I'm curious - why do you feel you have to say goodbye? It seems to me that nothing in your ficverse is contradicted by the deaths. Is your interest in the characters so dependent on their ultimate survival?

I don't ask to be snarky, I'm genuinely interested. See, I'm in the opposite position - I've spent years thinking about Lucius, and am absolutely amazed he isn't among the dead. But because I always expected him to die, I've always expected to have to deal with that, and I'd reassured myself that I'd still have backstory to write. Not to mention AU.

That said, if this pushes you towards original characters, go you! I seem to have a few years of fanfic to get out of my system before any OCs deign to come calling on me...