I am in the process of adding my stories back onto the site! I have done a little editing and some won't make it back here, but what does... and what I write from now on hopefully will pass your high standards!
I have done some tweaking to the chapters of Fawkes' Gifts and am now having to have them beta'd again. Please bear with me as this takes time between postings.
If you need to contact me, try PMing me on the forum.
Oh, I was astonished to find out that Hedwig's Tale was Podcasted! How cool is that? Thank you so much mudbloodproud for the nomination and thank you so much to Wendy/kiley the Mermuggle who read it so wonderfully.
Shouldn't the score have been two hundred sixty to nothing?
Eighty plus thirty plus one hundred fifty.
Getting that angsty feeling that I had when Harry went to the Department of Mysteries, and when he went to the cave.
Please don't kill any of them.
Ron, you are an idiot. I really liked these chapters.
Halloween was so funny, I had to read it three times before I finally understood what I was reading. I was laughing so hard every time I tried, I was apparantly skimming.
Professor Alchemina? Okay. Guess I will have to wait and see.
I absolutely abhor Jessica Simpson. She makes my skin crawl. But the apology worked.
The date in Diagon Alley was good, even though I can't see Molly letting Harry out of the house by himself.
The gift Katie gave him was so good. I'm glad you are giving Sirius a lot of typespace. He was my favorite character.
Even on Christmas Voldemort won't stop. Do you think it's because he only got coal in his stocking?
Percy needs to be dropped into a well, and never heard from again.
I have laughed, cried, worried, and wished. These last chapters that I have read were wonderfully written and pulled quite a few emotions from me.
I haven't even noticed the chapter lengths for a whil, because I am rushing to the next button. Which from me is a huge compliment, as I adore long chapters that are at least six thousand words. Well on to the next...
Wow! Very good chapters. I am not sure Harry could allow Peter and Draco to roam the castle without retribution though.
I hate to point out mistakes in something that is already finished, but I guess I already have with the Quidditch score, and now here in this chapter. The Legillemency spell is Legilimens, not Legilemensia.
Good job otherwise though.
Bad things should happen to anyone trying to hurt Lupin. Bad, bad, bad things!
If you couldn't tell, I like Lupin.
Harry is doing very well with Katie. He seems to be growing up. Good job.
Sometimes while reading this I forget that it is in the General fics section. It seems to skew into the Alternate Universe. Of course that might be because it doesn't follow canon through HBP.
You are doing a good job with it though.
Lupin and Alchemina explained things to Harry very well, and I was glad to see Harry stop her putting in the potion.
Hermione always does think she should be allowed to know everything, even the things that are none of her business. I am happy to see Harry sticking to his guns by not telling her the things that she really doesn't need to know.
I really liked this. The whole misunderstanding was hilarious. It was exactly what could happen between four teenage friends. Thanks for the laughs.
My face hurts, my sides hurt, and my stomach hurts. That is what happens when I laugh this hard. Oh my god! I love this.
I thought Ron taking the love potion in HBP was funny, but man you have surpassed J.K.
All the things Harry and Hermione do to keep him out of trouble were hilarious.
But the best part was Ron mouthing off to Snape. Nothing beats that.
You are the queen of Ron/Hermione humor. Thank you very much for the laughter.
You know, that is something I would expect the twins to do. I never would have thought a muggle would see them, but when they do, you can always count on Fred and Goerge to make it fun. The janitor was just too funny. I really liked this story, and wanted to say good job!
Seeing as how you finished this story last year and are working on the sequel, I waited until the end to review. I can't remember what it was that sent me to your stories, either a recommendation, or seeing your name on another favorite list, but I am glad I came to read this one. The only problem I had was the length of the chapters. A lot of them were really short, but I know that it is hard to use ten thousand words to say something. You really did a great job and I can't wait to read the sequel. The funeral scene was rather good, the memorial in the Room of Requirement was excellent. Keep writing, you are very good at it.
I was searching around looking for something else to read while I was waiting for update e-mails on a few of my favorite stories. I thought about turning off the computer, and grabbing a book but when I found your story, I started to read and I was completely blown away.
You tackled a sensitive topic, and you did it with style and grace. I have to say, I never thought I would like Petunia, but what she did for Ginny, and then standing up to Harry was wonderful. Ginny had some hard decisions to make, and even if she didn’t make them for exactly the right reason she still made them. I have always thought that Ginny was a lot more mature than she was given credit for being. Being a mother myself, I can’t imagine the trauma of leaving my child behind, for any reason.
Dumbledore did seem to be the puppet master in this story. He has seemed throughout the books to be just that. He will make his decisions and damn the consequences to anyone, as long as Harry can fight Voldemort. If J.K. hadn’t let Snape kill him in HBP, he would be pulling the strings from behind the scenes, and then apologizing later. Fully expecting to be forgiven for an old mans mistakes. I am really glad that you allowed Molly to let loose on him.
Harry would have forgotten all about the fight against Voldemort if he had known about the baby, I agree. He reacted just the way I expected him to, when he found out. Ginny was a little too forgiving though. She should have made him squirm for at least five minutes before forgiving him.
