Reservoirs (Day 8)

[rosie_rues]

Peach inspired chapter here. Longish one, this time.



Okay, so this one pushes the main relationships on a little, but it's really centred around Lily, and how she fits into the group, and how her changing role impacts on the others. Okay, it's got Sirius being pervy with a peach, but it's more about Lily.

I reread the Lily and Severus scenes from Deathly Hallows a few days ago, and it really struck me that Snape has told Lily what he suspects even before the Prank, and that the Prank happens before the Pensieve scene. So, yeah, Lily definitely knows, and that shaped how I wrote her reaction to the Shack. There's a difference between knowing something as a fact and suddenly understanding on an emotional level. I was a little teary-eyed writing that scene, because Remus was so braced for rejection.

I also wanted to move the Lily/James relationship on from the sort of one-sided adoration it was at the start. James is pretty sharp with her when she and Sirius get started in the Shack, which I think really throws her, and then her first sight of Prongs is a real revelation. James' stag form implies so much about him - it's arrogant and powerful, a leader and a defender, yet also a creature which can be hunted. Lily's a bright girl (and, as implied, has watched a lot of nature documentaries), and I think knowing about Prongs would change her perception of James.

Oh, and oblivious!Remus is still oblivious *sigh*

Comments

[penhaligonblue.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Deathly Hallows since its release, so I'd forgotten about the timeline discrepancy, but now I'm reminded of it, you solved it beautifully.

Lily's reaction to the Shack was so spot-on. I'm not one to cleave to the films, but Remus's bridge scene with Harry in Prisoner has always rung true for me: "Your mother was there for me at a time when no one else was. Not only was she a singularly gifted witch; she was also an uncommonly kind woman. She had a way of seeing the beauty in others, even, and perhaps most especially, when that person couldn't see it in themselves."

[cackling-madly.livejournal.com]

I really loved when Lily saw the room in the Shack and it all just clicked into place in her head. It implies so much about what she, and others, might have noticed or guessed about Remus when he was in school. It never really seemed realistic to me that no one but James, Sirius and Peter would have figured out his secret. Yes, children can be pretty self-absorbed and all that but someone must have noticed something.

As for Sirius and the peach, I read a novel recently where a character does something with a peach that.. well, let's just say Sirius was very tame in comparison. And really, I can't look at a peach the same way again...