Author Feedback: No plans on moving the entire story to France. Beauxbatons is a minor plot device.

On the proxy....there were two concerns. Neither all that serious.

A minor paradox issue...if Hermione sent the letter by owl, and Beuxbatons replied, would the owl fly to Grimmauld Place or the Channel Islands?

Slightly more important was the chance of having Coven Camp revealed. If Madame Maxime asked DD about Hermione sending a letter, but DD knew (or had ways of knowing) that Hermione hadn't sent a owl from Grimmauld Place first time around, there'd be trouble.

thanks for the review.

Author Feedback: thanks for the review.

from earlier in the story...Hermione's prefects badge has been charmed to be able to communicate with Amelia Bones using morse code and Amelia's head auror badge.

Author Feedback: wow, thanks for taking the time to review...I'm sure you're now the record holder for longest portkey review of one of my stories.

I didn’t intend to respond with equal (or greater) length, but this sort of snow-balled. Hope you don’t mind.

1. Like every multi-chapter fic I've started, this one didn't start with a full-blown outline, or a lot of thought about big themes and issues. I make it up as I go along, for better or worse. Three chapters into this story I started seeing potential for a full blown alternate universe and a 250,000 word fic. But then I go back (as always) and start to regret some of the early plot meanders or one-off points that look awkward and off. This is a long-winded say of saying that I appreciate some of your concerns and agree with some of your points, but it's hard to go back and fix things. That's why I get paid the big bucks to write creative fiction (not).

2. A few other reviewers looking at this AU with a critical eye have taken issue with the Coven's heavy handed methods and casual use/abuse of mind charms. Two points ...first, this isn't a perfect organization, by any means. There is a bit of Pogo here (we've seen the enemy, and it is us). This is a major plot element...Hermione could just as easily become jaded with the Coven's methods as DD's, or she could try and change/infuence change from within. She's just joined, though, and is only a fifth-year. And, after just having been disabused of her misguided campaigning against house-elf slavery, she's going to tred cautiously.

Second point, on their use of mind charms. Yes, they use them a lot, and from our perspective these are intolerable abuses of power and invasions of privacy/free will. But that's from our perspective. From their POV, it's not as much of a big deal. Remember just how readily and casualy they mind wipe muggles to preserve the secrets of the wizarding world. The Coven sees no difference in wiping magical memories to preserve the secrets of the magical gay scene. This will be another developmental step for Hermione...what will she do when she's faced with the obligation to obliviate Harry, or Neville, or even Ron (not that he'd notice).

On “deviency” and the prevelance/pressure of casual nudity…making the gay witches something less than the lofty, principled role models that you propose. Okay, if I were to revise the initiation cerermony and dining room I would tone that down. But, deviancy is a subjective term, and I’m going to put the NC17 rating to good use. I have read of a real-life annual all-womyn (intentional spelling) gathering in the woods of Michigan where nudity and casual lesbian encounters are the norm (and no, it wasn’t in Penthouse forum). And on the other side, I’ve had a gay male coworker regale me with stories about the glory days before 1985 and HIV...of bathhouse anonymous orgies and bawdy camping trips with his buddies. And I don’t really see a need to make the Coven members perfect role models, either. In a world where they can’t openly express their identies, or live their lives, I could see a situation where, in the rare safe and secure situation, the pressure would be released in an over-the-top manner.

3. I’m not at all interested in writing scenes involving sexual harrassment for the tittilation factor. Now, are there clear cut examples of sexual harrassment or coercion in the first few chapters? Perhaps. Depends on how stridently you want to look at it. But again, the Coven witches aren’t perfect role models, and I’m going to give older lesbian witches as much opportunity to display some lecherous behaviors as I would older straight wizards under similar circumstances. And, I’ll note that some of situations that you’ve objected too aren’t all that different from the initiation rituals/pledging/hazing that goes on in muggle fraternities. Or rugby teams, for that matter. But I hear what you’re saying here…I’ve already rewritten the next chapter to tone it down and speak to this concern (while still allowing for some hazing of the new prefects).

