Fic: Her Arm for Him to Hold (Alice/Frank)

[paulamcg]

Title: Her Arm for Him to Hold
Author: paulamcg
Pairing: Alice/Frank
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Alice wants to be an Auror and a wife, and takes the matters into her own hands.
Word Count: 1500
Contains: Several canon characters in minor (speaking) roles, and some side pairings (Remus/Sirius, Lily/James, past Amelia/Remus, also Augusta Longbottom, and Peter)
Author's Note: This was written for hphet minifest 2020. Thank you, lovely fest people! Thank you, my amazing beta liseuse!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.

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Her Arm for Him to Hold



“He’s not my fiancé!” Now Alice has waved her wand too abruptly, and the tea mug hastens to the kitchen table and would topple over if Remus didn’t seize it.

Remus must hear the brusque tone in her voice and suspect that her impatience is related to his sleepover. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I should get going.”

“No, no!” Alice shakes her head vigorously and feels her curls loosening from the elaborate chignon she invented while waiting for one of the men to wake up. “I’m sorry. Lucky I hadn’t filled the cup and didn’t burn your hand.”

While pouring the tea, she focuses on the pleasure of Remus’s presence, and says sincerely, “It’s lovely to have company at breakfast. Frank always sleeps late. And later still when he’s partied with the Montrose Magpies. I think he drinks too much to forget he misses playing professionally.”

“Maybe. I know I drank too much because your pink cocktails and wine were excellent.”

She pushes the big plate closer to Remus, who doesn’t look hungover at all – not like he’s passed out last night – just rested and fed, unlike when he arrived at the dinner party. “All the eggs are for you. I’ll fry more when he gets up.”

Watching Remus eat should wipe away the rest of the irritation caused by his remark that he didn’t want to intrude on her and her fiancé’s morning routines. She never stays upset for long, and speaking her mind helps. This time some long-term frustration remains.

She tries to erase it with further honest babbling. “Frank and I have so much in common now that we’re Auror trainees, and he talks less about Quidditch. He’s happy to play home here with me whenever Lily’s on a Curse-Breaker mission. But no matter how obvious hints I drop, he never…”



“Of course I want to meet your mother.” Alice directs her wand at the nape of her neck so as to insert the hair sticks. They’re just the right shade to suit the pretty but traditional robes she’s chosen. No flicked-out hairstyle or short Muggle dress today. “We’ve been dating ever since I left Hogwarts. For almost two years!”

“Really?” Frank’s never been a man with many words, and now his single word makes the two of them burst into laughter at the moment when their eyes meet through the mirror.

This is just how Alice loves him. They complement each other perfectly. At fourteen she idolised him, the tall and manly Gryffindor Quidditch captain and Head Boy.

She swirls around and kisses his neck, breathing in the musky aftershave. With her favourite high heels on, she’s just ideally shorter than him. When he bends his head, she parts her lips, inviting his tongue to play with hers. But this evening and tomorrow are going to be special, and her heart and mind are so full that she can’t focus purely on the sensual pleasure.

When he’d left school, there was more than a grain of truth behind her joking with Amelia – who, too, found no boyfriend after Remus fell for Sirius – that they were pining for Frank. Alice seduced him right here at her and Lily’s housewarming party, when James had fortunately brought along his old Quidditch mates. That was when she discovered both Frank’s sense of humour and his political stance – as firmly against the pureblood ideology as the Marauders’, although he still trusts the Ministry more than they do (while particularly Remus must have some reasons of his own, which Amelia won’t reveal).

Frank was supportive when hearing that Alice had followed James and Sirius’s example and applied for the Auror training – and easily swayed to join her when, having failed, she decided to apply again. He’s proud his woman will have a career traditionally reserved for wizards. But she wants to be also a wife, and she’d prefer being proposed to on one knee with roses and a diamond ring.

At kissing Frank’s excellent, and Alice knows his mind doesn’t wander anywhere except under her robes. You can’t have everything, and perhaps you can have more if you take… or if you give more. Take some matters into your own hands.

Cupping her hands around his dear face, she stops him from inching down towards her cleavage, which isn’t easily accessed in this attire. “Don’t try to distract me. We’ll continue with this later tonight. Now let’s not keep your mum waiting!”



