OHH, very intriguing, and I'm glad you picked up this gauntlet of Kara's and wrote it, too.
Beautiful imagery, minna, I really loved the constant ebb and flow of the tides as the background to their love affair.
,br> Very well written and entrancing. ~Carole~
Author's Response: Thank you for the lovely review <33 I'm glad I picked up that gauntlet too
Wow Minna. This is just beautifully sad. Apologies for the fangirl review but that's what you're going to get. I've been waiting to see how you manage this and... it's just perfect. The time-crossed lovers, one knowing so much more than the other... or does she really? Rowena is rather lost herself and the last line really sends that home.
I don't think I'm making any sense. Gah. I love this so much.
Julia x
Author's Response: <33 You made enough sense to make me smile. Yay, glad you like it.
OMG. Where do I start? I absolutely loved this. OMG.
Okay, when I saw your claim, I was excited! This sounded crazy impossible, and I definitely wanted to know how you were going to approach it. And you did it so well. It's glorious, it's saddening, it's beautiful and poetic. The last lines had me gasping. Gahhhhhh. I am incoherent right now.
Seriously, my friend, this was a one-of-a-kind magical feat. Going straight into my favourites!
Author's Response: Oh, I'm so glad you liked it. <3 This was a really difficult pairing to write, but I was intrigued by the challenge and I had fun finding a way to pull it off (though also lots of angst, I'll admit). I'm really happy it came out well, this was about the fourth version I tried.
Minna-that was beautiful. I remember you saying on the LS that your original idea was for Flitwick to fall in love with a portrait, which in itself is intriguing, but the plot you have here is incredibly elegant. Time-travel is something of a cliche, but the way you use it here is wonderful. I think it's very realistic that Rowena, in her experimentation, would at some point over-reach herself, and therefore for her to be trapped in a situation like this, over which she has no control, strikes true, when most fan-fics dealing with time travel do not.
I may be wrong, but the description of her as The Woman, seemed very- Sherlockian, and made me instantly imagine Rowena to look like Irene Adler/ Lara Pulver. Likewise, this story reminded me slightly of the Doctor Who episode The Girl In The Fireplace. You have used the idea of a relationship developing between one character about whom everything is known by the other, very intriguingly.
I also love the way your story is broadly linear. You start with Pain, which is such a shock in what is, given it's challenge, ostensibly a romance, and end with a different sort of pain, in "it feels like death." However throughout, as the relationship develops between them, there's a lightness to your writing which is very expressive, and at some times humorous, like when you say: "He grows little, but he changes much. " which made me smile.
The imagery of the tide, the lack of control Rowena has, and, until the end, the cyclical nature of it, is also very well done. I also love the fact that there;s no explanation for why she is tied to Flitwick--it's a quirk of magic, destiny, or chance, and that's all there is to it. The ending line, as I said earlier, is very poignant, and for a such short story there's real depth to the emotions here. Lovely story Minna--Alex
Author's Response: Thank you for the review, Alex! Yes, the original plan was portrait romance, but it was turning out too difficult - oddly time travel wasn't hard at all. It does seem the kind of thing Rowena would do - get caught up in magic that's too much even for her. And "the Woman" was a deliberate reference; I was feeling a bit silly. It didn't occur to me to picture Rowena as Lara Pulver but that works perfectly, actually - may have to keep that in mind if I ever want a banner of this. O.o I'm rubbish at responding to these, but I'm very glad you enjoyed the story, and the review made me happy. =)
