Reviews for The End of Reckoning
Guest chapter 1 . 10/2/2018
I'm going to ramble, so maybe I should apologise in advance,because that's what Remus would do. Remus's' if it meant anything to you' and 'don't break it' tear my heart in two. I want to jump through the computer screen into this story, hug Remus and yell at James to shut up and lecture them about tolerance and kindness they didn't even deserve. But there's no force on Earth that would keep me from screaming that Sirius can't be singled out here. Even if he can understand what it's like to be different, he was raised believeing muggles and mugglborns are filth, part-humans certainly weren't mentioned using pleasant epithets either. I think the reason why he accepted Remus so readily was in part defiance, as you've mentioned in your story, and in part the fact he liked Remus. But this still doesn't explain why he is singled out as the one who is so open-minded. However, even though I enjoyed this whole drama, I don't see why it had to happen. I mean, they've known him for a year, and all of a sudden this means nothing to them. I actually think the fact they were friends prior to learning the truth made things easier. I just can't imagine them saying 'oh you know, we'll have to think about it'. Children have the advantage of not being completely ruled by the prejudice adults are bound to have and I think they find it far easier to overcome those beliefs they have been taught. Your James acts more like an adult than an eleven-year-old. Given how reckless they both are, I don't think they really considered the danger a werewolf might pose. In addition, they already liked Remus, and while they might have felt betrayed, I don't think this was so dramatic. I understand James inherited his parents' views, but even so, I can't imagine him bombarding Remus with all sorts of questions, especially as he even wasn't sure what they really thought. And honestly, can anyone think Remus Lupin is dangerous?
Guest chapter 1 . 4/24/2018
Beautiful. A perfect scene ... I was wondering what happened while Remus was out.
Salovi chapter 1 . 4/22/2018
Oh! I love seeing these missing moments from a different point of view. You write James so well.
Guest chapter 1 . 7/17/2017
Remus must have been so lonely before he became friends with James, Sirius, and Peter...wonderful job with this one shot! :)
xiaoweisan chapter 1 . 2/17/2016
I LOVE your James. Remember, he’s only twelve! It’s most understandable for a twelve-year-old boy to feel betrayed, angry, and panic when he discovered that his friend was a werewolf, a DANGEROUS part-human. Most wizards consider werewolves as beasts, so how can you expect a young boy to accept Remus as his friend unconditionally? James considered Remus as “it” ”creature” “part-human”, but as soon as he recognized his friend in the werewolf, “it” became “he”. Just for a moment, James even wanted to break Remus’ wand because he wanted to “punish” Remus for “anger and frustration” “so many awful lies”. But James quickly rejected that idea; he could never do such a wrong deed. He had his questions; he did not embrace Remus unconditionally, but he tried his best to be fair and impartial, and that’s why I LOVE him so much.
mokubahv chapter 1 . 4/30/2015
Awesome missing moment. I just love how well you describe James' emotions. I really get annoyed by all those stories that just have them be like, "Oh, you're a werewolf? Cool!" There would definitely have to be some prejudice that goes on for a bit - afterall, they are purebloods. Haha. Fantastic writing as always. You are amazing.
silverfirelizard53 chapter 1 . 12/14/2014
This pretty much broke my heart. I love James. I love Remus...now I feel like crying :( You're story is amazing!
ThePublicSector chapter 1 . 4/1/2013
What an incredible Missing Moment you've written! Your insight into James' character and personal, prideful flaws is heartbreaking. In combination with this particular plot point of 'Against the Moon' - goddamn but I don't think I've ever cried so much.

I want to compliment you on one part of your writing that I felt really resonated with me: your writing of Remus as 'a ghostly figure.' You really plied my emotions when you wrote about James seeing the dichotomy of boy-vs.-beast. But then your description of the 'boy' as a ghost - it works on so many levels. It's reads as a wonderful, succinct physical description, yes. But it hit me that this must be how, during this encounter, James doesn't even really see the 'boy' - he sees only the shade of Remus, of who he once was. James begins to think of all the good times he had with him, and these flashes back to his relationship with the 'dignified, collected, perfectly polite' Remus read almost like a eulogized memory of the boy. James, hurt and betrayed, views the very foundations of this friendship as dead (or, I suppose, dying). And your description of Remus' 'alarmingly translucent skin' is a brilliant parallel for the unveiling of his secret, as if James can now finally see through him and his lies. Don't even get me started on how thematically appropriate it is with your story's title and epigraph.

