I adore, adore, adore the part from Rigel's pov. I think you've captured the child perspective so well and how he rationalises things happening, but is, understandably, a bit confused about Sirius. His mother is clearly showing that she doesn't like the man and even acts as if he might be some kind of danger, but for most of the time, all the other adults treat him as a friend.
I think Hermione would be sad if she realised that Rigel knows her tells and evasive tactics so well and changes his behaviour in accordance with them, wanting to protect her from feeling sad. It's not her fault that she has such a clever and perceptive child, but any parent worthy of the role would not wish such a thing for their child. And I too, feel that sadness, seeing Rigel think about the concept of family and try to convince himself that he's not curious about his father, or to a lesser extent even his grandparents, or that he would like to have a "full" family, like his cousins, even if he loves Hermione and is happy with just her. I do really like that Molly and Arthur has stepped in a bit in this regard, though. But at the same time, keeping the identity of Rigel's father a secret from him also means keeping from him that the Lupins and Malfoys are actually his blood relatives and not just honorary aunts, uncles and cousins. Well, at least he views the Lupins as honorary family, while the Malfoys are, understandably, not as close. By the way, do you have Lucius rotting away in Azkaban, seeing as he's not mentioned?
And Rigel gets sooo close to figuring it out when he contemplates the trademark eye colour of the Black family. He simply just doesn't make that last connection. But I guess that if he sees that his mum doesn't like this Padfoot guy, he can hardly imagine that he could be his father, right. Looking forward to seeing how he finds out and reacts to it.
"Sirius looked up and glared at her. He had no right to be upset with her. She had made his life so simple for the past decade. And yes, she’d hidden something huge from him to do it, but to be completely frank – he hadn’t been prepared to be a parent at that time. Granted, neither had she. But he had demonstrated just how self-centered he was by immediately packing up and jet-setting around the world the moment that his name was cleared. Hermione had buckled down and done the responsible thing when she realized that she was expecting and had decided to keep it. So, he had no moral high ground to judge her from." - sorry for the long quote, but this is the aspect I find so intriguing about Hermione's perspective and treatment of Sirius now that he's back. Yes, he left and even he himself admits in this chapter that he can only hope that he'd have stayed if he'd known back then, but the point is that he wasn't given a choice. Hermione made that choice for him and now she's angry that he's shown up and is being curious about his son after finding out, as if he should have no right to be. It's so very human and understanding and frustrating at the same time to read about it. I think she wants to believe that she made the right choice, so that means she has to think that Sirius would be bad for both her and Rigel, and it might take a while for her to let go of that enough to start giving him an honest chance at connecting with Rigel (and eventually herself too). And that just speaks so highly of you as a writer. You can write her so flawed and at times frustrating, but also loving and caring and understandable all at once. And I think much of it stems from how Sirius acted the morning after they had sex. He didn't say a word to her as he got up, got dressed, and left the room. He made her feel like a mistake, so she didn't want to give him the chance to let her know he thinks Rigel is a mistake too. Ugh. All the feels. 😭
And then Sirius' pov at the end. I'm happy Hermione's "guard dogs" let him feel some heat, because this is serious stuff (pun intended 😅) and he absolutely cannot step into Rigel's life if he isn't prepared to stick around and take some form of responsibility. And I love the part where he thinks about his experiences abroad and how happy he is about them and how it feels like he's finally recaptured his youth (basically living out his 20s in his late 30s and early 40s instead), but then looks at the people he left behind and how they have grown close and started the next generation in his absence and feels that maybe in his eagerness to make up for something he missed out on in the past he has caused himself to miss out once more, and this time it's something much more meaningful. But yikes was that door slammed in his face at the very end painful. Not sure he's ready for it yet since it's all still so new to him, but Sirius really needs to have a talk with Hermione. They booth need to vent their thoughts and feelings and decide how to move forward in a way that is best for their son.
I was suuuuuper nervous about how well the Rigel POV would turn out, because it’s a tough age to capture. And while he’s an intelligent child being brought up by a very intelligent mother, he’s still a kid. So I’m so pleased to hear that you enjoyed it. Your comments are giving me life! Please keep it coming. A writer’s ego is fragile and requires near-constant reinforcement. 🥹🥹🥹
Comment on Stuck in the Middle With You
Kinuwan on Chapter 3 Sun 23 Mar 2025 03:17PM UTC
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Ladyofthewrittenword93 on Chapter 3 Sun 23 Mar 2025 04:30PM UTC
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