Penname: Oregonian [Contact]
Member Since: 07 Mar 2017
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Stories by Oregonian [51] Series by Oregonian [0] Reviews by Oregonian [1525] Favorite Series [0] Oregonian's Favorites [1]

 
Reviews by Oregonian


Liam, now a Seventh Year, is determined that the Hufflepuffs will "run the table" once again. When setback comes from an unexpected source, Liam pairs up with Morwena Felwich on an ambitious school project. Will it be enough to win back the lost House Points?

 

Plus: more with Philip and Pauline, Aiden and Freya, and our new couple, Theo and Elanor!


Characters: Original Character

Pairings: OC/OC

Representation: Genderfluid/Genderqueer

Story Type: Novel (50,000+ words)

FFT Groups:
Rating and Advisories (required): Teen Audiences (None)

Content Warnings (optional): None

Genre: General, Romance

Tropes: None
Incomplete · Published: 17 Jul 2023 · Updated: 08 Mar 2024 · Words: 74368 · Chapters: 28 · Reviews: 29 · Likes: 0 · Reads: 543

Series: None



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 12 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 28: Chapter 28: The Ring


Hi, KJ,

 

When you post 4 chapters at a time, the 4 chapters go by all too fast.  Noweveryone's thinking bout getting married as soon as they finish Hogwarts at age 18,  Man, I'd think I was back in the 1950s.  

 

I smiled at the older women at the Embassy Ball giving Robert advice about how he should hire a French tutor for Tess to improve her fluency.  Just hard-nosed advice.  Very Slytherin-ish.  I'm sure that Tess will be getting more such advice from strangers who feel quite open to telling Tess and Robert what they need to know/do, and I'm sure it will all be good advice!

 

That was really nice of Philip's father to give him Philip's mother's ring, and it was also good that Philip was willing to accept it.  A likely outcome, to be sure, but not guaranteed.  

 

I am really looking forward to seeing how these final months of school wind down for the seventh-year students, whom we have been following for all these hundreds of chapters over the years.  :)

 

Vicki



Author's Response:

Yes, I'm really looking forward to putting a bow on this one. The drama keeps coming from the Fifth Years, however. Theo and company will continue to dominate the narrative. Liam still needs to finish his project and lead the Badgers to victory in Quidditch. Before that, we have Winter Ball. And don't forget about Marie Claire and her maps! They will come around again in future chapters. 

 

I just finished chapter 29. I'm writing at a good clip. I can't see the end, but I can smell it, like a sea breeze blowing in from the west.

 

Thanks for reading and writing all these comments!

 

Fondly, 

KJ



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 12 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 27: Chapter 27: The Embassy Ball


Hi, KJ.

 

You have put a smile on my face because I am always happy to read a chapter about Tess, and especially about Tess and Robert.  It was a treat to see a glimpse of what he does in his job, even though he's pretty low on the staus ladder in his department.

 

This Embassy Ball sounds like it's several notches higher than any event Tess has ever attended before, so I am very glad (as well as fascinated) about the advice she is receiving from her mother's cousin Portia about proper dress and behavior.  It is plain that all these social rules are well beyond Tess's experience up until now, so the serious crash course that Robert gave her was important and necessary.  If Tess screwed up in any of the ways that Portia and Robert warned her about, that could be damaging to Robert's career and maybe even spell curtains for her and Robert's relationship.  She has to take these social rules seriously.

 

 It was interesting that Tess didn't understand all this at first, in the scene where she is campaigning to be allowed to wear her too-short black dress without stockings or tights, still not fully comprehending the necessity of not making any social missteps.  Perhaps when she got to the Embassy Ball and saw what it was like and who the people were who were attending, she began to understand better.  This was not a Hogwart party!

 

I also liked the brief meeting with the Romanian princess and the conversation afterward when Robert talks about the political situation in Romania.  Here's a glimpse of what you might be getting into, Tess, if you stick with Robert.

 

 Good chapter, nnd a nice change of topic and scene.

 

Vicki



Author's Response:

I love working with Tess. While Morwena, Ellie and Lara are very adult-like in their thinking, Tess is still very much a teenager. She's beautiful, petulant, sexy, impulsive.  She can be cruel and selfish, and she can also be sweet and thoughtful. She shines in the spotlight but she's not a leader. She's more comfortable in a supporting role. Robert and the women at the party see what she can become when she matures and gets a little wisdom and experience under her belt, and they are eager to mold her and direct her course.

