Another wonderful story. It reminded me a lot of "I Would Give You Violets", but this one really did make me cry. They're both about fragile characters who have everything to lose. :) Your writing style is so wonderful, I can't even believe it. The way Luna recalls both the dead and the living is very powerful and also sad. (Again, the parentheses are the best) I love love love love this part:
"She is beginning to fit into the castle as well; not all of it, but she finds Luna-sized places here and there, and she has more people to smile at now... "
~Olivia

I can't say much except that this is the best fic I have ever read.

I'm in total awe. I love your writing.

Did you ever know that you're my hero and everything I would like to be-- I mean, did you know you were the first to give me a SPEW review, Nan?

And not just one, but TWO reviews in one lovely morning. I still hold those two reviews very dear. So I feel so ashamed and dismayed that I'm only reading and reviewing you now. How much I've missed!

I remember recommending Where Luna Lives to a beta-ee struggling with a Luna-centric one-shot. I've scanned this that one time and it has stuck in my mind as the paragon Luna fic.

Who is Luna? What is Luna? WLL captures and conveys the answers to these two core questions in which most fan fiction with their airy-fairiness fail. Luna, the fanciful girl. Fanciful, but the opposite of an airhead. The style you chose to tell her story reflects that. I didn't want to finish reading it. Eloquence, fantasy, affection-- these are the golden plaits making up the braid of the narration, wonderfully woven together.

Luna lives indeed.

I love the repetition and I love how it-- there is no other word for it-- I love how it celebrates Luna. I won't quote any passages, I'll spoil the reader. There is not a single sentence here that doesn't do its portion of the overall magic of the piece.

I sound so fangirly, but I just can't find anything to criticize in this literary rendering of our Lovegood girl. In fact, this equals the quality of the stories I gobble at Fantasy Magazine. Lyrical prose (the names in brackets like a chain of flowers inserted between fleurs-de-lis that is the rest of the storytelling), intelligent voice, emphatic and empathic character... This deserves that blue ribbon of a Feature here and with some tweaks to make it independent of the HP canon, it will of course certainly deserve the $60 or so it will earn from Fantasy.

I'm even talking money. /giggles
Definitely awestruck! ^^,

~Joanna

I've reread this so many times, and I still can't get over how amazing you are at writing!! This still makes me cry.

*flails*

Oh, Nan! Oh, oh, oh! *tries to breathe* Oh. I think I’m going to have to read this again, and maybe go take a walk, before I can review properly, because oh.

Okay. Let’s try this again, shall we? Nan, this is absolutely stunning. If I didn’t love this so much I’d be so jealous of your writing ability. Wow. I don’t even know what to say about this – I have no criticism whatsoever, because it’s perfect. I adore the different sections, and the repetition of the first phrase, and the absolutely perfect ending. You’ve told Luna’s life story in just one short story, and I know her so much better now. I’m still slightly speechless with astonishment, because I cannot write this way at all, and I don’t know how you do it. It’s like poetry in prose form. I love absolutely everything about this story, and it’s totally going in my favourites.

My little moment of incoherency came at the end, when you repeated the description of her cottage.

The cottage is small, but it is just the right size of small, with two bedrooms and a garden full of roses and a cellar where her husband paints magic paintings that speak and move.

I had been wondering who the man was, but oh, it’s Dean, it has to be Dean, yes? Especially after reading DH, even though this fic isn’t DH compliant, that just has to be Dean. And even if it isn’t you never say, so it’s Dean in my head.

My heart aches at the sweet perfection of everything. The castle is being rebuilt, she has a daughter, everything has come full circle, and Luna is complete, now.

