I'm back for further squee and thanks. Truly, Mystery Author, this piece is simply outstanding, and I am privileged to receive it. It's everything I love about these characters and about the possibilities of fanfic. I adore book!fic and wordsmithing and sexy intellect and precise language and strong, sexy, smart women, and you've given me beautifully-crafted doses of all of these things.

I'm going to indulge myself by going through this fic to comment section by section, because each one is a little jewel.

i. The opening line is terrific, encapsulating as it does exactly the feeling one has (or at least, the feeling I had) when beginning a teaching career. The physical distance between being in front of the desk and being behind it is very small, but oh! the metaphorical distance is immeasurable. And of course, the imposter syndrome! I've never fully gotten over it, and I've been in the classroom for thirty years.

ii. how the small things she learns in books stay so long in her mind.

Oh, Hermione! Such a spot-on observation. I suspect this experience is universal for book-lovers. (And of course, we teachers can never resist the temptation to tell these things to others, even if the others would rather not hear /g/).

iii. A thought slips into her mind like light beneath a door:
Great simile

iv. The musty scent of their age makes her heart flutter; she longs to simply spread them out on the floor, open all at once, and learn.

Like Tjswhatnot, I adore this line, both for what it says about books (honestly, there's no smell I like better than old books) and for what it says about Hermione and her feelings about books and Minerva. This...THIS is the epitome of the erotographia.

Propaganda by omission Indeed. An apt description of much standardized education, unfortunately.

v. each of Ravenclaw's lines opens like a flower, gradual and exquisite.
"Exquisite" just like this line.

no time at all passing as pages turn from puzzles to poems in her mind
Love the alliteration here, the notion of "puzzles to poems" -- just how translation works. Love that Rowena's work is in OE; of course it would be.

Hermione checks and double checks her translation, surprised at how fervently she needs it to be right.
Love your Hermione.

vi. The hot/cold contrasts in this section work beautifully. And overseen by the owl of wisdom, of course.

vii. I love Minerva's letter. It's a great way for us to hear her voice in this story -- through the written word, a letter that is careful and crafted; one can almost see her choosing each word.

as well as powerfully encouraged never to repeat the errors of the past.
Until the political events of recent months, I once had this faith in the teaching of history, too. I fear I no longer do. I hope, for the world's sake, that the future proves Minerva right and me wrong.

feeling the pages grow lighter in her right hand and reading slower, slower, slower, savouring every word.

Again, the perfect merging of reading and desire -- it's every reader's and every lover's experience.

viii. she holds the quill in an iron grip, inches above the parchment, as though she can force her feelings to form themselves into coherent words by will alone.
Great description -- the power of the pen (or maybe I should say, the quintessence of the quill)

Love the poem; just brilliant all around. Four-stress lines, just as we'd expect from Old English verse; I think Hermione's got the hang of this translation thing!

O goddess wise, born full-grown
Lie with me like page beside page
From the head of Zeus!
That simile is just so evocative -- another perfect blend of book and bed.

With your owl's eyes all-seeing
And read in my heart the rarest runes.
Yes! Back to our owl of Section vi. That last line is perfect.

ix. feeling dizzy, like treading on clouds.

I can imagine. I do so hope that they both get their storybook ends!

Thank you, MA. I can't wait to find out who you are.