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Hey, Vicki, hello! Here for our swap (thank you for taking me up on it! :D)
This was another very interesting chapter! Poor Howard, of course he's looking forward to the time he will spend away from Hogwarts and back to the familiar spaces of Skye... what a terrible year to be forced to attend... but, of course, he wouldn't have been forced to attend at all if the Death Eaters hadn't taken over... anyway, I can't blame him for already counting down the days to the Christmas holidays.
I loved the conversation with McGonagall! Probably my favourite part of the chapter! It is a very hard balance for the professors... they can't explicitly go against the new regime because otherwise they would be sent away and would be unable to do even the little they are doing now to protect the students... what an impossible situation to be put in... but I appreciated that she was more honest and open with him... maybe not fully, but it was a start. I feel like this was a first step in gaining that mutual respect that I've been wanting these two to reach since the very beginning! Of course, it's terrible that the students can't rely on the professors' protection and have to look after themselves mostly, and the idea of a quota is absolutely creepy, but also makes sense... wow, this is so harsh! (And perfect worldbuilding on your part, of course!)
I think I saw in your WJ that someone theorized that Howard might be planning a sort of escape... I suppose it was about that passage when he was talking with Hagrid about Hogsmeade conformation? I am wondering what you meant with that closing line He had found out what he needed to know, and it had nothing to do with roundhouses or levitating locomotives. What did he need to know? What's going on in his head at the moment?
Btw... In comparison, on the map Hogwarts wasn't that far from Skye. It was so stupid. Yes, it is so stupid! :P Add it to the long list of things that don't make sense in the way Hogwarts is managed, lol!
The resistance group conversation was so well done, too, as usual! These kids are really taking the matter in their own hands and doing their best to make things work! Their planning is so detailed and well thought out. Listing all the things that could potentially getting the students in trouble and trying to come up with ways to avoid them is very smart. And I absolutely agree that doing activities in the Common Room to keep the spirits up is so important as well! Love the country dancing idea, it is a lot of fun (I'm currently taking country dancing classes, so I can testify firsthand :P)
I had to go back and remember how the true-false coding worked... :P I will admit I got a bit lost in applying it to this letter, but maybe I'm just overthinking... anyway, I think it's so clever how you came up with these coding ideas and actually applying it to the messages Howard sends to his family. It must be so hard to write! Are Charles and Sandra Howard's siblings? I don't remember them being mentioned before, but maybe I just have bad memory :P
Great chapter as always! :D
Big snowball hug,
Chiara
Author's Response:Hi, Chiara!
Thank you so much for proposing this review swap. It's so nice to have you continuing to read Howard's story and commenting on it.
The conversation with Professor McGonagall was not easy to write. She is, as Howard is finally beginning to understand, between a rock and a very hard place. Even in the early books of the Harry Potter series, when conditions were not so bad, she was never a warm, fuzzy personality. But now conditions have forced her to be even stricter than she used to be, and she doesn't feel safe in telling the students frankly about what's going on in the school administration. One wonders if, as the school year goes on, she will gain more trust in the students and be able to collaborate with them more openly. Or maybe that would just be too risky.
As for the True-False letter, described in Chapter 6, I will go over it with you because it is important for you to be able to interpret the letter Howard sent. In this letter the entire first paragraph is True. The second paragraph begins with the letter F (For the most part...), so that line is false. In fact, all the subsequent lines in that paragraph are false also up to the words "...snowslide across the tracks," because we don't get back to a sentence that starts with T until the beginning of the next paragraph (The classes...). There are no more sentences that begin with the letter F, so the remainder of the letter is all true. So now you know what he is telling his parents.
Yes, Charles and Sandra are Howard's brother and sister. We see them in Chapter 9, when Howard is telling David about his family. Charles is the older brother, who farms his own croft, and Sandra is the middle sibling, who is married and lives in Portree.
You will find out soon enough why Howard was asking Hagrid about Hogsmeade.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful review. <3
Vicki
hey vicki! i've wanted to check out this story properly for a while, i loved tiramisu and i have no doubt i'll love this one as well :D i've been reading and reviewing some of the other inky noms while i'm on a lil vacation so it's a perfect time to start this as well!
first of all, i love the idea for the story - writing about a seventh year who's been homeschooled and was forced to go to hogwarts during the war -- i'm sure there's far more to the story than that, but even just that is super interesting and creative and definitely means a different perspective on hogwarts (and probably magic as well? possibly?) that i'm excited to read about!
i honestly like howard from the start, or well, to be precise when he says he can do whatever he wants --- i mean, dude has snark and i love it! it's obvious he's not happy to be there (honestly...who would during that one year...), he's been torn away from his family and home and his animals and his emotions about that are just very real and touching. and he seems like a super nice person (to those who deserve it....) -- the way he thinks about bats made me feel all soft and fuzzy on the inside and the way he feels like he should be a leader and protect the other, younger homeschooled students,,,that was great.
this was a great first chapter and i'm coming back for more soon!
kris
Author's Response:Hi, Kris! I'm so glad that you have started to read my long and large story about Howard Sutton at Hogwarts during the 1997-1998 school year, about which JKR tells us so little, even though it ust have been almost indescribable as the year wore on. It has a larger cast of characters than did "Tiramisu," which lost a lot of its characters after Chapter 6, and there will be more plot threads in Crofter/Snake than in Tiramisu, which focused a lot on pure survival in the face of the plague.
This story stems from a class in Writing Missing Moments, which I took in 2013 on the Mugglenet Fanfiction site. (There were a lot of classes on MNFF; I miss that site.) We students had to pick a Missing Moment from canon and write a 5,000-word story about it as the final exam for the class. So I picked the line on page 210 of Deathly Hallows, where Remus reads in the Daily Prophet on August 4, 1997, that all formerly homeschooled students are now required to attend Hogwarts. It is canon that these formerly homeschooled students existed at Hogwarts during the 1997-1998 school year, but we don't know their names or their numbers, and I don't recall ever reading any stories about them. So I made a head canon about Howard Sutton, and it rapidly expanded like a marshmallow in the microwave oven, much too big to be my final exam, so I picked just a little portion of it, and that was "Greenhouse Seven," the first apearance of Howard Sutton in 2013 on MNFF.
Yes, Howard is different from the other Hogwarts students in many ways, due to his unique background, and yes, he does have a different perspective on magic, and yes, the dude does have snark when he needs to, because at age 17 he is a little too old to be acculturated to Hogwarts the way the firsties are, and, coming from the fringes of the British Isles (the Inner Hebrides), he has grown up in a different culture. I have modeled his basic personality on some young men (4 of them that I can remember) that I have known in my lifetime (one of them was named Howard) who were noticeably more mature and responsible than other teenaged boys of the same age. They got along well with people of all ages and attached themselves to groups of kids who were a couple of years older, where they totally fit in and were accepted. I have also made Howard to be the product of a sheep croft (farm) because it has been my observation over the years that kids who grow up on farms achieve a level of responsibility earlier than kids who don't grow up on farms, having to assume an adult role at an early age as regards work and accountability. They see, up close, what their parents and the other crofters do every day, so they have a keen knowledge of what constitutes adult behavior.
This difference bothers some readers who prefer hard-drinking, prankish Marauder-type characters who are not accustomed to a life of hard work. But I hope you will appreciate Howard for who and what he is. I think you have a good handle on him, from what you wrote in your review.
Thank you so much for this review. I am excited by the thought of you reading Howard's story. I value your opinion. <3
Vicki
Hi Vicki! I'm here to slowly inch my way into catching up on this wonderful story of yours. <3
I absolutely love heart-to-heart conversations (both in real life and in fiction) so I really enjoyed that first half of the chapter. I think it did a great job of highlightening the differences in personalities between Howard and Tracey. He's very straightforward and open. She's a bit more guarded. But then the converstions brings them into closer understanding of one another and, as Howard points out, we find that they're much more similiar than what would first appear. It also allowed the opportunity for the reader to find out more about their backgrounds and answered questions about what it was like being a wizard in Skye.
It was so nice seeing Howard helping the younger Gryffindors put on a play/musical. It's a shame to see that it ended with Howard getting his feelings hurt. I could be wrong, but I think Dennis was just teasing. It seems that Howard takes his singing very seriously and took it the wrong way though. I thought it was a little funny that he said it was "fourteen-year-old humor" because I feel like it was just regular teenage boy humor in general. But Howard's always been wiser-than-his-years and while that's genuinely a good thing, it might come in the way of him being able to relate to the humor of people in his age group.
I didn't realize that Skye had a lot of tourists. Its always nice to get another new tidbit about the place through your storytelling :)
Anyways, thank you for writing this chapter. It felt different than the other chapters, but in a good way. I feel like it helped add more dimensions to the story as well as the characters, and I throughly enjoyed that.
Author's Response:Hi, Quilly! I'm so happy that you are continuing to inch your way through this story. I seem to have built up a large collection of story lines, and it is a challenge to keep them all untangled and current, but I think that the 1997-1998 school year itself was a mass of tangled story lines. Still, not impossible to keep track of everything (at least not yet).
I'm glad that you said that this chapter felt different from the other chapters. That is one of my goals when I write, to have the chapters be sufficiently distinct that they don't start sounding like the same old same old. And also to add more dimensions to the characters, as you say. The more they are developed, the more completely they can function in the story.
Yes, Skye does have a lot of tourists. I almost feel guilty about planning a trip to Skye (and some other points in Sscotland) later in the year with my daughter because the people on Skye must feel about the hordes of tourists the same way that we residents in my home town in Oregon feel about the hordes of tourists that arrive in the summer, although I think it's worse on Skye. The bridge connecting Skye to the mainland, built in 1995, didn't help the situation any!
Thank you so much for this lovely review! And thank you again for that lovely picspam you made with the picture of Howard asleep in the corner of the barn? shed? Whnenver I think of him now, that's how he looks to me. <3
Vicki
Hey, Vicki, this one really sizzled! You weren't kidding about action, were you? When Howe and Tracey start planning their break-in on the fly I could hear Lalo Schifrin's little gem of a theme song bouncing along to keep them moving - it was definitely an exciting sequence, well thought out, and nicely executed. Howe's solution to Terry Boot's arrival was maybe a little inevitable, but I reckon Tracy was okay with it anyway. Nice pacing on the dialogue, too, that maintained the tension rather than interrupting the narrative. I particularly liked Howe's ability to reflect on himself and the changes his short time at Hogwarts has wrought on his personality and perspective - all while not missing a beat in accomplishing his task(s). It's not every teenager who can liberate his wand, strike a blow for the resistance, fool the malefactors, AND get the girl all in one go! Quite an excellent chapter! Thanks.
George
Author's Response:Hi, George. I'm glad you liked this chapter. I don't have a lot of experience in writing tension/action (some, not a lot), but the way things are developing for Howard, we needed some action to solve his dilemma once and for all. Howard is not Superman or Gary Stu; without Tracey he could not have done all this. The thinking, the plotting, the acting, the keeping a cool head -- it was all 50% him and 50% her. And she didn't have to follow him; she didn't have to help and take risks. So what does that mean about her?
I'm glad you approved of the dialogue. My daughter also approved. I prefer to read and write dialogue that sticks pretty close to developing the plot, without a lot of 'filler' and 'throw-away lines.' Thus I don't care to read pointless banter or chatfics, even if it's true that some people do talk that way. For me, Good Storytelling > Pointless Banter. It has been said of me "You don't talk unless you have something to say."
Howard's split-second subterfuge (?) to prevent Terry's seeing the hole in the door probably leaves both him and Tracey wondering just what it all meant, after the dust has settled. How much was fake? How much was real? When Tracey wrapped her left arm around him, was it an emphasis of her play-acting, or was it real? When Howard responded to Terry's impolite remark about making a fast move on a fellow student, was Howard's reply about knowing quality when he saw it just a quick-witted "back-at-you," or had he already been thinking along those lines? Later, in the library, after he apologizes to her for the sudden, enforced kiss, he continues by saying "Well, I wasn't really sorry..." and Tracey mentions that her roommates call him her farmer boyfriend. They are dancing around the subject of what their relationship is (or could be), although Tracey still uses the word "friend" when saying "I'm proud to be your friend." Infatuation at first glance, based in how handsome/beautiful and 'cool' the other person is, can end up just being a flash in the pan. Long-lasting afffection builds more slowly, based on things/qualities you can be proud of.
When Howard is re-transfiguring the hole saw into slender drill bits, remarking that it is necessary to think of all the details and cover his tracks to hide his door-breaking activity from Professor McGonagall, it must really hit home to him how far he has strayed from his principles of behavior on Skye. I won't say 'fallen,' because desperate times call for desperate actions. But when he arrived at Hogwarts, he remarked that he expected to do things that he had never done before. Well, that's turning out to be true, in spades. By the time the school year is over, he will be a changed person, and he is beginning to realize that now.
Loved your line "It's not every teenager who can liberate his wand, strike a blow for the resistance, fool the malefacters, AND get the girl all in one go!" It was a joint effort.
Thank you so much for this stellar review!
Howdy!
Part of me thinks I might have read at least this chapter before, but it's been a long time and this is a long story so I figured I should start at the beginning. The main thing I see here (and that I remember from your stories going back to HPFF) is the descriptions. You have a talent for painting the picture well without overdoing it and it really shines in scenes like these that seem relatively simple and are really just introductory because while a lot of people just push through them to get to the meat of their story, you use the same focus.
It's an interesting premise as well - not just home-schooled witches/wizards, but them being uprooted and dragged into a world they have never experienced. Even someone like Howard who is already capable (if not outright skilled - we'll see) is going to have an adjustment period (especially at this time at Hogwarts) and I presume from the title will be having to adjust to being in Slytherin at the "modern" peak of hatred for them in canon or work and/or develop a relationship with some sneaky snake.
Sorry this is so horribly late. I appreciate your review!
Author's Response:Hi, Kevin!
I'm so glad that you made the review swap offer and were willing to read my current story, which is the only thing I have been working on for almost two years! You may well have read this chapter previously, since I began posting these chapters in May of 2022 in an effort to force myself to keep writing and "put my money where my mouth is." It's too big of a story to write the whole thing without getting feedback from my readers along the way!
I think that my writing of description has been aided by a couple of courses that I took at the local college college on screenwriting. They helped me to envision my stories as motion pictures -- what would stand out in this scene? How would the visuals create the mood? I've always striven for noteworthy visuals in my writing, even before I took those courses, but they did help. See my screenplay "Relics," on my AP. I couldn't fix the wonky formatting (my daughter the computer engineer knows why it happened; long story) but it's readable and enjoyable anyway. (Shameless plug.)
This story stems from a class I took at Mugglenet Fanfiction on the technique of writing Missing Moments. (MNFF had lots of classes; I really miss that site.) We were supposed to pick a Missing Moment from canon, so I picked the line on page 210 of Deathly Hallows where it says in the Daily Prophet that formerly homeschooled students were now obliged to attend Hogwarts. I don't recall ever reading a story about those students, but they did canonically exist. I developed an instant head canon about one of them (Howard Sutton) which was much too vast to write for my 5,000-word Final Exam for the class, so I picked a tiny part of that head canon and wrote "Greenhouse Seven," which was the first appearance of Howard Sutton in 2013 on MNFF. Greenhouse Seven is on my AP here on FFT.
I hope you will continue reading. It will eventually be a long story, but you cannot fault me for that since you write long stories too. Over the years, I have written other one-shots that also depict the events of the 1997-1998 school year, including Carried in My Heart, Maggots, and The Friar's Unexpected Army.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful review!
Vicki
I really enjoyed Howard's solo romp around the grounds of the castle. Your descriptions during that section were really lovely to read as he takes it all in on his own, processing it all at his own speed, and having questions pop into his head naturally. It was also fun to watch his different interactions as he found people he'd spoken to at least once before and try to solidify a relationship with them a bit more. And he met Tracey! I liked that scene a lot. Love that she's artistic and sketches, and it was really sweet when she drew him the picture of a sheep. I know he'll take care of that. It was interesting the unspoken words between them, based on her having been staring and his knowing that she had been staring, but neither saying it out loud.
The tour was really cool as well, it's so interesting to see the castle through an older person's eyes, and the questions that pop into his head that other younger students wouldn't think to worry about, like ventilation in a potions classroom. And of course the Hagrid scene was really nice. I'm looking forward to Howard's reaction to seeing magical creatures for the first time! I can see him and Hagrid establising a good relationship based on their love of animals, and hopefully Howard ends up enjoying Care of Magical Creatures!
Author's Response:Hi again, Tanya!
I'm glad you like my descriptions of how the castle appears to Howard, now that he has finally gotten outside. His observations reveal something about his character and his thought processes, and the descriptions come somewhat from my previous experience in writing screenplays for a couple of screenwriting classes I took at the local college. Writing screenplays made me very conscious of how scenes look, especially as conveyed in a minimum of words, so I try to tread the narrow path between no description at all (you can't have a movie with no visuals!) and so much description that it bogs down the narrative.
He knows he has to develoop a circle of friends as quickly as he can, although it is an effort for him, since, living in the community of people on Skye all his life, he's never before been plunked down into a world of total strangers. Yes, it ws sweet of Tracey to give him the drawing of the sheep, both as a friendly welcoming gift to a stranger, but also, as you mention in your words "unspoken words between them," a little something more.
Yes, I think it's a given that Howard and Hagrid will develop a good relationship, given their backgrounds and their personalities. :)
Thank you so much for this lovely review!
Vicki
Hello again Vicki!
I love the way you called out the amount of impossible stairs Gryffindor's (and Ravenclaw's, too, as we know) have to deal with at Hogwarts! I always think about that and how crazy and demanding it is. I've lived in five-story walk ups, and those were difficult enough! LOL Obviously it's clever of Howard to realize he'll need to start planning ahead, and I like how he's not afraid to ask advice, so he gets some useful assistance from Ed and Steve on how they manage.
Gotta feel bad for Howard again in this chapter though once he meets Ginny! I mean, even before she learned of the bed situation, she was pretty cold. It's understandable, of course, as she's as immersed in the current affairs of the wizarding world as much as anyone at Hogwarts can be, with her whole family targets, one brother on the run, and her boyfriend on the run with him. But she certainly could have chosen to be a bit friendlier still! Though I think it's in character of her that when she's not in the mood to be friendly, she's not going to be. Obviously once the bed news hits, it flips an even bigger switch within her, and suddenly Howard is getting his head bitten off once again! Can't the boy just sleep? I like that Demelza is at least very friendly with him where Ginny lacks! She seems quite interested, even, which is cute, and he's always very grateful in the face of kindness.
I did catch a typo I thought you might want to change, where you wrote Gina instead of Ginny in this line here: "Gina remained sitting on the sofa, her face buried in her hands."
Another great chapter!
Author's Response:Hi, Tanya!
Thank you so much for continuing to read my story and for leaving reviews on the chapters! I'm sure that a lot of people have wondered whose idea it was to make the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws have to climb so many stairs. Well, it's good exercise, in a place where it mqay not be easy to get a lot of physical activity otherwise.
Howard is glad that he has met a few friendly people, and he doesn't hesitate to ask advice from them because he doesn't want to make dumb mistakes and look like a fool. He's accustomed to looking competent in his life on Skye, and he has his pride.
Ginny can be a thorny person, even in the best of times, and these are definitely some pretty bad times, even worse for her than for others because of the involvement of her family and her boyfriend in the very dangerous conditions. You're right when you say that when she's not in the mood to be friendly, she's not going to be. Her behavior reveals how very upset she is, all the time, even when she appers to be just sitting quietly on a sofa.
Thank you so much for pointing out the typo! How many times have I read that chapter without noticing the typo? This happens to me sometimes. Although I try to proofread thoroughly, I will look back at an old chapter and some glaring mistake pops out at me ("summer" for "September", "Harry" for "Henry", and now "Gina" for Ginny").
I'm so glad thqt you are enjoying my story. Howard is a special character to me.
Vicki
Hello again, Vicki!
Another great chapter, lots of interesting things happening here! Your descriptions in the opening were really great, I thought your writing was lovely as the chapter began. I wonder what's going on with Neville, though? He is obviously being extremely cautious with Howard, but I wonder what the specifics are driving him. He's coming across very rude, which we know isn't Neville in his usual state, but of course this year is anything but normal. I hope we get some further insight into his thinking in later chapters!
I won't lie, it was hard watching McGonagall enforce the very strict rule of these five kids having to have their mail monitored. I'm certain it's not her idea, and it's just a sign of the times that she cannot fight alone, but still, it's hard to watch her "support" something that is very clearly not right. These aren't prisoners, they're students, uprooted without choice from the life they've always known before now, and they can't even be honest with how they feel. Talk about making them feel even more isolated.
I have to say, you implemented a lot of original creative ideas in this chapter that were really cool and fun to read about, like the catalogue to order from Madame Malkin's, and of course the True-False letter the Howard writes to keep his parents informed, even under such strict rules. That was really clever of him, and hopefully he won't be found out.
Well done!
Author's Response:Hi, Tanya! I'm so glad that you are continuing to read and review my story.
You're right. Everyone is showing the strain of the conditions in the school, and in the wizarding world in general, at the beginning of this final and tumultuous year. We see it in Neville, who is obviously deeply bothered about something, and in Professor McGonagall, who, as you so perceptively say, "cannot fight alone," and feels forced to "support something that is very clearly not right."
It is fun to envision how the environment in the castle would naturally be. Of course Madame Malkin would have a catalogue with House-themed gimcracks that the students, especially the firsties, would be eager to buy by mail-order. It's just that no author has ever mentioned the catalogue before, but it must have existed. A lot of the basics of life at Hogwrqts have already been canonically estblished, so there is room to add the extra details to fill out the picture a little more.
September 1, 1997, actually was a Friday, so the students had two full days on campus before the classes began, which was pretty nice for all the new students, giving them time to get used to the place. This must have happened every seven years or so (not allowing for leap years).
Thank you so much for this lovely review!
Vicki
hi vicki,
i thought it was abouit time that i checked out your story so here i am :) this chapter had me in the feels with it's classic opening sequences that we've seen before but this time through the eyes of the very interesting character of howard. i thought you did a great job with howard's inner monologue like i think you could tell a lot about his personality from this chapter. he is obviously very caring (getting the girls hat back) and fond of animals (knowledge of bats), confident (saying he can do what he wants re, magic). he was obviously very comfortable in his life back home and he enjoyed the animals. i also thought you had some brilliant scene setting description in the chapter.
it's interesting to know that he already clearly knows that he's a wizard which i guess wasn't always a given. i can only assume he's from a magical family as he mentions being the youngest before probably the only one forced to come into this situation. it's going to be fun to see what you have planned for howard considering this time period in right in the canon timeframe for some of the main action. i love stories which deal with moments from canon but different characters at it's focus as we only ever see harry. very promising start :)
Abbi xx
reviewed for r&d
Author's Response:Hi, Abbi.
I'm so glad you decided to check out my story, which has been living in my brain for so many years. You make reference to the "classic opening sequence," examples of which we have all read countless times before. Many stories start with the time-worn steps -- get the letter, go shopping in Diagon Alley, go to the train station, board the train, ride to Hogsmeade station -- that add minimal new information to the story or the character, so I decided to skip all that. This story is really for an audience who knows all these preliminaries anyway. So I opened with the immediate impression of the moment (the lake at deep twilight) and the immediate picture of Howard (he is standing up in the boat).
To me, Howard is a unique character, for many reasons unlike other new-student characters we have seen in stories on this archive. The qualities you pick up on, in this brief introduction to him, are precisely correct. His inner monologue, as he tries with effort to understand this situation he's in, shows his brain working overtime to get him oriented to this place, this community, these customs.
I hope you will continue reading this story to see how Howard fares at Hogwarts during this tumultuous year! Thanks ever so much for this lovely review.
Vicki
The toilet paper is just hilarious! What a different idea to do with muggle studies essays. I love how you made them more and more creative with the pictures of animals and Carrow. Also, I love the line about girls needed more than boys (so true) and Ginny’s response.
I’m interested to see how this play turns out. I’m imagining a type of parody to keep their spirits up, someway to laugh at Carrow and Filch without getting into trouble.
As soon as they said they needed a room, my mind jumped to the Room of Requirement. I found it interesting when Neville said if he could convince the room to open up for them. I had always assumed it was a given, but it’s completely understandable that the castle would only create what the students REALLY needed. Otherwise that room would always be in use.
Yes, Howe, I think you need to work on your defensive spells. He’s rather ignorant of this war and that includes the fighting component; however, if his defense skills are anything like his transfiguration skills, he’ll do fine.
Author's Response:Hi, Barbara! Thank you so much for leaving a review on my long story. I try to sprinkle little bits of humor into the chapters here and there so that the story is not 100% gloom and doom.
Interesting that you immediately thought of the Room of Requirement. My daughter immediately thought of it, as well as just about everyone else who looked at this chapter. But I didn't think of it until way late in the writing. I had this list scribbled down of all sorts of less-suited places where they could practice (as if I really was thinking in Howard's brain). George/Goatspeed pointed out to me that Dennis should have thought of it because Dennis (always the precocious one) joined Dumbledore's Army as the one-and-only third-year student in that group, and did practice defensive skills in the RoR with the older kids. I told George I'd come up with some explanation about why Dennis didn't immediately think of it.
I seem to recall that theyre was at least one instance when Harry was trying to open the Room of Requirement, and it just didn't open. Not sure which book/chapter that was in. (I need to re-read the series; I'm getting fuzzy on some details.)
I don't think Howard fully appreciates what might be needed in the way of defensive fighting skills. So far he hasn't seen any armies marching on Hogwarts, and it can be hard to envision something you've never seen or experienced before. (A reason why some people get themselves injured -- they can't imagine how things could go terribly wrong.) He'll get it figured out. See Chapter 30.
Vicki <3 <3
Hey, Vicki, hello! :D Here for some research and development :P
But... wait... how did you write 4 chapters while I wasn't looking??? :O I've fallen so behind, I'm sorry... but hopefully I can catch up soon ;)
Anyway, this chapter...
Poor Belinda... :( but it was only a matter of time, wasn't it? Actually, I feared it would be something even worse, but still, it's so awful! :/
It's great to see the way all the Gryffindors teamed up to face the crisis, though. And how Howard came out as the leader, just because his exposure to Muggle things gave him the instruments to help when the others couldn't. It's a really fascinating take that you are carrying on in this story, and I really loved seeing it in this chapter! I do wonder if there is a deeper meaning to what the Hat said during the Sorting... guess we'll see as the story moves on. Either way, the Gryffindors are lucky to have him!
I'm also wondering... what are students supposed to do if they are not feeling well during the night??? I understand curfew, but surely they should be allowed to go to the Hospital wing if they aren't well? And I agree with Howard, it's crazy that they don't have a way to call an adult for help in a similar situation... I suppose in previous years, if the prefects could go out at any hour, they could also go and call for a Professor... but not now? This seems rather unfair, but I suppose there are unfairer things going on, so... :/
Wow, this chapter was dark! And I know it's only going to get worse... I think you did a really brilliant job here (not that I'm surprised... :P)
I'll be back soon!
Snowball hug,
Chiara
Author's Response:Hi, Chiara!
Thank you so much for giving me a Research and Development review on my long story. :)
I enjoy writing this story so much becauses of Howard -- an ordinary farm kid (which means he's responsible, competent, and resourceful) with a combination of Muggle skills and Magical skills -- and you get a character who is different from most other OCs that we see in this archive. Hopefully that will mean that he is not boring.
As for the obvious, glaring flaw in the new rule about prefects not being able to leave their common rooms during the hours of curfew, I agree with you, it's very stupid. But I have seen other very stupid rule changes in my years of existence, changes that were obviously not thought out carefully by the people implementing them. And the complete takeover of the Ministry occurred just about a month before the start of the school term, so with all the sweeping, Death-Eater-inspired procedural changes, this one one disn't get proper evaluation.
Here's an example from my years working as a nurse. I had requested, and been granted, a vacation period so that I and my husband could visit our daughter who was living and working in Madagascar. That involved a lot of expensive preparations (airline tickets, immunizations against tropical diseases, visas, etc.). And then the hospital was proposing new rules about vacation schedules, specifically that they could cancel anyone's previously-granted vacation request up to 30 days before the vacation was supposed to start. So I went to the hospital administrator and pointed out that I had already spent $5,000 for these non-refundable preparations, and if they wanted to cancel my vacation 30 days before it began, I would expect the hospital to repay me the $5,000 that I had expended while trusting their approval. The administrator and the other bureaucrats at the hospital who were proposing these new rules had not thought about non-refundable advance expenditures. (How could they have not thought about that? But they hadn't!) Needless to say, the proposed rule change was dropped.
So I can believe that in their haste to "crack down" on the students in the new school year, nobody (certainly not the dim-bulb Carrows) had thought about emergencies in which this new rule would be non-workable. I can see Professor McGonagall and Madam Pince lobbying to have the curfew rule amended to allow for reasonable exceptions.
Yes, this chapter was dark. The students are beginning to see how important it is to stay out of the path of the Carrows' discipline, But can they? Thank you for saying that you thought it was brilliant.
Vucki <3 <3
Hi Vicki,
Here for another time-sensitive mission :)
Oooh, what a terribly tense chapter. I hate to think that I enjoyed it, but there's something about the way you wrote it that just had me hooked. I feel so bad for poor little Belinda. She definitely didn't do anything to warrant that type of punishment. It's definitely something that made Howard start to take the issues at Hogwarts more seriously.
I can't imagine having to try to come up with a solution for this problem, especially at 17, at max. That's a testament to how comfortable my life has been, and probably how comfortable most of the Hogwarts students have been up until this year. Howard is right that they needed some common sense and to be able to fend for themselves
I think he's definitely gained some friends or fans from this scene. He was clearly the only one that had something in the works, and I'm sure others were impressed by his display of magic. That certainly sounds out of scope for most of the students. One other thing, I can't believe the Carrows have students participating...that's truly horrific.
I agree, this is what The Sorting Hat had in mind for you, Howard. I hope he can find a way to help more people :( though I know this might not be an easy road to travel
Thank you again!
Cat
Author's Response:Hi, Catherine! Thank you so much for continuing on with my long story and for writing a review of more that just a couple of lines during a time-sensitve window of opportunity during the review drive!
Yes, Amycus Carrow, the teacher of Dark Arts (the class formerly known as Defense Against The Dark Arts), taught his students how to perform the Unforgivable Curses, such as the Cruciatus Curse. On page 573 of Deathly Hallows, Neville tells Harry, Ron, and Hermione "We're supposed to practice the Cruciatus Curse on people who've earned detentions..." and then "I refused to do it. Some people are into it, though; Crabbe and Goyle love it." So the Slytherin kids that Howard encountered down in the detention room must have been Crabbe and Goyle. They were probably not in any of Howard's N.E.W.T classes, since they are not depicted in the canon books as being particularly bright, so Howard would not have learned their names.
In Deathly Hallows we get several mentions of specific ways in which the sudents were mistreated by the Carrows during the school year, physical assaults, being chained up... So Howard will definitlely start to take the issues more seriously.
In his work on his croft, Howard is probably encountering problems, little or big, and coming up with ways of fixing them almost every day, so he is accustomed to thinking outside the box. "Hmm, what's going on here? Why is this tool malfunctioning? Did one of the sheep step on this thing and break it? What can I use as a substitute?" And so on. So he uses common sense to solve everyday problems as a matter of course. But now he's seeing that the typcal Hogwarts student hasn't had that same kind of experience.
I think that the other students were impressed, not only by his display of magic, but also by the way he interweaves Muggle logic with magical competence. They have not seen this kind of Muggle/magical thinking. Growing up with a magical background (no Muggleborns at the school this year), they cannot help having absorbed, to some degree, the prevailing assumption that Magical is superior to Muggle. Now they're seeing something they haven't seen before. But to Howard this is business as usual.
In some of the N.E.W.T. classes the professors speak of teaching the students the theory of how to use magic so that they can become creative in how they use it, but I wouldn't be surprised if much of their education in earlier years was of the memorize-and-regurgitate type.
Howard is getting a glimpse of what the Sorting Hat might have been talking about, but Howard hasn't told us yet what he thinks about it all. Not an easy road to travel.
Thank you so much for this lovely review!
Vicki
New POV! Very cool! I suspect Tracey is the girl who was keping eye contact with Howard in an earlier chapter. She seems like a good egg, considering the people she's surrounded by and the things they say and believe and have done and will do. Your dialogue between everyone at the start was really enjoyable, I felt Blaise really stood out as a character here, and hope to see him more - he had the most distinct voice out of everyone in that conversation, and it makes me want to read more interactions involving him. I also enjoyed the girl's dorms after the feast - particularly the discussion about plushies. It's actually really cute to imagine that even as terrible as we know some of these girls to have been in canon, that they were still all just eleven year old girls at one time, who brought a stuffed animal or two from home to comfort them. Well done!
Author's Response:Hi, Tanya! I'm glad that you have read another chapter of my long story. I suspect that you are right.
In the Harry Potter books, the Slytherins seem mostly like a bunch of jerks, but it must be remembered that we see them only through Harry's eyes, and he does have interactions with Slytherin Jerks. There were some Sllytherins who were okay, such as Andromeda Tonks, so I have taken the minor character Tracey Davis, about whom we know nothing canonically except that she was a Slytherin in Harry's year, and envisioned her as I wanted her to be, one of the perfectly decent, not rich and elitist, Slytherins.
Blaise Zabini, what little we see of him in the books, seems to be a very cool and collected character, above the juvenile silliness of so many of his compatriots, so that is how I see him. This makes his personality more unique, as you have noted. You will see him again in N.E.W.T. Potions class. I have envisioned him as Head Boy this year, because the Death Eaters would of course have put Slytherin students into the postions of Head Boy and Girl.
As you note, some of the Slytherin girls can do some pretty terrible things later on, but they're not one-note personalities, and they can have their decent moments, such as when they are looking back on the earlier years at Hogwarts and forward to what they want their futures to be. We can all have amusing conversations if we talk about what we did as young teenagers.
I'm glad you like this chapter. Thank you for this lovvely review!
Vicki
Hello Vicki! I really liked this chapter. You made the room so tense when it came to the discussion of where Howard would sleep. What I really like about it is how every person in that room was in a different position, each as difficult as the next. You do a great job of showcasing the impact of Harry, Ron, and Dean's absence on Neville and Seamus, who almost fight as they defend their friends to one another. It woud be incredibly difficult to be in that situation, when Hogwarts is such an important and good part of their lives, it's tough for either to admit that their friends may never return to it, and giving up their bed feels like admitting defeat. And then Howard, oof, that's such an awkward position to be in. Like, he has no real knowledge about anything right now, and is trying to both understand the situation and be respectful of it, but also, like... it's been a long day, let the guy have a bed! haha The tension here was really thick, and you created it without having to do anything too dramatic or longed out - you just spoke to the heart of each person in the room, and the tension bloomed on its own. Really great!
Author's Response:Hi, Tanya! I'm so glad that you are reading my long story! It and Tiramisu are my babies. You have interpreted this chapter exactly as I intended it to be, and that's so nice! Neville and Seamus are traumatized by the absence of their friends, adapting to which would be hard enough even without the addition of a clueless stranger who has to be fitted into the mix somehow. I love what you say, that they don't want to admit that their friends may never come back, and "giving up their bed feels like admitting defeat." Exactly! You have it all summed up so neatly and perfectly. Howard is trying to understand the situation and be respectful of it, but he also needs a bed somewhere.
I'll remember your final lines and use the principle again in tense situations, because apparently it worked!
Thanks so much for this lovely and analytical review!
Vicki
Hi Vicki! Thanks for another exciting chapter!
Your pacing is really excellent again in this one, even with the majority of the tension being set as Howe telling Tracey what happened in detention. The classroom scene was a pretty fair explanation of why the Hat put Howe in Gryffindor, though, even without taking the House's needs into account (unless of course that's a result of Nev and the other guys rubbing off on him - but I think it's just his natural instinct). Whatever it was that brought him to stand up and defy Carrow, though, it worked perfectly.
Recounting the detention was also fun to read - congrats on the spell, by the way, because it's genius. I think it was pretty sophisticated rather than a primitive spell, but as long as the Carrows didn't know what it was it counts as a devistating secret weapon! I wonder when Howe will realize that the Carrows aren't likely to forget the escape from detention, thoiugh. I still love that spell, though!
This was such an enjoyable chapter, even though it's got some really dark elements. It certainly shows how the resisting students will inevitably end up living in the Room of Requirement, although that's a benefit of hindsight from canon. Thanks again for sharing this story.
George
Author's Response:Hi, George! Thank you so much for your prompt and positive review. The events of this chapter go back a long way, to 2013 or 2014, and I worried that it would come out either very well or very badly, so i am very happy that you think that this set of old scenes aged well and still had legs.
Interesting that you think that Divergeo was a pretty sophisticated spell. I think that the crofters viewed it as a primitive spell because its effects were not completely controllable by the spell-caster, so that it was inherently risky to use. My son is visiting from Maryland right now, and he, like you, thought that the Carrows will not forget that the four detainees escaped, but what the Carrows decide to do about that remains to be seen. My son thought they might be embarrassed about letting their prisoners escape and might not want to make a big issue of it.
Howard's statement that the Carrows might not immediately think of using Finite incantatem to reset their wands is faulty, I think. Howard rarely uses that spell (if ever) on Skye, but the Carrows, being bad actors who have frequent interactions with other bad actors, probably use it fairly frequently. In fact, it might be one of their automatic go-to spells.
So glad that you thought the chapter was enjoyable and the pacing good. :)
Vicki
Hi Vicki!! Here for a time-sensitive review ;)
Phew, this was a heavier chapter than usual! I could definitely feel the dark edges starting to creep in, especially for Howard and Tracey. I really enjoyed how that first bit with Howard and the Gryffindors led into his conversation with Tracey about DADA. Her concerns were really valid, and definitely proved that she's worried about the state of things, too. I can't imagine a regularly-matriculated Gryffindor student being that open with a Slytherin in this setting, so I really liked seeing them talk in a sort of secluded manner.
