So many sad songs in this one! Severus regretful, Sirius rueful, Remus woeful, and Lily and James heartbreaking. So very very sad…

On the first song, I imagine Severus singing it by the lake at Hogwarts, remembering his school days when Lily was still his friend. I think the part I liked the best was the part about ‘But everything of her is a part of me, I still produce a doe from my best memory’. I felt so sorry for Severus you could tell how one little rash moment, one wrong decision, and it was done and couldn’t be taken back. He was so very sad, and such a lonely boy because of something he did. I saw one typo where you have ‘hogs head’ it should be ‘Hog’s Head’ capitalized because it is a place not a thing. And then there was only one word on this one that I thought might be better. I know how in the books he is portrayed as not wanting to protect Harry because he reminds him of James and how he only does the task out of duty, and so at the end of this song he sings ‘And only left of her - Is a small baby - I have to protect it - How grueling it might be’ What I was thinking is that we found out at the end of the books that it was really only because Severus loved lily so much that it was hard, so maybe instead of ‘grueling’ use the world ‘painful’?

The second song with Sirius was very fatalistic – he had given up which is so sad. I could see him in a dank dark dungeon with his hair long and matted, chains on his feet, and water dripping in the corner. Another sad and lonely boy and because of something he didn’t do. But he didn’t really give up, at least not in the end, he found a way to cope, and he found a way out, and he found a way to get back to Harry, not fatalistic at all. So I am hoping later on that you will have another one that will show him having gained back some hope despite the odds. There was only one word on this one (same word two places) I would suggest to change. On the line ‘If the truth were important I would ask will I testify’ might be better as ‘I would ask that I testify’ – will I sound more like a question than something he would definitely do if he didn’t think it was a lost cause.

On the third song with Remus, I could just imagine him sitting in the empty Hog’s Head Tavern with a whole bunch of empty firewhiskey bottles on the table that he had been making a pyramid of and then they had all toppled down and no one was left to help him pick them up. All of his friends gone. So very sad, and so very very lonely, and none of it because of anything he did or didn’t do. It was fate once again coming to pound him into the ground. There was only one line I didn’t understand on this one – at the end he sings ‘Oh my friends, the wizards out there, just your sacrifice ignore’ – didn’t understand the ‘just’ in the middle maybe it should be ‘all’ and maybe ‘ignored’ past tense? So it would be ‘Oh my friends, the wizards out there, all your sacrifice ignored’ so like life went on around him when for Remus it stopped still.

By the time I got to the fourth song that Lily and James are singing to Harry all alone and locked in his cupboard after the Dursley’s yelled at him I was crying. But then I read the song a couple more times and I got to wondering who James and Lily mean is waiting for Harry? Because the only one I could think of was Voldemort and that didn’t seem to go with the song which is trying to be encouraging and telling him that someday he would be happy, but no one except Voldemort is really waiting for him – Severus doesn’t want him, Remus gave him up, Sirius is locked up and can’t have him, Dumbledore gave him away, James and Lily are dead, and nobody else in the wizard world ever came. To think that they are saying Voldemort is waiting for him, or even them in heaven someday if Voldemort kills him, is kind of creepy to me and not really encouraging to a little neglected boy. So maybe instead of ‘Someone’s waiting for you’ it should be ‘Magic’s waiting for you’?

Lastly I was thinking that this chapter needs a different name than ‘Various’ – maybe ‘Left Behind’? For three very lonely grown up boys, and one very lonely little one, all left behind and all alone. And all so very very sad.

I hope you find a Beta. Maybe you could ask Jack she is a beta. I would ask my sister is she knows any more really good songs for you but since the last one wasn’t so good I don’t know what to ask for. Maybe you could tell me.

I see why you put these three songs all together as they are when Harry is born, and then when James and Lily die and then the wizarding world’s reaction. Even though they all came from different movies like you say they still do go together. I can see the first one is James being excited at being a daddy and running around telling everyone how his baby is the best. The only line that I stumbled over was when James sang ‘Godfather will be you’. It wasn’t until I read them all several times that I realized that was when he was singing to Sirius and naming him godfather. Maybe if after the words you put in parenthesis ‘(James to Sirius)’ or something like that like you did below when you put after the words that James and Lily made Peter the secret keeper then it would make sense the first time you read it.

