slakdfjaskldfjaskl YOU ARE AN EVIL WOMAN. EVIL. I can't read this until I finish my LATE LATE LATE SLASHFEST FICS WTF. D: *resists valiantly*

eeeeeeeee!

Sorry! Sorry! (A double apology because I'm cross-posting to serpentinelion.) And the fic is pretty evil, I grant you.

♥

Ho-hum, it’s my first day of school and lo’ and behold, you’ve just posted this gargantuan fic.

What little resolve I had mustered up this morning, with intentions of being a productive student, appears to be giving way…

I’ve got class in ten minutes…Decisions, decisions.

…

I’ll be back later to read and review!!! Because I’ve yet to do the latter to many of your fics, to which I’m ashamed of. But I will.

(I haven’t ever commented to any of your posts, btw, so HI!!!!)

ps Sorry for the insanity.

[grin] What I usually do in that situation is save the fun part for after the productive part, as it greatly enhances said productivity. You can imagine how stupid I feel saying that about my own fic, but RL always comes first. (Except when it doesn't.)

Don't worry about the commenting/reviewing! I'm not one for extracting either by main force ... ♥

Did I die? Is this heaven?

No, you need to go back a kilometre and make a right. :P

DUDE! Who is that Draco? He's pretty, and I can see him totally working as Draco for me, even though 99.9% of RL models/actors/etc that people proclaim as ZOMG SO DRACO are a million miles off my Draco.

My brain is hopping around like a ferret on crack at the moment but I am going to force it to sit still because LDHFKJDHG LONG FIC FROM YOU <3

Aaron Carter

*hides*

Holy mother of hell.

I'm not going to get any sleep tonight, am I?

*goes away to read in excitement*

Teehee, your icons are always so appropriate to what you're saying! Must ... stop ... giggling ...

*bookmarks this omg* :D

[pets] [entices you with Silver Pair recs, instead]

do you ship them? as far as I can see, only Pillar Pair gets better fic written for it. sweet.

I'm not much for time-has-passed or ambiguous endings, but I did love Angus very much, so you get a pass. ;)

Very interesting concept! My particular favourite bits: the description of Harry's frailty, the trombone player joke, and the casual but terrible in-the-past offing of Narcissa Malfoy.

I guess I have a fondness for ambiguous endings ... or a passive-aggressive subconscious desire to piss people off, I don't know! As for my predilection for future fics, well, I'm a romance writer if I'm anything -- not an action-adventure/fantasy one. Unfortunately. I mean, my idea of dealing with Horcruxes is: MOFO SUMMONING SPELL OMG. Heh.

Mmm, ramble much? Anyway, glad you got something out of it -- have a complimentary Angus!

I lost my words. Each and every character I loved, and they way it ended yeah, I think I will add my wish with Angus and wish for the same thing.

This was lovely and original.

Thank you.

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. I'm sure Draco makes Harry drink pink cocktails. Or maybe not ... :P

WOOOOF. With sarahtales on the ending - I feel cheated of one chapter, at least; and the mystery of Angus is not given satisfactory deployment; he's syuch an uncanny child at St Mungo's that you want more on him - but apart from that - what a tour-de-force! I love the way Draco slowly changes his mind and the mess he makes of his life. Harry, like him, is imperfect and lovable. I'd like to see more of him and Draco at the end, obviously - instead we get the Blaise dystopia thrown at us like harsh sleet. But really, brilliant work.

Hmm, one chapter about what, exactly? I know a real writer shouldn't have to ask that sort of question -- but I'm not that, after all. :D If I can clear anything up, just ask.

As for Harry and Draco ... I daresay you wouldn't like my actual rendition of their relationship any better than Blaise dystopia. I'm quite mean when it comes to romance -- v. cynical at heart, me.

Ooh! I want to read this right now, but I'll have to wait until I get out of the hospital. Because I haven't even packed or anything. *resists temptation*

This way I'll have something to look forward to!

[helps you resist, with sticks] You just go and make sure you recover properly. This thing'll be stuck on the internet until the oil runs out. ♥

Hmmm. I'm feeling all ambivalent about the ending and think I should probably think some more before commenting, but here I go anyway.

I'll start by saying that this was fascinating...the stark realism of it, the believable dialogue between Draco and Harry, the subtle twists and turns of the plot. Your Draco is a consummate Slytherin -- he finds a way to get what he needs when he needs it, and isn't too terribly troubled by morals along the way. Even if I can't say I liked him, I certainly sympathized with him.

