Overall the story was very well-done, especially in terms of character development. I was especially pleased with the author's different take on Percy, Snape, and the Weasleys as a whole, and how these characters could have acted differently if the circumstances were slightly tweaked.
My one major complaint with this story, though, is that often the author seemed to be bending over backwards to keep the canon timeline intact, even when there was no good reason to do so. There are some situations when it would make sense for the characters to try not to change too much so that they can predict what's coming, but that ceases to be a viable option when it puts others' lives in danger (i.e. the basilisk), and there were other options. Had the author let them be more proactive and explored the consequences of a changing timeline this could have been a great story, on par with NoFP, but as things stand there are a lot of improvements that could have been made.
Good, but Could be Better
Overall the story was very well-done, especially in terms of character development. I was especially pleased with the author's different take on Percy, Snape, and the Weasleys as a whole, and how these characters could have acted differently if the circumstances were slightly tweaked.
My one major complaint with this story, though, is that often the author seemed to be bending over backwards to keep the canon timeline intact, even when there was no good reason to do so. There are some situations when it would make sense for the characters to try not to change too much so that they can predict what's coming, but that ceases to be a viable option when it puts others' lives in danger (i.e. the basilisk), and there were other options. Had the author let them be more proactive and explored the consequences of a changing timeline this could have been a great story, on par with NoFP, but as things stand there are a lot of improvements that could have been made.