Of the three songs I liked the second one the best even though it was so sad. I think the lines I liked the best were ‘Beneath the shelter of the spells, only love can enter here as long as he nobody tells’. So sad and almost like a prophecy itself of what was going to happen. It made me cry. But the last song was sad too especially the parts where Lily is singing to Harry ‘My son, I had nothing I could give, but this chance that you may live’ and the little lullaby in it where she sings to him to remember her so she will always be with him while he grows. So sad so many tears. :..( But that is okay – don’t know how you could have possibly made this part happy because it just wasn’t, and it wouldn’t have been right if you had tried. I think the songs you picked out were just right.

I only saw a very few words that might need fixed at all. In the second song where you have in parenthesis (Lily lies death) I think maybe it should have been (Lily lies dead). And where Dumbledore is singing to Hagrid in the last song about flying Harry somewhere it is safe – I think it might be better if instead of ‘Do you know somewhere where safe it will be? Hagrid, take it now there...’ if it was ‘Do you know somewhere where safe he will be? Hagrid, take him now there...’. and right near the end when the wizards are singing ‘He Rescued us, Is a Chosen chosen by us’ the chosen chosen didn’t make sense to me, maybe something like ‘He rescued us, He is the Chosen one for us’. And in your BTW note… I didn’t see a wrong break in the last chapter or bold writing at the start of song three – but maybe putting the song title at the start of song three would be good?

All in all another good chapter of songs.

Thank you again for putting these all together for us to read! :)

Oh my! I thought this one was just perfect! I read what the other reviewer said and I am not sure what they meant about it maybe not fitting the Death Eaters. But that person sounds like they know the song so I am probably wrong, but isn’t that exactly what the Death Eaters thought? - that because the mudbloods weren’t the same as them that they were worthless? Nothing in the song says what they think had to be defensible, it was just what they thought. But if that were the case, then if anything was off I would think, it would be the side of the light not thinking that Death Eaters were worthless too, but just misguided.

But I didn’t get the worthless thing at all from reading it, but maybe that is where not knowing the original song comes in handy! When I read it, I thought about both sides thinking the other was wrong, wrong enough to fight over it – the Death Eaters that it was wrong mudbloods even existed, and the side of the light thinking it was wrong that the Death Eaters thought that way.

And haha! I had a really funny image in my head of everytime they sang “Savages! Savages!” their heads popping up unexpectedly from behind doors and couches and all sorts of things and then disappearing again. Haha that would have been funny!

I just saw one little word I think is wrong… ‘offspring’ I think is either singular or plural just as it is, I don’t think it needs an ‘s’ on the end.

Other that that, I still think this one is just perfect! :)

I had to read this one a couple of times before I understood the song, but then I saw how it really fit the story very well and how all the different parts fit together. This one also really shows how a jealous teenager boy might feel and how his buddies would try to make him feel better after being rejected. But I must say that I thought James seemed a little arrogant in the first one, and I felt really sorry for Severus in the second, but that was probably what you were going for. You are doing such a good job with these finding songs to fit the people and what was happening. :) I still can’t figure out any of the tunes in my head but that doesn’t really matter since the words are there.

I saw a couple of little things that might be different. In the first song Where the gang is singing back to James “No one’s quick as you, Prongs, No one’s know an incredibly trick as you Prongs” it might read better as “No one’s quick as you, Prongs, No one knows incredible tricks like you Prongs”. And where Peter sings “Not a bit of him’s swallow or needy” I think you meant to say “sallow” comparing him to Severus who is described as having sallow skin. And maybe where he says “In a spelling match nobody hits like you, Prongs” it might be better as “In a spelling duel” or “In a dueling match” but spelling match I guess makes sense to because they duel with spells so I don’t know that I would change it. And at the end of this song where James is singing about his Quidditch games I don’t understand where you used the word “throws” I think James was a Chaser and they did throw the Quaffle through the hoops but I don’t think they called it throwing as much as making a goal. So maybe changes “throws” to “goals” and then on the last line of that stanza instead of “So my goal score will never surpassed” maybe something like “So my top score will not be surpassed”.

