Hello again,

Broken Flint: Very interesting. I'm really glad you wrote a story which shows what the 'bad guys' did after the battle. I think your characterisation of Millicent is very interesting... and it certainly fit her to carve Marcus' initials into her skin... and yet, despite her seeming to be 'bad', it was obvious that she cared about Marcus, which somehow seems to redeem her a bit, at least in my perspective.

Ouroboros: What a perfectly manipulative Narcissa. That was so realistic - at one point you wrote something about how Lucius adopted a bored/aloof look that he wore so well or something, it really shows how the only thing the Malfoys seem to be good at is acting. You've made them seem so interesting in this, I'd love to see your take on how they're holding up a few years down the track. Particularly Draco.

Paperwork: It's funny how sometimes seeing the pain and loss in the world can lead us to rediscover what's important... This story was one of my favourites from the series. Finding the killer didn’t stop her victims from being dead. That's just so true. I imagine it would be extremely difficult to be 'professionally detached' when you're dealing with dead people, who, as you point out, are all someone's daughter or son, or friend, or brother or sister.

Anyway, I'm rather curious to see how you'll tie everything up in the last story... I suspect you'll hear from me again soon. Sofar everything has been well-written, well-characterised, poignant, true to canon... fantastic.

~Katrina

Author's Response:
Katrina

Broken Flint was my chance to create a few minor villains (apart from Goyle, the others are little more than names). Bigoted Mudblood-hating racists can love people (just not Mudbloods). This chapter gave me four villains (including Colin’s killer) for Harry and co. to chase in other stories. I don’t believe that Millicent is as stupid as many people think, she simply knows when to get physical.

I hate stories featuring nice, redeemed, and contrite Malfoys. They are great villains, and stories need great villains. Draco was never witty, simply cruel and Narcissa needs to keep him quiet. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny should never be certain whether the Malfoys have changed, or are merely pretending they have changed. It worked for the Malfoy’s after the first war.

Paperwork underwent several rewrites (the final version had a “happy” ending because the original was simply too bleak). Whether Auror Al (don’t call him Spider) Webb reappears in my other stories is something I haven’t decided.
Neil

And thus it ends...

I have to say, I wondered how you would be able to tie this amazing set of stories together and od them all justice... and you certainly didn't disappoint. I think there's a nice pattern to it that the first story was about Madam Pomfrey and the last about Madam Pince. I think the amazing thing about this is that you really stuck to her character in canon (as in when she talks about the students ruining books etc.), and yet you made her... compassionate? I suppose that's the right word.

You ask some interesting questions in this... like Is one tragedy less than another simply because there are fewer corpses? Or is it greater because several of the victims were teenagers? I suppose there's not really an answer to it. You're just highlighting how there is so little need for death, how pointless it is.

With quill in hand, I recorded the night’s events. Nothing? A waste of time? I do not think so. I am no Healer, no Auror and no warrior. I did what I could, what I do best. I really loved this line, and I think it really shows how death affects everyone around it. So even though Irma wasn't in danger herself, she still had to cope with the death surrounding her and try and deal with it. And she did all she could to help.

The idea of destroying books is repugnant. It goes against everything I have been taught, everything I believe. Books lift the brume of ignorance. But perhaps the loss forever of these books would be condign, an appropriate threnody for the fallen.
'Not at all,' I tell her. Somehow that is just the perfect ending for this whole story... I guess there's something about burning those books which suggests cleansing or healing, allowing for rebirth... kind of like a phoenix.

Anyway, I'm so glad I decided to read Tales of the Battle, it's been a fantastic read.

~Katrina

Author's Response:
Katrina

I wasn’t certain how I was going to finish this myself (for a while Paperwork was going to be the final chapter). Eventually, I decided to reread the stories. I got no further than “The Calm Before”. The second I read it, I knew it had to be Madam Pince, and this story flowed very quickly from that decision.

Possibly it’s because I’m a fan of Terry Pratchett, but I believe that being the Librarian in a magical library is a potentially dangerous job. I’ve tried to show Madam Pince as very well-read and rather detached.

Thanks for all of your reviews. Every one of them interesting and thought provoking.
Neil

You really had me hooked in this fic! My favourite parts were the opening bits where you explored character and showed the small things that Harry had missed out on in Teddy's life etc. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting the ending but it fitted in well with how you set it up.

Somehow the last bit of writing didn't quite work for me. I liked the bit with Draco, but the next three paragraphs seemed a little excessive. Perhaps you could have written that shorter and still finished with "But not just then...". But that's just a personal opinion.

I also would have liked to have known a little more about how Teddy managed to find Harry, but maybe that wouldn't have worked because after his death it seems kind of insignificant... so I'm not sure about whether that would have worked or not.

I think the best thing was your characters, who you created very believably and explored nicely. Well done!

Author's Response:

Ah, I see you've got past the righteous anger bit where you want to strangle me for killing off poor ickle Teddy. :D

What I really wanted was to paint a picture of Teddy that showed him trying to figure out how to be a man whilst Harry simultaneously struggled with being a father figure. Perhaps Teddy would have been better off not wanting to be like Harry, but most children love their dads despite their flaws. I seem to be in teh minority of people who consider Harry one of the more flawed characters in the Potterverse. He is brave and all that, but he makes poor judgment calls and judges people constantly. But Teddy doesn't learn these things because Harry isn't around as much. Instead, he falls in love with the ideal Harry that everyone talks about -- the saviour.

