This was so good.

This fanfic is excellent. I have to log in just to ensure you know that.

I abandoned the series after book 1 and only watched the movies, but your work seriously makes me consider reading the books to see how JKR handles "the battle of Hogwarts". The final battle in the movie is nice to watch but lacks the brutality of what I imagine "a battle" would have.

Here, in this fanfic, you add details that speak a lot. Theodore Nott's worry for his dad amongst the chaos is hard to read. Tracy's constant reconsideration is hard to read. Cowardice and bravery in wartime is a grey area. I hope JKR treat the war with at least as much attention as you do.

I like how Snape, Slughorn care for the kids in their house. Yes, they are still kids. Snape's loyalty to Lily in the movie doesn't bring me a lot sympathy to him but your story does that. It is a very well crafted verse you create here. Thanks for sharing.

I seem to remember some Slytherins fighting on Harry's side, or at least againt Voldemort, during the battle. Yet, that didn't even receive a mental comment.

Beyond his death and banishment, readers know very little of what Snape was doing during the battle. I've never given it much thought. Helping students? Not out of the realm of possiblity.

I can hear your voice in your writing. Nice use of punctuation to show emotion.

i really love how you portray the slytherin students here. D: i always hated how the "good" side can simply ignore the simple fact that kids abandoning their families is not some really easy thing to do.

I really dislike the scene in DH when Pansy shrieks, "Grab him!", the McG responds by forcing all Slyths out. House solidarity and Riddle's later comments combine to make some believe that *all* Slyths went. So much for school unity. It grates on my nerves that it appears so, especially after it was shown throughout the books that "there's more than just good people and Death Eaters" in the world, and that DEs came from other Houses (Pettigrew and Crouch jnr, anyone?). It's incredibly frustrating. Especially since, that to the actions & words of one frightened girl, Slytherin House was probably seen as the cowards' House, the Dark House, for years afterwards. It is the House of the ambitious, the cunning and the sly.

I almost cried...I swear.

There I was, just putting you on Author alert for the new Irma Pince story, and I saw the Grubbly-Plank one, read the author note, and that was what was left of my morning gone.

Now I'm going to work, really I am. Watch me do it. But first: this is such a brilliant tale of the Slytherins in battle. The confusion, the fear, and the final treatment ...

Great job!

/"We're off to se the Dark Lord," / The wonderful Dark Lord of Oz. I thought it was rather funny, actually.

/ The Hat had to take me as I was and it put me in Slytherin, which shows you can do very well just by being yourself, thank you very much. / Great voice you give Millicent!

/People who say Professor Snape hisses have never heard the Dark Lord./ Great line!

/"your blood is mixed , but your heart is pure."/ Ye Gods. Very Voldemort.

/She was right to laugh. It was ridiculous to be afraid, then./ Beautiful description of the situation.

/Fathers are overrated. Especially when they're in the Death Eating business./ What a peach of a Zabini line.

/"Last time I called her an old hag, Professor Snape made me scrub cauldrons."/ YES!

/To use the common phrase, we'll do a bunk./ Your Blaise is not without humour.

/"They're putting everyone's life in danger just to protect Scarface's a-"/ Poor Pansy. If things had gone differently, half the wizarding world would have agreed with her.

I love good stories like this, ones that look at the Battle (or all of the DH year, actually) from alternative povs. You characterize Blaise and Milly beautifully - Blaize all youthful bravado and not a little naivete, despite his own sense that he's cynical and savvy. Milly shows how often the decisions that change one's life are made almost accidentally, without any clear plan or long-term understanding of the implications. You show their youth and ambivalence so clearly, so it's doubly hard when we see the consequences that are coming to them. I love seeing their views of Snape, Potter, McG, Slughorn. And poor Blaise, thinking that no one would scream for him. It's such a poignant moment despite its almost-humorous side. I love Milly's cat, too - how well it complicates any attempt to see her (or any of these kids) as hard-hearted DEs.

Looking forward to the sequel.

Brilliant!

I cant say I was impressed by the Slytherins, particularly in the 1st chapter, but by the end, I really felt a lot of sympathy for them. Poor deluded kids, all... sigh...

I wished JKR had written at least one or two Slytherins with a modicum of moral courage, brains and critical thinking skills.

(But I suppose we will need fanfiction writers for that...)

You portrayal of Snape is very, very well done. He seemed to be one of two adults who genuinely cared about the Slytherin children. Thinking about his final fate always sends tear ducts into overdrive.

I really wonder what the Slytherins would think of him now.

This story is very insightful and thought provoking. Thank you very much.

I love your characterisation of the Slytherins (esp. Theo, Blaise, and Millicent). I could feel the confusion, fear, and the disillusionment during the battle.

I read this yesterday and it haunted me all day today. I liked the thread of the essay that Professor Snape demands of Zabini (and never receives); the children in the back ranks of the Death Eaters in the forest (why we didn't see them in canon); Zabini realizing that he has no reserves of schadenfreude left at the sight of Draco in tears; the children (for so they are) too terrified and sickened to move...

... and finally, the herding-together of the hapless prisoners, and the newspaper story about their trial, and Milly's final sardonic comment on the whole thing. They didn't do anything, really, but were present in the ranks of a very bad cause. (I'm put in mind of the underaged defenders of Berlin in 1945.)

Superlative work.