“We’re just Harry and Hermione.” Oh my! That was so utterly beautifully written! The way your portrayed them? Oh god, it's just utterly perfect! I really don't read that much affair!fics but oh god, I never want this to end, I love the concept, so RIGHT because it's THEM! But ofcourse they'll feel the guilt, but they're Harry and Hermione how long could they have stayed away from each other? It was inevitable. I absolutely love what you wrote about the freedom part because it's SO true! The things that they needed for them to realize the absolutely intensity of their relationship and what they brought to each other, if that was repressed well they're rebels and they would do that! Absolutely brilliant, the emotion in it is delivered flawlessly. A touch of humour, and emotions that just take your heart and squeeze it, beautifully delivered! *sigh* It's beautiful it truly is!

The scene where he meets her was executed so perfectly, and the visuals you give were absolutely perfect and gave me everything, the smells, the sounds, the sights! Flawless!

The freedom analogy's are just absolutely fantastic! Great chapter!

Hi Gilly! I'm still not in the mood for long stories. But I exercised my mod prerogative to enter this into the rec-engine as there's been quite a few endorsements about it. I did that today for another story too. PK-ers sometimes get too lazy to enter data in the rec-engine. Anyways, here you go!

- Pen

I in joy your story a lot! Please keep up the great work!

I like this alternate reality that you've created. It's a bandaid for the gash made to my heart by JK Rowling. That DH epilogue physically hurt me. Still recovering from the wound.

Can I just say that this story is one of my absoulte favorites ever? Okay...well having said that, I really wish you would finish this up. It's too good for it to go unfinished. So please, if you get the time, update ASAP. I know sometimes you get side tracked and busy, but it would be great to see this end...it's just brilliant.

Doh! It can't be left there! I do hope that you update soon!

I have enjoyed your work, however I have to point out an error in this chapter. I am a Louisiana History teacher and a New Orleanian. The architecture(sp) of the historic Garden Distirct is Victorian/mid 1880 American. The French Quarter has a great deal of colonial Spanish architecture. Only a complusive native would bother to know that.
Hope to read more soon
Cindy Lota

Lovely and heartbreaking. However, I can't help but think that that letter's style only highlights how different Ron and Hermione are... that she can't even tell him properly that she's letting go.

bugger it all, now the staggering blow of a wizarding divorce or more of this John Madden "Back and Forth"(tm)?

I love this story and I want you to update faster.

This story is well thought out and well written, with a great attention paid to detail. It is like you have lived through something like this. I hope you have an active imagination as no one should have to live a life that is a lie. I hope you update soon as it would be a shame to leave this good of a story unfinished.

This is a very good fic. The poeticism you use in the narrative is both very effective and beautifully done. You are able to transcend the prose genre to a degree and achieve a level of prose poetry for some parts of your fic, and that is very welcoming to see genre's crossed in such a compatable way. The language is evocative without being overdone.

I typically don't like "cheating" fics (where Harry and Hermione are chesting on their spouses) because all too often such tropes lead the author into stiltifying their work by dipping it down into the strata of melodrama, making the fic become like a soap opera or episode of "Melrose Place" Melodrama is a dark shadow that loooms over every writing genre, and I speak from great personal experience (as a playwright) that it can be a trope easily descended into. For the most part, however, you make your fic float above such murky levels. You handle the situation Harry and Hermione are in with a fresh perspective that kept the action both moving and engaging.

The only criticism I have is in your love/sex scenes. You are able to use such beautiful and poetic prose earlier, using words like "cunt" and "clit" really are jarring, and too crass (IMHO) for the poetic prose passages you have previously written. It brings the whole fic down- you can use the same flowery language you have used in every other part of your story to convey these things in a way much more compatable with the rest of your work. The scenes between Harry/Hermione can be very erotic and animalistic and still written in the fashion of the rest of your fic. You already are off to a good start in how you describle them undressing each other. Just go that last full measure and really make it all flow together as one.

Of course, these are just my opinions. They are not meant in any way to be personal in nature and should not be taken as such. I sincerely look forward to reading more.

Keep up the great work!!!

I've read all the chapters so far in one session - what beautifully flowing writing!

I LOVED the whole story so far, it's hauntingly written, I can SO see the two of them in their struggle to free themselves from an unhappy marriage.

Now canon Ron would blow up and probably not even read Hermione's letter half the way through - I'm waiting to see what YOUR Ron, who seems not only rather oblivious, but also dead lazy (that's fairly canon) will say and do. Or your Ron may see the whole drama, watch and not really care, because he doesn't love Hermione, he just loves to have what Harry really wants. Or he may see or sense, but not really care, because he is too lazy to lift a finger for Hermione.

Or I'm completely wrong, but I can't wait to read on!

Mariann

Wow, just wow. What an emotional chapter, I'm actually shaking. I love the scene with Hermione and her mother, "I knew that he wasn’t just your friend Harry, that a deeper, stronger and inevitably gigantic part of yourself you had given to that young man whose sorrow was already your own." Beautiful line. Great chapter.

thanks for another great chapter - looking forward to reading more soon

I just found this story and read it from beginning to this point without pause.

You have a lyrical style of writing that is beautiful and descriptive. Sometimes I think you get a bit carried away and repeat yourself a bit, but it's not a major flaw.

I too wonder about Ron. Your Ginny is as I visualize her, not being a Ginny fan, but Ron I wonder about. You say you have something planned for him and I'll look foward to that.

I'll be looking forward to the next chapter!