Thank you for a wonderful story, and a diversion from the angst of waiting for updates. I can’t promise to read all of your stories, because I really don’t like to think about some of the pairings you have put together. I have already read the epilogue to this one and I loved it too. I will probably read the one not finished and the one about Charlie.
If you write more of the “normal” pairings, I will be back to read them. But for now, Keep writing, your good at it!
I was searching around looking for something else to read while I was waiting for update e-mails on a few of my favorite stories. I thought about turning off the computer, and grabbing a book but when I found your story, I started to read and I was completely blown away.
You tackled a sensitive topic, and you did it with style and grace. I have to say, I never thought I would like Petunia, but what she did for Ginny, and then standing up to Harry was wonderful. Ginny had some hard decisions to make, and even if she didn’t make them for exactly the right reason she still made them. I have always thought that Ginny was a lot more mature than she was given credit for being. Being a mother myself, I can’t imagine the trauma of leaving my child behind, for any reason.
Dumbledore did seem to be the puppet master in this story. He has seemed throughout the books to be just that. He will make his decisions and damn the consequences to anyone, as long as Harry can fight Voldemort. If J.K. hadn’t let Snape kill him in HBP, he would be pulling the strings from behind the scenes, and then apologizing later. Fully expecting to be forgiven for an old mans mistakes. I am really glad that you allowed Molly to let loose on him.
Harry would have forgotten all about the fight against Voldemort if he had known about the baby, I agree. He reacted just the way I expected him to, when he found out. Ginny was a little too forgiving though. She should have made him squirm for at least five minutes before forgiving him.
Thank you for a wonderful story, and a diversion from the angst of waiting for updates. I can’t promise to read all of your stories, because I really don’t like to think about some of the pairings you have put together. I have already read the epilogue to this one and I loved it too. I will probably read the one not finished and the one about Charlie.
If you write more of the “normal” pairings, I will be back to read them. But for now, Keep writing, your good at it!
Author's Response: *grins* Well, I\'m very glad you enjoyed A Secret Love. It was my first ever attempt at writing and will always hold a special place for me. I loved the characters and how they reacted to the situation I put them in and I\'m so happy to have a few readers who got that maybe there was another side to Petunia, and maybe Dumbledore wasn\'t all good...
There is this quandary though. As I was writing this story I was also immersing myself in the culture of the various authors who were hanging out on MNFF\'s forums at the time and they opened my eyes to life beyond canon. The idea that while we\'re pretty certain Harry and Ginny are going to end up together, in fanfic Ginny can end up with anyone took a hold of me, and I started to play around with that. As such, I tend to shy away from normal pairings. And, LOL, I also lose some potential readership.
Still, thank you very much for taking the time to dust off this old fic of mine and give it such a lovely review! I really appreciate hearing from you!
What is it with the cats? Neither of them like the boys and the girls get upset about it when the boys torment them. Slightly funny, but probably could have done without so much time devoted to it.
Everyone is in the boys dorms now, so I am off to see what happens next.
Rivalry is the same in every time. When you see the ones you hate, you just react; at least you do until you become mature enough to control the urge.
The beginning of this chapter wasn’t written like the rest of it, and for a minute, I almost stopped reading. I know it’s your fic, and it’s already finished, but the jumping in writing styles gets a little annoying.
Jumping from one time period to the other is to be expected and I am glad you give each on full concentration, instead of jumping back and forth all over the place. See you next chapter.
I am going to hope the first paragraph is a unmarked authors note. If it’s part of the chapter, that is what I was talking about in the last review.
Why are you torturing Severus Snape? A pink nightgown? Please don’t do that again.
I read in your bio, your stories could probably become random. Well I think I have reached my limit of randomness. I wish you luck on any more stories you put up here, but I just can’t take it anymore. Sorry, but my preferences run more towards actual plot lines and sticking to them and canon.
You are putting a lot of emphasis on eye color. There also seems to be quite a bit of information on clothes and hair. Just wondering why these things need so much attention.
Not that it’s a bad thing; it’s just a bit too much.
I liked the way they were transported, and I can’t wait to see the reactions when everyone notices. I am wondering why the girls were the only ones to pass out. Maybe I’ll find out in chapter two.
Pretty good start, but I hope the emphasis switches in the rest of it. See you at the next one.
Oh dear, Ron puts his foot in his mouth at every opportunity. I like that Hermione is trying to think it through. She knows what happened and how to fix it, but can’t actually do anything for a month. Life is so cruel.
Making the changes, instead of going to Dumbledore seems a little strange to me. I would think Hermione would think of that straight away.
What in the heck, are you doing with Harry and Ginny? They like each other, even if it’s only as friends. Unless I’m reading something into it that’s not there, you have them acting more like James and Lily than I would expect. At least Hermione and Remus know what happened. Let’s hope they can fix it. See you at the next one.
This was a really good explanation of why that picture was there. I never thought about it, until I read PoA and Harry went looking for the wedding picture. I like the reasoning you used for Remus giving that one, and not changing it. You really did a great job and I like to think Remus would’ve done just that for exactly that reason.