This one made me cry

Despite the fact that Gaia's Halloween Event is still going strong and I should be hanging out in a Doctor Who related hang-out thread in the event... I've decided to take some time out to do a blog post and fanfiction review, just for you. I've also decided to leave off reviewing 500 Miles for now because it's sort of a bunch of story chunks all put together and it's super long... so I'm going to reread it and get back to you.

Hello, Darling, Welcome Home by Blackbirdox
     Yet another in a long line of Remus Lupin/Sirius Black stories I've been reviewing. So that's the first thing: if you don't like either the pairing or the homosexuality of it, go away. Second thing: Bring tissues because if you're anything like me (ie. really, really attached to the characters), you're going to need them. Third thing: I friggin love this fic and I wrote the most sappy review for it on fanfiction.net that is not going to be posted elsewhere... at least not by me...
     "Hello, Darling, Welcome Home" is a post Deathly Hallows fanfic focused on an afterlife of sorts. Expect spoilers for the rest of the Harry Potter books in which there's a mention of Remus and Sirius. I really enjoyed the stairs metaphor and I think it's widely underused as a method of "life flashing before your eyes" thing... if that makes any sense. I swear it did in my head. So Remus suddenly ends up in this afterlife place after he dies in the battle for Hogwarts and has to take a journey through his life. He feels a kind of tug toward something and so sets off up these stairs. The stairs lead to landings with doors that have pieces of his life/memories behind them.
     Throughout the story, Remus is, undoubtably, Remus. The characterization is dead on and I even bought the explanation for why he married Tonks... well part of why he married Tonks... and I never really liked that happening in the books, but I digress. The memories of Sirius we get made me smile and as Remus continues up the stairs, I started to dread what was coming. The scene where he remembers his time at Grimmauld Place with Sirius during Order of the Phoenix made me cry because of what came next.
     And finally, because the story must have an end, there's a bit of Sirius that turned the tears into a grin... but I won't say exactly what happens here. You really ought to go read it.

Random Updates

• A Conspiracy of Cartographers: Year Two has a new chapter out. I'm also taking a ten chapter break from reviewing that because I think I'll get bored reviewing it chapter-by-chapter.
• Against the Moon also has a few new chapters out, still on break from reviewing that.
• I find it quite interesting to "jump universes" while reading these... I went from reading ACoC to AtM today and, well, they're pretty much at the same place so... that was interesting.
• Here's a link to the Masquerade's Doctor Who thread: LINK Come join us!
• As always, links to the fanfiction reviewed and the author's page are in the section title.

Love ya, Jessie.