How Teddy found Harry? I just sort of glossed over it because I figured it would be more of a given. Knowing that anyone wanting to abduct Harry would be a friggin idiot to stay in the building, the next logical step would have been to look outside, where he saw Harry, Yaxley,and Rowle in the distance, also allowing him time to formulate his plan. 

And the last bit...I know it all seems a bit wooden, but it was supposed to be. Harry was supposed to be in this trance-like shock where it really hasn't sunk in yet that his godson was dead and he was responsible (or at least he feels he is). He really had thought that he could go back to life after defeating Voldemort, and teh destruction of this illusion takes some time to process. 

Also, there was an ulteriour motive to including Ginny. In my story The Vindication of James Potter, I sort of cannibalised Harry and Ginny's marriage, citing earlier examples of their problems. This was the start of that, when he told her what and who had got Teddy killed. Most of my readers from that story read my other ones as well, so I like to put in little nuggets to ring some bells for them so they can say, "Oh, now I get it."

Thanks for the review and reading my obnoxiously long response. Have a lovely day!

~Jess

I thought it was an interesting story and nicely written. It annoyed me a little that you used "anyways" instead of "anyway", it added a colloquial sound to the story which to me didn't really fit.

Also I never had the impression that purebloods actually believed that Muggles stole their magic... I thought that was just the story they put out. I always thought they wanted to make themselves feel better and so they had to find someone to bully, and that's why they picked on Muggleborns and Muggles. Anyway, I guess that's just a different interpretation.

Author's Response: Thank you! Oops...thanks for pointing that out. That's a really good interpretation of it, and I think that purebloods are just so filled with pride that they can't admit that they do pick on Muggleborns and Muggles to make themselves feel better, what you said. But I also think that after all those years putting that story out, they just started to believe it themselves. And this fueled their hatred even more, to keep this story in the back of their minds. But that's just what I think, and someone else may have something completely different to say. Thank you so much for your review! Have an amazing day bri

I really enjoyed this fic - you captured boh Bella and Cissy perfectly. I loved the repetition of the opening and the ending - it has a nice circular effect, that evil will keep going on and on.

One of my favourite lines was "Aunt Walburga has removed her." - It was the perfect line for Bella.

The small canon problems - with ages etc. - didn't bother me much, as this is a fic about character and I thought it was done nicely.

Author's Response: Thank you!

My first thought was excellent characterisation of Percy - you made him fit JK's Percy and yet put him in a nicer light than he was often seen in the books. In a way, I would have preferred it if the title was "What a coincidence" rather than "Catchphrase", but that's just my personal opinion.

But it was a great fic, definitely short and sweet :).

I'm glad you added a sequel to Boy oh Boy, I felt like it needed some more at the end of that. This was a sweet story and I really liked it, however there were a few small grammatical mistakes (eg "I was be disowned" instead of I would be disowned) and in some cases I thought you over-wrote Andromeda's thoughts, when to the reader they were obvious by her actions.

But otherwise it was sweet and nicely written. Great fic :).

Author's Response: I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for the comments.

This was so heartbreaking to read. I liked your depiction of James especially, and your reasoning behind him asking Lily out was nice (it is nice not to see him moping over her once in a while).

Dita was a great character too. I liked the way you paralleled the idea juggling worlds in Dita and James. The first chapter was great too - especially the first time they met.

Anyway, I could ramble a lot about how much I enjoyed all of this. Your writing was beautiful throughout, and that last bit with Remus was just so sad and yet so beautiful...

Author's Response: Aww, thank you very much. I enjoyed writing this, although I never thought I'd like writing James with anyone but LIly. I agree that it gets a bit tiresome seeing him only thinking about Lily. Thanks again ~Carole~

I really liked how you developed Rose's character... I think that's the best thing about this fic. Showing all the small scenes over her years at Hogwarts was perfect, it really showed her growing up and changing, but still staying the same. I thought Scorpius would have been more angry or hurt or something at the end, though. Rather than just kissing her, perhaps they would have argued or something first? Otherwise I thought you did a really good job of him.

So yeah, great story, I enjoyed it a lot :).

Author's Response: Thanks so much for reviewing! I'm glad you liked Rose's character…I'll probably write more of her later simply because I feel like I got to know her so well after writing her through the years. With Scorpius's reaction…he sees that Rose is truly remorseful, and that she's really worried that she's too late, and doesn't want to hurt her or push her away when she's finally opening up to him. Afterward they'll probably have a more serious discussion. Thanks again, so much! xx Ariana

This was really well written. I thought it was interesting to look at it from Draco's perspective, rather than one of the Weasley's or someone like that. He has that different position of having supported Voldemort but now suffering just as everyone else under his regime.

Especially your description of Hermione at the end was chilling. - "all he could think was that it was as if somebody had gouged them out of her sockets with sharp fingernails, leaving behind only two nasty, bloody hollows" - that's a very powerful line.

Author's Response: Thank you! I've never written a story from Draco's pov before, so I'm pleased you like it :) xx