Name: sjr reviewed Chapter 20 on May 23, 2010 07:22 am

I really do appreciate your writing.

The sexual tension is just unbearable! I'm curious as to why Ginny's virginity seems to be important. Oh, it's all too much! What with Lucius on the horizon and Marie the mystery woman.

I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment :)

Author's Response: Oo thank you! I would say that Draco's motivations for wanting to get to Ginny before anybody else does are complicated. For one thing, I could see the wizarding world as having a very old-fashioned set of beliefs about the importance of girls remaining virgins before marriage, which I think is supported by the fact that everyone seems to have been married off to the American equivalent of their high school sweethearts (or pointed out as exceptions if they didn't, like Luna.) In the Aniseworld version, though, traditional pureblood families don't hold this belief as strongly, so it's not operating so much in Draco's case. For him, it's more about desperately wanting to avoid repeating the past mistakes with Marie (without giving away too much there! ;) and also being very possessive and not wanting to share his toys with anyone else.

More soon!

Name: pitzi reviewed Chapter 20 on May 23, 2010 12:17 am

Oh, that chapter is full of electricity! This is all so intense - Draco struggling with himself and yay to Ginny who has to struggle with firewisky, confundus and memory charms and her attraction to Draco and she still manages not to loose all of it! She is quite strong here struggling for answers despite of obstacles and I'm glad to see that she partly succeeds toshake the confundus and memory charms off (or perhaps they weren't strong enough because Draco cast them half-heartedly). Draco tries to conseal the truth very hard but sometimes he can't control it. And him comforting Ginny that he's not mad at her for what she did that night! Too bad the charms prevented Ginny from asking about Marie, after all we already knew he's not fond of Astoria. And speaking of Astoria, I think she found something about Draco and Ginny: when they were talking near the arts gallery she asked him "What about your redhead?" - your readhead not the redheadand Draco sucked on a deep breath as if he was scared,and here, in this chapter Draco says that she is meddlesome and even more curious than Ginny, so my guess is she eavesdropped on something or found something important about D/G and perhaps even using it to keep him tied to her (though something appears to have changed if Draco called the wedding off. I wonder what changed).
It was also so sweet when Draco told Ginny that he knows no one worthy of her. And my favorite line was: "It feels like you’re putting me through hell,” said Draco, “and I would give anything to never get into heaven.”
Anyway I think Ginny should just open that crate again. My guess is that she will find more answers there (from picture Draco and other things and that picture on the book) than from real Draco right now.
I'm all suspence to see how this night ends. And please say we'll learn something about Marie or at least why Draco said her name on that night a year ago in the next chapter!

Author's Response: Thank you for the wonderful review! :) Yes, Draco and Ginny are both struggling really hard at this point with a lot of things-- he's concealing the truth, and she's trying to find it, and then there's all that sexual tension... ;) And very good guesses about Astoria. Yes, we do learn more about Marie. More than Ginny thought she'd find out.

Name: Nutmeg44 reviewed Chapter 20 on May 22, 2010 09:17 pm

Lovely. I like when Draco has self control issues. Fun.

Author's Response: He has control issues all right... but some of them give way in the next chapter. ;)

Name: purrbecomesthenight reviewed Chapter 19 on May 20, 2010 08:19 am

EXCELLENT! *gobbles up plot* (going along with plot bunny/food metaphor)

ok, here's what I'm thinking (and my thinking is not organised, logical, and often does not make sense. there is no reason why I'm writing here will either.)

I know someone has mentioned this before, but perhaps ginny and marie are not the same person, but had their first contact with draco (in Ginny's case, she does not remember it) at the same time and knew each other. this may be why she is not asking such direct questions about her. and I'm totally prepared to be wrong on that.

when draco talks about being weak...i think that YOU want to make us think that he means just physically, but perhaps he feels as though he's betraying marie by wanting ginny...and him trying to convince ginny that he attraction to him was merely physical was draco attempting to bring the relationship to a more superficial level.

something i am curious about: draco talks about vowing to protect ginny - clearly this was made without ginny's current knowledge, but what could have been such a threat that he would make a vow like that? or was he just speaking more generally?

i want to know who was really out there in the rain. yes astoria, but who else? i think lucius. i can't let him alone because as everybody has stated, he clearly has pivotal part to play. (hopefully? maybe? i do enjoy when lucius is written well...)

all that aside, i'm thoroughly enjoying myself and eagerly await next chapter...

