Simply love it! There's so much depth in your story, you write so well and I like the fact that there's so much from the HP books in your story, it's not a separate story like a lot of fanfictions. I wish I could write like this, but I don't think I can, not in English anyway. I might be able to do so in Dutch but then nobody over here would be able to read it...

I'm not quite sure how to tell you how beautiful this story is. Sensitively told, and so true to the characters. You're right that a true romance would have been out of place here in this story - though I can't help feeling sad for Hermione, especially since I identify so strongly with her narrative as you've told it. This is a much more realistic rendering of the MM/HG pairing than we're used to seeing, for better or for worse.

Regardless, this story is lush and evocative; in short, a pleasure to read.

I've read this many times, and each time sworn that the next time will be the time that I review, mainly because I can't find the right words and think that next time, I'll be more eloquent. But apparently, it's not going to happen; I think in part, due to the fact that this could so be my life.
I don't want to make a comment on it because it hurts to admit that this is a situation I can relate to and I have a real life Minerva-situation, but at the same time I want to for the very same reasons.
You've written it so wonderfully that it does make my heart ache and my emotions twist in all directions, and not just because I can relate but because you are a truly exceptional writer. This is one of my all time favourite stories, including one of my very favourite lines...about the not unhappy versus happy. I just... I love it. I can't get any more eloquent, Im sorry!

I cannot tell you how amazing this story is! I absolutely love your style! This is amazing...truly amazing. I was on an emotional roller-coaster from ch1 especially when we all thought it was Minerva who died at first. Wow. Keep writing!

Thank you. That was so good, I kept waiting for the 'get together' even through the epilogue, and thanks heaps for not putting it in. This story feels so true, and unique, I'm really glad I read it:) Puts MM/HG fiction in perspective, its a really realistic McGonagall, how she is towards Hermione. xxxxxx

please don't stop doing MM/HG xD

I can't tell you how much I love reading this story. The sheer honesty of every moment described and how effortlessly you bring the character's soul to life with just a few simple gestures or words is simply awe inspiring. This particular line of Minerva's being my favorite of them all:

"Would the age difference have mattered, if you'd loved him?" Hermione asked...

"Of cour - " Minerva began sharply but then broke off and gazed into the fire before beginning again, more gently. "Yes, it would. It would matter a great deal."

I hate to gush and I know this story is old and you've moved on but its been a long while since I read it and even now my eyes are welling with tears. I loved that woman. In the books and on screen. You make me fall in love with Minerva all over again. Every strong, delicate, deliberate part of her. And I just wanted to thank you for that.

You are indeed right that I was disappointed at the lack of a traditional romance. However, the story was exquisitely written and wonderfully showcases your talent as a story teller. In addition, the realism was shocking, and I think everyone can relate to at least parts of this, even if it's just a little. Thank you for writing. :) It was sad, but so wonderful.

*sigh* I've read this once before. Just as good the second time. Soooo bittersweet, and true to life.

beautiful! so well written :)

Thank you, thank you. If I ramble on and get off topic, just keep in mind, this is all I really want to say.

I am very pleased that you addressed head on the moral tar pit that is the Marauder's Map. I was unpleasantly reminded of it recently while watching a documentary on California prisons in the nineties. The locations of the prisoners, monitored by ankle bracelet, showed up on control screens as little moving dots with names attached. Harry and Co. seem to use it so gamely, initial qualms that it might be a dark object aside, and the ramifications of owning such an object are never really considered.

Plotwise, I was thrilled that this was not a romance. Teacher-student romances, both real and imagined, make me cringe. The teacher-student bond IS formative, and there is something sacrosanct, at least to me, about a relationship based on the sharing of knowledge. Right on, McGonagall!

Finally, I loved your language. I respect a person who can so comfortably play in and around a language. Some favorites:

“When Professor Trelawney appeared unexpectedly, trailing scarves and scattiness..." - such a well-packed description, and I'm a sucker for alliteration.

