ETA: I know what you mean about RL.... but I WILL tell you this. The entire reason I came back to D/G fanfic in the first place was that writing original fic just did not work without it. Fanfic was the support for my creativity. YMMV.

Anyway... I *will* be starting the ofic forums, hopefully by the end of the year. So watch for those! :)

Another GREAT chapter! I meant to review this earlier, but things are pretty nuts around here... ;)

Anyway. You just have such a great portrayal of Ginny here. It's EXACTLY the way that I imagine she actually would have been during that seventh year. Brave, stubborn, reckless... the reader actually fears for her, because she's kind of dancing on a precipice, and she could fall off at any second. And I really like the way that you didn't immediately pair her up with Draco in detention. It would have been the obvious thing to do, but it wouldn't have been the *realistic* thing to do.

I'm going to post about this fic on our FB again, and I really am urging people to read it. There just aren't enough fics about this year in Ginny's life-- this is a great one! And you'd better continue it... don't make me come over there... ;)

It's such a treat to see a really good seventh-year fic! We certainly don't know what happened at Hogwarts then from canon, so there's lots of room to explore. And it's very believable-- Draco and Ginny's characters completely fit in with everything we know; actually, so does everyone else. Okay, I have to admit that I had a TEENTSY twinge of sympathy for the DADA teacher when she started talking about witch burning, because I think she's absolutely right... but it definitely went away when she Crucio'd Ginny. But that's probably what happened a lot that year. Harry had no interest in the subject of what really happened to Ginny, of course. :P (Writes on an imaginary chalkboard...

74513274901273409.pi points to D/G
...
I can't go below zero points for H/G, so that's still what it has. ;) Anyway, it's great and I hope to see more! :)

Another GREAT chapter! It's been a long time since I've seen any kind of Hogwarts-era fic that was this good.
This is the kind of thing that reminds us of why we shipped D/G in the first place. Their characters are truly rooted in canon, but they're also so much more than canon. They really are what they would have been during Ginny's sixth year, but they are what they *should* have been.

I do tend to think that Draco had to be at MM rather than at school during his 7th year, but a case can be made for the other possibility too. And this is exactly how it would have happened.

Anyway, I'm pimping this fic everywhere! ;) So I can't wait to see more.

She's back! She's back! YAY!!!
(runs around doing the Happy Author Posting Again Dance. :)

I can tell that this one is going to be fun! The D/G relationship has such a wonderful sweetly brittle surface, like the candy coating on a creme brulee. It'll be interesting to see exactly what is under the veneer. And Ginny in Dubai. Okay, looking forward to that. I hope to see more soon! :)

Author's Response: *claps* Very nice dance. And yes, yes, I'm back (hopefully permanently since I'm currently working on three stories at one time :S Madness, I know). I'm glad you like it. And candy coating on creme brulee sounds so uniquely poetic by the way. Thanks for reviewing! - Ann

I really, REALLY like the way this fic is going. Yes, this premise is unusual. But at this point in the fandom, canon as we know it was closed six years ago. (There will be more canon of a kind, and I think there's every reason to believe that it will have applicability to D/G... it's all in the essay on the Long-Lost Drive of Doom, AND IT WILL BE WRITTEN even if the experts can't recover the files...:(

But the point is that considering what we know now-- which is all we can ever be sure of-- HP canon is done. It's going to be a couple of years or so before we really get anything new. That means that it's hard to find new things if fics stick as closely as possible to the plain facts of what actually happened in canon. (It can be done-- Ginocide's amazing new fic *See Me Use You* is a good example. That's kind of the exception that proves the rule, though-- there just aren't enough fics exploring Ginny's seventh year at school.) We're not going to get far if all we do is keep going over and over and over the same ground.

And your fic is one that doesn't do that. Considering what we know, it is not at all unbelievable that Draco would be behaving and thinking this way after the war. It's just that it is not a common canon trope. But D/G was never explored in canon; we've always had to use our creativity to write about it. Draco and Ginny clearly never got together in the books or films; we always created that scenario. So now, we have to branch out and create NEW tropes if this fandom is to grow, and we can do it. We know it's possible, because others have done it (D/Hr being a great example.) We need writers like you to pull it off. And you're doing it very, very well. :) New aspects of everyone's character are turning up, and readers want to know how it's all going to play out.

So.... great work, and I hope to see more soon! :)

Author's Response: Thank you for such a lovely analysis! My favorite stories tend to be AU, so perhaps it's easier for me to reach into alternative scenarios. I look forward to your essay (so sorry that it suffered such an unfortunate setback!) because you've obviously put a great deal of thought into it. Have a wonderful holiday break, and thank you again for your wonderful work at promoting this site and inspiring all these wonderful writers to continue. :)
Best wishes!
-G

I AM leaving an actual real-live review for this, and SOON. Things have gotten kind of overwhelming around here. Some financial issues... possibly... well, anyway, I'm hanging in there, so just have faith in me! :)

Yay! I FINALLY got a chance to start reading this!!