The creatures Luna believes in are beautiful – Starbringers, Mistwalkers, Wingriders – and the Snorkacks that live in Sweden. =) Just, oh, every single word of this fits so perfectly, like it was designed to be this way and no other way, and I don’t know how you do it … Okay. Probably a really pointless review, and I’m sorry I have nothing to offer in the way of crit, but it’s perfect the way it is. Unless you want to make it DH compliant – I wouldn’t complain, hee. And by the way, I’m very impressed with your ability to write in present tense. That’s hard to pull off, but obviously, it works so well here. I’m also impressed with your writing in general, in case you couldn’t tell by my incoherency. Really, this is probably the most beautiful fic I’ve read in a very long time, perhaps ever, and it’s like a perfect piece of art. Wonderful, just wonderful. Nan, you’re so talented. *hugs*

~ Abigail

This is absolutely beautiful! Very moving and sad and lovely language and descriptions. Keep writing!

Nan, dearest Nan. Your stories are always so difficult to review, because I can’t ever find anything to critique about them. Not even a single typo to point out! But I shall do my best anyway, because it depresses me to see a beautiful piece like this with only four reviews.

It seems that you have a thorough understanding for every character you work with, and Luna is no exception. I have never seen anything written from her point of view that made so much sense. She is a bit of an enigma in the world of Harry Potter, and, if one wants to put it that way, a real oddity. But here, you show us that to Luna, it is the rest of the world that is odd, that doesn’t make sense. But there is always more to your writing, and you make me feel not only for Luna, but for every ‘unusual’ and eccentric person out there who isn’t accepted.

Having read quite a bit of your writing, I know that you have a real knack for repetitions and patterns, and I’m glad to see that you use this gift well in this fic as well. Both the returning ‘Luna lives in’ and the size/space concepts are genius, and as another reviewer said, it gives that poetic flow to your writing. Well, that, combined with your excellent descriptions and word choices.

She is happy because sometimes her mother looks up from the potions and smiles at her, a special smile,

- I think this is wonderful. I can see Luna’s mum before my inner eye, deeply concentrated at her work, but taking a moment to look up from her potions to look at her daughter, to know that she is so loved. And it’s true – little things like that are what matters to a child. Attention and interest, not fancy things or big castles.

Their hands fit together nicely, fingers wrapping around each other like toes wiggling in warm boots that are just the right size of too big, because they’re her father’s, and anything that is her father’s is just the right size for her.

‘just the right size of too big’ – Nan, you make me smile. You really know how to write affection, and true love.

I really like how you mentioned the names of her friends throughout the story; it is a nice way of including them without spending paragraph upon paragraph of telling your readers about them.

…even the ghosts have left them.

- Oh, that is so powerful. To a ‘Muggle mind’, ghosts would typically haunt a ruin, but in the Harry Potter stories we have learned that they quite like interacting with people who are still alive. A Hogwarts without ghosts is truly a Hogwarts utterly and completely deserted.

The ending is excellent. We know that Luna is a curious witch, always searching for one unbelievable thing or another. I think it’s a beautiful thought that after looking for the unknown and unseen for so long, she finds the way back to her own home. To herself, I guess.

Nan, you know I will never forgive you if you don’t publish an original novel, right? ;) Wonderful work, dear.

Author's Response: Oh, Anna, do you have any idea how happy your reviews make me? Somehow you seem to have a tendency to pick out the bits of my story that I like best and comment on them. How do you do that? The "just the right size of too big" was actually the first thing I wrote in this story, and the rest sort of came out of it. As for the idea that to Luna, it's the rest of the world that is odd, that's something I was planning to write another story centering on. Very interesting, that you caught it here! An original novel? My goodness, that's a tall order. In my dreams, yes. In reality, well, we'll see. *hugs*

Thanks for writing such a moving story, that places Life and Death into a new perspective, one that makes them both easier to understand and endure with courage and hope.

Author's Response: Thank you!

This was such a touching story! It actually made me cry because it was so beautiful.
Thank you for writing it. Its message of hope through adversity truly brightened my day.

Author's Response: Thank you! Always happy to hear I've made someone cry (well, in a good way, of course).