Author's Response: Thanks purr! :) I really like the theories. I'm not going to say which ones are closer to being right (some of them are a lot closer than others). Let's just say that while Draco does know more about what happened in the past and what's going on right now than Ginny does, he doesn't understand anywhere *near* as much as he thinks he does.

A key theme of DDD is that *everyone* in it has at least one different piece of the puzzle-- Ginny has some, Draco has some, Lucius has a LOT of them and knows more than anybody else, Harry and Hermione have some, Marie has some, whoever she is, Astoria, Blaise, Luna, Colin, and Dean each have a little one, the three authors of *Nature's Nobility* who were in the crate have one, and some other characters who haven't shown up yet (such as Daphne Greengrass) know something too. If everybody could somehow get together and share what they know, the mystery would be solved right now. But they won't do it, because they can't or really don't want to or don't even know that it would be helpful. It will all come out in the end... ;)

Name: pitzi reviewed Chapter 19 on May 19, 2010 11:17 pm

Oh, that was quite a chapter! With each chapter we get more and more hints that there definately was a past relationship between them which Ginny doesn't remember. She seemes to put a lot of trust in Draco and I don't think it's just her impulsivness. She has some deeper level of subcontiosly understanding him(I hope that makes sense). She dismissed the idea of Draco killing Potter right away as if she knows something about his character. Also the little things like her telling at some point that he was the only one who didn't think she and Harry had been intimate after Harry returned from the war. How did sheknow what Draco thought or believed? But somehow she did. And that intense episode after the final battle where Draco comes to her and she says: "What do you want?" and he answeres: "I don't know". Why did he come to her? Surely it wasn't just because of their few encounters during that year. There must havebeen some sort of relationship which only Draco remembers of. Did he obliviate Ginny because he posed a danger to her like he claims in this chapter or did someone else interfere there? (There's also a possibility that Ginny is Marie and then their relaptionship is only in Draco's past as Ginny hasn't traveled back in time yet, but then where does her trust in Draco come from?)
I hope I made some sence.

Back to the chapter: Iliked the dialoge where malfoy says: "your education seems rather incomplete in some areas, isn't it Weasley"?
"Yes! It is! Happy now, Malfoy?"
"Happier than I was before I heard that,actually" - That was so great! And I liked the part where Ginny is stroking his wand and the effect it has on him. It really was the time to beat him with his own weapon (seeing as he also tried those games on Ginny).
I also like the part where Draco tries to convince Ginny that she only has physical attraction to him.
And why did Ginny stop the questioning? Did she take pity on him or was she tired of this game? Anyway, she should have focused on asking about Marie instead of Astoria because we, the readers want to know about her of course, shouldn't she be a little considerate of us?? (joke) Is she afraid of actually founding out who she is?
Poor Draco. The burden is too much for him if he wishes to die sometimes. One can't hide behind a cool facade forever!
Oh and how many hours passed since the morning events and the end of this chapter? They should be very very exaustedand hungry. Poor folks. And now they got drunk.

I still think Lucius is the one who made some plans invoving the pair but I don't think he wanted to keep them apart. From what Lucius said to Ginny on the night she was drunk, he actually did want her for his son only their being together was somehow arranged to execute some evil plan involving purebloods. And that's why Draco says he is dangerous to Ginny and that's why he thinks he can't have her, because he doesn't want that plan of Lucius's to come to life.

Can't wait to read and find out more!

Author's Response: Wonderful review! :) I just love all the theories. Why *did* Ginny stop asking so many questions? Well, part of the reason was that Draco really scared her by talking about dying. But she's also really unable to go too deeply into finding out more about Marie. Yes, there's a very good reason for that. We will find out eventually what it is... ;)

Name: maximumtrouble10 reviewed Chapter 19 on May 19, 2010 03:45 pm

I'm BACK! :) Excellent chapter (as usual)! And I'm glad the plot bunny isn't TOO nefarious when you aren't watching.