In the second song, there were just a few things maybe I would suggest, when Severus sings ‘That this word is somewhat mean” I think maybe you meant “this world” instead, and where he sings “Hope I could have hold her and that she’d set me free” maybe the word “held” instead of “hold”. When Lily comes out to talk to Severus (I think that is about the best part it really fits very very well) I would just add question marks so it makes it more like she is yelling at him, asking him questions, and then answering herself before he had a chance to get a word in edgewise. Like: “Apologize? That’s how you see it? Apologize? And earn clemency? No sir! Not from me!” I am not sure if the extra word “from” will fit with the tune in the last words but if it does it would make more sense, otherwise when I was reading it, I first thought that Lily was singing that Severus was asking her to apologize to him, and she was refusing to do it, rather that it was her refusing to accept the apology he was trying to make to her. Then back to Severus singing, I think the word “words” in the line “Our last words been spoken” maybe missing an apostrophe. Is it “words” as in “our last word has been” instead of “words” as in plural more than one, if so should it be “word’s” contracting for “word has”? Not sure on this one at all, I probably have it wrong. I have been working on contractions in English and I am not that good at them. And then in the line “I follow my path, despise all the things I see” I think you meant the word “despite” in that he would follow the path even though he didn’t want too, but in a way despise works too because he did end up despising the dark side.

In the third song, you have a line in the title making the “r” in “Later” all on a line by itself, and then one last suggestion on the very last line of Severus’s song “Who can show me, how to go the path of power?” maybe “how to find the path to power” instead? Also, I was really surprised that Minerva McGonagall had a singing part in this one, she seemed out of place since she hadn’t been singing before in it. In the first song of this trio when the Marauders were in the Gryffindor Common room singing and someone chimed it, it was just all the females around who sang like it was other classmates, I would have thought that would have been the same in this song, but I guess it could be Minerva since she was the Head of House and could have been wandering through the room and you never did say where they were singing the first and last song I just assumed it was the Common room because that was where Severus was waiting outside of, but I am probably wrong.

Anyway, haha! I guess now you can see why I didn’t get this review all typed last week! I just have too many words in my fingers sometimes. Of course you had a lot of songs in this one too so it was not all me :)

P.S. Do you really want suggestions for songs? Even if they aren’t from a musical? I can’t think of any for the werewolf prank or the weeping willow day but I can think of a really funny Remus and Tonks one that I heard at Jill’s and one that my sister said was Lockhart all over. I bet they would know all the words and would send them to me if I asked.

I thought this one was very funny, Lily getting mad and poking her finger at the boys and Peter hopping around trying to be poked at too, but just getting ignored. Makes me wonder what prank they just pulled to get her so riled up at them!

I only saw couple of small words on this one. I think is wrong where Lily sings to Remus ‘Okay, so you’re Hogwarts perfect’ I think that maybe ‘Okay, you’re a Hogwarts prefect’. And where Lily sings to James ‘just to make sure that is sticks out of place’ maybe should be ‘it’ instead of ‘is’. BTW that is a VERY funny line! Haha! And the word ‘maurauder’ has too many ‘u’ in it.

But the part with Sirius kissing his motorcycle goodnight was priceless! It was the funniest thing yet. I laughed a lot at that idea. hahahahahaha!

I think you are right Remus wouldn’t have been a know-it-all, but if he was anything that would have been it. I think he would have been very studious as a boy because he didn’t have any friends before going to Hogwarts, and even then kept to himself at first. The library would have been a good place to do that.

Anyway I think this one was very good!

I really liked the first part that was the story. It is amazing how much it is like the story of Severus and Lily and Petunia when they were little. And it is about Beauty and the Beast? That is amazing. I liked how you made it fit together with the HP story instead.

There are just a couple of little words in it… in the second sentence I think you left out the word ‘much’ … Because he wore clothing which left much to be desired. And in the fifth sentence maybe the word ‘about’ instead of ‘by’… But he warned her to be careful about using her magic. And right near the end it should be ‘th’ after the 5 instead of ‘st’, and in the sentence ‘…before he would insult her one time to much,’ might read better as ‘…one time too many,’

And the second part with the song was perfect! It fits them so well, especially Petunia at the end wanting to go with them but not getting to. I really felt sorry for Petunia about this. Interesting thought on your other story…. Do you think she will be upset that Dudley got to go to Hogwarts even though he was a muggle when she was told she couldn’t for the same reason? Hm…. got to think about that one.

Any way, I really liked this song and how it fit. There was just one word I think it wrong (but the same in several places) where Lily sings ‘Something exiting about this witchcraft in me’ I think you might have meant ‘Something exciting’ instead. The rest was great!

I do have two things though in this part I don’t know what they mean. One place you have ‘Severus (walking through his home to his mother potion labor) doesn’t make sense to me. What is a mother potion labor? And in your note at the end what is an ‘HP-vids’? I don’t know this term and was wondering.

