Choose Something Like A Star
TeddyRadiator123 Reviews | 7.2/10 (123 Ratings, 0 Likes, 19 Favorites )
At Christmas, what do you give to the wizard who has...nothing?
I am very proud to note this was a TPP Featured Story, December 2012
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About TeddyRadiator
Author
TeddyRadiator
Member Since 2010 | 32 Stories | Favorited by 519 | 63 Reviews Written | 2,566 Review Responses
Just a small town girl who loves HG/SS fanfiction. You can always find me at LiveJournal: http://teddyradiator.livejournal.com/ where I 'live' on the net. 
Reviews for Choose Something Like A Star
I know I've left a review on this story in the past, but its only fair I leave another.This has become my 'go-to' Christmas story. I just finished re-reading again. Everything about it reminds me of the warm, loving family feelings of Christmas. Teddy, this story is such a gift for us, I'm so glad you wrote it. Such a wonderul life you've given Severus, Hermione and Rose. Everything we would all hope for.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Helena, Thank you so much for this lovely comment. You have no idea how much this means to me. I am thrilled to be part of your Christmas, and I cherish your friendship. Merry Christmas, dear <3 Teddy
Truly. You have the gift of heart. Loved this story. Thank you so much, it gave me just what I needed. :)
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much for your kind words - I'm so glad I could help!
Loved reading it once more!!!!!! DGM
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it - thank you for asking for it! :)
I found this site a few weeks ago and have been barrelling through stories on it. This is the first one that has prompted me to review. I laughed. I ached. I cringed. I cried. And, in the end I cried some more. It was simply beautiful. Thank you for sharing it with us. HG4eva
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much! Welcome to TPP - it's a marvelous archive, and I feel very privileged to be one of its authors. I'm really glad you enjoyed my Christmas story. I had a lot of fun writing it, and letting my internal schmaltz hold sway. It's unapologetically fluffy, but if you can't be fluffy at Christmas, when can you be? Enjoy all that TPP has to offer - I will be happy to give you recommendations for several of the stunning authors you will find here.
this is written amazingly; I am moved, furious , saddened, and happy Someone stepped in to give aid.
Very, very well-turned phrases....
Sorry , I shall read on.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much for your lovely comments - it is always thrilling to know a writer can move her reader.
One of the best new stories I've come acrossed in quite awhile!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much! I wrote it a couple of Christmases ago, and I get very sentimental at Christmas. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much! I wrote it a couple of Christmases ago, and I get very sentimental at Christmas. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
This is so poignantly sharp. So spot-on to how, I believe, the wizarding world would shun its pariahs. It's heart-rending but beautifully written! Thank you.
-dgm
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much for your wonderful comment! You've made my Christmas!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much for your wonderful comment! You've made my Christmas!
Such a lovely story...I love christmas themed stories and your Rose was perfect!Thanks so much for sharing it!xoxo
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you - Christmas stories are lovely, aren't they? I wanted to write one that would reflect my love of the holiday, and my love for this pairing. I've been so touched by the reception it has received. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you - Christmas stories are lovely, aren't they? I wanted to write one that would reflect my love of the holiday, and my love for this pairing. I've been so touched by the reception it has received. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
OK, crying like a baby here. Seriously, your story has brought me to tears. I found this on the TPP homepage and have just read it from start to finish. This is a completely wonderful story and masterfully written. It wasn't actually like reading; it was like I was hearing the story in my mind. Like a song, lyrical and poetic. Perfect from beginning to end. Thank you. This story is a wonderful gift.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so very much for your wonderful comment. This story was a gift to me as well - from my wonderful Muse, Dahlra - it was like taking dictation as I wrote it. I'm so glad you enjoyed it and that it pleased you.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so very much for your wonderful comment. This story was a gift to me as well - from my wonderful Muse, Dahlra - it was like taking dictation as I wrote it. I'm so glad you enjoyed it and that it pleased you.
Wow from begining to end!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you!
When i first read this story, last Christmas, my husband had just had a bone marrow transplant. He had lymphoma and we had been told that it usually comes back in about a year to a year and a half. All year long this story and that song have meant so much to me. This Christmas season finds us with still no sign of the cancer returning. I enjoyed reading this story. It is as lovely as your others. Thank you so much for sharing your gift with us. Look forward to reading many more from you.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much. I can't tell you what this means to me. I just send you loads of love and prayers for your husband's continued health, and that this Christmas and every Christmas to come is full of hope and joy for you both. Bless you.
