Name: Desertisle reviewed Shadows On Our Own on Jan 17, 2016 09:05 pm
Very good story! Thanks for writing it.

Author's Response: I'm very happy that you like this story. :)
Name: spazzingqueen reviewed To The Last on Jan 04, 2013 06:58 pm
I can't believe I missed this story and found it so late! As always, it makes me so happy to find your stories! :)

Author's Response: Oh wow, I'm sorry I missed your review! I'm glad you enjoyed the story, no matter when you found it. :D
Name: lilactree reviewed To The Last on Dec 16, 2011 11:43 am
All is right as rain in the world as long as those two are together :)

Author's Response: I'm glad you enjoyed the story! I had a lot of fun writing it. :)
Name: lilactree reviewed Innocence Lost on Dec 16, 2011 11:07 am
Ahhh!! Someone stop her! Bellatrix is nutts. Ohmygoodygoodness :O

Author's Response: Well, it's canon that Bella is dangerous. I just gave her a pretty good reason to loathe Ginny in this story. Glad you're liking it so far!
Name: lilactree reviewed Finding an Equilibrium on Dec 16, 2011 10:15 am
:) Katie is awesome!!

Author's Response: Thank you so much! I really started getting into Katie as a character when I played her in an RP. It was all downhill from there, so now I love her as much as Ginny. :)
Name: MissDramatic reviewed To The Last on Sep 11, 2010 09:27 am
Wow. This story was fantastic. You did such an amazing job at honestly portraying every character. Most people can't simply be labled as good or evil, and you captured that beautifully.

Author's Response: Thanks so much for your comment! I really tried to make this story dovetail with canon, and accurately portray them. It's only fair to the characters, and something most kids realize as they grow up. The world exists in shades of gray, but it's choosing how you respond that's the real story. Thanks for reading. :)
Name: Anise reviewed To The Last on Aug 16, 2010 09:50 pm
Well, now that I'm FINALLY at the end of the Oregon Trail (and it might have been easier to take a covered wagon), I can actually get online again. :) A great and very realistic end to it all! While you've obviously gone *beyond* canon, everything that happened also fit potentially into canon, if you see what I mean. What happened between Katie and Marcus made perfect sense given how their characters have been delineated up to this point-- she herself knew that he really might do anything at all to save her, I think, and she wouldn't let him destroy himself by giving him the choice. They both made it through, and actually it wasn't a foregone conclusion, because if I remember correctly, we really *aren't* told in canon whether they did or not.

Draco and Ginny's journey is extremely believable, and a very intriguing thing about it is that everything you've written could have happened within the boundaries of canon (because we're ignoring the Epilogue of Doom, because it was clearly written by evil aliens from the planet Zoofelfutz.) Given that all we have is Harry's POV in DH, he easily would have been oblivious enough to miss all of the D/G interactions. Of course, even HE might have figured it out at SOME point afterwards.... I really, really liked your final ending for them, because I think it had to be. It was a different choice from what some readers would expect, no doubt about it, but again, it was realistic as the *best* choice for them. While we don't know exactly what's going to happen in their future, we do know that they've built something real between them in the past. A short D/G sequel to this fic would be fascinating to read (although I don't know if you would write it), because there are still a lot of issues for them to work out, and the way that they'll manage to do it is very much up in the air. But I don't think it could be any other way at this point.

