The chapter's end is beautifully written. The struggle between Remus' feelings towards Lily and his friendship with James has a nice balance and isn't overly dramatized. I like that it is a concious choice that Remus makes in helping James.

Author's Response: Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. I liked the idea of it being a conscious choice too, rather than him just losing her.

I think out of the other one-shots you’ve written this is my favorite. I like how much depth and intrigue you have given to the character of Mr. Ollivander. I think the part of the story that stuck out at me the most was: [i] “When I began this job, if it can be called that, I was so sure, with all the surety that youth brings, that I could solve all the questions, decipher all the clues, and explain all the mysteries. I have since learnt that trying to determine how it all works is pointless, and that one can only carry out one’s duties, and hope that it will one day become clear.”[/i] You have written the life of Mr. Ollivander, the man who’s job takes over him, but you have also written the essence of life itself. It gives advice that is not only necessary for the new Ollivander, but for anyone, [i]“My advice to you is to marvel at what you do find out, instead of being obsessed with what you are yet to comprehend. If you only care about what you do not have, then you never appreciate what you do have.”[/I] what can I say good advice for anyone really. The other thing I also enjoyed was the little activities that he does, the solitaire and cricket. Sad as his life sounded it also sounded like everyone’s life. Filling up the time with activities to deal with the boredom. The only question I had was why did Mr. Ollivander the former sign his real name. I thought that after time he forgot his name, or is it that now that he has retired he remembers his old name?

Know...knew. That line was great, one of the hardest things to do when someone passes is to being to speak about them in the past tense. You captured his denial and attempt at acceptance wonderfully. The way you set up the story speaking of being shut out by the world and then in the end shutting the world out when his 'family' is destroy is beautiful.

Author's Response: Thank you, Ksenia! Thanks for noticing the turnabout in isolation. It's always nice to hear a new opinion abut my writing. :)

It is a good start, introductions and setting up your scenes can be difficult at times. I would suggest relaxing a bit with your diologue. You don't need to reveal everything with your diologue. Try and create different voices for each of your characters.

I've seen few be able to master a young Sirius' voice, and you've done it. You've been able to mix the playful boyish charm and mischievousness but still balance it out with his sense of responsibility. With both your one shots you've shown the essense of both Moony and Padfoot.

Author's Response: Thank you Ksenia! I'm glad you stopped by to review. I'm glad to know that you like Sirius. He was interesting to write. :)

Peter's need to escape struck me the most. The tragedy of his character comes out clearly in this one shot. Its subtil but the moment with Remus shows the lack of faith the rest of the Maurauders. Remus searches for what seems like a five minute period looking for a piece of paper since he knows Peter will forget. As a grown man he is treated like a child, emasculated by his closest friends. But even on the other side he finds he is powerless. The tragedy is that in the company of either group he is still miserable and alone. You seem to convay these feelings wonderfully through his self loathing, and interactions with Remus.

Author's Response: Thank you for your review! You always seem to know what I was going for. And thank you for noticing that Peter is alone no matter what. Writing this made me understand him a little better and it sounds like you understood him better as well. :)

I bow down to the sucess of your story. I had not thought it possible to create a realistic romantic relationship that developed over 48 hours. I usually get annoyed by quick romances but here the pacing seemed slow as well as giving the urgancy of the wedding. Your characters were in canon, and their developement into older age was wonderfuly done. The only place where I felt it fell from it high standered was the when the girls were talking to Hermione before the wedding. I felt that the pairings offered were a bit odd, and not fully prepared. But over all it was wonderfully written and I definately loved it.

Author's Response: The 48-hour premise was created by one of the judges in Sycophant Hex's Spring Faire Festival. This one-shot was merely a response to it. I made the other pairings odd on purpose, to drive home the point that love is unpredictable. If, however, I had intended this story to be taken seriously, I would have selected different pairings. Thanks for reviewing. :-)

Not many would kill Harry, I respect that you took that step and wrote a final battle where Harry lost. One that didn’t involve a miraculous end. I was impressed though there were a few parts that didn’t work well for me. I do enjoy the hinting at who was there, but once I discovered that Hermione was the narrator it lost its appeal, she knows them all and they are all her friends so I found it odd that she wouldn’t be a bit more personal about each. The setting was another odd part, I guess I didn’t really understand how the final battle worked out, was there an arranged time and place for them all to meet, or did Harry and the gang decided that if they stay in the house they would lure the Dark Lord to them? Ginny’s charm also confused me as well as the fact that the Death Eaters and Voldemort didn’t kill off the rest of the group. I just felt that they would have enjoyed destroying the friends of Harry.

I was impressed by the way you wrote the fight scene. It wasn’t overly filled with action and confusion. Rather it came off realistic in an interesting way since the writing was stylized. There was a poetic moment having Wormtail be the finish to Lupin, that he and Harry be the only two deaths. Overall you managed a powerful version of the final battle with out becoming cliched or overly dramatic. Which I was impressed with since I do admit to a little bias against the angst type stories. Wonderfully done.

Author's Response: Another SPEW review, God I feel so blessed, it's like Christmas already!

This was so helpful, and this is a story I really cherish. I will probably go through one day and fix all those things reworking the beginning again because I know what you mean will the distantness between Hermione and her friends.

As for the lack of action *cough* I'm terrible at fighting scenes...so I'm glad you enjoyed the less intense fighting a lot of other readers didn't care for it though.

To be honest I had never really thought about the location of the battle, and though this isn't exactly right I guess it was planned, not written down and everything but everyone knew about it...it's hard for me to explain.

Then Ginny with the charm...that was just a stupid act of desperation. I was lacking in creativity, I know.

As for Voldemort not killing them all, Hermione kind of addressed that. Voldemort I think would take more pleasure out of having them stay alive and in shock and grief for a little while rather than killing them all right off. Because all of them expected Harry to win, and for Voldemort to win would really cripple them. In my opinion keeping them alive was more cruel than just killing them. Of course it's all in the eye of the beholder.

Thank you so much for the review! I intend to go back through this after I'm done with all my other projects and fix some plot points so thank you for the suggestions.

The moral ambiguity you portray in Percy’s character is well done. I would have preferred a bit more of a sloping hill sort of logic for when he becomes a death eater. Something a bit more gradual. But over all this was very nicely written and the imagery of the apple worked in nicely. I liked the way the fire was used as both a destructive and cleansing force. I felt at times you could a held back by explaining exactly what your images meant. For example the worms were the representation of Death Eaters. I personally prefer my symbols and images not to be overly defined for me, but this is just an artistic difference. Other then that I thought it was nicely done.

First I of course love this new chapter in your exploration of Snape and Draco's escape. Moving quickly to the part that threw me off, the fake-death potion and its similarity to a love potion. I understoon its purpose, that it allowed Snape to accidently take it, but I felt it made that section awkward. The pay off of Snape accidently taking the potion wasn't worth the awkward moment. Not sure if there is another reason for why it smells like a love potion but from what I saw I thought it detracted from your story. You'll be happy to note that is the end of my critisim.

I really enjoyed the flashback to Snape's Hogwart years. I think this insignificate Snape is very true to cannon and shows how he became the way he is today. Also the structure of the Death Eaters has been one of the best versions of it I have seen. There isn't a comeradeer or a giving of favortism on Voldemorts part there is an equal hatred of everything and a continual using of anyone around him.

And finally the introduction of Regulous and how he enters the picture to Voldemorts destruction is very interesting. You have me hooked, I honestly desire to see what will happen next.

Author's Response: Yeah... It took me a looong time to respond to this. Sorry, Ksenia! I'm glad you liked it. Your input is quite valuable.