I've been sorted in Ravenclaw, and my fellow members of the House of Blue and Bronze have been exceptionally welcoming so far. I'm also certified by PI as a beta reader.
I finally found inspiration to write something of my own, and posted here at MNFF, as well as over at SIYE (under the same name).
Besides reading fanfiction (which I've recently gotten back into), I enjoy playing my trumpet and working with drum and bugle corps. I'm currently a music teacher, recently graduated from university.
...And that's about as much detail as I feel comfortable putting on the internet for just anyone to read. If you want to know more about me, just ask. I'm always glad to make a new friend.
Lastly, thanks to everyone here for putting up such wonderful stories to read! I really hope that you'll check out my story ("What's Your Favorite Color?") and let me know what you think.
I liked this take on the inevitable Ginny-Harry moment after the battle. I really don't have much to criticize, but I will suggest that Harry could've offered a sandwich in a way that didn't quite sound so dismissive of Kreacher, especially since he's supposed to have a new respect for him. It might've been better to have him say, "I could see if Kreacher could bring us some sandwiches." That makes it sound like he'd ask instead of demanding, which (besides being closer to his actions as depicted during the trio's stay at Grimmauld Place) is nicer, kinder, and sweeter, fitting in better with the wonderful mood you've set.
I really liked the emotion that you put into this story. It was very simple, but elegant, and it was easy to feel. Sometimes I think authors try to hard to mask the emotion, to make the reader work for it, to see it hidden among the rest of the details. I think sometimes it's nice to just feel.
I really like your take on how these three words are said, because I think it stays true to the personalities that Rowling created.
Rose was a Weasley. She never gave Scorpius Malfoy a second glance. They were sworn enemies, even though they’d barely even spoken to each other. But sometimes all it takes for love to blossom is a Potions lesson, a few snide remarks and a dropped book.
Two people. Two entirely different worlds that are suddenly intertwined.
Another fun chapter. I thought this one was a little bit lighter (not as much story-advancing or romance-advancing material) as some of the others, but good nonetheless.
I have to admit that I'm shocked Rose got any A's. Maybe it's me, but I always thought that, like her mother, she'd be able to find a way to do well, no matter what kind of distractions Scorpius (or Harry and Ron) provided. Maybe not 12 O's, but not A's. Ah well, such is the beauty of creative license.
I liked this fic. It was a little darker than "Someone to Watch Over Me," which I just finished reading, but it was nice to see another side of James and Lily. And even nicer to see that, despite all the horror of war, the fighting, the ill feelings, and the death, their love manages to survive. There were a few grammar/spelling errors that I found, but such is the way in any work. Heck, I've found grammar errors in Rowling's books themselves. But this was a really nice fic!
Author's Response: Thanks! I do always manage to have a few grammar/spelling errors, and if I were a better person I'd go back and try and fix them when I found them. Maybe someday? I'm glad you liked this different view of James and Lily's marriage :)
I'm interested to see what happens.
I do have a quick comment on the writing. In the dialogue, it is okay to use contractions. Contractions started because people became lazy in their speech, and it sounds unnatural in this day and age for people to speak without them, other than cases of emphasis/clarification. I think this is especially true with the word "is," since people tend to just slide into it making more of just a "s" sound.
I think Madame Pomfrey would've been at least a little annoyed with Sirius (and shown some sort of reaction, even if it might have been small) to his brash attitude towards describing James's "symptoms."
Gotta love Scrubs.
Poor James...
Sometimes the dialogue is a bit choppy, but I think the plot ideas are wonderful.
I really liked this fic. It was creative and a very unique take on Lily and James's start as a couple.
The stubborn fool.
Ah, well. No better way to go I suppose.
I thought this was a really great take on the Rose/Scorpius relationship. It was wonderfully written and full of emotion. I thought it was an interesting choice to have Lysander be in love with Rose, as I've read so many stories where Lysander loves/dates/marries Lily, but it made sense for the story (the Head Boy-Head Girl/exes tension was a nice touch).
I also liked that you addressed the issue of why portraits and statues don't alert teachers to wandering students during the wee hours of the night.
I really liked the wedding parts of it. I thought that it really captured the essence of the Ginny-Harry relationship and the emotions of a wedding. Though I might've had Ginny say that she had RARELY seen her mother cry, not never, since we've seen her cry a decent amount across the novels.
