Oh I loved this! Your choices were great for Harry and I have to say that I'm so happy you chose Cho. I have a bit of a soft spot for her character especially since a lot of fanfic writers give her a bit of a sore deal. So thanks for another great read. I absolutely adored how you finished with Ginny and Harry flying the Firebolt, that was a really very sweet touch. I hope you will write more of these. I think Neville would be a great one to do (but no pressure hehe)!

Julia XD

Author's Response: Thank you! Fanfiction generally isn't very nice to Cho, you're right, but imo her relationship with Harry seems so much more complicated than J.K. Rowling ever addressed, and I couldn't help but address it in this. I'm glad you liked it! As for that last scene -- I really wanted to show Harry and Ginny in all their happy glory, and it didn't seem right for the two of them if flying wasn't involved ;) I'm thinking of doing five more of these, and currently Neville is on the list, so stay tuned!

Fabulous! I was so happy to see more of this tale from you! It's a great start and I'm looking forward to the next chapter. One thing though:

"Why should I look forward to a decreasing amount of kisses?"

Amount should be number. Amount is used for things which cannot be counted i.e an amount of flour in a recipe whereas number is used for things that can be counted i.e KISSES! Sorry, for the nit-pick :s

Otherwise, so excited to see your Rose and Scorpius again. Keep up the great writing!!!

Julia XD

Author's Response:

Never apologize for nit-picking, it made me think about my (and Rose's) use of the word. My definition of amount is number, something that can be counted, so Rose was saying, "Why should I look forward to a decreasing number of kisses?"

Thank you for looking forward to more!

Neil, this is excellent! I'm really enjoying this Lavender trip. You have characterised her so well - there is something so tragic about her life but I feel like if anyone can get through it, Lavender will. Eventually. And after a few bumps along the way, I imagine. Despite her negativity, there is something relentlessly endearing about her. Well done!

I also love how you use her to show us what has happened in the wizarding world since the final battle. The details are interwoven so well and effortlessly. It's also great to see how you set her up for Moon - could this Vampire be the same which you mention in that fic?

You have such a particular style, Neil, and I really enjoy that. Your use of the first-person present-tense is certainly refreshing. I tend to stay away from writing first-person as it never seems to work for me, but you really master it. Keep on writing! I look forward to reading more of Moon (and anything else you write XD).

~Julia

Author's Response: Julia, thanks for the review. Bare was written for the challenge and, having decided that she’d been crippled in during the battle (as little more than a throwaway in Grave Days) I decided to explore her further. The fact that you describe her as endearing means a lot, as she’s far from perfect. Because I’m only writing one (sprawling) future I have a rough timeline to work too and filling in the “what happened” details is easy. The vampire is the same one, I even started a draft, of the story (Bones, Brown ans Beadle) but a novella length story written in this (first person present tense) style didn’t work so I’ll rewrite it sometime. Thus style only works for one-shots, I think, and it came about by accident because it was the only way that I could get “The Mind of Arthur Weasley” to work. I’ve been really pleased with the reviews this story has got. I’ll be honest, - male writer writing a female-first-person story set in the aftermath of a one night stand where the protagonist spends most of her time naked. That sounds like it could have been a complete disaster, a feeble male fantasy of the worst sort. Neil

That was fantastic. Each situation seemed possible and you kept Ginny's characterisation flawless all the way through. You had me tearing up quite a few times with this one! Well done :)

Author's Response: Thanks very much! I'm glad you thought Ginny was in-character throughout :)

Oh, that was such a lovely way to end this. I'm going to miss Mark and Lavender... I've really grown to love them in this fic. The way Mark desperately wanted to stay up all night with Lavender was really touching. He's such a great character.

Well done, Neil. This has been a wonderful tale to follow and I'm going to miss these updates! I stumbled across your Tale of the Battle on fanfic.net and I was wondering why you haven't posted it here. I loved reading more about Mark (that sounds really bad on my part considering it was a tragic chapter but you know what I mean, hopefully!) and it was good background reading for Moon.

But anyway, great fic, great ending!

Julia XD

Author's Response:
Julia, Thank you.

I have a couple of other Lavender stories rattling around inside my head. I dare not start them, at least not until I finish Aurors and Schoolgirls. One is the vampire story, where she meets Mark for the first time the other is a Meet the Parents story. I’m glad that someone likes this story. It’s my least read (apart from Summer of ’97).

Tales of the Battle are rough (some rougher than others). There will be about 20 interlinked one-shots from different points of view. Several are now with Andrea (for much needed “what do you mean?” questions) and Apurva (who will probably one day murder me for my misuse of punctuation). I don’t know what I’d do without them. I’m trying to decide an order for publication. The first is likely to be a Madam Pomfrey/Madam Pince story called “The Calm Before”.
Neil

Oh that was sad, Carole! I love the last line, especially. Actually, I love the fact that Lavender and Blaise are together in this. Is this some foreshadowing for Lavender Blue eh? One thing that struck me as really well done was how you had Lavender and Blaise 'reprimand' Romilda and her behaviour.

