Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Aaaaa Aaaaaaaa Aaaaaaaaaaaaa

Aaa

I'm not excited by this chapter at all, nope. Anyway—

Okay, there's something downright beautiful about seeing a version of Snape being willing to team up with Harry. They never really got to work together like this in canon, so seeing Severina actually believe Harry and return the Invisibility Cloak so he could help is kind of amazing to watch. It made me feel really good! Same with the conversation between Hermione and Harry, about Hermione belonging, and Hermione recognizing that Harry and Ron don't only respect her for her talents, unlike Malfoy. Also, there's something really great about Potterverse characters quoting Tolkien to each other! And it happens twice! And Greengrass's contribution to the potion's defense is intriguing. I assumed at the beginning that the goal was to follow the proper etiquette throughout the dance, performing the steps correctly and not insulting any of the dancers. But playing along with the dance eventually leads to a death of exhaustion; the only escape is to abandon the dance and physically attack the enchantment itself. I was confused why Greengrass would set a trap where breaking social norms would be rewarded, but then I realized: this culture is so rigid, and ingrains obedience into the populace so heavily, that she was counting on that fact obfuscating the real solution! And it did, for a while; even our rebellious, rule-breaking golden trio took a while to deduce the real solution!

But what I'm really dying to talk about is Greengrass herself! That freaking bait-and-switch! I totally thought Quirrell was going to be at the Mirror again. Then again, Quirrell himself was a fake-out after making Snape look like the villain in Philosopher's Stone, so I really should have seen it coming, huh? So . . . she was leading Quirrell on, like I guessed (is he dead already lol), but I also don't think she's being wholly truthful about her bond with Gaunt, is she? She's speaking like she's fully loyal to him, not realizing that Harry observed her getting tortured by him earlier in the year . . . Maybe she really does want to use a bit for herself, before destroying the source? Also, uh . . . hm. I was going to comment on how Greengrass seems to view the Un-Ceinte metaphorically as a contraceptive, and was trying to see from her perspective, where a witch's greater independence from their spouse would give them more control over pregnancy-causing activities . . . but then I went back and read Lady Robinson's chocolate frog cardin ch. 4, and oh, yeah, it's pretty explicitly a contraceptive, isn't it? Which makes me even more squicked out and disturbed by however these Bonds actually function, ew, don't like it, get it away from me and my children.

Actually, there is one question I'd like to ask, as long as it's not spoiling an unpublished chapter: how is it that Gaunt and Greengrass have a Bond, but no one in the Wizarding World seems to be aware of it? I assume Matrimonial Bonds are kind of akin to Muggle weddings? If so, how is it that one of the most influential wizard politicians is married in secret? And what's the point of keeping the Bond a secret?

Okay, so there's one weird thing I noticed while reading this chapter, that I hadn't thought about before: I've brought up how dystopian this AU is, but it's also more fantasy genre than the original Potterverse. Yeah, both versions have the spells and the potions, but as Soap often said of the canon Potterverse, it's very "gentrified." It's a very middle class suburban setting, with very middle class suburban sensibilities and concerns. Houses and bank accounts and buying crap, and politics and school grades and the protagonist growing up to be a cop. But in your AU, you have something more complex than the superficial trappings of fantasy slapped over a contemporary sitcom. The belief in Mother Magic, and the borderline religious society that belief has produced, actually feel like a fantasy setting, a fantasy culture. I know that doesn't make your AU healthier than the canon, but it does make it a heap more developed and unique. Just food for thought.

I am REALLY looking forward to the next chapter, more than ever before!

—doctorlit learned what "lorry" means today; it isn't a bird

Some of it I personally detest for its politics, like the one where 17 year old fem!Harry pulls out of the Triwizard Tournament because she's having Voldemort Marvolo Gaunt's baby and apparently Gillyweed will abort it. (EDIT: I'm not saying I think fem!Harry should've taken the Gillyweed--I'm saying it's so contrived that she pulls out of the tournament for it, and also holy s*** she'd been wizard-married to Gaunt since she was 15, and if she was anywhere near canon!Harry's characterisation she'd have figured out some other way to compete? Like learnt the Bubble-Head Charm instead? It was just bad all around.)

I suppose one that's fairly objectively ridiculous could be the one where Bellatrix weaves Lily a carpet made of her own hair, since Bellatrix is just 300% OOC in it. But honestly, the Pureblood Culture AO3 tag catches all of the fics, so it's a good place to start.

I appreciate his excellent, calm bedside manner with animals, but he has a penchant for putting himself in unsafe situations, so I just can't give him the Zookeeper Seal of Approval™. Alas!

I was initially amused by McGonagall's false assumption of what Harry and Hermione were doing in the Astronomy Tower, because it made for such an easy out to avoid revealing Hagrid's dragon, and because the weird Pureblood enthusiasts basically set the alibi up themselves. But then, it dawned on me: the fact that this culture places so much emphasis on underage kids "courting" each other, that even McGonagall thinks two eleven-year-olds sneaking out in the middle of the night for a make-out session is a perfectly plausible thing to happen is pretty (please insert several lines of internal screaming, I'm too tired to type it all out). And then the rest of the school has the same reaction, and Lavender brings up the whole Maiden's Kiss thing and assumes Harry and Hermione are definitely getting married in the future based on eleven-year-old feelings, and (more screaming here please). It's like this entire society are all mutually roleplaying that they're in a soulmate AU, without any fanfic writer actually writing it onto them!

