By Abraxan
Reviews
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Friday 30th June 2006 10:12am
Question: when you said Merlin had over 20 animagus forms, were you thinking of the Merlin featured in ‘The Once and Future King’ & Disney’s adaptation of it ‘The Sword in the Stone’ or another one? He could certainly change himself into pretty much anything he wanted. You've got me wincing for Harry, poor boy, and adoring this as always.
Abraxan replied:
I've done a great deal of research on Merlin (he's a character in my original novel, and a life-long interest of mine). His multiple animal forms are based on many legends, including "The Sword in the Stone" (Disney) and many other things I've found on him. Like Morgan Le Fey, Merlin is supposed to have fairy blood, and fairies are known to be shape-shifters (I've been researching them too), so it's easier for him than it would be for some other people. I'm about half-convinced that Dumbledore has some fairy blood in him, simply because he's so much more powerful than the average wizard. Does that answer your question??
Glad you're enjoying the story!
Abraxan
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Friday 30th June 2006 9:57am
First the Dementors, then this! Wonderful chapter - absolutely thrilling.
Abraxan replied:
Thanks! It was a fun chapter to write!
Abraxan
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Friday 30th June 2006 8:19am
I love how dark you make this and how abrupt the change is. Scar on your bum is the best password ever. Wonderful chapter.
Abraxan replied:
Thank you very much!! I got a kick out of when I thought of "scar on your bum," LOL! Glad you're enjoying it!
Abraxan
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Friday 30th June 2006 8:06am
That was brilliant. I love the multitude of his forms.
Abraxan replied:
Thanks a lot! I actually based that idea on the legends of Merlin being a multiple-form shape-shifter. Glad you liked it!
Abraxan
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Friday 30th June 2006 3:54am
I completely agree with your Barty assessment. Weird that since he was so bad he could be so good. Great twist with Millicent the evil nurse.
Abraxan replied:
Glad you liked it!
Abraxan
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Friday 30th June 2006 3:45am
Harry needs his Pensieve memories back. Ginny posing as his girlfriend can only get more complicated.
Abraxan replied:
He'll put them back little by little. He remembers Casey, but his illness made the time he knew her seem as if it was a long time ago. And yes, Ginny posing as his girlfriend can get very complicated!
Abraxan
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Friday 30th June 2006 3:29am
The pain being worth it if he ended up taller than Malfoy had me laughing. Love the idea of the fire. While Pirate Harry is briefly entertaining, I hope he doesn't keep the beard or he'll end up giving Ginny whisker burn.
Abraxan replied:
Mabye Ginny LIKES whisker burn!! heehee. He'll keep it when he isn't in school. If you go to my Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPRefinersFire) and look in the photo files, you'll see a picture of Tom Welling (who plays "Clark Kent" in "Smallville" on the WB) with longer hair than usual and a beard - that's EXACTLY how I pictured the "grown" Harry (Tom's even 6'3!) So now there's a visual for just how tasty he'll be as a grown man. . .very tasty indeed! :-D
Abraxan
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Friday 30th June 2006 3:17am
Hermione’s and Harry’s arrangements for photo rights were brilliant. I love the details you put into this. So I take it Casey’s really, never-coming back, absolutely dead. Sniff. Harry's going to be in a bad way for a while. Wonderful chapter.
Abraxan replied:
Thanks a lot! Casey's gone but not forgotten - she makes an "appearance" every so often through this fic and its sequel, "The Time of Destiny." And there was such a fan uproar when I killed her off that I've resurrected her in my original novel, "Star Sons." Casey lives! Just not in Harry's world! ;-)
Abraxan
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Friday 30th June 2006 3:06am
Diggle? You killed him too? Damn. Wonderful chapters.
Abraxan replied:
Yeah, poor guy! Some people have to die, and it was just his turn. . . . Glad you're enjoying the story!
Abraxan
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Friday 30th June 2006 2:49am
Wow - I really wasn't expecting all this darkness but I love it. Fantastic chapter. So much fun to read.
Abraxan replied:
Voldemort is alive and Harry has to be prepared to fight him to the death and you didn't expect a dark story??? :-) Glad you're enjoying it!
