Thanks once again for your thoughtful comments. I've enjoyed trying to work out how Molly would see Remus initially, and what it would take for her to develop the level of trust with him that we see in OotP.
I'm glad you like Hermione here, too -- given her past experience with SPEW, and the way she covered for Remus in third year, she certainly seems like she would be deeply sympathetic.
And it’s impossible for me to be disappointed ... with his rather predictable expertise in magizoology and in cleaning charms.
Thanks for your honesty! But I must counter that the expertise with magizoology is essentially canon -- Remus took the third-year DADA curriculum and essentially recast it as Defence Against Dark Creatures; those kappas and redcaps and grindlylows may have been standard in the third-year textbook, but I had the impression in PoA that actually bringing the creatures in and having practical lessons was Remus's own personal touch. Which seems to indicate a certain amount of experience in magizoology -- actually, while I haven't written too much (yet?) about Remus between leaving Hogwarts and Halloween 1981, the Institute for Magizoology (whose journal this is) features prominently in one of the stories I have written.
As for the cleaning spells, you're right that this is common in fanon, and it's entirely legitimate to argue that it might have been more interesting for me to take Remus in another direction. But by way of explanation, let me say that extreme tidiness is an important aspect of my version of Remus, not just a random detail -- I see it as part of a larger personality trait that values order and control in all things, as a response to the lycanthropy being something he has absolutely no control over. (In any case it's a plot point in this story, since Remus's cleaning skills were Sirius's ostensible excuse in Ch 1 for inviting Remus to stay at Grimmauld Place.)
I'm glad you liked the Muggle job having been illegal. I find it difficult to explain why Remus didn't just go get himself Muggle jobs when he was having so much trouble making ends meet. So I invented this law, thinking that Remus wouldn't choose to break that law except in times when he was especially desperate.
Thanks again for your comments, and for the very important reminder of the value of originality in developing characters in fanfic!
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-08-23 05:02 pm (UTC)I'm glad you like Hermione here, too -- given her past experience with SPEW, and the way she covered for Remus in third year, she certainly seems like she would be deeply sympathetic.
And it’s impossible for me to be disappointed ... with his rather predictable expertise in magizoology and in cleaning charms.
Thanks for your honesty! But I must counter that the expertise with magizoology is essentially canon -- Remus took the third-year DADA curriculum and essentially recast it as Defence Against Dark Creatures; those kappas and redcaps and grindlylows may have been standard in the third-year textbook, but I had the impression in PoA that actually bringing the creatures in and having practical lessons was Remus's own personal touch. Which seems to indicate a certain amount of experience in magizoology -- actually, while I haven't written too much (yet?) about Remus between leaving Hogwarts and Halloween 1981, the Institute for Magizoology (whose journal this is) features prominently in one of the stories I have written.
As for the cleaning spells, you're right that this is common in fanon, and it's entirely legitimate to argue that it might have been more interesting for me to take Remus in another direction. But by way of explanation, let me say that extreme tidiness is an important aspect of my version of Remus, not just a random detail -- I see it as part of a larger personality trait that values order and control in all things, as a response to the lycanthropy being something he has absolutely no control over. (In any case it's a plot point in this story, since Remus's cleaning skills were Sirius's ostensible excuse in Ch 1 for inviting Remus to stay at Grimmauld Place.)
I'm glad you liked the Muggle job having been illegal. I find it difficult to explain why Remus didn't just go get himself Muggle jobs when he was having so much trouble making ends meet. So I invented this law, thinking that Remus wouldn't choose to break that law except in times when he was especially desperate.
Thanks again for your comments, and for the very important reminder of the value of originality in developing characters in fanfic!