Happy to read this fic, sad to see it end, looking forward to more from you! :)

Author's Response: woo for being online! Having moved recently, I can feel the pain. :D No, we're never told what happens to either Katie or Marcus in canon, and it's not even mentioned if they're at the Final Battle or not. But given that Katie was in the DA, I can't see her *not* being there, and especially not in this iteration of her that I've written. So yay for adding that element of suspense for you. :D And thank you so much for feeling that the D/G could have been canon. I was trying very hard to have this fit into what we do know of DH and still have it believable. (Harry conveniently ignores things that don't immediately apply to the situation, after all...) In keeping with canon!Draco, though, I couldn't have him immediately sweep Ginny off of her feet and declare his love with wine and roses. This simply wasn't that kind of a story. I don't know if there's a sequel to this, so I can't promise anything. Some other stories I thought for sure I wouldn't write one, yet I did... even if it was a few years later. ^^; We'll see about this one. I do want to write more D/G, and I do have some more boxes left on my hc_bingo card before I get a blackout. :D
Name: waterwhistle reviewed To The Last on Aug 16, 2010 12:25 am
That was a pretty nice ending. It looks to a brighter future (no matter how corny that sounds) but it's a dim sort of optimism considering Draco's whole stance on his relationship with Ginny.

You mention not meaning to portray the girls as victims, but first couple of chapters notwithstanding, I rather think of them as not victims, but survivors. If that makes any sense to you, that is.

All in all, I definitely think there was room for improvement, but it was a good ending. :)

Author's Response: Well, it wouldn't have made sense for Draco to be all shiny and happy at the end. He's willing to start over, which was a big step for him. I see Ginny as completely overwhelming his defenses, tho. :) Your observation that they're survivors makes perfect sense. That's exactly how I see them, and how I wanted to portray them here. Not as a helpless role, but as someone who transformed her past and made something more out of it. I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
Name: lily_malfoy reviewed To The Last on Aug 15, 2010 09:31 am
Great fic. you really made me appreciate the katie+marcus ship. And your ginny was very feisty, I liked it!

Author's Response: Glad you liked it! I've written a lot of Katie/Marcus since about November or so, and for this story I really wanted to avoid the victim role for either of the girls. JKR shoves them in there and doesn't really go into their recovery or try to make them whole during the course of the books. So I really wanted the story to be about that. I'm glad it worked for you.
Name: waterwhistle reviewed The Beginning of the End on Aug 12, 2010 04:51 am
Sorry I missed last chapter. D:
I like how you paced this chapter. It seems to cover a lot, while at the same time nothing much really happens other than the battle. I can sort of guess where this is leading, and I'm hoping it's going to be better than the slap-on epilogue JKR gave us as a conclusion. Although it seems like nothing much happens in here other than the battle, it reads a lot like you're setting some kind of make-it-or-break-it mood, and eventually lead to specifically *your* ending constructed the way you want it to be. Am I making sense? :/
Next chapter's the last one, then? D: Ah well. All good things come to an end. And there's a certain satisfaction to be had in finishing a fic. :)

Author's Response: Well, I had to get from Easter hols to May somehow. :D There was definitely a lot of setup in this, mostly because I wound up shifting some of the battle scenes to make the chapter length fit. I had a particular ending in mind, and I definitely wanted it to fit the tone of the story so far. Hopefully you like that one, too. :)
Name: Anise reviewed Innocence Lost on Aug 10, 2010 10:22 am
Really fascinating and a great job, as always! There's a wonderful compare-and-contrast with the motivations and behavior of all the characters involved, and I think it's really a strength of this fic overall. Some thoughts:

Katie: She starts out with the same very strong, capable persona she's had all along, but I think she begins to realize in the Death Eater party situation just how little she really may be able to control. She's gotten in too deep with Marcus at this point (from everything that she knows, not from where the story might be going.) He'll do anything to protect her, but he's still a Death Eater.

The readers really feel the bind that Draco is in here, and so does he. Draco's strength, maybe, is that he fully understands his own weaknesses, and he isn't fooling himself about them. I like that Goyle is smarter than he looks. ;)

Oh, and Bella! This is very true to how this character would actuallly think, and would really explain why she goes after Ginny so specifically at the last battle at Hogwarts. But I also think she underestimates both the depth of Draco's feelings for Ginny and his capacity for self-determination.

Looking forward to the last two chapters! :) But sad that this fic will be over...