 

As I've said before, I read Le Carre regularly. I also just finished War on Peace, Ronan Farrow's book on U.S. diplomacy. All this was running through my head as I wrote these chapters.



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 12 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 26: Chapter 26: Late Nights


Hi, KJ  

Another enjoyable Christmas chapter, this time including Midnight Mass.  It makes me wonder if someday you will run out of new Christmas events to include in your Christmas chapters.

 

Your various couples are getting very serious about a lot of topics.  The plans, whatever they are, that Elanor is considering, in order to break away from Ava, the very frank talks about sex that these kids are having -- in  way, they all sound like Ravenclaws in their unimpassioned and logical cause-and-effect thought patterns.

 

Interesting how committeed to each other Liam nd Lara are talking.  (And Theo and Elanor also, last chapter.  What's with that 'Here comes the bride" remark in the church?)  Do you envision wizarding kids as getting married at a fairly early age, compared to what Muggle kids do nowadays?  

 

Lara's mention that Reginald Dennison won't be locked up forever, that when his sentence is served, he will be free again, was kind of scary.  What about the early death that was foreseen for him if he didn''t change his ways?  Should we be sitting her, hoping that someone (Reginald)  will die?

 

Vicki



Author's Response:

I never get tired of writing Christmas chapters. Every time, I get to this spot and I know what I need to write about.

 

The couples are pairing up early. I've given this a lot of thought. First, there's my own personal perspective/experience: I met the girl of my dreams at 17, and we married at 22, right out of college. (Incidentally, we were introduced by a mutual friend named Vicki.) When I look at the Wizarding World, I keep thinking how small it is. Theo and Q will go back into the wider world to find their loves, but if the other wizard kids are staying put, they've already met all the eligible partners they're going to meet, unless they somehow meet someone from Beaubatons, Durmstrang or one of the American schools. It's not like us going to college and meeting people from hundreds of other high schools. In England, the only wizard "high schoool" is Hogwarts, and everyone at Wizard U went to Hogwarts, too. So, most of the kids marry their Hogwarts sweetheart.

 

Lara knows that Reginald will die if he doesn't change his ways. She doesn't know whether or not he will kill her first. You'll have to wait all the way to the end of the series to find out what happens.

 



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 12 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 25: Chapter 25: Night at the Messiah


Hi, KJ.  I'm glad to see some more chapters of this story appearing on the archive. :)

 

I always enjoy what you do with the Christmas chapters.  The relatively low-key atmosphere of the celebration at Elanor's house is a nice change from the cast-of-thousands scenes that also occur at this time of year.

 

I was happy to see that you included Messiah in the holdiay events this year.  I sang that (soprano) for many years here in Oregon, getting better each year, and even now it is hard to listen to it without feeling a great urge to burst into song and sing along.  The conductor told us chorus members not to tap our feet to keep the rhythm, but during the choruses you could sense a pulse going through the risers as all the choristers were scrunching their toes to keep the time.  It was pretty funny.  I miss those days.

 

Yes, I am quite curious about what Elanor's future plans are that she is holding so close to her vest.  And I am curious about how Theo's plans to study business will turn out.  Hopefully he will find it to be something that he really is interested in, and not just something to impress people like Elanor's father and Mr. Dennison.  But it's too soon to know how all those plans will turn out, several years dwn the road.

 

I am also struck by the extent to which you have your wizardly characters so current with Muggle electronic technology.  No reason why they shouldn't be, of course, but sometimes authors write the teenage wizardking kids as being pretty disconnected from the Muggle world.  Of course those stories are often set way back in the 1980's or 1990's when there was probably much less bleed-over of Muggle technology into the wizarding world of kids.

 

Always refreshing to read your chapters.  Thank you for writing!

Vicki



Author's Response:

Vicki,

 

I always look forward to your comments! Theo is up-to-date on Muggle tech due to the fact that his parents and brother are Muggles, and he spends quite a bit of time in that world. His peers who grew up in the Wizarding world are not quite as good at it as he is. A few, like Sadie and Aiden, have cell phones. But even Tess had to rely on Theo to bring his music player, as she did not have anything as good as his equipment or his music collection. (That was a main reason he was invited to the party in the first place.) The wizards use Witchter balls, which act like smart phones but are more like crystal balls in shape.

 

Only in the last few weeks has it been important to me what NEWT classes Theo, Ben, Patrick etc will be taking. I am now planning to do a Year 6 and Year 7 for those kids.

 

Ellie is planning drastic action. It will add an emotional punch to the final scenes in the book. Stay tuned!

