Hello, Cassie! :) It's been far, far too long since I've read any of your writing, but this story was such a lovely piece to return to. I'm very interested in stories about minor characters, and I'm almost certain I've never before read any story that centers around Mary Cattermole. There's a first time for everything, though, and I'm glad my first story of hers could be yours!

I thought your style of writing was very lovely in this, and there were next to no grammatical mistakes, too -- this flowed very well! Not everyone can fit a story into less than a thousand words like you've done, but this didn't seem lacking in anything. I liked how the first and last parts of the one-shot were mirrored with descriptions of puffs of air, because that made the whole thing feel more joined together. And your dementor descriptions were incredibly canon -- I loved the line about how Mary's happy memory temporarily suspended their chilling effect. I thought that was a really nice touch!

You really captured her emotions well too, I think. I've never before given much thought to her apart from the scene we see in the courtroom, but now it's almost heartbreaking, knowing that Ron's impersonation of Reg meant that he couldn't be there for his wife. Of all the people he could have disguised himself as... But then again, the family was probably somewhat spared because of the trio's intervention. (Now you've got me thinking more about them than I ever have before!)

I'm really glad you steered me in the direction of this one-shot. :3 I enjoyed reading it very much! I think you've done an excellent job here, and look forward to when I'll be back to your page for more.

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Although this is a really short chapter, you've somehow managed to pack a whole lot of feeling into 600 and some words. You've made it really clear that Mary Cattermole is terrified of what is going to happen to her and I feel sorry for her reading this just like I felt sorry for her when I was reading Deathly Hallows.

Little does Mary know that Harry Potter is going to bust her out of there!

Anyway, I think you did a pretty awesome job on this and I enjoyed it!

Author's Response: Hello!
Thank you so much for reviewing this for me!
I'm so glad that you enjoyed this, and believed what Mary was thinking and feeling. Since we don't know all that much about her, she was a really fun character for me to explore! I'm so happy that you enjoyed this! Thanks again!
Cassie :)

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You said that you haven't written anything like this before, but you can't tell - you manage to make this style completely your own. It was very short and very poignant.

I think that a story like this has a lot of potential to go overboard with the sentimentality but you've obviously chosen the memories that you've included carefully and they're really powerful like this. This one-shot brought Mary Cattermole to life and made her completely human.

I loved how you conveyed this incredible sense of vulnerability; she doesn't have her wand, and she knows deep down that they're not going to give it back to her, so she has no defence against the Dementors, except for her memories. I liked the fact that, instead of draining her of happiness and taking those times away from her, Mary was able to use her memories for strength to guard against the Dementors.

For such a short story, you gave Mary an amazing depth of character and I felt like I was living the emotions with her. Watching her walk, afraid and alone, towards her trial at the end was so sad and really quite moving.

I'm really enjoyed this and thanks for asking me to read it!

nott theodore :)

Author's Response: Hello!
Thank you so much for reading and reviewing this for me!
I'm so pleased that you thought Mary was human, and that I didn't overdo it. I was a little worried about that when I first put this up, so the fact that it's not too dramatic is a relief!
I think she would be incredibly vulnerable here, simply because she's being tried for something she has no control over. But I also think that during this period in the Wizarding World, muggleborns have to be some of the strongest people around because they're facing so much, so Mary is able to protect herself from the dementors using that strength.
I'm so pleased that you enjoyed this! It means so much to me that you thought Mary's character was so real, and had depth, and that this story was believable! Thank you so much for the lovely review!
Cassie :)

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Goodness, Cassie, this is such a breathtakingly beautiful oneshot. It's really short, but you've given us a slice of Mary Cattermole - a very deep in-depth slice of Mary, that somehow is complete and incomplete at the same time - I'm not sure how to express this (it's nearly 2am :P ).

I love minor character fics and I've been meaning to check this one out since your status update on the forums a few days ago. I'm so glad I did. It's so finely written, and with a great sense of delicacy. And best of all, it provides such startling and poignant insight into Mary's character, and her thoughts as she awaits trial before the draconian Muggleborn Registration Commission. If you hadn't written this with such skill and care, the whole thing could have easily gone overboard with the angst, and those lovely lovely recollections of Mary's might have become overly sentimental, but you handled the scene and the characterisation with so much grace. And as always, your prose along with the descriptive details are beautiful.

For such a short fic, Mary feels real and utterly human. She's so vulnerable, wandless and surrounded by those dreadful dementors and awaiting a trial which she knows will be unfair to her (it's hinted with her assumption that she won't get her wand back soon), and yet she manages to extract some infinitesimal mote of courage from within her, triggered off by the sparkle of her ring. And there's that lovely memory of her wedding and of her childhood and her mum pushing her fringe out of her eyes and pinning it back with bows...

Gah. Anyway. I really do hope you write more of these little character snapshots. This was beautifully done. Thank you for sharing this ♥

teh

Author's Response: Hi teh! I'm so, so thrilled that you enjoyed this one-shot!!! I wrote almost all of it in one sitting, and it was a really random story that just hit me one day, so the fact that you really enjoyed it means the world to me!
I really, really didn't want to go overboard with this, because it's so emotional, and could have easily been overwhelming, so I'm relieved you think it worked out well!
And the fact that you enjoyed Mary's character, and find her human, is wonderful! I was really intrigued by her character, especially since she's the only character who we get to see in one of these trials, and I knew that she would be nervous and have tons of thoughts going through her head beforehand.
Really, teh, your reviews and support have helped me become so much more confident in my writing! Thank you so, so, so much!!!
Cassie :)

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short and powerful. I love it.
what I also love is that your description here was wonderful. I felt like I was really feeling what Mary was feeling as she was waiting and that is just really powerful because you got the point across in not so many words.

I also love how she is going back and reminiscing on memories from before because that part about how the dementors for just one second don't affect her because of how happy she was is just so bittersweet because we know how horrible her confrontation with Umbridge went.

Good job on this one-shot and keep it up (:

Author's Response: Hello!
I'm so thrilled that you enjoyed this one-shot! It was definitely something that was spur of the moment, and I randomly got the inspriration for it before just sitting down and writing the entire thing, so the fact that you found it powerful was really wonderful! Thank you so much for the lovely review!
Cassie :)

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