(thinks guiltily about half-done December billing. Tomorrow, I promise! (yelled at sis, metaphorically speaking. ;)

Anyway. I really, really like this premise. This is the way that I could see Ginny reacting to her Quidditch career ending so abruptly. There's something about this Ginny that is fulfilled by that career, or would be fulfilled, which I think is true of a lot of the Ginnies out there. She's like a bird with clipped wings, but she has the courage and determination to strike out on a different path.

(jumps into fic briefly. GINNY!! The phantom hand pain is probably caused by trigger point issues. See a neuromuscular therapist. NOW.)

Anyway... I look forward to seeing where this goes. I should be able to get to the next chapter very soon. :) And when you figure out the size of the banner you want for your Tumblr blog, be sure to let me know. I've been using graphics programs for a VERY long time.

Author's Response: Thanks, Anise! I am so, so not an expert at graphic design, so I honestly don't know how big I would want my banner to be (or what big/small is?), but you'll be the first person I ask when I start trying to figure it out. ;) I'm glad you're liking the story so far! I've written Quidditch!Ginny before, and I think the career works really well for her. So the fact that she isn't satisfied with any career other than Quidditch is a liiiittle bit my own dissatisfaction with her having any other career other than Quidditch, too (because I'm uncreative like that XD). But mostly I wanted to write about job hunting because that was the theme of 2013 for me, and that's what all of my friends have been going through, so it's relevant and real. A bird with clipped wings is EXACTLY how Ginny feels in this story. But as you'll see eventually in chapter 3, she might be holding herself back from her own desires. Anyway, glad you like it so far, and thanks for the review!

This is a great one to expand. I know that quite a few one-shots can seem that way, but it doesn't mean that all of them really have that potential. I think that this one does. It's such a good beginning, and it's so intriguing to ponder what might have happened next. We really don't know what happened after the Malfoy trial (and I kind of hope we don't learn more than the vague statement we have now... some things should be left to the imagination, considering how Draco was treated in DH as a whole. :P

But this is one of the more interesting aspects of post-Hogwarts life to consider, for sure. If Draco wasn't convicted (and as far as we know, he wasn't), then what did happen? Was he just released into the wizarding world again? Or no? This is a very believable scenario, and I think that fics work best if they have *some kind* of basis in canon, regardless of far afield they range after that.

So... great job, and I, for one, would love to see more! (After Jan 26, of course!!)

Author's Response: If I expand this one, I definitely wouldn't go into more detail about Draco's imprisonment and trial. That's not what the story would be about, and I honestly don't think I could write an accurate or sincere trial scene anyway. To write anymore would probably seem fake. The important thing is just that Draco sat in jail until his trial was all over, it took almost six months, his parents were convicted, and he was freed. The rest of the story (and the part that has me pretty excited) is definitely the "what next." That's my favorite thing to write, I think, the parts of the story that DH skipped. I like to think about what actually happened to Draco and his family, to Ginny and her family, to Harry, to the world, because after the war they fought, after allll of their suffering and struggles, they would allll be changed people. And that's okay. I just like to see how they develop after such an ordeal. There are a lot of interesting motivations and feelings that BEGIN in DH or even earlier , but you don't see the resolution of them. *shakes fist at Epilogue of Doom* I'm glad you like this premise! I definitely hope to write more (after Jan 26, of course ;D). Thanks for the review!

Hey,

I REALLY want to read this, but non-con is just really hard for me (or can be...) Could you maybe leave a note about where it's going to be? Or the context? Or... ? I would love to read this fic, but I have to be aware of triggers. Thanks! :)

Author's Response: Of course! I totally understand. The nonconsensual scene is just assumed, and the reader is not in the moment. There is a warning at the beginning of the chapter that it's in (the fourth chapter if I remember correctly). It is not referenced beyond that chapter.

What a great first chapter! I really love this portrayal of Ginny-- she's not noble at all, at least from what we can see right now. (I kind of hope she's not actually sleeping with Lucius... :P But I feel that the war could have made people do strange things.) And Harry-lost-the-war fics are my guilty pleasure right now! So, on to Chapter 2.

Another fascinating chapter! And "No one dates the Dark Lord" is now officially my favorite line. ;) This is a fic where it definitely works to avoid throwing Draco and Ginny together immediately-- he's suspicious of her, we have no idea what she's thinking of him, and her motives in general are mysterious, to say the least. I look forward to more!