 

KJ





“So,” said Harry, “the diary. . .the ring. . The cup, the locket, the snake. . . and something that was once Ravenclaw’s or Gryffindor’s.“

“An admirably succinct and accurate summary, yes,” said Dumbledore, bowing his head. (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, p. 507, American Edition.)


Six items-famed for being the vessels of Voldemort’s soul.  Set in eight vignettes across ten centuries, this is their stories before their fates were sealed.

 


Rating and Advisories (required): Teen Audiences (Violence)

Content Warnings (optional): Dying/Grieving, Poverty

Genre: Drama, General

Tropes: Marriage
Completed · Published: 19 May 2018 · Updated: 19 Jun 2018 · Words: 13115 · Chapters: 8 · Reviews: 16 · Likes: 7 · Reads: 15718

Series: None



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 12 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Six Objects United


Yes, I enjoyed the story, though maybe the word 'enjoy' is not the right one to use when focusing on Tom Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort.  Thank you for applying such thought, such imagination, such care, such attention to detail upon a cast of characters that includes so many unadmirable examples of humanity.  

 

Yoour remarks about how major religions tend to focus on death causes me to stop and reflrect, Yes, it's true.  Maybe death is the thing we fear most or are the most puzzled by.  The thing we most want rescuing from.  But drinking foul-tasting 'longevity potions' is one thng, and doing what Tom Riddle did is quite another., the extreme of cowardice.  I think that most people, in the end, face death bravely.



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 12 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Summer 1942, Snake and Ring


So now Tom Riddle has found his final horcrux, his companion snake.  And we can see why Nagini would be devoted to Tom if he saved her from being killed and hung up on the door of the Gaunt family hovel.  Just the description of the hovel gives me the creeps, not to mention the wretched specimen of humanity that emerges from it.

 

Upon re-reading the story, I wonder why Tom turned aside from the main road into Little Hangleton to go to the remains of the Gaunt domicile.  I had thought that his main purpose was to murder his father and connected Riddle relatives in the mansion on the hill, which he did eventually do.  I can't remember ever reading in canon where Voldemort got his snake from,( not paying attention to the the stuff in the Grindelwald movies). 

 

but once Tom has arrived at the house and caught a glimpse of the ring that Morfin still wears on his hand, I can see that Tpm would be glad that he had taken this momentary detour.

 

Thank you for writing all these little Missing Moments that pertain to the various objects Tom used as Horcruxes,  *shiver goes over body*

 

Vicki



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 12 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Mid-December, 1926: Dairy and Locket


Hi, Barbara.

 

I'm just going to finish up a few unfinshed review jobs now in the waning hours of the annual Review Drive.

I see that this story is a continuation in object and theme from the previous story, in which 25-year-old Caractacus craves winning the locket of Slytherin for himself, but realizes that it is going to pass to Marvolo Gaunt and his family.

Now the locket has passed to Maaevolo's daughter Merope, and it is about tocome full circle back to Caractacus when Merope, desperate for money to live on, offers to sell it.

 

Caractacus has changed a lot in the past 20 years that Marvolo has been in possession of the locket.  The 25-year-old man who hoped with hard work and smarts to make a name for himself in Diagon Alley is now a cunnng, lying, scamming exploiter of anyone who is down on their luck, with no pity in his heart.

 

Cractacus contrasts so greatly with Ethel in the bookstore.  I wonder if his shop and her shop were on opposite sides of the building that fronted Diagon Alley on one side of its structure, and Knockturn Alley on the other side of its structure, sharing an interior wall but with no connecting door between the two establishments. Just a thought.

 

I love how you end the story, with Caractacus glowing with elation at finally getting his hands on the locket, practically dancing with joy.  Stories like your story here are so enjoyable because they fill out and enrich important points in the HP story that are glossed over quickly with just a few sentences in the canon boks.

 

Vicki



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 11 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Early 1900s-Ring and Locket


Wow!  (I keep saying Wow about your stories...)

This chapter is a real jewel.  I will have ro read all these chapters over again at my lesiure, but I'm so happy that I stumbled across this story with its many chapters.  You characterize all the hopeful inheritors of the locket so well, ll of them different, all so desperate to get the locket.  an intesting note about how some of the Sacred Twenty-Eight had fallen into squalor, how the families had decayed.

I love these glimpses of wizarding history, especially as it pertains to the objects that eventually became Horcruxes.  Maybe it's one of your old stories, but it has stood the test of time!

