I ended up voting for 7 and 5. The Fleamont story was my favorite I think since it had good characterization of Fleamont and Effie and a couple neat ideas about divination. I think the use of the prompt was also pretty unique. The prose was also pretty solid.

i also liked 5. There were a couple awkward moments writing-wise, but I think the potions deal is a great frame, and it opens a lot of questions for me while also feeling complete as a flash fiction piece focusing on Gerald. I’d love to see the author return to the piece and flesh out how the statute fell.

 

My favorites were #6 and #5, with an honorable mention to #7. I'm happy with the entries received. Not gonna lie, there have been some competitions in the past where I wouldn't even review, because it was such a chore to read through some of the entries and I just gave up (disclaimer: I've definitely written at least one such story myself). In this round, some fics were better than others, but none were bad. The writing style in a few stories tickled something in the back of my head and I could probably make an educated guess as to who might've written them, but the majority I had absolutely no clue on. It's reminded me that DLP has a lot of talented authors lurking around.

I just wanted to thank everyone who contributed. It was a joy to read through these.

 

I agree, some good quality stories this time. There were a lot I liked. I think sometimes the shorter word count gets more people to jump in.

Also, I think it might be a fun game to see how you score on the guessing of that 'tickling.'