Frank’s visited his mother rarely, claiming that this is the only way for him to be an independent adult. Alice is prepared for being introduced to someone intimidating – but determined to stick to her plan. If rejected, she’ll be just more clearly the dominant one. Having Apparated at Frank’s side to his mother’s porch, she lets go of his arm, then offers her arm for him to hold. He takes it, joining in her chuckle, without knowing how crucial the role reversal is tonight.

At that moment the door opens. Augusta Longbottom stands further in the hall, but the spring evening light falls on her handsome figure beautifully. She tilts her head, measures the pair of them, and nods her approval. “Finally I can make friends with the young witch who wants to become an Auror.”

Alice likes her immediately and now looks forward to the moment she’ll ask to share alone with her.



The saxophone and the discordant, penetrating female voice have reached from the stage across the sodden park and filled Alice and some others in her Gryffindor gang with nervous energy.

Amelia clasps her hand, shaking. “This music…”

“I know. You love beautiful voices. Punk must hurt your ears.”

“No! I’ve just realised what I love,” Amelia says. “She’s amazing.”

This makes Alice curious, but now Frank’s wrapping his arms around her. She’s pleased to see that he’s acting like a gentleman and hardly leaving anything to be complained about. Having stood the rally placard (JUST JUSTICE – FREEDOM FOR THE LIKES OF YOU) against the tree trunk, he’s spread his raincape on the lawn, and now he pulls Alice to sit down on his lap.

She’s ever more confident in her choice. “I love you,” she says into his enticing mouth, and she receives his constant reply through all her senses.

The two of them desire and also take care of each other. And Frank’s so loyal. When the end of this horrendously cold and rainy April has finally brought improving weather, he must have been tempted to go flying, if not hitting Bludgers, but Rock Against Racism – like marching against You-Know-Who while siding with Muggle brothers and sisters, he says – and his promise to Sirius, who invited them all, are more important.

Now Alice allows Frank to slip his hand, under the shelter of her scarf, down her generous neckline. Their caresses follow the lilting rhythms of some new exotic music, and she closes her eyes. But Lily’s laughter next to her ear and the smell of sausage and alcohol jolt her aware of an offer a single Scotch egg and a bottle of Firecider for the two of them.

“Come on, Lily!” James protests. “There’s a lot of picnic food in my backpack.” And he adds, “All prepared by me – so that Lily should see I’m fully trained to be a husband.”

“They’ll have more fun sharing.”

“Yes, let’s feed each other like at Lily’s welcoming and farewell party!” Alice takes the sausage-wrapped egg and offers it for Frank to take a bite. “Remember, when she fooled us and said the Syrian way was like this, not just eating without forks.”

“Look!” Peter shouts. “The sun’s come out, and now Moony’s rising.”

Remus is climbing a tree. What the…! Amelia’s said they had dates in the woods, once up on a branch. He wants Sirius up there to be somehow alone with him, but is he also giving Alice an idea for a special way of completing the plan they made?

Resting her head on Frank’s thighs while he’s feeding a coronation chicken sandwich to her, she shifts her gaze from his handsome face up towards Remus, and catches him kissing the mouth of the bottle he’s just received from Sirius.

And now her attention is drawn back up by Sirius’s impatient voice. “We must get closer to the stage.”

Eager to also see and not only hear his favourite, Tom Robinson Band, of course, he hurries to descend, and Remus, having stuffed his mouth with the rest of a jam tart, jumps down.

“Can you climb that tree?” Alice only needs to jerk her head to make Frank start fulfilling this wish.

Frank’s less agile than Remus, but his height is an advantage, and he helps Alice. When he’s reached the second branch, and Alice is kneeling on the lowest one, holding his hand, she breathes deep and focuses on the bliss of their very own romantic ceremony.

“I’ve asked your mother, and now I’m asking you...”

“Really?”

“Will you marry me?”

“Yes. Really!”




Notes: The rally and concert to which Sirius invited his friends was Carnival Against the Nazis, organised by Rock Against Racism and Anti Nazi League. At Victoria Park on the 30th of April 1978, Alice first listened to Poly Styrene singing in X-Ray Spex, then to some root reggae by Steel Pulse. The rally placard was inspired by Power in the Darkness by the Tom Robinson Band – or the other way round, as the album was released only in May 1978.
All my fanfiction follows only Rowling’s first five novels, and my Marauders as well as Amelia Bones and Alice left Hogwarts in 1976, Frank three years earlier.
The prompt was: Fed up with waiting and against all her principles, she takes charge and proposes to him!