Abraxan
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Friday 30th June 2006 2:23am
Vernon’s arse will be thoroughly kicked if he ever tries that again. Loved the water park scenes even if actual water parks aren’t common in the UK — there are indoor swimming pools with chutes and slides that will most definitely get you wet. Good chapter.
Abraxan replied:
My Brit-picker told me water parks are rare there, but I just HAD to have it because I'd envisioned that wonderful scene with the slide and Casey's wardrobe mishap and Harry's blush. . .it was too cute to leave out!
Abraxan
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Friday 30th June 2006 2:13am
I love the way you’re writing Casey as a non-Mary-Sue but still sweet character. I figured that was who Ruth might be. Good twist.
Abraxan replied:
I don't really understand the Mary-Sue concept, but I'm glad Casey's such a popular character with so many readers! Yes, she's sweet, and she's just what Harry needs at this point in his life. Glad you liked the twist, too!
Abraxan
nezza posted a comment on Sunday 18th June 2006 10:37pm
COOL CHAPTER I LIKE THE SLOW BUILD UP U'VE GOT GOING WITH THIS STORY AND THOUGHT THE WAY U BROUGHT GINNY BACK INTO FLYING WAS SUPURB. AFTER ALL NOT MANY STORIES DEAL WITH THAT SORT OF THING AND SPEKAING FROM PAST EXPERIENCE OF BEING INJURED PLAYING SPORT I KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO "GET BACK ON IT" AS WERE.
MY QUESTION THOUGH IS DUMBLEDORE AND SNAPE ARE BOTH MASTER LEGIMENS AND SO WOULDN'T THEY BE ABLE TO "SEE" IF MALFOY AND CO WERE TRULY UNDER THE IMPERIOUS OR NOT?
Abraxan replied:
First off, could you please not "shout" in your posts? All caps is really hard to read! Thanks.
Glad you're enjoying my fic! Yup, I've had to do the slow "getting back into sport" myself, only in my case, it was riding horses. You get dumped off a horse, you lose confidence and it's hard to get back in that saddle and build up your confidence again, especially if, like me, you're middle-aged. I've ridden all my life, but when I got dumped when I was 50, it took me a LONG time to build up my confidence again (I had to sell that horse, who I could never trust again, and it wasn't her fault! But I was always worried while riding her. Now I have a horse who teaches me something every day and he and I have competed to several championships! Yay! So I had a real knowlege of what I was portraying in trying to restore Ginny's confidence in flying. Glad you liked how I did it!
To answer your question, Dumbledore is shown in canon as being very reluctant to use that spell on people, but yes, he or Snape COULD have told such things if they'd had a suspicion about it. But the people who were under Imperious acted very soon after they were put under the spell, and it's possible they didn't run across Snape or DD before they did whatever they were going to do.
Abraxan
nezza posted a comment on Saturday 17th June 2006 11:45am
dude this is quality!!!
i have read one chapter and i am hooked!
great stuff i judt hope i have harry stick it to the dursleys properly
Abraxan replied:
LOL! Dude, thanks so much! I hope you enjoy the rest of Refiner's and its sequel, "The Time of Destiny"!
Abraxan
gummihu posted a comment on Thursday 15th June 2006 9:34pm
Yay Iceland
Abraxan replied:
LOL!
Abraxan
gummihu posted a comment on Wednesday 14th June 2006 9:12pm
I'm starting to re-read this fic, it is so great that you have to, didnt do it sooner was that I hated you for killing Casey of, I still haven't forgiven you for that but the story is great and I have to read it again :)
Abraxan replied:
Thanks! Have you read its sequel, "The Time of Destiny"? Casey is gone but not forgotten - she is remembered several times in both fics. And she got such a strong response from readers that I'm using her in my original novel, "Star Sons." She's having a very good time there now. ;-> I'm glad you're enjoying my stories! AFTER you read Destiny, be sure to look for the ficlets also on this site, which fit into the epilogue of Destiny. I'll be adding ficlets from time to time, all of which will fit into the epilogue of Destiny and fill in gaps I left in the time line there. Thanks for writing!
Abraxan
Alternator posted a comment on Thursday 8th June 2006 7:41pm
Very, very freakishly good for a first story. There were a few bumps early on, but those smoothed out in the space of a few chapters. A few more detailed comments that I didn't notice in the other reviews:
1) Kudos for actually replying to reviews, it's as much fun for a reviewer to get a reply as it is for you to get a review.
