I don't think this is true.

On the top of that Fae are supposedly weakened on Earth, so I guess it would all depend where the fight would be. In Nevernever, with whole army, I have no doubt Maeve would be the winner, but on Earth, alone? Harry might even have Dumbledore or Knights to help him there.

Besides, until Voldemort is dealt with, Maeve literally cannot kill Harry.

 

In Dumbledore's place of power, after Maeve had been in battle.

Not really.

1. If Maeve were to kill Harry in collusion with Voldemort then it could be construed as by Voldemort's hand.

2. You overestimate the power of prophecy. Prophecies do not ensure the future, they merely predict it and have as much weight as they are given and no more.

Hmm. I'm gonna call that an over-dramatisation to make the scene look cooler on Shezza's part. Either that or its contradicting previous bits of Denarian and Dresden canon.

 

Eh, I think Dumbledore could overpower Maeve pretty easily, with skills in Transfiguration. Just remember how Maeve couldn't do a shit to the Iron-encased enemies at her stronghold in Nevernever. And just in recent chapter we all saw just how fast Dumbledore could create an enchanted Iron armor. He would surround himself with Iron-animated defenses and attack Maeve similarly in few seconds time.

Harry, on the other hand, relies mostly on direct attacks wich Maeve will deflect mostly effortlessly.

 

Eh? Mab and Titania are on a completely different leven than their daughters. Aurora got killed by a frontal charge of pixies armed with kitchen knives and Maeve couldn't even subdue her own Knight. Harry is already much more powerful than canon!Maeve.

 

The way Tessa spoke in the meeting was a bit odd. I thought Tessa (I am assuming you are using the Tessa from Small Favor) was more like Harry and Nicodemus in that she is a mortal host in control and working together with the fallen. Given that, I thought the "personal" way she referred to the void a bit strange since she would never experience that place even if her fallen would.

I should also say that the whole meeting seemed a bit, weak. By that I mean that other than Tessa, most of the people there really were just puppets for the Fallen, but they did not seem like it. I mean for these supposedly ancient beings that have existed for eons with understanding far beyond human, they acted more like bickering children. Somehow I think it might have been better if you could have injected a bit more "alienness" to the meeting. To demonstrate that these beings really are true Fallen Angels instead of just random punks. Remember that other than Tessa(who does not really count considering) there were no mortals present so no need to act in mortal terms.

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The duel between Dumbledore and Harry was cool. It was nice reading a fight where Harry ends losing. A good way to show that as powerfull as he is now, there is still some way to go. I also liked the touch where Harry actually seemed concerned when he thought he had actually hurt Dumbledore. I enjoy the "friendship" that seems to have developed between the two. There are few people that Harry likes but I think Dumbledore has become one.

The Gringotts scenes were good, though I should point out that for what was supposed to be a restrained stealth-mission, Harry killed a whole lot of goblins and did a lot of damage. Given his level of skill, I think he could have been a lot more carefull about the whole thing. I mean he could have just used the imperious curse or some other mind control thing to take control of the goblins and then wiped their minds of the events afterwards with memory charms. Instead he just "blew-shit-up".

Now it does fit in with Harry's character but I wonder if maybe this is something that should come up later and bite him back. For example, it seems unlikely that the goblins could hide what happened, which means Voldemort now knows that Harry&Dumbledore are after the horcruxes. Harry did not get any gold so that excuse does not work afterall. Had he used stealth and guile, Voldemort could have remained ignorant that anything had happened at all, especially if Harry had left a fake cup behind. I also wonder if Harry's agressive and exuberant way of going about this was somehow triggered by Maeves words and the need to prove to himself that he is still a violent bastard. If so then Maeve would have manipulated him quite effectively. I wonder if you intended that to happen or if I am just seeing a motivation that is not there?

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Taure:
Do we really know that Maeve is THAT powerfull? I mean as you say, she is just a Lady(a-queen-to-be and not a full Queen like Mab). If we go by Dresdenverse then we havent really seen her do anything all that magnificent. In Summer Knight she was sloppy in her magic (though that could have just been show). She also freely admits that she likes to avoid fair fights in one scene, implying that she does not fully trust her power. Aurora who was her equal was also not shown to be a huge powerhouse. Dresden was apparently capable of taking her out with a death curse and in the end, she was taken out with a bunch of pixies wielding little metal weapons. Now I am not saying that Maeve is not tough. She is quite a bit above average I would say, but not on the level of gods or angels. Meciel fully unchained could probably wipe the floor with her.

As for the sword Harry wields, it is mentioned in SK that Lea is stronger than Maeve, and yet in Grave Peril she refuses to make a deal for Amoracchius because apparently the power of the sword is strong enough that with it Michael would find the "shattering of our pact a simple enough matter". I think it very possible that the powers of the Sword could protect Harry from anything Maeve would throw at him, the way it protected him from Voldemort, and since the blade is made of steel, it would go through any shield Maeve could construct(and thats without the holy-magic-power-dispelling-thingie). Given how deadly iron is to the Sidhe, Harry would only need to strike once. Also the families of the knights supposedly get some protection from supernatural threats so theoretically there could be some "extra-luck" involved in any rescue-attempt of Harry's daughter.

No, I think that if Harry manages to arrange a one-on-one fight then he has a good chance of coming out the victor. Ofcourse it should be mentioned that even as just a Lady, Maeve does possess vassals and servants. And while they would be much weaker than Harry, they would also be more numerous. If Harry goes at it alone, he might be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. That is actually why I thought any potential attack on Maeve would require allies like Dumbledore and/or the other knights on Harry's side too.