Response from genesis1 (Reviewer)
Some stories, some writers are able to touch you in ways that others can even attempt. I have read tens of thousands of severus and hermione stories, but only a handful have real meaning to me. It has to be a combination of story and author because I have read other Christmas stories and other authors but not all have touched my heart. Thank you for this and your other beautiful stories. You will always be one of my favorites. Thank you for your kind wishes for our family. May your family be full of the joy and peace of Christmas everyday of their lives.thank you again.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
I cannot thank you enough for your kindness and generous comment. I send you love and comfort and good karma, and hopes for a holiday season filled with every good thing.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much. I can't tell you what this means to me. I just send you loads of love and prayers for your husband's continued health, and that this Christmas and every Christmas to come is full of hope and joy for you both. Bless you.
Response from genesis1 (Reviewer)
Some stories, some writers are able to touch you in ways that others can even attempt. I have read tens of thousands of severus and hermione stories, but only a handful have real meaning to me. It has to be a combination of story and author because I have read other Christmas stories and other authors but not all have touched my heart. Thank you for this and your other beautiful stories. You will always be one of my favorites. Thank you for your kind wishes for our family. May your family be full of the joy and peace of Christmas everyday of their lives.thank you again.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
I cannot thank you enough for your kindness and generous comment. I send you love and comfort and good karma, and hopes for a holiday season filled with every good thing.
"All good things come to an end" I PROTEST! 
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
LOL Thank you! I am always a little sad to end a story that I have enjoyed writing and crafting, but I have to say this one was one of the hardest to write "The End" for!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
LOL Thank you! I am always a little sad to end a story that I have enjoyed writing and crafting, but I have to say this one was one of the hardest to write "The End" for!
I had waited until the end of the story to leave my review, because I knew it - I just knew it! - that the ending would be so incredibly beautiful that it would transform everything I would have wanted to say about the story and take it to a whole new level (not that I didn't think the story was wonderful to start with - I did!) For me, this was one of the most powerful endings in fanfiction - the full circle with the concert, the sense of rightness of everything that happened to them since they met, and the incredibly poignant little twist when they both rushed to Severus - all this made my heart leap in joy and also - I admit it - wistfulness, much like Severus' own :). I think you did an incredible job of showing the course of the last twenty years of their life in this chapter without explicitly telling us about everything that has happened - it just revealed itself naturally through little details in the text, and the changes never felt fictional or forced. Through this technique you've captured something important about the passage of time itself - that it is invisible, yet real, that it changes some things, yet can (hopefully!) never change some others... What a great way to bring the story together, linking in one scene so many different emotions and holding together so many different moments from their past, their present, and their future... What a perfect ending! I can't enthuse about it enough.I have to make a separate note of how amazing your last last line is. This honestly could have been in any great work of literature, and it affected me more than any other line in this story (though it has a great many good lines!) I loved how you repeated it several times - this technique is a personal favourite. Your last line reminded me of the last line of "To the Lighthouse" - it has the same sudden finality, the same ability to sum everything up in just a few words. This story, unlike anything else so far this year (including the tawdry decorations already on display in department stores) really got me into a festive Christmas mood. It brings our the best of what Christmas is about, and its warmth and the depth of your insight into human relationships. the value of love - and the symbolism of Christmas - really touched me more than I can say here. The beginning of the story was dark and gripping, yet there was such an underlying profound moral theme throughout, and your Hermione and Rose are so thoroughly good, that the story as a whole nevertheless felt like a true Christmas fairy-tale, and at times rather Dickensian, if I may say so:). It thoroughly redeemed the reader from all the darkness of the beginning - and this sadly doesn't happen too often in literature or fanfiction. The story was so well written that the redemption felt real, and truly transformational (not the kind of standard "happy ending" fare that's there just to please the reader... it is woven into the fabric of the story so deeply.) Ok, this review is getting really long (though never too long for such a lovely author :), so to sum up my feelings about the story, I must say that it really shows that the author was truly inspired - and that translates into what the reader feels too... What an amazing person you must be, having written such a profound, gentle, heart-warming story full of faith, and hope, and light, and goodness. Very very very well done!! You are now one of my absolute favourite authors! :)P.S. I forgot to say that the scene with the kiss the the Forest was exquisitely beautiful and one of my favourites in fanfiction too!