I really wonder who set the attack on Carrow's office...it honestly didn't really seem like the type of thing that the Hufflepuff characters we've met would do, but maybe they were punished unfairly? Maybe it's proof of more mistreatment across Hogwarts? Or could one of the Gryffindors be hiding a secret? Maybe McGonagall?
Speaking of which, I would also be so nervous to fib to her lol. That must have been a tense dinner. I wonder what side she would be on, and how she would handle officially finding out that they're acting in rebellion? And I'm on Howard and Neville's side, this isn't a Quidditch match! I think it's that comparison that really hit on the dark aspect of this chapter.
Really awesome, Vicki, thank you!
Author's Response:Hi, Catherine! Thank you so much for leaving a review on my story. <3 I'm afraid there are going to be more heavy chapters in this story as we proceed through the months of the 1997-1998 school year. :( The tendrils of evil are creeping all around like a noxious vine growing over a stone building, and it's becoming ever harder to know whom you can trust. And Howard, not being familiar with the traditional relationships between, say, Gryffindor and Slytherin, does not deal with them in the same way as do students with more traditional backgrounds.
For more insight into the counter-tyranny activities of the Hufflepuffs during this time period, read the story "Carried In My Heart," on my Author Page. It is one of several one-shot stories that were written in previous years as extensions of events that occur in "The Crofter and The Snake." Eventually, counter-tyranny was occurring in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw Houses.
Good question -- what would McGonagall do if she officially found out about the students' counter-terrorism activities? It would be difficult to answer that question. On the one hand, maybe she needs to know. But on the other hand, wouldn't she feel forced to try to shut it down? Sometimes there are no good answers, just different degrees of bad (as Martin realized in "Tiramisu.")
Thanks so much for reading my story.
Vicki
Hi, Vicki. This was really quite a busy chapter, considering it wasn't all that lengthy. You managed to accomplish a lot of storytelling - the bit with the ongoing essay destruction ceremony was fun. Howe was a little hard on himself with the door prizes, but that seemed entirely in character. More progress on the play, and having him learn about the Room of Requirement also worked well (though why didn't Dennis think of it?). And I liked how you handled Howe's introduction to the notion he needed to learn defense spells. It was like he'd only thought it terms of home, not in terms of the coming war - compartmentalized thinking, maybe? This was a good chapter for bringing the plot points forward, I thought. Thanks again.
George
Author's Response:Hi, George! Thank you so much for your speedy read-and-review of this chapter. I hope that "busy chapter" is a compliment rather than the opposite. At least the three sections are all related in that they occur on the same day and in the same place (Gryffindor tower) and all involve the Resistance.
I myself, when listing all the possible places on my scrap paper where the theater crew could rehearse, didn't think of the Room of Requirement for a fairly long time, but my daughter said it was the first possible venue that popped into her head.
Your question about Dennis. The Room received its heaviest usage in recent years during the fifth year of the students who are now seventh years, when they were practicing wand work in order to pass their Defense Against The Dark Arts O.W.L. exam. There were a few fourth-years in that group that year -- Luna, Ginny, and Colin, but not Dennis; he was only a third year at that time, so Dennis did not go into the Room, although he must have heard descriptions of it from his brother Colin. But Dennis had no first-hand memory of the Room from personal experience and he quite possibly did not know that it would adapt itself to satisfy requirements, such as a performance stage and audience seating. So the Room of Requirement was not first and foremost in Dennis's mind's eye. During the year previous to the present point in the story, the Room seems to have had little usage, at least so far as we know. Draco used it to repair the vanishing cabinet, and Harry used it to hide the annotated copy of the Advanced Potions textbook, but I can't call to mind any other usage of the Room that is mentioned in canon.
You're correct when you note that Howard still thinks in terms of how whatever he is learning at Hogwarts will have practical application to his life on Skye after he returns home at the end of the school year. That is the rule by which he measures everything he is learning at Hogwarts. His initial take on his obligatory year at Hogwarts was that it would be like a long and odd vacation that had little bearing on his real life, and even though he has seen some unsettling things here, it still seems like a long, pdd vacation from real life as he knows it.
Thank you so much for following this story faithfully. <3 <3
Vicki
Hello! It’s Chapter 28!
Oh wow.
“Hogwarts wasn’t that far from Skye. It was so stupid.”
Okay, Howard. Let’s think this through a little more, shall we? Before we start walking home…
Seamus is right. All bets are off because this is not a normal year. Though, it’s strange that Howard doesnt know the dates of the holidays yet. Maybe it was one of those rushed things and the current administration doesn’t think they need to tell anyone anything. Ugh! I hate those guys!
I hope that Howard got what he needed from his conversation with McG. She certainly laid things out for him so that he’d see what was going on. I like how you crafted the dialogue. Each of them are trying to communicate to each other some very important information.
But Howard and Hagrid seem to be communicating just fine. That little map he made is going to become useful someday. I wonder what Howard is thinking about that. And I was a little surprised by Howard being surprised about Wizard farmers… or maybe he wasn’t surprised at their existence, but that they were nearby. Sort of like his kind of people who might understand him better than the people at the castle… Hmm…
I enjoyed the part about how the conversation turned from protecting the Gryffindors physically to also protecting their spirits. The bit about the Hufflepuff country dancing was a small bit of lightness in an otherwise dark and depressing mood. They do need to keep up their spirits, and I’m glad that Demelza is brave enough to rally her classmates!
Howard’s letter was very interesting. I’m still trying to piece together the kinds of plans he may or may not be making.
Very intriguing.
Pix
Author's Response:Hi, Pix! Thank you so much for leaving this great review. :) I started out by laughing at your opening sentences. "Okay, Howard. Let's think this through a little more, shall we? Before we start walking home." Both you and George/Goatspeed have mentioned the possibility that Howard might be contemplating walking from Hogwarts to Skye. If in truth he was planning to do that, in the dark and cold of a Scottish winter, then he definitely needs to heed your advice to think it over a little bit more.
I have no idea when the dates for holidays were usually announced at Hogwarts, during normal years. One would think that the year's calendar would be published at the start of the school year, but apparently it has not been published yet this year, and so Neville and Seamus are advising Howard based on what has been the custom in past years, but as Seamus says, "All bets are off this year." I think that you are correct in deducing that the current administration doesn't think they need to tell anyone anything. Nevertheless, the dates have been decided, as Howard discovers when he goes to McGonagall's office, and she is not reluctant to share this information with him. :)
I guess Howard got what he needed from his conversation with McGonagall, sort of, with a bunch of reading between the lines and interpreting what she was trying to say without actually saying it. It's too bad that he had to listen to the remarks that suggested a lack of respect for the customs and behaviors that Howard brings from Skye. I guess they don't have an Office of Diversity, Inclusivity, and Equality at Hogwarts yet, and the present regime will certainly not establish one. In spite of his best intentions, Howard is finding it difficult to abide by the advice that his mother gave him before he left home: "...as some rude guest would change, where'er he roam, the manners there professed to those he brings from home." Hard to follow that rule when you're sure that you're right. It wasn't an easy section of dialogue to write, tense but not ballistic, so I'm glad you think that it was successful.
My son wondered why Hagrid did not seem to be suspicious about why Howard was asking those questions about Hogsmeade, but I explained to him that they would be logical questions coming from a seventh-year student who had never been to see Hogsmeade and was not going to have an opportunity to do so this year. Howard is known to be a map-drawer, so that's not unexpected for him, and he embeds his necessary questions amid a whole lot of other questions that are unimportant to him, so Hagrid would be hard pressed to find out any hidden motive for them. Besides, Hagrid is known to be a trusting person.
