Name: Felpata_Lupin (Signed) · Date: 24 Apr 2021 11:32 AM · For: The High Priestess

Hey, Shaza, dear! I'm here for the Hufflepuff swap! <3

I remember this story being well praised at some point, but I shamefully never got here to read it, so I'm glad for this chance to make up for it now! :D

And it is a really lovely story! So cute and heartwarming! <3

I love how you picked up on that detail of the portraits of Harry & co on Luna's bedroom's ceiling and expanded on it, giving us this beautiful, emotional tale of her actually painting it. It's so sweet that she wanted something to remember her of her new friends and how special they are to her. It's also a little bit sad, because it shows how isolated and shunned she'd been before, but I still love her gratitude and happiness now! And the fact that in some ways it was her mum to inspire her makes it all even more touching! I love the idea of Luna's mum reading tarots, and that Luna now uses the cards as a way to connect to her, somehow! Again, it's bittersweet, but I love it a lot! <3

The atmosphere of the piece is really incredible, so delicate, and your descriptions are lovely, so vibrant and colourful. It's just beautiful writing!

Such lovely work!

Big snowball hug,

Chiara

Name: Renacera (Signed) · Date: 11 May 2018 01:23 PM · For: The High Priestess

Hi Shaza, dear!

I really need to read more of your stories. You write so well, and this one was no exception. :)

Honestly, this is so lovely. Luna is such an incredible character (and I'm pretty sure that Evanna Lynch IS Luna) and the scene in DH when they see her painting in her room...ahh. The feels.

I love that you worked Luna's mother into her experience of deciding how to honor her friends. I feel like she's someone who honors her mother every chance she gets, so it makes perfect sense to me that she would want to honor her friends in a visible, recognizable way too. And really, wouldn't Luna be the best friend to have? She seems so loyal and giving of herself. I feel like she could easily have been a 'Puff. She's so honest too. Ahh...I just love her.

You write her so well. I think you really capture her feelings of finally having friends, and the peace she feels knowing that they care about her. I wonder how Luna did after the war...hmm, maybe I'll write that story.

Anyhow, this was just lovely. You're such a good writer and I really enjoyed this story. I promise to read more soon!

Best,
Emily

Author's Response:

This response is for the sandcastle game. 

 

Hey, thank you for the review!

 

Aww, thank you! :) 

 

Yeah, I definitly see Luna as someone who thinks about her mother quite a lot so it seemed fitting that she would use her mother while making this decision. She would definitly be the best friend, she's such a nice, genuine character and I do realy love her. She can be an honurary puff :P

 

Oooh, I wonder if you've wrote that story, that would be amazing! I'll have to check, I feel like her story after the war would be so interesting. 

 

Thank you so mcuh for the review, and the lovely comments! 

-Shaza :)

Name: Stella Blue (Signed) · Date: 07 Sep 2017 03:05 PM · For: The High Priestess

*Transferred from hpff*

 

There are far too few stories about Luna out there so I'm really excited about this one.

I can totally see Luna being into Tarot cards. Or any sort of Divination for that matter. And I especially love that that's her connection to her mother - she probably has very few such connections, since she was pretty young when her mother died and she only has a few memories, so those would stick with her pretty strongly.

I love how sentimental this piece is, both about Luna's mother and about her friends in the D.A. Luna is such a special person and she would basically be the best friend ever - the depth of her caring for them is so clear here as she paints a portrait so she can always remember them.

Last but not least, I do remember this painting from the DH book so I absolutely love that you provided the background and what inspired Luna to paint it. This was everything I wanted from this story and I loved it. Great work!!

Author's Response:

This response is for the sandcastle game. 

 

Hey, thank you for the review!

 

There definilty is, and she's such an interesting character too. 

 

Yeah, she definitly seemed like the type to be into all that kind of thing and I figured she would get it from somewhere and her mother just seemed so perfect. It's so sad that she only has a short time with her mother. 

 

She would definitly be the best friend to her, she is so loyal and genuine, and I feel like from the books you see how much they mean to her so I really wanted that to come across here.

 

Yeah, I like doing missing moments and this one sparked some insperation, it was fun to write. 

 

Thank you so much for the review, I'm so glad you liked it! 

-Shaza :)

Name: AltraX (Signed) · Date: 25 Jun 2017 07:06 AM · For: The High Priestess

Hiya! Just stopping by for a review! :)

 

Luna is such a unique character. She has all this quirks, isn't worried what the world thinks of them, and does what makes her happy. It's such an easy way to live, just being yourself despite what everyone things, and I like how normal everything is in this story based on that idea. I love how she wants to represent all these friends that she's made, wants some sort of reminder of a good thing in her life. I also love how she turns to her mother, and what she remembers of her, in order to decide how.

