First off, I have a confession: I am horribly parsimonious when it comes to giving feedback. I tend to read in volume, going through dozens of stories at a sitting, before finding any I especially fancy. And I\'m picky as hell.
Anyway, I just had the happy experience of being absolutely compelled to give author feedback, and I have your authorship of this chapter to thank for it.
Your characterization here is good. Really good. I\'m not saying you\'ve tackled Hermione, Snape, and Dumbledore like Rowling necessarily would, but given the premise of the story, you\'ve built characters that stand up in an interesting, believable way. They are convincing and satisfying extentions from canon. I\'m reading your Dumbledore right now as kinda Machiavellian, which is fascinating. Not something I would\'ve thought of or done myself, but you sell him so well that I\'m comfortable with it.
The interior stuff for Snape is fantastic too; by this, I mean your treatment of his thoughts, the grainthe the man, how he\'s built inside. When he thinks about Causes, for instance:
\"Your cause, my cause, their cause, our cause -- between Voldemort and
Dumbledore he had quite enough of useless causes.\"
That\'s just first-rate. I love it. And then you go and top it with his recollection and opinion on Hermione\'s strategic skills--her pointless brewing of the Polyjuice Potion.
I don\'t know if you feel the same way, but when she picked that tactic in the book, it frustrated the hell out of me. I couldn\'t help but wonder, What was she thinking, wasting a whole month like that when they needed--the reader needed--answers about the Chamber of Secrets ASAP? It struck me as an artificial stretching of the dramatic timeline (since the story arc does have to cover the whole school year), and a bad move on Rowling\'s part.
The fact that you had Snape voicing dissatisfaction over Hermione\'s plan there--I found it brilliant. It went right to the heart of what I think fanfiction is really for, and what makes it (in my opinion) a legitimate literary genre.
Great work so far. I\'m gonna hush now, and finish reading your chapters.
Oh, and if you see a bunch of HTML coding in here, where none should be, my apologies. The text size in the review window was making me blind, so I pasted from Notepad, where I do everything as HTML.
Sincerely,
evil whimsey
Thanks for posting.
I am waiting for the wedding.
That was too bloody good. Anyhoo, great work, and post more soon! *Offers cookies*
Suk
I\'ve been told I\'ve been a bad person because I stalk this site to sf yof you have updated but have not commented yet. :)
I really am enjoying this story and hope the writing muses hover around you so you can quickly update even more.
Thank you for providing me with something so great to read.
Silvia
Sorry, but if curiosity killed the cat I should have died many times over by now . . .
Kudos on the awesome story. I love that little ear thing Snape did, it made me giggle. But it was also utter genius. :D Keep going ya brilliant girl - we want more!
Sukkumbus