ed posted a comment on Monday 3rd October 2005 11:01pm

Great story. I have really enjoyed it. Keep up the good work.

Louise posted a comment on Friday 16th September 2005 2:09pm

The second to last paragraph reminded me of a short film someone at school did about how change is the only constant. ONly reason I;m writing this review really.....I'm a bit of a lurker. Anyway I've enjoyed it so far, and I'm hoping the rest is just as good.

Michelle posted a comment on Thursday 15th September 2005 4:29am

Dorothy - fantastic! Again :) I loved Harry calling the rattler off of Bart. I'd like to see what relationship will develop between these two boys, since Harry seems to reflexively hesitate to trust a Malfoy. Also loved Two Bears' reaction to Harry's enforced ignorance - that kind of openness will surely be a refreshing change for our boy. Keep the updates coming regularly, please!

Verahsa posted a comment on Thursday 15th September 2005 2:41am

Wonderful story so far. It's well written.

Points for and against:

I am not all that fond of him going away for 6th year. It is a unique idea, and MUCH better implemented than most "Harry doesn't go to Hogwarts" stories, but I've always felt that Hogwarts was a unique & necessary -major- part of Harry Potter stories. Yours is one of the first stories I've seen that does this that I'm still interested in.

I'm loving the character development so far. Thumbs up on current rites of passage(s). I also am enjoying the introduction of "other than assumed" magic, mystica, and mystery.

So far, wonderful. I look forward to more. =)

Shawn Pickett posted a comment on Thursday 15th September 2005 12:23am

Outstanding, though Harry's exclamation at the end of the chapter sums it up nicely as well. I found his conversation with Two Bears very enlightening, and I'm curious to see what Harry takes away from it.

Brad posted a comment on Wednesday 14th September 2005 8:29pm

Well, with all this talk of being a 'chief' and assembling one's "warband" I think I'm gleaning a smidgin of how this story is going to form up. I still can't wait for when Harry returns home and gangs up with his mates, seeing how the romance may fall, how that Oath that the Weasleys and Hermione took plays out, etcetera. But there's a fair ways to go before we get there, I guess.

Very ... *startling* ... this American look at the British wizarding world. Difficult to do without demeaning the whole drama of Harry versus Dumbledore. I'm getting the feeling that the Americans could just step in easily and clobber Voldemort once he tries to cross the Atlantic. I wonder if you'll have Harry get a panic attack and feel tempted to just stay over there in the USA? Nah, I guess he'd never even think it, leaving his friends at the mercy of Voldemort.

I enjoyed Harry's snake chat very much; very clever and effectively done.

Given that Harry's a parselmouth and all courtesy of his 'transferred' talents from Voldemort, I wonder if he'll a) have something other than a serpent for his totem, or b) have two totems, since in some respects he's the amalgam of two people? Just musing.

I am *enjoying* this story ... always a pleasure to take home a new chapter and read it over tea that night. Thank you for your efforts and time!

Prince Charon posted a comment on Wednesday 14th September 2005 3:34pm

Thank you for the update.

Very, very interesting, particularly the bit with Riddle. He would have been about 18 or 19 by then, based on the timeline.

I also quite like the bit about Vision Quests.

More soon, please.

GaelicDragon posted a comment on Sunday 11th September 2005 1:08pm

Just an idea about the Cruciatus curse...

What if it was a failed attempt at a numbing charm. But, due to the spell crafters lack of knowledge of the nervious system, the spell did the exact opposite.

James posted a comment on Saturday 10th September 2005 6:32pm

This gets better. Poor Snape; even people who've never heard of him hate his guts. Good thinking on the curses; are you channeling Moody here? Lavender splendidly dim, Heinlein always good news :) H2G2 even better, though a proper smartass question would be 'what's the Question?'. Thinking, not just repeating what you heard. Ask a dozen fans what the Question is and you'll get at least six good answers, plus the inevitable two quotes. Love the Ethics essay; I wonder how many of the ideas raised therein will appear in practice soon. A benign Cruciatus escapes me so far.

Brad posted a comment on Friday 9th September 2005 5:29am

Another solid chapter for a good solid story; following this with great interest and pleasure. I'm just worried that I'm going to be sitting here typing something like this three years from now ... Harry's only just started his American year of tuition and this is chapter 19? Yoiks. A full year roaming the USA before he goes back home and we see the repercussions of the vow that the Trio-left-behind made to support him? Anticipation plus!

