Sink Into Your Eyes :: Sink Into Your Eyes - A Harry/Ginny Fanfiction Archive

Reviewer: seekers_destiny Signed Date: 2012.04.23 - 09:34AM Title: Into the Realm

This is my first time reading this story as I was put off by the 'disabled Harry' reference in the summary. I ended up not liking similar stories and decided to pass on this one. Obviously, I changed my mind and read everything you have posted. I have a mixed reaction to this story and the disability part has not been a negative, at least so far. I'm also not a fan of slash but again it has not been a major negative so far. I am a big fan of the Remus/Tonks pairing and obviously won't get any of that here but it isn't a prerequisite for me so that isn't part of my problems with this story.

My biggest issue with this story is that Harry seems like a minor character in it. If I had to pick who was the major character, I guess I'd have to go with Remus. I like the Remus character but I don't want to read a story based on him. Here is an example of what I feel I am missing because your POV spends so much time away from Harry. Why did Harry fare so poorly against the Dementors? He has had time to recover physically and mentally from his ordeal but as far as the readers know, his total reaction to the dementors was simply to collapse. It is a canon fact that Harry reacts more to the dementors than others but he is also the one who has been able to fight off the most dementors. We don't get a chance from JKR to compare the abilities of Dumbledore and Harry as far as sheer power against dementors but Harry would be up at Dumbledore's level. I would have loved to know why Harry would fail so completely in this situation. Harry is only one of nine in whatever you have planned. If he isn't the clear leader of his group then he really becomes a minor character and I for one will lose interest.

Since this is a H/G site, I have to bring up a character that gets much less exposure than Harry: Ginny. It's nice to see her starting to appear more and Harry's reaction to holding hands with Ginny was a nice touch but eventually, there will have to be a lot more Ginny (and Harry, of course).

There are positives to how you are writing this though. I get to see the point of view of more characters and I especially like the Minerva/Sirius interactions. I also like a different view of Snape although he isn't any more likeable. If all of his attitude is just an act, then he is still annoying as he is over-acting. Not much can more thoroughly ruin a play than an actor who gets carried away. The Sirius/Remus situation is becoming a minor irritant. The angst for Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny are natural as they are teenagers trying to feel their ways through an unfamiliar situation. Remus and Sirius are mature enough (well, at least Remus is) that they should be able to move on. Since Remus was rejected, he should try harder to move on. Sirius should just grow up.

When I look at just your writing ability, that is a main reason I kept going. I think you are a very good writer. I'm impressed by how you can shift the POV and jump from story thread to another thread without making your story a jumble. I struggle with that sort of thing as a writer. My rating is based on your writing ability, not my reaction to what you have decided to include/exclude from your story.

Author's Response: This is possibly the longest review I've received. :D Thanks so much! I know the disabled thing can put people off. I, myself, get tired of "blind Harry" every other story I look up (some of them are quite good, but so often unfinished), so I decided to try something slightly different, and I'm glad you've given it a chance. Admittedly, I don't like the Remus/Tonks pairing. I love both characters, but seeing them together is hard. That you're reading my fic despite it having a pairing you don't enjoy makes me very happy. :D And I appreciate it. I understand your concerns about Harry appearing a minor character at the moment. There are two reasons for this: the one is that I've been setting up my pieces and therefore concentrating on a ton of people in separate areas. The other is that I'm not jumping right into Harry is leading his group into war. He's going through a rough time, though he's not showing it too badly, losing his hearing and his ability to speak, and I intend to show the progression into his becoming the leader that he is. I know my story moves more slowly than most, but I've always considered the development of character just as, if not more, important than the action that fills a story. Of course, my story will be filled with a lot of action, but I enjoy developing my characters a lot. Ginny just popped back into the fic because she's been home, but I have been concentrating on her. It's hard to give her too much of a showing without having her pop into Harry's life like Ron and Hermione, and make the trio a quartet, which would be very out of character. You can probably count on her being around, now, though. Snape won't be any more likeable for a while. In fact, you may hate him even more for a while, though that will change after a while (however, your analogy is pretty spot on in that regard :D). In defense of Sirius, he spent half his life in Azkaban, trapped in his own head, so really, he never had a chance to mentally and emotionally grow beyond his early twenties. As for Remus, it's really hard to be friends with someone you're deeply in love with who doesn't return your feelings. He's making a valiant effort, but it hurts, sometimes. He's unwilling to give up the friendship, but can't quite give up the love, either. And thank you for the compliments. I'm very glad that I'm able to keep you interested, and I hope more things in the fic will interest you than my writing ability after a time. I can promise that some things will be explained; your concerns about Harry's being so affected by the dementors will also be explained in the fic. Though, because it's not a secret I'm keeping, the reason he reacted so violently was because the dementor all but Kissed him, far closer than any dementor had ever gotten to him before. He wasn't able to fight off the dementors like he normally does because he has never learned to cast the Patronus wordlessly, and as he can't speak... There are other reasons for things, but they'll be revealed in time. I hope you'll stick around, and thanks for reading!

Author's Response: This is possibly the longest review I've received. :D Thanks so much!

I know the disabled thing can put people off. I, myself, get tired of "blind Harry" every other story I look up (some of them are quite good, but so often unfinished), so I decided to try something slightly different, and I'm glad you've given it a chance.

Admittedly, I don't like the Remus/Tonks pairing. I love both characters, but seeing them together is hard. That you're reading my fic despite it having a pairing you don't enjoy makes me very happy. :D And I appreciate it.

I understand your concerns about Harry appearing a minor character at the moment. There are two reasons for this: the one is that I've been setting up my pieces and therefore concentrating on a ton of people in separate areas. The other is that I'm not jumping right into Harry is leading his group into war. He's going through a rough time, though he's not showing it too badly, losing his hearing and his ability to speak, and I intend to show the progression into his becoming the leader that he is. I know my story moves more slowly than most, but I've always considered the development of character just as, if not more, important than the action that fills a story. Of course, my story will be filled with a lot of action, but I enjoy developing my characters a lot.

Ginny just popped back into the fic because she's been home, but I have been concentrating on her. It's hard to give her too much of a showing without having her pop into Harry's life like Ron and Hermione, and make the trio a quartet, which would be very out of character. You can probably count on her being around, now, though.

Snape won't be any more likeable for a while. In fact, you may hate him even more for a while, though that will change after a while (however, your analogy is pretty spot on in that regard :D). In defense of Sirius, he spent half his life in Azkaban, trapped in his own head, so really, he never had a chance to mentally and emotionally grow beyond his early twenties. As for Remus, it's really hard to be friends with someone you're deeply in love with who doesn't return your feelings. He's making a valiant effort, but it hurts, sometimes. He's unwilling to give up the friendship, but can't quite give up the love, either.

And thank you for the compliments. I'm very glad that I'm able to keep you interested, and I hope more things in the fic will interest you than my writing ability after a time. I can promise that some things will be explained; your concerns about Harry's being so affected by the dementors will also be explained in the fic. Though, because it's not a secret I'm keeping, the reason he reacted so violently was because the dementor all but Kissed him, far closer than any dementor had ever gotten to him before. He wasn't able to fight off the dementors like he normally does because he has never learned to cast the Patronus wordlessly, and as he can't speak...

There are other reasons for things, but they'll be revealed in time. I hope you'll stick around, and thanks for reading!