Kind of an understated ending to the story, but fitting. It leaves the reader wanting to know what will happen with the various characters, and that is a good thing. I was kind of surprised by Ron's leadership role of the new wizarding world, but it's nice to see something good happen to him, as most stories don't treat him so well. In fact, Ron was a sympathetic character throughout and was really incredibly patient with Hermione earlier on.

In fact, in many ways Hermione was not a very sympathetic character as she fell further into the Circle, distancing herself from everyone, but she was always interesting. And of course, as you know, I would have liked to see Harry have a larger role, but that is just a personal preference of mine.

Overall, this was a very ambitious story, and I think you pulled it off well. It could be frustrating at times, but at other times it was captivating. The idea of the Circle was original, though to tell you the truth I probably enjoyed the Circle scenes (and the Lillian scenes) the least. But the idea of magic being forced out into the open, and then how both wizards and muggles have to adjust, was great. And that is also difficult, as there are so many directions that you could move. One area that I thought about was that muggles would want magical healing, i.e. a healer in every hospital. Or infrastructure repairs. Why spend millions to fix a road when a wizard can just wave his wand. I think you did a good job focusing on only certain areas in order to avoid becoming bogged down.

I am going to put this story in my favorites, for which I have high standards. I only do so for completed stories that I think have special merit in terms of originality, story-telling, and writing ability. You check the mark in all three areas. I feel fortunate to have stumbled across this story, and I wish you well in any future writing adventures that you may have. G.

I see that the story is now complete, so with bittersweet satisfaction I will finish it tomorrow probably. You are now in the "wrapping it up" phase of the story, and I have noticed many times over the years that many authors have trouble finishing a story. It can be really hard to know when to quit, because there is always something more that you could write.

Harry seemed to be in pretty fantastic physical condition for a man who has been in a coma for several months, but I guess we'll go with the old "he's a wizard so he heals fast" excuse.

After the heaviness of the past several chapters, this chapter feels light as a feather, and it is a nice change. There are still several loose ends to tie to wrap it up, and I'll be interested to see how you go about it. G.

I wrote a review a couple of chapters ago, but it does not seem to have appeared, so I don't know what happened to it. Hopefully this one will go through.

I am not exactly sure what has happened here, i.e. why Harry suddenly went from wanting to die to not wanting to die, what has happened to Lillian, and many other things. I think I was a little distracted by various things over these past couple of chapters, which I read in bits and pieces, and probably I have missed some important details. Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing what happens, but I do feel like I am not entirely on top of what has happened.

At first, I kind of did not like how we kept switching between the Hermione/Harry track and the Ron/Imogen track, but actually I now think that has worked pretty well, and both tracks are interesting, and we are starting to see how the two tracks may ultimately merge. G.

I like a good bit of angst, and we have plenty to fall into over these past couple of chapters. The question that comes to my mind is why is Harry's death so entwined with the Circle of Seven. Lillian has certainly influenced his life, but he never became part of the seven and does not know its secrets, so unless Lillian or the Circle has somehow taken control, I'm not sure why Harry would be so involved with it. Maybe that will become clear with time.

In any event, it has all been quite moving though a bit unclear at times, which is a hallmark of your writing style. Some people will like it, others will not. I do think that these past two chapters dragged a bit with all of the walking. They walk by this and they walk by that, and to be honest, pretty soon I didn't care what they were walking by but just wanted them to get there. I know you were trying to build the suspense and drama, but in my case at least, it did the opposite.

I am assuming that Harry is not going to die (or else I will have to track you down), so I am anxious to see how you arrange for him to come back to life. G.

I am of two minds about these past few chapters. I've never been a fan of alternate universe stories, though as I say that, I know that I have read a few that I had to admit were quite good. More than anything, I guess I just don't like the concept that there are multiple versions of ourselves in multiple universes. One of me is enough, thank you very much. So for that reason, I was not especially pleased by the turn of events.

