This chapter filled me to the brim with girlish glee! :D

First of all, Fred was hilarious... and sexy. OOPS. Second - the cards from Teddy and Andromeda. YAYAY. He has a few sensible relatives at least lol. Third, does Rose wear twisted knickers on purpose? >.< But at least the tension between Scorpius and the cousins are lessening. I loved the moment with Albus.

Horrible ending, though. :O I hope he's al right.


I have come to an end. There's this ... funny feeling I can't shake off. Once I dreamt that I got 17 review notifications, and a friend of mine went ahead and left me 17 reviews to make it come true. This reviewing spree tonight reminded me of that. :)

Author's Response: oooh yeah, I remember the 17 reviews. You fancy Fred now?! Pull yourself together. He's 14 - he just happens to be tall like his mummy. Thank you ....

You know what? Forget what I said in the previous review. I no longer care how they met when you write their present so, so … ‘Deliciously’ is the wrong choice of word, but I seriously can’t come up with the appropriate adjective. All I know is that this is one of the best things I have ever read. It leaves me cold and numb in a warm, very warm October afternoon.

It’s the way you put things:

The apology felt fleshy and raw in his mouth.
The need was a thousand times greater than any want.
His chest felt odd; he still had the pain but it was a buzzing sort of pain that drifted around and he couldn’t feel it in the same place twice.
The forgiveness bled through his skin and he felt free.

Utterly beautiful and heartbreaking. I can empathize with him, his situation, his helplessness so well.

The worst thing is, no matter how badly I want them to work out, I can see it not happening. No, this hasn’t much to do with canon. I can see that in spite of the way they complement each other here, this would never be wholesome enough to stand the test of time. :/ That leaves me feeling hollow.

This has certainly left me in a strange mood, but I assure you that is a compliment. I love fics which can affect me emotionally, and yours definitely did. Great work, and I really hope it gets the appreciation it so deserves.

~Natalie

Author's Response: Natalieeeeeeee! You are such the best. Your reviews more than make up for the little 0 I've been staring at for a month :). It makes me so, so glad to know that you actually enjoyed this story, and that the descriptions weren't confusing or overdone.

Finally here to review!

I don't know why you were feeling stuck, because this was a really satisfying ending for me. I wanted them to be together, but I really couldn't think how they could have done it, especially considering how different Justin's world is from Theo. With the messing up of the Muggleborns' names, you gave a really nice explanation!

I think that's what I liked most about this story, how you managed to bring them together in such a short story, in spite of the continuous shifts in their relationships. Of course, both their pasts' and screwed future added to the gloom and tragedy, and I kept fearing for them even though I knew they'd return to each other's arms some day.

This was a great story, Croll, and it goes very nicely with the banner. I will even forgive Jasperguy's deflated balloon lips, for Theo has come a long way indeed, and found some happiness and acceptance at last!

~Natalie

Author's Response: I was stuck because it didn't end like that. I needed to tie everything up then the line about Justin fitting the pieces back together hit me, followed by the Thestrals. Originally the ending was even more lame - LOL. I giggled at Justine Filch-Bletchley. A witch related to Filch and Miles Bletchley - wow she must be ugly!

Thank you so much for this review and the last one. I'm still a bit iffy about this, but it still fits with my canon. Glad you enjoyed it. ~Carole~

Hello!

I don't know the original so I can't really compare them, but I did have a lot of fun reading this. :D You said you wanted it to be ridiculous and mean; you have achieved that, don't worry! I can actually kind of imagine the real Pansy singing it, judging by the insults. Well done!

Hahaha! This was a like a breath of fresh air. I needed the laughter after a hard day's work.

I do have some crit. There is this line where you say:

“If there’s anything you need, we’re right here,” called Tamora Andronica, the only girl who’d ever chosen Neville Longbottom as her ‘Hogwarts Hero’ date.

As the scene is told from Ron's POV, I was wondering how he could know.

That's it, really. The part with Ginny really made me giggle. Thanks for writing! I am going to go and read your other fics. :)

Author's Response: Thanks! The bit you highlighted, I realise I didn't make quite clear, but I thought it would be something else Harry had told Ron, but didn't want to repeat myself too often. But thanks for the review!! :)

Oh Carole, Carole, Carole! What can I say? This was just an amazing ending.

Okay, I’ll start with a confession. I think I am rather in love with your Dominique (which makes me feel bad because it’s like I am cheating on mine), but yours is a more intriguing character. She is dark, she is sarcastic and she is very, very sexy. I think Dominique should be made officially gay by Rowling because men just don’t deserve that much hotness.

Poor James :/ But I felt sadder for Dominique, the way she is caught in a half-way house. Although, I must say that this story gave me an interesting insight into your James. In High, we don’t know much of him, and this peek into his life is quite touching and bittersweet. It certainly gave him an interesting dimension. I’ll be thinking of it when I read the final chapter of your glorious (but not very convincing) Scorpius/Lily fic.

You really baffled me in this story, and I mean it as a compliment. I kept wondering why this Myles, who sounded a tad like an oversexed Cormac McLaggen, was writing such amazing poetry LOL. The plot twist in the end with “M”(heeheeheehee) yanked off my pants (metaphorically speaking, of course!) I cried tears of joy because Dominique liked girls! :D :D And also that Myles person was not the poet because that would have made me traumatic.