4. You seem to prefer that lesbian students at Hogwarts be counseled to abstain, or save it for secured liasions, and that they are to blame if they’re caught snogging in a broom closet and a male prefect is obliviated as a result. I don’t see it quite that way. The Coven has taken it upon itself to engage in acts of vigilante parity. If a boy and girl get caught shagging in a broom closet, what are the consequences, when compared with a gay couple in the same boat? The Coven is rather militant…they don’t feel like they need to shamefully hide and/or conform to patriarchal attitudes. It might seem stupid that they’re fighting for the right to shag in broom closets just like het couples, but there you go. And once more, in this AU, the casual use of memory charms isn’t as bad as we think it should be. On your example of the boy that ends up with a wiped mind in St. Mungo’s….is that really all that different than all of the maladies that the students experience at Hogwarts? Or all of the strange medical conditions shown in canon OotP when St. Mungo’s is visited? Let’s assume that it’s very, very hard to suffer irreversible brain damage through obliviation. Even if it’s a botched job, somebody at St. M is going to have the expertise necessary to fix it.

5. On the ease in which occlumency and the obliviate spell is used…Occumency is harder to learn and not routinely taught (there’s no perceived need), but the obliviate spell is something taught, probably Seventh-Year. In this AU, every witch or wizard needs to be able to protect the wizarding world’s secrets by oblviating muggles when the situation demands. I can’t see them always leaving it up to the MoM to clean up the messes. You’ll see more of my thoughts on this in next chapter.

Regarding the fact that Harry has a hard time learning Occlumency when Snape taught him in canon…well, in my mind (and many others), there was no sincere attempt on Snape’s part to teach. It was closer to mind rape, and opportunity for him to abuse Harry as revenge for James. His teaching methods sucked, too. And, Harry was only meeting with Snape once a week for a few hours at a time. I’ll stand behind the idea that a crash course in Occlumency can successfully teach the subject when there are betther teaching methods, and many, many hours available (they could teach as much Occlumency in one day of Coven Camp as Harry would have gotten in a month of Snape’s lessons).

6. My Hermione has experienced a radical shift in her world view. Not just that she was so wrong about SPEW and the house elves, but that her trust in authority figures (Dumbledore) has been shattered. This is going to keep her down in spirit and a bit more maleable than she’d otherwise be. Rather than try to free house elves, look for her to instead work on bettering their living conditions (limiting physical abuse, for example).

7. Finally (and I have been long winded, haven’t I?), I haven’t yet decided how much Harry will find out about the Coven, or how much interaction there will be. Another point of conflict within the story…will Hermione be able to use the advantages of being a Coven member to help Harry without him knowing it? What happens if he finds out, and thinks that Hermione has been manipulating him behind the scenes as much as anyone else has? Stuff to work through as I work through an AU version of Book 5.

I’m glad that you’ve enjoyed the story in the ways that you’ve mentioned, and I once again thank you for caring enough to post this review.

Author Feedback: I'm pretty sure that in GoF there's a line about Parvati hanging out at the Yule Ball with a table of Beauxbatons boys.

Author Feedback: Don't count on a change of scenery...it could just be used as a bargaining chip, or as an emergency last resort. stay tuned.

Author Feedback: Thanks for taking the time to write your thoughtful reviews.

Is Hermione OOC? Perhaps. My Hr is treating this time-turned week as a gift, and a time to focus on things outside of the Hogwarts curriculum. She's not going to study for OWLs, and instead will work on occlumency/obliviate/morse code. She's also going to work on working through her views on house elves. That said, Helene Brixton has taken an interest in Hr, and has made it her business to keep finding ways to run into/be with her. Why? Answer soon.

As for my world construction...I think I said that France was more tolerant of homosexuality, but that doesn't mean that it's paradise for gays. "More tolerant" could mean that they still frown on gays, and discriminate, and socially shun. But they don't try to forcibly convert them straight through mind rape/control/alteration. The French MoM could also have discriminatory laws that prevent gays from immigrating, at least to "mainland" France.

Because of Britain's antediluvian attitudes and laws they've lost many of the brightest gay (and muggleborn) wizards and witches to emigration (not just to the Continent, but N. America). But Britain is still home, and many others would choose to risk staying even in the absence of binding contracts. If for no other reason than to keep the Coven going, as a sort of resistance movement both at Hogwarts and the MoM.