Lavender smiled a touch sadly. “We’ve all been silly teenage girls with crushes. Some of us got over it, but you,” she crouched down by Romilda’s side, “you’re so determined to make yourself known that you’re forgetting about that girl who was resourceful enough to smuggle in a love potion and then hide it in a box of chocolates. You have brains, Romilda, just use them with a bit more purpose than trying to wreck people’s lives.”

That is so true and it's a great little snapshot of what we know about Romilda's character.

Also, I love how you left whatever happened between Ginny and Dean (and Harry) up in the air. In my mind I can see this happening as a one-off thing. I don't want to think that Ginny is in love with Dean, in fact I don't think that at all. I think she has feelings for him yes, but they're in the past and she wants to move forward with Harry. You showed this when Romilda commented on how happy she looked. Also, I imagine that Dean needed closure rather than a rekindling of flames. He just needed to accept that things were over. Harry, on the other hand, I'm curious about. I wonder whether Ginny knows that he knows... anyway, sorry about all the rambly speculation! I really enjoyed this fic.

Julia XD

Author's Response: Thank you Julia, you seem to have come up with all the conclusions I wanted people to see when I wrote the story so *fans face* PHEW!. In my mind, Ginny doesn't know that Harry knows, but then Harry might not know exactly what's gone on ... confusing ... ha ha. Darn, I see a prequel in the offing. Hmm, Lavender/Blaise ... just wait and see. ~Carole~

I'm so glad you put this on the archives, Alyssa! I love it. It is so brilliantly icky.

Author's Response: I'm so happy that you like it, Julia! It hurt to write this, and reading it must have been hard. :P Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Eep! That was a great chapter, Gina! The thought of Snape using Sectumsempra on James is certainly an interesting one. I liked the way this scene sort of mirrors the scene between Harry and Draco in HBP, although, they weren't fighting over a girl. The argument was paced really well and you definitely pulled it off. Can't wait for the next update!

Julia XD

Author's Response: Thanks so much for coming back and reading some more, Julia! I'm glad you liked the fight. This is the chapter where I PMed Carole and went - omg, James is in the hospital wing, what do I do now? Because it was just that unexpected, lol. It does sort of mirror HBP, doesn't it? I find that happens often in my writing. The next chapter is with my beta so it shan't be long! The next one, however...hm. Thanks again for reading and for the great review! ~Gina :)

Eeeeeeeeeeeek Gina! I just read the entire thing tonight. I was reading the first few chapters of PS and was suddenly overcome with an urge to read some James/Lily so I came to your author's page, of course. I remember I started reading this as you were writing it but fell behind and never caught up. I'm so glad I finally re-read it and got to finish. It's such a sweet and well-told story. It feels so canon, as if this really did happen. All the characters were so well-drawn and the plot was fab. I seem to remember reading the scene when Lily is stuck in the step when you were still writing it. There was humour and a little angst and some steamy action xD and all in all it was such a fun read. Guhhhhh this is a useless review but I really just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed this after a long day of study. I'm definitely still on a James/Lily high so I'll probably be visiting some more of your fics soonish :P

Julia xoxo

Author's Response: Julia! Thank you so much for the amazing review! I can't believe you read the entire thing at once! But I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I don't write many chaptered fics like this so it was fun and challenging and always so good to hear that someone liked it, given how much J/L there really is out there. Were we chatting on AIM when I was writing the step part? I think I remember talking to someone about it. I was sort of surprised by the ending myself, hee hee. But it was all fun. And then I went and wrote more. If you like first person, I've written a two from James POV (I do like him, you know!) and one from a snarky!Lily POV. Thanks so much for reading this one, I really appreciate the lovely review! ~Gina :)

Eep! I just realised that I missed the last update! Oh well. It meant I could read two chapters at once! Aw, it is heart-breaking to see Hermione in her and Ron's flat. It was also sad to see Ginny being so cruel to Hermione. I know I don't really like her as a character but to see her so distrustful of both Harry and Hermione was a bit shocking. But then, grief does strange things to people, and after losing Ron, then breaking up with Harry... I'm not sure whether to empathise with her or give her a good wallop. Of course Harry and Hermione are going to comfort each other in the wake of Ron's death. Gosh!

/rant at Ginny.

But keep it up, Jess! I'm so glad the updates are so frequent XD

Author's Response:

You're back!!! I wanted Hermione to have to go back, if only for practical reasons, before she was ready for it. I wanted there to be elements of humour and of Ron, but nothing overtly melancholy. It probably came out as Bummer Central, but that's how I roll.

It seems like it's taking forever for them to get together, but rushing it would just ruin it, I'd think. So, therefore, this story is going to be longer than I'd anticipated. Yay!

Luvs...

~Jess