Comments

[a_belladonna]

Oh, this is so bittersweet, I can hardly take it! (In a good way!) You've really captured that youthful love, the feeling that everything is open to you - even on the backdrop of a war.
And I love the descripton of the concert at the end, I can see them there at the park. :)

[paulamcg]

Oh, thank you so much for reading and for leaving this lovely comment! Trust you to remember the tragedy awaiting these two… no, all of these characters!

When others in the fest write about characters of later generations, I’ve wondered if I manage to portray these of my generation when they, too, were young. It’s reassuring that you saw youthfulness here – as well as the sombre backdrop.

In my headcanon the war didn’t begin to seriously affect educated wizards and witches before summer 1979, when also the Order was founded. At this point (a year earlier) the Ministry had only started training more Aurors and raised taxes. In my timeline, Alice and others of her age had three rather carefree years after Hogwarts (for me to write about) before they needed to join in any fighting.

I’m so glad you feel I’ve managed to write about the concert vividly enough in the small space of this fic. Carnival Against the Nazis has featured in two of my fics before. A year ago I included Frank and Alice in a (rather long) short story (titled The Angel of Charity or This Awfully Long Month), also in its last scenes, which were set at this rally. Now I checked and saw that, conveniently, my viewpoint character stopped paying attention to the two of them for the moments which I needed in my final scene here. I’m thrilled you’ve come to share the experience with them!

[a_belladonna]

Trust you to remember the tragedy awaiting these two… no, all of these characters!

Of course! (Oh, wait, that sounds so morbid...but I do feel sorry for Alice's and Frank's fates.)

I’ve wondered if I manage to portray these of my generation when they, too, were young

I think you've succeeded - because, youth is youth, but also because you're building on something you remember, probably. I can look at a photo from 1977, but I will never really know exactly what it was like.

Now I checked and saw that, conveniently, my viewpoint character stopped paying attention to the two of them for the moments which I needed in my final scene here.

Hee, that's cool you've been able to reuse the setting and weave the two stories together like that! :D

[paulamcg]

Thank you again! I can look at a photo from 1977… I’ve felt enchanted as now it’s easier to access photos and films from that era and see something about what it was like where I wasn’t. and to combine that with what I reached back then and still remember of the spirit.

to reuse the setting and weave the two stories together… I’m all for recycling and weaving! The opening of this little story is set in the morning after a party which, too, I show from Remus’s perspective in that awfully long fic. And I’ve included memories of that evening in an Amelia-pov fic.

[a_belladonna]

I’ve felt enchanted as now it’s easier to access photos and films from that era and see something about what it was like where I wasn’t. and to combine that with what I reached back then and still remember of the spirit.

Yes, I can understand that! And of course, the photographic sources isn't everything - you still need to know how to write and make the scene come alive for the reader.

I’m all for recycling and weaving!

It's also very in at the moment ;) No, but seriously, it's impressive you can do that. Right now I feel proud because I can weave in some references to canon in a fic of mine, but what you do is very impressive. :)

[paulamcg]

Oh, now you make me blush… Thank you!

I suppose it’s more difficult to write a vivid scene based on pictures from places and times with which we have no personal connections. Perhaps writers always need to find or construct such connections – if not by writing about their own experiences, rather by making generalisations from their experiences (or experiences of people they’ve known) and adapting those to other places and times. I set a lot of my early one-shot fics in places where I’d been (and that was one reason why my Remus went drifting in his “lost” years), and only since last year have I dared use real British settings.

And what I do when weaving my fics together seems to be the (only) way for me to get constantly motivated to write. It makes me feel the story is real and meaningful. I’ve said it’s a challenge I enjoy, but perhaps writing like this is the easiest way for me. However, it must be some kind of a challenge to make each fic work for readers who haven’t read anything else by me.

[a_belladonna]

I suppose it’s more difficult to write a vivid scene based on pictures from places and times with which we have no personal connections.

Perhaps. Perhaps it's also a case of being able to have a vivid imagination and being into your subject as a writer - and being able to translate what you imagine to text.
I just read a book on bog bodies written by an archaeologist, and he's obviously not experienced any of the things he describes, yet he was able to paint very vivid images of what it could have been, back when those people ended up in the bogs.