But I can't deny that these were interesting and emotionally charged chapters, especially this one, that leaves the reader with an undeniable lump in the throat. It was clear right from the beginning that Hermione would have to go back, and I think you made the correct decision not to drag this out any longer. Now I am interested to see how this experience will affect Hermione's future decisions. I would think that she would want to focus more attention on Harry, but there does not seem to be much that she can do about him, other than to try to make contact with him on his island.

I imagine that we are not coming back to this alternate universe, but you have to wonder how this experience would affect Harry and his Hermione after "our" Hermione leaves. G.

We are back deeply into the Circle again, which is always a confusing place to be. I've never really figured out what it is supposed to be or how it is supposed to work, and I've basically stopped trying. On the one hand it seems to be extremely powerful magic, apparently able to time travel in some sense, yet it can't heal Harry, which on the surface seems like an easier thing to do. (Or course, we don't really know what's happened to Harry, as he should not be in a coma for such a length of time from mere gun wounds). Lillian seems to hold extraordinary powers, basically able to know what anyone is thinking and to manipulate them to do whatever she wants. That brings me back to the point I made awhile ago about over-powerful magic. It seems like Lillian should be undefeatable, but I guess there will be some weakness revealed eventually.

It's hard seeing Hermione so defeated and compliant. I hope and expect that this will not always be the case. G.

Ah a cliffhanger. You don't have too many of those, and it's late at night where I am, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out who the man with the wand is.

There have been lots of twists and turns over the past few chapters, and I always like when I can't easily predict what is going to happen next. Hermione's situation is interesting, of course. I think that Karl may have it right in the end, as I expect that Hermione will not be so compliant for long.

We haven't checked in on Harry in a long time. I guess that means that nothing has happened, but I'm wondering what is going on in his mind. G.

First thought: Making Ron, who I assume was the tallest of the bunch, to sit in the middle of the back seat was cruel and unusual punishment.

Second thought: I miss Harry. I wish he could somehow be a bigger part of the story.

Third thought: The story is really starting to rev up now. Lot's of anticipation and action. But it seems that Ron and company don't have much of a plan about what to do if and when they actually find the witch finders. Presumably, once they start doing magic, they will be outed, and more witch finders and safe wizards will show up. The only thing that would make any sense to me would be to kidnap some witch finders, without magic if possible, and take them to a safe location for questioning. I'll see what you have in mind. G.

Well, you've answered my question about the Weasleys. They have followed a believable path, one that many wizarding families no doubt have had to imitate. And it also makes sense that little by little small groups of wizards would find each other and attempt to organize. At this point, it all seems inconsequential, but presumably there are different groups forming around the county. Sooner or later those groups will find each other, etc.

The main question this chapter raises for me is what use it would be for anyone to withdraw money from Gringotts. I guess if someone wants to emigrate out of the UK to a country where the magical society still exists, it might make sense, but what are they going to do with the money within the UK? They can't spend it. I guess they could melt it down, but that would be likely to cause too much attention. I was waiting for someone to ask why they should risk going to Gringotts. G.

So far Volume 3 has been a much easier read than Volume 2; much easier to follow. Of course, it hardly seems like a Harry Potter story at the moment, but it certainly is keeping my interest. It's nice to see that there is a resistance, though what it is doing isn't very clear at the moment. Lot's of questions in my mind at this moment: Who messed with Imogen's dream? Lillian? Someone else? What is the coven up to? What are Ron and the Weasleys up to? Why is Harry in a coma so long from gunshot wounds? And many more.

Looking forward to the answers. G.

It is striking how much this story has changed from the previous two volumes, which I suppose makes sense given the drastically different stage that we are on. In five chapters, we have only briefly checked in on Harry and Hermione, though I am sure they will return to the front soon enough.

One would have to think that the free wizards are doing more than just hiding. Surely there is some organized resistance, and now we seem to be finding it. But it was extremely risky for Sioned to enter the Ministry, as the chance of being recognized by someone would be high.