Your writing really shone in this fic. You write emotions really, really well. Dominique’s chapter was so heart-wrenching. The letter about carousels was beautiful and poignant, the scene in the bathroom was beyond amazing, and the dance with James was so desperately sexy. While the first chapter was bittersweet, the second overwhelmed me with its tragic sense of loss and wanton desire for wholeness.

I feel like no praise is going to be enough without dropping the f-word a fair few times, so I shall poke you later on :D But thank you so, so much for this! Seriously, I love it to bits!

Author's Response: Thank you so much for this lovely review. If I tell you how much I agonised over this story (when I remembered you're not keen on 'cousins') I was close to deleting it all, but this was the canon I kind of had for James - being in love with someone he couldn;t have - and Dominique fitted the story largely down to you making her so bloody hot- ha ha. Of course THIS was the reason I couldn't read Bleed because I was terrified I'd have to delete all of this once I'd read your Dominique. M can be Maudie if you desire it so, however I wasn;t sure (from what I remembered) whether she was at all like Maudie, and this prob doesn;t fit your timeline - or Dominques career as a restauranteer - (ha ha - I had that in another story years ago)

yours is a more intriguing character.

That's because I am evil ... No, it's because you know your Dom inside out, and I know my Nix - hee hee.

Deeply touched by the review. I shall sniffle a bit more and then worship at Kara's feet for encouraging me to finish. THANKIEEEEES ~Carole~

Oh no.

I mean, I loved the fic. It's perfect for Halloween. It's just the events of the next Halloween mortifiying me. :/

Lovely one-shot, though. :) I enjoyed reading it!

Author's Response: One of the things I love and hate about Marauder-era is that everything is shadowed with the knowledge that nothing lasts. I'm glad you enjoyed reading it anyway; I tried to keep the gloom to a minimum :D xx Ariana

Keene? *snigger*

Oh Gina! This was absolutely stunning and masterfully written. I love your choice of memories and how well they mesh with the present. I have to confess that I teared up many times while reading this - Dumbledore's kind words, his friends's staunch loyalty, Tonks's love, and Remus' life. I mean, how hard it was for him. It's overwhelmingly sad, and I am happy he got Tonks in the end.

Lovely, lovely story! Going into my favourites.

~Natalie

Author's Response: I know, I know - I realized it lying in bed last night, just couldn't change it from my ipod. Darn you all for being so quick to read it, lol! Thank you very much for reading this, Natalie. I'm glad you enjoyed it and really appreciate the amazing review this morning! ~Gina :)

SQUEEEE!

I LOVE THIS. Of course, I love Draco redemption fics in general, but there was something so pleasant, so calming, so understated about it. It inspires so many promises of hope.

What I enjoyed most about this story was Luna. You wrote her so, so well. But your depiction of Draco-snark was perfection too. This exchange had me giggling:

"You're Draco Malfoy," she replies instead. The non-sequitur throws him and he responds defensively.

"And you're bloody brilliant," he snaps back. "Do I know you?"


I honestly felt for Draco's plight in this story. He's one of those characters that a fanfic writer can easily make or break, and here, you did a great job at invoking pity in us. This part made me tear up actually:

"He's a naturalist," she replies. Her eyes light up with happiness, and in an instant he knows he has lost her.

My only nitpick is that the mention of Luna's captivity at Malfoy Manor came somewhat late. I'd expect twitchy Draco to think of it earlier. You could still add it in a line or two in the first section itself. Just a suggestion.

OH! I forgot to mention I enjoyed your version of Astoria as well. :D I think JK mentioned somewhere that she was a Slytherin, but meh. I also wrote her as a Ravenclaw in my early versions.

Really loved this, Gina. I used to secretly ship Draco/Luna on and off, so it made me happy!

Natalie

Author's Response: Natalieeeee! Thank you so much for the review! I'm so glad you liked it, I've been playing with this idea for a while. Originally it would have taken place over several years, but I think I like this better. I'm glad I kept a bit of Draco's snark, although by this point he is a bit depressed and disillusioned. You know, I woke up and checked for reviews and first thing I did was go look for Astoria--which I had done already, but I just wanted to be sure. I didn't find any reference to her house, and I put her in Ravenclaw to go with my Christmas story about Scorpius and Roxanne (Scorpius was in Ravenclaw.) So I think I'll stick with that either way. And I have to admit I wrote more than half of this before remembering the bit about Luna being captive. I knew I had to address it and I thought it turned out okay, but I could see your point about it being earlier. Although, their first encounter is so brief, he might not even think of it until he keeps meeting her and the guilt begins to grow. Haha, that's an 'after the fact' answer if there ever was one! Thanks again for the lovely review! On to my next pairing...~Gina :)

:'(

This is so bloody fabulous, Julia. First of all, I love the visuals it gives me: tears of glass cutting skin and tearing life, extinguished with one tongue-flick. Gahh. The entire poem is like word porn. I cannot get enough of it.

As for the emotions it evoked in me. Once more, it managed to remind me of Harry's sacrifice, his need to sacrifice, and the great fear, loneliness and vulnerability he felt after he realised he had meant to die after all. The last two lines, however, makes me think of the strange parallel between him and Voldemort, and how different they were from each other at the same time.

I hope it receives as much love as it did the first time, if not more. It deserves nothing less!

Author's Response: Oh you have me giggling right now :3 Word porn. Thank you so much for the lovely review, Lafonna.