Author's Response: I love how much you're enjoying the story! I really wanted Katie to realize over time that yes, she can be strong and capable, but that doesn't mean she can do everything on her own. There's so much she doesn't know and she really only started realizing it once she put herself out there. By contrast, the Death Eaters understand who and what they are, and try to play up their strengths. As for Crabbe and Goyle... in the books they're flat, one-dimensional idiots. I wanted to flesh them out a bit more, even if I didn't go into much detail. So Crabbe pulled away and feels self important, and Goyle is the one that is more reflective. I think it explains their behavior in the Room of Requirement at the end, too. And I love how singleminded Bella was in this, too. :) I'll be posting the next two chapters this week.
Name: purrbecomesthenight reviewed Innocence Lost on Aug 10, 2010 12:39 am
bellatrix is so evil, but i enjoy how you made her that little bit human here. about the children. it makes her just that much more warped, i think.
also, i was totally tense when katie was at the pureblood ball. veryy good, very good.

Author's Response: Thanks! I don't think Bella's a mindless kind of evil, just so singleminded in her focus and what she thinks is right. I absolutely agree she's warped. I'm glad that came across. It was a very tense chapter overall, so I'm glad it worked for you. :)
Name: serender reviewed Innocence Lost on Aug 09, 2010 08:18 pm
I'm really happy that you're updating this story at such a good pace. I'm really intrigued to see where it's going. Good job!

Author's Response: Well, that's the benefit of finishing the story before I post it. :) I'll be putting up the last two chapters this week.
Name: purrbecomesthenight reviewed Faces In The Firelight on Aug 07, 2010 03:14 pm
dammit! draco and ginny don't care about politics or family!!!!!!!! this is so heartbreaking....more!

Author's Response: Yeah, it's hard to deal with. They personally don't care, but their family alignments clash and their underlying belief systems aren't quite aligned. Plus, there's a war going on. It isn't a safe situation, and they're trying to go through it as best as they can. :( Glad you like the story, tho.
Name: waterwhistle reviewed Faces In The Firelight on Aug 06, 2010 08:54 pm
Your summary does your story little justice. I suggest a little redecorating? :P
This took me about 10 seconds to get hooked. Your fic has a really realistic, adult spin to it that fleshes the plot out extremely well. (I particularly liked the last line. "She didn't expect a reply, but it tore her heart to shreds not to receive one." Amazingly fits the scene AND their characters.)
I really, really liked how you portrayed the reality of the war. I know that there are a lot of post-war stories out there, but I never really agreed with how squeaky clean some people (-coughRowlingcough-) wrote the war aftermath to be. Nothing's ever that black and white ('cept penguins and zebras, but they've got a bit of yellow too, so hah). Another thing I liked was how you dealt with the effects of Ginny's first year - I found it appalling that after CoS there wasn't even a single mention of how she was coping, and when Dumbledore told Harry about how the diary was a Horcrux, it was like she never existed. I mean, sure, knowing the Weasleys, they'd probably pretend all's well and good, but no one's THAT good a pretender-- sorry, I'll stop while I'm ahead. xP Anyway, the gist of it is I just loved your portrayal of Ginny and her steps to psychological recovery - the let's-blow-the-Salazar-statue-to-bits scene is a good example, don't you think? ;) - and I feel the same way about Katie's. Harry is a self-centered narrator in being completely oblivious and unconcerned about the welfare of other people who are not Ron or Hermione.
Yeah, I'm aware that probably half of this review is just me rambling on, but that proves just how fascinated I am with this story, doesn't it? :D