I did like your Harry...so unexpectedly fragile, so decidedly unheroic. That scene where they kiss is amazing; again, the realism of it stood out for me -- the vomit breath, the less than perfect kissing, and the slightly bizarre dialogue about the onions. Quirky, just like real life (at least for me!).

It was a bit of a surprise to find that the last chapter before the epilogue ended with Draco tumbling into bed not with Harry but with Stefano; I couldn't imagine what you were going to do with the epilogue.

And there, of course, came more surprises. Angus is quite an unsettling character...not sure what to make of him, or, to be honest, of Stefano and Alexandre. As for the possible future Angus imagines for Harry and Draco -- I want to believe in it, but I don't know that I can. I can see the attraction these two feel for each other, but whether this Harry and this Draco can find lasting happiness...hmmm.

Thanks for entertaining me and making me think tonight! :-)

Hee, I wish I could say something intelligent to all of this but, well, Brain On Strike ...

My mother always tells me my humour is quirky. I think this is because she doesn't get it -- but at least she knows it's humour, I guess!

About my only real reason for writing this was to play with the idea of Draco as this morally ambiguous bastard. It was fun. In earlier plans for the story, I'm sure I had him going off with either Achilles or Stefano.

See, my idea of perfect love is the one you experience for a short and impossibly bittersweet time. That's why I love Jack/Rose in Titanic -- I know they're ludicrious and sappy, but the ending makes me tear up every time.

Yet, Jack and Rose don't end up being together for ever, or even very long. IMO that's what keeps the love perfect. I'm sure my parents, for eg, loved each other like that at the start. But love wears out, like clothes or furniture -- and all you're left with is rags and stained cushions. That kind of love does not appeal to my writerly muses.

So if you're really wondering if Harry and Draco found lasting happiness in each other -- of course not. Even if they were together, they'd eventually run out of love. Happiness is a solitary achievement, I've always thought. So maybe they were happy, maybe they loved, maybe they were together -- but none of these events are necessarily linked.

WHOA TANGENITAL. Whoops.

Wow! The story was great...really hooked me from the first words. I like how you did not make the characters perfect but left them rather flawed and believable. Thank you for sharing such in interesting story. :)

Thanks! I couldn't imagine what there is to write about perfect people -- they have to be the most boring group on the planet. ♥

*accuses* Hypnotist!

This is twisty and curvy and sad, and yet has such surprising moments of warmth and heat and tenderness and small, small amounts of humour...

Too bittersweet for me to love--because I'm a fluff!whore--but that is actually--you would realise if you knew me--a most enormous compliment to your skill and to the craft of the story.

Fluff? In Harry/Draco? Surely you jest!

Seriously, though, empathic_siren posted just recently about how your world view impacts upon your writing. That's what's up here -- I can't write a love story where everything goes smoothly, or where all you need is love. I don't buy that -- I guess it comes across. A lot. ♥ Thanks for commenting!

Beautiful. I just spent hours reading this, and I really, really liked it. I hope you write in RL as well - people like you should be getting paid for their craft :)

I loved the ending - wonderfully fatalistic, so that one couldn't really hope for one conclusion or another - all I could do was to read on, completely accepting the tale as fact. I wasn't wanting for some thing or another to have happened, I was just waiting to find out what had. Does that make sense? :)

Great characterization, wonderful sense for detail, complex relationships in every corner. This story was just incredibly rich and fulfilling. Thank you!

And Gytha was Draco's and Rosaline's daughter, wasn't she? :D

Paid? For laughing. :P I can barely keep up in fandom!

That's a great compliment, thank you! That you got sucked into the story ... it's what you hope for all the time, as a writer.

No -- she was, um, Rosaline and Blaise's ... ? But your theory is better, oh god!

This was wonderful. I was completely unable to tear myself away from the computer last night, and read it in one sitting. The whole barreling train wreck of it - I felt like I was reading a Jim Thompson novel or something. I love that the ending was ambiguous, and Angus' role was fleshed out. If everything would've come up roses (Harry's magic restored, Harry and Draco in luuuuvvvv4EVAH), it would have been satisfying, temporarily. As it is, it's one to mull over and far more memorable, IMHO.

Thank you!

I feel the same way about stories -- even ones that weren't all that great. I can still remember loads about Number 9 Dream because of the way it ended, while far worthier books have fallen by my memory's wayside.