Ofcourse I wonder how smart it would be for Harry to actually kill Maeve. Mab has not been mentioned in the story but presumably she is there. And Mab is a real-queen and could no-doubt crush Harry with ease. She might also be a bit upset if Harry whacked her daughter Maeve. Now granted, she could not come after Harry directly due to all those rules but she could no doubt use politics to make things difficult for Harry. On the other hand Winter is harsh so she might just decide that Maeve brought it on herself by messing with something she could not handle.

 

I have always thought there to be a huge step in power between the Fae Queens. Mab and Titania are the ones with the power to match the archangels not Maeve and Lily. Then I always imagined the Mothers to be somewhere between the Almighty and Mab and Titania. The Knights I have always assumed to be similar in power to the Ladys if not slightly more powerful since they are extentions of Mab and Titania's power.

I think its said somewhere that Dresden's godmother is the second strongest of all the Winter Court. Maeve is strong yes. But in no way is she in league with her mother or even near the league of her grandmother.

I dont see Mab being just all that upset about Maeve if Aramis has chosen the Fae, which I doubt she will.

 

I agree that in Dresden canon she isn't amazingly powerful. However, I think Shezza has amped her up considerably, given that she, through Harry, dispatched a dragon with a fair amount of ease.

 

Maeve's true stregth doesn't lie in 'real' fights, her powers are more of the 'give-me-a-few-minutes/hours/days-to-prepare-and-you-are-as-good-as-dead-or-wished-you-were'
she is better in backstabing then fighting directly.
The real firepower lies with the queen who is, that is why Maeve would probably never agree to a 'fair' fight and will avoid it at all costs.

 

We dont actually fully know the details of how that whole scene worked out. For all we know Maeve borrowed power from Mab or something. Also remember that the dragon had already been battered and had its reserves weakened by attacks from Dumbledore, Harry and even a killing curse from Crouch.

Also remember that apparently that dragon was working together with the Denarians. Now if we use another Dresdenverse dragon Ferrovax as an example, I would say that Ferrovax would never have have "lowered" himself to working with or even needing help from anyone. Heck, in a recent post Butcher implied that Ferrovax was near Mab's level. From this we can assume that this dragon, while powerfull in mortal standards, was quite weak when compared to other dragons(Like Ferro).

I think at this point in the story, Harry could probably have taken that dragon out even without Maeves assistance.

 

I noticed the hints towards oncoming winter. I wonder if Harry will have a confrontation with Maeve on the winter solstice. Perhaps she would be stronger on that day?

 

I dont know about Maeve but Mab definitely is.

 

Yo guys. Half of Scene 1 is up. Half might not seem like much but it is 3000 words, so yeah. Hopefully, will get scene one, two and three finished by tomorrow night so I can post them here and up at FF.Net on Friday.

 

Just read the new scene.

Maybe it's because the update's have just started up all of a sudden, and so I haven't gotten into the whole flow of the story...I don't know.

But, it seems like you're throwing in all these action scenes to appease the masses, not so much with the breaking into the bank, which was pretty cool, but with the whole attacking snakes thing.. it just seemed like an afterthought to me.

Maybe? Don't really know how to explain it

 

10k pages equals around 60-80cm, there's no way anyone would make a book that wide.

repetition

news

This doesn't feel right. The colon, I mean.

Dumbledore says all the right words, but... I'd expect him to use a bit more flowery language.

Besides that, update is great and I already can't wait for next one.

 

Interesting start. I wonder if there will be a reaction from Scrimgeour to seeing Harry. It might be interesting to see some political wrangling with Harry in the middle. Also it might be nice to get some chapters focused more on character interaction ("Filler") rather then battle.

Also, I wonder if Harry can speak to snakes in this story? I think(?) in canon that was an ability he got from being a horcrux right? I have a hard time believing that a piece of Voldemort could be hiding in Harry without Meciel being aware of it so maybe he cannot. Just something I wondered about after seeing all those snakes.

Anyway looking forward to the next part.

 

After reading Harry's last sentence in the first part of chapter 16, I think perhaps this was what Maeve was talking about, at least in part.

Harry takes things seriously, but he really doesn't take anything seriously.

He's very quick, almost to the point of automatically being aggressive towards every situation. The light touch doesn't appeal to him.

He has Verrine serving him, and he might think how cool. I have a slave. But he seems to not care or consider her a threat to him. Maybe he should.

As far as Maeve goes, as a nonhuman entity, human morals are abhorrent to her, but she is always working towards a higher purpose and goal, such as with Amaris. Harry to her may seem like a powerful, but wild dog who'll never rise any higher than a dangerous animal.

 

The trap in the cup didnt bother me. Dumbledore seems kinda pissed about the bank did he really expect Harry to use diplomacy or that it would actually worked if he attempted it?

 

I will disagree with you here. In America, a rather well-known example of government waste is the supposed creation of a manual weighing over 4-5 pounds on the standards of mousetraps and how they should be manufactured. A mousetrap itself weighs less.

With magic, a bureaucratic gov't, and romantic authors I could see tomes existing far more bulky than ten thousand pages.

 

10k pages is a shitload of pages. War and Peace is 1500 pages and is 2 or 3 inchs wide.

 

My point still stands. The paper is held together by a magical binding made from the hairs of some magical creature and is imbued with some magical spell (so the pages take up less physical space than they should). It's far more possible than some of the stuff in HP.