Ha ha ha - very funny, Gina. I love Sirius cracking onto Slughorn. It made me giggle rather a lot (Oh, and I got the Snames reference, too, hee hee)

The attention to detail in this chapter is particularly good. I love the descriptions when they're making their potions and you kept the tension running throughout the whole chapter.

Hmm, I wondered for a horrible moment if Lily was going to start snogging Snape *shudder*. Please tell me she's not running off to see him?

Very enjoyable. ~Carole~

Author's Response: Ha ha, thanks! The bit with Sirius and Slughorn really came out of nowhere, I swear. I'm glad you got the Snames reference, I left it in just for Natalie, lolol! Don't worry, that's probably the last of Snape you'll see. You know I don't ship him and Lily, not even in a messed up Valentine fic amok with love potions and such. So no, she is certainly not running off to see him. She's going to read her tea leaves in Divination. Thanks for reading and helping me with a bit of Brit-speak! Oh, and I hope the attention to detail continues in the next chapter, since I've worked in a bit of Arithmancy after all.. Thanks again! ~Gina :)

Yay, great chapter. I love the tunnel hidden by the mirror. that was a brilliant piece of thinking and sounded very JK-like. I'm starting to feel very sorry for James but am not surprised that Lily's getting annoyed with having to bail him out all of the time. He gets himself into too many scrapes and this time CANNOT blame my two beloveds.

This is rapidly turning into my go to fic when I need a pick me up. Thank you ~Carole~

Author's Response: Thanks, Carole! I'm glad you liked the mirror bit. I can occasionally come up with something original, lol. I really am beating up on James, but I took your suggestions for the next part so it will start to lighten up a bit. Well, at least in terms of everything going wrong. I swear I think I have a psychosis about it or something. I'm glad it picks up you. You should try the author I recced on my LJ as well, she's wonderful! I hope you like the way the next part goes, thanks again for your help! ~Gina :)

OH! It chopped half my review off ... I've just realised. Basically, I loved the whole plot of this story. It all seemed so very 'right' and natural. I particularly adored the way that James missed the kiss when it happened - ha ha - and how they decided to keep the RoR secret. Ha! that'll stop Sirius spoiling their fun.

I had another thought about the Map. James may have wanted to plot the room ... but Filch confiscates it sometime in their seventh year ... so maybe he doesn't get the chance.

Like Lori, I feel the poignancy of the precious days they have left. It's heartbreaking knowing what we do :( What I do like is that it's Lily forcing the pace here - not the normal fanonised version of her at all. - Thank you.

It has been a great story. Sorry this is more squee than review though. ~Carole~

Author's Response: That kiss was my one last bit of beating up on James. Another thing I couldn't resist, heh heh. I'm glad it didn't seem out of character for Lily to suggest keeping it secret, or the other things she did. I'm starting to wonder if there really is a fanon Lily out there who is stuffy and stuck-up, or if we just think that. Anyway. Yes, I suppose there is some poignancy there. I guess knowing their future colors their past a bit, at least for my writing. Thank you so much for your help with this story, I really appreciate it! I need to just visit London so I can soak up Briticisms and not have to bug you about them so often. And thanks for the lovely review, I really appreciate it!! ~Gina :)

OOOH, very sneaky, Bella! Gabe sounds gorgeous, so I can see whay she went to all that trouble. I did like the way she dealt with each bidder - quite ingenious!
,br> That was fun. ~Carole~

Author's Response: Bella's such a naughty girl. She was just doing what we'd like to do at times to some people but we have better manners than to bully and prank people like that. Bella wants what she wants and she wants Gabe. She will do anything to maintain her Muggle toy. She needs to be careful though, she might fall in love:D

Unlike a previous reviewer, I do read slash. It's possibly the best type of romance available on this site being far more honest than fluff.

Enough of that. Your characterisationand portrayal of this relationship is so good in so few words. Draco's inability to act on his feelings and desires is actually pretty pitiful, but then Harry, here, isn't offering him anything. He's haunting him, and doesn't even know it. Possibly that's the best revenge he could ever have.

Brilliant. ~Carole~ (4)

Author's Response: Wow. I never even thought of that revenge part, but it strangely makes sense. Damn. I want to write more Drarry now. Thank you so much, once again! And SLASH FTW!!!

Oh, hmm, okay ... ha ha - I'm hesitant in a good way, Gina, I assure you - ha ha.

Present tense third person. I was sure this wouldn;t work, but I barely noticed it, so yes I really do think it works for this story. My reasoning is that things are happening so immediately for Lily (her lack of memory) that this tense is her. She has no past ... so no past tense. (I'm reading too much into this - ha ha)

I was chewing my lip rather at the suddenness she accepted James. If I'm honest she seemed too comfortable with him, too quickly, but I see that James was surprised too (the arm linking). I was still unsure until I came to the line about her hating the fact that everyone thinks she's dead. That made her acceptance of him much more 'acceptable' although ... it soes still seem a bit too quick, if I'm honest. (I don't mean the kissing and possible sex, I mean the initial arm taking, conversation and willingness to go off with someone who is in effect a stranger). As I got to the end, I realised it wasn't OOC because probably she's recognising the core of James' character rather than the image she had of him at Hogwarts.

Sorry, I'm wittering. I like this story, Gina. It shows a different take on the pair of them and in this overstuffed genre, that is very hard to do.