I'm glad the ending pleased you. I quite liked it, but ambiguity is not to everyone's taste. Thanks for commenting!

♥

I do love it when your writing is gritty. I love the romps, too, of course -- and they have a certain grit of thier own. But you capture the seediness and meanness of life so effortlessly, without ever making me despair completely -- there is still joy and love, perhaps fiercer for being opposed. You get the balance just right, somehow. I don't know how you walk that tightrope, but I never once think that you'll falter.

Phew, that was some awesome feedback. Seriously, I don't know where to put my face. ♥

I have to say, I think grittiness for the sake of grittiness is pointless. I like resolution in any story; I just don't think it has to be perfect, lovey-dovey romantic resolution. If something can go right for a character that was previously going wrong -- that's how I play it.

I don't know how I keep the balance either. I guess it's like asking the centipede how he dances. :D

ohgodohgodOhGOD. *is in the happy place* Wait! I haven't read yet, in fact, I found out about his because Painless_j recced it, which means that it's not only by you but recced by her. I think I'm going to ration it so it will last(though, 71.000 words? WOW)

*Off to read*

Yeah, I know! I have a talent for rambling, if nothing else. Hope you have fun!

This is signficantly long! In fact, I think it's the longest thing I've read in months besides DB (which you recced in the first place). Except I haven't even read it yet. I'm excited though - screw short stories, I want more than 3,000 words of porn. I'll take 71,000, thanks.

(By the way, how long have you been secretly stuffing this down your pants?)

I think one of the biggest things you'll be critiqued for with this fic is that all your reviewers had to go off and cry for an hour before coming back. I secretly believe this is why you're so wanton about feedback: you kill all your readers before they get a decent chance to reply.

As such, when they do come back, they either spout curse words and offer sexual favors, or don't shut up. One one hand, option one is both succinct and impossible to misunderstand (unless they're offering you sex to keep your hands from a keyboard, which... no), but this fic is just too good to not reply to coherently.

So: I loved it. You'd think that after seven plus years of fanfiction we'd have exhausted all of the potential ways in which these boys could interact, and yet you find a new one every time. I love the way this starts, too - no-one telling me why Draco Malfoy is in Egypt selling kitsch, his body, and a pack of lies but rather showing me. He's so convincing as a character that no explanation was really necessary for why he did all of the unreasonable things he did; and really, when does anyone ever have an honest explanation for their actions? Who wants to make decisions?

And Harry, oh, Harry. The fact that he knew all along that it was Draco 'interviewing' him makes me want to reread the whole thing again to see if I can tell that he did. The man/boy juxtaposition really did it for me, though; maybe it was the innocence-without-naivete, but I think it was honestly that most of Harry at 17 was 25. His body finally fit his age to a great degree - he may have missed ''the horniest years of his life'', but he's still seen more people die, and killed more people, than most of the world's twenty-somethings.

The best part, though, was the ending and all the ambiguity preceding it. No happy or tragic ending could've done it for me. This way, we just don't know and it's so much better for that simple choice - I'll probably reread it again and again and supply a different ending each time. I did think, though, that the Blaise fanatacism was handled a bit clunkily. Up until the epilogue I believed it, but then it seemed a little bit too rushed for me. Maybe there weren't enough signs before then, but I won't be able to pinpoint exactly what it was until I reread it. I really like the concept, though, that regardless of what happens to Harry Potter, Boy Hero As Long As There's A Camera Trained On Him, evil dictators will come and go.

That's what made Interview with the Hero so good: it was intriguing enough to make me start it, and real enough to keep me reading. Thank you for that, and sorry that I blathered on for so long - I'm making up for a few years of fandom silence.

Thank you so much for this. I enjoyed your OCs so much, and the style was perfect.
I pimped on my journal. I hope that's all right.

Well done!

Ah, I'm glad you liked my OCs. They are precious to me.

Are you kidding? Pimping is my crack. Thank you. ♥

Oi, I'm doing that thing I hate doing, where I try for coherency when I'm all emotional and teary. But I'm afraid that if I don't tell you how much I loved this now, there'll be too many comments and it'll be too hard for me to remember if I told you or not ;)

Unfortunately, when I started this I had completely forgotten how incredibly GOOD you are at breaking my heart. Just like everyone else, I'm sure, I want more than anything to believe that Angus' vision at the end is really what happens, because I can't bear the thought of what Harry and Draco had already gone through ending any other way.