Author's Response: Don't worry about rambling... I do that too. Why else would this story be 11 chapters long? lol. As you've noticed, I usually don't put together really descriptive summaries. Usually I have too much going on in my stories to be able to pick out just one. :) I have the same issues with JKR. I understand that it's a limited POV, and Harry is really clueless most of the times. But we have hints of things usually, and there really were NO hints that any of the traumatic things in the books were ever going to be dealt with. That bothers me, so I keep going back and reworking those issues in various stories. And I've done several DH-fill stories at this point (mostly K/M) because there are such HUGE gaps in canon that are too tempting to try to fill. :)
Name: Anise reviewed Faces In The Firelight on Aug 06, 2010 05:10 pm
Fascinating chapter. The contrast between the two couples works really well-- we can see both the similarities and the differences. Marcus knows that he would do anything he had to do to save Katie, for instance; I think that Draco has kind of convinced himself that he might not do the same for Ginny if he were actually put in that situation. But if it *did* happen, yes, I think that he would. And yet it also makes sense that *Ginny* would be the one who would owl Draco and attempt to break off the relationship because she thinks she's doing for his own good. It's hard to write Draco and Ginny so that they're completely believable according to canon and yet also believable as a couple at Hogwarts that seventh year (I don't know if I've seen anyone do it all that well), and the strange part is that it's not because it's hard to believe it would have happened. It could be because Harry's interest in what was happening to Ginny at Hogwarts during DH was either totally missing, focused on remembering the physical aspects, or very dismissive (laughing when he heard about her being punished for trying to steal the sword, for instance. That was pretty much it for me and Harry after that moment in DH.) That POV was so overwhelming that for me, anyway, it made it hard to imagine what Ginny actually might have been doing. But you're really pulling it off! :) (Katie and Marcus are easier in that way because we don't know anywhere near as much about them.)

Reading D/G as it is written here, we *know* there's a direction it could go in which would make the DH epilogue believable as an ending, which it certainly isn't at the end of the actual DH (pause for hisses and boos... oh, never mind.) But it would also be very sad, because it would mean that this Draco AND this Ginny decided not to grow as people. (In the actual DH, of course, this was sold as a fake happy ending, and-- slap slap slap. I'm better now...;) But the point is that we know and feel the divided loyalties that pull them in different directions. Good stuff. :)

Author's Response: Yeah, well, I'm one of those for whom the Epilogue doesn't exist. So yeah, if I were *completely* into sticking with canon, I could go that way. But HELL NO. (Prolly spoiling my ending, but OMG, that Epilogue is dead to me. DEAD. If I felt better about desecrating books I'd razor it out of my copy.) I've written a few different iterations of Katie and Marcus now, which is really easy to do because we have next to nothing about them in canon, but I'm really fond of this iteration, actually. They're much more grounded, I think. The D/G scenes in this chapter and the last were difficult for me to write because I was trying to keep them in character though this. (At least, what little we know about them as characters in DH, because Harry has no interest or interaction, really. That's another reason the Epilogue of Doom bugs me. Ginny goes from being badass DA member/leader to simpering housewife that obviously has no input into even her children's names? HELL NO. She's capable of more than that, and I really wanted that to come across in this story.
Name: Guest reviewed Faces In The Firelight on Aug 06, 2010 12:54 am
really love this so far. the plot, the characterizations... keep it up!

Author's Response: I'm glad you liked it. This story had completely taken over my brain for a while, so I'm very happy that other people are enjoying it, too.
Name: gracie reviewed Finding an Equilibrium on Aug 04, 2010 12:36 pm
Marcus and katie are such a cute couple!!! please update it!!
Thnk uuuuuuuu x

Author's Response: I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far! My next update should be on Thursday. :)
Name: GoldenFawkes reviewed Broken Images on Aug 04, 2010 06:35 am
I'm a little confused about where Draco is.

