Ah, delightful!

Although I do think it is too short. I could see you expanding it to contain some of the landscape that Dante writes of in the Inferno. 'Dung would land quite splendidly in the Eighth Circle of Hell, amongst the thieves who continually transform from human to reptile and back again. Although that would make it a dark tale indeed.

I don't read poetry frequently, so I certainly don't consider myself an expert, but here goes:

I think you shine when you don't work so hard for the rhyme, expressing the emotions, like:

"I study your face,
"Your eyes poised low,
"Even in the bitter winter"

and

"We drift apart,
"Can’t help ourselves.
"All light fades to black-blue,
"And it flows, on icicle-ornamented clouds
"From tense to tense, from present to past."

It seems like when you are focusing on finding words that rhyme that I find I notice the rhyming, rather than what you are saying, like:

"The war is long,
"The path is weary.
"At every dusk,
"Our eyes left teary."

I like the way you carry the season (winter) though the poem with your imagery. And the emotions that you are expressing are very genuine.

All in all, a very good poem, certainly better than anything I have ever done!

Excellent story! Well imagined! I'm waiting to see what the "one small change is". Its interesting to see Harold and the alternate Hermione be the kind of people that the 'real' Trio would never have become. There is the potential for evil in us all, I suppose.

Author's Response: I know I\'m being coy about the \"one small change\" but the basic answer is in the synopsis. As to evil, Harold and alt-Hermione aren\'t evil per se. After all \'good\' can be just as ruthless as \'evil\' is, if there are such things.

A second and equally delightful chapter. I am curious as to what secrets are in Elizabeth's past and what happened to make her turn her back on life so much.

I do love that you worked in spinning and (one dares hope) knitting will follow. The sad and slow pacing seems just right for two souls who seem so lonely. I am awfully glad that you are not going to wait quite so long to update!

I'm coming back in a little bit to read the rest of the story, but I couldn't resist telling you how intriguing this is!

My brother is a Rabbi, and a Harry Potter fan. If you have any questions he might be able to help with, why don't you give me a PM from the Beta Boards? Even better, I'll send him the story link.

Author's Response: Cool, thanks for the offer! I\'m trying to keep this story pretty simple, but if I have any questions I\'ll definitely keep you in mind.

This is a really wonderful chapter!

I'd like to put the "horns" into some historical context, its certainly not made up by the author! In fact, if you look at Michaelangelo's sculpture of Moses, which was commissioned for the tomb of Pope Julius II, you will see that this revered Biblical figure has horns.

The reason is commonly given (and I quote Rabbi Hillel Goldberg) "Michelangelo's Moses has two horns on his head because Michelangelo's Bible, the Latin Vulgate, mistranslated Exodus 34:29 as "Moses had horns" instead of "Moses' face shone." "

Reading this made me think of the hippos dancing in Fantasia, you never expect such large and ponderous animals to step so far out of character, and dance.

I liked the details that you inserted that made me see these people, Millicent's rough hands, Vince's attempts to manipulate the situation, and his acceptance when he was only partially successful.

I think the ending was particularly effective. That these two people let themselves be disenchanted and become human.

I love Dan Fogelberg, and that song is especially poignant for anyone who had a "what if this had lasted" sort of moment. You did a lovely job translating the moments of the song into your story, but I kind of have trouble imagining Ron as a glamorous Quidditch player!

Author's Response: Thank you so much for your review! Actually, I have a hard time seeing him as a \'glamorous\' Quidditch player. In my mind, he\'s a good one, but he\'s grown up a bit from the Trio\'s school days and he\'s really modest about it. He\'s sorta in the background, and really just kinda likes to be left alone. Again, thank you for the o-mazing review, and I am gratified that you read this (in my opinion) moderately-good little fic. ~Katie

What a lovely evocative beginning! The description of the dream was very beautiful and scary. I like how you let us know that Ellen is Muggle-born with the subtle detail of the light switch - wizards wouldn't have light switches, of course Your summary is very good too - a detail I always struggle with, but yours drew me to your story. It promised something different and interesting, and I can't wait to read the rest of it!.

Ok, a little con-crit here: I am a bit confused as to what era this takes place in. At first I thought Molly was Molly Weasley, but from your description, that seems to not be the case, and the slang seems much later than the 1950s for example: "messed up" seems too modern. I also noticed that "Brian" is spelled "Brain" the first time you use the name (little tiny oops).

Author's Response: Thank you very much! It's nice to have good and bad feed back; now I know what to continue with, and what to change. And it makes me happy :) This is taking place during the first wizarding war, the one that Lily and James were involved in. But I see how people might get confused; "Messed up" is more modern, so I'll have to replace it with something else... and thanks for pointing out the Brian mistake- I'm off to fix it! Thanks again!

This was a thrilling read and over much too soon. Alex and Max are fully realized characters with minds of their own and it has been delightful to watch them get to know each other in this book. I have been encouraged to see Anna mature and become more of her own person, too.

I think you did a wonderful job of describing the Lands Below and incorporating Native American myth and stories into the mix. Your particular mix of social commentary and politics has been interesting and seems very real.

I can't wait for the next book