Countdown to Small Gifts 6/6: Happily ever after

[smallgiftsmods.livejournal.com]

Hi, folks! If you're just joining us, we're on DAY SIX of six days of discussion before Small Gifts begins posting. Start off by introducing yourself (and meeting fellow participants and watchers) over here!

Today's question: if you could give Remus and Sirius a happily every after, where and when would it be? At what age? In what circumstances? I know our art and fic address this question all the time--in fact, many in our exchange will do so!--but chime in with your thoughts today, right now. Are there parts of their story that are essential to them and their dynamic--parts you'd need to keep despite the tragedy? How would you go about making them happy?

Comments

[ruinsplume]

I absolutely wrote them a happily-ever-after fic for this fest!

For me the part of the story I'd need to keep IS the tragedy (except the part where they die, of course). Not only because those tragedies shaped them as people, and as partners, but because the story I want--and the story I want to live--is the one that tells us that in spite of the tragedy and trauma we experience, happiness and love are still possible.

[sostrata.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh! This is what I'm all about!

I agree with ruinsplume. With apologies to my sweetie James, I keep everything up to the beginning of Book 1. After that, playtime! Harry features in all my ideas, since I think that Harry is as important to Sirius' happiness as Remus. I have a number of scenarios that take place in various time periods- right after the Potters died, after Book 4, after Book 6 (a Bring Back Black, obviously), and at the end of Book 5. These rely on Voldemort getting offed in some way or other. And these guys can do some good offing! I am convinced that JKR killed off Sirius because she knew that, with him around, Voldemort would have been defeated sooner. It totally would have happened. I don't require them to defeat Voldemort, though- in at least one scenario, I had it that Voldemort really did died at the Potters' house. I don't really mind about Sirius being proved innocent or not; I think it would sort itself out as long as Voldemort was gone (without pesky plot things to contend with). And with that out of the way, we have our happily ever after!

[secretsolitaire.livejournal.com]

Personally, my favorite happily-ever-after scenario is Bring Back Black. (Does anyone remember that old Veil of Possibilities challenge? It kills me that no one ever finished it and got Sirius back to the right 'verse!) That way we get most of the events of the series plus the happy ending (and as I said in another one of these posts, I'm a big sucker for reunion fic).

That said, I can read lots of different versions and be happy. Raising Harry (as long as it's not too cutesy), Sirius never went through the veil, total AU, meeting again in the afterlife...it's all good. :)

[mindabbles.livejournal.com]

Yes, and oh, it's been a while since I read a long, potty BBB fic. Love those. You're right, that gives us all of the tragedy that shapes them, and a reunion.

[mindabbles.livejournal.com]

Beautifully put

[mindabbles.livejournal.com]

See, so many ways to make them happy! Good thing we are all here to do it. I really like some of your ideas there.

[shaggydogstail.livejournal.com]

Looks like I'm the only one wishing for a realio trulio happy ending without any character-building tragedy. Whatever. You are all monsters, Rowling would be proud. I, on the other hand, am starting up the campaign for a full-on happy ending; go AU and go large or go home. EVERYBODY LIVES!

And by "everybody" I mean "Lily and James" obviously. I honestly don't see Sirius ever getting over their deaths, not really. (Remus would struggle a lot too, but he is more, uh, stoical and anyway he can't blame himself. Sirius could've saved them but he made a terrible mistake and didn't so, yeah, even Remus and Harry's combined best efforts wouldn't convince him to allow himself to be properly happy after that.) They can still have some sadness with Remus being a werewolf and dealing with all that comes with that and Sirius can have miscellaneous childhood traumas with his family. Although I'd probably let Regulus live too, in for a penny in for a pound.

Remember all those epilogue, what epilogue? fics after TDH? Let's have more Voldemort, what Dark Lord? in which lalala, I don't care how, but all my faves get to live happily ever after, with snuggles and good times and laughter and sex. Yes. EVERYBODY LIVES, JUST THIS ONCE, EVERYBODY LIVES.