Fav lines:
"That’s the worst acting job since Colin Creevey fell off the stage playing the part of the giant squid in The Tragical History of Hogwarts during the second-year Christmas pageant"

And "I mean, I’m right, because you’re my brain, after all."

Draco is quite sneaky. pretending to be ill/injured so that he can evade Ginny's questions AND using sarcasm to escape the confines of in vino veritas.

Theory time! Glad the last batch was successful (by the way, I made chocolate chip cookies today and I thought of you :) ), although I DO want to know which one of mine was close--hint please?

Interesting how Ginny recalls her drunken night, and Draco repeats his "I'm weak". Perhaps he views himself as weak because he knows that he ultimately put Ginny in harm when she traveled (somehow) to the past but can't resist staying away from (and therefore protecting) her? And Draco fatalistically wants to "drop dead" because he either wants to escape completely from his father/Malfoy duty or wants to stop the complications of his remembrance and Ginny's (current) obliviousness of past events between the two?

Another theory--at first, I couldn't understand WHY Draco was in such pain from the curse after Ginny asked him about Marie when he appeared to answer her questions later without any pain. And then I realized that Ginny specifically asks if Marie is a nickname. Therefore, I think that Ginny (who traveled to the past) either was given the nickname "Marie" as a type of code name or gave that as her alias when she first meets Draco because she knows about Marie and that name is the first name that comes to mind (because she dwells on Marie's identity alot).

And I still maintain my theory (but this version is expanded:)) that Draco is lovelessly engaged to Astoria because his father or Astoria demands that Draco marries her, and Draco acquiesces to maintain his promise (probably made in past) to protect Ginny (whom Lucius or Astoria somehow found out about and threatened). Yes, no, maybe so?

Also, another question for you (though I would still please like you to respond to my theories too :))--why doesn't Ginny ever ask where/when Draco met Marie, what was she like, has Ginny met her--basically questions that clue her in to Marie's identity?

Please update soon!

Author's Response: Thank you, thank you for the great scrumptiousness of that review! (bites into review cupcake. It has a lot of frosting.) :) Some really, REALLY good theories. The one about Marie being a code name was especially good, also the Draco/Astoria theory. (Are you sneaking into that plot bunny's cage at night and feeding it theory chip cookies???) Yes, it is strange that Ginny doesn't ask the really pertinent questions about Marie... almost as if she CAN'T find out who Marie really was, hm hm hm... and there is a very definite reason. But we won't find out *exactly* what it is for a while. ;)

Name: suzymaholic reviewed Chapter 19 on May 18, 2010 09:01 pm

Anise FTW!

This was great! I liked that you didn't leave us in more suspense as to whether or not Harry was dead. And thanks for explaning it cuz I really couldn't work up the motivation to go back and check. I think that's cuz I'd feel like I'd have to start back at the beginning and that's a little daunting just to read one passage. :)

I like that Ginny is remembering what happened on her drunken night with Draco, it would be just too sad to have her not remember such an awesome time :)

Awesome that we learned more about Astoria and her part in the fic :)

And, also awesome D/G action. Worked extremely well with the plot, Ginny's character development, and gave Dracco something new and unexplainable to think on. He's not the all-knowing manipulator he thinks he is :)

And thanks for the awesome updating you've been doing :)

Author's Response: Thank you, thank you! :) No, Harry isn't dead. But we haven't heard the last of him... unfortunately. Also, there WILL be more D/G action to come... ;)

Name: GoldenFawkes reviewed Chapter 19 on May 18, 2010 06:22 pm

Ugh. Why can't they just be honest with each other and get it all over with? Why do they have to hide everything?

Author's Response: They've got their reasons! Ginny will find out more about why Draco is so secretive soon... maybe more than she wanted to know.

Name: Nickii reviewed Chapter 1 on May 16, 2010 05:59 am

yay you just totally confirmed in a response to a review that marie is ginny!! (i think. and otherwise i'll just keep believing it cuz it makes me happy)

Author's Response: Could be... ;) (not confirming or denying anything)

Name: Jack Tamara reviewed Chapter 18 on May 15, 2010 10:57 am

Oh, Anise, the mystery just thickens! I think maybe...Marie was Draco's Crystal palace companion, and he met Ginny after her. Then, D and G had a relationship, but because of something that happened, Draco erased her memories so that she doesn't remember there being a "them", but he still gets defensive when he hears about Harry and such. But I'm probably completely wrong about that anyway. :) Good job, though, and please update soon!