Author's Response: when he first shows up in the chapter, he's spending time with the other Death Eaters he knows when Marcus shows up and smashes Crabbe in the face. At the end, he's at Malfoy Manor. This chapter takes place roughly at hols, so it's around the time the Trio get caught and dragged to Malfoy Manor in DH.
Name: Anise reviewed Finding an Equilibrium on Aug 03, 2010 08:47 pm
This really is so believable as a "missing piece"fic for DH. First of all, Harry's lack of interest in what actually happened to Ginny during that year was just awful and made me want to shoot him (um... except that he was a fictional character... yes, that's it. :P ) But we get CLEAR information that things just like this have got to be happening to her. And the Draco in the film version of HBP (which is another type of canon, for reasons explored at great length in essays which will not be reprinted here, to everyone's relief) is obviously experiencing some of the guilt that your Draco does in relation to Katie. Everything fits, and you actually make me care that it does. :)

Author's Response: Thank you SO much! I checked the timelines for DH so many times to be sure that events would fit neatly into it. I don't buy JK's handwaving of trauma for the plot purposes. I know that Harry wasn't around and he wouldn't know about it, but he should've known about *Ginny* of all people. Draco's behavior, of what little Harry actually saw, tells me that he was waffling even as he was doing things he had to do. I don't believe he's the evil git that JK does. He was a prat and an idiot, but still a boy. The war forced him to grow up in all sorts of ways he wasn't ready for, IMHO. And this was a chapter full of uneasy choices and ramifications, so it was time for Draco to face his guilt. Hopefully you think I take it to a reasonable conclusion. :D
Name: DOOMSDAYBRUNETTE reviewed Shadows On Our Own on Jul 31, 2010 11:43 pm
Really really like. Best draco/ginny i've read in a while.

Author's Response: Thank you so much! There's definitely more to their relationship, since the story is halfway through. I hope you like the rest of it as much as the first half. :)
Name: Deian reviewed Shadows On Our Own on Jul 31, 2010 06:00 am
What a great story so far!!

I have always enjoyed stories that deal with the ramifications of Ginny's first year. And double treat - we get Katie's as well!

It's one of the reasons I love fanfiction so much. It gives us a chance to fill in the - at times - rather large gaps in the canon. You've used the information we were given and run with it, to create a fantastic story that really draws you in.

And speaking of canon, I like how you haven't made any of the characters unrealistic or act OTT. No Draco suddenly seeing the error of his ways and skipping off into the sunset with Ginny. Just the right amount of angst :)

Keen for more!

Author's Response: Thank you so much! I've been writing quite a few DH-timed stories for Katie and Marcus, and this is the first one really dealing with what Ginny and Draco must have gone through that year. I like filling in the gaps from that year, because there are oh so many holes in canon, and it really gives me a lot to work with. :) More chapters coming soon!
Name: LorelaiXMalfoy reviewed Shadows On Our Own on Jul 27, 2010 03:58 pm
firstly: amazing story. i haven't read many stories with katie bell as a major contributing character and i am interested to see what you do with it.
secondly: you realize this story is under the category of long and completed, but you keep posting new chapters? As of chapter 4 it doesn't seem close to finished yet.
anyway i am looking forward to another update:]

Author's Response: I've been writing a lot of Katie/Marcus in the past few months, and I really wanted to do a K/M and D/G story, and one where I *don't* make the girls into victims that need saving all the time. That's how this story came about. I'm glad you're liking it so far. I have it under long and completed because I finished the story before I started posting it, but I figured spamming 11 chapters all at once would be a bit much. Two new chapters a week seemed like a good compromise. That being said, I should be able to post the next one tonight.
Name: shezachica85 reviewed In The Shadow Of Flames on Jul 22, 2010 10:15 pm
very interesting story. i am really enjoying it so far.

Author's Response: Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!
Name: Anise reviewed Forming Alliances on Jul 22, 2010 08:23 am
This is really, really well written. It's been a long time since I've seen something that actually could have come from canon (or particularly cared about seeing that, to be perfectly honest!) But you're doing it *so* well that I just had to tell you. :)

Author's Response: Thank you! I've been playing around with the DH timeline a lot lately, probably because canon is so full of holes for that time period, and the actual bits of canon are awful anyway. :) I'm so glad you like this!
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