Vicki



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 11 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 4: Chapter 4: 1860s Diary and Ring


What a clever idea!  To write about the person who bound the book that became Tom Riddle's Horcruxed diary.  I love the way you have described the old bookbinder's obsession  with making these blank books and saying "Each book has a messsage."  I suppose that could be whatever the owner of the book chooses to write in it.  Some of those messages would mean nothing, but Tom Riddle's diary would be the most influential one.

 

I also like the idea that the old man believed that many people, not just he himself, were searching for the Deathly Hallows.  I wonder if that was true or not.

 

Great little story, as ever.

 

Vicki



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 11 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 3: Chapter 3: 15th Century Diadem and Ring


What an exciting and ultimately sad story.  At first, in my excitement, I thought that Amherst had brought back the diadem as well as the ring and the two wands, but upon reading more slowly and carefully, I realized that the diadem got left behind in the forest as Amherst scrambled simply to save his own life.

Helena Ravenclaw probably would never imagine how much trouble she caused by stealing the diadem.  We know of some peoople who died because of it, and now we learn about one more who died and one who nearly died.

It is interesting to imagine the scene when Tom Riddle comes searching for the diadem.  Did the sentient spiders put it back in the hollow tree?  And were they extinct by the time Tom showed up, or did he, with his modern magical skill, manage to defeat them and grab the diadem? Interesting thought!  I love your stories about these objects.

Vicki





Or, the flipside of Catherine and Alex's relationship.

 

Written for RogueSlytherin's 100 Ways to Leave a Lover Challenge.


Characters: Alex Summers, Original Female Character

Pairings: Unlisted Pairing

Representation: Ace/Aro, LGBTQIA+

Story Type: Challenge Entry, Story Collection

FFT Groups:
Rating and Advisories (required): Teen Audiences (None)

Content Warnings (optional): Breakups

Genre: AU, General

Tropes: Established Relationship, Family, Found Family, Love Hurts, School
Incomplete · Published: 22 Sep 2023 · Updated: 18 Oct 2023 · Words: 4662 · Chapters: 5 · Reviews: 3 · Likes: 0 · Reads: 96

Series: None



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 11 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 3: And I Don’t Wanna Forget How Your Voice Sounds


Hi, Robin.

 

This is an unusual format you have chosen for this chapter. I tried reading it both ways, first just reading it straight through as printed, and then reading just the non-italic lines straight through, which makes it sound a ittle different because it shows how all the non-itqalic lines fit together.

 

The repeating chorus in the background of I think we should break up gives the whole piece a gloomy mood, like a death march being slowly beaten out on a drum.  It implies that Catherinc can't stop thinking about, even obsessing about, that statement by Alex.  I', not even certain that he spoke those exact words, but she's convinced herself that his did say exactly that. 

 

Sometimes we think that we remember some traumatic or distressing event exactly as it happened, but we really don't.

 

But when you read the lines without the chorus, it sounds more hopeful, that Catherine sees the logic/rationality in the two of them spending a few years doing their own things, and maybe their lives will become richer and they will be able to have an even better relationship, or maybe it will become plain that they were fated to ge in different directions.

 

there are still many little chapters in this drabble story that I haven't read yet, so maybe my prediction is way out in left field.  We shall see.  But I'm glad Catherine feels better abut things.

 

Vicki



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 11 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 2: Call It Desperation


Hi, Robin.  Here to read and review some more about Alex and Catherine.

This chapter started off hard.  The big, always-there conflict between the "normal world" and the world of the students at the institute.

It's really a shame that Catherine feels so totallly out-of-place with the peop0le in the outide world (and judgmental too) that she can't even carry on a congenial conversation with them.  That's hard.

 

She seems to be envious of Alex's ability to have a foot in each of the two worlds, so she denigrates him in her mnd as Mr. Normal and Mr. Perfectly Normal.  That's too bad.  You'd think she would be more able to perceive what he was really thinking, but she's eager to assume the worst, so as not to be too distressed when the worst actually happens.  What a way to live.

 

He shows a lot of patience in reassuring her and assuaging her fears.  Good for him.  These are interesting, likable characters.  :)

 

Vicki





Catherine Xavier-Lehnsherr thought that she was a rather mature, sensible girl. She never argued with her parents over her curfew. She saved up her birthday money to buy herself a gaming laptop. She even didn’t get goaded into a fight by William Stryker, Westchester Prep’s biggest asshole, when he said that girls were stupid.

 

And then she developed a crush on the wrong person: one of her best friends.


Written for dreamshadow's Friends Don't Challenge.