All of this greatly depends on your conception of the power of magic. This story has a low conception. In many other stories, wizards could simply go around blowing up buildings, bridges, obliviate people, cause wildfires and generally cause a tremendous amount of mayhem that the muggle government would be hard put to stop, array or no array. I would think that at the least there would be a faction (terrorists if you will) that would take these kinds of actions. G.

I'm off and running with Volume 3. You've done a nice job of establishing a semi dystopian world, but I like how you show that for the average person, like Eve, nothing much has really changed. Wizards and witches are just another thing and does not really affect her everyday life. Some people of course become obsessed about things, but for the majority, it's just another day.

I put Harry into a coma in one of my stories, but only for a week, so you are being meaner to him that I was.

I notice that Lillian has been laying extremely low for several chapters now. I wonder what she is up to.

I have no idea what "looks like something out of the window of Topshop" means. Must be a British thing, I assume.

Volume 2 ended on a strong note, I would say. Overall, I think I preferred Volume 1, which was easier to follow, and I also enjoyed how you dealt with Harry's amnesia. Harry is my favorite character, and he was not as involved in volume 2, so maybe that affects my opinion as well. Mostly, however, there were parts of volume 2 that I had a difficult time following, some of which appeared to be intentional on your part, some perhaps not. But the last few chapters were interesting and exciting.

You are being pretty hard on Harry in this novel, but I can't complain about that, as you will see if you read A Serpent's Sacrifice. I work him over pretty badly. But you are also pretty rough on poor Hermione, who seems to be constantly on the verge of insanity as she loses herself to the Circle. I am wondering how you are going to manage to have her save herself and how she will deal with Lillian, who was conspicuous by her absence over the last few chapters.

As I have said before, by far the best part of the story is the creative plot. I've read a lot of fanfics over the last 15 years or so, and I've never seen anything close to this story, and that is quite an accomplishment when you think of the tens of thousands of HP fics out there. I look forward to volume 3, though I will wait a couple of days to start to catch up on some other stories. G.

These last chapters were exciting, and again I have to give you highest marks for creativity. I've never read anything like how you have the Ministry building emerge from the ground like that. The story is clearly entering a new phase, as I don't think there is any way to put the Ministry back in the ground.

I am the type who is always asking, 'Why?' For example, why would the Ministry building emerge from the ground? Was it originally built above ground and then somehow placed underground by magic? I guess my assumption (to the extent that I had one; I doubt I ever really thought about it) was that the Ministry was built underground in the first place, so there would seem to be no reason for it to have emerged.

Second question. Why couldn't everyone inside the Ministry building just apparate away? Several characters apparated during the fighting, so it does not seem like there was any sort of ward to keep them from doing so. And lastly, where were the aurors? With magic, I would have thought that a large number of aurors could have controlled the crowd relatively easily, at least long enough to allow everyone time to leave.

Despite my questions, I enjoyed these chapters, and please don't think that my reviews indicate anything else. I just happen to be the type of person who questions everything. One of the huge problems in writing magical battle scenes is the inevitable "why didn't he do this?" or "why didn't he do that?" G.

In my younger days, quite a few years ago now I am afraid to say, I used to read some Mexican novels when I was learning Spanish, and these last few chapters reminded me a little of some of those surrealistic novels common in Mexican literature, where it is rarely ever clear what is "real" and what is "imaginary." Try reading something like that in a second language. At least with your story, I can read it in English, and I think I was able to follow along well enough. However, easy reading it is definitely not.

You have assiduously kept Lillian's true motivations hidden (at least from me), and I guess we will have to live with that state of affairs until volume 3, based on the title of that volume. Nobody seems to want to see if there is some other way of dealing with Lillian short of destroying oneself by falling into the Circle. At the least, they should figure out where she really is. Apparently she is a real person just like Hermione, and while she can travel anywhere by means of the Circle, still she presumably has a real body and location. Unless I am mistaken and she is purely a spirit now. Still, I guess if it were me I would want to find out. G.