solid chapter, however, i feel that the magical oath's were thrown around a little liberally in this chapter, first croacker, then dumbledore, then bones. I guess i've always thought that they aren't to be taken lightly, or else they lose meaning, but I understand why you did it all the same.

 

The oaths were a bit sudden, but I thought it worked well. Croaker backed Dumbledore into a corner with his oath, and the only way to head him off was to respond in kind. Honestly, I kinda like the attention Mike is giving oaths in his story. It's not over the top, and they're used intelligently; these recent oaths are just more in the reader's spotlight than the others, so they seem a bit bigger, even though they aren't.

 

At long last, Chapter 24 is up. I hadn't intended to take a brief hiatus, but real life got busy and I needed a breather from the story. I used the down time to outline what's coming, and there will probably be another twelve chapters after this one.

One thing that has become clear to me is that I absolutely suck at predicting how long stories are going to be. I thought 150k for this one...then I thought 180k...and now my best guess is 260k.

Harry's a bit of a bitch in this chapter, but he's still 15 and someone just died right on top of him. He'll pull it together soon enough.

 

Will Hermione be any use in the coming fight? She got hoodwinked by Dumbledore, but it's a shame to waste her brains. Maybe she can find a loophole in the loyalty oath the DEs will make people swear or something. Also, this relates to canon as much as to this story, with Voldemort officially declared a bad guy, why can't Dumbledore force the entire student population to swear an oath to never knowingly serve him? Then Lucius has to choose between Voldemort and protecting his son who is now useless to his Master.

 

A good update and I can't wait for next chapter, because of carnage and Harry/Parvati. I can't believe that ship actually works.

 

A good update indeed. I love how ruthless this Harry is, even though he is unwilling to kill a defeated enemy... yet.

Only thing I didn't like was phrasing of this sentence:

It sounds like an absolute truth and we know that he had little time to study it.

 

This story is escalating quite nicely. Next chapter's ignition should prove fun.

 

Very nice chapter, I especially enjoyed the amount of attention that was given to the fact Harry isn't some emotionless rock, and that even the man whos been fighting to survive this entire time still has the same emotions as anyone else who had someone die on top of them.

Great Chapter.

 

Chapter 26 is up. The big battle in Hogsmeade is finally upon us. There's a whole lotta violence and some gratuitous belly dancing.

Enjoy.

 

A fine chapter, but I'm afraid that belly dancing is an Arabic tradion.

 

^^ yeap... the indian dances are quite different from the belly dancing, although that hardly matters, I'm not a fan of the pairing so that's part of the story I'm breezing along until I get to the more interesting parts... (see in a case where it was Tonks trying to imitate the belly dancing, I'd have been much more interested )

Now, the Big fight... not half bad, and since I wasn't skipping over paragraphs I can even say that it was rather entertaining.
one thing I rather dislike is those scene breaks with a title stating the place of action(can't remember if you were using them before), but they are somehow annoying, it's a written story and not the 24 series on the TV after all. I think you could change the place of action with properly stating the characters involved and a couple of words describing where are we at the moment instead the easy way around it.

One question that is always present whenever I read a "Voldemort attacks Hogsmeade" chapter in a fic - why is he actually doing that? Since it's a magical village we could presume that most of the population is of a pureblooded families, and meaningless slaughter of them seems like illogical choice, as long as they are not actively opposing the new regime.

So... who is going to kill Lupin now? Is the question I'm more interested in than who is victorious over the Voldemort vs. Dumbledore fight. Although, now I remember that the main plot line in your story was Dumbledore who was trying to kill Harry, and with the boy already injured and conveniently present at the place of the battle along with the enemy to be defeated(oh, and don't forget the flying Moody of course, who has his own reason now for seeing the boy suffer), Harry might have some hard time saving his hide this time around.

 

Huh. You're mostly right about this, it seems, but there's some disagreement on the web over where it originated. From worldbellydance.com:

Then other sources say that the Indian gypsy origins are a myth. Whatever. If it's a mistake, it's one I can live with.

See, I feel the same way about stories that switch scenes and POVs just by starting a new paragraph. The method I'm using is a cinematic one, but I've always found it easier to recognize and digest the transitions from one scene to another when they're signaled clearly. This is mainly because reading on the computer is different than reading an actual novel. A matter of preference, I think.

Yeah, I agree that it makes no sense in a lot of fics. In mine, Voldemort has a good reason for it even if he's unhinged and out of control. He wants to isolate Hogwarts from the rest of magical society, and Hogsmeade is being used as a supply depot and way-station for refugees seeking aid there.

It's also the last public magical area (save Hogwarts) that isn't fully under his or the Ministry's control. His solution is to make the people there submit or wipe them out.

Great questions, but you won't get any hints from me. You'll just have to read the next chapter

 

Enjoyed the story for the most part, though I do have to admit that I skim completely over the Harry/Parvati bits. Nothing against the pairing or your writing, but I just find myself completely unwilling to read romance anymore. The combat scenes have been quite well done, and Voldemort is appropriately hardcore. Looking forward to seeing whether Dumbledore manages to redeem himself in some fashion.

 

I've got so many fics on my favorites it's hard to keep track of which ones I liked and which I didn't like, glad I read this again because it is great.

Still, just finished chapter 26 and can't help but be wondering why Dumbledore interfered. His plan was for Harry to be killed he should of stayed back. Accidental appearance?

 

That's Dumbledore's vow to Croaker, I'm pretty sure that he considered doing nothing an indirect attempt to harm HP.

 

True dat. My bad.

 

Great update. The aftermath will definitely be interesting. Theoretically there isn't much stopping them from taking back the government quickly - Voldemort vs Harry/Dumbledore = loss and most of the badass DEs are dead or out of commission.

I forget whether this story had Horcruxes or not. I hope not or that last fight scene was a lot less dramatic.

 

Cheers, Dirk. It was a bloodbath, but it was fun to write. The issue of taking back the government will soon come up, but there will be other, more interesting repercussions next chapter.

And nope; no horcruxes here. Well, at least not in the way they're usually employed. In Chapter 12 Croaker berates Dumbledore for his incomplete knowledge about horcruxes and explains why they don't work. Voldemort survived because he was in the middle of the horcrux ritual--linked to Harry's magic--when the killing curse backfired. (Or at least that's what Croaker hypothesizes).

 

A fine update, but it feels as if the story reached its culminating point.

I wonder, though, what would happen if Voldemort was less and less insane with each destroyed Horcrux (if they are working, after all).