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| author | Tyler Davis <tydavis@gmail.com> | 2016-03-23 19:28:34 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Tyler Davis <tydavis@gmail.com> | 2016-03-23 19:28:34 -0700 |
| commit | 91c32d0505b2cb76fd5ba9de59163b9e13c6ea34 (patch) | |
| tree | d8b321a09450c1ce3bee6ce0ced55dfd9c525f43 | |
| parent | 2b63971bd6397edf25489602b98bdf10f4a410d9 (diff) | |
| download | lightningwavestories-91c32d0505b2cb76fd5ba9de59163b9e13c6ea34.tar.gz lightningwavestories-91c32d0505b2cb76fd5ba9de59163b9e13c6ea34.zip | |
Cleaned up IAATB
| -rw-r--r-- | tex/IAmAlsoThyBrother.tex | 1564 |
1 files changed, 500 insertions, 1064 deletions
diff --git a/tex/IAmAlsoThyBrother.tex b/tex/IAmAlsoThyBrother.tex index c043943..0b576b2 100644 --- a/tex/IAmAlsoThyBrother.tex +++ b/tex/IAmAlsoThyBrother.tex @@ -9,36 +9,30 @@ \usepackage[top=1.0in,bottom=1.0in,left=1.0in,right=1.0in]{geometry} %opening \begin{document} -\title{Wind That Shakes the Seas and Stars} -\date{June 23, 2006} +\title{I Am Also Thy Brother} +\date{January 5, 2007} \author{Lightning on the Wave \and Assembled in \LaTeX \\ by Tyler Davis \\ \texttt{tydavis@gmail.com}} \maketitle \tableofcontents - -\section{I Am Also Thy Brother}\label{i-am-also-thy-brother} - -\textbf{Story:} I Am Also Thy Brother\\ -\textbf{Storylink:} \url{https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3189131/1/}\\ -\textbf{Category:} Harry Potter\\ -\textbf{Genre:} Tragedy/Horror\\ -\textbf{Author:} Lightning on the Wave\\ -\textbf{Authorlink:} \url{https://www.fanfiction.net/u/895946/}\\ -\textbf{Last updated:} 01/05/2007\\ -\textbf{Words:} 543467\\ -\textbf{Rating:} M\\ -\textbf{Status:} Complete\\ -\textbf{Content:} Chapter 1 to 107 of 107 chapters\\ -\textbf{Source:} FanFiction.net\\[2\baselineskip]\textbf{Summary:} AU, -part 7 of Sacrifices. In the wake of death and disaster, Harry struggles -to be everything he is: leader, lover, son, and brother. Yet what will -survive the War diminishes every day he does not find and destroy a -Horcrux. - -\subsection{*Chapter 1*: Last and -Darkest}\label{chapter-1-last-and-darkest} - -\textbf{Title}{I Am Also Thy Brother} +% \textbf{Story:} I Am Also Thy Brother\\ +% \textbf{Storylink:} \url{https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3189131/1/}\\ +% \textbf{Category:} Harry Potter\\ +% \textbf{Genre:} Tragedy/Horror\\ +% \textbf{Author:} Lightning on the Wave\\ +% \textbf{Authorlink:} \url{https://www.fanfiction.net/u/895946/}\\ +% \textbf{Last updated:} 01/05/2007\\ +% \textbf{Words:} 543467\\ +% \textbf{Rating:} M\\ +% \textbf{Status:} Complete\\ +% \textbf{Content:} Chapter 1 to 107 of 107 chapters\\ +% \textbf{Source:} FanFiction.net\\[2\baselineskip]\textbf{Summary:} AU, +% part 7 of Sacrifices. In the wake of death and disaster, Harry struggles +% to be everything he is: leader, lover, son, and brother. Yet what will +% survive the War diminishes every day he does not find and destroy a +% Horcrux. + +\chapter*{Word from the Author} \textbf{Disclaimer}: All recognizable characters, settings, objects, and spells in this story belong to J. K. Rowling. I am making no money off @@ -71,12 +65,8 @@ And yes, I'm starting this a few days early. Couldn't be helped. If you're interested in babble as to why, the link to my LJ is in my profile. -\textbf{First chapter warning: Cliffhanger} - -{\textbf{I Am Also Thy Brother}} - -\textbf{Chapter One: Last and Darkest} +\chapter{Last and Darkest} Harry woke in the night to the sound of sobbing. He sat up slowly, fumbling at his glasses, his sleep-fogged mind trying @@ -264,7 +254,7 @@ is still well within the wards.} \emph{There are decisions I need to make.} -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} It had begun with a flare in the Floo connection, which he kept open night and day now, and someone he hadn't recognized at first shouting, @@ -454,7 +444,7 @@ that these people had valuable information, and also that the \emph{vates} would try to keep them away from the Ministry if he could. Seizing them this way couldn't be helped. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Somehow, even after his mother's description, Draco hadn't imagined the Dreamer's Crown would bring him to a place that looked like this. @@ -550,7 +540,7 @@ are dead.} And the vision dissolved in turn, and Draco, his decision made, woke up. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} It was gone. @@ -616,7 +606,7 @@ He would become what he had to, to survive and to aid his son. \emph{I belong to myself. And I choose this. Again and again.} -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Narcissa defied embraces. @@ -672,7 +662,7 @@ firelight, and glad of it. \emph{I do not want a husband whose love is not as strong as mine. I will not be the dependent one.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Somehow---she was not sure how, because, really, since she was the baby of the family, she would have expected it the opposite way around---she @@ -811,7 +801,7 @@ now he was \emph{gone} and she would never have the chance to tell him. So she cried, and Ron stroked her hair and whispered to her, and so they mourned their brother together. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Millicent did not cry. It was not allowed. @@ -856,7 +846,7 @@ individual. \emph{We endure anything,} Millicent thought, as she waited for the solicitor to speak to her. \emph{Anything. Even this.} -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The Headmistress had indeed sealed off the Astronomy Tower, with a series of wards. They weren't linked to the school, however---Harry @@ -1039,12 +1029,7 @@ had warrants for the arrest of Severus Snape, Peter Pettigrew, and Regulus Black. I'm sorry, Harry. They've taken them to Tullianum as suspected spies for Voldemort.'' -\subsection{*Chapter 2*: Their Wills Be As -Steel}\label{chapter-2-their-wills-be-as-steel} - -Thanks for the reviews yesterday! Quite a welcome back. - -\textbf{Chapter Two: Their Wills Be As Steel} +\chapter{Their Wills Be As Steel}\label{chapter-2-their-wills-be-as-steel} ``I see, Headmistress,'' Harry said, calm as the wind before a storm. ``Thank you for telling me.'' @@ -1132,7 +1117,7 @@ Her only chance was to recover as quickly as she could. The world outside the hospital wing needed her too badly to let her lounge around in bed. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry's mind raced smoothly through the steps he would have to take as he went back to the dungeons with Owen. He was glad that this crisis had @@ -1226,7 +1211,7 @@ Ministry on your own.} Moody's voice through the flare of phoenix song, and turned to explaining again. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Aurora lifted her head, uneasy. Erasmus had called for her a few hours ago, after he was convinced that he was secure in his power, and she had @@ -1260,7 +1245,7 @@ grasp. face, now, for the magic that she could feel boiling throughout London and heading towards the front door of the Ministry. ``That's Harry.'' -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Erasmus was prepared by the time Harry and his---troupe, was perhaps the best name, given that no other single word could possibly encompass the @@ -1551,7 +1536,7 @@ outweighed any benefit he might have offered. ``Well,'' he said. ``It seems he must be brought to heel.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} He'd felt it begin even as he fell into the grip of the intense, icy rage that had sustained him in the Ministry office. He'd felt @@ -1711,7 +1696,7 @@ He yawned, dragged a knuckle across his eyes, and then went back to the dungeons and his bed. He might as well snatch the hour or so of sleep he would have before Draco awakened and he had things to do. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} It was awful, Connor thought. Solemn and awful. @@ -1842,12 +1827,7 @@ ask, later. Harry gave a final, soft trill, and so Percy Weasley was buried. -\subsection{*Chapter 3*: Intermission: Welcome, Beloved -Nephew}\label{chapter-3-intermission-welcome-beloved-nephew} - -Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter! - -\textbf{Intermission: Welcome, Beloved Nephew} +\chapter{Intermission: Welcome, Beloved Nephew}\label{chapter-3-intermission-welcome-beloved-nephew} Indigena sighed and shook herself out from the Apparition, tempted to bid the embrace of the earth around her welcome as she would a sister. @@ -2056,14 +2036,7 @@ thinking of all the traitors, past and present, who had come home to her Lord or would in the future. \emph{They may try to flee from it, but they cannot run forever.} -\subsection{*Chapter 4*: The Future All -Afire}\label{chapter-4-the-future-all-afire} - -Thanks for the comments on the last chapter! - -\textbf{Warning: Gore.} - -\textbf{Chapter Three: The Future All Afire} +\chapter{The Future All Afire}\label{chapter-4-the-future-all-afire} It was a good thing Draco wasn't wearing the Dreamer's Crown tonight, he thought. Otherwise, he wouldn't have awakened even when Harry abruptly @@ -2239,7 +2212,7 @@ room. Draco nodded a greeting to him, but his thoughts were elsewhere. this on Hogwarts grounds, eager to get out there as soon as possible. I wonder what's changed?} -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} It took an enormous effort to hold himself in check, but Harry knew it had to be done. He would gain no lives back if he moved too fast. His @@ -2309,7 +2282,7 @@ In his head, Voldemort laughed, and flung more pain. Harry struggled to keep his feet, impatiently. He was needed in this battle, not collapsing on the floor. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor felt determined, as he came down the steps from the sixth-year boys' room in Gryffindor Tower. His mind ran through every Light and @@ -2433,7 +2406,7 @@ doors and spoke softly to his left wrist. ``We're ready, Headmistress.'' The doors flung open, the wards fell down so they could cross from safety into danger, and Harry led them out. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} His head hurt like fire and thunder and fury. @@ -2505,7 +2478,7 @@ distance! Fight back to back!'' Then he plunged into the Forest, Draco on one side and Connor on the other, and heard battle yells mingle with the music he'd set flowing. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Ron knew it wasn't vampires that had killed Percy. He was perfectly aware of that. If someone had sat him down and asked him about vampires, @@ -2551,7 +2524,7 @@ which was not one he'd trained in, but one he'd heard of and read about. "\emph{Solstitialis}!" -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco had two things to do: keep an eye on Harry, and kill vampires. Both of them, he thought, were simple enough. @@ -2626,7 +2599,7 @@ situation. Then the ground shook. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry felt the moment someone cast the Solstice Summons. His breath caught, and a current of cold, solid air seemed to surge past him. It @@ -2921,13 +2894,7 @@ But what he could do, he would. He walked slowly forward to begin cleaning up, his heart feeling as hollow and empty as his head without Voldemort. -\subsection{*Chapter 5*: Interlude: A Clangor of -Voices}\label{chapter-5-interlude-a-clangor-of-voices} - -Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter! - -\textbf{Interlude: A Clangor of Voices} - +\chapter{Interlude: A Clangor of Voices}\label{chapter-5-interlude-a-clangor-of-voices} \emph{The Daily Prophet} \emph{June 9th, 1997} @@ -2980,7 +2947,7 @@ Aurors. That will not happen again. We will not become what we fight.'' The Acting Minister added that he hoped to have more definite answers on his negotiations with the {vates} by next week. -SSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} \emph{{\textbf{Savior or Menace?}}} @@ -3052,7 +3019,7 @@ the ear, and effortlessly ignoring his spouted fantasies about wanting to fight at Harry's side. "I only know that I wish it was over with, and that we just knew what he was {doing}." -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} \emph{The Daily Prophet} @@ -3104,10 +3071,7 @@ favors.'' Comment on the matter is as yet unavailable from Harry {vates} or any magical creature. -\subsection{*Chapter 6*: Bringing Him to -Heel}\label{chapter-6-bringing-him-to-heel} - -\textbf{Chapter Four: Bringing Him to Heel} +\chapter{Bringing Him to Heel}\label{chapter-6-bringing-him-to-heel} ``I do think that you made the right decision,'' Aurora said, trying to control both the impulse to snap and the blood that hammered in her @@ -3186,7 +3150,7 @@ war.'' Aurora smiled, her headache easing for the first time that morning. ``Just so.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Again.'' @@ -3385,7 +3349,7 @@ an alliance with him in lieu of everyone finding out.'' He took a deep breath. "And I know \emph{exactly} which way to convince him that that's wrong." -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco had been staring at the letter that had come for him for the last five minutes, trying to decide on the best course of action. @@ -3459,7 +3423,7 @@ Gringotts making their demand. He liked to have more than one weapon up his sleeve. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry smiled as politely as he could through the green flames in the Floo connection, and inclined his head. ``Madam Whitestag,'' he said. He @@ -3663,7 +3627,7 @@ half a growl. \emph{Anything I can do to discomfit the bastard is fair game.} -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``That---no,'' said Aurora blankly, and then leaned back in her chair. @@ -3700,12 +3664,7 @@ Admittedly, that thought made him feel better before one of the Aurors came dashing in to report that Harry, had after all, made a public statement, and it was rather different than anyone had expected. -\subsection{*Chapter 7*: Interlude: The -Offers}\label{chapter-7-interlude-the-offers} - -Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter! - -\textbf{Interlude: The Offers} +\chapter{Interlude: The Offers}\label{chapter-7-interlude-the-offers} \emph{June 18th, 1997} @@ -3740,7 +3699,7 @@ insulted, for we know mortals grow uneasy in our presence. \emph{Vermillion.} -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} \emph{June 18th, 1997} @@ -3801,12 +3760,7 @@ With warm and sisterly regards, {Vita desinit, decus permanit.} -\subsection{*Chapter 8*: Rider on the -Hatred}\label{chapter-8-rider-on-the-hatred} - -Thanks for the reviews on the Interlude! - -\textbf{Chapter Five: Rider on the Hatred} +\chapter{Rider on the Hatred}\label{chapter-8-rider-on-the-hatred} Minerva stood with head high and arms folded as she watched the last of the first-year Gryffindors Floo through the hearth in her office, on @@ -3875,7 +3829,7 @@ Hogwarts students in the autumn term.'' It was lucky she was no stranger to battles. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``And the beds tell me stories, and with coaxing, they will tell me stories that I haven't heard from them before,'' Luna finished with a @@ -4024,7 +3978,7 @@ course---in this case, speaking with Moon and asking him if he'd heard anything of a vampire called Vermillion before this. There was \emph{always} something else to do. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco stood close to Harry in ways that no one else did, so of course he would see things that no one else could. @@ -4170,7 +4124,7 @@ A slight tremor ran through the beach. Draco had little time to think about it before hands shot up out of a pit in the sand and grabbed his ankles. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry threw himself sideways, and the hands that shot out of the concealed pit in the sand missed him. He landed badly, though, @@ -4276,7 +4230,7 @@ tearing him apart with claws sharper than any hatred Voldemort could have mustered, his scar burning and burning and burning as his vision dimmed. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor pulled and struggled and kept his hand reaching frantically. He did not look up from the hold of the drone's arms at anyone else, @@ -4391,7 +4345,7 @@ Connor knew the spell to use for that, too. Pointing his wand straight at Harry, he whispered, "\emph{Memoriola amoris.}" -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} In and out, and all he could see was the death and the destruction that Voldemort had dealt, or that Harry had dealt, or that they would deliver @@ -4508,13 +4462,7 @@ Harry nodded, closed his eyes, and Apparated. In his head, Voldemort had fallen silent. -\subsection{*Chapter 9*: Indelible -Signs}\label{chapter-9-indelible-signs} - -Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter!\textbf{\\ -} - -\textbf{Chapter Six: Indelible Signs} +\chapter{Indelible Signs}\label{chapter-9-indelible-signs} Draco's eyes weren't listening to him. He had commanded the room to stop being fuzzy when he opened them, but still his vision had a blurred, @@ -4698,7 +4646,7 @@ wing. Draco punched the pillow behind him. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry hesitated for a long moment in front of the door to Snape's quarters. Madam Pomfrey had let him leave the hospital wing when he @@ -4919,7 +4867,7 @@ eyes and let himself take pleasure, comfort, even rest in the strength of that hold, and not think about the fragility of the heart that beat beneath it. -SSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Harry.'' @@ -5046,7 +4994,7 @@ supposed it wasn't such a problem for Harry's lover. His major part today was to stand behind Harry, and if he grinned like an idiot while he did it, that was acceptable. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry's mind was busy with past Midsummers as he strode towards the ring of people waiting near the Forbidden Forest. @@ -5538,12 +5486,7 @@ talking he was doing. \emph{Perhaps I'm still distinguishable from a Lord after all.} -\subsection{*Chapter 10*: The Order of the -Firebird}\label{chapter-10-the-order-of-the-firebird} - -Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter! - -\textbf{Chapter Seven: The Order of the Firebird} +\chapter{The Order of the Firebird}\label{chapter-10-the-order-of-the-firebird} ``I know it's not the same,'' Connor whispered as he launched the paper boat into the water, and then wondered who he was talking to---sun, or @@ -5697,7 +5640,7 @@ where they'd stood a few moments before his Apparition. Grinning like a fool, Connor forced himself to attend closely to what Peter was saying. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} \emph{This is a most unusual invitation.} @@ -5946,7 +5889,7 @@ mother does not make her a failure as a Yaxley.} Indigena rose and left the room without a word. She had learned a bitter lesson, and learned it too late. There was nothing \emph{to} say. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``You are ready?'' Peregrine asked, head tilted back to stare up at him as they walked towards the meadow where the contest would be held. She @@ -6203,7 +6146,7 @@ He tore free of the press at last, and lifted his head to call. Their voices blended with his, an endless eerie chorus to announce the latest addition to the long lineage of pack leaders. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Erasmus shivered as he appeared from Apparition. He could hear werewolves howling somewhere near, and it was not a comfortable sound. @@ -6362,12 +6305,7 @@ the path that runs up into the Light.} And all the world was light. -\subsection{*Chapter 11*: Intermission: -Testing}\label{chapter-11-intermission-testing} - -The lines quoted here are from Swinburne's ``The Garden of Proserpine.'' - -\textbf{Intermission: Testing} +\chapter{Intermission: Testing}\label{chapter-11-intermission-testing} It felt rather like hurling himself against the equivalent of steel coils armed with blades, but why shouldn't he do it? It wasn't as though @@ -6443,7 +6381,7 @@ Lord's boots, murmuring, ``I live to serve, my Lord.'' furiously, and moved to another place in the barriers to begin his search again. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Hawthorn knew she could wake. @@ -6506,7 +6444,7 @@ that made her struggle ever so much harder. ``I have a task for you as well,'' her Lord said softly, and the snake around his waist danced and danced and danced. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} His days were an endless round. Sometimes he brewed potions that his Lord told him to make, and sometimes he worked on inventing an @@ -6592,12 +6530,7 @@ Adalrico turned back to the potion. \emph{Only the sleep eternal, in an eternal night.} -\subsection{*Chapter 12*: A Blizzard of Bad -News}\label{chapter-12-a-blizzard-of-bad-news} - -Man, this is an ugly chapter. \textbf{Warning for gore.} - -\textbf{Chapter Eight: A Blizzard of Bad News} +\chapter{A Blizzard of Bad News}\label{chapter-12-a-blizzard-of-bad-news} Harry paced in a circle, studying the way that Ginny was aiming her wand at the far wall of the dueling room. So far, he hadn't seen anything to @@ -6655,7 +6588,7 @@ him pain. He felt his body begin to jerk, and then the visions swept in, one after the other, a blizzard of bad news seeming to travel down the red hot wires Voldemort had clamped to his brain. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Honoria stretched her arms to the sky. She enjoyed being the liaison with the Maenad Press and Dionysus Hornblower, but she still loved the @@ -6753,7 +6686,7 @@ Honoria blinked, and blinked, and it was only then, with the guarantee of not losing her life in the next ten seconds, that she was able to cry. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} "\emph{Thomas!}" @@ -6868,7 +6801,7 @@ Portkey, and then Thomas's voice cut off. He'd gone with Robert, then. She smiled, and closed her eyes, so that her last sight was not Hawthorn's desolate face, or the wall covered in her own life's blood. -SSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} He did not want to do this. He could at least hold that thought in the dead of night to comfort himself, when no one else would come to do it, @@ -6987,7 +6920,7 @@ And hatred shook, and settled back into his soul. Adalrico stood and calmly Apparated back to tell his Lord what had happened, though, of a certainty, he already knew. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Millicent jerked her head up. The wards had fallen, and that meant Blackstone was no longer safe. @@ -7094,7 +7027,7 @@ voice came after her, soft and reverent. ``I have the best luck with Bulstrode women.'' -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} It seemed like a long time before Harry could open his eyes. He was lying in a hospital bed; he knew that from the feeling of the sheets @@ -7242,16 +7175,7 @@ Voldemort's voice repeating the hateful words. \emph{I will take from you everything that you have loved.