I understand what you mean about having "been there"...one of the HP fics I wrote back then, where I really felt I could describe things, was an AU set in the Roman period. Because I simply knew more about that setting than contemporary England.
OTOH, I've never set foot in Belgium, yet I have no qualms about writing a story about Tintin's childhood set in Brussels, because I'm keeping it in very vague and general descriptions, since I imagine a kid who's lived there all his life doesn't go around naming the places that consciously.
Perhaps it also comes from gaining experience and confidence as a writer?

However, it must be some kind of a challenge to make each fic work for readers who haven’t read anything else by me.

I can understand that. But so far, from what I've read of your stories, I can of course feel that there's something larger going on, yet I don't feel I'm missing any information in the story I read in the moment. If that makes sense. :)

[paulamcg]

being able to translate what you imagine to text. I find this thought interesting, because when I’ve done world-building in the sense of inventing original settings (like Remus’s childhood home and other magical areas than what we see in canon) I’ve felt that I haven’t seen the setting in my mind before I’ve first written it: the setting – just like the whole of the story, which I don’t write any outline or character charts for – emerges only through the story text I write.

I'm keeping it in very vague and general descriptions I suppose you could use very detailed descriptions – of such details a child could perceive anywhere, like the smell of torn blades of grass – and just not mention names of streets unless you’ve checked that there used to be grass growing at the side of a particular street.

Perhaps it also comes from gaining experience and confidence as a writer? It’s definitely that (too).

I can of course feel that there's something larger going on, yet I don't feel I'm missing any information in the story I read in the moment. Yay, that’s just what I’ve hoped! Although, of course, I hope that the reader would become curious to read more and get to know the whole of the story.

[a_belladonna]

It's probably because I, first and foremost, am an artist and tend to think in images, as I've said before. :) I could (and am actually sort of working right now) on illustrating afan fic of mine, simply because I have just as strong images as words in my head, whenever I work on something.

I suppose you could use very detailed descriptions – of such details a child could perceive anywhere

I am doing something like that - I describe streets having cobblestones, for instance, and I do mention some Brussels landmarks. But I stay away from streetnames and the like. :)

I hope that the reader would become curious to read more and get to know the whole of the story.

At some point I'll try and read the whole of it, I think. :)

[paulamcg]

Oh, I’d love to see illustrations by you. Now do I remember correctly that you feel more like making fanart in HP and fanfic in Tintin fandom?

I’m afraid I’m not good at all at building images in my mind without writing. (And when I’ve dabbled a bit in watercolour, I’ve tried to paint mainly what I’ve seen, not what I’ve only imagined.) When reading I often catch myself seeing my own (perhaps my childhood home’s) kitchen instead of the fictional kitchen as the setting, or seeing a landscape in a much too small scale for the characters to travel through. Perhaps that’s why I’m particularly happy to know that someone else reads my text and sees vivid scenes evoked by my words.

And I’ll always love to hear if you’d read even a bit more of my fic. It’s now almost all on AO3 – with the exception of some 100-word drabbles and the novel.

[a_belladonna]

Yes, it's a bit funny that way, but I guess it's because I feel I can't compete with Hergé ;)
I haven't posted much fanart this last year because I'm still debating with myself if I should just bite the bullet and pay for Photobucket, where I already have an account. The problem is that many image hosting services don't allow NSFW stuff (obviously, they don't want to host porn) but that affects fan artists as well. :(
But I have posted this drawing. :)

It's not always a blessing to see vivid images in your mind. I've had many a sleepless night because I read something that left strong images with me. In that sense I'd almost (almost!) rather just see the actual picture. Sure, that's also unpleasant, but I can better deal with that. (To a degree, because there are things you never, ever want to see because they're too gruesome.)

And I’ll always love to hear if you’d read even a bit more of my fic.

I can't say for sure when I'll get it done, but it's on my to-do list. :)

[paulamcg]

I’ve understood that posting pictures on DW and AO3 is somehow problematic. But I’m so glad you’ve posted that picture and now given me the link! It’s beautiful and adorable!

I’ve always thought that seeing gruesome scenes in films is so much worse than reading such scenes, because you’ll see in your mind only what you can deal with – but I suppose that for visually creative and sensitive people it’s different.

Now we’ve gone far from discussing this cute little fic, and it looks as if I’d got a lot of comments on it :)

[a_belladonna]

Yes, it's not so much posting on those two sites that's a problem - but that 99% of image hosting sites have a very strict no nudity policy these days. :(
And if you post an image to AO3 it has to be uploaded to another site - they don't have image hosting so far. At least you can have some images on DW, but the gallery that belongs to your account isn't that big.