You know it makes sense. *winks*

[sostrata.livejournal.com]

You have convinced me! Yay to everyone lives! Yes, more, more! Interesting to explore what would happen to all of them without Voldemort. Voldemort is boring. Anyway, even if we keep him, that whole change the secret keeper thing makes no sense, so we just get rid of that plot device and we get to keep James and Lily! What would have happened in our brand new canon with Secret Keeper Sirius? I want to see!

[shaggydogstail.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! Voldemort is boring. He doesn't even have a nose. They could've killed him off with a few strategic gas leaks. Then everyone can concentrate on more important matters, like how to fit a child safety seat to a flying motorcycle.

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

Looks like I'm the only one wishing for a realio trulio happy ending without any character-building tragedy. Whatever. You are all monsters, Rowling would be proud. I, on the other hand, am starting up the campaign for a full-on happy ending; go AU and go large or go home. EVERYBODY LIVES!

Ha! You made me laugh, Shaggy. :) Fair enough! This is why fanfic was invented.

It's funny, thinking about my own reaction here: I have a hard time thinking about a world without James and Lily's death because that's so central to my understanding of Harry. Everyone else Lismore negotiable. But why would I save Peter and not Lily and James? My own logic hurts me. M.

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

What was the Veil of Possibilities challenge? That sounds fascinating. M.

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

D'you know, I'd love to see a Voldemort-defeated scenario that *still* brings the wizarding world to the brink of war and/or collapse during Harry's Hogwarts's years. Does it really matter that Voldemort is the antagonist and the force behind the political stability of these years? Hmmm...

I see so many fics brewing in this comment! M.

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! I'm looking forward to your fic.

I'm also one of those angsty folks who needs the tragedy (as Shaggy points out below, there's really something wrong with us); Sirius particularly strikes me as someone who only makes sense having had both good fortune and tragedy in his life. M.

[secretsolitaire.livejournal.com]

It was a challenge that imagined the veil as a gateway into all other possible universes -- so when Sirius fell through, he ended up in a place where, say, he had died instead of James and Lily, or in a place where Remus was a Muggle, or whatever. It was a fun way to showcase a bunch of AUs, at the end of which he would return to the veil to try to get back to his Remus.

It has disappeared from the internet, but fortunately the Wayback Machine has it: http://web.archive.org/web/20071010061909/http://broyc.laudatio.com/veil/archive.htm

The individual stories vary significantly in quality -- my favorite is the first one. But every time I reread it I get angsty over the fact that no one ever wrote Sirius coming home!

[shaggydogstail.livejournal.com]

But why would I save Peter and not Lily and James?

I believe I covered this one in my original comment. You. Are. A. Monster.

Aren't we all, though. For all my flufftastic cheerleading for happy endings, the longest fic in my wip folder opens with Harry dying in his crib. There's a certain pleasure to be found in the misery and I suspect most of us enjoy seeing our faves cry almost as much as we enjoy making it better. We crucio because we care, right? *winks*

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

Fun! I had no idea this was going on--though I recognize most of the names as folks who were writing when I first found fandom (and was convinced I'd read everything under the sun. :)

Thanks for linking, S! Always something new, even when it's old. M.

[rosalui.livejournal.com]

All I know is that it involves Barty Crouch Sr still being alive and Sirius publicly, legally, professionally, and emotionally dragging him and the entire legal system of the Wizarding World through mass amounts of vindictive, well-deserved shit.

Lupin sees the dawn of a new era for werewolf rights and gets to teach at Hogwarts again.

They both get public apologies the Order of Merlin, First Class. Sometimes they visit Dolores Umbridge in her jail cell just to cheerily share newspaper announcements on the most recent advancements in 'half-breed' rights. Sirius apologizes to Kreacher and vice versa. Harry lives with them for a while. Lupin has a great relationship with his best friend Tonks. They have riotous annual Christmas parties with her, Andromeda, and the teenagers.

All is well.