No, Howard didn't specifically know what was located outside of the village (farms), but it seemed reasonable, so he wasn't surprised about that. In Tiramisu Hogsmeade is located a day's walk (25-30 miles) north of Aberdeen in a flat, non-mountainous area that is good for farming (at least for Scottish-type farming), but Howard didn't see any of that terrain on his journey to Hogwarts because night had fallen by the time the train went through that part of the country. Somewhere there is an interface between the area populated exclusively by wizards, and the terrain where Muggles also live, but we don't know where that boundary is located. But if Howard did ever meet with wizard farmers, he would probably feel more at home with them than with the people in the castle, as you suggest.
I needed Demelza to remind eveeryone that there could still be some beauty and fun in the world, despite the perpetual oppression of the Death Eaters. The kids should not let themselves be dragged down by gloom (and I as an author was feeling pretty gloomy myself). As Demelza implied, things won't get better until the students make them get better. The bit about country dancing comes from a short piece, less than 1000 words, that I wrote about 10 years ago when I was growing the germ of this story. It focused on Hannah and what she was doing to maintain the morale of the Hufflepuffs during these dark days.
I'm glad that the story is not boring for you. I am getting much satisfaction from finally getting the story out of my brain and down in print.
Thanks so much for reading and reviewing. <3 <3
Vicki
Hi Vicki! This was rather a densely packed chapter, and quite an interesting read as a result (in my opinion, anyway). Howe's conversation with McGonagall was rather like the cross-examination of a hostile witness, I thought, and I wonder if this was a result of your conception of McGonagall's fear or if it came more from the limited perspective Howe's background imposed on him (or for that matter, something else entirely that hadn't occurred to me). I do applaud your ability to capture the "you should have sense enough to see this for yourself" element that always permeates her relationship with students. Overall, I thought the scene was very well constructed.
I thoroughly enjoyed the scene with Hagrid. Howe's efforts to develop a map of Hogsmeade without being to obvious about his motive proved fascinating. I'm guessing he plans to ditch the train and strike out for Skye on foot, so he needs to fit the local area into a map of the Highlands before attempting that task. If he's up to something more complicated, then I'm stumped (wwouldn't be the first time). It was a good scene, regardless.
Finally, the discussion among the students of the information Howe gleaned from McGonagall rounded out the chapter nicely. Howe is slowly establishing his place in Gryffindor and demonstrating the usefulness the Sorting Hat read in his mind. At the same time, you're keeping the ensemble cast involved, which makes for a more interesting story. Well done on all fronts. Thanks for another enjoyable read.
George
Author's Response:Hi, George! Thank you so much for this lovely review. As my daughter says, Chapter 28 is a transitional chapter, touching various threads instead of being entirely focused on one intense, action-packed topic. So I'm glad that you found it to be "densely packed and quite interesting" instead of a "muddled mish-mash." What you say about the conversation between Howard and Professor McGonagall is correct on both points -- she is fearful about what might happen as the months go by during this school year, and he is relating to her in the only way he knows how. The way she speaks to him here reminds me of how she used to admonish Harry, just a year or two previously -- "Don't be stupid!"
I'm glad you liked the scene with Hagrid. My son thought that Hagrid should have been more suspicious of why Howard was asking so many detailed questions about Hogsmeade, but I pointed out to him that Howard, unlike the other seventh-year students, had never visited Hogsmeade before and was not going to get a chance to do so this year either, so the only way he could "experience" it was by second-hand, through someone else's description. That would be a reasonable conclusion for Hagrid to make, especially since he is known to be a trusting fellow. The whole conversation is chock-full of information that Howard can use. I smiled at your guess that Howard was going to try to walk to Skye during the depths of winter, around the shortest day of the year. But part of the fun of reading is trying to guess what is going to happen.
The discussion in the seventh years' dormitory was such a downer that I felt compelled to end it on a happier note, reaching back into my old sketches to resurrect an old short piece I wrote during my original development of Crofter/Snake ten years ago, about Hannah organizing country dencing in the badgers' common room as a way of keeping their spirits up.
I find it challenging to keep track of the several plot lines and characters in this story, compared to "Tiramisu," where there were relatively few characters, or at least that's how it felt, and a more straightforward plot.
I'm glad you are enjoying the story. :)
Vicki
Great chapter. I love the creativity in transfiguration use-very original idea. Howe's unusual education is going to be very helpful to these students and I like the way he problem solves. They obviously need to think more muggle-like.
As I read the description of Belinda's detention, all I could think was, "Honey, this is just the beginning." I wonder how Carrow knew that she hadn't turned in her homework. If Professor Vector told them, imagine the guilt she'd feel.
Author's Response:Hi, Barbara. Thank you so much for reading Chapter 27 and leaving a review! It makes me so happy to know that you are following this storoy.
Howard is displaying his notable skiils in Transfiguration here. You may recall that in the very first Transfiguration class of this term, before the fiasco of the cordless electric drill, Professor McGonagall had told the class that this year they would be learning theory so that they could transfigure anything they wanted to, not just the specific items that had been taught in the previous years. But Howard has not learned Transfiguration in Hogwarts classrooms; he has been free, in his life on Skye, to develop his transfiguration skills through a combination of book learning and free experimentation, going with his gut instincts to perfect his ability, so now he has the capacity to adapt each transfiguration act to the requirement of the specific task at hand. Thus he can say, "I've never done a transfiguration like this before (altering the contents of a spray can)," but he has the ''feel' for how it should be done, and his odds of having a good result are pretty high.
Who knows what Hermione would think about all this.
I like your mental statement to Belinda: "Honey, this is just the beginning." So true. But now the Gryffindors know a bit more about what they're up against. Chapter 28 will be posted very soon and will give you more insight into how the Carrows knew that Belinda had failed to do her homework.
Vicki <3 <3
Hi Vicki,
I'm here for our review swap and to continue reviewing this lovely story!
I am so glad that Howard got to meet back up with all the transfers. I think it was on his mind, and it probably took a bit of weight off his shoulders, even if he now feels even more obligated to stay there after March. I also liked how they all compare their house differences, and how Howard points out some very valid issues with Gryffindor's position in the castle.
Their picnic was especially good for Andrew, clearly, as he openend up a little bit. Even when you do try and get someone to open up, you can only do so much. But it was also so important for Phyllis and the others, as we clearly see at the end. I think it was more impactful than he imagined, and he's turning into a little crofter at Hogwarts.
I also feel bad that Howard feels inadequate! It clearly had a very great impact on the transfer group, and they even see him as a big brother. Maybe that's never what he was out there for, but it doesn't matter -- they all really appreciate what he's trying to do.
I really like that callback at the end about the sorting hat...though Howard's been instrumental in getting the younger Gryffindor's involved, what else will he do here at Hogwarts before he leaves? It's sort of foreboding and intritguing. Only more story will tell!
Thanks again,
Cat
Author's Response:Hi, Catherine,
Thank you so much for offering this review swap. I am so glad that you are enjoying this story. I tend to worry about whether the story will turn out to be very long, but it won't be as long as JKR's story of Harry's experiences during the Second Wizarding War, so I console myself with that thought. I think that any student's experience at Hogwarts in the tumultuous year of 1997-1998 would be full of turbulent and unusual/unexpected events. so it cannot be a short story because there is too much to tell.
Yes, Howard's feeling of obligation to the younger homeschooled students has been weighing on his mind, his promises, easy to give but harder to keep, that they would stick together and that he would look out for them. Some people would just put it off indefinitely, but we have seen, as in the episode where he talks with Ginny and Demelza in the common room, that he has learned it is easier in the long run to face what you know you should do and just do it. Like getting up early in the cold and dark and going out to the sheds to do something for the sheep -- you just gotta do it.
