What an odd story. Well written, I give you that. And keeping me on the seat, making me read the story in just 4 hours, with no breaks. It takes talent, and you have that.

Shadow Lighthawk summoned up my feelings pretty well. It's really disconnected, it is outside of whatever J.K. Rowling could come up with. Which doesn't make your fic bad. But it makes it hard to understand. To follow.
It's like a story of someone who's feverish and hallucinating. The only constant in this story is the unpredictability.

This story doesn't live up to my expactation, but that's entirely my fault. I expected mysteries - and solutions. In a more serious way. What I got was mysteries and no solutions, no explanations.
But again, that doesn't make your fic bad. It's like with paintings. Not everyone appreciates every style there is, but that doesn't disminish the value of the painting.

Btw, my favourite part was that Albus asked Mr. Filch to help him with the spell. The band woven from the mightiest wizard of "our" time to a mere squib, for protecting Hogwarts and the very heart of the British wizard world - it has a lot of symbolism.

This fic delights and baffles me in almost equal measure. I love the in media res opening. It really grabs you by the throat, and being pitched into the middle of the action opens up fascinating possibilities for the rest of the fic. I also like the idea of an attack on Hogwarts that *isn't* a plot of Voldemort's, and seeing the teachers actually *fight* is always interesting.

On the other hand, a balrog? It's easy for a reader to grasp, especially one who's read Tolkein, but I've never been a fan of Harry Potter/LoTR intersections. And we never get to know what triggered the balrog's attack, or how it came to be in the Potterverse. Was it summoned? Accidentally transported? One of the major charms of in media res, at least to my mind, is the unfurling of the backstory, finding out the who, what, where, why, when and how of the opening situation. There wasn't a lot of unfurling in the story.

What the story has plenty of is really good writing. The style of it is an occasionally tangential, almost stream-of-conciousness attempt to encapsulate utter chaos that seemed flowing and easy, but which I know to be very difficult to actually write. You're trying to describe something that can't really be described. The unravelling of time, the edge of the world, the magical synergy of an enormous group of people... All in all, I think you did a fantastic job of describing that which defies description.

I think my real problem with the story - the reason for the majority of my bafflement - is that it's so... disconnected from the rest of the Potterverse. There's nothing to tie it to any overarching storyline, nothing to suggest that what happened will have an impact on the future of the characters commesurate with the enormity of the events. The story is just floating around, like Hogwarts-in-a-bubble, a drifting fragment of crazy AU with no place to land. The story was gripping as I read it - the pacing was tight and the action well-executed - but the disconnectedness of it has left me rather frustrated, like I picked up volume fourteen of a thirty volume serial comic and read it right after one and two. I know a little about the characters and such, and I've read this episode, but now volumes fifteen through thirty are nowhere to be found.

Oh, well. Even if the story will never be a favorite of mine, I enjoyed it for what it was, and I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you that.

Oh my heavens, did I love this. It was strange and odd and just... perfect. I loved the odd magics, the patterned magics, the Founders the way everything... I just loved all of it.
And the way you ended it was perfect. This was just fantastic. Great job!

Fascinating story, very well-executed. Thanks for a great read!

Great. So, Draco is his usual self after all.

Cool. Even if Draco seems to be in Leather Pants, the rest of the story makes up for it by having everyone else In Character.

This is good.
I like the premise, and how you seem to be keeping everyone In Character.

lol about the last line in the story :)

An excellent story, made all the more intriguing for the fact you never explain what catastrophe’s brought all this on.

The appearances the multitude of past students put in work very well, I especially enjoyed the Marauders and dear Tom. Snape and McGonagall's interactions are also great to listen to. For a while I thought the Filch's immunity to the chaos engulfing the castle had to do with him being a squib and so not being affected by the tremendous distortions occurring with the magic. The Caretaker's role being greater than using thumb screws on misbehaving students is probably a more interesting explanation though.

Love the last line. Anyone who doesn't remember what happened is going to be as confused as hell.

Very original story!

Great story! A very original idea, and I LOVED the Snape/McGonagal interactions. I'm going to read some of your other HP stories. Thanks for sharing!

This story is surreal. And I mean that in the very best of ways. One minute I'm a bit frustrated because I don't understand a thing that's going on and the next it doesn't matter because I FEEL it. It reminds me of some of the best parts of C.S. Lewis' 'Narnia' series. I can't describe it except that it is wonderful. Congratulations on an incredible story.

opps it seems something has switched. I'm betting on the rotation of the sun.
Fun story and rather unique too. I liked the switching ages thing and solving the problems with dancing was great too. When you said all of Hogwarts needed to work together, you really meant all-every last one. I liked your borrowed Finch as well.
Great story!

I must say that you have a gift. Not only to be able to imagine something of this size, but also to put it into words. I truly envy you, you have a gift.

Wow. Interesting, and slightly confusing. Nice touch at the end, the castle being flipped.