Rating and Advisories (required): Teen Audiences (None)

Content Warnings (optional): None

Genre: AU, Fluff, Romance

Tropes: Detention, Established Relationship, Family, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Idiots in love, Modern AU, Mutual Pining, Sarcastic Devotee, School, Vitriolic Best Friends
Incomplete · Published: 02 May 2023 · Updated: 09 Mar 2024 · Words: 30535 · Chapters: 11 · Reviews: 43 · Likes: 7 · Reads: 661

Series: None



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 10 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 11: The Quarry Incident


Hi, Robin.  This was a fun chapter for several reasons.

 

First of all, the quarry is a different and interesting locale, at least for us westerners who don't have old, nineteenth-century quarries close to our towns.  I was reminded of the quarry images in the motion ipcture "Breaking Away," which is set in Indiana, not the east coast, but probably looks pretty similar.

 

Second, I liked the conversation between Catherine and Alex in which he finally speaks frankly and tells her that it is she, not Allison, who is the leggy blonde that has captured his attention.  A good line: "I hate to be the one to break it to you, Alex, but you're completely unapproachable by mere mortals...."  Funny how we don't see ourselves the way other people see us.  I'm sure Alex didn't know that some people found him unapproachable  .After all, he probably thought,  I'm just being me...

 

Third thing:  When she goes home from throwing rocks at the quarry, she walks into the house and announces to her parents that "Boys are weird."  That's an unspoken message that she wants to talk about her boy problems, if there ever was one.  And yet when she is with her father in the car and he brings the subject up again because he knows she won't do it on her own, she gets super embarrassed.  Ah, it's hard to be a teenager, trying to navigate these rocky waters.  You depict this very well

 

Thank you for writing.  :)

 

Vicki



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 10 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 10: The Homecoming Incident


Hi, Robin.  Here for some more reviews on your latest chapters of Stupid Alex Summers.

 

These young people -- Catherine, Alex, Sean, Hank, Abby, Allison, etc. -- seem blasé about the homecoming dance, or maybe that's just the feeling i get because we're seeing it through Catherine's eyes, and she's definitely not big on dances.  She's attending only to make her parents happy.  They seem not to understand why she doesn't care as much as they do.

 

St the dance there's a lot of talking amongst pals, little dancing, an early exit to an ice cream parlor, and an early return to hme and bed.  The big attraction is not romance or beautiful clothes and Starry Nights, it's a new video game that all the buddies will share.

 

Emma might feel it's a challenge to turn Catherine into n elegant, glamorous young lady, but Catherine is her own person, willing to comproomise on a fe unimpportant points like going to the Homecoming dance, but probably not not willing to being coerced on impportant (to her) matters

 

Will she just slide along, not rocking the boat, avoiding major conflicts, until she heads off to university?  And you suggest that there is something on Alex's mind that he's not ready to talk about with her yet.  Hmm, wonder what that wil be?

 

I am enjoying this story.  Thank you for writing.

 

Vicki





Thanksgiving is a horrible holiday--if you are a turkey.


Characters: Original Character

Pairings: None

Representation: None

Story Type: One-Shot

FFT Groups:
Rating and Advisories (required): Teen Audiences (Violence)

Content Warnings (optional): Bullying, Discrimination, Dying/Grieving

Genre: Fairy Tale/Fable, Fluff, General, Humor

Tropes: Careers, Holidays
Incomplete · Published: 29 Jun 2020 · Updated: 29 Jun 2020 · Words: 1542 · Chapters: 1 · Reviews: 2 · Likes: 0 · Reads: 561

Series: None



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 10 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 1: Chapter 1


Another really cute and funny story from you, Barbara.  You characterize the animals so well, and there are a lot of them to characterize.  The clever turkey is so musing as he tries his various tricks to avoid being found and killed, and I wondered why the sight of a tomato would give him the stellar idea of how to satisfy the family for Christmas without killing anyone.

A good point, when the family all acknowledge that turkey isn't their favorite dish anyway, and it's so much trouble to prepare, nd they'd really rather have pizza anyway.  No point in spending even a second in wondering how  the turkey got the delivery jacket or the two boxes of Pizza.  In stories, these things just appear by magic!  :)





Two share woods, two share cores

 

No two alike

 

Four identical branches

 

Grown from the same foreign tree

 

All connected by heart and magic.

 

United power, strength, peace and love will destroy evil


Characters: Garrick Ollivander

Pairings: None

Representation: None

Story Type: One-Shot

FFT Groups:
Rating and Advisories (required): Teen Audiences (Violence)

Content Warnings (optional): None

Genre: Drama, General

Tropes: Family, Fate/Prophecy, School
Incomplete · Published: 27 Jun 2020 · Updated: 08 Apr 2021 · Words: 1080 · Chapters: 1 · Reviews: 8 · Likes: 3 · Reads: 972

Series: None



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 10 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 1: Chapter 1


What a clever story.  For eighty-eight years Garrick Ollivander has wondered how four different wands could come from the same tree, never dreaming that the word 'tree' was to be interpreted in a different way than 'large woody plant.'  That's so common -- we interpret a word in one way automatically, when really there's another definition which is what we really want.

I love the meanings of the girls' names and how Garrick Ollivander interprets the name of the final girl, Amity, to be the love that binds all four girls together.  Of course she doesn't fully understand what he's talking about, but I hope that it will become clear to her as the years go by.  Nice story.





Who is more likely to win? The thief or the thief who cheats?


Characters: None

Pairings: None

Representation: None

Story Type: Challenge Entry, One-Shot

FFT Groups:
Rating and Advisories (required): Teen Audiences (Sexual Content, Slurs, Violence)

Content Warnings (optional): None

Genre: General

Tropes: None
Incomplete · Published: 30 Nov 2021 · Updated: 01 Dec 2021 · Words: 497 · Chapters: 1 · Reviews: 4 · Likes: 2 · Reads: 636

Series: None



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 10 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 1: Chapter 1


Hi, Barbara,

A clever little story, about the double-crossers and crooks getting a taste of their own medicine.  Svetlana is pretty cold-blooded if she doesn't mind murdering two people as art of a crooked business deal.  I will confess that I had to read this story repeatedly to get the characters straight, but that's okay.  It's good to have a challenge to figure a puzzle out.  Theses poor guys could have spent a little more time figuring out how this deal might go wrong, and protecting temselves better!  Good story.



Author's Response:

This wasn't my favorite. If I recall, it was for some competition and there was a maximum word count-most annoying requirement, so I had to cut a bit making it rather confusing. 





One Daughter, One Father, Three Dresses, Past, Present and Future


Characters: Original Character

Pairings: None

Representation: None

Story Type: Drabble (100-200 words)

FFT Groups:
Rating and Advisories (required): All Audiences (None)

Content Warnings (optional): None

Genre: General

Tropes: Family, Marriage
Incomplete · Published: 18 Feb 2024 · Updated: 18 Feb 2024 · Words: 462 · Chapters: 3 · Reviews: 9 · Likes: 0 · Reads: 28

Series: None



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 10 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Wedding Dress


I love how you carry the theme of Knight in Shining Armor through all these short chapters, even though the titles of the chapters focus on dresses, not valiant knights.  I can see that someone who was such a good daddy will also be an equally good grandpa.  It's his chance to re-live the play-acting with a new generation, even if perhaps he isn't quite as spry as he used to be.  He's obviously always going to be young at heart.  She is lucky to have a faher as devoted to her as he is, even though now there is a new man who must be the number one mn in her life.



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 10 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Prom Dress


This time it's a "real" dragon, not just a pretend dragon, and the confrontation is not exciting and fun, but shocking and distressing and even frightening.  But Daddy doen't say, "I told you so," or "You shouldn't have worn such a revealing dress," or, worse, "I'm going to go over to his house and give his parents a piece of my mind."  He just lets her talk, which is what she really needs, and reassures her that, no matter what, he'll always be there for her.



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 10 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Princess Dress


She has a great imagination.  Dressed in her dress-up clothes, fake diamond tiaras, and soft shoes, she becomes a princess for real, for a few minutes, and her house is her castle.  Such excitement with the knight (Prince?) in shining armor which she can see even if others cannot,  and the couch is so big and the chair is comparativly small, but the knight always wins.  For right now, this year, she is safe from every bad person or animal.   Aand tomorrow it will be aqn different aversay, bur Sir Daddy will alays be there.





High above a dead world floats an impossible city


 


Written for the HPFC Untagged Fest 2023


Winner: Most Creative and Best Sci-Fi


Characters: James Potter I, Magical Creature, Peter Pettigrew, Petunia Evans Dursley, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Voldemort/Tom Marvolo Riddle

Pairings: None

Representation: None

Story Type: One-Shot

FFT Groups:
Rating and Advisories (required): Mature Audiences (Slurs)

Content Warnings (optional): Bullying

Genre: Action/Adventure, AU, Drama, Sci-Fi

Tropes: Dystopian, Magical Creature, Space Opera
Completed · Published: 10 Sep 2023 · Updated: 10 Sep 2023 · Words: 3190 · Chapters: 1 · Reviews: 4 · Likes: 2 · Reads: 19

Series: None



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 10 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 1: Pepper


Hi, Noelle.  I am here to read some of your AU stories, since you have such imagination and come up with so many different scenarios.  