The proposal part though was really full of fluff. Fluff is one thing, but this was maybe a little too much, and it didn't fit with the tone of the rest of the story. It's a little rough to go so quickly from Ginny's tone of emotion and dignified overjoy to one of giddy, fluffy, karaoke-induced excitement. I think it's a neat idea for a proposal, but I think the tone could've changed to make it fit more easily into the rest of the story.
I kind of felt like the story could be told without the story of the proposal in the middle, and the reader wouldn't have felt something was missing. Along the same vein, I think that just about any proposal story could fit in there, since the rest of the story doesn't rely on what actually transpired there except the main idea that he proposed. I think it could've been a proposal story that slip more seamlessly into the wedding story's tone.
Author's Response: Thanks for your feedback! I do realize that Molly has cried before. I just didn't realize it when I was writing this. I think I was more trying to show how strong of a person she is. And yeah, I see that the tone was completely different, but I wasn't very much focused on that. I had an idea and I wanted to put it down. Never claim to be a great writer, but a writer non the less. I appreciate the feedback
That was a fun little dream sequence. I don't know though if it's as close to canon as your summary leads a reader to believe. It's hard to imagine the gloomy feeling of before could pervade Harry as he pursued the doe through the forest after such a happy dream. I really did like the part at the beginning though that Harry had switched up the shifts to avoid nightmares. That was a great idea. Overall, I did think it was well-written and I felt like I really got a good sense of the emotion from the story.
I really liked this one. It's certainly a different form than many of the other stories we read. I liked that some of the days were just seven or eight lines long, while some of them were paragraphs and paragraphs. It really made me believe that what you wrote was only the most important part of their conversation each day. It was really fun to see Lily and James become closer through this simple, inane little game.
Author's Response: As much as I love writing and reading epic Lily/James fics that go into all sorts of detail, I really wanted to write something that just showed the simple progression of feelings through small tid-bits. I'm glad you like their little game and liked how the sections varied :) Thanks for the review!
I didn't really understand what was going on at first, but it wasn't a bad thing. I thought it was really well thought out, and the reveal was perfect!
I really liked this story. I thought it was an interesting and unique take on the Rose/Scorpius romance, and I thought you told it well. One criticism I have, just from a grammar standpoint, is that relative pronouns (like "who," "which," "that") should follow as often as possible the object to which they refer; e.g. "the Hufflepuff's parents, who" instead of "the parents of the Hufflepuff, who." Though the context allows the reader to understand, this would clear things up a bit and usually a pretty simple fix.
It would be great to read more of this, should you choose to write it.
How did James get Lily to reconsider he might be better than the giant squid? How did Harry propose to Ginny? And how do Rose and her mother make Ron grumpy despite the holiday food?
Three generations of redheads and certain significant Christmases in their lives...It was a really fun look through the years at different love stories in the HP universe. I was a bit confused at Ron's reaction to Rose though. I couldn't find the point where you made the reader realize he was teasing as much as he was upset, rather than just being completely oblivious.
I thought it was a very creative and unique take on the H/G relationship post-Hogwarts. I did wish though for a little more mention of how Harry's relationship to Ron and Hermione had changed (or stayed the same, if that were the case) since the Halloween dinner.
Author's Response: Thanks very much. =) And yes . . . looking back, we probably should have included a bit more on the Ron & Hermione friendships. They are both very important to Harry, and certainly aren't gone forever from his life. We were more concerned about portraying the Harry/Ginny relationship in this fic though.
It's okay to use contractions sometimes (especially in dialogue). "He has insulted us" just sounds...odd.
But I thought it was a cute story.
Author's Response: Thank you.
I really can't pretend to have any idea which scene was added specifically for this story, because it all flows really well. Despite the sometimes large skips in time, and the fast pace at which you moved the reader from the end of the battle to almost three years later, it flowed really well. The emotion in it was clearly evident and it was very honest. It was at times conflicted, dizzying, confusing, elating, but overall it really summed up well what a relationship is, and how two people go from friends to soulmates.
Author's Response: Thanks so much! I'm glad you liked it, although I know it didn't skip a great deal and all went by very fast. There are a thousand Harry/Ginny after the battle stories that go into such detail, so I really wanted simply to show key moments :) Oh, and the scene added specifically for this story was when Harry left training to visit Ginny over break.
I really liked this story. It was a great plot idea, well-told, and (unlike far too much of what you read on this site) it flowed very nicely.