XOXO, JT

P.S. I think I have a clue as to which fic you wrote for the DG fic exchange.

Author's Response: (stirs mystery) (adds chocolate) Interesting theories (and clues).... ;)

Name: ginnywitch reviewed Chapter 18 on May 14, 2010 06:55 pm

pleasssssssssse tell me that there will be smut between a very real ginny and an equally real draco in the next chapter...

Author's Response: I can't tell secrets. ;) But the next chapter is coming pretty soon, so you will see what happens!

Name: pitzi reviewed Chapter 18 on May 13, 2010 11:34 pm

I was so happy to see another chapter! Brunhilda the Beurocratic? Ha ha!
Well, I'm not going to try to analise the Ginny in the rain thing. Though itdoes look believable what Draco tells her about driving her potential partners away during that episode. Than again why did he set Harry with that girl to drive Ginny away if he thought she already slept with him? And Ginny seemed eager enough to convince Dracoshe never slept with Harry. Also we finally confirmed our suspitions that Draco wasn't really asleep that night ayear ago. Sneaky Draco. So did he say "Marie" to drive Ginny away (because it does seem that although he wants Ginny, he tries to prevent this from happening - he did say to Ginny that he's not going to let her do those things to him again she did last year) or was that an unvoluntary utterance because of the sensations he was feeling. And speaking of Marie - I sensed in the previous chapter that Draco is afraid of Ginny finding out who Marie really was. If Ginny really is Marie it makes one wonder. Also in previous chapter he said that Marie was the first woman he loved. So does it mean there's a second? And what is that spell he put on Astoria at the end of this chapter? Great chapter as usual and you are so cunning that every time some questions are answered that only leads to more questions and that keeps us waiting eagerly for continuation!

Author's Response: Thank you! :) Without revealing TOO much, Draco had his suspicions stirred up about Ginny sleeping with Harry long *after* the setting-Harry-up-with-the-slag incident. He knew it didn't happen before. Hmm... I wonder where those suspicions suddenly came from? Could it be... (feeds plot bunny some corn. It was on sale at Harris-Teeter today.) There will be more about why Draco said Marie's name in the next chapter, and also exactly what really happened in his exchange wiht Astoria.

Name: suzymaholic reviewed Chapter 18 on May 13, 2010 10:09 pm

Woot for fast updates!! My day is made XD

Ok, still curious bout Harry, still interested in Marie, only now newly interested in Astoria, Draco's evil plots on Ginny's virginity, and of course, what the next chapter is about seeing as Draco and Ginny seem to be on the verge of getting it on *rawr*

Interesting that it's Astoria despite the fact that many of us thought that it was Lucius. Also, brings up interest in what deals he has going on with Astoria, if he is up to his neck in death eater plots, and also a want to see badass scary Draco again :)

Draco's evil plots on her virginity! Not a new idea since she seemed slightly paranoid earlier about there being a no-sex curse, but completely awesome that the idea is brought up again! Seriously! if she's that into losing her virginity it would have happened unless there WAS some sort of conspiracy!

Aaaaannddddd, chapter ends of as thought leading to smutty goodness! Does it? Does it please? Does it with a cherry on top? Hahaha, oh word puns, how I love you. If this is going to be what follows, Ginny is telling me that she kinda has a hankering to try things out on top. Oh, yeah Ginny says 'hi' too, she thinks you are the best fanfic portrayal of her she's seen in a very long time. Seriously, not my words, quoted vertabim. But I do happen to agree wholeheartedly with her opinion!

Happy Writing!!!111!!!!1!1!11 (1's added for a good time)

Author's Response: Who was really out there in the storm? We don't know the full story yet, but it WILL be revealed. But yes, Astoria definitely was. And the next chapter will be fun. (waves at Ginny) As long as we can run faster than the men in the white coats with the butterfly nets, it's all good. :)