Response from madhatter24 (Reviewer)
P.S. Sorry - I meant not "To the Lighthouse", but "Mrs Dalloway" :) I got overexcited and mixed up my titles ))
Response from madhatter24 (Reviewer)
P.P.S. And I have to mention that your choice of title and epigraph is incredible! ))
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
I think I have sat here for about ten minutes trying to come up with the right words to express just how touched and humbled I am by your review. You said everything I have ever wanted to be as an author, and I'm just so overwhelmed by your beautiful comments. I hope to be worthy of everything you said. I really want to be. This story was what I refer to as "Muse-driven". I believe in a spiritual Muse who gives me my stories, and in stories like this. it almost feels like I'm just taking dictation. I would also say that my incredible beta, Stgulik, is also instrumental as well. She has a way of pruning away the stuff I dont need, and concentrating everything down to exactly what I need to say. But at the beginning and end is this precious Muse of mine, who has been my companion all my life, and who inspires me daily. All your comments have warmed my heart more than I can say, and writing this story was a beautiful experience, but even more beautiful is knowing that I have pleased you and given you something that you enjoyed. Thank you so very, very much for your beautiful comment. I shall treasure it always.
Response from madhatter24 (Reviewer)
P.S. Sorry - I meant not "To the Lighthouse", but "Mrs Dalloway" :) I got overexcited and mixed up my titles ))
Response from madhatter24 (Reviewer)
P.P.S. And I have to mention that your choice of title and epigraph is incredible! ))
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
I think I have sat here for about ten minutes trying to come up with the right words to express just how touched and humbled I am by your review. You said everything I have ever wanted to be as an author, and I'm just so overwhelmed by your beautiful comments. I hope to be worthy of everything you said. I really want to be. This story was what I refer to as "Muse-driven". I believe in a spiritual Muse who gives me my stories, and in stories like this. it almost feels like I'm just taking dictation. I would also say that my incredible beta, Stgulik, is also instrumental as well. She has a way of pruning away the stuff I dont need, and concentrating everything down to exactly what I need to say. But at the beginning and end is this precious Muse of mine, who has been my companion all my life, and who inspires me daily. All your comments have warmed my heart more than I can say, and writing this story was a beautiful experience, but even more beautiful is knowing that I have pleased you and given you something that you enjoyed. Thank you so very, very much for your beautiful comment. I shall treasure it always.
Thank you for this story. I think I am always a bit wistful that Severus and Hermione had no more children, but how could they have ever successfully competed with Rose?I wish you the best with your upcoming stories.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
I do like to write them with children, but as you say, this story was as much about Rose as it was them, so I wanted to focus my attention there. Have no fear, they will have other babies, if I have anything to do with it! ;)
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
I do like to write them with children, but as you say, this story was as much about Rose as it was them, so I wanted to focus my attention there. Have no fear, they will have other babies, if I have anything to do with it! ;)
What a wonderful story.. I always love your writing, but this one, I think you outdid yourself. Keep up the wonderful work!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so very much! I really appreciate your kind comment. I am planning on posting all my work here on TPP in the next few months, so you'll be seeing a lot of me here!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so very much! I really appreciate your kind comment. I am planning on posting all my work here on TPP in the next few months, so you'll be seeing a lot of me here!
Well, that was quite a twist. A lovely sense of irony, Severus ending up in a paternal role with Harry after all this time.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you! This has gotten mixed reactions, but what can you do? The Muse dictates, and I just write it down! ;)
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you! This has gotten mixed reactions, but what can you do? The Muse dictates, and I just write it down! ;)
Ah, we knew he wasn't gone for long. Picking up the engagement ring was a nice touch, though. I was hoping that's where he had gone.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Yes, a closet romantic...
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Yes, a closet romantic...
:) lovely
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you!
Lol, I love it!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you!
Your prologue did its job - Im hooked.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
I'm glad - and I hope you continue to enjoy the story.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
I'm glad - and I hope you continue to enjoy the story.
Nice touch, having Severus give the photos etc to Harry. :)
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
;)
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
;)
Your Rose is splendid.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you!
That had to be one of the hottest love scenes I've ever read! I love the idea of them pleasuring themselves, together, and using it as a teaching exercise/learning experience.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much! I have been criticised for this sequence, but I felt the exact same way as you - they are such creatures of knowledge, and they would want to learn, always learn.
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much! I have been criticised for this sequence, but I felt the exact same way as you - they are such creatures of knowledge, and they would want to learn, always learn.
Wow! That's a fantastic gift for Severus, and such a perfect new Patronus for him. I love the picture of the entire Order (minus Hermione) outside of Kingsley's house, demanding justice for Severus. So, is he going to save the suppressor cuff as a souvenir, or destroy it with Fiendfyre? Thank you for posting!
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much! I'm not sure what he did with it - perhaps in the blast of magic he experienced, it was obliterated! ;)
Response from TeddyRadiator (Author of Choose Something Like A Star)
Thank you so much! I'm not sure what he did with it - perhaps in the blast of magic he experienced, it was obliterated! ;)