Really loved this chapter, so much going on!! Your characterisations of the sprawling Black Family are top tier, especially in dialogue-heavy chapters like this ... so many voices all in one room.

I think you've really struck the right balance of maintaining a similar enough style to the original books that it doesn't feel out of place when put up against them but also making BM feel like part Jane Austen novel and part thriller novel ... which makes the juxtaposition between certain scenes all the more enjoyable to read.

I'm really going to miss waiting anxiously for updates when it's all over but I suppose my question is how do you feel that you're nearly at the end?

It was challenging to write that many characters in one room. I was happy to get rid of Irma and Pollux near the end.

I would definitely say the style earlier in the story matched the Harry Potter books more faithfully, by the end it's become more like a Georgette Heyer novel in tone (farcical romantic happenings with interfering dowagers and other upper class nonsense.) I wish I was comparable to Jane Austen in any way but like...let's be real here. Lol.

I honestly have pretty mixed feelings about it. I think there's always a bit of a flat feeling at the end of a creative project—and in this case it's been six years of my life that I've been working on it (and it was something I started writing when I was deeply depressed and lonely, it's hard not to associate it with that desire to escape those feelings.) If the messages and comments I've gotten over the years are anything to go by, it's obviously meant a lot to many.

But also--of course I'll miss writing the characters and the family. But it will be nice to close this chapter and move on to focusing on my personal writing projects and moving forward in life in other ways.

Wow Sylvester and Phoebe making me cry ;_;

Tbh, given the heart to heart moment Regulus and Orion had a few chapters prior, perhaps the family can have vacations separate from each other except for Orion and Regulus? 🤔 They can have father and son bonding, probably in a luxuriously quiet and isolated spot.

Do you think they'd actually enjoy that? Personally I think they thrive on the dysfunction and would miss Walburga haranguing them after a couple hours.

Regulus deserves a long ass vacation after this

I think the whole family does, honestly. Possibly separately from each other.

note: am v aware i have horrible taste lol

What is Eulalie and Eugenie's relationship like? does Eugenie ever visit Eulalie in France?

I don't think they are super close...I think Eulalie kind of pities her sister a bit and probably has invited her, but I could see Eugenie being a bit of a dowdy, timid homebody who is a bit uncomfortable traveling and "feeling like a burden" to her relatives. She doesn't want to be pitied and doesn't want her sister to feel pity for her.

I'm listening to the audiobook of Sylvester or, the Wicked Uncle which is a book I have read but not in awhile and I couldn't remember it all that well....I don't think I was self-consciously cribbing this book when I started writing BM but man, of all of Heyer's heroines, Phoebe Marlow is the most "oh this is who Colette Battancourt is a knock-off of." Like down to "is an amateur novelist who writes characters sketches of aristos."

This new chapter is really the gift that keeps on giving. I’m excited as a child on Christmas Day, I have to stop reading every few sentences to keep my heart in check.

You're sweet. I'm glad you enjoy. I hope the little pieces of French dialogue are extra amusing to you, lol.

Is Sirius going to get slapped every time he and Colette kiss XD?

(Also great chapter btw- I loved it and it was worth the wait 😁)

Let's hope not for the sake of his poor face. It's even more embarrassing because now he knows what she meant when she said "his mother told her to do it."

POOR SIRIUS.

the release of a new chapter has made me both happy and sad.

Happy cause i love ur story and i was sooo excited to see the update(i think i’m first lol)

Sad cause i have exams and i will prob fail if i binge read 😭😭😭but i cant resist rn

PS how long do u think it would take to read this chapter….yk cause if its less time idc i’m reading 🫢

Don't fail school because of fanfic. It will be there when you're done studying. But I'm glad you enjoyed!

god i was having the absolute worst day when I saw you updated. it made me feel so much better, so i cannot thank you enough!!

I'm sorry you were having a terrible day! <3 Glad I could cheer you up.

Oh, I forgot to say thank you to @catie-does-things for helping me with French dialogue in the last chapter!!

Walburga's full plan is finally revealed. Sirius and Narcissa have a (separate but related) rude awakening. While Orion's life hangs in the balance, Regulus wrestles with his own choices.

Here's a thought:

Sirius has been getting so much shit for the Prank and putting Snape's life in danger, but in The Prince's Tale, when Lily is griping about Snape's friends, and with the Prank still fresh, Snape has a perfect window to badmouth Sirius - arguably, the latter trying to kill him should be even worse than Avery and Mulciber's dark magic.

And yet Snape does not even mention Sirius. All he complains about is James Potter, his sneaking around with Remus and his fancying Lily.

Do you think that maybe, the supposedly hideous Prank wasn't such a big deal after all? Just some information that Snape stupidly decided to put to the test?

Do you think that maybe Snape knows he was the one that fucked up, which is why he doesn't try to put the blame on Sirius?

Do you think that maybe he was never in much danger, which is why James supposedly saving him is all the more annoying to him - because it gives James a chance to boast about being a heroic saviour when maybe all he did was just pull Snape back from the immobilized tree?

Do you think that maybe he later plays it up for pity points, in front of Harry who has not the slightest idea of what had really happened, knowing that Remus is guilt-prone and Sirius has a reputation as an unhinged murderer?

Not saying that Sirius had any sort of innocent intention, but I'm inclined to think it was more like "why should I care to protect him? He's a big boy and he thinks he's smart; if he wants to see what's going on, let him have it" rather than a nefarious plan to actually get him killed or bitten.

The funniest thing that's happened in the first 8 episodes of the OC is Julie Cooper blaming Ryan for everything negative with her daughter. Like...lady. Sorry Ryan's arrival in the town was the first episode of a night soap.