I suppose that for visually creative and sensitive people it’s different

It probably is. When it comes to movies, I know I can always just close my eyes. :) But I can't close my eyes for the images in my mind. My favourite example is how a men's magazine here once had a headline quote by an actor, about his masturbation habits. If I could say one thing to him, it'd be "really, was that necessary?" I can't NOT read the text on the billboard and my mind was immediately flooded with images I did not need. I actually felt as violated by that quote as if he'd jumped out at me with his pants down.

Now we’ve gone far from discussing this cute little fic, and it looks as if I’d got a lot of comments on it :)

Yes! That's a good thing. :)

[paulamcg]

Thank you for telling me that about posting images. And yes, it actually makes sense that mental images are more scary. But scary images in films can provide material for future visual imagination, so I’d still say that scary films can be more disturbing than books particularly for children.

That's a good thing. :). Yes, although I’ve actually got a fair amount of feedback for this fic: comments from seven readers besides you (in the community on DW and on LJ and at AO3, as well as seven kudos, five of which from others than the commentors).

[a_belladonna]

Yes, I wanted to post my old drawing to AO3, until I found out that you had to find an image-hosting site for that.
But I guess that as long as I only upload the NSFW-drawings to my gallery here and keep them under friends-lock (to avoid using too much bandwidth) I could post them here. I'll have to look into that.

But scary images in films can provide material for future visual imagination

Absolutely! It took me a long time, for instance, to want to watch the part of Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Nazis "melt", even though it's a very over the top scene.
(Some might call me a chicken, but I've always avoided movies with very strong visuals like that, because they stay with me for a long time.)

although I’ve actually got a fair amount of feedback for this fic

That's good to hear! :) Hurra!

[paulamcg]

I do hope you’ll find a good way of sharing more of your drawings and paintings here and/or on AO3. In Femmefest there’s been surprisingly much art, lovely art, and all of it low-rated. Ten years ago I posted some pictures on Livejournal when I participated in a non-fanwork challenge (for fic and art), but I haven’t even tried to post any here, not drawn or painted anything recently (and never made any fanart, with the exception of tiny sketches for GoF-era Remus and Sirius’s portraits – this time not in words :) – which I recently found in the margins of an old print of my early chapters).

Oh, in turn, when watching films I often cover my eyes not to see parts with graphic violence (or sex:)). Strong visuals like that make me feel ill or uncomfortable. And I guess sharing realistic visuals of such extreme misery in which I sometimes show Remus would make me feel more embarrassed than doing it with words does.

Hurra! Thank you for sharing my joy! I’ve got at least one comment more after I counted them for you.

[a_belladonna]

I really like the privacy settings at Photobucket, so in the end I might just end up paying for them. Also, I don't really think the nudity-aspect will become a problem with my (possible) Tintin-fanart. I don't feel comfortable drawing them naked below the waist, haha. (My childhood! My childhood! One thing is imagining it, and writing it, committing it to paper is something rather different.)
Which is something I've seen many fanartists express, actually. The ones most comfortable drawing smut seems to be the ones who discovered the story as adults.

I guess sharing realistic visuals of such extreme misery in which I sometimes show Remus would make me feel more embarrassed than doing it with words does.

Yes, I think it would. It just seems much stronger in an image than in words. But sometimes I've felt it easier to draw explicit sex than writing it, haha.

[paulamcg]

I think sharing a visual portrayal of Remus’s extreme misery, especially if made by me, would embarrass me more than my fic does, because it would be so blatantly there in front of all of us, the same picture in all its miserable detail. When (if ever) people read the stories I publish, I can assume that those who don’t share my poverty (cold-and-hunger) kink, don’t pay so much attention to all the details (as I’ve learnt that some people read by glancing through the lines, not savouring each word up to the sound and to the image it evokes, in the way I read and write).

Perhaps something like that applies to your feelings about writing/drawing naked Tintin? Or perhaps they’re really just related to your experience of meeting the characters when you were a child, and you don’t yourself pay so much attention to the images of nakedness (don’t imagine it in such detail) that your words can evoke?

[a_belladonna]

I can see what you mean. When you read (or write) you can kind of "gloss it over" or choose to imagine it whichever way you like. "A frayed sleeve" does not look the same in our minds' eyes. :)

Perhaps something like that applies to your feelings about writing/drawing naked Tintin?