Well Done! ~Carole~

Author's Response: No worries, Carole! I'm glad it was different, though. I'll be honest and admit I had not considered what you said about Lily having no past and hence the narrative having no past tense. I did start this is past tense but almost immediately I moved it to present tense, because I just felt compelled to do so. I think you've probably articulated why. As for Lily accepting James a bit too fast - yes, I can see your point. But then you did pick up on several other things that go to it, so hopefully it's not too OOC. For one, I see this Lily as being a rather different person for not having discovered magic. Yet she knows she's lost something and is searching for it there near Diagon Alley and that is also a part of her accepting James-someone from her past who can connect her back to her former life. And like you said, she recognizes his core character and has no memory of the boy he was at school. And as a firm believer in the soulmates theory, I think that is a part of it too. I do hope you'll read a bit more to see what you think. It will be short, more a series of vignettes of their rediscovered time together. Thanks so much for the review - and thanks for the Britpicking, as usual!! ~Gina :)

Hi there,

I clicked on this yesterday because the summary intrigued me, and I'm pretty pleased I did. I liked this very much. I think you captured a side of Luna that we don't see and it was an interesting read.
I particularly liked the hint that she liked/loved Harry and that caused some tension between her and Ginny. The smattering of jealousy towards Cho was very good.

I do have one or two issues. First, I don't think Harry would ask her if Cho liked him. He only seems to talk to Hermione about that sort of stuff, and he's only known Luna for a matter of months at that stage. He doesn't, for instance, know that she can see Thestrals, so there's no connection between them. It seems OOC Harry, there.

The other point is about Fred at the wedding. You have him ordering Charlie to escape with Ginny. That's his older brother ... and Fred is giving the orders. I can't see that happening. I kind of think it would be the other way around, or Bill telling Fleur to look after Ginny and Gabriellle. I get that you wanted to show how Fred is protective of his sister, but I don't think it's up to him to assign protection duties to Charlie. Sorry, that was actually a very minor point, but it jarred with me in a story that was pretty darn good.

The use of present tense is quite a tricky one, but I think it suited the voice of Luna in your story.

Great job ~Carole~

Author's Response: Oh, poo, I'm prone to making those kinds of mistakes. And I guess I just assumed that Harry's brain was like, "Cho = Ravenclaw and Luna = Ravenclaw so therefore they must be friends." Or it was a rubbish plot device. :P Thanks for the feedback, it's much appreciated.

How have I missed this? Well, I probably saw this in TTB at the time, but how did I never read the complete oneshot? Bad bad EQ!!

Lori, I don’t know if you saw my ls status yesterday, but it read

I am LOL’ing for real at a story. Hahahahahahahahaha

And it was this story I was lol’ing at. From this line on

“Yeah, right. Well, that’s probably because Doomsday Prophecies make birthdays more memorable.”

I was completely and utterly hooked. Seriously I was grinning and giggling so much that Jim thought I was mad. I honestly don’t laugh out loud much when I read things, but this made me chuckle.

Hannahhhhhhh, ah the gloriousness that is the lovely Hannah Abbott/Longbottom. I really liked the brief light you gave into her friendship with Hermione here. It would have been easy to use Ginny, here, but you went for Hannah and showed us that Hermione has other friends, and also that Hannah is not a timid wallflower anymore but someone capable of teasing Hermione about her cooking -- hee hee. I really can’t see Hermione being able to cook at all.

You know I love Ron/Hermione. I find them very believable and a match from the start, so I’ve never really shipped them with other people (okay, I had a brief flirtation with Dramione, but you know now that I still kept it canon). This story is short, but you captured them both so well. This is how JK would write them. The humour, the faults (on both sides), the earthiness and also their sexual attraction. I love that we know exactly what they’ll be doing once they get back from the party (I bet they make an excuse and leave early -- hahahahahahahhahaaha)

Lori, this is a poor attempt at a birthday present. It is very much in lieu of a gift that I haven’t been able to deliver yet, but it will be written and wrapped especially for you one day -- hopefully soon. You deserve much love, fun and happiness on your birthday, so I hope you enjoy your day.

Much love, and never forget how much you excel at this type of story. Gentle humour that produces real laughter cannot be overestimated. FABULOUS! ~Carole~

Author's Response: Caroleeeeeee! I know I must have responded to this on AIM as there was chatting on my birthday for sure, and I remember being thrilled that this made you laugh out loud... but still, I'm ashamed to see that I never actually left you a proper response. Boo! :)

Elene will appreciate them?

Where shall I start? YES! It's Scorpius/Lily and not her annoying cousin - see, Elene has great taste. Second, I love Draco in this. He's still a snarky git and not totally redeemed. The utter best bit is the date of the wedding. 28th of June ... Dobby's birthday (I know how much you love him) and my Jessica's - hee hee.

Sorry, this isn't so much a review as a set of incoherent ramblings. This was fun to read and you kept everyone very IC.

I look forward to reading the rest. ~Carole~

Author's Response:

Writing jerk!Draco is fun and makes me giggle. Plus, it works so well in this environment -- a relatively short, fluffy story that isn't entirely implausible, hehe.

Complete coincidence about the date, but yay for happy happenstance. :D

I'm actually looking forward to how this turns out (I even have a plan!). 

~Jess

Why is Lorcan being such an arse! Merlin, he teases her because he knows they won't get into trouble and now he won't let her have a drink. Men are infuriating!

Author's Response: Heeheehee. Don't be too harsh on him. He was just trying to be non-Lovegood-y for once.