Name: smriti reviewed
Chapter 1: Prologue on Sep 04, 2018 05:39 am
This is without a doubt the best novel length D/G I've ever read! I love that it integrated the Golden Trio so well and that they didn't try to baby Ginny! Thank you so much for this story, I loved every chapter.
Name: Desertisle reviewed
Chapter 1: Prologue on Dec 24, 2015 09:01 pm
This is the perfect post Hogwarth's story! Love it. Thanks for writing it.
Name: Caapua reviewed
Chapter 1: Prologue on May 24, 2015 06:29 am
Great story, any chances you are going to update soooon? Plz?
Author's Response: Thank you! I'm back to my weekly updates now, which will continue on till the end. :)
Name: idreamofdraco reviewed
Chapter 1: Prologue on Oct 17, 2014 07:28 pm
I love, love, love this paragraph:
//There he was informed that a background check and references were required. Knowing a certain snake-and-skull-shaped tattoo was not looked upon favorably by the current administration, he completed the application as more of a joke than anything else. The reference acquired from Snape was surprisingly honest, and, paraphrased, said, “He’s still a useless wimp, but if he tries, he means it.” Draco thought this was the icing on the cake of his awful application, and submitted it happily. Knowing he had tried, he could then forever more blame his miserable wretchedness on someone else, and thus live the rest of his days in bitter contentedness.//
So much insight into Draco's character right here. The fact that he doesn't care about anything, just playing it off as a joke (though I suspect he really *does* care and he's just trying to tell himself that he doesn't); Snape's comment that he's a wimp but when he does actually get off his butt to do something, he puts effort into it; and the fact that if the application doesn't get accepted, he'll feel free to blame someone else for it. All very canon Draco to me!
Harry's nobility is so Harry, too, waiving Draco's background check because he "fought" in the battle just like Harry did. I see Harry as someone who, once an impression has been made about someone, he doesn't easily change it (that's why he always thought the worst of Draco and Snape during the books... even though he was right sometimes) unless the person makes a big move to change Harry's impression. But since he doesn't easily change his opinion about people, he only sees one side of them. That's why he glorifies Snape after the war (from what we know about post-canon from JKR), and that's why I think Harry would stick up for the Malfoys. He saw that Draco didn't really want to do the things he did, and Narcissa saved him, so for him that would be a done deal. The Malfoys are good now. At least, that's how Harry would see them, until they do something truly awful again. So I love that he had a hand in Draco's acceptance into the academy! (Sorry that was so long-winded; I just love when Harry takes Draco's side "for his own good" or, you know, *because* he thinks Draco can be good!)
//If he failed or succeeded, it would be entirely his own fault. For the rest of his life, he would have no one to blame but the face staring back at him in the mirror. Could he live with that? He wasn’t sure, but was terrified of finding out too late that he couldn’t.//
Awww. But this is ALSO a concept I love in post-war fics. I love seeing or writing Draco trying to make it on his own, trying to make his own way, without his parents' influence, because society just won't allow the Malfoys to continue as they had in the past, or because Lucius and Narcissa are literally, physically or emotionally cut off from him. He might have applied to the Auror Academy as a joke, but he probably didn't realize the true repercussions of being accepted. And now he understands the price of success. Or trying to succeed.
There are other lines/paragraphs that I loved in this so far, but I don't want my review to just be spewing your own words back at your and gushing over them. I'll just skip straight to the gushing. Or the preliminary version of it. This is such a great setup for the story and I'm so glad you added in this prologue! You set the scene for Draco and the Slytherin Squad very nicely, and then you ended with a mystery to force the reader on to the next chapter. I'm excited to see what happens next!
(This isn't very gushy, but I promise there will be more once the ball gets rolling.)
Name: b1elliot reviewed
Chapter 1: Prologue on Oct 11, 2014 05:58 am
Whew...good last line.
Name: msm_2011simonebb reviewed
Chapter 1: Prologue on Sep 21, 2014 03:38 pm
like it.. onward to see what next!
Name: Anise reviewed
Chapter 1: Prologue on Sep 20, 2014 05:05 pm
"Draco Malfoy was a miserable wretch. Most people assumed this had begun after the Battle of Hogwarts, when his father was shipped off to Azkaban, Draco was hauled in front of the Wizengamot, and his feeble, traitorous actions were barely enough to save his own neck from the chopping block."
What a wonderful first sentence! You really know how to grab our attention from the very beginning. :)
What a wonderful characterization you build of your Draco. He is certainly not idealized; we kind of see what he could become either way, I think. But he has the power of choice, and he does choose to take a step that has the potential to take his life somewhere constructive. He doesn't know how it will work out, and he suspects (pretty reasonably, I think), that it might be a disaster. In his own way, he makes a leap to faith.
(Okay, when's the last time you saw Søren Kierkegaard quoted in a D/G review? ;)
But he's deliciously imperfect. "If there was anything he liked more than not being held responsible, it was favoritism." WONDERFUL example.
And then Draco's shaky new world is thrown into peril when his mentor dies...
On to the next chapter!
Name: vintagepearls reviewed
Chapter 1: Prologue on Sep 15, 2014 07:54 am
Great backstory! :)
Name: Marinka reviewed
Chapter 1: Prologue on Sep 14, 2014 06:29 pm
Nice background on Malfoy’s reasoning to join and his relationship with deceased captain.
Name: SilverAura09 reviewed
Chapter 1: Prologue on Sep 14, 2014 02:18 pm
Hi! Just found your fic!
I like how you added sprinkles of humor all over this chapter but it still remained firm to its plot and its explanations to what the story is about. Oh, and how you ended this chapter was very clever. Overall a very good start to jumpstart your story!
Author's Response: Thanks so much! That was exactly what I was trying to do, so I'm really pleased that you like it. I'd love to hear what you think about the later chapters, and if they were deserving of the jumpstart. :)