Yes and no. One thing that's at play is definitely some childhood innocence (although I remember I definitely thought Tintin and Tchang were romatically involved, somehow). But it has also something to do with the way Hergé drew them, I guess. They're clothed most of the time, we only see Tintin in his underwear once. At the same time as I'm sure that Hergé undoubtedly could draw them "anatomically correct", they're at the same time as "anatomically impaired as a Ken doll" as the Metatron says in the movie Dogma.
Tintin and friends drawn in a ligne claire-ish style, but with genitals are just...weird. Tintin in a more realistic style (or just more the artist's own style) with genitals is much less weird. Does that make sense?

[paulamcg]

Yes, I’m so glad you see what I mean – in the conversation. And that you see whatever you like when you read about my Remus!

Yes, it absolutely makes sense. And now I see more clearly one possible reason why you feel like rather writing in the Tintin fandom and drawing/painting in the HP fandom. Tintin in Hergé’s style must hide his anatomic (in?)completeness under that attire which is part of him as much as the white fur is part of Milou, perhaps?

After finishing my previous reply to you, I realised that in my rewriting project I’m actually writing fanfic based on my own fanfic. (So no reason to expect feedback – unlike when I write about two canon girl characters according to a request for Femmefest. Ssh, it’s anonymous, but that applies to all the works over there.)

Back in the good old days when I got some fanart (even without requesting) based on my fic, there was also one portrait set in the hard part of the lost years (Here I Am Anew), and I loved it, and now I realise that it was better that it depicted only Remus’s head and shoulders. Even if I could draw/paint well, I don’t think I’d share visual portraits of my (central) characters (fanart based on my fanfic :)), because I wouldn’t like any readers – perhaps thinking that my interpretation is somehow more correct than any other – to feel that they must see theim in the same way.

When a non-fandom friend of mine planned to have my novel printed just for me, one of the fanartists who’d been inspired by my fic before made a cover illustration, which showed part of Remus’s face but in a far from realistic style. I’ve now used it here on a Facebook account (which I thought I needed for the Unhappily Ever After fest).

[a_belladonna]

Tintin in Hergé’s style must hide his anatomic (in?)completeness under that attire which is part of him as much as the white fur is part of Milou, perhaps?

Sort of, yes...and here's the part where it really sounds like I've spend too much time reading the comics, but: in some poses/instances he's actually, er, filling out his plus fours in a realistic manner.
So I really think it's more to do with my own remaining childhood innocence. :)
I've seen pencil sketches by Hergé of Tintin that, to me at least, leave no doubt that he could've drawn a naked Tintin if he wanted to. And I can't shake the feeling that he at some point must have tried to make nude studies, if only to get Tintin's movements down. But his estate is guarding the archives closely and I don't think they'd ever release such drawings, if they existed. They really guard the boy scout image of not only Tintin but also Hergé himself. (People were moderately shocked when some watercolour paintings he'd made of his first wife in the nude were made public some years ago. Hergé painting his naked wife!? Everybody had assumed he was too prudish for that.)

Oh God, that answer got very long. -_-

now I realise that it was better that it depicted only Remus’s head and shoulders.

Yes, it's most definitely a fine line to walk! In one way it can be nice to see "what it's supposed to look like", on the other hand it can be stifling sometimes. For that reason I'm not always a fan of music videos, actually. I like to make my own images in my mind to the music.

That illustration is gorgeous! I can understand why you chose to use that! And the colours are most beautiful. :)

[paulamcg]

Perhaps Hergé wanted his more realistic pictures of Tintin never to be published, so that people’s imaginations wouldn’t be stifled?

Oh, I’m thrilled you like the cover illustration – and sure that Epithalamium wouldn’t mind I’m finally sharing it somewhere. (That FB group never happened or at least I was not admitted.) In the novel there are two fire/sunset-lit scenes (set far apart in the events) and several other scenes where Remus interacts with (Disillusioned) Hedwig, who’s got an important role. I like how the picture doesn’t refer clearly to one single scene.

[a_belladonna]

Perhaps. :) Or perhaps because an anatomically correct, naked Tintin would be quite a shock for people who see him as a very pure and innocent character. ;)

I'm sure the artist wouldn't mind! If someone wanted to use something I'd drawn for them, I'd feel flattered. :) And it's clever that it is so vague. :)

[paulamcg]

♥♥