Name: StarFeather (Anonymous) · Date: 09 Mar 2019 12:37 AM · For: Chapter 1

Hi. I stopped by to drop my thank you review for your hard work for the forum activity.

 

I chose this after I noticed you wrote Astoria/Draco ship.

I've never read 'out of wedlock Draco & Astoria ship' before, so I felt something new reading your fic. The reason why Draco had postponed proposing to her is, I think he was afraid to be unhappy like he had experienced during the battle of Hogwarts. It's understandable if he didn't have confidence around the proposal.

 

If Ron Weasley knew the situation, he must have thrown banter towards Draco under their history, such as "I knew he was coward." Luckily for Draco, Ron didn't witness the moment. The readers will send cheers for Draco. 

 

I also like how you described Astoria who was working in the office. At the same time, I'd like to know which position she was when Draco asked for the date. And could he have a job in the same department? I am curious because I guess he must have had difficulty to find a job after the war when he had been in the inner circle of the Death Eaters.

 

The episode his mother talked Draco with her husband Lucius, is very impressive. You described the relationship, a mother and a son so kindly. I like the plot.

 

I'll be back.

Author's Response:

hi kenny! thanks for stopping by!

 

haha yeah, ron probably would've given draco a hard time for being nervous, wouldn't he? but these things *are* nerve-wracking, and he's still trying to get his footing after everything that happened in the second war.

 

truthfully, i didn't really flesh out where astoria and draco worked all that much for this piece - it was for a speed-dating prompt on the old HPFF forums, and i definitely threw together the story in a quick timeframe without thinking through the background.

 

thank you for reading and reviewing!

Name: TreacleTart (Signed) · Date: 09 Dec 2018 12:12 AM · For: Chapter 1

Hey there!

 

I'm here to drop off a review for the Gryffindor Red vs. Gold Review battle for December 2018.

 

Yay! More fluff! And this time Draco/Astoria fluff! This makes me excited.

 

Draco gets portrayed in canon as very self-preserving and cold. Because we never see him through anyone, but Harry's eyes, he automatically comes across as moody, angry, and dark, so it's very sweet to see him so head over heels for Astoria. I love stories that explore him as the person he is with the people he cares about. It's like suddenly there's a whole different dimension to him.

 

It's sweet how nervous he was to ask her out the first time. Clearly, she already mattered quite a great deal to him by that point.

 

Ooh. They're living together unmarried and they have a child out of wedlock. I bet that was a big scandal in the pureblood societies. I imagine neither Lucius or Narcissa were particularly pleased about it either. I mean marriage is really only a social construct and a piece of paper. Having a loving relationship is much more important, but Purebloods seem to do everything very traditionally and by the book, so I could see that ruffling feathers. I wonder how her family took it too. I think if I recall, they were Purebloods, but not so radicalized as Draco's parents?

 

Narcissa's advice is solid. When you feel nervous or like you might chicken out, look into the eyes of the person you love and you'll find your courage. That's a beautiful sentiment and even though I dislike Lucius, I think it was sweet that she applied it to her own relationship.

 

This was a lovely, pleasant read! Good job!

 

~Kaitlin

Author's Response:

Hi Kaitlin!

 

I honestly love writing Draco's softer side - I think he's only seen as cold and unfeeling because of whose perspective we see him from, and I like to think that he was probably a good bit more complex of a character than that, especially after the war. So Astoria is the one who brings that out in him.

 

I definitely feel like the whole unmarried/child-out-of-wedlock thing would be relatively looked down upon in Pureblood society (and I got into a rather significant argument with some random dude on FFnet over this detail, because he went off on some whole rant about Victorian society and I was just like...... dude, you're massively overthinking this). I imagine her parents were probably similar to Draco's - they didn't approve of it, but weren't really in a place to fully argue with them either.

 

Honestly, writing Narcissa having a positive, loving relationship with Lucius was kinda weird to me because I don't really headcanon it being that way, but this was for a speed-dating challenge (I think that's what it was called?) on HPFF and my partner wrote the Lucius/Narcissa part, so I stuck with her characterization of the relationship. But honestly, who knows - they could've had that loving relationship too.

 

Thanks for the review, Kaitlin!