Not that I wasn't amazed at the situations you put them in. I loved how nonchalant Draco could be, even in the midst of what a mess he'd made of his life. It was interesting, watching him make one believable mistake after another, even knowing he was going to get caught. I really liked the part where he was imagining all the different ways it could happen :)

Really, this is probably one of my absolute favorite Draco's yet. I love the emphasis here and there about his not being all that attractive, a really nice contrast to so many other fics that paint him as such an 'ethereal beauty'. Everything about him in this felt more real.

Very interesting twist with Hermione and Ron. It was hard enough for me to adjust to that, made me sympathize with Harry all the more for just how much that had to have gotten to him. They're both such different people, but they're just ENOUGH themselves to make the difference that much more painful.

Oh, and onions... that part... no words. ♥

Thank you for all these lovely comments! Not everything about the story was perfect, I readily admit that -- but I'm glad the balance was in my favour mostly.

That's why ambiguous endings are your friends -- you're totally able to have them mooching around the Caribbean for the rest of their lives, if you so choose. ♥

Heh, and I never could write an awesomely beautiful character. It's lame, but beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. Eg: Jessie Metcalfe does NOTHING for me. People can be good-looking, but it's what you feel about them that really bestows them with beauty -- or not.

I quite liked the onions myself!

I haven't even looked at the prologue yet (although let it be known that I will defeat this monster fic over the next few days), but aigh. your output brings me to my knees, madam, both in volume and quality, and I have no doubt this will live up to any and all expectations.

Ha, I can definitely vouch for quantity, but quality -- not so much. Hope you enjoy it some!

Okay, so I've only read the prologue... but I gotta say... I'm so far beyond merely being 'intrigued' that it doesn't even have a word!
I love that we, the readers, are almost totally in the dark as to what's really going on, and like Achilles, we're only given glimpses, confusing snippets that leave us wanting more.
Looks like a sleepless night for me! with 16 chapters and an Epilogue! Wonder how many I'll get done tonite!

It's always good to hear that the beginning is intriguing -- it's the only hook you have with which to tempt readers! I hope you find the rest equally so. ♥

I loved this fic. It was hard to stop reading and now I have to catch up at work (bad girl that I am). Altho I'm usually the sap for happy endings I like the ambiguousness of the ending-it would seem that Harry & Draco at least left together if not stayed together. There is one part I did not understand tho:
“What form of abasement is to be my payment for my life?"

Harry slipped off him. Draco felt curiously bereft, for all that he could now breathe freely once more. "I've already extracted it."

"You have?" Draco pursed his lips. Crushing him a bit was hardly the most degrading of punishments. Then again, who knew what that meant to a Gryffindor, and a hero to boot?

Harry smiled, a sweet unfurling that stopped Draco's breath midway to his lungs. Harry reached out and placed his finger against Draco's cheek -- against the far finer and lighter stubble, and paler-than-pale skin.

Draco sucked in a gasp of air, swelling his cheeks against Harry's finger. Harry's smile deepened.

My God, Draco thought dazedly, the boy is good.

"But I don't even like onions," he whispered.

Harry shrugged -- a lopsided movement when seen on the horizontal plane. "You'll adjust." A minute pause, during which Harry's fingers tentatively splayed across Draco's face, feeling for every dip and pock. "I did."”

I've read this part over & over & just am not getting it.

I've read thru the other comments & agree with most of them. Your characters & characterizations were excellent. Draco makes no apologies for how he is &, I think in his way, neither does Harry. Angus was excellent...etc. etc. OK - I could go on & on - you get the point. Adding to memories, printing out to read again & reccing wherever I can. Will also have to check out your other fics. Thanx for this.

Hmm. I'm not quite sure what part of that you're confused about, but:

Harry knows who Draco is; he's willing to let Draco go, which surprises Draco, so he asks what Harry wants in return. Harry said he's already got what he wanted; Draco assumes this is lying on top of him and making it hard for him to breathe as he can't think of anything else. Actually what Harry means is that Draco has fallen for him and he knows it -- that's his 'payment.'

Glad you enjoyed the rest!

Bloody hell.

Che?

Um... I don't know how to write insightful, articulate feedback, so I will just say that I read this late into the night and couldn't sleep for a while afterwards because my mind was whirling. Not many things affect me that way but this was just that awesome.

Not many things affect me that way but this was just that awesome.

Haha, that's my idea of a good review! :D Thanks for reading. ♥