2) This is perhaps the only "accurate Dumbledore" fic I've read, where he's neither a scheming old man convinced he knows best nor some evil plotter determined to manipulate Harry endlessly. It was a treat to read.
3) More kudos for being willing to kill off characters. People die in the Harry Potter world but most fic authors only kill off convenient characters, but you picked off a few (Casey, Seamus, Katie) that the reader grew attached to and who didn't really "need" to die to advance the plot, but nor were they meaningless bit characters.
4) Best Snape portrayal I've encountered in a fic, ever. Greasy, nasty, but willing and able to stomp down on his own and protect Harry when absolutely required. He's actually a believable good guy here, without being sympathetic--as complex as in the books.
5) HUGE FIC! HOORAY! Lots of stuff to read, eats a solid day for me to read something this long; a perfect answer to "what to read today" when 'today' is dawn to dusk.
Abraxan replied:
"Freakishly good"??? LOL! Thanks a lot! :-D
1. It's fun for me to reply to reviews, too, but thanks for thanking me for being faithful about it!
2. "ACCURATE DUMBLEDORE"!!!!! YAY! That's what I was going for! That's one of the reasons I stopped reading fanfics - I couldn't deal with "manipulative" or "evil" Dumbledore (one among many things that bothered me about the little bit of fanfic I read before starting to write).
3. Yup, war is hell and I wanted the readers to understand that. And it had to be somebody IMPORTANT to them, but not somebody I'd need for future storylines. I HATED to kill off Seamus - I really like him a lot and MISSED him when I was writing the seventh year book ("The Time of Destiny" - you still have some reading to do! LOL!) I'd planned to kill Casey ever since I created her, but as you could see, she was gone but not forgotten. She even plays a small role in "Destiny." And I had so many fans who were upset about her death that I've resurrected her, changed her hair and eye color and last name, and am using her in the original novel I've nearly finished the first draft of now. ("Star Sons" - once I finish the first draft, I'll start on the next book in the series - it's a trilogy at least - while my betas work on it, then it's off to agents and publishers, trying to break into real-life PAID publication! Keep your fingers crossed! And I'll post ordering info on all the sites hosting my stories WHEN (not "if" - thinking positively here!) it's published! ;-)
4. Thanks! Snape is a very interesting, but very difficult character to write. His personality is so bizarre, and he is so secretive, it's hard for me to get inside his head and have him "express himself" on the page. It's also hard to put clues in chapters that don't let the reader guess what's happening too soon, and with Snape, this was a particularly difficult problem to work out (how to have things come out the way I wanted without giving anything away too soon). Anyway, I'm glad you liked how I did that! Thanks a lot!
5. You think this one was huge? Wait until you read "Destiny"! Refiner's is 930 pages - Destiny is over 1400 (I'm quite serious)! And I've written ficlets that fill gaps in the timeline in the epilogue of Destiny, too (and will continue to write them whenever I need a break from the novels). So you have plenty of reading ahead! :-D
Thanks for a fun review!
Abraxan
DJ posted a comment on Tuesday 23rd May 2006 1:45am
I was rereading your wondorful story and had a question. Why was Hermione able to hold up the eye glass maker for so much? He was the only one who could make "those" glasses right? So why not tell her ware to go? Just a fun question on a reread.
Abraxan replied:
I've watched my daughter broker deals like this, even when she was a teenager. Hermione has the same kind of logical mind as my now-in-her-30's daughter, so this just seemed like something she'd try and succeed at. That's all.
Abraxan, glad you're enjoying reading my fics again
Highschool Nerd posted a comment on Saturday 1st April 2006 3:32pm
I read it like months ago, but I never got a chance to review. I just want to say that I really* enjoyed this story. It has a great plot with wonderfully portrayed characters*.
Abraxan replied:
Thanks! I especially appreciate your comment about my characters. I worked hard to make them believable and real. I'm glad you enjoyed the stories! Thanks for writing!
Abraxan
Rebel Goddess posted a comment on Friday 30th June 2006 10:20am
Abraxan replied: