This is absolutely bloody brilliant. I felt like Remus and could have cried out of joy. Sirius/Padfoot is soooo cute and great described. Please continue, I like to know how and when the other two manage to transform into Animagi.
And I really like the beginning of the next chapter where Sirius licks James' foot and all the chaos of Padfoot in the dorm. Excellent, superb. Bravo!!!! Please update.

Megan, once again I have to say how much I love your riddle-poems. You rhyme, you make sense and at the same time not really which defines a good riddle for me because you incorporate something mystic that makes it special. Also, the last line was my favourite:

Show your talents, the Dark Lord dares.

What impresses me even more than your poems is your ability to write and bound the reader up to the very last word. One can hardly stop reading once doing so. Gripping, interesting, and this chapter oh so fantastic.

Excellent work.

~Bine

Wow, really funny and great story. Laughed a lot, especially at the beginning, when Lily was still fuming mad about James. Please continue writing, your style is fantastic. Would be pity if the story ends here.

Author's Response: Lol, yes, she is funnier when she\'s outraged...I\'m glad you like the story. This story won\'t end here, but it won\'t be too long either...

After not having found the time to keep up with your story, I’m happy that I’m doing it now. Your story is really wonderful, and I like the fact that it captures me so easily, that it reads so smoothly, and that I have the impression of being there with the Marauders and the girls. It’s extraordinary and well done.

And although a group of four girls that are friends and become the girlfriends of the Marauders is a cliché in fanfiction, it doesn’t feel like that in your story. The way you write makes it feel original, and I truly enjoy reading it.

Where I can especially feel with the characters is that Sirius and Kirsty like each other but don’t admit it because they feel it would destroy their friendship. It makes me feel sad to know they’re not a couple, but the idea of bringing them together with the help of their friends and not get this friendship destroyed is really nice to read about. So it should come as no surprise that I loved chapter sixteen, Proof! beyond words.

Another point I love your writing for is the way you weave humorous situations into the story. I cannot write like this to save my life, but you certainly have a grasp for it, and I envy you your talent. For the majority of chapter sixteen, I could only chuckle. It was a really entertaining and well-written dialogue; it felt real and not at all forced or otherwise out of place.

Proceeding into chapter seventeen was a journey of laughing, aww-ing and feeling sorry for my favourite couple. I found the idea of Kirsty boycotting Valentine’s Day really funny, more so that she tried to get out of the common room as quickly as possible. But when that plan backfired, she tried getting Peter as her partner in crime. Funny though, Peter himself seemed to have found a girl he was interested in.

“Because I was hoping to try and spend more time with Heather,” he retorted irritably.
“Who the hell is Heather?” asked Kirsty, furrowing her brow and wrinkling her nose in puzzlement.
“The girl I’ve been playing chess with every evening over the past few weeks!” he exclaimed in exasperation.
“Oh yeah,” she said, the pieces all sliding in to place. “Does this mean that you no longer want to be a singleton?”
“Erm, no!” replied Peter, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

I really like that you give Peter the chance to get out of the picture of him being only a side-kick, the Marauder without colour. You make him a teenage boy with interests and strengths, weaknesses and fears – a well-rounded character. He’s human, not only the shy shadow for James, Sirius and Remus as he is written in so many other stories. I especially liked the phrasing his voice dripping with sarcasm because it suggests that he is not in the least intimidated by the more popular people but can stand his ground and be someone I could be interested in.

The description of the Great Hall decorated for Valentine’s Day was interesting and nicely done. I truly felt with Kirsty, and even Sirius. Also, I found the way you distracted the reader from the pinkness with the owl delivering Kirsty’s card as well as the trick Kirsty and Emma played on the presents really nice. You provided small details hidden in the plot, and it added to the charm but didn’t overdo it, at all.

The little rivalry of McIntosh and Sirius was entertaining, and I chuckled when Sirius went huffing and puffing over his book. It got really sweet with Kirsty writing him his forty-third card and the little kiss that followed. I actually squealed delightedly. I was sad with the encounter at lunch and would have liked to be in Emma’s place and shouting out to them that what each felt for the other was love, that they should stop acting like children and go on a date to Hogsmeade.

So my conclusion: Thank you for sharing this story with us, and I can’t wait to read the rest.

~Bine

Author's Response: Bine, I cannot express how much I love you right at this moment! lol. I am just speechless. This is so wonderful. I really cannot think of anything to say in response but thank you a million times over, if not more! It means even more to me (if that's possible) when I take into consideration that you're a mod. Really, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. This story would be nothing without reviewers like you, as it is you that makes me want to continue this story and make it the best it can possibly be.
THANK YOU!

~Whit (who is touched beyond words)

Sirius learning how to play the piano from Remus… adorned with his comments and urge to get Remus to sing – best scene I’ve ever read. I really loved it as I enjoyed reading the entire chapter 20.

Author's Response: That was one of my favorite scenes to write, so I\'m happy you say it was one of the best you\'ve read! (It was partly inspired by me trying to teach my friend to play a simple scale and he couldn\'t, so I had to bribe him with food). Thanks for reading!

Loosing loved ones is always sad and hard. My grandpa died of cancer, too. I feel with Remus and that he has to go through a transformation just right after they died... poor young Gryffindor.

Very well captured emotions, makes it easy to sympathise with Remus here. Bravo.

Author's Response: The full moon wasn\'t even supposed to be there, I think the way I timed everything made it end up in the chapter, but I liked that it allowed some bonding between the Potters and the Lupins. Thanks for reading! Glad you like it!

Please continue writing - your story is so gripping, absolutely fantastic. I'm curious how it goes on and how the Hearing will end for Sirius. Please update soon!

Author's Response: I originally had that as the end!! lol, but so many people have PMed me asking for more, and this is the second review asking for more that i might do another few chapters.... watch this space! :P thanks :)

What a story... fantastic idea. How can it be finished already? It seems that it is just the beginning of more...

Two thumbs up. I especially liked the prophecy.

Author's Response: Well, there are two parts, and actually, my other fic, \"Adoris Integare\", does (slightly) tie into this one here. But thanks, luinrina, for the review. I\'m thrilled that you liked it, and the prophecy ... yes, that took a lot of figuring in *how* I wanted to word it, so I\'m glad to hear that you liked that part!

~Megan

Up until now five wonderful chapters. I like this story and hope it’s going on for a little while longer. It’s interesting to see different parts of Sirius’s life.

What I wonder is what happened after Sirius had recognised Regulus being the Death Eater having caught him (chapter four)? And where did these fragments of remembrance come from? Or where they a kind of foretelling/intuition of what would happen with him after he had been captured by the Death Eaters?

Author's Response: Don\'t worry. I have absolutely no plans for abandoning this fic, or finishing it anytime soon. At least ten parts have a basic plan/outline for them, and there isn\'t really an \"end goal\" or point that I\'m trying to reach in this fic. It really is, in essence, random looks at random points in Sirius\'s life.

As for what happened after Sirius recognised Regulus as the Death Eater, as well as the information concerning those memories/fragments, I\'ve started writing the sequel to that. It\'s being posted as another, separate story on my account, called \"Thoughts in the Abyss\", and has the first couple chapters posted. The continuation of \"Recognition\" won\'t be posted as posted as a part of \"Shades of Black.\"

But thank you, luinrina, for the review. I hope you continue to enjoy this fic, as well as \"Thoughts in the Abyss\", if you go to read that one. (And if you want to find out what happened after \"Recognition\", you\'d need to!

~Megan

This chapter was quite good. I liked how you brought Regulus in there, and that he was happy to see his brother again, as was Sirius to be able to see Regulus again. It shows that both brothers were indeed quite close in their childhood and early youth, before Sirius got alienated from his family and left the Blacks for good.

In some parts I had the impression though that Regulus isn’t able to stand up against his brother, like in these sentences:

"Sirius, I don't think that's -"
"But, Sirius --"

To me he sounds a bit too childish, backing down too fast. We all know that Sirius has quite a temper and that Regulus as the younger would probably cave in, but both are grown men by the time of your story, and I believe Regulus would – after what he’d done with the locket and all – be a bit stronger than he appears in this chapter. He had been able to stand up against Voldemort, so why not against his brother as well? In my opinion he should have protested a bit more; since we know so little about him, you can practically exhaust the way of how he would have reacted to his brother getting snappy, even if it would have resulted in a fight between the brothers. That would have been interesting to read.

About the commas: there shouldn’t be one when you use three periods to mark a trailing off; I noticed you did that twice. And proper names should be written with a capital letter, so it’s Firewhisky and Butterbeer; but since I don’t know whether the American book versions write it with minuscule letters, you can as well ignore this sentence if this should be the case. I know only the British editions, and there proper names are written with capital letters.

Paragraph 14: demanding instead of demandint
Paragraph 19: When you end a personal speech, you should use only a comma, not a combination with a period.

What you should also decide on is how to write Sirius’ blood status: pure-blood or pureblood. The former is the British version. But even if you choose to write American (if the second on is how it appears in the American editions), you should nonetheless stick with only one form and not change throughout a chapter.

To sum up, I liked this chapter, Tiffy, and I’m looking forward to the third and beyond.

~Bine