Heh. I love the moment where Sirius and Voldemort burst into Hogwarts side by side and practically demand in chorus to know how Harry's doing after an attack on him. I also love how Voldemort is absolutely baffled by the fact that he seems to have more empathy for people now than he did as a kid -- and that despite this and trying to be a good father and actually caring about Harry and all the other changes he undergoes, he's still no paragon, and still longs for the occasional cursing (of someone else, not him, as stress relief). I also love how his goals haven't changed much -- but his methods, and the information on which he bases his actions, have, and it's enough to shift him out of pure bad-guy and into an anti-villain -- while Dumbledore remains almost exactly as he is in canon, and comes off as a potentially senile villain in comparison. (And how when Dumbledore does one of the things many fic authors suggest he should in order to improve the good guys' chances against Voldemort -- which is reveal the horcruxes and what needs to be done to the Order -- instead of making things better for him, it's probably made things worse.) The author is very good at what he does -- almost professional level if not already there -- and he thoroughly thinks the implications of his changes through. This is an absolute delight to read.
EDIT: I was a bit effusive above, so I should temper it a bit. For quite a bit of the beginning of the fic, the author is plagued by word choice errors -- you know, where/were confusion, things like that -- spellchecker miscorrects and other stuff that a good proofreader would take care of. And indeed, he eventually does get a beta reader and the number of errors plunges dramatically, although they don't disappear entirely. Still, I normally have little patience with this kind of systematic error. That the story carried me through and past the annoyance should say a lot for the author's ability everywhere else.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
EDIT: I was a bit effusive above, so I should temper it a bit. For quite a bit of the beginning of the fic, the author is plagued by word choice errors -- you know, where/were confusion, things like that -- spellchecker miscorrects and other stuff that a good proofreader would take care of. And indeed, he eventually does get a beta reader and the number of errors plunges dramatically, although they don't disappear entirely. Still, I normally have little patience with this kind of systematic error. That the story carried me through and past the annoyance should say a lot for the author's ability everywhere else.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.