Okay, Professor Greengrass is way more complex than I gave her credit for last chapter. Maybe she really is in love with Quirrell! Either way, and in spite of how cruel and authoritarian she is, I hope she does manage to get her hands on some Un-ceinte and escape from Gaunt, or whoever her actual Bond person is. No one deserves to be tortured like that . . . It was interesting to see that even Malfoy, as brainwashed into the bonding system as he is, was visibly sickened by Greengrass's treatment as well. Whether Gaunt or not, her partner is some real trash, even by this society's standards!

I hate to nitpick this, because it's an 11-out-of-10 joke, but you've got the lyrics reversed: it's ♪Istanbul, not Constantinople♪

—doctorlit had kind of forgotten what a disastrous concept the House Points system is from canon, and how easily it lends itself to students bullying their classmates in retaliation for losing points

Man, canon Snape got me too trusting of Hogwarts professors! He was good despite his meanness, but Greengrass is both mean and a baddie! So, here's my predictions for what's going down:
-Greengrass is married to Gaunt, possibly in secret, since her husband doesn't seem to be public knowledge in any case.
-She's leading Quirrell on. Probably approached him initially trying to learn about his contribution to the protections over the master potion, and discovered that he's twitterpated enough to be useful for further research.
-She's definitely going to frigging murder Quirrell at the earliest opportunity to cover up the fake-out affair, and she's going to enjoy it immensely.
-I don't think she wants the potion to use it, but to destroy the ingredients so no more Un-Ceinte can be brewed, forcing people to further conform to social strictures. (And Gaunt's interest is pretty much the same; he's just leaving this matter to his Lady because she's in a better geographic position to handle it than he is.) (And if so, what an interesting reversal of the Dumbledore's Erised trap to keep the Philosopher's Stone safe in canon: here, it's the good guys wanting the hidden thing to continue use, and the bad guys want to destroy it! Huge if true!)
(And obviously you don't have to confirm anything here as right or wrong, I'm just laying my cards out on the table. I am famously terrible at predicting where plots are going midway through reading stories . . .)

May I inquire where the name "Un-Ceinte" comes from? It feels a bit unusual for Britain, as it looks a bit like the Spanish for "percent" but with the vowels reversed. Is it a pun on "unsaintly?"

Okay, that was an excellent use of broomstick in this chapter! Broomsticks are tragically underused in canon; it's really just the multiple Harrys scene. Considering how perfect they are for long distance travel without making any noise, it was really nice seeing Harry use it for the purpose of sneaking here! And it paid off handsomely, too!

There's one sentence with an extra "if" in it:
. . . it’s a weed used in lots of medicines, but if Gran says if you’re trying to have a baby . . .

—doctorlit approves of the repurposing of sports equipment for uses of greater narrative value

Though part of me thinks things between Greengrass and Quirrel aren't actually as it looks like, and at least one of them is fooling the other.

It's a different backstory for this Harry, so of course his deepest desire is a little different! And thank you, trying to make a new plot using the bones of the canon plot has been one of the fun parts of this rewrite.

Good luck to HFA, I bet they really like fanbrat hair...

Lily's a woman of lots of secrets; she learnt to keep them close to her chest while in hiding and old habits definitely die hard. Doubly so when some of her secrets could be dangerous for Harry to know. I think she's the sort of person who thinks the fewer people know about this thing, the more control she has over it. I mean, what with all the prying eyes and gossips in this world, a well-kept secret is worth its weight in gold!

And I suspect she knows if she actually indulged Harry and sat him down for a family history, he'd fall asleep before she even got through his paternal grandparents. As much as Harry insists he wants there to be no secrets between them, I don't think he'd actually be content if he couldn't figure stuff out for himself sometimes.

Lily knows it's Peter, because Severina told her when she helped Lily escape. Other people may not know. But whether or not Sirius is involved in this........you'll have to wait and see. And Gaunt had actually just faced some consequences at this time; the Potters were a retaliation, remember? ;)

Yeah, I reckoned Harry had a more complex wish here than just to know his family. He wants to know his dad, sure, but he also wants to not have to choose between his worlds, and not have the pressure of being his father's heir. Poor kid.

Yes, Dumbledore still should have a chance to mentor Harry, even if he has several other mentor figures too. I think Harry in general, here and in canon, seems to dislike not knowing about things--in canon it's compounded by the Dursleys keeping him in the dark about magic for a long time out of fear and hatred, here it's Lily keeping him in the dark about his father and magic because she believed it safest for him. The problem with giving Harry too much information, though, is that he also tends to go off and do something with that information and that might put him in danger :'D

Anyway, canon Harry did have his angry moments, yeah! This Harry is more throwing a tantrum than anything else, but he did express some very valid reasons for his anger, and Lily is taking that seriously because she's trying to do her best.

Purityworld has "acts of contrition" people may perform to earn forgiveness, so your point about it being given not earned is very prescient!

You'll see about Quirrell!