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I may be an unholy demon for saying this, but good riddance. It's almost disgusting that Lucius's last words were bigoted garbage. I felt a bit bad for being annoyed with Scorpius for not wanting to believe Harry and Ginny, but Jaysus F Nutbunnies, I feel vindicated now that Scorpius is firmly aware of who and what his family is. While it was true that they were a bit more wise in the battle, they still believed the purist drivel.

Enjoy Hell, Lucius.

I feel like I should keep reading, but we shall have to continue this later. Pins and needles, Croll. Pins and needles. Guh! Can't wait!

~Jess

Author's Response: You know, I was very close to going the other way with this and having Lucius show some repentance thinking Lily was Ginny, but ... it didn't feel right. He might not have known that Tom Riddle would try to kill her, but I can't believe he didn't have a fair idea that something pretty catastrophic would happen to his enemy's daughter. I get a bit angry when I think about him escaping Azkaban. He might not have fought at that last battle, but he was an utter bastard and should have spent time there.

Thank you so much for reading and all the lovely reviews. Making me smile a lot. ~Carole~

Neville + Amortentia = I am slain. I don't believe I've giggled this madly in a while. Very nice. :)

~Jess

Aww, I was so rooting for James. You tricked me with a Prof rating. Cheeky woman!

Anyway, I really liked the characterisation; they really seemed like normal teenagers, up to no good and doing stuff they shouldn't behind their parents' backs. It reminded me of being that age, even if the time since that was the case is becoming alarmingly longer and longer, hehe. 

Great fic. Sizzling pairing. Heart heart heart you, and Natalie, too!

~Jess

Awww! This story is the perfect blend of sentiment, pensiveness, and reflection, but not too much of any one of them. I don't think I've ever come across a story where Remus would punch one of his mates, but it makes so much sense, considering their age at the time.

The camaraderie between the Marauders was brilliant, but what was even better was the bouts of tension and, most importantly, how they moved past them. It is obvious from every word that you know these guys just so very well. 

Well done, Twin! Boo to bad coding, but the story was excellent. 

~Jess

Um, flaility flail flail!

This is gorgeous and jealousy-inducing. It's so rich in emotion and gives me the wibblies just like The Forest Again. So very well done, and I'll be damned if you don't win this one, too!

~Jess

Author's Response: YAY! Glad you liked it :D

Wow! What a gorgeous, lush poem, Alex! It manages to be romantic and sullen all at once without too much of each. Ginny has the same thoughts as other girls her age should have: does the boy she likes miss her as much as she misses him. It really grounds the poem and gives it a base with which readers can touch and identify. Yet you illustrate the angst over the war and what it means to both of them and their relationship really well. Yes, they both do have bigger things to worry about, yet in the moonlight, she can't help it. It really shows human nature to worry about things that should be far more trivial in times of crisis, which is a great tool to reach an audience, I think. The big things weigh and loom, but in a shadow within a shadow, the small things add up and sometimes affect us more than the Big Thing.

The motif of distance in comparison with the horizon is a fascinating one. The horizon is a tricky thing, so it really adds to the uncertainty of Ginny's situation. Not only does she have no idea where Harry is location-wise, she doesn't have a clue when he'll get back, and the imagery of the jagged horizon works well with that idea and really works well for your poem in general.

Overall, I think the structure works. I don't remember what it was supposed to look like originally, but the indented sections create an engaging visual effect. And all of this compiles into a fabulous poem. Very well done!

~Jess

I will review properly at some point, but oh my Prongs, this is just amazing. It's dark and uncouth and horrible and ugly and beautiful and just kind of perfect. None of that makes sense, but I don't know what else to say. :3

Thank you so much for this. It was a brilliant drabble, but this is by far richer and darker and so much fuller. You are divine.

Author's Response: I'm so glad you liked it :) I was amazed at how highly you thought of the drabble, and so am delighted you thought the expanded version was a story which brightened (or not, given the content...) your birthday week! Thanks for the review, and your squeeing is lovely- Alex

This story is so. Freaking. Cool.

I suppose I vaguely had an idea what a dryad/wood nymph was before I read this, but you really brought her purpose, her existence, the essence of her soul to life. Now I can't imagine a wood nymph being anything else but what you've shown here.

Merlin, the research you would've had to do! But I think it's worth it, as this story is a feat in itself. Had I know that this is what you were writing, I would've answered your CCT question right away instead of wibbling over it. Not only is this indelibly an original character fic, it's unique and incredible.

Naturally, you don't write much fic without Neville, but he is, of course, the only choice for this role. Who else but he is worthy of the gift of a dryad's love? And Melea does love him in whatever way she can, I think.

