Name: Be My Badger (Anonymous) · Date: 25 Feb 2018 04:12 AM · For: On Edge

Hello! Here with some love for you in this Valentine month!

This was a great chapter! Your writing is beautiful, lovely description, perfect flow, spot-on characterization... but most of all, so many feels... poor Arthur, poor Molly, poor George, poor Fred, poor Harry... poor everyone...

I loved the way you wrote the grief for Fred's loss, and I loved that there is so much more going on here. I never really stopped thinking about Molly feeling guilty for killing Bellatrix, but of course this makes so much sense and I loved that you stopped considering it. I loved the way they feel for Harry and Molly's statement that they didn't fight for him, but with him. Harry did need to hear that.

I loved that you chose Arthur's POV as well, it was perfect and I loved how fragile and at the same time strong he is right now. I loved the love he has for his wife and his children and "adoptive children". I loved following his thoughts in the aftermath of the battle.

This was just great and a wonderful start to what I'm sure will be a wonderful story! You are really a talented writer and I'm grateful that I got the chance to get a peek at your work!

Lots of love, darling!

Name: pookha_staff (Signed) · Date: 12 Nov 2016 12:24 PM · For: The Hospital Wing

Ah, this got validated by someone else. I really like your headcanons here of Poppy and Minerva. I can see Minerva having skills that she didn't know about or use in her other carreer as an educator.

I really like the scene with her healing Lavender by transmuting her injuries to chains and back. It was imaginitive and very original. 

 

The guilt that Minerva was feeling and the validation from Poppy that she had done what she needed was added emotion that made this flow. 

Glad to see a new author here and with such a great view on this!

Author's Response:

Yay!  Thanks, pookha!  McGonagall is a smart cookie - a hatstall away from being a Ravenclaw, and is probably rather adept at everything she's ever tried.  Except love, the poor woman.  And Poppy is just fierce when it comes to protecting her patients.  And make no mistake, they are HER patients.  Just ask her.  I did feel a bit uncomfortable with the amount of swearing I had Poppy do, as there is literally no canon justification for it, but I felt it was necessary to increase our understanding of the depth to which she cares.  If that makes sense.

 

This entire chapter started to read like an episode of a TV medical drama in my head, and then chapter three took on something of an Aaron Sorkin 'West Wing' vibe (again, only in my head - I surely am not up to imitating Aaron Sorkin), which has got me wondering if maybe I'm relying to much on tries I've picked up over my many years of television viewership.  But it does help with visualizing the scenes when I realize that I've already seen appropriate analogs with my own eyes.  And now I'm rambling.

 

I imagine or two leading ladies in this chapter being great friends.  Actually, I see them and Pomona forming a sort of a tea and scones klatch where they discuss the goings on around the school.  I do hope to get Sprout in on the action here as well at some point.  Everybody is going to need a lot of support and companionship to get through this.

 

So thanks again, is always a special treat to get a great review like this.  Makes it seem worthwhile, you know?

Name: pookha (Signed) · Date: 05 Nov 2016 11:50 PM · For: On Edge

When I was validating your second chapter in the queue, I knew I had to come read the first chapter and I wasn't disappointed. This is a fantastic first chapter and you're a highly skilled author and it shows here. Your voice and the characters' voice are very well done, everyone is in character and your headcanons of what happened are great, even keeping with canon in the story.

Welcome to our archive and I hope to read more of your wonderful story as it comes through the queue.

Author's Response:

Wow, thank you!  It's such a compliment that you went back to read the first chapter.  And I appreciate what you and your fellow validators do here.  It can't be an easy job having to go through everything so thoroughly and analytically.

I'm very pleased you believed everyone to be in character, as that was my main concern as I wrote chapter one.  I realized I had perhaps a bit more leeway than normal given the tremendous stress and grief that everyone is under, but I was hopeful that I could get everyone to be recognizably themselves.  This was also the first time I've ever written from Arthur's POV, which was an additional challenge.  But the whole fic will be challenging in that regard.  As you've read, chapter two is McGonagall, which is another first for me, and then Kingsley in chapter three is currently proving a bit tricky to pin down, too.  Oh well, I'll get there.  Not like I write these because it's easy, eh?

So, thanks for the warm welcome, the hard work, and the great review.  All are totally appreciated!