 

I will say, tarot cards have always fascinated me. I don't think I've ever quite understood exactly how they function (nor can I make judgements about how I feel about the predictions (is that even the right word?!) that come from them), but I do find it a fascinating thought that Luna's mom used them, showed them to Luna, and then taught her how to use them. It's such a unique thing to be able to do and the fact that it's sort of a passed down ability (kind of?) is really cool. And I was impressed not that the end result was a painting, but that the whole point of the painting was she did it herself. Like, it is a really personal way to represent the important people in her life and she definitely recognized that and made sure it was meaningful. Very good characterization of Luna! Very enjoyable story!

-Mikaela xx    

Author's Response:

Hey there, thanks for stopping by!

She totally is, she's such a great character and it makes her so interesting to write about! I'd love to be able to live my lie like that, she is such goals! Yeah, I loved that scene in the book when they go to her house and see the painting for the first time, it just stuck in my mind and this seemed the perfect way to honour that.

Yeah, the tarot cards just seemed like the perfect fit to Luna's character, and it just felt like a nice tribute to her mum to have something from her as well.  Yeah, I really wanted the painting to be a big part of the one shot. The tarot cards guided her to the painting, and her mum really helped her out with that personal touch, and making it special, but it was her who put the work in, thought of it,and made it come to life.

I'm so glad you liked the story, thank you so much for reviewing as well! :)

Name: Dojh167 (Signed) · Date: 17 Jun 2017 11:42 PM · For: The High Priestess

How could I miss this opportunity to read your tarot challenge entry? ;)

I love Luna, and I always have lots of feels about the impact of her mother’s death on her.

And wow, to say that Luna hadn’t felt this connected to anyone since her mother died. That implies a really serious trauma. Of course Luna is quite odd in her own right, but this implies that there is a deeper cause to her struggle to form relationships. It makes me ache to think that this is the closest she’s gotten to anyone in her Hogwarts years, while from the perspective of the books she’s a fairly minor character in these peoples’ lives, and not nearly as significant to them. That’s okay, I suppose. I feel like that’s the case for some of the relationships that mean the most to me.

One little fact checking thing, is I believe in canon Luna already knew Ginny before joining Dumbledore's army.

I guess I never considered when Luna made this painting. We know she has it during Deathly Hallows, but it didn’t occur to me that she would make it as early as this. It makes sense though!

Aw, I can totally picture little Luna, enraptured by her mother’s reading of tarot cards!

I don’t know much about tarot, so I’m glad you explained what the high priestess card represents.

I’m kinda getting Rapunzel vibes of painting her tower XD

This makes my heart ache. It is both incredibly cute, and speaks to how lonely Luna is. I love that she has this to come home to no matter what.

This is really sweet! I don’t think I’ve ever seen his moment depicted in fic, and you’re very creative about it!

Sam.

Author's Response:

Sam, hello!

Yes, Luna is one of my favourite characters, she's so much fun, and so interesting to write about!

Yeah, I just felt that since she had been close to her mother, seeing her die would have impacted her in a big way! And then add that to how she is a bit odd, I thought she might have had a hard time making friends, especially long lasting ones. It's is really sad though.

Oh yeah, thanks for that! I'll go back and change it, maybe this can just be them getting closer or something, thanks for spotting it though.

Yeah, I love missing moments because you can interpret them in any way you want, so I'm glad you though I did this well, thank you!

Aha, that is also a really cute picture, maybe I should mention her long blonde hair :P

Thanks so much for the review, I'm so glad you liked it! :)

 

Name: nott theodore (Signed) · Date: 17 Jun 2017 08:21 AM · For: The High Priestess

Hi Shaza!  I know that I got to read this during CTF and I left a review then, but I'm hoping that this one is a little more coherent and does more justice to your story <3

 

I have a friend who always keeps trying to get me into tarot cards and do a tarot reading for me :P She hasn't actually done one for me so far, so I don't know much about them, but it was really interesting to read about them here and the different meanings they have according to the card and the position that it's in, as well.

 

The opening of this story was really lovely - it felt quite soft and gentle to read, and to me it fit very well with Luna's character, as she always seems so calm and serene.  I really liked the description of her room at the beginning, too, with the glass casting different colours on the walls.

 

It was so sweet to see Luna reflecting on the friends that she'd made at Hogwarts that school year!  It's sad in a way that they're the first real friends that she's had, but I was so glad for her that she had them and you could easily see how much they meant to her when you were reading this.  I think you conveyed how much she values their friendship really well in this piece, even before she decided to paint the pictures of them on the ceiling of her room.

 

I can easily imagine Luna being someone who's interested in tarot cards and divination and prophecy - she's so curious about the world and I can definitely see her not dismissing it the way that Hermione does.  The fact that it's something that she and her mum used to do together makes it even more treasured, to her, I think, because of the memories that it holds and the connection to someone she's lost.