Now, on to Melea. You have imbued her with a splendid role, as both a mother and protector of the forest, but as a being with a measure of free will, one that allows Neville to live his life in the human world and trusts him to come back to her. I think she realises that he is a man in a million who would actually keep his promise to do so.

As I read your descriptions of the wind's nocturne, the song of the forest, I think I felt a little of what Neville did. There is just a deep level of understanding forged into those words, the words neither Melea nor Neville could ever find, that allowed me, a mere human, a glimpse into that world and understand its unfaltering power. It's a powerful bit of writing and completely unfair that I will never be able to do that. Kudos for that little shudder of delight.

Perhaps, though, the most heady of triumphs in this story is how you managed to encapsulate the important parts of the relationship between Melea and Neville. Watching him grow older in bounds was not sudden, but an intuitive glimpse into Melea's perception of his much more fragile life cycle, but while her own dwindles, as well. Staying alive while feeling the call of death to introduce her daughter to her inheritance and her paternity was an amazing gift from Melea to Althaea. I feel honoured almost that I got to witness it, like one marvels at once-in-a-lifetime natural events or a monumental turn in history. That was a incredible piece of writing.

All in all, I am ridiculously happy that you wrote this story and that you shared it with us. Whatever reads/reviews this has currently, it isn't enough, and I'm very put out that I have to wait a year to nominate it for a QSQ. So very excellent. Thank you. Just...thank you.

~Jess

This is a stunning story, and so much different than your regular style. If I didn't know beforehand that you'd written it, I never would've figured it out by guessing. The pure tactile, physical nature of it, along with the sensuality, make it gritty, passionate, and so very much up my alley!

Oliver, to me, was a refreshing departure from the man-child we left off with in Prisoner of Azkaban. Yes, he's got the drive, the competitive nature, and the drive to not only succeed but to propel those around him, as well; however, he is also the kind of man who would come back, risking life and limb, to fight in the Battle of Hogwarts. There is a tempered sense of humanity about him that might've been lacking in the third book, where he was willing to let Harry ride the Firebolt without a full inspection.

I think this is a good change from his younger self because it shows that he recognises that Katie matters more than her ability to contribute to the team, that her state of mind isn't defined by her will or her refusal to acknowledge weakness in herself. But also, it allows him to see her for her, not as a cog in the team machine, but as someone he cares about and eventually falls in love with.

As for Katie, I think you built a really important set of variables in her attitude to set up the self-harm scenario. First off, she was defensive and refused help; second, she was abnormally driven and unwilling to consider her own health; finally, she cut out Oliver from her life -- not, I suspect, because she was angry with him so much as his potential role in ending her cutting, which she used like a security blanket when she announced that it was her body to do with as she pleased.

Their romance was built gradually, which really emphasised Oliver's desire not to push her too far. But more than that, I think it allowed Oliver, as the narrator, to open up the door to the critical issues in the story by showing the signs to me as the reader that she was in trouble but make them subtle enough that it takes him some time to figure it out. Coupling that with the romantic tension that evolved into a more sexual relationship makes it feel like a train wreck waiting to happen between them.

One theme in this story that I felt was important was agency -- free will. It was woven so tightly into the story that one cannot help but think about it. Did Oliver violate Katie's right to her own body by thwarting her spot on the team (which is what I assumed happened after he found out she was cutting, though it wasn't directly stated), since he probably never would've found out about it had they not been in an intimate relationship? It's a great question to pose in a story, and the answer could mean several things to several people.

With what I see, I think Oliver did the right thing, because when Katie invited him into her heart and her life, she did grant him a place of prominence in her life and her decision-making. Not noticing a stranger or casual acquaintance's self-harm issue is one thing; no moral onus is put on passers-by for not intervening. But when someone is entwined into a person's daily life and has a vested interest in the other's emotional/physical/spiritual health, one does whatever is necessary to preserve their loved one, as well as their own peace of mind. A man like Oliver, especially as portrayed in the story, doesn't seem the type to be able to sleep at night knowing he could help and didn't.

Your writing style is so clean and bare here, which allows the story to speak for itself. There are a lot of powerful aspects of the fic, ones that are raw and aching; allowing them to shine rather than utilising copious metaphor, simile, parallelism, or what have you really gives it a chance to connect to readers on all levels. Where I think it's particularly sharp is when Oliver first confronts Katie about her cutting. The narrative voice isn't romantic or condemning or tragic, but rather it steps aside to let me feel Oliver's aching for her along with him without couching it in hidden meaning. That honesty is one of the story's biggest strengths for that reason.

