and Hermione. I wanted her to have grown a bit, after the whole Christmas hat debacle. I think she's bright enough and mature enough that, under different circumstances than the events in the book, she would have enough introspection to meet these kinds of romantic challenges head-on.