Rare Pair Shorts

Ah, this was delightful! Your Hooch is such good company, and I thoroughly enjoyed the scattered hints of her backstory – her abbreviated career and practical reaction to her injury, her modest bedding of available women, her private thoughts about the dingy accommodations assigned her at Hogwarts (looking out on the back of the Quidditch stands, feh), her sly sense of humor, her friend/mentorship with younger Quidditch players, and the prevailing feeling that she's not looking to fall in love so much as seeking a companion.

I enjoyed the way her appreciation kept fighting the preconceptions instilled by Minerva's former students; from the beginning, Hooch is clearly attracted but continually curbs her interest at any sign that Minerva is indeed a 'battle-axe.'

I like that Dumbledore shows respect for Minerva's opinion and that they don't need to discuss it in closed session.

The fortuitous encounter at Haven is a fabulous tease; thank heavens for forthright, meddling butches!

The closing lines gave me a little zing of pleasure at the wordplay and the way 'battle-axe' is reclaimed from insult and remade as a word that wields power – and how it implies Hooch and Minerva are made for each other.

There was a limit to how much self-abasement she was willing to offer for four minutes' tardiness. An amusing valuation - and good for her, I say!

True, she wasn't looking forward to being buried up here in the Scottish back of beyond, but hell's bells, that's what Apparition was for. I like this both for the voice and for the casual incorporation of magic's influence on everyday expectations. Not a cure-all but an opportunity.

some uptight, overly-punctual Gorgon at the gate I can see how Minerva might appear this way to someone predisposed to find a Gorgon, and it makes it more delicious that Hooch's assumptions get overturned.

Hooch could entertain herself with naughty fantasies about her (a favorite technique for dealing with intimidating players) This is a useful way of leveling the playing field! Disciplinary fantasies, I've no doubt.

"No, but I didn't pay them too much," said Hooch. Saucy wench!

This is the sort of fic that makes me wish you had the time and inclination to write installments covering subsequent points in their relationship, so we could drop in and catch up on the latest, as one does with beloved friends.