Oh, and thank you for explaining in your note the first one wasn’t a song. I was thinking maybe it was supposed to be, but it make much more sense that it isn’t, so it is like the sword in the stone part that wasn’t a song too. But you are right it does fit nicely with the half-blood prince! And the title 'Stranges like me' is absolutely perfect too! It would make a good name for a HP story! :)

Yay! I think I heard this one before! Mrs. Figg had lots of movies and I think she played this one when I was there. At least the words seem to make a tune in my head so I think I have.

I really liked how you did this one and you are right it does really show how Voldemort got more and more powerful and how he lured people in and then changed on them. I could just see the chorus starting out as just a few school chums and then growing and growing and growing until it was a sea of dancing death eaters in silver masks and black robes. Ha ha! It makes a really funny picture in my head. Perfect! :)

There were just a couple of little words I think might be better… in the line ‘You know you’ll find the right leader in “you know who”.’ – it might be better as ‘You know you’ve found the right leader in “you know who”.’ and the line ‘You know you’ll have to obeying just “you know who”.’ – might be better as “You know you’ll have to be obeying “you know who”. Then I think there are a couple of words spelled wrong… in the line ‘We know we’ve choosen the right site with “you know who” – I think it is ‘chosen’ and ‘side’ and in the line ‘In the ban of this man’ it should be ‘bane’. Could be wrong though.

But all in all a very fun choice!

In this one, I am thinking that the first part is set when Tom Riddle was seventeen and had just finished his schooling at Hogwarts and he is saying goodbye for the last time to his only home up to that point. Then he goes to find Morfin and then goes to Riddle Manor in the last part. So in the first part wouldn’t the ghosts of his victims really only be one – Moaning Myrtle? But she was a Ravencraw, so she was smart and probably did know latin. Is is latin? Wasn’t sure, but I think so, so that fits fine. Then the ghosts in the last part would also include his father and grandparents.

There were a couple of words I think might be better different. Where you have “I’ll growing my hate out of his control” it might be better as “I’m growing my hate out of his control” and where you have “will helping me to win” might be better as “is helping me to win” and I saw two words misspelled “griveous” should be “grievous” and I think “condundes” should be “confundes”

It was actually a sad song but fitting, at least I thought so. At first, I was kind of sorry for him and he sounded a bit unsure of his convictions but then you could hear him reaching the turning point in his hate and there was no coming back and it was just sad.

I hope you think of a good song for him as a child and an adult.

I’m sorry, I still don’t know the songs, but they are interesting again anyway. There was only one word I think may be wrong… on the line ‘bounds him to her to leave everything behind’ it might be better as ‘binds him to her’, that was the only word I saw you did a very good job. :)

I am glad you included Merope in your Ballade, I think she gets overlooked and forgotten a lot, kind of like she did in the books. And yet it was her choices that started the chain of events that make up the whole story of Harry Potter. If she hadn’t made the choices she made then Tom Marvelo Riddle wouldn’t have been – or at least wouldn’t have been who he was – and then he would have grown up so bitter and wouldn’t have killed Harry’s parents.

I felt really sorry for her when JKR told her story because she was really young when she died and never really had a chance to be happy, and didn’t really even know how to be, and she didn’t seem to have anyone to show her, so she tried to be happy in all the wrong ways. There wasn’t anyone to be her friend and give her a cute nickname like Merrie or Pennie or even Murrie instead of a name like Merope. (I think it is ‘murrh’ plus ‘oh’ plus ‘pea’ not 'me' plus 'rope' but maybe I am wrong in how I think it sounds) If she had a cute nickname, maybe she wouldn’t have felt so ugly and unloveable, because that would mean she also had a friend to give her one so she would have known already that she wad not unloveable and somebody liked her.

I am not sure because I don’t have the books at home to look at to check but I think she was just a teenager when she had her baby and died. At least that is what is stuck in my head. And her father and brother weren’t very nice to her growing up and I think they were really probably more awful to her than it said. JKR really never said her whole story but I think she grew up all alone just waiting on them and didn’t get to go to Hogwarts because her father thought she wasn’t much more than a squib. It reminds me of Cinderella only she didn’t end up living happily ever after. So I don’t blame her at all for trying to be happy after that. It was just sad that she didn’t have any friends so she thought the only way she could ever be happy and loved was by a spell.