 

I really like what you have created out of your prompts.  What a different place and time.  In some ways your canon-derived characters resemble what we know of them from canon, and in other ways they don't. I see that you have added the Marauder Boys and Captain Riddle into the dramatis personae, with the alteration that Remus is now the most evil of the four elite-status troublemakers.  Peter is still timid, James is still the alpha Marauder, and Sirius is still the most likely to torment people weaker than himself.

 

Knowing that the Captain of this space vessel is named Riddle, I'm not surprised to see the social stratification  of the people aboard the space vessel.  Is Captain Riddle trying to creat a small society based on the values and principles of the well-known Tom Riddle?  Kind of looks like it, doesn't it?  But then if the Marauduer Boys are the scions of the elite, untouchable by what passes for law enforcement on board that ship, why is Riddle qustioning Muggle Petunia about them?  

 

And I loved Pepper the magical creature.  He is so friendly and comforting to Petunia.

 

This story acts as if it is just a part of a larger story which doubtless exists only in your head.  But it was fun to read.  The things that can be done with the Potterverse!

 

Vicki





It's the bottom of the ninth, the Order of the Phoenix is down by three, and the world is on the line.


Rating and Advisories (required): Teen Audiences (Slurs, Violence)

Content Warnings (optional): None

Genre: Action/Adventure, AU, Fluff, Humor, Parody

Tropes: Fate/Prophecy, Friendship
Completed · Published: 19 Aug 2020 · Updated: 01 Jun 2023 · Words: 1725 · Chapters: 1 · Reviews: 2 · Likes: 2 · Reads: 540

Series: None



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 10 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 1: one, two, three strikes, you're out


This is so funny, Noelle, all the way through.  I read it when you first posted it, and "Bad Vicki for not writing a review on that very day!" *bops self on head like a house-elf with a Nerf baseball bat*

 

It is the knd of humor that I just love -- dry, tongue-in-cheek, absurdities spoken with a perfectly straight face.  As Alternate Universes go, this is about as alternate as they get.  The commentators speak with such sang froid about the doom of the world if the Death Eaters win -- in fact, the idea of the fate of the world riding on the outcome of a baseball game is the pinnacle of absurdity.

 

My family (father, brothers, husband, son) were baseball players, so I feel right at home in a ball park listening to the play-by-play.  You interweave comments that could be genuine in a real ball game with comments that are so off-the-wall.  This story is priceless, a real gem.  My hat (baseball cap) is off to you!

 

Vicki





Aesop is credited for creating over a hundred fables, but in truth he wrote many more; however, these were filled with magical beings and beasts. Unfortunately, over the centuries these disappeared from muggle literature and history books. Now, through a unique partnership of a magical latent and a literature historian at potionpartner’s printing, some of these stories have been recovered and are now being read by the muggle world for the first time.

 

2nd Place: Noelle Zingarella's Wizard Tales from Many Lands Challenge

Award Aesops Fables

Graphic by Noelle Zingarella


Characters: Magical Creature

Pairings: None

Representation: None

Story Type: Story Collection

FFT Groups:
Rating and Advisories (required): Teen Audiences (Slavery, Substance Abuse, Violence)

Content Warnings (optional): Bullying, Discrimination

Genre: Action/Adventure, Childrens' Stories, Drama, Fairy Tale/Fable

Tropes: Careers, Fate/Prophecy, Law/Politics, Love/Hate Relationships, Magical Creature
Completed · Published: 04 Nov 2019 · Updated: 17 Nov 2019 · Words: 2205 · Chapters: 5 · Reviews: 12 · Likes: 0 · Reads: 8778

Series: Potionpartner’s Award Winners



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 10 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 4: The Rooster and the Snake


After reading this chapter, I had to go on the internet and Google "basilisk rooster" to find out if the legendary basilisk was really killed by hearing the crowing of a rooster, and I found a reference in an article about ancient and medieval references to basilisks, and this old document cited in the article was from Cantabria, Spain, and it said that the basilisk could be killed by hearing the sound of a rooster crow, and that medieval travelers would bring roosters along with them on their journeys if they were traveling through regions where basilisks were thought to live.