Howard may not have had any book-learning about how to conduct a session like this one, but his instincts were good, and in the end he did accomplish something. There was bonding between the five of them, and a feeling of mutual support, a feeling that it was safe to be in that little circle, and that's hard to measure, but we know it when we see it or feel it. It's natural for a person in Howard's position to review his performance with a heavy focus on what he could have done better, or stuff he should have said but didn't think of until after it was all over -- we have all been there -- so I am glad that Phyllis was able to give him validation of what he had done for them. Andrew needs so much support -- we saw that from the first day -- and even thought the Hufflepuffs are all very kind and friendly and caring, it's only in this little group that Andrew can be with people who know what it's reaally like to be pulled out of your family and dumped into this distressing situation. As Howard says, it's not easy for any of them, even him.
I like your insight: "...he's turning into a little crofter at Hogwarts." I'll bet he's never had to be a crofter of children before, especially since he's the youngest in his family, so he probably doesn't think of what he's doing now in those terms. But you're absolutely right.
Thank you so much for following this story so faithfully <3 <3
Vicki
Slushy Snow-splat!
I really enjoyed this chapter, the description of the dew on the grass was charming and I'm really glad to see the inclusion of a Slytherin as a friend. Tracy seems really nice. What I also really liked was how this last year of study seems almost how a college class would be with original research. That was a great touch and makes it very different than their previous years at Hogwarts. I always wondered if the wizarding world had a "college" for advanced studies, maybe it's for very specific topics, but this is more like how I envisioned it.
Great work!
-Heather
Author's Response:Hi, Heather! I'm glad that you enjoyed this chapter. :)
One lack in the original seven books was that there wasn't much description about what went on in the classes, even though Hogwarts wa supposed to be a school, and the classroom activities would form a large part of the students' experiences at Hogwarts. So I include more scenes in the classroom than some other authors do. Actually, it's just as interesting as endless romantic angst.
In my one-shot written in 2013, "Greenhouse Seven", focused on Neville but also including Howard, Wayne, and Tracey, Neville thinks to himself that Tracey is a nice girl, the only Slytherin he actually likes (which goes to show that not all Slytherins were jerks) Tracey can be a good friend.
Many authors have included references to higher education, beyond Hogwrts, for wizards, sometimes apprenticeships but often at organized institutions of advanced magical learning, wizarding universities. These stories are so common that I have concluded that HP fans in general want wizarding universities to exist, so they just invent them and put them in their stories. Good for them! (JKR doesn't have to invent everything; she can leave some gaps for us to fill in.)
Thank you so much for giving me another review in the Snowball Fight.
Vicki <3 <3
Slushy Snow-splat!
I really enjoyed this chapter, the description of the dew on the grass was charming and I'm really glad to see the inclusion of a Slytherin as a friend. Tracy seems really nice. What I also really liked was how this last year of study seems almost how a college class would be with original research. That was a great touch and makes it very different than their previous years at Hogwarts. I always wondered if the wizarding world had a "college" for advanced studies, maybe it's for very specific topics, but this is more like how I envisioned it.
Great work!
-Heather
Author's Response:Hi, Heather. Thank you for continuing this Snowball Fight with me. The snow is flying! I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter.
This chapter derives from my 2013 one-shot "Greenhouse Seven," in which the focus is on Neville but Howard, Tracey, and Wayne appear in it also. I have always kept in mind that Hogwarts was a school, and much of the students' experiences there involved what went on in the classrooms, not just the extra-curricular angsty romances. So I like to write stories that give a richer view of the education that went on there. Sometimes other writers do this also, and I enjoy reading their stories. The classroom material is not boring becaause it is so different from what we experienced in our own Muggle classrooms back in the day.
I think that many writers, like you (and me), feel a lack of further education for the graduates of Hogwarts. I seem to recall that JKR has stated that there weren't any wizarding universities and that any further education, such as law or medicine, was carried out as a sort af apprenticeship, but apparently most HP fans re not willing to accept this explanation because we see many fanfics, often long and elaborate ones, in which the Hogwarts graduates go on to wizarding institutions of higher education, wizarding universities, or even Muggle universities (without a good explanation of how they can do that when they haven't studied Muggle science or higher mathematics, but I suppose we don't have to be picky about that.) We want these kids to develop their talents to the fullelst!
I really appreciate your reviews, so thank you so much for writing them <3
Vicki
Snowball!!!
I really enjoyed Howe's interaction with Hagrid and Fang. I'm glad he made a connection with someone like him. If he can't be on his farm, he can certainly learn more about the animals at Hogwarts. The way he went to the library before classes even start sounds like he'd be friends with Hermione, not to mention all the muggle things he brought, I doubt he'll be allowed to use them for long since the new "staff" hates muggles.
It was so nice of Neville to subtley write the letter to his grandmother to write to his parents. In that case, he might be able to do that for the other kids if they need it too. Very sneaky!
Thanks for snowball fighting with me :)
-Heather
Author's Response:And thank you to you also for snowball-fighting with me. It has been fun. If I'm lucky, I will be able to sneak one more review in before the fight is over, to review your last posted chapter of What Matters Most.
I smiled at your statement that Howard would have been friends with Hermione based on their mutual habit to take advantage of what the library has to offer. I had never thought of that until you mentioned it, and I do think that if there were a competition between the two of them to see who used the library more, she would win, but he might not be far behind.
You are right that Howard will feel himself restricted on using his Muggle ball-point pens and three-ring binders with plastic covers in the classrooms, at least until he gets a feel for which professors will tolerate Muggle school supplies and which will not. Neville's unspoken offer to have his grandmother get in contact with Howard's dad really shows that he (Neville) is thawing out towards Howard and wants to help him. It must have been awful for Howard to think that Neville and Seamus were shunning him, so he must be feeling doubly grateful now. Interesting thought about the families of the other homeschooled kids. The others did come from good-sized communities on the mainland of England and were less isolated that the inhabitants of Skye, so they might have had more contact with the events going on in the wizarding world, and may even have seen copies of the Daily Prophet (for what that's worth; it's printing only propaganda now).
Thank you so much for doing all this snowball fighting with me. That was so nice!
Vicki
Snowball splat!
Good idea, go visit Hagrid, he'll either have a cup of tea or a large brandy lol. Eek, I never thought Howe hadn't heard about the war or Harry Potter. They must be pretty far removed, I guess if all you do is work on your farm, you wouldn't know. That would be a lot for anyone, and it makes me wonder if the other kids who were homeschooled know or not? That'd be even worse for kids. But yeah, I wouldn't feel like getting ready for classes either...
-Heather
Author's Response:Hi, Heather. Thank you for continuing to read my story! <3 After hearing Neville's and Seamus's shocking explanation, Howard probably needs the large brandy. A good question you ask, whether the other formerly-homeschooled students were aware of the Wizarding War. Their hometowns, as listed by Howard in his letter home to his parents, are not so remote as the Scottish Isles are, so one might suspect that they are a little more closely tied to mainstream wizarding culture, although that's not a guarantee. If they did know something, they obviously didn't mention it to Howard during the long train trip from London, so that makes me think that perhaps they didn't know much if anything, although their parents may have known something. But the wizards on the Islands use their magic as a practical tool and don't get wrapped up in "wizarding culture"; they think that most of wizarding culture doesn't apply to them (true). The First Wizarding War ended suddenly with the death of Harry's parents, before the war could spread to the Scottish Isles, but the second war might last longer and spread its tendrils farther.
Yes, going to visit Hagrid is a good idea. Hagrid has a big heart and an open ear for any student, and a friendly dog also. If anyone can console you, it would be Hagrid.
Thank you so much for this lovely review. This snowball fight was fun!. :)
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