This took me four days to read but I love it. Wonderful job. Please please continue to write such wonderful fic's.

Okay, I'll admit that I didn't see that ending coming. At all. Well done!
Seriously, that was a wonderful story and I liked the present&past format you were using. And that was the first good version of Giles' childhood that I've seen so far.

You seriously have not seen much of Buffy past season 3? Holy crap, I never would have guessed. Which is a hell of a compliment to your writing abilities, yes? ;)
I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate you on such a detailed and involved story, with bonus points for the amount of humour. Since I'm barely half-way through the story, I didn't want to forget to tell you!

I'm happily racing through your story and will review again when I finish, but there was one thing I wanted to comment on.

You refer to Giles as an active Watcher (as does his father) and so does the Council secretary. But at this point in the Buffy series (just post season 4, yes?), Giles was still fired. He wasn't rehired until mid season 5, during the whole Glory issue. I'm sorry, but this has just been picking away at me. Was this just a bit of an Ooops? Or was it an intentional switch for the sake of the plot?

I'm glad you're enjoying the story for the most part.

As for Giles status, for the most part, it's an oops. I haven't seen most episodes past season 3, so I'm going off what I picked up from other fics or online synopses. Of course, that being said, I think the Watcher's Council is a bit like a mafia, you're never really "out" you may just not have any active paying assignments. So, while I wasn't really sure what Giles' position was during the later seasons, I didn't think it would be a big plot hole either way. Sorry.

Hear my tears of sadness as this wonderful and beautiful story ends.
Not once was I bored when I read this story which was quite remarkable especially considering it's size.
I loved, loved, loved it. If this fic is ever nominated again for an award, you have my vote.
Keep up the wonderful writing.

Wover
(p.s. Is there a sequel coming up?)

Wonderful story. I am only a little bit disappointed by the ending, but with what I understand about Snape and the Ripper overtones that Giles has, I can understand it.

Loved Granger and Cordy.

Thanks! I debated the ending for quite a while, but in the end, I decided that the characters just weren't the kind to kiss and make up. Of course, there is some room open for a sequel, just not any time soon.

Very very nice---- melded the hogwarts past history with the early s5 buffy very well indeed. I particularly liked that you didn't have everything neatly resolved at end, they didn't forgive each other......
Any chance of a sequel? There were hints of Glory in there (nuts in the hospital)... one could picture surviving death eaters getting involved with that (wanting the Key for themselves? Attempting a voldy resurrection?) -- maybe bring Oz in (Remus would be surprised to see a werewolf who could control the changes..... those 'herbs' might interest Snape also )...

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. In terms of a sequel, I actually did think of doing a Willow goes to Hogwarts to recover type of story. It would give me another opportunity to put Giles up against Snape again without dancing away from canon too much. Unfortunately, it would have to be really really good to stand out against the other Willow goes to Hogwarts stories, so I'm just going to let that idea simmer on the back burner for awhile. I'd also thought about doing a comedy piece as a companion, chronicling all the silly problems Remus had trying to find Snape in Sunnydale. I might still do that, but not any time soon. (I can just see Remus at the Espresso Pump- "May I have a tea?" "What kind do you want? We have black, green, white, oolong, chai..." "Um, hot? And by any chance do you take sickles?") Your idea about an Oz-Remus story has potential. You should give it try! :)

I really enjoyed this one; I hope you undertake another epic soon!

Well, in some ways, you could say I'm undertaking an epic- I'm defending my dissertation in just a month! Unfortunately, that means its just eat, sleep, and parasitic wasps for the next few weeks. No fanfic for me. :( Hopefully I'll be back to my normal posting self by summer. I'm glad you liked the story!

this story was amazing...please write a sequel

A great chapter like all the others. I'm rather sad to see this story end. All though I have one question. What love spell are you talking about in the story that Willow cast? The only one I remember being cast before Cordy left was cast by Amy when Cordy and Xander broke up.

Hrm, I had forgotten that the girl-magnet spell was by Amy not Willow, but there's also the love spell Willow was supposed to make for Spike that caused the whole break-up in the first place. Cordy didn't exactly have a lot of faith in any spells Willow was casting.

Thanks for reading and reviewing, I'll have to go back and double check on the spell thing.

I'm a little sad that those two didn't make up, but it would be probably strange if they would make up, anyway. I like how Anya was involved. The ending was a little abrupt. Maybe I was expecting it to go to a 100 chapters.

Oh, I'm disappointed. I was hoping for a happy puppies and kittens ending. Of course, your ending is more realistic, considering the parties involved, but whoever said I read fanfiction for the realism?

I did enjoy reading it, though, it was interesting to read two separate yet connected stories at the same time. Thanks for writing! ~"~

Great story, good ending too

(but I wish you would take the happy face off or add a drama symbol... wait do we have one of those at TtH? Something to indicate not a happy ending. It had lots of happy moments but the unexpectedly not happy ending made the story for me at least more bitter than sweet.)

I really did enjoy the story though, thank you for writing it.

As much as I like happily ever afters, I am glad you resisted temptation. These guys - it just wasn't meant to be.

Congratulations on the completion of a fantastic story.

Thanks! As much as I love these two characters, I just couldn't have things end happily. I'm glad I'm not the only person to think that.

nice ending to a superb story! :)

Thanks!