Overall, this is a great fic. The characterisation was rich, well-considered, and raw. Coupled with crisp storytelling and careful themes, it is by far my favourite story of yours I've ever read. I am not just saying this because it was a gift for me, but rather because I genuinely feel like you hit so many homeruns with this that it can't help but float to the top. Very, very well done, and thank you very much for this beautiful gift.

*hugs*

Jess

This is such a riveting story and a fantastic AU scenario. It's interesting to see Edward and Eileen bond over their losses and how alone they were, but more to see how, in the end and after all that happened, the ones left standing after the war were the ones that paid the price for it. Also, the use of the canon changes is what AU should be about.

Even though the story is in Edward's perspective, the richness of Eileen's character is stunning. You can see the initial mistrust born of a lifetime of abuse, and you can see that she's had so little to care about in her life that she can barely cope with the loss of Severus. But beyond that, it was really nice to see her make something of her life and pick herself up after Tobias died, instead of letting him ruin the rest of her life.

The revelation that Edward had been magical was shocking, mostly because that would've made Lily a half-blood, but in a way, it makes sense. Her parents were proud of her and weren't put off by her magic like Petunia was, so the idea that Edward's wife already knew about magic adds an interesting dynamic to the Evans' family homelife.

I think, though, that the greatest tool used in this story was empathy. After everything that both of them had lost, it would've been easy for both Edward and Eileen to be self-absorbed, yet they found it within each other to care about the other and be that port in a storm, so to speak. Both of them had veritably nothing left yet gave because it felt right somehow. JKR seemed to be a believer in destiny and soul-mates, so this really fits into the concept of her universe well.

I've always thought that AU should be used to enrich what we know about a character by presenting how they would deal in a different situation, or expanding what we know about an event by changing its outcome. That principle pretty much guides our acceptance/rejection of AU stories, and this is a perfect example of both of these.

Saying that Lily's parents were conveniently dead always felt like a cop-out by Jo so there was better reason to leave Harry with the relative least likely to give a crap about him and to seal his poor-pity-orphan background. This feels like the more likely outcome, with parents outliving children and mourning them for decades while waiting for their turn to pass on.

I've done some poking around, and sources vary on Eileen's fate. The HP lexicon doesn't list a death date, but it also hasn't been updated in several years, but the HP wiki lists her death as 1971, the same year Severus went off to Hogwarts. However, the wiki (rather unreliably) uses both film and video game canon, along with newer Pottermore canon, so its veracity is unconfirmed. But nonetheless, it's still interesting to see the parallels in Edward's and Eileen's respective lives and how the war affected them both in different ways but to a similar end. Something to chew on, I guess.

I never got to read this story, as Julia judged the challenge, but I'm glad I bumped into it while trawling for QSQ nominations. This is probably my favourite thing by you, and it shows how much thought you put into your work to make it feel human and well-considered.

Thank you for sharing. :)

~Jess

Author's Response: Thank you so much, Jess, for such a lovely and thoughtful review. This story was my first venture into romance, and I chose this challenge prompt by default, since I didn’t think I could do a good job with the other two prompts. So I decided, “If I’m going to write romance, then I will write it about people my own age, and who cares whether anyone likes it.” People of this age have had a different upbringing and have learned different customs than the current young generation, and their long years of life and experience have developed their ways of thinking differently; I tried to reflect all that in the two characters of the story, but wondered whether younger readers would be able to identify with Edward and Eileen, or whether my protagonists would just seem like fuddy-duddies. In 2012 I traveled back to my California hometown for a high school reunion, and during that visit I walked with my husband through the familiar old cemetery, noting the names of people I used to know, and meeting some of my old returning classmates who were also strolling through the cemetery. So the scene and the tombstones were fresh in my memory when I wrote. Edward has been given a magical background because I have always wondered what ultimately happened to Muggleborn children whose families did not accept the offer of a magical education for their child. Did the Muggleborns blunder through life constantly turning people’s hair blue by accident, or did they learn to suppress inadvertent magic, or did the talent just wither away from disuse? I chose to have Edward prevent it by assuming the role of Peaceful Percy (that was Roger Daltrey’s nickname for himself after he decided to stop beating up his bandmates in The Who during the early days of the band). The early death of Lily’s parents seemed like a convenient cop-out to me also, and Julia and I discussed this a little while talking about the AU rating. There are other ways it could have been handled, but that’s a long discussion in itself. It is so gratifying to know that these characters seemed real and honest to you; it is more fulfilling to write about people who are not behaving stupidly (but, admittedly, that is sometimes hard to do when the characters are adolescents!) Thank you so much for this wonderful review. Vicki