That was beautiful. Thank you.

Author's Response: i'm very pleased you think so, and thank you for letting me know :) my pleasure, obviously.

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I absolutely loved this. It's a wonderful flight of fancy and at the same time deeply moving. I've always loved the glimpses of Albus's and Minerva's friendship over the years -- from favorite student to colleague to oldest and most loyal friend. I've always imagined Minerva would continue as Headmistress for a while -- maybe this is over summer holidays. Thanks for the lovely read.

(The song quoted is one of my favorites in the world, besides :) )

Author's Response: awh awh awh i just saw this! i just figured no one ever reads this anymore so i rarely check :P

i'm so glad that you enjoyed this! i wrote it as my first ever one-shot last summer when i was trying to get back into the swing of writing and wasn't quite sure what to do when i sat and faced a blank document. It sort of came out--I imagined it on summer holidays, yes, and I love Dumbledore too much to think he's really gone on from all those who loved him.

I love the song, too! :D Thanks so much for reviewing :)

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The descriptions you placed in your story were wonderfully eloquent. I really felt like I could get a sense of the moment in Minerva's home with the summer light and the regrets that she had. Her characterization is spot on--the practical nature, the inner romantic I think we all see and the young woman inside who yearns for what she turned away.

The description of the mirror and the reflections within was thought-provoking.

In the end when she walks out and Albus is no longer there...one really sees how lonely her existence became. This makes you reflect on what opportunities in your own life you could be turning away.

Thank you for this lovely piece!

Author's Response: d'aww you're spoiling me!

but honestly. i'm very glad/pleased that you enjoyed this! when i look back on this story, i feel that it's not quite what i've been writing more recently, but then again, i took a class since writing it that told me to kill all symbolism so that might be biasing me :) but i'm glad that you thought my minerva was believable, too, because she's such an intimidating character to write!
no, thank YOU for your lovely review! :D

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I sat down to read 'It's called adventure' for the review challenge but the lovely picture of Keira Knightley caught my eye and then I saw that this little one-shot was all about one of my favourite characters so I had to read it.

This was absolutely beautiful and so well written, the perfect litle interlude between McGonagall and Dumbledore...and all over a pat of butter! I can understand how important it is for McGonagall to find something beautiful in the world after the war...and here she has. You portray a softness to the character which by no means diminishes her amazing strength. I can see McGonagall going out after this and letting her hair down a bit!

Well done.

Author's Response: aww yeah i love those pictures! as soon as i found them i thought they were perfect for my little story :)
i'm so flattered at your compliments! when i read back over this personally i cringe a little bit because i've changed a lot as a writer since i've posted it, but i think that it still achieves what i had meant it to do. i'm also very glad to hear that you can understand the same things that i would have hoped a reader could while i was writing it; the end of the war to my conception would change even the most logical, no nonsense people like minerva into people hungrier than ever for something beautiful in the world.
minerva is a challenging character to write, and i'm so thankful to you for making me surer that i've at least partially done her justice.
thank you so much for the review, i really appreciate the time you took!

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Helloo!!

I loved this..I think you must get fed up with me gushing but you are such a talented writer.

Your characterisation was good, although there was a point where she said "Kids" And i was like What? It seemed a bit slangy for McGonagall to my taste.

I adored this line "Weasley did amount to something grand after all,", it made me smile.

I loved how you had DUmbledore and then he wasn't real! It broke my heart despite the fact I knew he couldn't be there anyway!

I thought your ending was good though, having her resolve to stop looking back, though saying that in wizarding age 75 isn't that old :P

Well done M'dear! I really enjoyed it :)

Hannah x

Author's Response: hi! :)
no no no! i do not get fed up with gushing! i'm actually surprised and flattered each time i get a good review ;)
yes, i suppose "kids" is a little slangy. it's probably my Americanness but it doesn't seem that way to me...i might go in and edit that so it doesn't seem so out of place :)
thank you so much! i enjoy receiving reviews from you :)

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I loved this! It's very different from anything I've read before, but I enjoyed it. Your descriptions are beautiful, and the words have a sort of lyrical quality to them that's very pleasant to read! I think Minerva was characterised extremely well, and I loved how you captured her stream of consciousness; this could have been difficult to follow, but I felt you made it flow. Plus, there was a message to this fic- it wasn't just another angst filled novel, which was very refreshing!

Author's Response: thank you so much! i tried to base it off a poem i wrote for minerva...so that might have to do with the lyrical quality of the language :D
i'm so happy that you believe my minerva--severe stress over this, my dear, severe stress. i'm glad that the flow filled in some of the gaps. i often find that with stream of consciousness this is the purpose of the rhythm since there isn't really the expected coherence.
thank you so much for reviewing, and i'm terribly sorry that it's taken me so long to respond! i really, really appreciate the time that you've taken to review all of my stories, it made my valentine's day amazing!

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Hello!! :D

Awh. This is truly brilliant. I can't stress out amazing a writer you are. And how unique this piece was. I've never read anything like it. This story definitely was just… wow.

I thought the whole plot was really interesting. As I said, it's so original, never seen anything like it! Having Albus there was a really interesting twist. And having McGonagall thinking about these things was quite unusual, since we rarely get to hear HER pov. - it really was fascinating, the way you wrote it!

Those lyrics are beautiful, by the way. And the whole story reflected that really well. I definitely enjoyed this. A very clever story. I'm so glad I got the chance to read it! I know I"ll have to check out your other stories sometime, because they're of such high standard - and so epicly original!!

-charlotte :)

Author's Response: aw your reviews are always so sweet! i'm overjoyed to hear such praise--i write what i love, and i'm glad that others can appreciate it as well :) And thank you, i love to write, i'm glad that i come off as a "good writer!" (eek it's strange to say that about myself)
i find that in following my impulses and being true to my writing--which means dragging myself up in the middle of the night if a good idea occurs to me and writing it down real fast, or stopping all of what i'm doing during the day to write when the muse appears--often things that occur to me are a little different :)
thanks again for reviewing! it's a pleasure to hear from you

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This is a very unique little story. I haven't read any stories that centre on McGonagall before so it was quite a refreshing read. I think you characterised her really well and I could definitely see her living her old age like you have projected it here.

That part about the butter confused me slightly. As I read on it made more sense, but in the beginning, when butter was being compared with celestrial events, I got slightly lost.

The story itself seemed to flow pretty nicely through McGonagalls thoughts and conversations. Her musings were refreshingly different, yet very heartfelt and sweet. Well done

Author's Response: Thank you so much! :)
Sorry about the confusion, but I tend to write stories that don't answer all your questions because I'm such a fan of the stream-of-consciousness style...I understand this neglects you guys as readers a little though, so I especially appreciate you taking the time to read it! I tried to mirror the way that the mind is able to compare little things with very big ones without much explanation--you know those little epiphanies that make sense to you, but in a wordless kind of way, and you couldn't explain them to anyone else--
Thank you for the compliment ! :) I appreciate your time :)

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Hello deary! :) Its LadyMalfoy23 from the forums with your reiview! :)

I just want to start out by saying Congrats on having such an inspiration fic here. This is honestly one of the only ones that i have read that isnt really about some evil force needing to be defeated, its not about some love sick teenagers or rocky relationships. This truly has a message and i would recomend it to anyone who needs a pick my up! :) SO thank you for requesting a review!! :) Your story is the soul reason i started the review thread, to get amazing un-noticed one shots and i have gotten many of them!! :)

I think these are very believable, I could see Minerva acting this way after the way, i could very much so see her wanting to go back and realize things she over looked, but since that not possible wanting to live her life to the fullest from now one. I loved how in her mind, convincing herself to the mental image of a person she highly respected! It showed dumbledor as being the person who always says the right things, only to bring realization to the person who was asking (If that makes any sence) your characterization and flow was fantastic all in all i really loved your story!! xx

Author's Response: thank you so much! i'm overjoyed that you appreciate the story so much :)
also, i appreciate the review--it's good to know that i'm not going too far here and that it's not too obscure.
i can't seem to thank you enough, so, thank you!

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