GAH it just- it's all just so beautiful and poetic! My heart aches for all of them. This Missing Moment hit home how fundamentally the Marauders' relationships changed - and grew, really, into something more mature. Bravo, bravo, bravo!
Kitsune1818 chapter 1 . 11/30/2012
Awesome. I love this emotional crushing stories. The drama, the pain, all the feelings the characters made you feel between the words. It's incredible hard to make someone cry, to make him or her just writing a bunch of words... I must say you did a great job, I'm nearly in tears right now.
AlmightySponge chapter 1 . 11/27/2012
Wow. That was... powerful. o-o Getting to read from Jame's perspective was also a treat but damn... poor Remus... XD I dunno what else to say but it sure was something! XD
TheEighthBit chapter 1 . 8/18/2012
Oh James, you can't leave him. I always wondered what James was thinking through that. Once more, your story was beyond words. Wow. I love it.
Crazy Female LEPrecon chapter 1 . 8/6/2012
This is awesome, I love how you play their thoughts about him being a werewolf. This is so cool, thank you for writing it,

Crazy Female LEPrecon
Guest chapter 1 . 5/28/2012
This was done really well! I'm so glad you did this missing moment from James' POV. He's the medium between Sirius and Peter in how they react to Remus being a werewolf... Though I always wondered exactly what Sirius was thinking! On that point, I absolutely adore how you've made Sirius act. He's my favorite character!
Manako Wei chapter 1 . 5/9/2012
And I finally have time to review this excellent one shot! :) I really liked how you started it, with James thinking about his parents. It gives good insight into James' family. They may be all but perfect, but they aren't naive and are still in touch with the rest of the world. I was also impressed with Mrs. Potter's ability to read in-between the lines, though James hasn't really picked up that skill yet. But even James isn't as unaware about what's going on in the outside world as he sometimes seems to be. It seems like he tends to avoid thinking about problems that are too big for him to deal with.

You also tie it into the rest of James' thoughts really well. You can tell that James is avoiding the idea of confronting Remus for as long as possible. Especially since he kept thinking about silly 5th year girls, Slytherins, and wanted to poke fun at Narcissa before Sirius pulled him along again. And there was the bit about wanting to lecture Madam Pomfrey about Quidditch. Unless James is usually that scatterbrained, but I'm inclined to believe that he's just putting off the thought of confronting Remus until he absolutely has to deal with it. Sirius comes off the same way too, given his pride in how he knocked Lucius off the broom. Interesting that James thinks that the danger is half of the fun of Quidditch, and how he likes danger in general. But even so, this situation seems so much worse to him. This he wants to just avoid.

I wonder how James is going to react when he figures out all of Sirius' secrets. In a way it might be worse. What happens to Remus every month isn't really anyone's fault, it isn't the result of another person's malice. And Remus has always been the one that Sirius, and to a lesser extent James, have tried to protect. Sirius' problems come from the fact that his mother is downright *evil,* and James has a hard time believing a fellow human being can be so absolutely horrible. It's going to be a nasty wake-up call when that revelation comes around. Especially since, at school, Sirius is just as confident, skilled, and capable as James is, and even for me it hurts listening to how Mrs. Black tears him down.

It was almost painful reading James' thought process in this scene, especially when he kept thinking of Remus as an "it" and a bloodthirsty monster. Though it was interesting reading about what James thought of Sirius' actions. I didn't originally think about how difficult it would be to knock an accomplished flier off his broom. And make it look like an accident. But it would be the sort of thing James would notice and appreciate. Though James calling Sirius a "worthy ally" threw me off a little bit, mostly because I always associate "ally" with someone who's on your side, but not necessarily a personal friend. But since I know that that's not a good description of James and Sirius' friendship, I'm just going to assume that I have a slightly different definition of the word ally.

It's also good to hear James' version of his "not listening through key holes" shortcoming. It as funny that that line was just to keep from admitting that he just didn't think about it. And it's also interesting that James realizes that Sirius is taking this into stride much better than he is, even if James can't admit it out loud. I'm glad that, even now, Sirius is still defending Remus. And is still going on rants in his defense, though I do feel sorry for Peter. Especially when James was thinking that Sirius' method of dealing with Peter was to shout until the other boy agreed with him.

And Peter really isn't thinking. I wanted to facepalm when Sirius said something about not wanting Remus to think that the three of them were going to attack him, and Peter turned it around and panicked about Remus attacking *them*. And the bit about the gnomes really wasn't helping, mostly because it almost made sense, in a backwards, twisted, upside down sort of way.