 

The description of the High Priestess card was really interesting here, and the way that Luna divined what she needed to do from it.  I loved the way that the need to express herself creatively linked together with the thoughts she'd been having of her new friends at the start of the story, and she decided to paint their faces on the ceiling as a reminder of the happiness that she feels with them.  It was just really sweet to read and I think you characterised Luna really well in this, and I enjoyed reading it!

 

Sian :)

Author's Response:

Hey Sian, thank you so much for the review! Both were much appreciated!

Oh, I bet that would be exciting. Personally I never held much stock in them, but I'm sure that a reading from your friend would be so interesting.

I'm glad you liked the descriptions though, that is my weak point so I'm glad you thought they were good.

Yeah, I feel like Luna's situation is so sad, but also really touching because she knows how much they mean to her and she doesn't take them for granted. I definitely think this piece shows just how much her friends mean to her, and I'm glad you picked up on that.

I totally agree with that. Luna was one of the only people who came to mind when I thought about who to write about using tarot cards, it is such a Luna thing to me.

I'm so glad you liked this piece, thank you so much for the review!:)

 

Name: RoxiMalfoy (Signed) · Date: 02 May 2017 10:41 PM · For: The High Priestess

Found out today that we were allowed to transfer our reviews from CTF over here to HPFT, so I thought I'd come show this beautiful Luna one-shot some love again!! I just love Luna to pieces!! She has been my favorite character from the HP world since she was first introduced in OotP. So, naturally, I was instantly drawn to this fic when I saw that it was about her! ;)

That being said, I really do love how you have written her here. She was very in character; sweet, innocent, lovable, adorable Luna!! I get that it was the main theme of the challenge you entered, but I quite liked the fact that she used the Tarot Cards to help guide her. As much crazy stuff as she believes in already, it is quite believable that her and her mother would rely on those cards in their decision-making. That is totally something that I could see happening in cannon!! I can't believe that I have never seen this ides used before now, to be honest. It's SO good!!

I especially liked this line here: Luna smiled to herself, it never ceased to amaze how accurate the cards could be. It was up-right meaning that she needed to trust her instinct more, instead of focusing on what is logical. It was interesting, getting to see her struggle with her internal Ravenclaw like that, lol! But in the end, her Luna-ness won over, and she went with what the cards were telling her anyway!! In spite of all the fun that people poke at her, I for one feel that Luna Lovegood is very intelligent. After all, there's a reason she's a Claw and not a Puff. And you have managed to capture that so beautifully in this little one-shot.

I'll be honest, I had almost forgotten all about that painting that she had of them on her bedroom ceiling. But as soon as you started describing exactly what she was painting, that scene from Deathly Hallows came back to me, and I was so excited when I realized that this was a missing moment from the books!! I always love to read missing moments from the books, so that just made me love this little one-shot even more than I did already, haha!! And your explanation on how that painting came to be is so believable, I can totally see book-Luna doing just that. Your characterization of her was very accurate here, I thought.

Honestly, the only bit of CC I can give is that you may want to take another quick read back over it once more when you have a chance because there were several places where a comma was needed and it was missing. Other than that, there were no other grammatical errors that I could spot. It was a little on the short side, but I just liked it so much that I wanted to read more, lol! That's not necessarily a bad thing at all!!

I thought that it was so sweet and so sentimental, how she wanted to do something nice for her first group of true friends, and she wound up honoring her mother in the process of it all. Give me all the feels!! I loved it so much, and I am so glad I discovered this little gem of a one-shot!! I'm giving it a 10/10, because this was VERY well done!! =D

~Deana

Author's Response:

Hey there, thank you so much for transferring your review!

 

I love Luna too, she's amazing and definitely an interesting character to read and write about!

 

Oh yeah, she was one of the only characters I could see using tarot cards. It just seemed to fit her personality so well, and there was no one else I think I could have written who would have fit this story so well!

 

Aww, thank you, that means a lot! Yeah, I definitely think Luna is a lot smarter than people normally give her credit for! I don't think Ravenclaw is just book smarts and I'm glad you think I've managed to capture that here. (As much as I would like her to be a puff ;) haha)

 

Yeah, I love reading and writing missing moments from the books, it's so interesting to see how people fill in those gaps. I'm glad you thought my characterization was accurate, I found her quite hard to right as I wanted to get the balance between whimsical and totally out of it.

 

Yeah, I'll definitely have another look over this and see what I can spot, thank you! And believe it or not this is the long version, I think when I first posted it, it was only 6/700 words long aha.

 

Thank you so much for this review, it was so sweet and I'm so glad you liked it! :D