I loved this so much! Nothing is better than great canon characters mixed with wonderful OCs. I laughed, I teared up, I got bashful. I was genuinely worried it wouldn't work out between Lucy Ann and Liam; I'm so glad it did. This was such a joy to read.

I hadn't read the most recent two chapters of this story because I left fandom for a while (a decade-long while) and only recently began reading newer pieces and rereading older ones. And my god, I forgot how absolutely chilling this story could be. I stayed up until an ungodly hour yesterday after telling myself that I would *only* read the first chapter — so that I wouldn't stay up late, but also because I didn't think I'd be able to read so much of this at once. I think so many things about this story! But chief among them is how obviously gifted you are. The first two chapters are so absolutely dark, bleak, and disturbing that I was genuinely frightened — and I think that is not an easy thing to do, to create such genuine dread in a reader, while having a relatively light hand? You don't knock us over the head with a ton of description, but there is something so sumptuous about this; the chapter with Draco bringing Ginny back to life was absolutely magical and I don't know if you researched all of those representatives of death or just have an excellent hand at folklore, but it was great. I saw your most recent note that if you ever do continue this, you'll leave Ron, Harry, and Hermione behind but I still appreciate how well you depicted them. It can be so easy in this fandom to make those three seem dumb or unnecessarily overbearing, and as someone who still loves a lot about them, I'm glad you didn't resort to that. Fanon-wise, one of the biggest challenges I feel like you set up here is absolutely with Draco. Even stories that don't outright redeem him, in an OOC way, find a way to make him lovable. But also there is a depth to his character in this story (his outright refusal to see himself, whether avoiding Ziggy, talking to himself in circles, even in his head, not listening to Lucius), he's...despicable? But oh my god, I'm so fascinated. I can't believe how compelled I was to see this story through — and see him through knowing that there was nothing that could change how I felt about him in this because he won't see his own horror for what it is. It would break him, it's so terrible. I can't and won't speak for your intentions, but you committed to writing Draco in a way where I could not expect to love him by the end of this (which I can generally do with most fanfics), but I did want to follow his journey as far as it went. (Even though I also felt implicated as a reader by not being able to look away, and read something less distubring. I honestly couldn't. And if that makes me a weirdo, welp?) In one way, that's actually why I was okay coming to this story and continuing, although I try to avoid WIPs. The last chapter here feels weirdly symbolic of the portent he was told about: that image of him trying to find Ginny, and get Ginny, and reach her, and pull her back to the manor, and something in her still looking away, wanting someone else, him not being able to claim her the way he insists on trying to do, over and over again. It was just haunting. So! This very long review was to say, thanks for writing this, even so long ago. It totally stands the test of time and really, really made me think about DG as a fandom and the craft of fanfiction overall.

Author's Response: What an AMAZING review!! I'm sorry I only saw it years later on. The rest of this fic does exist in files, believe it or not, and maybe I actually WILL finish it at some point.

Completely adorable

I've read this story before and came back to it just because I love it. (Fun fact: You almost converted me into a Blaise/Ginny shipper with the first few chapters; I love that you gave him enough of a personality here for that to be possible.) Just a really great premise and dialogue. Some of the best dialogue is between Hermione and Ginny — *such* a realistic portrait of a long-term, deep friendship that has rocky points as well as affection. So well done.

Author's Response: LISTEN. I started panicking halfway through writing this story because I loved the chemistry between Blaise and Ginny so much. If the prompter hadn't asked for Draco/Ginny, I probably would have written this as Blaise/Ginny. Cue the panic that readers were going to like Blaise more than Draco! I still feel bad because I feel like Blaise got ripped off in this story. XD

And YES!!! One of the reasons I wrote this story was because I wanted to try writing the most realistic Hermione that I could. I feel like being friends with her would be really challenging because of her strong personality and beliefs, but that doesn't mean she can't be a good friend. I don't see Ginny putting up with half the things Hermione says, like Harry and Ron do. So my idea of their friendship is a lot of butting heads (Ginny IS Ron's sister, and they'd have that in common!), but they'd come to healthy understandings eventually. Hermione's characterization in this story is one of the things I'm most proud of (and this story inspired me to start writing Draco/Hermione again because it renewed my interest in writing her character, flaws and all), so I very much appreciate you telling me that you think Ginny and Hermione's relationship was realistic.

Thank you so much for coming back and reading this again! And also for taking the time to let me know what you thought! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I wrote it while *I*, too, was unemployed after college, so this story is personal to me in about ten different ways. It always makes me happy to see that other people like it. :)