Wow, I love how you started this story. There is a saying about how there is always a calm before the storm, and you most certainly captured this feeling in you first chapter. You know, I always felt that just after the last sentence of Deathly Hallows, there would be a line that read "Or was it?", followed by dramatic, scary music that would come out of nowhere.

But back to the story...

I love how you were able to capture Harry's nervousness while the world around him keeps on spinning in the normal fashion. If this story were told from any other point of view, there reader might see it as a light, fluffy story about after the children had been left at the train station. Although I have a very clear feeling that that's not what we are going to see here.

“Oh, damn that thing!” was quickly followed by Hermione’s “Ron!” as she threw her hands over Hugo’s ears, a little too late. Harry laughed at the pair of them, scrambling to right the troll leg umbrella stand, which Ron had uprooted, while Ginny hurried to turn on the lights.
Oh, this most definantly gives your story a very real feel to it. You capture Ron and Hermione's adult personalities perfectly, and again allow the world to turn while Harry mulls over his own worries.

“Your face is also quite ugly,” said Ginny, “but we don’t throw you out because of it.”
And yes, I can see adult Ginny here as well. Wonderfully done, and I can see that the sibling relationship between her and her brother is still alive and well.

Running faster, rushing to their friends’ rescue, every part of their souls feared what they’d find inside Regulus’ old room, wondering if the peace was now gone forever.
And then what? Then what happened?

Overall, you have a very solid start to your story, and I truly hope it has not been abondoned. This has a lot of potential and I want to see how you can further bring it to life.

Author's Response: Thank you so much. What a wonderful review! And so very helpfull! Worry not, this has not been abandoned. In fact, the second chapter has been completed since before the first chapter was even posted. I have this rule (which I know annoys people) that I won't post one chapter until the one after it has been finalized. This helps me avoid having to go back and rework previous chapters later on, only confusing anyone who reads them. Chapter 3 is in progress, so Chapter 2 should be in queue soon (I've given myself the deadline of the end of September at the absolute latest!) Thank you again! ~Sylladi

Alright! You are really motering with these chapters now! I am very excited to see the next one, especially since ready the except you wrote up on the threads, which I will comment on very soon, I assure you!

Once again, I love the speech and the style in which you wrote it. Something I especially enjoyed about how you wrote about this story was your description of Grindelwald. DH aside, we know very little about Grindelwald's appearence or what he did to become such an infamous wizard. I wasn't even a hundred percent sure of what he looked like until now. I just think you did a great job of describing Grindelwald in general. I'm excited to see how you develop his character in the coming chapters. Is he going to be a common figure at Durmstrang event, or was seeing him akin to having the president speak at your school?

Also, I wonder if he will be mentioning Dumbledore at all, or is Dumbledore not quite such a famous wizard yet at this point in time? He is, afterall, just a lowly Transfiguration teacher at this point in history who also happened to find several new uses for dragon's blood. He might be a particularily inventive teacher, but probably not that famous yet. Is killing Grandelwald what finally does make him famous? Will we be hearing about the Elder Wand at all?

I wonder how many people were able to guess that Karkaroff was the other canon character they were going to see. Well, I am eager to see how he devolops through the rest of the story. And for all the fans you seemed to have garted on other sites, I'm begining to think you are getting just as many loyal fans on MNFF. Look at the lovely reviews you have gotten already! I think after all the tugging people along on that character thread of yours, now that the story is starting to progess, it is starting to get its well deserved attention once again. And your Fetured Story Ribbon certainly does a lot to convince people you story is worth reading as well. But I think it is the great writing that keeps people coming back for more and what is eventually going to turn them into rabid wolves while they are waiting for the next few chapters.

I can't wait to see the rest of your story!

Author's Response:

Thanks for the the review, Molly. I am actually quite surprised with my current pace of writing - I’ve never managed to write consistently like this before, so I am feeling quite proud of myself. However, school will be starting up again soon, so I don’t think I’ll be able to crank out a chapter a week like I’ve done for the last month. But I will try to update as often as I can - I don’t want a repeat of that five-month update gap.

I suddenly feel compelled to write another review for your story. I know I am already your beta reader, but I feel like writing something that could help to inspire you to write your next chapter. I am just so excited to finally see when Dieter finally goes to Durmstrang. You have been building it up so much on your popular character thread after all.

It's so interesting to see how Dieter is beginning to see that there is indeed a difference between the Muggle world and the Wizarding world. And poor little Paul! If it turns out that he really isn't a wizard, he might very well turn out to be yet another Petunia Evans. If I had to place my bet, though, I would say that Lena would definitely be the one to also be a witch. But you probably already know that from the drabble I wrote you in our round of Drabble Tag. I wonder if any of them will find out about the wizard's house themselves and go looking for it. But it would turn out to be quite funny if it turns them none of them have magic and they just end up wandering the town until nightfall and they have to be brought home by the SS.