I don’t think it ever said why she stopped the love spell so that her muggle husband saw the real outside her (I don't think he ever did see the real inside her at all, such a shame she had so much love even though it was misplaced), maybe it took too much magic to do while she was having a baby and she choose the baby’s health over her own happiness, or maybe she was just so in love that she thought he finally really loved her too and still would even if the spell was gone, or maybe she thought he would love her because of the baby she was carrying. Whatever it was, it had to be crushing to her when he left her, so young and now so alone with a baby coming. I cried for her, she never really had a chance. And so very sad that in the end she didn’t see that she had a chance to have everything she wanted by making a family with her baby. Instead, she grieved over her broken heart until she died from it. :..(

I think the songs that you picked out to describe her life show all these feelings and choices. They were so very very sad. I think that they probably sound very slow and melancholy. Except for the chorus in the frist one I imagine was fast like they are trying to prod her along.

I think the lines I liked the best were ‘but as the spell of love slowly becomes shallow, it’s loneliness she finds…’ It kind of says it all.

The song that you picked out for this one sounds very angry and all ‘smitey’ the kind that would send shivers down you spine if it was directed at you like you had done something wrong and was being condemned for it. Is that what the tune in the movie sounds like too? I think it probably does. The scene that it makes in my mind is that it is Dumbledore and Grindelwald dueling for the last time but instead of dueling with wands they are dueling with words, and Dumbledore realizes he made a mistake pursuing power over love and trying to make Grindelwald see that too and give him one last chance, but Grindelwald is just all full of himself and offers Dumbledore one last chance for power instead, and the chorus is the people watching them duel.

There were two words I think might be wrong… on the first ‘Chorus’ should it be “as the ruler of the world” instead of “as the ruler of the word”? I’m not sure... maybe ‘word’ is right since they are dueling with words. And on the second ‘Dumbledore’ I think it is just missing the letter ‘a’… “Serving as your foe” instead of “Serving s your foe”. Most of the who-sang-what parts makes sense but there are a couple that are bit confusing to me… since the first part the Chorus starts and ends with “thus saith the Lord” I thought they were done singing for a while and the next two places marked ‘Chorus’ where it is “I send” and “I search” I would have thought it was Grindelwald singing those lines. And then the next Chorus is one that ends with “thus saith the Lord” again so that one makes sense it is them and not Grindelwald like they are quoting him, but then the next two short ones makes sense it is still Chorus but maybe as “He sends” instead of “I send” since they aren’t quoting then, and it sounds more like they are just egging the fight on.

Anyway, another interesting choice. Someday I am going to have to see these movies that has all these songs in them.

Cruella Deville from 101 Dalmatians works for Umbitch.

According to Mercedes Lackey, (an American fantasy writer) modified songs like this are called filksongs, so this would be a filkfic, instead of a songfic.

is that line about "at the end I want to be standing back at the beginning" in the original song? It seems a bit of a silly sentiment to me.

update soon

I found this very interesting. I am not familiar with either of the songs you used here, so I don’t know what the difference was, but I think I can see what scenes you are showing. Is the first one about the sword in the hat about Godric Gryffindor? I am thinking maybe it is since it is his sword that appears in the sorting hat in the Chamber of Secrets. One thing though… on the fifth line would ‘to help’ work better instead of ‘helping’? the same number of syllables for the meter but I think ‘he had made up his mind to help rightful heirs of his blood’ reads better than ‘he had made up his mind helping rightful heirs of his blood.’ But I am probably wrong since I don’t know the song maybe the two syllables need to all be in one word? Also when it gets to the tenth line that starts ‘and below the rim of the hat’ I am not sure where the song-poem is anymore. Maybe it is just the formatting because it read more like a paragraph than a stanza but I kind of got lost there, but then you did say that you weren’t trying to rhyme the stanzas so maybe that was it. And you didn’t say on this one who was singing the song but I am imagining it was the sorting hat, kind of like the narrator in a book.

The words of the second song was really pretty but very sad, like something precious was irretrievable lost. I think it was a good choice for Arianna and the Dumbledores, because she was a precious little girl and was lost forever to them because of what happened to her. I felt really sad for Albus and Aberforth when JKR revealed the story of their baby sister. So sad that something that bad happened to her that she was made afraid of her own magic and her own self. And so sad that the brothers came to odds over it and lost each other as well. The thing I liked the best was the beautiful description you put at the end of little Arianna dancing with the autumn leaves, her last dance as a carefree happy little girl, it made me cry. I wish I knew what the tune was.

Thank you for writing it. :)