(Warning for who reached this comment and haven't read this fanfic! This may be a spoiler to you. Please enjoy the rest of the chapters !!!)
(I received your lovely email and reply of the comment, T'Jill! I found out today, because that email was not one I use most frequently. I loved it. I had the copy since 2017 or so, and loved it since then. You were so kind to think of that ...! I really hoped to be in that fandom or at least have a glimpse of it, but I was like, seven then?? I would've been a prodigy if I was able to read Harry Potter in English let alone participate in the fandom X)
I was as happy as I got hand on THAT for the first time when I found out THAT attached on email! I bought and own The Other Lands. I bought the Christomanci series just because Sarah recommended them on her livejournal ... Yup you were right! I also have Sabrina prequel, but couldn't get through because I don't have Netflix account thus haven't watched the original series :) (My friend in US bought the book for my birthday present but apparently she didn't put that on her calculation XD) I'm planning to save Lexicon for this summer vacation.
I wanted to write back to you, but couldn't find a way to reply to you .. so here's the reply! (replying to that email address wouldn't get my message to be sent to you, right ???????
Also, I thought maybe you'll drop by here one more time and understand my Maya enthusiasm. I'm planning to read and review each chapter throughly again!!
#Review of Drop Dead Gorgeous, Chapter 1
#
I admire Harry's ability to stay beside Malfoy and not kiss him. How can he joke and laugh carelessly? He is used to the constant longing towards his partner, so used to keeping it hidden. Harry tried every other foolish escape root from his feeling, but everything fell into pieces, so he accepts this love, and doesn't speculate. Any other poets would've written so many love poems about their unrequited love if they were in his situation, but he is Harry, and he can bear the burden. He decided no other method will do him any good. He went through 11 months' celibacy, it was his only way to cope, but now SLUGHORN should come and tell him to do something about it. How cruel is the fate of the Chosen One.
#
"I hear Lisa the receptionist fainted in your arms yesterday?"
"It was a hot day!"
"It's November," Malfoy pointed out.
Ah, Malfoy. Always an advocate of truth and authenticity. (I love him.)
#
I can't believe DDG made my English vocabulary knowledge better. I still can't believe I looked up 'carnality' to the dictionary to find out its meanings. If I were to pore over one book for more than two years, why it wasn't <Jane Eyre> or <Middlemarch>? I guess that's because those two novels are readily available in Korean translated version. Necessity makes everything possible!
#
That was when he was twenty, still on the wild violent edge he'd had to go over after killing Voldemort, still trying to cope with Ginny's absence and the reason for it, and on top of all that worried about his job. He knew it wasn't going well and he couldn't work out why. He'd passed all the tests with flying colors, but in practice everything seemed to be falling to pieces.
Harry not being 'the best of best auror from the very beginning' was very fresh to me. This is a paragraph with a lot of information and pain (and the next few pages, too). However, the tone is kept neutral, even dry. A reader is likely to overlook at their first read.
#
"But he's—" Harry began. "He's not reliable, and he's—"
Unreliable was the first word that sprang to mind.
Shacklebolt is cruel, isn't he, Harry? How can he force you to be a partner with such a git? Oooh ...
#
A couple of other people left the bathroom with great speed, casting horrified looks at Harry and Malfoy as they went. Harry raised a hand to protest that he had nothing to do with this madness, but nobody ever believed that.
I liked 'ever' in this paragraph. They are already a team. They already spend countless days and nights together. They have a routine, Harry knows Malfoy and vice versa. It's a tough job, being Malfoy's partner!
#
Malfoy turned towards him, his left eyebrow and the left side of his mouth both flying upwards in that lopsided quizzical look he got sometimes. Harry ran his fingers through his hair twice, and only twice.
Still, they are a riddle for each other. Even after three years. Plus, 'Only twice' always made my heart stung. Harry wouldn't indulge himself on any occasion.
#
It wasn't often they got to do an interrogation. Shacklebolt only let them do it if everyone was sure the man was guilty, and they needed a confession quickly.
Malfoy had to catch Harry's elbow to stop him actually punching Dixon in the face. Malfoy did it so Dixon wouldn't see, though. All he saw was the expression on Harry's face.
Dixon looked around to Malfoy for help, but actually Malfoy and Harry had sort of a unique take on the good Auror / bad Auror trick.
Malfoy had righted Dixon's chair and was lounging in it. When he caught Dixon's eye he smiled in a truly horrible way he'd perfected, rolled down his sleeve and showed him the Dark Mark.
(*^^*)Crazy, Best Aurors Ever(*^^*);
# Isn't it interesting that Malfoy remembers every single detail in Harry's life at Hogwarts? Malfoy had surely invested a lot of time and energy on Harry.
#
"Stop talking about expensing stuff," Harry said. "Stop talking at all."
Inner Harry: I love you but you're too crazy.
#I developed a strange tendency to giggle or smile whenever I hear the word 'peppermint' or somebody offers me one. Am I mad?
Oh, "She'll be back soon." Harry knows this word will cheer Malfoy up, who's treasuring a box with the engagement ring, carrying it everywhere. The scene is heartwarming and also heartwrenching. This scene is where that shows us Malfoy can't love Harry back now for the first time. It's actually a shock. Malfoy's love is so genuine that nobody can say any word.
Right after that, here comes the Auror of a Year scene that I keep rereading
Did I say that I love Harry Potter so much? On every comma, every broken sentence, I inhale air with Harry. My breath sags as Harry's head spin with dizziness because of candlelights and Malfoy, who's shining brighter than them. Maybe that dizziness would've sent him to kiss him senselessly, devour him, but every possibility that was bubbling under the surface shattered when Katie Bell with demure blue robe emerged towards them.
How romantic Malfoy and Katie is, and how lonely Harry is. Harry doesn't do anything. Nothing that people do in those situations. No "Man, I had a crush on someone, but that someone had a girlfriend!" and finishing six cans of beer. Just ... nothing. There is nobody aware of the silent collapse inside Harry.
#
They never talked about those times, by silent agreement. They never talked about Dumbledore's death or the white, raised scar on Malfoy's chest Harry had seen a few times in the locker room after sparring. So Harry didn't see how he could say, isn't it a little awkward that your new girlfriend once spent months in the hospital because of you?
Oh my god ...
#
"The world is changed because you are made of ivory and jet," breathed the massive biker. "The curve of your lips rewrote history."
(* Giggle helplessly *)
#
As I said, I really admire Harry's ability to not kiss Malfoy. No really, Malfoy is too annoying! You should punish such a spoiled brat with a smooch !!!!!!!!!! His breath is too warm on Harry's cheek and Harry doesn't do a single thing, because that's the only way to maintain their partnership and friendship. Now I realize, Malfoy said 'inheritance' so casually ... (thinks of The Way We Get By and clench my chest)