Biggest lesson of the chapter - "Potion Masters are human, too".

"Mathematics was a disaster". Heh. I've wondered about that, how Hermione has been completely cut off from the Muggle sciences since she was eleven. No wonder it's usually a case of the Muggle-born completely divorcing their parents and their Muggle heritage for the wizarding world, it'd be too difficult to get equal education in both, I reckon. Well, in the sciences anyway.

Enjoyed very much the Harry-critique of the Ministry. Good stuff! You/he have been wanting to say that for a while, I think!

Enjoyable chapter, thank you!

Brian Friend posted a comment on Thursday 8th September 2005 10:51am

Ok, someones been reading a little L. Neil Smith. I like the libertarian view that you have brought to this chapter. I kinda drifted away from the story because the letters (a good way to let us know what was going on at Hogwarts) just weren't doing it for me.
By the way because I hadn't mentioned it before great chapter I really liked it.
p.s. how about a little movement on your hary!multi story (please)

Brian

Ron Beatty posted a comment on Wednesday 7th September 2005 5:22pm

This is just as good as Jo's original work. In fact, some of the plot twists are wonderful! I'm very much looking forward to reading more of this, and what you may have planned for the next year. I'm going to have to thank Frank Ney for turning me on to this! Lots of questions, though, which is good, since it just whets the appetite for more.

Crys posted a comment on Tuesday 6th September 2005 10:25am

Holy smoke . . .

Wow. Helluva chapter. Loved the subtle digs at Snape. "Do it this way, you insolent brat, because I TOLD YOU TO!"

Lavender displaying horrifyingly stereotypical "blonde" traits.

That Ethics class was great. Harry's response to almost all the comments was wonderful. He didn't even have to bring Sirius into it!

The list of 10 rules was interesting as well. I can see a difference between "life" and "body", but it's not a huge difference. Are you going to highlight the breakpoint between the two at some point?

Great stuff! Looking forward to more.

Adrian posted a comment on Tuesday 6th September 2005 1:50am

Great! Keep it coming!

John Conner posted a comment on Sunday 4th September 2005 11:22pm

Another excellent chapter. I especially loved the potions class and the ethics discussion. The piece with Lavender at the end though... That was classic. Keep up the great work.

Malaskor posted a comment on Sunday 4th September 2005 12:12pm

Another excellent chapter. A very interesting view at a normal day :)
It was fun to read and the discussions and happenings were easy to picture.

I have only one little nag on a detail: "Herr Doktor Professor Rozendal" should read "Herr Professor Doktor Rozendal", as that is the usual order to write down these titles (at least in I in Germany, Switzerland or Austria - the country(ies) I suppose you had him study in).

That aside a very enjoyable read with no errots that jumped at me.

Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing.

Prince Charon posted a comment on Sunday 4th September 2005 10:00am

(Remove 'THEBELL.' to reply.)

Very, very interesting.

Poor Harry. I wonder if Lavender is really that dumb, or if she's just not used to thinking.

More soon, please.

Joseph J. Schuler posted a comment on Sunday 4th September 2005 8:08am

Fantastic. This fic is great. I really enjoy the ethics class discussion, and Harry quoting bothe Voldemort and Dumbledore.

donald deutsch posted a comment on Thursday 18th August 2005 9:00am

Very interesting story so far. I find that this is going to be a good one, and that I can't wait to read the rest of the chapters that you have posted. Please keep up the good work, and I am going to be reading the whole thing.

Donald

Machiavelli Jr posted a comment on Wednesday 17th August 2005 6:14am

This is really, really good. A bit of OOC-ness [Lavender is being sensible], many "You can't do THAT" moments and so much style I'm cracking up. Hope there's much more to come, KUTGW please. Are you English or American btw? Huge chunks of this feel as English as losing at cricket, then Hermione starts talking about sidewalks and I start my mental rant about how you should make an *English* fanfic sound English. No major nits, there's plenty do worse and very few better. LOL for national sports, fanmail and swimming. Even more LOL for culture shock - I always wondered what the Dursleys were telling the DSS. Remove NOSPAM from address if you want to contact me.