"He behaved like what her great-grandmother would have called "a perfect gentleman," and even if this term wasn't one that Grandmother Marks always meant as a compliment, it exactly described Hermione's experience of Viktor Krum." - I like Grandmother Marks a great deal, here, and when she shows up again.

"She felt like the word itself - "be-witch-ment," the "witch" tucked inside, encased and enclosed by another's being and essence." - This was just lovely.

"She wasn't a beautiful woman as the world defined such things, but Hermione rarely remembered that." - A very wise man once told me that the ones we love are beautiful to us, and that no true beauty exists in the world without a little bit of love in it.

"The experience had driven Harry to flights of metaphor." - An experience, indeed!

"I wasn't in love with Albus, but I did love him. It's important to understand that the absence of one kind of love doesn't preclude another. " - Yes.

Thank you, thank you.

-Anti

For an awful moment, I was afraid you were going to turn this into a happily ever after romance, but I trusted you and kept on reading and I am glad you didn't. It would have been a real let-down. As it is, it pictures powerfully and realistically the complexities of our feelings and relationships and it is beautifully written.

After reading your stories, I went back to the books to read about Grubbly-Plank. She is an interesting sketch of a character and she deserves to be developed and redeemed.

Totally satisfying, absolutely and completely brilliant in characterisation, writing style, and plot. Loved it to pieces and have ignored my husband for the entire evening because I got so lost in it. Just perfect.

This is definitely one of my favorite MM/HG stories that I've read - not to mention the most practical or seemingly accurate.

I savored every word. You have a brilliant writing style, and I'm amazed at how you managed to blend stark descriptions of repressed emotion - or crisp details of a young girl's thoughts on love and relationships with men and women - with their metaphysical contemporaries on the power of words. (Did that seem like a run-on sentence to you? It certainly was a mouthful.)

I loved how you showed Hermione's love for words and language, as well as the passion and security she finds in learning. The discovery of her own body and the practicality she felt in desiring a female instructer was smartly written.

I enjoyed following her journey into a spiraling obsession, becoming more and more addicted all while wishing she could stop (the voyuerism at least) because she knew it was wrong. We've all been there. Thank you for letting her keep her sense of discretion, though.

I'm very glad you kept to the plot of the books, which I know is a hard task to do when writing about non-canon pairings. It was very clever how managed to fit in Hermione's employment at Hogwarts. One thing that bothered me, though, was that her old professors called her "Miss Granger." She was married to Ron by now, so shouldn't she have been Professor Weasley? Minerva certainly would have, and I would have expected Hermione to at least have some thought on the object of her desire constantly reminding her of her marriage.

Another thing I liked was your use of Professor Sprout! I would never have thought to use her, but way to go! She was a very clever way to remind us that school crushes ARE obvious and that Minerva McGonagall hardly misses anything. Speaking of which, I LOVED the scene where she rejects Hermione - such diplomacy! All the subtleties of refusal, firmly but graciously executed, were amazing. I would expect nothing less from her, and you had her give Hermione (as well as the rest of us) an amazingly insightful piece of information: "It's important to understand that the absence of one kind of love doesn't preclude another."

That also was GREAT foreshadowing for the next chapter, with which I was comfortably satisfied to say the least. I admit that I WAS hoping for some more ... physical manifestation of their love, but I agree that it would not have fit in this story. No, what you wrote was very much becoming of the two, and I probably wouldn't have liked this quite as much if it had ended as I originally hoped.

One last thing: I greatly liked the way you spiced up the story with a good vocabulary. I loved the flavor of your words. ;)

Oh, and congratulations! I have NEVER written this long or thought-out of a review! Keep up the good work. 3 Laura

Fantastic. Brilliant insight. There was just so much depth to it! It was levels above most other fanfiction I've read. Well done.

*snif*

That was excrutiatingly sad and beautiful at the same time.