OMZ! You wrote a Scorpius/Lily! I had no idea. I loved it! First of all, I loved their interaction. Andt as inappropriate as it was, I loved the scene and setting for it. It's sort of dark and twisted but it totally fits you and your style. I thought this was really well done, Jess. Very strong pov and nicely written plus a really original idea that ties nicely to your other story. You should totally write them some more, or think of other strange ways for characters to hook up.
~Gina :)
Author's Response:While this is a ship that I will never sail myself, it is a lot of fun shipping Scorpius in as many ways as possible. He can be so many things. My views on Lily are a bit more narrow, but I like to think if dear Albus can fall for a Malfoy, so can his baby sister.
What I really wanted for this story was to show something that is overtly sad, maybe a bit pathetic (Andromeda's death and the lack of proper mourners), but have two people react in different ways, though they feel the same in the end. I therefore needed one person from each side of the room, one Potter and one Malfoy/Black, to represent. And, as it was for a Scolily-shipping Olivia's birthday, the decision is made.
I might write a sequel to this, but I might not. I like the way this story turned out, and I almost don't want to ruin it with how things in my universe would've ended up (which is them not together).
Thanks for the review, and I'm glad you liked it. I've not been totally happy with my latest work, so it's nice to know that it's not all crud, lol.
~Jess
That was sad in a very different way than "All the Time in the World." Personally, I'm not a Lily/Scorpius shipper, but it made sense for this story. I thought you did a great job with this idea, and it was definitely full of some good emotion.
Author's Response:I'm glad you liked this. It was meant to be a bit of a start of something, but not overtly shippy. And if it makes you feel any better, I'm not a Scolily shipper, either, but sometimes, it's nice to step outside of the box and try something new.
I'm happy that the story seemed to have the correct amount of emotion in appropriate times. It's a bit difficult to properly portray someone's death that does yet doesn't affect someone in the expected way, such as someone you don't know very well. It's complicated, hehe. Anyway, I'll shut up. Thanks for the read and review. :D
~Jess
This is very good, Jess. I like how you have characterized everyone, particularly the Potters as a family (though you know I like to imagine Harry and Ginny a bit happier than they are here). Still though, I liked Lily's observations of her brothers and her parents... they felt like an average family, but close enough that all the behavior/thoughts she guesses at them having feel accurate to me as a reader. Poor Teddy. The first mention of his death made me suck in my breath. Just so sad that he died so young. Is that in the other fic? I should read it as well. I enjoyed reading this very much. And a happy belated birthday to Miss Olivia as well!
Author's Response:Sigh... poor Teddy. I didn't want to kill him, but it's something that sprang into my head during VoJP and just stuck in my brain. I even tried inserting him into the story, but it wouldn't go. So, therefore, I ended up writing All the Time in the World (one-shot) to direct questions about the matter. It was super heartbreaking to write, but it felt like it had to be done. Consequently, it was actually the part that I had pegged as where Harry and Ginny started to have marital problems.
This originally started out as a more sombre Scolily, but through it all, the dynamics sort of shifted to the mutual understanding route. I think it works better that way, but it *could* be the start of something more.
Thank you for stopping in, Lori. Good luck with the ill offspring!
~Jess
Oh my goodness, Jess. I love it!
I do recognize that this is quite different from your usual style, but it's very good nonetheless. I really enjoyed how Scorpius and Lily indulged in such childish antics to avoid confronting their grief (or at least Lily's grief). I also loved, how, in the end, Lily ended up facing her grief anyways.
Thanks for this truly great birthday present. I really appreciate it. :D
Olivia
Author's Response:Well, since Scolily isn't my normal ship, I tried to avoid too much shippiness, but after much stalking, I found that it was a pairing you enjoy. And, of course, adding in some Potter family angstiness doesn't hurt.
I have no idea if you read the fic in which I killed Teddy, but hopefully that didn't throw off the story at all. I started out with a completely different idea for this story, but as I began writing, it took on a life of its own.
Anyway, happy birthday once again, and I hope you had fun and got some spiffing stuff. :D
~Jess
Lovely writing, Jess. It was simply too much for Lily to process at the moment. Halted just on the perimeter of the gathering, she choked back a sob or two before she didn’t have it in her to fight it anymore. She missed Teddy. She wanted him to come back to mourn his gran like they all should’ve been doing. She didn’t want to be mourned by hollow men with even more hollow respect for her life and experiences. That just really summed up this story for me, and you wrote that hollow feeling so well throughout the fic.
It was so sad that the most important thing to people was keeping up appearances. You wrote this so well in all the interactions between the characters. The scene between Harry and Lily was wonderfully written.
I think I'm probably always going to disagree with you about Harry and Ginny... the way you write them isn't how I envision them, but at the same time, I can see how your creations come from canon. So they're not OC, just different. It connected very well to "All The Time in the World" (although it's a fair while since I read that, so I don't remember it really well). I hope this paragraph makes sense...
Anyway. Wonderfully written and wonderfully characterised, Jess.
~Katrina
Author's Response:I suppose my goal in writing this was to show that little part of all of us who think of ourselves more than we think about others. I theorise that part of Lily's breakdown was that she saw she was doing just that very thing and it disgusted her. No one wants to think that they're selfish and inconsiderate.
The interaction with Scorpius is actually bit hard to explain in the story. I am hoping that my intention was clear and that he and Lily were experiencing the same sense of surreal detachment to the funereal process and hoping that their own passings were not so nondescript and unmarked. It would be just plain depressing, which was why he was so inattentive in slamming into Lily. He was so deep in thought about certain things that trifles like looking where he was going and/or apologising for mowing someone over didn't really occur to him. And then what happened after that was basically a genetic takeover with Lily getting him back and then their subsequent pissing contest outside. Of course, I try to add these sorts of subtleties into stories with the faint glimmer that someone might notice or not mind listening to me ramble about it in reviews. You're really lovely about listening to my rambles. :D
Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the story and connected with the themes I wanted to put across. You are so lovely a reviewer. And I'll keep telling you that until the cows come home.
~Jess
happy birthday olivia!
this, by the way, is a beautiful story.
Author's Response:Glad you like it, and thank you for both the birthday wish for Olivia and for reading. :D
~Jess