} -\subsection{*Chapter 13*: Dancer In His -Mind}\label{chapter-13-dancer-in-his-mind} - -Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter! - -This chapter might be a bit confusing; it's deliberately non-linear, -following Harry's thoughts more faithfully than a strict chronological -structure. - -\textbf{Chapter Nine: Dancer In His Mind} +\chapter{Dancer In His Mind}\label{chapter-13-dancer-in-his-mind} ``How will we know when to wake you?'' Draco's voice was steady, but his eyes glittered with a mixture of frustration and anger that almost @@ -7369,7 +7293,7 @@ the visions would hit Connor instead, leaving Harry's mind clear. And it was all thanks to the potion they'd found. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry stared down at the book in front of him for a moment. He could feel the compulsion boiling along the edges of the black cover, waiting @@ -7398,7 +7322,7 @@ comfrey in his stores, and two identical chips of red stones, and hippogriff feathers. It was the conditions, which were listed under the potion, where Harry found the reason that this was not more widely used. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} \emph{Ready?} @@ -7453,7 +7377,7 @@ face as a smirk. \emph{Let's see what you do now, Tom.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} "But what \emph{good} is it, then?" Draco drummed his fingers on the table. "If it 's supposed to switch dreams or pains or something else @@ -7575,7 +7499,7 @@ done, Draco, and that's final." Draco folded his arms and looked as sulky as the potions book. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry came in under the cloudbank, which had Voldemort furiously lashing and stinging, trying to see through the ``smoke'' and strike at him. @@ -7631,7 +7555,7 @@ that than he would through Harry's Occlumency. And Harry understood why, given the conversation he'd had with Snape the day before. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Sit down, Harry.'' @@ -7749,7 +7673,7 @@ determined. He nodded, his eyes never looking away from Snape's. ``I promise.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Now, Harry let his breath out, and tried to calm the rapid beat of his heart. He had to do this deliberately, even though he wanted to hurry @@ -7776,7 +7700,7 @@ He took one more moment to remember how Connor had agreed to bear the pain of the visions for him, and to remind himself that his brother didn't consider him an evil creature for using Legilimency like this. -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Of course I will, Harry.'' @@ -7810,7 +7734,7 @@ Harry had shaken his head and lunged across the table to hug Connor, because there were no words he could offer that were adequate next to that. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Now, in the scar connection between his mind and Voldemort's, Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath. @@ -7986,10 +7910,7 @@ that things go back where they belonged, whether that was the capacity for visions of blood and pain returning to his mind, or the darkness sliding back into the abyss. -\subsection{*Chapter 14*: Intermission: The Bad -Seed}\label{chapter-14-intermission-the-bad-seed} - -\textbf{Intermission: The Bad Seed} +\chapter{Intermission: The Bad Seed}\label{chapter-14-intermission-the-bad-seed} Indigena sighed, and gently touched the flower on the end of her right wrist, which wept cold, soft dew, to her Lord's forehead again. There @@ -8129,9 +8050,7 @@ warm air around her and reminding herself it was June, not December. And through her body at the deepest levels, down at the soil, ran a whisper of premonition. \emph{This is not good.} -\subsection{*Chapter 15*: Safehouses}\label{chapter-15-safehouses} - -\textbf{Chapter Ten: Safehouses} +\chapter{Safehouses}\label{chapter-15-safehouses} ``Harry! Wait.'' @@ -8225,7 +8144,7 @@ Meanwhile, it had the effect of binding him more closely to his future brother-in-law and actually improving the war effort. Everyone gained, from what Draco could see. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry knocked gently on the door in front of him. ``Mrs. Rosier-Henlin?'' he called, because he knew that they weren't close @@ -8399,7 +8318,7 @@ Michael flushed, and nodded. ``I'll remember, Harry.'' Michael didn't call him back, but Harry looked over his shoulder to see him standing with his arms wrapped around himself, as if he were cold. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``I don't think you can.'' @@ -8527,7 +8446,7 @@ personal cost. He just wished it hadn't been Connor Potter who pointed it out to him. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Regulus hadn't been in Snape's rooms. Harry finally used the phoenix song to call on him, and Regulus told him he was in Silver-Mirror. But @@ -8719,7 +8638,7 @@ Then he closed his eyes and went to sleep. Harry sighed, and let Andromeda sweep him into the main hall of Silver-Mirror, where a mound of parchment and quills awaited. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``And we are agreed?'' @@ -8786,12 +8705,7 @@ He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named like a bared blade. ``It is decided, then,'' he said aloud. ``Tomorrow we declare martial law, and tomorrow we make Dark Arts illegal in the British Isles.'' -\subsection{*Chapter 16*: Like Shards of Ringing -Glass}\label{chapter-16-like-shards-of-ringing-glass} - -Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter! - -\textbf{Chapter Eleven: Like Shards of Ringing Glass} +\chapter{Like Shards of Ringing Glass}\label{chapter-16-like-shards-of-ringing-glass} ``Because you cannot.'' @@ -8945,7 +8859,7 @@ for him.} Draco stood up and left the hospital wing, intent on having a rest, and then a good back-rub from Harry if he could find him. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry wondered, afterwards, if he knew something was wrong even before the owl deposited the \emph{Daily Prophet} in front of him. He dropped a @@ -9191,7 +9105,7 @@ extent that depressed and frightened him, but which he couldn't deny. \emph{I cannot afford an argument right now.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``It will be all right.'' @@ -9239,7 +9153,7 @@ managed to part. Zacharias didn't have to ask for what. He was intelligent enough to know what she would have said. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor wanted to kick things. @@ -9301,7 +9215,7 @@ things he did. \emph{Although Tickling Hexes would still be more satisfying.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Snape was amused. @@ -9345,7 +9259,7 @@ staring at the photograph of the Acting Minister, whose hair blew in the wind around a calm, regal face. \emph{Not in the way that you anticipated, Juniper, but the tides are changing at last.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry sat back and considered the first stack of letters with a weary eye. He was sending them to the governments that Andromeda had already @@ -9451,7 +9365,7 @@ fight.'' \emph{I am not going to let this edict tear Britain apart. We have to fight, and fight we shall.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Owen Rosier-Henlin thought he was ready. @@ -9491,7 +9405,7 @@ advisor as necessary. He was excited. -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry sighed. It had been a full day, and his hand hurt from writing all those letters. But he knew he couldn't sleep yet, even if he went to @@ -9602,7 +9516,7 @@ to putting on a---bit of a show for me tomorrow morning?'' Laura's smile widened like sunrise across her face. ``Tell us.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``No,'' Indigena said aloud. @@ -9631,7 +9545,7 @@ deal with such stupidity daily. And he would certainly not be compelled to consider himself a part of that world, and the people who did this equals, and treat with them as such.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Sir? You should see this.'' @@ -9693,12 +9607,7 @@ magic like this, even if they turn against me for it. In the end, they shall owe their survival to me. And I like the thought of leaving a legacy so fair in the world.} -\subsection{*Chapter 17*: A War of Lords and -Ladies}\label{chapter-17-a-war-of-lords-and-ladies} - -Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter! - -\textbf{Chapter Twelve: A War of Lords and Ladies} +\chapter{A War of Lords and Ladies}\label{chapter-17-a-war-of-lords-and-ladies} Harry bit his lip as he saw the owls flying towards him the next morning. There were at least twenty of them, and he had no way of @@ -9839,7 +9748,7 @@ up. mountain of post again as he picked up his spoon. \emph{If I ever have any free time.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``No safehouse is more secure than another, at this point,'' Harry said, trying his best to keep his temper. He understood that Snape's questions @@ -10460,18 +10369,7 @@ his shoulders had relented. \emph{If nothing else, we might have enough strength between us to face the hive queen. Maybe.} -\subsection{*Chapter 18*: Friends and -Freedom}\label{chapter-18-friends-and-freedom} - -Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter! - -Warning: There is mild slash in the last scene here, easily skippable if -you don't want to read it. - -Thank you to the many readers who submitted suggestions for French, -Spanish, and Portuguese names for use in this chapter. - -\textbf{Chapter Thirteen: Friends and Freedom} +\chapter{Friends and Freedom}\label{chapter-18-friends-and-freedom} Harry hadn't known it was possible for Hagrid's face to brighten up quite this much, but apparently he'd underestimated how much the news @@ -10521,7 +10419,7 @@ his life. And today had been a more trying day in that respect than most. He'd had a fight with Draco this morning. It hurt more than it normally would. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``What made you study air in the first place, though?'' Harry asked. He thought that he might understand Kanerva better if he could just get an @@ -10696,7 +10594,7 @@ attacks. The first refugees would be heading for safehouses today. He hoped there was yet a chance that he might convince Michael Rosier-Henlin to go with his mother and little sister. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Hagrid led them by means of a path Harry hadn't seen before; of course, given all the unorthodox ways that he usually came into the Forest, he @@ -10951,7 +10849,7 @@ what they were doing on Hogwarts grounds at all. He shook his head and gathered up the shards of his dignity. ``Shall we move inside the school?'' -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} An hour later, with some tea inside of him, the Room of Requirement enlarged to hold a hundred fifty battle-trained wizards and witches, and @@ -11087,7 +10985,7 @@ But, so far, the compromise of leading while listening intently and taking into consideration all he was told appeared to be working. Harry supposed he could trust in that until something bad actually happened. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry stepped inside the bedroom, shut the door lightly behind him, and listened. A moment later, he rolled his eyes. Draco had never been good @@ -11225,12 +11123,7 @@ concerned about it. It had been a good night. -\subsection{*Chapter 19*: Wind and -Light}\label{chapter-19-wind-and-light} - -Thanks for the review on the last chapter! - -\textbf{Chapter Fourteen: Wind and Light} +\chapter{Wind and Light}\label{chapter-19-wind-and-light} Harry spasmed awake. He didn't know how long he'd been asleep, but he knew the sound of the alarms ringing in his head, and that was all that @@ -11334,7 +11227,7 @@ to turn back attacks that the Acting Minister wasn't able to prevent. Then he shook his head and forced off the smile blooming on his face. They had to survive the battle first. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena walked quietly among the hive vampires, feeling a bit disgruntled. She understood why her Lord had sent her to supervise the @@ -11404,7 +11297,7 @@ Indigena looked ahead to the village and shook her head. \emph{Not a chance.} -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``I understand the queen's magic,'' said Peridot Yaxley, calmly removing the hood that had covered her face when she first appeared to Harry, @@ -11525,7 +11418,7 @@ with one hand hard enough to hurt. Harry wondered if that was just to let him know he was there, or because the manifestation his magic was taking was one that Draco hadn't ever seen before. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena lifted her head sharply. Yes, she could feel the queen's desire breaking over her, and she had learned to ignore it by now. But she @@ -11607,7 +11500,7 @@ of amusement or fondness in it at all. And then she hit Indigena with a wave of lust. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Jing-Xi, Kanerva, and Harry had planned this carefully. Kanerva's commitment to the wind could not be changed, and Jing-Xi's raw magic @@ -11751,7 +11644,7 @@ at her. And then Kanerva finally, finally took her place in the pattern of wind and light and water. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena was thinking of the curses that she should use on her sister. She would swear to it. And yet somehow she was noticing the way that @@ -11805,7 +11698,7 @@ too dangerous to be left living.} She was in time to turn and see the utter failure of the attack. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Kanerva's wind came down from the sky like the living hand of a beast. @@ -11949,12 +11842,7 @@ Above them, Kanerva danced and danced, the winds bearing laughter to Harry's ears sometimes, throughout and within the endless expanse of sky. -\subsection{*Chapter 20*: Twisted -Meetings}\label{chapter-20-twisted-meetings} - -Thanks for the review on the last chapter! - -\textbf{Chapter Fifteen: Twisted Meetings} +\chapter{Twisted Meetings}\label{chapter-20-twisted-meetings} The invitation from the Ministry hadn't been so much an invitation as a command, Harry thought, as he adjusted his robes and tried to look @@ -12250,7 +12138,7 @@ since the Pact declared that you couldn't help me in what I was about to do. I'm going to summon a few people to guard me, and then I'm going to Surrey.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Aurora halted and glanced around, narrowing her eyes in annoyance. \emph{At the very least, if he's going to play games of spies and what @@ -12348,7 +12236,7 @@ guards and spells and wards were subtly changed, with Erasmus using the Unspeakables' help. Feldspar might be their spy, even a useful one, but he was not allowed to compromise their security. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry nodded to the others who had come with him---Snape, Regulus, and Narcissa. ``I'm putting you under a Disillusionment Charm,'' he told @@ -12595,10 +12483,7 @@ think I know why. He did it to mess with both me and Voldemort.} \emph{And Merlin knows how I'm going to get it away from him.} -\subsection{*Chapter 21*: Intermission: -Poison}\label{chapter-21-intermission-poison} - -\textbf{Intermission: Poison} +\chapter{Intermission: Poison}\label{chapter-21-intermission-poison} ``The formula did not survive the transition.'' @@ -12739,11 +12624,7 @@ stay true to what I said I would do.} \emph{Vita desinit, decus permanit.} -\subsection{*Chapter 22*: Storm Raiser}\label{chapter-22-storm-raiser} - -\textbf{Warning: Gore.} - -\textbf{Chapter Sixteen: Storm-Raiser} +\chapter{Storm Raiser}\label{chapter-22-storm-raiser} Harry dropped to one knee as the spell crackled past overhead, and looked briefly over his shoulder to see that it had made a smoking dent @@ -13260,7 +13141,7 @@ Harry didn't waste time berating himself or asking for more details, because there \emph{was} no time. He pictured Cobley-by-the-Sea and Apparated. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} He reappeared in the middle of a room set aside for Apparition, but already crowded with several of the witches and wizards who had chosen @@ -13663,18 +13544,7 @@ prevent things like this from happening. \emph{I am willing to die. Perhaps others are, too.} -\subsection{*Chapter 23*: Come Into the War -Zone}\label{chapter-23-come-into-the-war-zone} - -Thanks for the reviews on the last chapters! - -My apologies for the extreme lateness of this one. I was wrestling with -the character portrayal of a human being who actually exists, not -something I've had to do before. Many thanks to phangkyu, who is -British---as I am not---for advice on portraying Tony Blair as he was -circa July of 1997. I hope I've done him justice. - -\textbf{Chapter Seventeen: Come Into the War Zone} +\chapter{Come Into the War Zone}\label{chapter-23-come-into-the-war-zone} ``I'm sorry, sir, but I don't think that will be possible.'' @@ -13762,7 +13632,7 @@ from the Muggles was at stake. ``and preserving it for the sake of our community, against both Dark Lords and mad undeclared wizards alike.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena Apparated, and then nearly collapsed. She heard a snarl in front of her, and quickly, shakily, lifted her head. @@ -13912,7 +13782,7 @@ and the one who must lie in it. She could ask for no help. The only thing to do was keep going. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry knew what would happen when he walked through the entrance hall doors and found Draco, Snape, Connor, Peter, Henrietta, McGonagall, and @@ -14050,7 +13920,7 @@ task, he would be a leader who stood alone. What mattered was what he accomplished and how he accomplished it, not whether he'd received his punishment like a good little boy. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor shook his head as he watched his brother leave. He'd never seen Harry so cold, nor so oblivious of the larger context. @@ -14297,7 +14167,7 @@ Hogwarts often, and then some more time slipping gently into sleep, that gray half-state where the worries of the day gradually grew more and more muffled. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry slipped gently into the office and shut the door behind him. The man sitting on the other side of the room looked up, murmured a name @@ -14637,13 +14507,7 @@ For now, he thought it necessary, and he would do what he could to defend the decision, and to insure it played out well, and to live with the consequences if it all fell down. -\subsection{*Chapter 24*: I Will Take From You -Everything}\label{chapter-24-i-will-take-from-you-everything} - -\textbf{Warning: Cliffhanger.} - -\textbf{Chapter Eighteen: I Will Take From You Everything That You Have -Loved} +\chapter{I Will Take From You Everything}\label{chapter-24-i-will-take-from-you-everything} ``Good morning, Mother.'' @@ -14830,7 +14694,7 @@ still a few days between now and the joining ritual. He had time to come to terms with what his mother suggested, and think up ways to say what he really wanted and which would make Harry listen to him. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``What do you think?'' Thomas asked, holding the stone up. @@ -15075,7 +14939,7 @@ Harry gave him a glare and some vituperative mutters, but now they were back in a place where those mutters could actually be taken as a teasing complaint, and Harry was more than grateful for it. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry woke up the morning of July thirty-first, and blinked. From what Draco had told him about the sixth joining ritual, he was sure it would @@ -15167,7 +15031,7 @@ Firing of the Virtues. Draco brightened, and followed him willingly into the loo. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Unsurprisingly, when Draco and Narcissa had suggested the idea of a festival to the Headmistress---ostensibly for Harry's birthday, of @@ -15247,7 +15111,7 @@ by the time their dance was done. It reminded Draco that other people existed and had their good points, yes. That didn't mean he had to like it. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} By the time it was almost noon, Harry's arm hurt from being shaken, and his mouth hurt from smiling---even laughing---and his hands hurt from @@ -15470,12 +15334,7 @@ thought, and again Voldemort's words rang in his head. With somewhat nerveless fingers, Harry reached out, grasped the envelope, and opened it. -\subsection{*Chapter 25*: Intermission: An Old Debt -Repaid}\label{chapter-25-intermission-an-old-debt-repaid} - -\textbf{Warning: Severe gore.} - -\textbf{Intermission: An Old Debt Repaid} +\chapter{Intermission: An Old Debt Repaid}\label{chapter-25-intermission-an-old-debt-repaid} The new wards on Tullianum hadn't really done much in the way of protecting the prison, Indigena thought. @@ -15753,10 +15612,7 @@ justice even in darkness. \emph{Even if the recipient does not know it.} -\subsection{*Chapter 26*: A Lock of Severed -Hair}\label{chapter-26-a-lock-of-severed-hair} - -\textbf{Chapter Nineteen: A Lock of Severed Hair} +\chapter{A Lock of Severed Hair}\label{chapter-26-a-lock-of-severed-hair} Harry knew the letter by heart almost before he finished it, because the words seemed to find echoes in his head and rebound themselves back, as @@ -15868,7 +15724,7 @@ This wasn't even his first proof absolute that people dead now would have lived if he had stayed that way. It was only a newer and sharper version of it. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco had crisscrossed the hallway for the third time when he heard soft voices, and rounded the corner to see Harry kneeling in front of his @@ -15968,7 +15824,7 @@ that's what he feels, or not.} He turned to find Snape, wondering all the while what to tell him. Should they be concerned about Harry, or not? -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} As Harry had thought, Connor didn't wake when Harry laid him down on his bed, but the moment Harry adjusted his position, he stirred and fretted, @@ -16012,7 +15868,7 @@ it wasn't wrong to grieve for someone dead. In the meantime, Harry watched the sunlight track across the walls. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Snape turned Harry's head slowly back and forth, peering intently into his eyes. Harry bore with it, his face absolutely expressionless, as it @@ -16077,7 +15933,7 @@ were no strain on him at all, even though Snape knew it \emph{must} be. But with no evidence, all he could do was wait until---or in case---Harry asked him for help. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry gave a little shake to settle the tension in his shoulders as he emerged from Snape's office. The way that both his guardian and Draco @@ -16215,7 +16071,7 @@ fresh." Harry closed his eyes and gathered Connor closer, feeling ready to kill anyone who might try to hurt his brother. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The funeral began under a gray-washed morning sky, with clouds hanging above the sea and letting glimpses of gold peek through. Harry watched @@ -16394,13 +16250,7 @@ They might ask him questions. Harry would not answer. For today, his mind was as silent, and as difficult to interpret for any augurer, as that sky. -\subsection{*Chapter 27*: And Sometimes There Is -Light}\label{chapter-27-and-sometimes-there-is-light} - -\textbf{Warning: Very heavy slash in the third scene.} It's been edited -for this site, but the full version is available at Skyehawke or my LJ. - -\textbf{Chapter Twenty: And Sometimes There Is Light} +\chapter{And Sometimes There Is Light}\label{chapter-27-and-sometimes-there-is-light} ``And so the Pact won't forbid you from doing this?'' Harry had to admit, he was intrigued by Jing-Xi's latest effort to help him, but not @@ -16521,7 +16371,7 @@ whether you wanted me along. Can I come?'' Harry hesitated, but at last said, ``I don't see why not.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} They stepped out under such a beautiful sunset that Draco's breath caught. For once, the clouds had drawn back enough to show the light @@ -16632,8 +16482,8 @@ Doubtless, some of that was because Harry had just used his magic in rather a spectacular manner. But Draco knew part of it was also due to him. -SSSSSSSSSSS - +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} +% Begin Slash section % Harry hoped that Draco couldn't see his nervousness as they returned to their bedroom, and he set up the strongest silencing and locking spells he knew. It wouldn't do to be disturbed in the middle of this. @@ -16972,8 +16822,8 @@ comfortable. But later. I'm going to.} Inevitability was as a road that led him towards that level of confidence. - -SSSSSSSSSSSS +% End Slash section % +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Thomas sat up. @@ -17044,10 +16894,7 @@ and brighter, summoning other memories. ``Come to think of it, I believe I read once that the Peverell family used rings to mark their true heirs\ldots{}'' -\subsection{*Chapter 28*: The Dark -Years}\label{chapter-28-the-dark-years} - -\textbf{Chapter Twenty-One: The Dark Years} +\chapter{The Dark Years}\label{chapter-28-the-dark-years} Harry finally put out a hand and splayed it palm-down on the parchment, preventing Thomas from moving it, so that he could actually @@ -17233,7 +17080,7 @@ the Gaunts, since Parseltongue along with everything else had come down to him through Tom Riddle, then his blood might be enough to unravel that curse. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Luna nodded solemnly to Harry. ``If no one else has ever come asking the orphanage the story of Tom Riddle, then the doors must be eager to tell @@ -17440,7 +17287,7 @@ thing ended up burning me.} \emph{Well, one of us was evil, but it wasn't me.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} It was fairly easy to find the Muggle orphanage, even in the crowded streets of London and in a part of the city where Harry hadn't been @@ -17673,14 +17520,7 @@ have to deal with what he is in the present.} \emph{Like me or not, my magical father in a sense or not, he has to die.} -\subsection{*Chapter 29*: Face the Boy Across a -Battlefield}\label{chapter-29-face-the-boy-across-a-battlefield} - -\textbf{WARNING WARNING WARNING: Really, really severe gore, violence, -and torture in the last scene. I deliberately made it as sickening as I -could. Please avoid this if you don't want to read it.} - -\textbf{Chapter Twenty-Two: Face The Boy Across A Battlefield} +\chapter{Face the Boy Across a Battlefield}\label{chapter-29-face-the-boy-across-a-battlefield} ``Come here, Indigena.'' @@ -17808,7 +17648,7 @@ purr as he glanced at Lucius again. ``Lucius.'' activity.'' The snake swayed and danced around Voldemort's waist. ``I do believe that Harry will be using it as a safe house soon.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco closed his eyes and bowed his head. @@ -17944,7 +17784,7 @@ any ten wizards even if Harry didn't. He flopped back on their bed then, a small smile on his face, and slept for two hours. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry sighed. He had argued with Michael Rosier-Henlin for an hour, and if the boy didn't want to go with his mother and little sister to Malfoy @@ -18197,7 +18037,7 @@ had not known that Voldemort could force his captured Death Eaters to go against Harry's magic. In the future, he would know that. ``I imagine that we'll see him again.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Adalrico had been waiting. @@ -18272,7 +18112,7 @@ mind's eye. And then Voldemort noticed him. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena lifted her head. Before, she had not felt that the atmosphere around her was truly dangerous. Her Lord would scream, and he would @@ -18470,10 +18310,7 @@ like an unfolding flag to challenge the dominion of the Light, promising terror and torture and magic resurrected---the life of despair, the death of hope. -\subsection{*Chapter 30*: Intermission: In -Transition}\label{chapter-30-intermission-in-transition} - -\textbf{Intermission: In Transition} +\chapter{Intermission: In Transition}\label{chapter-30-intermission-in-transition} A tunnel opened between Millicent and the distance, in what she later understood as the moment her father died. @@ -18593,12 +18430,7 @@ beyond it, in the form of the blood that must continue.} \emph{Duramus.} -\subsection{*Chapter 31*: It Gets -Uglier}\label{chapter-31-it-gets-uglier} - -\textbf{Warning: Gore.} - -\textbf{Chapter Twenty-Three: It Gets Uglier} +\chapter{It Gets Uglier}\label{chapter-31-it-gets-uglier} Harry nodded. ``I understand, Millicent. Thank you for the warning.'' He stroked the scar on his left arm, the only remnant of his bond with @@ -18719,7 +18551,7 @@ his secrets, sometimes, but then Draco came out with something like this, and Harry wished for nothing but to preserve that innocence untainted. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} It was manifestly obvious to Narcissa that Harry did not understand \emph{why} his attempts at comforting her had failed. @@ -18865,7 +18697,7 @@ path and see if it worked. \emph{We can turn him back if it does not. Most of the time, Harry listens to other people.} -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Sir?'' Xavier's voice came out of the phoenix song spell on Harry's left wrist, distracting him from a daily tour of the wards. He halted @@ -19126,7 +18958,7 @@ physically out of the country herself---infuriated him. And so he had another message to send when this was done. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} He had no winds, as Kanerva did, to summon the Lords and Ladies of the Pact. He was not sure they would come even if called, should their @@ -19263,17 +19095,7 @@ hidden. ``I have something to tell you, Draco.'' -\subsection{*Chapter 32*: Nor Iron Bars a -Cage}\label{chapter-32-nor-iron-bars-a-cage} - -\textbf{WARNING WARNING WARNING (again): Torture, murder, gore, and RAPE -in the second scene. This one is even nastier, in its own way, than -chapter twenty-two. Please skip the scene if you need to.} - -The chapter's title comes from Richard Lovelace's ``To Althea, From -Prison'': ``Stone walls do not a prison make,/ Nor iron bars a cage.'' - -\textbf{Chapter Twenty-Four: Nor Iron Bars a Cage} +\chapter{Nor Iron Bars a Cage}\label{chapter-32-nor-iron-bars-a-cage} Harry swallowed, and slowly inclined his head. ``I understand,'' he said, not looking at Jing-Xi. What else could he say? This was not her @@ -19429,7 +19251,7 @@ safehouse in London.'' He carefully avoided Owen's eyes as he went down the hall. \emph{Why in the world did Michael attack them?} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco had become very practiced at telling when Harry was awake and only pretending to be asleep. Of necessity, Harry had in turn become even @@ -19640,7 +19462,7 @@ Voldemort. Even as Voldemort flinched, Harry could hear him laughing. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco was already awake, because he had felt the damage to the wards around the Manor, and it had hurt. He had seen the blood pouring from @@ -19678,7 +19500,7 @@ the danger--- Save that what he found when he opened his eyes in the mental world was unlike anything he'd seen before. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry knew a distance separated him from Voldemort, even now. The scar connection was a tunnel flowing with magic, or led into the tunnel @@ -19819,7 +19641,7 @@ The vision tempted him. He wavered. And one moment of wavering in this dark world of power, where he hovered on the edge of Lordship, was eternity. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco did not at first understand what was happening, and then he did. He felt a sting of mild annoyance. @@ -19936,17 +19758,7 @@ Harry had looked after Lily and James were murdered: intent on fighting anyone who tried to drag Harry away from him. \emph{But I'm a Dark wizard. All the better to flourish in them.} -\subsection{*Chapter 33*: Swear Not By the -Moon}\label{chapter-33-swear-not-by-the-moon} - -Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter!\textbf{\\ -} - -\textbf{Warning: Some gore.} - -This chapter's title comes, of course, from \emph{Romeo and Juliet}. - -\textbf{Chapter Twenty-Five: Swear Not By the Moon} +\chapter{Swear Not By the Moon}\label{chapter-33-swear-not-by-the-moon} He had not expected that, had Lord Voldemort. He had been sure of himself when he went to Malfoy Manor, but he had not been sure @@ -19993,7 +19805,7 @@ Surely he could stand that pace. And there was one Harry had loved, in London. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry let five minutes pass while he cried and Draco comforted him. When they had passed, then he pulled away, shaking his head and ducking from @@ -20061,7 +19873,7 @@ Harry forbade them. Give in and start thinking of himself as traumatized by those images, and he would \emph{be} traumatized by those images. As long as he could continue convincing himself otherwise, then he would. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena had not heard all the plans for tonight's raid before the twins, Lucius, and Hawthorn left. She had only known that they planned @@ -20114,7 +19926,7 @@ quest. She had no idea how to currently contact Evan Rosier, however. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Ignifer started when her left wrist chirped, and nodded to Honoria, who was sitting next to a woman and comparing her lost leg to the woman's @@ -20226,7 +20038,7 @@ include a few of the more important spells that the Healers use.'' Ignifer smiled grimly and put her wand away. ``That's a cost I can accept.'' -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry could not believe how much strength Ignifer's pronouncement had given him. So long as he did not have to do \emph{everything} by @@ -20344,7 +20156,7 @@ he would have restrained him. ``Now to tell Owen and Michael,'' he said quietly. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Owen felt as if a safe, secure castle---Hogwarts, perhaps---had opened a door and left him to stand in chill, constantly blowing air. He bowed @@ -20463,7 +20275,7 @@ objections against the idea of someone surrendering his free will entirely, even if he did it of his own free will, it might never be time to say that. -SSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor leaned against the doors to the entrance hall, shading his eyes with one hand as he watched his brother walk out on the lawn of @@ -20493,7 +20305,7 @@ those things. While he waited, Connor watched the back of his brother's head, and remembered their brief, aborted conversation from half an hour ago. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Make the Switching Potion again.'' @@ -20561,7 +20373,7 @@ swept up the map and walked out of the room. Connor hexed the table. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} And now he was standing here, watching his magnificent, stubborn, \emph{stupid} brother getting ready to make some announcement. He shook @@ -20778,7 +20590,7 @@ He got along much better with Draco than he ever could have hoped to a few months ago, but Snape was still uninterested in any gestures of goodwill. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry expected it when he felt the pain pressing on his neck that night, and opened his eyes to find himself swooping along a deserted street in @@ -20913,10 +20725,7 @@ unconsciousness. \emph{There is hope, so long as he hates me more than I hate him.} -\subsection{*Chapter 34*: Interlude: Small -Sacrifices}\label{chapter-34-interlude-small-sacrifices} - -\textbf{Interlude: Small Sacrifices} +\chapter{Interlude: Small Sacrifices}\label{chapter-34-interlude-small-sacrifices} \emph{The Daily Prophet} @@ -20979,7 +20788,7 @@ become a tireless guardian.'' Members of the Wizengamot mostly remained silent, or were not available to comment. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} \emph{The Vox Populi: Voice of the People} @@ -21028,7 +20837,7 @@ that you don't intend to lose the war by lying back and letting the powerful fight it for you. They're bastards, the both of them. And bastards don't deserve either to win your support {or} to win a war. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} \emph{The Daily Prophet} @@ -21059,10 +20868,7 @@ help from ordinary wizards and witches and freeing magical creatures of the Ministry,'' he said, ``I think he'd soon find himself on the right road.'' -\subsection{*Chapter 35*: A Meeting of -Ministers}\label{chapter-35-a-meeting-of-ministers} - -\textbf{Chapter Twenty-Six: A Meeting of Ministers} +\chapter{A Meeting of Ministers}\label{chapter-35-a-meeting-of-ministers} Erasmus checked through the letters with a slight frown on his face. It was true that most of the Ministers he had sent owls to had replied to @@ -21268,7 +21074,7 @@ champion, even if it is only one in the whole of Europe.} ``Follow me, Evamaria.'' He was just in time to catch himself before he said the title. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Do you think that all Dark magic will be gone from Britain forever if we win this war?'' @@ -21443,7 +21249,7 @@ Minister's loyal ranks. \emph{That sounds like the Cupressus I know.} -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry quickly slid the book beneath the library table as he heard the footsteps behind him, and buried his nose in a book about Unassailable @@ -21642,9 +21448,7 @@ felt something like a hug in them, if he dared to hope that far. But the only thing his guardian said was, ``Good.'' -\subsection{*Chapter 36*: Star of Hope}\label{chapter-36-star-of-hope} - -\textbf{Chapter Twenty-Seven: Star of Hope} +\chapter{Star of Hope}\label{chapter-36-star-of-hope} Harry opened his eyes slowly. He didn't think the odd sight in front of him had anything to do with the blue potion that Snape had given him. At @@ -21806,7 +21610,7 @@ He was asleep more deeply and swiftly than he had managed in the past several months, enraptured in a warm pile of snake, lover, and transformed house elf. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``And you think we can trust her?'' @@ -21968,7 +21772,7 @@ She bobbed from side to side in affirmation. Harry stepped through. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} He had to catch his breath, or try, as the wind whipped through him. He supposed that it was warmer now than it would be in the middle of @@ -22038,7 +21842,7 @@ He turned and strode back out of the safehouse and through Miranda's gate to Hogwarts, feeling more confident and relaxed than he had in a long time. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Snape eyed the blue potion once more, and then flicked his hand, burying the owl feather quill that had been used for three days in the center of @@ -22214,9 +22018,7 @@ few days had proven that. ``Very well,'' Snape agreed mildly, and used another handful of Floo powder to step through the fire. -\subsection{*Chapter 37*: Her Triumph}\label{chapter-37-her-triumph} - -\textbf{Chapter Twenty-Eight: Her Triumph} +\chapter{Her Triumph}\label{chapter-37-her-triumph} ``You will like this better, Parvati, you'll see,'' her mother whispered, her hands smoothing gently up and down her back. ``You'll @@ -22443,7 +22245,7 @@ arms, clinging fiercely to him. \emph{My parents made their choice, and we made ours.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Minerva shook her head, but in amusement, as she studied the Patil twins' request for sanctuary and to attend the school that term. It was @@ -22592,7 +22394,7 @@ as it tried out its new songs, that she realized it was the same expression that she had often worn when she looked at her more impetuous and rule-breaking Gryffindors. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Hermione looked down the table and rolled her eyes. Parvati and Connor hadn't stopped \emph{snogging} since they entered the Great Hall. And of @@ -22813,12 +22615,7 @@ Voldemort can't even comprehend.} \emph{And we're going to win.} -\subsection{*Chapter 38*: Intermission: In the Shadow of His -Power}\label{chapter-38-intermission-in-the-shadow-of-his-power} - -Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter! - -\textbf{Intermission: In the Shadow of His Power} +\chapter{Intermission: In the Shadow of His Power}\label{chapter-38-intermission-in-the-shadow-of-his-power} ``And what is your main conclusion from your visit?'' @@ -22913,7 +22710,7 @@ arranged that morning, between one of her tentacled sheep and dear Liane's sister. Liane had failed her most spectacularly, and such things had to be punished. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena did not recognize the pattern sketched on the floor. @@ -22999,13 +22796,8 @@ Now it remained to be seen if he would read it or not. But Indigena could not stay to see. Her Mark was burning. She turned and went below. -\subsection{*Chapter 39*: Look to the -Future}\label{chapter-39-look-to-the-future} - -Warning: Slash in the first scene, if you want to skip that. - -\textbf{Chapter Twenty-Nine: Look to the Future} - +\chapter{Look to the Future}\label{chapter-39-look-to-the-future} +% Begin Slash section % Harry slid carefully into the room. There was always the chance that Draco would notice him, of course, and--- @@ -23123,7 +22915,8 @@ eyes from Harry's face. Harry smiled and lunged up, kissing him fiercely. \emph{Dinner can wait.} -SSSSSSSSSS +% End Slash section % +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Harry, if you would come with me, please.'' @@ -23263,7 +23056,7 @@ would make such an effort. \emph{Isn't what I'm going to become obvious, an extension of what I already am?} -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor gave the door to the Slytherin common room the password that Harry had told him yesterday, and ignored the shocked glances of several @@ -23604,10 +23397,7 @@ locking spells or not. \emph{Though I sincerely hope not many sights as traumatic as Draco and him shagging are behind those doors.} -\subsection{*Chapter 40*: A Nasty -Surprise}\label{chapter-40-a-nasty-surprise} - -\textbf{Chapter Thirty: A Nasty Surprise} +\chapter{A Nasty Surprise}\label{chapter-40-a-nasty-surprise} Harry stared at the ceiling of their bed, stroking Draco's back as he waited for him to wake up. It had become his habit to do this in the @@ -23692,7 +23482,7 @@ and wallow in warmth.} \emph{I don't know what I can do to both give him that and give our world the safety it needs, though.} -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco slowly leaned towards Harry. If he did it too suddenly, then Harry would notice and cover up the sheet of parchment he'd been scribbling @@ -23813,7 +23603,7 @@ to hide other things, things that didn't need to be hidden. And Draco had no idea how to stop it. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Sit down, Harry.'' Jing-Xi gave him a bright smile and turned back to the stack of parchment in front of her, which bore magical terms Harry @@ -23997,7 +23787,7 @@ Harry smiled. ``I think I see why we get along so well, my lady.'' He kissed her hand and took his leave, to contact his sworn companions and confirm their journey this weekend. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``But I want to come.'' @@ -24110,7 +23900,7 @@ punishment for leaving him behind. This time. \emph{And he's only leaving me behind until I become better able to defend myself, and him.} -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry waited patiently until Owen reappeared in front of them, with a slight nod. ``All's quiet around the shack,'' he said. ``And Bill and @@ -24412,7 +24202,7 @@ serpents. It seemed to surprise him that Harry was a Parselmouth. \emph{And I look forward to surprising him even more.} -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The world was laughter. @@ -24702,7 +24492,7 @@ to know about the opportunity of sanctuary. Of course, that didn't mean he had to talk to Juniper directly. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Aurora stared at the owl in front of her. The owl stared back, and then hooted softly, as if to say that she didn't appreciate the stare, and @@ -24837,7 +24627,7 @@ conflicting feelings, and stood to take the message to Erasmus. She would do what she could to honor the principles she believed in, but surely, by now, it was too late to completely change her allegiance. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Narcissa picked up the heavy stone cup and studied it intently. If she could not locate the writing she believed to be on it, then she was @@ -24950,17 +24740,7 @@ consequences now simply because his choices involved some danger. \emph{One bows one's head. One endures.} -\subsection{*Chapter 42*: Whose Whole Life's Love Goes -Down}\label{chapter-42-whose-whole-lifes-love-goes-down} - -This chapter is titled after a line from what is probably the grandest -(and saddest) of Swinburne's poems, ``The Triumph of Time'': ``I will -say no word that a man might say/ Whose whole life's love goes down in a -day.'' - -Also, \textbf{big freaking honking cliffhanger warning.} - -\textbf{Chapter Thirty-Two: Whose Whole Life's Love Goes Down In a Day} +\chapter{Whose Whole Life's Love Goes Down}\label{chapter-42-whose-whole-lifes-love-goes-down} Harry lay back on their bed, smiling slightly as he stroked Argutus. Draco had fallen asleep, exhausted after yet another day of hard @@ -25004,7 +24784,7 @@ discovered, but he didn't know that Harry knew them. \emph{And if comes near me with his stolen magic, then I am going to steal it away from him in turn.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry studied the group of people who waited behind him carefully. They were eight: his four sworn companions, Draco, Snape, Regulus, and @@ -25267,7 +25047,7 @@ And then \emph{power} spoke, from the door of the shack, and Harry turned to see Voldemort there, with his magic flaring around him, and Lucius crouched next to him like a dog. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} There was too much magic. @@ -25440,7 +25220,7 @@ and met it as it came. Narcissa Malfoy died loving. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Lucius saw his wife commit suicide. @@ -25494,7 +25274,7 @@ had bought with her death. The room filled with sweet thunder. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry heard Draco scream Narcissa's name, and a moment later he saw the green light flash, heard the calm curse, even as he had more than three @@ -25558,10 +25338,7 @@ and far madder and more dangerous. ``Your body is going to be mine,'' he hissed, and then he leaped forward, and so the battle began. -\subsection{*Chapter 43*: The Angels of Our Better -Natures}\label{chapter-43-the-angels-of-our-better-natures} - -\textbf{Chapter Thirty-Three: The Angels of Our Better Natures} +\chapter{The Angels of Our Better Natures}\label{chapter-43-the-angels-of-our-better-natures} Snape saw Harry fall. @@ -25660,7 +25437,7 @@ hospital wing, Snape would go to his lab, there to brew the potion that would have to race against time and the blackness creeping up Harry's right arm, and save his son's life. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry floated just beneath the surface of the silver Occlumency pool, and listened to Tom Riddle's footsteps coming nearer and nearer. @@ -25770,7 +25547,7 @@ And then a wound opened on his back, and hands dug in with the seeming intention of taking out his internal organs, and Harry realized he might have to change his mind---and quickly. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco followed his father to the hospital wing, but, once there, it was too hard watching Madam Pomfrey attend to Harry and ignore Narcissa. Of @@ -25861,7 +25638,7 @@ cut off her, and she would be within her rights. Tell me why I should treat you like a father, Lucius, and the husband of my mother, and not like an enemy combatant.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Snape held the smells of the poison leaking from Harry's arm in his mind as he tossed a handful of powdered moonstone into the cauldron. @@ -25932,7 +25709,7 @@ not care how he got there. His hands took over, the knowledge spreading out from his arms and not his thoughts. Snape let them do so. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry rolled over, stealing the victory from the brass-clawed creature Tom had conjured to plague him, and stifled the temptation to burst into @@ -26035,7 +25812,7 @@ the darkest part of himself. He whistled. And the part of him that desired nothing more than to rend and tear and dominate came to him. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``I have changed,'' Lucius said. @@ -26198,7 +25975,7 @@ Lucius drew him close, and held him there, not exactly as a father held a son---not yet, they had not come back to that yet---but as a man might hold another while they mourned for a woman they had both loved. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The water sloshed nearly to the rim of the cauldron, and then fell back again. It was now purple, now blue, now green, all deep and jeweled @@ -26271,7 +26048,7 @@ Now came the time to use them, when without them he would panic. ``Now?'' Snape lifted an eyebrow, never taking his eyes from his son, who had started to shiver slightly. ``Now, we wait.'' -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry rolled, half-tossing Tom forward in the dark water, and then loosing him. He felt the creature that dwelt in the blackness, the @@ -26412,7 +26189,7 @@ want to be ungrateful about Snape saving his life, he just had more important things to do right now, and then strode out the door. His arm hurt furiously. \emph{Well, let it.} -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco lifted his head when the door opened. As long as Lucius was showing grief, he could, too, but he didn't want to do it in front of @@ -26445,10 +26222,7 @@ constantly into his ear. ``I'm so sorry, Draco. Whatever you need from me, you'll have it.'' -\subsection{*Chapter 44*: Intermission: All Honor to the -Brave}\label{chapter-44-intermission-all-honor-to-the-brave} - -\textbf{Intermission: All Honor to the Brave} +\chapter{Intermission: All Honor to the Brave}\label{chapter-44-intermission-all-honor-to-the-brave} Her Lord had already started creating another snake, brewing the flesh of his latest victims in a burrow beneath the burrow rather than adding @@ -26539,18 +26313,7 @@ She was needed below. The narcissus danced in the wind a moment longer, but vanished from sight before she did. -\subsection{*Chapter 45*: Until the World is -Changed}\label{chapter-45-until-the-world-is-changed} - -The title of this chapter comes from Tolkien, \emph{The Return of the -King}, specifically the description of Arwen's grave in Appendix A: -``There at last when the mallorn-leaves were falling, but spring had not -yet come, she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her -green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life -are utterly forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil -bloom no longer east of the sea.'' - -\textbf{Chapter Thirty-Four: Until the World is Changed} +\chapter{Until the World is Changed}\label{chapter-45-until-the-world-is-changed} Snape knocked firmly on the door of Harry and Draco's bedroom. He understood the need for Harry to retreat with his partner, but they had @@ -26660,7 +26423,7 @@ arm were not still black and packed with corrupt flesh. \emph{If he would only let me look at it.} -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Harry?'' @@ -26711,7 +26474,7 @@ breath, and nerved himself, and knocked on the door. ``Enter,'' said Lucius's cold voice, and so they entered. -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Lucius had learned the depth of his wrongness about many things: how much he hated, how much he loved, and how much he had loved his wife. @@ -26803,7 +26566,7 @@ look at the silent Lord-level wizard again. \emph{Get past this war, and the Malfoy family has a fine future waiting for it. We shall indeed rise again.} -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Narcissa's funeral began on a day like the sea, when the sky was so thick with clouds that it seemed impossible light could find its way @@ -27148,11 +26911,7 @@ listen, and know that the son she had died for was well taken care of. Harry closed his eyes, and drew Draco close, and set himself to endure. -\subsection{*Chapter 46*: Changeable}\label{chapter-46-changeable} - -Thanks for the reviews on the last chapters! - -\textbf{Chapter Thirty-Five: Changeable} +\chapter{Changeable}\label{chapter-46-changeable} Harry leaned forward, staring steadily at Regulus. ``I know that you miss her,'' he said, which made Regulus freeze over the tea he was @@ -27298,7 +27057,7 @@ him than the other, he caught Harry's right arm. The pain was instant, like a hot drill, and Harry fainted. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco stared, and then knelt swiftly beside Harry. He'd only meant to tell him how spectacular a bad mood Snape had been in that morning when @@ -27476,7 +27235,7 @@ he wanted by pushing, not right now. \emph{Maybe Snape can make an impression on him. I hope so.} -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry spent the walk to the dungeons reinforcing his barriers. Snape would no doubt react to the sight of his arm much as Draco had, and he @@ -27529,7 +27288,7 @@ emotions to be complete. \emph{I can just keep those emotions silent. They can be mine. It's a thousand times better than being scolded.} -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Snape simply stared at the blackened arm for a long moment. Then he reached out and ran one finger down it. Harry closed his eyes and shook @@ -27695,7 +27454,7 @@ Harry's guardian---ends up being more changeable than I imagined.} \emph{I am not one to give up.} -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} To Draco's relief, he reached the hospital wing before the Dreamless Sleep Potion lulled Harry into slumber. Harry was curled up in a bed, @@ -27749,10 +27508,7 @@ dealing with problems only gets you frozen emotionally. Or killed.} Draco sat calmly then, holding his lover's hand, because Harry needed it and because he wanted to and because he could. -\subsection{*Chapter 47*: Chapterlette: An Altered -Man}\label{chapter-47-chapterlette-an-altered-man} - -\textbf{Chapterlette: An Altered Man} +\chapter{Chapterlette: An Altered Man}\label{chapter-47-chapterlette-an-altered-man} Lucius Malfoy knew there were many people who would pity him. He had lost the one person in the world he most unconditionally loved, and he @@ -27919,10 +27675,7 @@ He intended to catch and hold her in werewolf form with the chains Seth would forge, but in order to get her close enough to catch in the first place, he would need to use himself as bait. -\subsection{*Chapter 48*: Their -Sacrifice}\label{chapter-48-their-sacrifice} - -\textbf{Chapter Thirty-Six: Their Sacrifice} +\chapter{Their Sacrifice}\label{chapter-48-their-sacrifice} Harry opened his eyes slowly. As an immediate improvement, he thought, the lack of screaming pain in his right arm was hard to defeat. @@ -28123,7 +27876,7 @@ people said, instead of demanding solid proof. He laid his head back against Draco's chest, closed his eyes, and began to speak. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor was waiting when Harry came out of the hospital wing, leaning on Draco and talking to him in a low voice. Connor frowned when he saw tear @@ -28304,7 +28057,7 @@ won the war if not the battle. It was infuriating, sometimes. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco had kept his word. Though he longed to tell Harry that he thought he should accept the offer of those wizards and witches foolish enough @@ -28471,7 +28224,7 @@ And it did. Harry said, ``I'll go to them, meet with them, and---make sure they're still serious about this. Then, if they are, I'll accept that magic.'' -SSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} "Thank you for coming, Mr. Potter---excuse me, \emph{vates}," the old witch who'd met him at the door of the Defense Against the Dark Arts @@ -28571,10 +28324,7 @@ magic or the exhaustion of such decisions. The burden had to be carried. That didn't mean he always wanted to carry it. -\subsection{*Chapter 49*: Duramus, All the -World}\label{chapter-49-duramus-all-the-world} - -\textbf{Chapter Thirty-Seven: \emph{Duramus}, All The World} +\chapter{Duramus, All the World}\label{chapter-49-duramus-all-the-world} Harry opened his eyes, and shivered. He felt as though all the skin on his body was rising, the way it did when Draco pinched a small fold of @@ -28744,7 +28494,7 @@ room?'' ``Yes,'' said Harry, after a long moment of lingering and studying the sky. ``I don't think there's anything we can learn here.'' -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry eyed the Hufflepuff table as he conjured a bowl of cornflakes from a tattered pillow. Something had happened in that House overnight, it @@ -28844,7 +28594,7 @@ crises--- And the sense of safety and security that the wild Dark had ripped away with one capture. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Minerva narrowly studied Harry. She had to admit that his theory made sense, though without more proof she was reluctant to accept it @@ -28934,7 +28684,7 @@ The dark line appeared again, but this time it was shrinking back in wariness. Minerva smirked and turned to decide what she was going to tell the school about the attack of the wild Dark. -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco lifted his wand and cast \emph{Lumos} to light the hallway ahead. After a careful glance down it, he turned and nodded to the three @@ -29037,7 +28787,7 @@ He shook his head and hastened after the first-years. His hand shook when he tried to hold up his wand, and he decided that he might need some Calming Draught himself. -SSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Peter stood in front of his NEWT Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and narrowed his eyes when he noticed how many of them were talking @@ -29108,7 +28858,7 @@ him through the days ahead. \emph{We will last through them,} Peter thought. \emph{We have to.} -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry pictured himself drifting in darkness. He held onto the vision even as he sank into sleep, and dived further and further into himself, @@ -29188,7 +28938,7 @@ himself to learn what the darkness was like. After all, it \emph{was} him. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Step, and step, and step, and step, and the final rune was laid. The circle, made of blue-purple stones, each inscribed with the letter of a @@ -29209,10 +28959,7 @@ stone to stone. E-V-A-N. She \emph{did} intend to have some fun with this, before the end. -\subsection{*Chapter 50*: Shackles of -Silver}\label{chapter-50-shackles-of-silver} - -\textbf{Chapter Thirty-Eight: Shackles of Silver} +\chapter{Shackles of Silver}\label{chapter-50-shackles-of-silver} ``And do you really mean that, Mr. Malfoy?'' There was delight in Melinda Honeywhistle's voice, but mixed with it was terror. Lucius found @@ -29337,7 +29084,7 @@ him, and finding a means to hold and capture her when she did come. But the third, talking her back and out of her hatred, did not lie within his power. He would have to speak to Harry. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Lucius.'' @@ -29541,7 +29288,7 @@ new relationship. \emph{That is a good thing about his focus on the future. One nearly always gets a second chance.} -SSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Lucius knew he had been right when he heard the howl splintering the air from the Manor's far side. @@ -29742,7 +29489,7 @@ the fur on either side of her muzzle. And then he drew a deep breath and started the whole thing over again. -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Lucius was waiting for the moment when the moon set, and Hawthorn began to change in form. For one thing, he would never have allowed himself to @@ -29783,10 +29530,7 @@ He had to look away, then, just for a moment, as the sound of the soft sobs replaced the growls of hatred. At his command, the chains fell limp. -\subsection{*Chapter 51*: Intermission: The World Does Not -End}\label{chapter-51-intermission-the-world-does-not-end} - -\textbf{Intermission: The World Does Not End} +\chapter{Intermission: The World Does Not End}\label{chapter-51-intermission-the-world-does-not-end} Pamela Seaborn lifted her gaze from the intense contemplation of a redwood's root system, and stared across the distance. Since her eyes @@ -29972,10 +29716,7 @@ immediate future. of keeping it safe from Monika, I am willing to endure far worse things than Alexandre.} -\subsection{*Chapter 52*: The House of -Yaxley}\label{chapter-52-the-house-of-yaxley} - -\textbf{Chapter Thirty-Nine: The House of Yaxley} +\chapter{The House of Yaxley}\label{chapter-52-the-house-of-yaxley} Indigena shook her head hard, and then sighed. She had never thought she would mind being underground---she had spent large portions of her time @@ -30161,7 +29902,7 @@ strange to someone else. hand. ``Another one of my cousins has joined Harry.'' \emph{Damn Chalcedony}. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry had to admit he was curious as to why Lazuli had asked for a meeting. She had said that a cousin of hers wanted to join him, but she @@ -30404,7 +30145,7 @@ turned and faced him. "\emph{I} may be able to do more," she said. Harry raised an eyebrow. ``Tell me.'' -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena rolled her eyes as Feldspar vanished again. Honestly, she was not sure how he managed to fool Aurora Whitestag. He \emph{must} be more @@ -30567,14 +30308,7 @@ earth. \emph{Or running around the country with a golden cup, perhaps.} -\subsection{*Chapter 53*: Face the -Darkness}\label{chapter-53-face-the-darkness} - -\textbf{Fair warning:} The fourth scene here contains heavy slash. Don't -read it if you don't wish to. It's been slightly edited from the version -present on LJ and Skyehawke, to maintain the M rating. - -\textbf{Chapter Forty: Face the Darkness} +\chapter{Face the Darkness}\label{chapter-53-face-the-darkness} Snape regarded the potion with a dubious eye. @@ -30704,7 +30438,7 @@ could take their time and both speak and eat at leisure. Regulus kept looking at him wistfully on the way to the Great Hall. Snape found that he had no idea why. -SSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Hawthorn had pictured her first days of freedom---if she ever had them---as days of solitude and silence. She would spend time in the @@ -30920,7 +30654,7 @@ She stood upright, shook her head, wrinkled her nose at the immense amount of rubbish in Muggle London, cast a Disillusionment Charm on herself, and Apparated home. -SSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco opened his eyes slowly on the morning of Halloween. This ritual would begin the moment they woke, and continue until the moment they @@ -31034,7 +30768,8 @@ Draco sighed happily, at least until Harry started kissing him breathless again. They could be a little late for breakfast. No one who mattered would mind. -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} +% Begin Slash section % Harry knew what the ritual was supposed to do. Everything that he'd read and which Draco had told him about the purpose of it made sense. So he @@ -31205,11 +30940,9 @@ reached down to pull Draco's shirt off. Draco's voice was full of pure, if breathy, triumph. ``Good.'' +% End Slash section % -\subsection{*Chapter 54*: Holding Their -Own}\label{chapter-54-holding-their-own} - -\textbf{Chapter Forty-One: Holding Their Own} +\chapter{Holding Their Own}\label{chapter-54-holding-their-own} ``I don't mean anything personal by it, Malfoy. I'm just saying that when Saturday comes, the Gryffindor team will make the Slytherin team @@ -31306,7 +31039,7 @@ diplomat---taking his sworn companions with him, of course, in case Juniper ``accidentally'' tried to trap him in the Ministry---and trust the others to take care of themselves. -SSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor grinned fiercely as he strode out onto the Quidditch Pitch. He could feel the excitement hovering in the air around him, and howling @@ -31378,7 +31111,7 @@ And then he began to look for the Snitch. The first rule was to start in the opposite direction from the one where the Slytherin Seeker was looking. -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry entered the Ministry in resignation. He had four sworn companions with him, but that wasn't the true source of the stares. Everyone would @@ -31526,7 +31259,7 @@ see what would happen next. What happened next was that all the lights went out. -SSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco snorted. Much as he hated to admit it, the Slytherin team was just as awful as Connor had claimed it was. The Seeker alternated between @@ -31590,7 +31323,7 @@ doubt they would be hard to handle, well-trained as they were. But---well, so was he. -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry heard the distinctive snarl of the wild Dark in the next moment, and doubted that this was a coincidence. He flung out his hand---the @@ -31659,7 +31392,7 @@ power and significance, don't you think?'' The wild Dark gave another growl. Harry thought it was considering his offer, but that didn't mean he knew what it would decide. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Snape was prepared when the flare of blue sparks arose. No, he had not expected the Death Eaters to attack today, or he would have insisted @@ -31715,7 +31448,7 @@ double with both the pain and the dizzying impressions of the journey. He was content to hear Regulus's footsteps pounding towards the Yaxley twins. \emph{At least he overcame his bout of sudden idiocy.} -SSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry began another song when he felt the teeth careening inward, this time one of pure triumph and joy. The wild Dark paused at the sound of @@ -31755,7 +31488,7 @@ easy to follow the sliding of the warmth into sleep. He felt Owen's arm come around him to catch him and stop him from falling to the floor, so \emph{that} was all right. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena came in reluctantly on the Gryffindor side of the Pitch. For one thing, she thought it stupid of her Lord to send only four Death @@ -31858,7 +31591,7 @@ decided, could stay between her and her honor. Just as several people made themselves annoying by trying to fire curses at her, Indigena Apparated home to comfort her poor defenseless Lord. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco found himself charging straight forward, skimming down a tunnel so slippery with defenses that he almost slid out the other side before he @@ -31989,9 +31722,7 @@ looked back at Owen with a faint smile. ``Today was a day of excitement no matter where members of the Alliance of Sun and Shadows went, it seems.'' -\subsection{*Chapter 55*: The Heir Game}\label{chapter-55-the-heir-game} - -\textbf{Chapter Forty-Two: The Heir Game} +\chapter{The Heir Game}\label{chapter-55-the-heir-game} Harry shook his head slightly when Draco looked at him. Draco was getting damn tired of that. He'd told Harry about his exploits with the @@ -32044,7 +31775,7 @@ It was only later that Draco considered the possibility that he wasn't the only Slytherin in the room, nor the only person who could use honesty to get what he honestly wanted. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena did not know what was wrong with her. She knelt at her Lord's feet, among the remains of dozens of dead and dying Death Eaters. Their @@ -32097,7 +31828,7 @@ did not truly care, however. His plan had been in motion for a long time, long before Indigena began doubting her own loyalty, and if there was anyone who deserved the full fury of it, it was its targets. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Aurora ran a weary hand through her hair. Erasmus had been speaking about Harry's defiance of not just British law, but international law, @@ -32211,7 +31942,7 @@ we do it?'' Cupressus pulled a long scroll from the side of the desk with a flourish. ``I am so joyful that you happened to ask.'' -SSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The rage had passed like a storm, like a wind on the sea, like the flying buttresses of cloud that guarded too many places in his islands @@ -32256,7 +31987,7 @@ But it would cause more pain to Harry. He looked ahead into the darkness, and chose. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry frowned slightly at Connor. ``Of course I understand that, Connor,'' he said. Why his brother would have been reluctant to come to @@ -32511,7 +32242,7 @@ stand in a moment, and explain things to people. For right now, though, they weren't here, and he didn't have to. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Monika raised an eyebrow and stepped away from the scrying pool in which she'd watched with interest as Lord Riddle tried the Heir-Call on Harry. @@ -32536,7 +32267,7 @@ her head again. \emph{Not today, then. Too bad.} -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``I told you so,'' Alexandre said lazily, waving one hand and dissipating the image in the prophecy-pool before Pamela's shocked eyes. @@ -32586,12 +32317,7 @@ glitter was gone. ``But we two may do something about it. Yes?'' Pamela nodded and stared at the prophecy-pool again. She did not see that they had any other choice. -\subsection{*Chapter 56*: Defending}\label{chapter-56-defending} - -The poetic lines quoted here come from Swinburne's ``The Leper,'' which -probably wins for his most disturbing piece of poetry. - -\textbf{Chapter Forty-Three: Defending} +\chapter{Defending}\label{chapter-56-defending} ``No. I'm sorry.'' @@ -32718,7 +32444,7 @@ tightly against him. ``We need you in the war. The war needs you.'' Harry rolled his eyes, safely out of sight, and put his head down on Draco's shoulder. \emph{The one thing I'm not going to forget is that.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``This is still just an experiment,'' Neville said as he put down the potted lily gently on the floor of the tunnel. ``It doesn't mean that @@ -32920,7 +32646,7 @@ a skeptic any more.'' Connor rolled his eyes and left them to it. -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Henrietta had decided it would be a good idea to take a walk. If she carried two pasties with her from the kitchens, and one was made of @@ -33076,7 +32802,7 @@ the dancing leaves and the frozen ones. \emph{The old question. Will not God do right?"} -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Lucius examined the letter in front of him with a faint smile. It was by an oversight that it had come to him. Doubtless, the wizards and witches @@ -33139,12 +32865,7 @@ American wizards expected of most British. It was, after all, only self-defense. -\subsection{*Chapter 57*: The Hammer -Falls}\label{chapter-57-the-hammer-falls} - -\textbf{Cliffhanger warning.} - -\textbf{Chapter Forty-Four: The Hammer Falls} +\chapter{The Hammer Falls}\label{chapter-57-the-hammer-falls} Aurora yawned, and pushed a hand against her mouth, trying to conceal it. Cupressus looked up at her at once, though, shaking his head. ``You @@ -33288,7 +33009,7 @@ to play in the long drama of war and blood that would follow her death. Her last thoughts were, therefore, of Indigena. -SSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena watched calmly as Aurora Whitestag's face grew blue, and shook her head as the woman stopped breathing. ``I wonder why this is part of @@ -33360,7 +33081,7 @@ The caged Ministry would become a cage of Squibs as her Lord drank and drained their magic, and grew immensely more powerful. Indigena shivered a little, to think of how strong he would be when all this was done. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Cupressus heard it as a shrill, nagging whine in his left ear, the cry of a wounded unicorn foal. He sat up and gave Aurora a moment of @@ -33532,7 +33253,7 @@ battle, and no Light wizard worth his flames would deny them. Cupressus knelt in front of the fireplace and cast a handful of Floo powder into the flames, calling, ``Hogwarts hospital wing!'' -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena cursed as she felt Cupressus Portkey out. Yes, only one or two wizards escaping her net was not a large number, but she would have @@ -33561,7 +33282,7 @@ She opened her eyes, and smiled. And then something at the bottom of the Ministry, something that could resist magic, said \emph{No} in a decisive voice. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Harry!'' @@ -33711,7 +33432,7 @@ stirring it. When he went to battle this time, the only thing that might suffice to easily rid the Ministry of Indigena's vines was his deepest rage. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} They brought him gently, Sylvan Yaxley's arms closed around their Lord, supporting him and holding him so that his feet did not brush the @@ -33743,16 +33464,7 @@ Let Harry come. Let even the third come. They would find Lord Voldemort ready for them. -\subsection{*Chapter 58*: Two Lords That Are -Deathless}\label{chapter-58-two-lords-that-are-deathless} - -The title of this chapter comes from Swinburne's ``By the North Sea'': -``For the land has two lords that are deathless:/ Death's self, and the -sea.'' - -\textbf{Cliffhanger warning.} - -\textbf{Chapter Forty-Five: Two Lords That Are Deathless} +\chapter{Two Lords That Are Deathless}\label{chapter-58-two-lords-that-are-deathless} Indigena cursed under her breath as she sent yet another vine forward. Until today, she wouldn't have thought a creature existed that could @@ -33801,7 +33513,7 @@ And Indigena found herself shouldered aside very efficiently, as the Stone's consciousness lifted past her and in the direction of her Lord, filled with curiosity and intense interest. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Can you do this, then?'' Harry stared into Moon's eyes, waiting for some sign that the pale centaur was backing down, but he received none. @@ -33893,7 +33605,7 @@ This time, the one who touched his shoulder was Draco, but he didn't try to speak any comforting words. That was at least part of the reason that Harry didn't try to shake this touch off. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} He was swollen, with such power. @@ -33973,7 +33685,7 @@ Stone's voice said, \emph{That was not nice.} And time flooded the Ministry like a river turned back on itself. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry lifted his head sharply as the air behind him shimmered. When he turned, it was to see the Centaur Glade alight with wavering shapes. The @@ -34087,7 +33799,7 @@ stray shivers and shudders here and there. "\emph{Apparate}," Harry said, and closed his eyes, and leaped. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena shivered as the waves of time swept over her, and all the flowers in her body closed their petals in the face of winter. An @@ -34127,7 +33839,7 @@ against them. And then the Stone said, in a voice that echoed throughout the Ministry, \emph{Now I am angry}, and the time turned to crushing cold. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Cupressus turned to look around the room, nodding to the family heads whose eyes he met. Even Tybalt Starrise, distasteful as it might seem, @@ -34240,7 +33952,7 @@ Miriam Smith. ``Such an effort as we plan to make must involve the cooperation of Ireland and Britain. What say you, my lady, to being the British representative of the alliance, while I am the Irish one?'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Sylvan Yaxley cried out as his hands began to freeze. Oaken replaced him, while Sylvan shook off the cold in the other world, but the Lord @@ -34306,7 +34018,7 @@ how. And then the moment had come, because on the upper edge of the Ministry he felt his heir arrive. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Monika would have attended earlier to the shrill alarm ringing from her pool that tracked the activity of Lord Riddle and Harry, but she had @@ -34332,7 +34044,7 @@ grumble and scold, but would not offer her actual violence. Monika smiled a bit. \emph{How could they offer me actual violence? If I succeed, I will be the most powerful witch in the world.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Oh, but I expected she would do something like this.'' @@ -34383,7 +34095,7 @@ reached his hand into the pool, his arm vanishing to the elbow. ``And, as it happens, there are many different fates alive in Britain right now, and I am a friend to prophecies.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The Stone had already recovered from its shock. Now that it was alive to the differences in moral and immoral actions, it wanted to know more @@ -34425,15 +34137,7 @@ And he commanded the vines to bring the Ministry down, stone after stone, wall after wall, in a collapse and a roar of rubble on the head of the Stone and its Unspeakables and the newly-made Squibs. -\subsection{*Chapter 59*: Taken And Snared As a -Prey}\label{chapter-59-taken-and-snared-as-a-prey} - -The title of this chapter again comes from a line in Swinburne's ``Hymn -to Proserpine,'' the poem the story is titled after: ``The depths stand -naked in sunder behind it, the storms flee away;/ In the hollow before -it the thunder is taken and snared as a prey.'' - -\textbf{Chapter Forty-Six: Taken and Snared As a Prey} +\chapter{Taken And Snared As a Prey}\label{chapter-59-taken-and-snared-as-a-prey} Harry felt caught between a ringing bell and a stabbing sword. The twinge in his head was the ringing bell. The voice was the stabbing @@ -34484,7 +34188,7 @@ But that meant he was free to do what needed to be done. He rose, his magic and his rage already stirring like ropes around him, aiming to reach down the lift shaft and stabilize the Ministry. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The Lord Voldemort was displeased. \emph{Very} displeased. He had not imagined that his heir, usually so stubborn, would choose \emph{now} to @@ -34513,7 +34217,7 @@ to watch, disregarding the rushing of the wizards and witches beyond Harry. \emph{They} did not matter, not when none of them would know how to hurt him if the solution pranced in front of them. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry screamed, but only in his head; his voice seemed to have ended, too. He threw himself against his bonds again and again, his anger @@ -34564,7 +34268,7 @@ less important than their observation of one another. And then he fell over the edge into hatred. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Minerva stepped carefully away from the rest of the children, though her instincts shouted at her to stay near them in case a spell should @@ -34629,7 +34333,7 @@ a thousand people die. Harry threw the hatred directly into Voldemort's face. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Monika was wise enough to land a long way from the battle. Though she doubted the Muggles knew what was going on, and even some weaker wizards @@ -34688,7 +34392,7 @@ that Muggle would call bad weather and she knew were power. ``Don't worry, Harry,'' she murmured. ``Auntie Monika's coming to rescue you. And then drain you, but, of course, one can't have everything.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry had never hated so much. @@ -34749,7 +34453,7 @@ one thing that made him powerful. And Harry ripped it straight out of him. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The Lord Voldemort lost his amusement again. @@ -34813,7 +34517,7 @@ traitorous children to him again, the spell that depended on the hatred living in a person's soul and a mark that connected him or her to the Dark Lord. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor didn't \emph{care} that Snape was trying to make them all stay still, or that Parvati was holding on to his arm hard enough to cut off @@ -34900,7 +34604,7 @@ of its own. Then he turned, to see if he could aid his brother. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry knew he was drowning in his hatred, but he could not help it. @@ -34943,7 +34647,7 @@ about. Harry hated the choice that lay before him, but he feared that he must make it, while he was still sane enough and free enough of Voldemort's influence to make it at all. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Alexandre carried them through the prophecy-pool into the brooding gray air above Muggle London. Pamela was not quite sure if they were @@ -35007,7 +34711,7 @@ to stop Monika.'' He sat up, his eyes wide and his nostrils flaring. Pamela did not expect him to grab her hand and force her to participate in the bolt of white lightning he hurled at Monika. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco did not know what exactly was happening. To his eyes, Harry simply writhed from side to side, staring at Voldemort the entire time, and @@ -35061,7 +34765,7 @@ influence began to strike through the gloom in his thoughts. And then Voldemort decided to attack Draco's body. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Monika reeled, and a shriek exploded from her throat. She could not help screaming. She had never expected a lightning bolt to launch from the @@ -35134,7 +34838,7 @@ statues with regret in the few moments before she Apparated away. \emph{It was a good plan.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The Lord Voldemort was so far from pleased that he could see over the edge into true anger and disgust. His heir was not behaving as he @@ -35186,7 +34890,7 @@ Eaters, his magic unbraiding behind him as Harry lunged at the exact same moment, sank snake fangs in, and hung on, helpless, impotent rage filling him. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry opened his eyes slowly. He stood on the ground outside the immense hole that had been the Ministry with Draco in his arms. His own magic @@ -35255,10 +34959,7 @@ He could still feel the wild Dark's scorpion sting on his cheek. He Apparated. -\subsection{*Chapter 60*: In the Wake of -Wildness}\label{chapter-60-in-the-wake-of-wildness} - -\textbf{Chapter Forty-Seven: In the Wake of Wildness} +\chapter{In the Wake of Wildness}\label{chapter-60-in-the-wake-of-wildness} Rita had not expected to be summoned, especially not with the amulet that she'd given Harry so long ago. Why would he call her now? There was @@ -35352,7 +35053,7 @@ get ready for worse still---she could. It must be done. So she would do it. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Erasmus wondered what sort of joke they thought they were playing on him. He knew that Cupressus had been a little more disagreeable lately, @@ -35451,7 +35152,7 @@ remove him from the man's ``protective'' custody. There was stone there, too. And wood. And the stink of death. And only silence to answer his calls. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Cupressus strode back into the room where Miriam Smith awaited him, shaking his head. The others had returned to their homes after Harry's @@ -35537,7 +35238,7 @@ Cupressus began his duties. It was how he steadied the round of his days, how he knew who he was, even in the wake of the devastating attack on the Ministry. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Remus listened to the howls riding back and forth across London. The packs sang to each other this way, exchanging news and messages and @@ -35610,7 +35311,7 @@ battle with Voldemort would be hard enough. Harry didn't need rogue packs biting Muggles in random numbers and holding equally random riots against wizards at the most inconvenient times. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} \emph{It is very bad,} Griselda told herself. \emph{But it could have been so much worse.} @@ -35692,7 +35393,7 @@ figurehead in a battle such as this---I am too old to truly fight---but, by Merlin, I can be the most excellent figurehead that there is, and somewhat compensate for Juniper's dead weight.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The truth was written in the stars. Every young centaur knew that. What they did not understand, what it took them years to understand as they @@ -35735,7 +35436,7 @@ the least of any star in the sky. The message was clear. Humans might imagine eternity all they liked. Centaurs knew it. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Minerva was convinced that Poppy must have poured half the potions in the hospital wing down her throat by now. She coughed on the latest one, @@ -35795,7 +35496,7 @@ apparently enchanted to travel straight to her stomach, and to cut off consciousness as soon as it reached there. Her eyes closed, and if Poppy continued to scold her, she never heard the words. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Millicent rose to her feet, one hand clutched around the side of a crystalline stone ring. The rock resembled quartz, but the ring had come @@ -35885,7 +35586,7 @@ securing their future, in the form of the heir she \emph{would} carry after this. The fertility spells and charms she'd cast on herself were not about to fail. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Parvati spoke calmly to her parents through the hospital wing fireplace. She couldn't deny their right to be worried, after what they had heard @@ -35941,7 +35642,7 @@ doubtless, now that the Ministry had fallen. But they would fight through them, and survive as best as they could, and help others in the doing so. That was what life was all about. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry had called everyone to Hogwarts who could come: those Aurors not absolutely needed to defend the safehouses, Kanerva, Laura Gloryflower @@ -36010,10 +35711,7 @@ Draco lay back, stroking his hair and saying nothing. At some point, the acid ceased to drip, and Harry fled from thoughts of death and defeat and responsibility and killing himself into sleep. -\subsection{*Chapter 61*: Hawthorn's -Dream}\label{chapter-61-hawthorns-dream} - -\textbf{Chapter Forty-Eight: Hawthorn's Dream} +\chapter{Hawthorn's Dream}\label{chapter-61-hawthorns-dream} What he had to do now, Harry told himself, was stay very, very sane. That way, he would not go either enraged or mad when someone spoke to @@ -36107,7 +35805,7 @@ shoulders. do. I've known since third year. This---this is just a place in my mind where I like to vanish sometimes. Let me have it.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Hawthorn woke late, with thoughts and memories scrambled and drifting in her mind. She lay staring at the ceiling for a long moment, trying to @@ -36141,7 +35839,7 @@ One piece of that puzzle might help her to figure out this one. Hawthorn flung her pyjama sleeve over one arm and bent to begin writing. She \emph{had} to write now, or she feared the dream would vanish. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena had recovered only slowly from the Stone's winter. Most of the flowers in her body still wanted to sleep. Cold spoke of hard times for @@ -36180,7 +35878,7 @@ still a month away. The thought of enduring this poison for thirty days made Indigena's skin crawl, and brought to her delicious, wistful thoughts of the gardens and greenhouses in Thornhall, so far away. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Hawthorn swallowed. The potion required a swan feather, and she didn't think she had one. But she could, of course, track down and trap a swan. @@ -36208,7 +35906,7 @@ In the back of her head was the thought that her life was worth little anyway, if she could not manage to make up in some way for the harm she had done in Voldemort's service---and the reason she had done that harm. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry stood patiently on the Northumbrian beach that had seen several of the important things that happened in his life---sailing ships at @@ -36343,7 +36041,7 @@ leadership but convince Juniper that he was still in charge. The Minister was stupid, but he knew how to read the newspapers, and he saw treason in every shadow. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Hawthorn grabbed the Stupefied swan as it drifted towards shore and spread one wing wide, plucking the feather from it. Originally, she'd @@ -36367,7 +36065,7 @@ shaking its tail and settling several ruffled feathers. Hawthorn sniffed as she Apparated again. She was allowed to think they were evil birds. There was no rule against that. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Owen paced along the walls, carefully enchanting them. When wards were up around the doors, the windows, and the broken pieces of furniture in @@ -36463,7 +36161,7 @@ In the end, he had to shake his head and let Michael out. As he watched him go down the hall, he wondered if Michael himself knew what he wanted. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Hawthorn gazed and gazed at the potion on her desk, which sparkled a smooth, liquid silver, and didn't vanish when she turned her back, @@ -36493,7 +36191,7 @@ she'd melted. After a moment, she picked up the vial. Her hand trembled. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``I don't see any way that we can keep Juniper from newspapers,'' Harry said through the fireplace. Cupressus's plan to keep the Acting Minister @@ -36571,7 +36269,7 @@ home. It would need something greater than calm words to heal that wound. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} It began as fire. @@ -36609,7 +36307,7 @@ reacting---and slay her. She remained awake, from moment to moment, existing in a world of pain, and of utmost dedication. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry sang from the top of the Astronomy Tower, his head tilted back and the phoenix song flowing from his throat. @@ -36698,7 +36396,7 @@ From person to person, from magical creature to wizard, from ocean to land, Harry strung the song, and tried his best to make a point of hope glow in the sky next to every star. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Hawthorn opened her eyes slowly. The first thing she noticed was that she hurt more than she had when Lucius bound her in silver shackles, or @@ -36721,10 +36419,7 @@ She had succeeded in curing herself of lycanthropy. Her head found her folded arms, and she wept. -\subsection{*Chapter 62*: Delegation, Darkness, and -Draco}\label{chapter-62-delegation-darkness-and-draco} - -\textbf{Chapter Forty-Nine: Delegation, Darkness, and Draco} +\chapter{Delegation, Darkness, and Draco}\label{chapter-62-delegation-darkness-and-draco} Erasmus knew they thought him stupid, but in reality, he was more intelligent than all of them. He looked into the shadows, and knew them @@ -36782,7 +36477,7 @@ more easy steps to take to insure that his vision became a reality. Things were moving. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``But why isn't he moving?'' @@ -37040,7 +36735,7 @@ with petty village officials wasn't the best way to do that. At least, so he told himself, trying to attach Draco's voice to his conscience. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco stretched as soon as Harry was out of sight, and let his smug smile burst forth. He was pleased with himself. He had wondered if he @@ -37074,7 +36769,7 @@ spectrum, helping Harry both far away and here in Hogwarts. He didn't see how there could be anything wrong with that. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry leaned against the side of the Astronomy Tower and stared upwards. @@ -37299,7 +36994,7 @@ just as I can remember to delegate. It does no one any good if I tip too far in the direction of guilt. Only Voldemort would truly want to see me fall that way.} -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``I have what you asked for, Minister.'' @@ -37331,9 +37026,7 @@ allowed to happen. \emph{Things like revealing the magical world to Muggles.} -\subsection{*Chapter 63*: Helping Hands}\label{chapter-63-helping-hands} - -\textbf{Chapter Fifty: Helping Hands} +\chapter{Helping Hands}\label{chapter-63-helping-hands} Connor closed his eyes. If other people could achieve their Animagus forms in five months or less of training, he should be able to do it, @@ -37463,7 +37156,7 @@ receiving words of praise from Gryffindors. ``Thanks,'' he whispered, and then sat back, took another gulp from his glass of water, and straightened. ``I'm ready to try again.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``He should not go,'' Snape pointed out. He knew his tone was logical, calm, full of maturity and poise. There was no reason for Regulus to @@ -37586,7 +37279,7 @@ deciding whether he should go through the Floo or not. In the end, he left, and then spent his afternoon brewing Blood-Replenishing Potions. There were some things he was not ready for. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco waited alone in the usual abandoned classroom where Candida came to see Harry. She stopped when she saw him, but then appeared to shrug @@ -37772,7 +37465,7 @@ use for those who refused to admit their mistakes, whose lives were an endless series of weepings and wailings and complaints and hopes that someone else would take up the slack. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``For the last time, I think we have everything.'' Harry tried to keep the tense snap in his voice down, but it was hard. Snape had made him go @@ -37941,10 +37634,7 @@ satisfaction---it would be easier, now, without Juniper's dead weight around his neck---and disappointment---he could hardly believe that such stupid people existed in the world. -\subsection{*Chapter 64*: Destruction -Laughing}\label{chapter-64-destruction-laughing} - -\textbf{Chapter Fifty-One: Destruction Laughing} +\chapter{Destruction Laughing}\label{chapter-64-destruction-laughing} The wild Dark laughed above the world, and Kanerva Stormgale laughed with it. @@ -38011,7 +37701,7 @@ mystery of perfect destruction. High above Britain, destruction laughed, and Kanerva laughed with it. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} {\textbf{\emph{The Daily Prophet}}} @@ -38065,7 +37755,7 @@ more and more dangerous as we move closer to Midwinter. ``It's the night of longest darkness,'' he said. ``I'm sure I don't have to tell you what You-Know-Who might have planned for then.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Cupressus smoothed the paper flat with one hand, and read the article's opening paragraphs one more time. It was the first time in days that the @@ -38176,7 +37866,7 @@ good, such as Harry---to preserve them. \emph{A pity the Confederation does not understand that.} -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena frowned in concentration, and closed her eyes. What her Lord had asked her little garden to produce this time was harder, since it @@ -38352,7 +38042,7 @@ When her Lord reached out and clasped her hand, Indigena did not resist. She could ask herself all the questions she liked, but some questions did not have an answer. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Poppy caught her eye across the table and scowled. Minerva scowled back. Poppy didn't think she should be on her feet and addressing the school @@ -38437,7 +38127,7 @@ Minerva did not intend to report them. \emph{To all of us, good luck, and a good Dark night.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry studied the net he'd woven under the earth, and nodded. He'd buried it so deeply that Voldemort would have to be \emph{looking} to @@ -38492,14 +38182,7 @@ A gust of wind swept by overhead, and when he looked up, he could just make out Kanerva, a pale shape as she flew against the belly of the black sky. He wondered what she was laughing about. -\subsection{*Chapter 65*: Interlude: Into the Long -Dream}\label{chapter-65-interlude-into-the-long-dream} - -The poems quoted in this chapter are all by Algernon Charles Swinburne; -they are, in order, ``Anactoria,'' ``Satia te Sanguine,'' ``Dolores,'' -``Félise,'' ``Ilicet,'' and ``Hertha.'' - -\textbf{Interlude: Into the Long Dream} +\chapter{Interlude: Into the Long Dream}\label{chapter-65-interlude-into-the-long-dream} \emph{November 22nd, 1997} @@ -38530,7 +38213,7 @@ however much you may hate me? You brought me blueberries. \emph{Evan Rosier.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} \emph{November 29th, 1997} @@ -38587,7 +38270,7 @@ me? \emph{Evan Rosier.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} \emph{December 11th, 1997} @@ -38617,7 +38300,7 @@ doing this. \emph{Henrietta Bulstrode.} -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} \emph{December 12th, 1997} @@ -38680,14 +38363,7 @@ Remember, dear one, that I am tame to {no} man's hand. \emph{Henrietta Bulstrode.} -\subsection{*Chapter 66*: Scything}\label{chapter-66-scything} - -\textbf{Warning:} This is the first of four Midwinter chapters, all of -which will contain emotional turmoil, and have more specific warnings -posted at the top of them. The specific warnings for this one are -\textbf{gore and a cliffhanger warning.} - -\textbf{Chapter Fifty-Two: Scything} +\chapter{Scything}\label{chapter-66-scything} Indigena closed her eyes for a moment. Wind whipped past her, stirring ragged trails and tatter-ends of snow through the air, but as long as @@ -38738,7 +38414,7 @@ capture the boy and hold him until our Lord needs him, you know.'' eyes and, keeping careful track of all the additions to her body, Apparated. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry was standing on the top of the Astronomy Tower, staring into the sky, when he saw the moon go out. One moment it gleamed above him, a @@ -38857,7 +38533,7 @@ Merlin's \emph{sake}." And he turned and made for the doors. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco put his head in his hands and breathed for a long moment. He didn't want to think of Harry going into danger without him. He @@ -38897,7 +38573,7 @@ Draco smiled at him, and, cheered, the little boy smiled back. ``I was just coming to show you that,'' Draco said. ``Come on, we'll need to line up in front of the door to the Slytherin common room\ldots{}'' -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Promise me,'' said Connor, taking Parvati's hand in his and holding it to his lips, ``that if something happens to me, if I fall, you'll get @@ -38948,7 +38624,7 @@ that direction. He had to face one direction. Why not that one? His grip tightened on his wand, partially so that he didn't have to imagine his brother facing Voldemort across the battlefield. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Henrietta knew the moment when it came. Of course, she had never imagined that the wild Dark and the Dark Lord would attack @@ -38987,7 +38663,7 @@ entrance hall and admired the display of lightning and power through the gaps in the doors. She was so close to the entrance that she would be able to leave very easily. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry could feel the boiling rage when he stepped out of the school. Most of it came from Voldemort; the wild Dark's primary emotion, as he @@ -39132,7 +38808,7 @@ random directions, and Harry let out his own magic, fierce and free and And so then their battle was joined in earnest. -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The wild Dark laughed, and laughed, and laughed. @@ -39153,7 +38829,7 @@ to wind, knowing that somewhere below the wild Dark had begun an assault on Hogwarts's wards, but not caring. How \emph{could} she care? The whole of the night was before her. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Minerva leaned against her desk and closed her eyes in supreme irritation. Of course, it was understandable that she couldn't go out @@ -39361,12 +39037,7 @@ felt herself fall to the floor in the moment before it settled fully. Minerva McGonagall died triumphant. -\subsection{*Chapter 67*: The Fall}\label{chapter-67-the-fall} - -Once again, warnings apply to this chapter: \textbf{violence, gore, and -a big freaking cliffhanger.} - -\textbf{Chapter Fifty-Three: The Fall} +\chapter{The Fall}\label{chapter-67-the-fall} Snape gathered his magic and struck against the Body-Bind on himself. It still wouldn't move, but he thought it showed signs of cracking and @@ -39437,7 +39108,7 @@ many students as he could out of Hogwarts. After all, he was responsible for them now. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} He \emph{felt} it. @@ -39475,7 +39146,7 @@ and turned. Harry had Apparated right behind him. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} "Get out, \emph{now!}" @@ -39593,7 +39264,7 @@ couldn't care. He soared above the minor concerns, as Harry would have labeled them, just as Harry would have soared, and focused on the living and their safety. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco guided the rest of Slytherin House out the common room door and towards the entrance of the tunnel Harry had shown him by remembering @@ -39665,7 +39336,7 @@ the students out. He wouldn't let himself think about Harry, potentially alone, potentially in danger. He wouldn't. -SSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The wild Dark was gone. @@ -39692,7 +39363,7 @@ others might forget she had ever been gone! Kanerva turned and hurtled back down towards Hogwarts, through a sky gone entirely too soft and strange to suit her. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} She \emph{must} stand. @@ -39742,7 +39413,7 @@ leave. She opened the door, and was gone, to see who most needed her help. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry had never \emph{hurt} so intensely. His scar burned like acid, and had ever since Voldemort began their deeper battle. His fingers cramped @@ -39812,7 +39483,7 @@ Kanerva bursting through the ceiling of the office to attack Voldemort and his twin coming through the door were exactly the kind of distractions that he didn't need. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor came to a stop, gasping, his hand clasped over his forehead. His scar had begun to hurt so furiously that his vision went white with the @@ -39863,7 +39534,7 @@ struggling shapes. And then things happened as quickly as the down-rush of a dragon. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena spat dirt and looked around surreptitiously. If Sylvan and Oaken saw her angling towards the outside of the school's doors before @@ -40024,7 +39695,7 @@ Hogwarts, to be with her horn hammer, and be standing there, innocent as always, when her Lord came looking for her. Indigena wanted nothing more to do with either Evan or Henrietta Bulstrode. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry saw his brother from the corner of his eye. He saw the diving Kanerva from the corner of his other eye, and the bird swooping out of @@ -40101,7 +39772,7 @@ him, protested vociferously over not being allowed to walk. The sight of dead and staring eyes pursued Harry all the way. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} He was furious. @@ -40136,7 +39807,7 @@ then he took her head in his hands and \emph{twisted.} And still he could not be rid of it, that high jackal's laughter in his ears. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry was not sure how they had reached the outside of the school. He remembered Apparating, and then he remembered going back because Connor @@ -40171,14 +39842,7 @@ He turned away. There was a snarl, and the wild Dark came down on him. -\subsection{*Chapter 68*: The Beast in the -Wilderness}\label{chapter-68-the-beast-in-the-wilderness} - -I suppose, technically, the ending of this could be counted as a -cliffhanger, as the action ends but the immediate situation does not -resolve, so, fair warning. - -\textbf{Chapter Fifty-Four: The Beast in the Wilderness} +\chapter{The Beast in the Wilderness}\label{chapter-68-the-beast-in-the-wilderness} Harry saw the manticore swoop towards him, its darkness beating around it like wings, its mouth wide open. It might suck his soul out of his @@ -40248,7 +39912,7 @@ the people gathered on the hole outside the tunnel from Hogwarts, and he hoped to Merlin that they would have the good sense to get away while he bought them time. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} As he rose above the rubble that had been the home of his enemies, the Lord Voldemort noted that he rose into silence. @@ -40286,7 +39950,7 @@ The serpent spoke in Parseltongue, and its voice shook his spine. promise. You killed her, and that is not the death she chose. For killing her, you shall pay.}" -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry had pulled the wild Dark into the edge of the Forbidden Forest, so that the trees whispered and creaked around them, the bare black @@ -40343,7 +40007,7 @@ submissive, offering his throat to be torn by those mighty jaws. He had another plan in mind, and as long as no one interfered, tried to rescue him or be a hero, then he thought he would succeed. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The snake curled around him. The Lord Voldemort held still, and hovered on his current of magic, because he could not believe that this had @@ -40383,7 +40047,7 @@ the grip of the night around him was tight and silent, and the Lord Voldemort learned again what it was like to be small before a stronger force. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry watched the maw of the manticore descend nearer and nearer his face, and sang with all his might. @@ -40445,7 +40109,7 @@ But in that moment, as he stared into eyes so large that he could only focus on one of them at a time when they were this close, he found that he didn't care. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The Lord Voldemort saw curves of darkness surrounding a globe so small that it seemed lost in all that immensity. He could reach out and crush @@ -40507,7 +40171,7 @@ And I say now that you, who call yourself my servant, shall not again use your power in open battle until the spring equinox and the coming of the Light."} -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The first drop of drool splashed into Harry's eyes. He blinked. He hadn't realized the moment his view changed from that of large green @@ -40559,7 +40223,7 @@ reminding it of its failures. Harry filled his voice with the challenge, the challenge that the Light always offered to the Dark, and waited. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The Lord Voldemort felt boredom travel through him and then ebb like a cold wave. That left what the wild Dark had said. He could not use his @@ -40620,7 +40284,7 @@ wild Dark had said about the magic it would hold back from him. A frustrated scream rose from his throat and ripped through the night. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry knelt there, singing, his eyes shut, his blue fire melting the snow around him, and listened to the wild Dark pace and mutter, pace and @@ -40715,10 +40379,7 @@ he had bargained with the monster who had helped to kill so many, or of the work that awaited him when he rejoined them, work only he could do. He thought of nothing at all. -\subsection{*Chapter 69*: The Concussive -Dance}\label{chapter-69-the-concussive-dance} - -\textbf{Chapter Fifty-Five: The Concussive Dance} +\chapter{The Concussive Dance}\label{chapter-69-the-concussive-dance} Snape exhaled in relief when he saw Harry coming back to them from the edge of the Forest. He would have moved the students who stood around @@ -40853,7 +40514,7 @@ moved. He needed to search for survivors. But someone might have. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Henrietta found her way to Silver-Mirror after a few false starts, having checked Grimmauld Place and then Cobley-by-the-Sea first. It made @@ -40918,7 +40579,7 @@ But those were not tales for children. Henrietta kissed her hair, and looked calmly at the smear of red on the blonde curls. ``Maybe it did,'' she said. -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Monika stepped back from the pool with a thoughtful look on her face. @@ -40966,7 +40627,7 @@ debate, but in the end, that was all they would do. Monika nodded. \emph{The fall of Hogwarts is unlikely to make much difference to my plans.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Greetings, Seaborn.'' @@ -41036,7 +40697,7 @@ most powerful in the north. In the end, Pamela nodded and drew a connection from Alexandre's window across time and space to Mexico, where they would wake Coatlicue. ``Come with me, then.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Jing-Xi knew there were probably people wondering if she had survived. She knew that Harry and others would need her help. There was a @@ -41078,7 +40739,7 @@ face calmly to the next wounded person and knelt down. Her magic surged and sang around her. Even in the middle of the Dark, the Light shone, and Jing-Xi was one of those whose duty was to keep it shining. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor was---numb, really. @@ -41158,7 +40819,7 @@ Connor closed his eyes and clung to her desperately. They were still alive. And thanks to him, a few more people were alive than would otherwise be. He had to think about that. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Her mother had been wrong. @@ -41205,7 +40866,7 @@ father would come to terms with that. In the meantime, the expressions on their faces were certain to be priceless. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Zacharias had never felt so strong in his life. @@ -41239,7 +40900,7 @@ someone who would dig in stubbornly and never let go. And badgers were very good at doing that. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Owen touched the burn on his brother's cheek cautiously. It had healed when he frantically applied medical magic to it, though it would leave @@ -41294,7 +40955,7 @@ soothed, a little calmed. Things were not perfect, but they were better than they had been, and on this dark night, that was all he could truly ask for. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco noticed when Harry slipped out of the room, of course. It seemed that no one else did. Snape was trying to cope with the demands of @@ -41424,10 +41085,7 @@ Dark he didn't know, and walked past him towards Silver-Mirror. His hand, freezing in such a way as to show he hadn't cast a Warming Charm, brushed Draco's in passing. -\subsection{*Chapter 70*: Messengers of the -Lightning}\label{chapter-70-messengers-of-the-lightning} - -\textbf{Chapter Fifty-Six: Messengers of the Lightning} +\chapter{Messengers of the Lightning}\label{chapter-70-messengers-of-the-lightning} Hawthorn sat holding a mouthful of tea between her teeth and watched the headline as if the paper might burst. @@ -41527,7 +41185,7 @@ months or more. She didn't care. This was another chance to matter to Harry's cause, to do vastly important work. This was \emph{wonderful.} -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``It can wait a few hours.'' @@ -41618,7 +41276,7 @@ him. As long as he could do that, then he thought he would do well. resistance, and me. I can only let him have succeeded in the first of those goals.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Rita had to admit, as she looked around the entrance hall of Silver-Mirror, that \emph{this} was the kind of headquarters Harry @@ -41725,7 +41383,7 @@ Dark Lord more than he could have possibly gained. Rita was glad that she lived in a world where such things happened, and in a time when she could report on them. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry leaned an elbow on the windowsill and watched as the first round of owls flew away. They carried the most urgent news: the letters asking @@ -41789,7 +41447,7 @@ whose children were dead. He suspected the one to Luna's father would hurt the most. But he couldn't afford to give up and think about that hurt. He would keep his head above water, and continue swimming. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Jing-Xi clasped her hands around the cup of mulled wine and drank deeply from it. It made quite a change to be sitting inside the warm, dry @@ -41917,7 +41575,7 @@ or could start a war among the Lords and Ladies. But perhaps she could work at a distance to do the right thing. She would not give up and go tamely away. The Light did not yield so easily. -SSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena stooped over her Lord and swiped at his forehead with a wet rag. When they returned home, her Lord had told her his newest plan with @@ -41953,7 +41611,7 @@ In silence, he held up the golden Hufflepuff Cup. And then he vanished away, and left Indigena with a faint shiver of both fear and relief to add to the half-warm, half-cold breeze. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry looked up from his letters when Regulus walked into the room. The man had the \emph{oddest} expression on his face. \emph{What is it?} @@ -41991,10 +41649,7 @@ continue swimming, and do his best to keep his head above water. ``Not immoral at all,'' he said. ``Please come in.'' -\subsection{*Chapter 71*: Christmas In a -Rush}\label{chapter-71-christmas-in-a-rush} - -\textbf{Chapter Fifty-Seven: Christmas In a Rush} +\chapter{Christmas In a Rush}\label{chapter-71-christmas-in-a-rush} \textbf{\emph{{REACTIONS TO HOPE:}}} @@ -42073,7 +41728,7 @@ in most eyes.'' It remains to be seen whether the latest effort to build a wizarding government in Britain is stable or not\ldots{} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Zacharias shook the Floo powder and soot off his robes, and then inclined his head to his mother as he stepped away from the fireplace. @@ -42180,7 +41835,7 @@ He gave her a smile as small as the shake of her head had been, and then turned towards the formal doors of the Smith Great Hall. ``Shall we show them what world we represent now, Mother?'' -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry closed his eyes and put the letter gently aside. All it bore was a note of thanks from Luna's father, for letting him know of his @@ -42328,7 +41983,7 @@ seemed the most congenial, the one most likely to hold off on snapping out of either impatience, preoccupation with his own problems, or genuine concern for Harry. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Snape did not find Regulus Black's presence congenial. @@ -42451,7 +42106,7 @@ capable of responding, not the way Regulus desired, but his despair and sickness increased, until he felt as if he fell down a long, dark pit, the bottom of which he could not see. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} It was a rushed and hurried Christmas, in Draco's eyes, but in the wake of the Hogwarts attack, it was hard to see how it could have been @@ -42581,10 +42236,7 @@ Draco settled back, satisfied, to continue observing the antics of people more stupid or less informed than he was. That made quite a large number of the souls in the room, given the wonder of who he was. -\subsection{*Chapter 72*: A Parting of -Ways}\label{chapter-72-a-parting-of-ways} - -\textbf{Chapter Fifty-Eight: A Parting of Ways} +\chapter{A Parting of Ways}\label{chapter-72-a-parting-of-ways} "It's \emph{not} neutral ground." @@ -42690,7 +42342,7 @@ spread every single time someone startled or irritated him. At least they were going to travel. There was that. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco shut the door to the room of the wind-pool quietly. He had intended to go in and confront Harry, but judging from Harry's slumped @@ -42730,7 +42382,7 @@ Whether that accident happened to Harry or was caused by them once they saw the Minister start behaving in a threatening way---as Draco was sure would happen---Draco wanted to be prepared. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Evamaria came in to the Isle in a carriage drawn by swans. Lady Monika had insisted. She had bred the birds to be impressive, with wingspans @@ -42828,7 +42480,7 @@ control. Evamaria set herself to endure. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry stared at the swans as they came down. They were beautiful creatures, and even if their eyes did, from a distance at least, blaze @@ -43119,7 +42771,7 @@ would see them across a battlefield one day. The Austrian Minister nodded. ``For now.'' -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Evamaria leaned against the back of her swan-carriage as it rose into the air again, sighing. She had done relatively little, but she was @@ -43144,11 +42796,7 @@ Lord-level wizard. They ruled too much, imposed too many choices, and did not know enough about free will. She wished for a world without them. -\subsection{*Chapter 73*: Resistance}\label{chapter-73-resistance} - -\textbf{Warning: Cliffhanger.} - -\textbf{Chapter Fifty-Nine: Resistance} +\chapter{Resistance}\label{chapter-73-resistance} ``Indigena.'' @@ -43268,7 +42916,7 @@ come. And if he uses his \emph{absorbere} gift, if he drains, his choices are two: Declare or begin killing to feed his magic. And either way, he may then be destroyed." -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry turned over, and ended up staring at the ceiling. He stifled a sigh as Draco shifted next to him. They were sleeping in the same bed @@ -43441,7 +43089,7 @@ pumping life and sunlight into Argutus. He should not have come so far, and so bravely, only to die when he was literally on the doorstep of salvation. -SSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Argutus was going to live. @@ -43577,7 +43225,7 @@ the wind alone. He might be angry about any number of things. At least, though, Draco was interested enough to take his hand and nod. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco knew how silly it was to be jealous of a snake---especially a snake that he himself had bought for Harry in the hopes that it would @@ -43726,10 +43374,7 @@ and Draco felt the house start to shake with the force of accumulated magic, and suspected that it was not going to be as easy to hold Harry back this time. -\subsection{*Chapter 74*: The Spiral -Dance}\label{chapter-74-the-spiral-dance} - -\textbf{Chapter Sixty: The Spiral Dance} +\chapter{The Spiral Dance}\label{chapter-74-the-spiral-dance} Harry had never felt anything like this before. His magic clamped around his limbs and clothes like the mouths of a thousand small, eager @@ -43794,7 +43439,7 @@ gripped the reins tighter, and turned grimly towards the Cornwall coast. He understood that, when they arrived, he would have to find some way to use his magic. What that would be, he didn't know yet. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Argutus lashed all over the bed, hissing words that were incomprehensible to Draco. He was more concerned with the fact that @@ -43844,7 +43489,7 @@ He set his mind on that as a question that he would ask Harry when this was all over. He \emph{would} be able to ask it, because they \emph{would} both survive this. Draco was determined on that. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry didn't know how to describe the journey he and his magic took across Britain to Cobley-by-the-Sea. He could have spoken intelligently @@ -43939,7 +43584,7 @@ I need to mourn it for the rest of my life.} Harry chose. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco arrived with a stagger at the edge of Cobley-by-the-Sea's wards. Regulus had come with them, and in fact had Side-Along Apparated Draco, @@ -43987,7 +43632,7 @@ Draco whirled around, and then stumbled as Argutus suddenly left his shoulders in a wave of silver and white, making directly for Indigena Yaxley. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena had not known that the basilisks would be so wasteful of their prey. From what she knew of the snakes, they slew and then ate, or at @@ -44060,7 +43705,7 @@ To Indigena's dismay, the change in scenery didn't seem to have discouraged Aurora, who projected from the tunnel wall like some strange gargoyle and went right on squeezing her wrist. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry knew what he needed to do. His senses warned him of Draco and Snape and Regulus nearby, and even a presence that felt like Argutus, @@ -44258,7 +43903,7 @@ entwined and were swaying back and forth as they tried to figure out what to do. He hissed soothingly in Parseltongue, ``I know something you can do.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena hated intelligent snakes. She hated the way that a basilisk could make her feel like prey with a look, and she hated the way that @@ -44311,7 +43956,7 @@ the webs. Indigena took a seat in a corner, and nursed her aches and bruises, and wondered if her death was near. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry sighed as he watched the basilisks swim away. With a little persuasion, he had managed to make them understand that they couldn't @@ -44406,12 +44051,7 @@ He turned to Snape and Regulus, who had watched the scene in silence, and said, ``I think it's time that we discuss going after the third Horcrux.'' -\subsection{*Chapter 75*: The New -Ministry}\label{chapter-75-the-new-ministry} - -\textbf{Warning: Mild slash at the end of the third scene.} - -\textbf{Chapter Sixty-One: The New Ministry} +\chapter{The New Ministry}\label{chapter-75-the-new-ministry} Connor took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He was all over sweat, his hands clenched in front of him and his arms aching from the way that @@ -44485,7 +44125,7 @@ do, and that meant that he'd done it \emph{now}. He wondered when, exactly, he should change into his new form and chase Parvati up and down the hall. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco didn't understand. @@ -44655,7 +44295,7 @@ Draco followed. Perhaps it would be Harry's turn to scold and yell and fire off accusations, and Draco would be the one who coolly got to walk away. He'd like that. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry hadn't meant to let the problem go on this long, really. He wouldn't have let it lapse if Draco had showed the signs of learning the @@ -44847,7 +44487,7 @@ might be the most valuable thing in the world right now. Not the most urgent, though, which was the need to experience more of what Draco was doing, and then just a little more, and then a bit more. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} They had talked long and often before they'd chosen the site for the new Ministry. In London, near Diagon Alley, would have been ideal, but Harry @@ -44966,7 +44606,7 @@ head around had come from. And when would Snape find the \emph{heart} to say no, and when would Regulus find the \emph{wits} to believe him? -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} It made sense, didn't it? It just made sense. @@ -45044,9 +44684,7 @@ actual death itself. Peter leaned his head back, and breathed. -\subsection{*Chapter 76*: Top Heavy}\label{chapter-76-top-heavy} - -\textbf{Chapter Sixty-Two: Top-Heavy} +\chapter{Top Heavy}\label{chapter-76-top-heavy} Connor heard a squeal, and charged out of the side-corridor where he'd been hiding, head lowered. Parvati uttered another gasp, skittered ahead @@ -45145,7 +44783,7 @@ And then a thought occurred to him, and he smiled. that I have a twin, too, and I haven't asked for anything from him in quite a while. I think he can help me be more useful.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry gave him a strange look. ``I'm not entirely sure that the Switching Potion actually works like that, Connor,'' he said slowly. @@ -45211,7 +44849,7 @@ stone and concentrate on what I want to do.'' kind of spark had lit his eyes, the pleasure of experimentation and adding to his knowledge. ``But we'll try it, and see if it does.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The potion had worked. And carrying all that extra knowledge in his head was an unpleasant experience, not that Connor would have believed that @@ -45434,7 +45072,7 @@ was working well. If something arose in the future that required knowledge of dances and Light psychology like this, he would figure out another way to achieve it. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Connor? Can I talk to you?'' @@ -45732,14 +45370,7 @@ you do.'' away, shaking his head. \emph{Merlin, they are both such children sometimes.} -\subsection{*Chapter 77*: Interlude: As Sleep That Lies By -Death}\label{chapter-77-interlude-as-sleep-that-lies-by-death} - -This Interlude's title is from Swinburne's ``Laus Veneris'': ``So lie -we, not as sleep that lies by death,/With heavy kisses and with happy -breath\ldots{}'' The poem's title itself means ``Praise of Venus.'' - -\textbf{Interlude: As Sleep That Lies By Death} +\chapter{Interlude: As Sleep That Lies By Death}\label{chapter-77-interlude-as-sleep-that-lies-by-death} \emph{January 17th, 1998} @@ -45885,7 +45516,7 @@ assumed it would be about what Draco wanted. And he couldn't answer it all at once. Harry took the memory out of the Pensieve, put it back into his own head, and went away to think. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Cupressus stood in one of the windows of the new Ministry and closed his eyes. @@ -45938,7 +45569,7 @@ Belville that the bubotuber pus had stained his letter so badly that Cupressus couldn't make it out, and, besides that, the Ministry was not in the business of making job offers to traitorous Squibs. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry looked around. Regulus had said that venturing into the world of this painting would affect him strongly, but so far Harry had seen @@ -46019,7 +45650,7 @@ completely bent to. The thought would have to come later, as he had some of the more reluctant Light families to meet with now. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Snape looked up as someone rattled the locked door of his potions lab. The wards he'd put on the door sparked and whispered and carried back an @@ -46139,7 +45770,7 @@ He heard the knocks and the calls, but he forced himself to ignore them, and after a time they went away. The tremors in his hands that prevented him from brewing faded within five minutes. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry glanced around nervously. The meeting with the reluctant Light families had gone well, for a certain sense of ``well.'' They still @@ -46259,7 +45890,7 @@ Burying his head against his knees as he gratefully restored his Occlumency pools, Harry knew he would make no progress forward until he was able to figure out the reason why. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``And you just---decided that you were going to change one day?'' Michael stared at Connor in evident disbelief. "How do you \emph{do} @@ -46345,7 +45976,7 @@ change so that other people will \emph{like} you, too, you know." He left the kitchen, and Michael gaped after him. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry paused. He'd come into the kitchen to make himself some toast, but Draco was the only other person in the room, and Harry had avoided being @@ -46429,7 +46060,7 @@ He hated that impulse in himself. It was a cousin of the pleasure he took in inflicting pain on his enemies, and, likewise, not one he wanted to indulge. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco moved his legs cautiously, then touched his hand and winced. His knuckles had collided with Harry's cheek, yes, but awkwardly; he'd @@ -46471,7 +46102,7 @@ And he would probably be pushed to the breaking point, soon. Draco could wait a bit longer. He would provoke if he had to, but really, he would prefer Harry to lose control on his own. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry sat on the roof of Silver-Mirror with his eyes closed. Around him, snow settled with a slow, heavy finality. @@ -46505,10 +46136,7 @@ he could stop them right now, Harry sat there and let them---hating himself all the while for weakness, and near to hating Draco for his part in this, and hating the world for being the way it was. -\subsection{*Chapter 79*: Intermission: Starlit -Meetings}\label{chapter-79-intermission-starlit-meetings} - -\textbf{Intermission: Starlit Meetings With Evan Rosier} +\chapter{Intermission: Starlit Meetings}\label{chapter-79-intermission-starlit-meetings} Henrietta stood comfortably under the bare boughs of the trees. Evan had sent her a description of the Apparition location in his latest letter; @@ -46590,7 +46218,7 @@ Henrietta stretched her arms slowly, exultantly, over her head. Harry would never approve of what she was doing, but Harry would never know, until it was too late. She served no master. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena could not shake the feelings that had overcome her lately. She stood shivering at the edge of her garden, and watched the snow drift @@ -46661,13 +46289,7 @@ And Indigena understood that it might not make much of a difference at all, what she knew, or where she stood, or what thorns she had growing out of her back. -\subsection{*Chapter 80*: In Night's Poisoned -Garden}\label{chapter-80-in-nights-poisoned-garden} - -\textbf{Warning: Gore.} Also, emotional turmoil. This is not a nice -chapter. - -\textbf{Chapter Sixty-Four: In Night's Poisoned Garden} +\chapter{In Night's Poisoned Garden}\label{chapter-80-in-nights-poisoned-garden} Harry looked slowly around the kitchen. No matter how he looked, though, the view never changed. The people standing around him and staring at @@ -46719,7 +46341,7 @@ front of Draco to defend him. He wouldn't do that anyway right now, since there was nothing here to protect him from, but he was relearning the value of small things. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Peter felt the tingle of magic as he, Regulus, and Severus stepped through the arched entrance of the garden. Part of that was the Warming @@ -46839,7 +46461,7 @@ Of course, all that depended on him being the one to find the wand in the first place. Along with the smell of ash wood, Peter applied himself to looking for any sign of recent digging. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Snape ducked as a whistling branch, spiked with thorns like nails, swung above him and crashed into the bush on the other side of the path. He @@ -47017,7 +46639,7 @@ sight of the dog had frightened her too much to do anything. And then she fell to her knees with another shriek as a gray rat bit her on the ankle, and Snape turned and saw what else had happened. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} The bay had reminded him. @@ -47058,7 +46680,7 @@ His second-to-last thought was of Harry, his last thought of Severus. Regulus Black died content. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry reeled to the ground. It wasn't the scar in his head flaring with pain, the way he had thought it would be if Snape, Regulus, Peter, or @@ -47096,7 +46718,7 @@ the chill in the center of his left palm, and Draco's hand, steady as rock, on his shoulder, and his warmth supporting Harry all along the right side. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Indigena could not stand. Every time she got herself steady enough to fire off a spell, the rat running about her nipped her again, stumbling @@ -47228,7 +46850,7 @@ Strangely, though, the final sensation she knew was not pain, but relief, and the vision that accompanied her was one of Minister Scrimgeour. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry would have fallen if not for Draco. Merlin, why wasn't the shade coming to him? Harry had both a solid body and magical power that @@ -47286,7 +46908,7 @@ Draco stared at him. Then he said, ``Are you certain?'' ``I think so.'' Harry began to pick his way around the garden wall. ``Come on. We should find them.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Peter met them at the entrance of the garden, practically pulling Snape behind him. Harry saw why he had so much trouble as soon as Snape faced @@ -47311,10 +46933,7 @@ Harry leaned forward, and put his arms around him, and said nothing. There was nothing to be said, except for something far away in the garden, where a black hound called a fourth time, and then was silent. -\subsection{*Chapter 81*: In a Sea of -Mourning}\label{chapter-81-in-a-sea-of-mourning} - -\textbf{Chapter Sixty-Five: In a Sea of Mourning} +\chapter{In a Sea of Mourning}\label{chapter-81-in-a-sea-of-mourning} Snape could not see, nor hear. @@ -47348,7 +46967,7 @@ that Regulus's body stiffened in his arms. No, this was not Regulus, who had gone on, but it was all that remained. And this lonely shell was all that Snape deserved, a fitting and bitter symbol of his failures. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor watched the door of the bedroom, gnawing his lip. He didn't think that he \emph{could} intrude. He had nothing to say to Snape's grief. He @@ -47445,7 +47064,7 @@ Parvati would agree to it, but he needed to ask her. So he went to her bedroom, and knocked, and, when she opened the door, stepped inside and shut it behind him. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco snorted as he made his way down to the kitchen. \emph{Fucking Potter. Always has to follow his idiotic ideas exactly when he should @@ -47591,7 +47210,7 @@ There \emph{might} be hope, just as there might be an answer to defeating Voldemort somewhere in the Black houses and treasures that Harry had inherited. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Snape did not look up, because the world beyond the end of his hands did not matter. He heard the door open, and footsteps cross the floor, but @@ -47883,13 +47502,7 @@ his mistakes. Snape was not sure, in that moment, which frightened him more. -\subsection{*Chapter 82*: Mountain Fall}\label{chapter-82-mountain-fall} - -\textbf{Fair warning: The ending of the sixth scene through the end of -the chapter contain very heavy slash. Don't read it if this will offend -you.} - -\textbf{Chapter Sixty-Six: Mountain Fall} +\chapter{Mountain Fall}\label{chapter-82-mountain-fall} ``Accept this one,'' Harry said, and heard his voice soar as if someone else had propelled it. \emph{Well, I never thought I would be saying @@ -48015,7 +47628,7 @@ and then collapse back into being his closed-off self again. Draco was in for a surprise. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry snatched a moment alone as soon as he could, but he told the truth; it wasn't to brood, it was to settle the Black houses in his @@ -48080,7 +47693,7 @@ one leaned over a high ledge. Harry leaped down the mountain. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor paused when he heard his brother coming down from the roof. Something was---well, different. It might have been as subtle as his @@ -48140,7 +47753,7 @@ a while so that he could adjust to this new brother. Besides, he wanted to go and see if Parvati had thought of an answer to his question. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Henrietta paused and leaned out of her room when Harry went by. The rhythm of his footsteps had changed. She knew that, because she had @@ -48187,7 +47800,7 @@ That didn't matter. What mattered was that Henrietta did what he needed, gave him the kind of service he \emph{had} to have. Sometimes that would be the same as what he wanted, and sometimes it wasn't. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Snape actually stepped out of the library where he had sat brooding and reading, and caught Harry's chin, tilting his face up. @@ -48269,7 +47882,9 @@ knife-pain of the first, was to decide that Regulus would have liked to hear Harry call Snape ``Father,'' whether Harry had taken the Black last name or not. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} + +% Begin Slash section % Draco started when the door opened. Harry stepped in and shut it quietly behind him, then must have told his magic to cast locking and warding @@ -48394,7 +48009,7 @@ spread his legs, but that was the most help he was going to give Harry. He waited. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry knew he could do this. It was like flying against dragons. He was afraid, but it was the right thing to do, and, in the end, it would make @@ -48456,7 +48071,7 @@ he wondered absently how he \emph{had} held himself back for so long. \emph{Perhaps that's one of the true evils of my mother's training.} -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco didn't think he'd ever felt so smug or so satisfied, and Harry had done nothing more than move inside him for two minutes. @@ -48560,13 +48175,9 @@ fragile, and the hope that which had conquered. \emph{He's mine.} -\subsection{*Chapter 83*: Whirling Round and -Round}\label{chapter-83-whirling-round-and-round} - -This is one of those non-linear chapters again, flickering back and -forth through time. Just so you know. +% End Slash section % -\textbf{Chapter Sixty-Seven: Whirling Round and Round} +\chapter{Whirling Round and Round}\label{chapter-83-whirling-round-and-round} Harry leaned briefly back against Draco, then turned, a fire in his eyes. ``You're ready.'' @@ -48628,7 +48239,7 @@ sliding into the first words of the ritual greeting he needed to impress her. ``Dark water singing over its stones is not more welcome than the sight of your face, madam.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} He could not but pluck and tug and weave now, and spin the fabric of dreams, and hope it would be enough. @@ -48688,7 +48299,7 @@ He was not afraid. He moved relentlessly out of the darkness, towards the day of his light and his biting, like an old serpent, and in the meantime he wove and spun the fabric of dreams. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor held Parvati's eyes. After a moment, she flushed and looked away, shaking her head. @@ -48775,7 +48386,7 @@ with the most eloquent words in the world, so he kissed Parvati on the cheek and left her there. At least she looked as if she were thinking about what he'd said. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry could feel Draco, he thought, as he spoke with Cupressus Apollonis, polite nothings about the way the Ministry had opened and the @@ -49038,7 +48649,7 @@ he said. "I didn't say I knew \emph{every} detail of its behavior." And this, Harry could believe, and did not mind, and knew, and loved. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Connor frowned. ``Well, no.'' @@ -49123,7 +48734,7 @@ you.'' Connor patted his hand. ``I know.'' -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} So slow, in the darkness. That was the main danger of the weaving, that he would grow impatient and jerk the fabric too quickly, pull against @@ -49145,7 +48756,7 @@ But not all questions had answers. The third waited. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco lay in silence on their bed, stroking Harry's hair. Harry had fallen asleep immediately after they returned, muttering something about @@ -49201,10 +48812,7 @@ Harry was warm in his arms, snoring softly, muscles more relaxed than Draco could ever remember feeling them before. Darkness, ugliness, and pain could wait. -\subsection{*Chapter 84*: Slimy Mud and Rotten -Wood}\label{chapter-84-slimy-mud-and-rotten-wood} - -\textbf{Chapter Sixty-Eight: Slimy Mud and Rotten Wood} +\chapter{Slimy Mud and Rotten Wood}\label{chapter-84-slimy-mud-and-rotten-wood} ``Why does this one start at dawn?'' Harry asked. @@ -49295,7 +48903,7 @@ In fact, the whole of \emph{him} was gone. What awaited him was another world, another life, within the mind of a Harry Potter who had always been the way he was. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco leaned back and folded his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling of the four-poster bed. Greg and Vince sat by the door, keeping @@ -49362,7 +48970,7 @@ So he would change himself. He would ask his father to teach him more about the Dark Arts over Christmas holidays. -SSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry spat blood and didn't look up. What had happened to him wasn't important. He didn't even really know why he'd been called to the @@ -49457,7 +49065,7 @@ contentment that came from a job well done, a duty fulfilled. He nodded. ``That will be more than enough for me, sir,'' he said softly. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco hesitated for a long moment, heart beating so hard that he was convinced someone would come down the hall at any moment and hear it. @@ -49545,7 +49153,7 @@ He went to sleep with a small smile on his lips, imagining all the while the look that would be in Lucius's eyes when Draco's letter reporting success reached him. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Harry had a word, and he put it in the forefront of his thoughts, and the word \emph{stayed} there. @@ -49606,7 +49214,7 @@ want the rage. He wanted to serve his brother, and live in peace. The rage stayed in the box. It always would. -SSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} It didn't take much more than a small twist of his wand to cast the spell. And, once it was cast, things took their natural course. @@ -49640,7 +49248,7 @@ care that much. He loved his father with all his heart. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Horror, screaming horror all around Harry, and he knew what would work, he knew what he \emph{must} do, but love stayed his hand and forced the @@ -49733,7 +49341,7 @@ Harry did not care. Connor was still alive, and the rage and the magic were locked in the box again. Everything was as it should be. He did not need his brother's love, only his life. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco frowned and shifted one foot in the mud. It was under the trailing hem of his robe, so his father couldn't see it moving. That was a very @@ -49835,7 +49443,7 @@ wanted---needed---to impress. Draco knelt. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``Do you understand, Harry?'' @@ -49924,7 +49532,7 @@ He made the vow, and the fire glowed all around their joined hands. Harry watched it, and thought the separate strands were like the shine of candles of peace. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``That is not the way, Draco.'' Hawthorn Parkinson never dared sound \emph{annoyed} with him, but she could sound weary, and she did so now. @@ -49985,7 +49593,7 @@ his father's regard. He could \emph{do} this. He was the Malfoy heir, the sole scion of his father's legacy, and Lucius Malfoy could torture like an artist. Draco must learn how to do so. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} "\emph{Now}, Harry!" @@ -50046,7 +49654,7 @@ as Sirius had two years earlier. Harry closed his eyes. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco cursed in shock and barely ducked around the corner in time. The green light of the Killing Curse cut the darkness around him, a silent @@ -50125,7 +49733,7 @@ raised his wand. Draco set himself to endure. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} In the silence, during the long hours, Harry fought and fought with himself. @@ -50181,7 +49789,7 @@ night, until he could no longer hear the knocking from inside the box, or the frenzied music he sometimes thought he heard blowing among the stars at the end of April and on Midwinter Night. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} ``---by the order of the Dark Lord of Britain and Ireland, soon to be Dark Lord of Europe---'' @@ -50231,7 +49839,7 @@ light rain began to fall. He supposed his robes would be coated with mud before the day was out, but, well. The house elves of Hogwarts could make themselves useful to their new masters by cleaning them. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} On Midwinter Night in the same year as Voldemort's defeat, which was his and Connor's last year at Hogwarts, Harry climbed the Astronomy Tower. @@ -50284,7 +49892,7 @@ cymbals. Inside him, a fist punched through the rotten wood of the box. -SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS +\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} Draco opened his eyes, his heart shuddering. He knew it must be sunset, or the visions wouldn't have let him go. He lay on his back on a bed, he @@ -50348,10 +49956,7 @@ So he went on, telling his story, interspersed with Harry's indignant or reassuring little comments, waiting for the end of visions, waiting for midnight and the light. -\subsection{*Chapter 85*: Interlude: Bulstrode to -Yaxley}\label{chapter-85-interlude-bulstrode-to-yaxley} - -\textbf{Interlude: Bulstrode to Yaxley} +\chapter{Interlude: Bulstrode to Yaxley}\label{chapter-85-interlude-bulstrode-to-yaxley} \emph{February 7th, 1997} @@ -50392,10 +49997,7 @@ In the name of the Dark, \emph{Henrietta Bulstrode.} -\subsection{*Chapter 86*: Caught on the -Hop}\label{chapter-86-caught-on-the-hop} - -\textbf{Chapter Sixty-Nine: Caught on the Hop} +\chapter{Caught on the Hop}\label{chapter-86-caught-on-the-hop} Connor sighed loudly and put the book aside. He'd been researching the Switching Potion, hoping to find some wrinkle in it that Harry didn't @@ -51354,9 +50956,7 @@ But it sent a worm of hurt into Harry's gut anyway. \emph{Not enough to make go back and apologize, though, because I did nothing wrong. I} didn't. -\subsection{*Chapter 87*: Hogwarts}\label{chapter-87-hogwarts} - -\textbf{Chapter Seventy: Hogwarts} +\chapter{Hogwarts}\label{chapter-87-hogwarts} Harry had dreamed of the sea. @@ -52095,10 +51695,7 @@ guard them. wake up from its stubborn fear of him and see that. I'll spend the rest of my days arguing if I must. Stubborn set of old men and women.} -\subsection{*Chapter 88*: On Unneutral -Ground}\label{chapter-88-on-unneutral-ground} - -\textbf{Chapter Seventy-One: On Unneutral Ground} +\chapter{On Unneutral Ground}\label{chapter-88-on-unneutral-ground} Owen laid down the parchment in front of Apollonis with an air of finality that he didn't feel. But showing such nervousness to the old @@ -52705,14 +52302,7 @@ heart. ``I said yes. Let's do it.'' -\subsection{*Chapter 89*: Nothing Gold Can -Stay}\label{chapter-89-nothing-gold-can-stay} - -The title of the chapter comes from the Robert Frost poem of the same -name: ``Nature's first green is gold,/ Her hardest hue to -hold\ldots{}.So dawn goes down to day./ Nothing gold can stay.'' - -\textbf{Chapter Seventy-Two: Nothing Gold Can Stay} +\chapter{Nothing Gold Can Stay}\label{chapter-89-nothing-gold-can-stay} Connor knelt on the floor in front of Parvati. They'd chosen her bedroom for the ceremony, since it was the one room where they were the least @@ -53304,14 +52894,7 @@ that permanently joined them, not to be parted. solid and bright as a golden ring. \emph{I've never been surer of anything in my life.} -\subsection{*Chapter 90*: The World Is Green and -Gold}\label{chapter-90-the-world-is-green-and-gold} - -This is one of those chapters that reaches out to embrace a bunch of -people. Thus, a lot of viewpoints. It's also the last happy chapter for -a while. - -\textbf{Chapter Seventy-Three: The World Is Green and Gold} +\chapter{The World Is Green and Gold}\label{chapter-90-the-world-is-green-and-gold} ``No.'' @@ -54170,15 +53753,7 @@ She could not wait. Harry really should have paid more attention to the fifth stanza of the fourth prophecy. -\subsection{*Chapter 91*: The First Day of -Spring}\label{chapter-91-the-first-day-of-spring} - -\textbf{Warning:}This begins a series of very tense and dark chapters -that don't end until Chapter 80 and the story's climax. No specific -warnings for this one, except a \textbf{cliffhanger,} but if you don't -like suspense, be warned it doesn't let up much for the next few days. - -\textbf{Chapter Seventy-Four: The First Day of Spring} +\chapter{The First Day of Spring}\label{chapter-91-the-first-day-of-spring} Harry rubbed the sweat off his hands onto his robes. He had just reached the calm, balanced state of mind necessary to cast the summoning spell @@ -54793,14 +54368,7 @@ didn't know what Voldemort would do with Connor. The first of the Occlumency pools around his scar boiled into mist and vanished. -\subsection{*Chapter 92*: Intermission: Love Grows -Bitter}\label{chapter-92-intermission-love-grows-bitter} - -The title of this Intermission comes from lines in Swinburne's ``Hymn to -Prosperine'': ``Laurel is green for a season, and love is sweet for a -day;/ But love grows bitter with treason, and laurel outlives not May.'' - -\textbf{Intermission: Love Grows Bitter With Treason} +\chapter{Intermission: Love Grows Bitter}\label{chapter-92-intermission-love-grows-bitter} Owen shut the door behind him with a click so faint that he thought no one could have heard it save one who was listening for it. So, of @@ -55005,17 +54573,7 @@ His mourning and his mind alike were one pane of black glass, and his spirit was a light, cold, crisp gray, like morning on the first day of spring. -\subsection{*Chapter 93*: The Decay of a -Mind}\label{chapter-93-the-decay-of-a-mind} - -\textbf{Warnings}There \textbf{is torture and gore}in this chapter. -Please don't read the sections with those things if you think they'll -upset/trigger you. This is not, in any sense of the word, a pleasant -chapter. - -In addition, this chapter ends in a \textbf{cliffhanger.} - -\textbf{Chapter Seventy-Five: The Decay of a Mind} +\chapter{The Decay of a Mind}\label{chapter-93-the-decay-of-a-mind} Connor had long ago given up his vow against screaming. If he hadn't, then he would have bitten through his lips and his tongue, and then @@ -55652,15 +55210,7 @@ shape of letters spelling out the name of Harry's kidnapper. \emph{Henrietta Bulstrode.} -\subsection{*Chapter 94*: Morituri Te -Salutant}\label{chapter-94-morituri-te-salutant} - -\textbf{Warnings: gore.} - -The title is Latin, and was the greeting used by Roman gladiators to the -Emperor on entering the arena: ``They who are about to die salute you.'' - -\textbf{Chapter Seventy-Six: \emph{Morituri Te Salutant}} +\chapter{Morituri Te Salutant}\label{chapter-94-morituri-te-salutant} Harry woke slowly. His brain was fogged, confused. He knew he had taken up the book of summoning spells to study, and to make sure that he could @@ -56096,17 +55646,7 @@ kiss her cold lips. Then he turned and leaped for Silver-Mirror. \emph{I am coming, Voldemort---for my brother's life, and for your death.} -\subsection{*Chapter 95*: All the Joy Before -Death}\label{chapter-95-all-the-joy-before-death} - -The title of this chapter (along with the next two) comes from -Swinburne's ``Hymn to Proserpine'': ``Breasts more soft than a dove's, -that tremble with tenderer breath;/ And all the wings of the Loves, and -all the joy before death;/ All the feet of the hours that sound as a -single lyre,/ Dropped and deep in the flowers, with strings that flicker -like fire.'' - -\textbf{Chapter Seventy-Seven: All the Joy Before Death} +\chapter{All the Joy Before Death}\label{chapter-95-all-the-joy-before-death} Connor had known a simulacrum of peace before some hours before he felt someone pressing on the outer shell of his mind. He waited for a moment, @@ -56311,16 +55851,7 @@ Apparated. For the first time in seventeen years, he was content. -\subsection{*Chapter 96*: Standing, Look to the -End}\label{chapter-96-standing-look-to-the-end} - -The title of this chapter, likewise, comes from ``Hymn to Proserpine'': -``Though all men abase them before you in spirit, and all knees bend,/ I -kneel not neither adore you, but standing, look to the end.'' - -And now, the monster under the bed. - -\textbf{Chapter Seventy-Eight: Standing, Look to the End} +\chapter{Standing, Look to the End}\label{chapter-96-standing-look-to-the-end} The moment he landed back in his bedroom at Silver-Mirror with Draco and Snape, Harry broke from them. He headed for the library; they could @@ -56578,10 +56109,7 @@ echoing in his head. \emph{Don't you worry about that.} The dogs-head in his left palm burned softly, as if in response, or promise. -\subsection{*Chapter 97*: Intermission: -Brewing}\label{chapter-97-intermission-brewing} - -\textbf{Intermission: Brewing} +\chapter{Intermission: Brewing}\label{chapter-97-intermission-brewing} \emph{Three hippogriff feathers, shredded into three parts each.} @@ -56634,19 +56162,7 @@ exactly half from exactly half. Done. -\subsection{*Chapter 98*: And Death Is a -Sleep}\label{chapter-98-and-death-is-a-sleep} - -And another title from ``Hymn to Proserpine,'' the concluding lines: -``So long I endure, no longer; and laugh not again, neither weep./ For -there is no God found stronger than death; and death is a sleep.'' - -This is the chapter I've been envisioning since I started writing the -very first story. - -Let's take it home. - -\textbf{Chapter Seventy-Nine: And Death Is a Sleep} +\chapter{And Death Is a Sleep}\label{chapter-98-and-death-is-a-sleep} Draco did not really like the look in Harry's eyes when he came out of the impromptu potions lab Snape had constructed on the second floor of @@ -57263,17 +56779,7 @@ himself back if he were to come back. Harry closed his eyes, and curled in on himself, and wept like something dying, and the sea answered with cry after rushing cry of pain. -\subsection{*Chapter 99*: Intermission: Light of -Ruin}\label{chapter-99-intermission-light-of-ruin} - -Once again, a title from ``Hymn to Proserpine'' (they'll let up soon, I -swear), describing the wave of the world: ``In its sides is the -north-wind bound; and its salt is of all men's tears;/ With light of -ruin, and sound of changes, and pulse of years:/ With travail of day -after day, and with trouble of hour upon hour;/ And bitter as blood is -the spray; and the crests are as fangs that devour:'' - -\textbf{Intermission: Light of Ruin} +\chapter{Intermission: Light of Ruin}\label{chapter-99-intermission-light-of-ruin} Draco's knuckles bled from where he'd dashed them against the wall over and over again. His mind didn't feel much better: scraped raw by the @@ -57478,20 +56984,7 @@ In the distance, an eagle cried. And Draco saw Connor's bloody face and smiling mouth in his mind again, and thought, as he would never do again, \emph{Farewell, brother.} -\subsection{*Chapter 100*: All So Fair That Are -Broken}\label{chapter-100-all-so-fair-that-are-broken} - -Thank you for the reviews! - -Fair warning: most of this chapter is, um, kind of strange. But then, -most of it is written from Harry's point-of-view, and Harry is far from -sane right now. - -Another ``Hymn to Proserpine'' title: ``Ye are fallen, our lords, by -what token? we wist that ye should not fall./ Ye were all so fair that -are broken; and one more fair than ye all.'' - -\textbf{Chapter Eighty: All So Fair That Are Broken} +\chapter{All So Fair That Are Broken}\label{chapter-100-all-so-fair-that-are-broken} Monika did not step back from her pool until she was quite sure that the interaction between Lord Riddle and his heir had ended---long moments @@ -58117,14 +57610,7 @@ Harry's words, and corrected his own wording. \emph{Come back from the breaking.} -\subsection{*Chapter 101*: Back From the -Abyss}\label{chapter-101-back-from-the-abyss} - -Thank you for the reviews on these last chapters! I'm glad that the -climax worked for people. Just five more chapters (counting this one), -one Intermission, and an epilogue to go now. - -\textbf{Chapter Eighty-One: Back From the Abyss} +\chapter{Back From the Abyss}\label{chapter-101-back-from-the-abyss} Harry waited until they were back in their bedroom before he yawned. It was such a massive, jaw-cracking yawn that Draco would not have been @@ -58725,23 +58211,7 @@ vanished out the door. He lay there, and remembered how to breathe, and remembered Connor, and hoped the breakfast would be good. -\subsection{*Chapter 102*: A Silver Splendour, A -Flame}\label{chapter-102-a-silver-splendour-a-flame} - -\textbf{Warning}The last scene here (but only the last scene) contains -\emph{very} heavy slash. As usual, please feel free not to read it if -you think you'll be offended. - -Also, this is another non-linear chapter, every ``present-time'' scene -alternating with one from the past month or so, as Harry prepares for -the Walpurgis ritual. - -The chapter title once again comes from ``Hymn to Proserpine'' (the last -one that does): ``White rose of the rose-white water, a silver -splendour, a flame,/ Bent down unto us that besought her, and earth grew -sweet with her name.'' - -\textbf{Chapter Eighty-Two: A Silver Splendour, A Flame} +\chapter{A Silver Splendour, A Flame}\label{chapter-102-a-silver-splendour-a-flame} Harry grimaced as he smeared the oil across his hands. It was necessary, as a preparation for the Walpurgis ritual he and Draco would share later @@ -59487,6 +58957,8 @@ intertwined, the Dark embraced them and took them---elsewhere. \begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center} +% Begin Slash section % + Harry lifted his head and stared, then shivered. In spite of what Draco had told him, and what he'd read to prepare, he still found himself overcome by the sheer power of the room in which they stood. A black, @@ -59724,10 +59196,9 @@ normally feel, but, for once, he didn't care: He would relax and let Draco take care of everything. -\subsection{*Chapter 103*: Gloryflower -Owls}\label{chapter-103-gloryflower-owls} +% End Slash section % -\textbf{Chapter Eighty-Three: Gloryflower Owls} +\chapter{Gloryflower Owls}\label{chapter-103-gloryflower-owls} Hawthorn sniffed deeply, and then shook her head. It was still hard, sometimes, remembering that she'd left her lycanthropy behind. If @@ -60293,16 +59764,7 @@ future that was coming now. It was time for a change. -\subsection{*Chapter 104*: Intermission: -Snapshots}\label{chapter-104-intermission-snapshots} - -The format of this Intermission is somewhat unusual, but without it, I -don't think there's a way to even \emph{hint} at most of the characters' -fates. This isn't meant to close all possibilities off completely and -end the stories, of course, since so many people are still alive, but -give a series of small glimpses. - -\textbf{Intermission: Snapshots} +\chapter{Intermission: Snapshots}\label{chapter-104-intermission-snapshots} \emph{If there were a camera that could take pictures evocative of life amid the ruins and the flowers of Voldemort's defeat, these are the @@ -60801,10 +60263,7 @@ that Draco gave him as a present for their first joining ritual. But perhaps, here, the camera should be put aside, and the photograph permitted not to exist. Some moments should be remembered, not recorded. -\subsection{*Chapter 105*: A Toast to the Swift -Years}\label{chapter-105-a-toast-to-the-swift-years} - -\textbf{Chapter Eighty-Four: A Toast to the Swift Years} +\chapter{A Toast to the Swift Years}\label{chapter-105-a-toast-to-the-swift-years} Draco stepped back and eyed the chain on the wall, then nodded. Linked silver rings topped with blue-gray stones, in the colors of the old @@ -61010,16 +60469,7 @@ adapt to it when it comes.} Draco lifted his head, challenging anyone who might watch him invisibly or from a distance in the way he moved, and Apparated home. -\subsection{*Chapter 106*: Ave Atque -Vale}\label{chapter-106-ave-atque-vale} - -The title of this chapter comes from a poem by the Roman poet Catullus, -whose brother died as a soldier and was buried far from Rome; Catullus -composed it on visiting his grave. The last line of the poem reads, -``atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale'' (And now forever, -brother, hail and farewell). - -\textbf{Chapter Eighty-Five: Ave Atque Vale} +\chapter{Ave Atque Vale}\label{chapter-106-ave-atque-vale} Harry walked slowly along the shore. @@ -61172,21 +60622,7 @@ point. It was a fair morning in June, and there was no need to hurry. -\subsection{*Chapter 107*: Epilogue: In -Memoriam}\label{chapter-107-epilogue-in-memoriam} - -This is the last post of the Sacrifices Arc. I will write nothing -further in the future of the story than this. (Incidentally, pay -attention to the date at the top of this, or the content will make -\emph{no} sense). At a certain point, you've got to let the characters -go and live lives that you can't even imagine. - -A hearty thanks to all the people who read and reviewed, and stuck with -a story that turned out to be much more massive than I expected. - -And last word to Draco. - -\textbf{Epilogue: In Memoriam} +\chapter{Epilogue: In Memoriam}\label{chapter-107-epilogue-in-memoriam} \emph{June 5th, 1999} |