 

Your fables, including this one about the rooster and the snake, have a very Aesop's-fables style about them, so they were fun to read.  One can sympathize with the farmer, who did need a rooster that would wake him at dawn by its crowing, so that he could get an early start on his day's work.  Ridding the farm of snakes was a valuable service that the late-rising rooster performed for the farmer, but I guess that farmer just took the absence of snakes for granted and didn't properly appreciate what his rooster was doing for him.

 

I wondered if the farmer could just have two roosters, one for crowing at dawn and one for driving away snakes, but maybe the two roosters would fight each other for dominance, so that idea might not work.

 

Doubtless the stranger made a good income by renting out the services of the rooster to rid peoples' property of snakes, and I'm sure he commanded a large fee for dispatching a basilisk, so the stranger obviously got the better of his business deal with the farmer.  Maybe the farmer didn't mind, since he was not about to go traveling around the country as a contract exterminator.  He just wanted to stay on his farm and get up early every day to do his farm work.  And maybe he had dogs that helped some with the snakes.

 

A good moral.  Take advantqge of whatever it is that you can do well.

 

Nice job, cute story.

 

Vicki





Even the Best Laid Plans Banner

Amazing banner by PaulaTheProkaroyote

 

Voldemort has returned and Severus Snape has survived his first meeting with him; however, his position is insecure and his loyalties questioned by his master.  Desperate to convince the Dark Lord of his obedience, Snape launches a plan to appease him. It should take years to develop giving Dumbledore and Potter the time they need to fulfill the prophecy.  However, when Voldemort changes the plan, Severus realizes that he has inadvertently brought a muggle to the attention of the Death Eaters. Now he is trying to save her from evil all while convincing her that he is actually part of it.


Characters: Original Female Character

Pairings: Severus Snape/OC (HP)

Representation: None

Story Type: Novel (50,000+ words)

FFT Groups:
Rating and Advisories (required): Mature Audiences (Consent Issues, Slurs, Sexual Content, Substance Abuse, Violence)

Content Warnings (optional): None

Genre: Dark, General, Romance

Tropes: Love/Hate Relationships, Lycanthropy, Religion
Completed · Published: 01 Apr 2018 · Updated: 27 Jun 2018 · Words: 120558 · Chapters: 51 · Reviews: 71 · Likes: 56 · Reads: 1715

Series: potionpartner’s Severus Snape



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 10 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 12: Chapter 12: The Limits of Friendship


So Maerna is playing with fire and doesn't know it.  Sooner or later there will be a meeting between Remus and Severus at the cottage, and neither of them will be haopy about it, and they will both be angry at Maerna for leading this double life.  Failing to tell Severus about the frequent visits of another person to the cottage.  Failing to tell Remus that her "husband" isn't really her husband.  What does Remus think he's doing anyway, visiting a "married" woman while her husband is away on business?

 

There are 39 chapters yet to go.  That's plenty of space for everyone to get into trouble.

 

I was curious about Maerna's remark, early in the chapter, that she didn't have the correct species of Aconitum to brew Wolfsbane and would have to ask her husband to send her some, and later in the chapter it sounds as if Remus and Maerna are working to gether to brew Wolfsbane, so I suppose that Severus did send her some.  I wonder if he wondered why she was brewing that particular postion, since he used to brew it for Remus (and maybe still does).  If he shows up seuddenly one day and finds them together, it will immediately becpme clear.

 

We shall see...

 

Vicki



Reviewer: Oregonian Signed
Date: 09 Mar 2024 · Title: Chapter 11: Chapter 11: A Full Moon Visitor


Yes, Maerna has just dicovered somthing the hard way -- the facts of life about the presence of werewolves.  Perhaps the werewolves are a reason why this area of the country is not heavily populated by humans.

 

This is a dramatic way to introduce a new character into the story.  Plenty of action, although one might have had a little suspicion that the hero werewolf was really Remus Lupin.  I'm not certain why Remus happened to be in the vicinity of Maerna's cabin on this particular night.  Perhaps he has been assigned to patrol the cabin (since Dumbledore knows that Maerna is there and probably also knows that werewolves live in that forest) on the nights of the full moon, although I'm sure that neither Dumbledore nor Snape ever expected her to go beyond the wards.  But then why did the wards become permeable for her?  It's all very mysterious.

 

I wonder when Snape will be coming back again, and if Remus will leave before Snape does come back, and whether Maerna or Dobby will tell Snape that Remus was her.  And whether Dobby will tell Snape that Maerna can now cross through the wards.

 

Will keep reading...

 

Vicki