One of the things I am really looking forward to seeing is the actual journey to Durmstrang. I have been curious for a while about how other schools transport their students, and I myself have been coming up a bit empty as far as my own imaginings for my own invented schools go. I am excited to see the giant ship you talked about in your thread and how you concieve the actual journey itself.

I hope we finally get to see it in the next chapter. At the very least, I'm happy that as your beta reader, I get to have sneak peeks of all your chapters.

Author's Response:

Hello Molly! Thank you for the review, and of course, for beta’ing my chapters. Anyway, now that you’ve edited my latest chapter which is now posted, you know how Dieter gets to Durmstrang!

Alright, Tim, I am serious, WHY is there no update? And I'm a college student too, so don't try to convince me that your college has different breaks from every other college in the world, or that the American Socialist Workers Party has made you its new Chairman and you a planning a march to Washington to overthrow the capitalist regime and instigate revolution among the American people!

Seriously, you just won a QSQ for the story, and choosing now to stop writing it is just cold. And don't think I don't know that Dieter isn't banging around inside you head, nagging at you to finish this story.

You have a lot of loyal fans waiting to hear the rest of this story, and if they don't get what they want, I wouldn't be surprized if they resorted to revolution themselves...

Oh, look who has a QSQ award attached to their story now! And now, I think you deserve a special congratulations review in honor of this new award.

I hope you will take this as a sign that you should get to work on your next chapter. I know, you have classes, and papers, and socialist revolution, and blah, blah, blah. But as your beta, I can only beat the masses back with the Poking Stick for so long.

And poor Pokey gets so tired!

And I look forward to seeing the next chapter of the story, especially since I get to be the first one to read them.

SQUEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Oh, boy! You finally have an update!

I'm excited to see how you portray the Australian wizarding word and what the Australian wizarding school is like. As well as what will happen when Harry actually does come to speak at their school. This is going to be his first real public speaking gig, isn't it? If you have any sense of humor, you will have those kids eat him alive!

Not that I'm telling how to write your story. Not at all!

I'm just really excited to see more of this story! Please don't make me wait as long for the next one!

Author's Response: Thank you! I'm glad you seem to be so excited about this fic. I hopefully won't take so long to update next time, and should have the next chapter up in the next month or so at the latest. Thanks again! :)

He blindly falls in love with a strange woman and listens to her over his own sister? Darwin would say, 'Let him die'.

But it is easy to see why Deer Women became such a terrifying legend among the Native American people.

Such a wonderful story! You offered a lot of insight into how Ginny would be as a mother. People can say what they will, but I always did believe that Molly would have a strong influence on Ginny's parenting style. I suppose you do too. I also suspect you may see a bit of yourself in Ginny, from your confession that she has been behaving a bit like you would.

I'm also excited to see how Harry and Hermione especially would react to reenterting the Muggle world. For everyone else, it would be a brand new experience, but they once called this place home. I wonder how much they will remember and how much they have forgotten.

Author's Response: Thank you for the review, Molly. I'm glad you're enjoying the story. Hmm, I'm rather counting on Hermione to be able to navigate the NHS rather well - after all not only are her parents dentists, but she is an insufferable know-it-all and has probably found a book in the library entitled 'Hospitals and how to deal with them.'

EEEK! I've turned into Molly Weasley. Yes actually I am a bit like her, I suppose. Thanks again, Carole xxx

Oh, I hope you will continue to write! This is one of the challenge stories I was really looking forward to seeing. I certainly hope you're not going to call it quits just because the challenge is over!

Lucius Malfoy makes an excellent villain for so many reasons, but you're taking this concept in a whole new direction: making him an unintentional villain. He really is just trying to do what he can to make sure he can provide for his family. But all the same, you can really make him appear the devil in this story.

Not to mention this is a subject that I can just tell you are extremely passionate about. And passion always makes for the best stories!

Please, don't deny the world the opportunity to have this wonderful tale!

Very nice story! I just have one little nitpick. It's only in the movies where Durmstrang is an all-boys school and Beauxbatons is an all-girls school. In fact, when the Beauxbatons students first arrive, it is a male student who unfold the steps and helps Madam Maxime out of the carriage.

As far as Durmstrang goes, it's still only in the movies that the school is portrayed as boys-only. The books never offer any evidence to say this.

Author's Response: Molly! :D

Yeah, I know Beauxbatons has guys and girls. Nicole's boyfriend is a Beauxbaton. :) And about, Durmstrang, they never mentioned any girls in the books so I figured that it was an all-boys school. And it is a Dark Arts school, after all.



I'm glad that you liked the one shot though. :D Thanks for the review. :)