Though it was interesting to see just how much James was depending on Sirius' composure. Especially how Sirius balking was described as frightening. It sounded like Sirius was the most composed out of all of them right up until then, and James didn't want to think about Sirius could be just as uneasy as he was. Though I don't think James was right that Sirius was feeling *exactly* the same things he was feeling. I never got the impression that Sirius went through the revulsion stage, he was more upset about the lies. James is more upset about the wolf. Though it was mature of James to realize that Sirius was struggling too, and that being mad at him for balking wasn't fair.

Seeing Remus' condition from James' point of view was a lot more horrifying than reading about it from Remus'. Remus treated it as almost normal, definitely the worst its ever been, but not something unexpected. For James, Remus' condition must have hit like a ton of bricks. But the "then it spoke" line made me cringe. Thankfully Remus went back to being a "he" pretty quickly, but still. I'm glad that wasn't said out loud. Though I was happy that James was at least beginning to question the "a werewolf's a werewolf" wizarding dogma.

It was also interesting to see how hard James was hit with the loneliness line. I thinks that's when James begins empathizing a little bit. And realizing that Remus is still Remus, or at least realizing it subconsciously. Though he hasn't made the connection that Remus never *wanted* tell those secrets, he *had* to in order to keep his place at Hogwarts. Though a second later I had to cringe again. In the original chapter I hoped that Remus was just being paranoid, that James wasn't actually thinking about breaking the wand. It made me uneasy that James actually thought about it, and that he might have done it if Remus hadn't spoken up. Though I am glad that James realized just what he was thinking about doing, and tried to put as much distance between himself and the idea as possible.

All things considered, Sirius really did snap out of it really fast. I really like your description about how Sirius sounded like he was comforting a hysterical child or a dying comrade. And James wondering if what Sirius would do if he knew what James was thinking was interesting too; as was James thinking of Remus as their dorm-mate, not as the werewolf.

You did an amazing job describing what happened when Remus started to bleed out. The image of Sirius bending over Remus, soaked to the elbow in blood and shouting at him wake up while trying to keep him from bleeding to death was appropriately horrifying, and very, very powerful. It honestly sounded like Remus was dying right there in front of them. I don't blame Peter from running away screaming. And the image of Remus just lying unconscious, with a peaceful look on his face while his leg was a bloody mess of muscle and bone was also horrifying in a surreal sort of way. From what I remember from the main story, Pomfrey almost seemed impressed with Sirius after the crisis was averted. He may get on her nerves, but I got the feeling that this was when Pomfrey started to respect Sirius. Though I wonder how Sirius reacted when he realized that he was soaked in Remus' blood, I hope Pomfrey sent him to wash off before that realization hit him. It would have been a nasty reminder about what could have happened.

I'm really glad that James has long gotten past his bias in the main story, because if this was just a stand alone piece that last sentence would have been absolutely heartbreaking. It's wrenching enough as it is, though it does explain where James is coming from when he starts his interrogation. And it does show that James is still in the middle; he hasn't condemned Remus, but he hasn't accepted him either.

It's also interesting how James and Sirius deal with their fears in different ways. James would rather avoid things that truly terrify him (not counting the adrenaline rushes he's so fond of), while Sirius goes front and center. This must have been just as terrifying for Sirius, thinking that one of his best friends was literally bleeding to death under his hands, and is probably what prompted him to come back first thing the next morning to make sure that Remus was ok, a trend that continues well into the next semester (do they have semesters?), and explains why Sirius wants to know immediately how the full moon went. While, 7 months later, James still can't go into the hospital wing on the morning after. Sirius has to know what happened immediately, James wants to hear it second hand first. How close *was* Remus to bleeding to death? It was hinted that he very nearly lost the normal use of his leg in the main story, but Pomfrey didn't bring anything else up. Not that I blame her. If it was as close as I think it was I wouldn't want to remind anyone of it either.

Overall you did an excellent job with this MM. I remember I made a comment way back when about wanting to hear a little bit from Sirius' perspective as well, but after reading this I think you made the right choice by sticking to James. We already have a decent idea of what Sirius was thinking throughout the scene, which was fleshed out a little here too, but it was James who was more difficult to read. Since this came out in February and we haven't heard anything about another MM, I'll hold off on any other MM ideas until I know you have the time to think about side stories again. I hope RL is going well for you!
DerangedxandxSarcastic chapter 1 . 4/17/2012
Oh damn. I knew that would be hard to read. Poor sweet Remus. Wonderfully written and so very believable. Brilliant job. I adore Sirius for the way he handled everything. And James for the way he still considered Remus his friend even if he couldn't quite see past the werewolf thing at first... Sigh. Well done. I'm glad I know how well it all turns out at least.

Wonderful.
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