The point is that having Harry refer to that in the dialog would have been wrong. Obviously we as readers know better. Since you implied that Harry was wrong here I thought you wanted Shezza to wrongly fix that and make Harry mention the winter alliance with Voldemort(which he is unaware of).

Not sure I agree here. I mean sure, Voldemort is powerfull, but he is still only one man. His followers are far weaker in power and skill. In Canon HP, Voldemort was considered a big threat since there were no other groups to stop him. If he managed to take over the wizards it would all be over. Without supernatural powers, the muggles would be very hard pressed to resist him and there would be no one else.

However in a Dresdenverse crossover such as this, there are a LOT of nasties out there who would be capable of taking on Voldemort and winning. Butcher's world is far more varied.

Take the White Council for instance. We dont know exactly how many of them there are but we can assume there are hundreds to thousands of members. And the senior council who in DV are considered amonst the most powerfull wizards out there. Even if Voldemort is stronger individually, I doubt very much he could defeat them at 7-to-1 odds. The lesser people like wardens could deal with Voldemorts deatheaters.

Then there are the vampire courts. While weaker individually, they have massive resources with which to strike at Voldemort and undermine his actions. Whites and Reds especially could "convert" Voldemorts followers and turn them against him and generally ruin his plans. Heck, Voldemort himself is still mostly human so its quite possible that enough whites could actually enslave even him. Given that they rely on Mortal society and mortal "cattle", they would no doubt be highly motivated to oppose Voldemort if he intended to try and take over the world and upset the status quo.

The sidhe, while not really directly opposed to Voldemort, would certainly be capable of crushing him. The queens are far more powerfull than Voldemort. Either Mab or Titania could destroy him with ease. And thats not counting the literal armies of millions of foot-soldiers they have at their disposal. Now granted the Sidhe are less likely to attack him unless he attacked them first, however if Voldemort started disrupting things too much, they might just swat him down. Making deals with mortals and such is an important part of the Sidhe-society and if mortals became aware of magic thanks to Voldemort, that might become more difficult.

The knights are another group that could face Voldemort in battle and possibly win. The swords neutralise most of his magic, leaving him vulnerable as we have seen several times. And without his magic, he is weak and helpless. If all three knights managed to ambush Voldemort, with perhaps some wizard backup to ward the area to prevent an escape via apparition. Well, that could very well be the end of Voldemort right there.

And finally there are all the other critters in DV. Ferrovax for instance has been said to be very powerfull, he might well be able to face Voldemort and win. There have also been mentions of other powerfull beings in DV, many who might be both capable and (possibly) motivated of preventing Voldemort from disrupting their plans. Outsiders, old gods, Archangels(Uriel for instance seems quite active) and so on.

The point is, while Voldemort is very powerfull and dangerous, in a story that includes all the stuff from DresdenVerse, he is NOT the ultimate topdog and taking over the british wand-wizards would probably only be the first and also easiest step for him. If he actually wanted to conquer more, let alone the whole world as Amanda suggested, he would find doing so a LOT more difficult than taking over the corrupt ministry and the (mostly) weak british wand-wizards.

PS. Nicodemus did not get anywhere close to ending the world. Sure with the help of a major power-battery(the shroud) he almost managed to unleash a deadly plague but that would not have brought the end. Sure he would have managed to kill hundreds of thousands or even millions of people and it would have been a big blow. However the curse would not have lasted long so society itself would have survived and recovered eventually. I admit his other plan of using the Archive could have produced more chaos but it should be remembered that that plan was made possible only by direct support by Lucifer who is obviously so far above both Voldemort and Nicodemus that its not even funny. Voldemort would not have such "divine" support.

 

Yo guys. First scene of Chapter 17 is up.

 

your


Nice update, will we see more development of Meciel's character later in the chapter? Or at least some action? This part was almost only description of current situation, and while it's all good it wasn't that entertaining. Especially when Harry doesn't have any one-liners for us.

 

Nice scene. Liked the Grinch part. Of course I also liked Verrine part. :awesome

The only question that remains is - when will Amanda figure out what Harry's attitude means acording to Verrine's theory?

@up - I think there will be more development of Meciel. Especially after Verine's "talk".

 

I can just imagine Harry's face when Verine did that...

Can I request for smut about that scene?

 

^seconded.

*as long as you don't use the world penis, cock, pussy, cunt, etc.

 

The part where Harry was watching TV fit perfectly with what I percieve as his character, but on the flip side, where Verrine is attempting to seduce him was completely unexpected to me. Looking forward to what happens.

 

Some mistakes nobody seemed to notice yet, and some other thoughts...

being asked; for

locations

neighbour's

taking

... And, since he is out of his heavily warded apartment, there is little to stop anyone to scry his location. Of course, Meciel protects him, and Harry himself generally doesn't give a damn, but...

your (KrzaQ has already mentioned it, yeah)

Verrine's

a little too many dots for my liking =)

I may be wrong, but must it not be 'on the 25th...'?

... yep, it seems to be all. Everyone else is encouraged to search more, though.

As to the scene itself... very intriguing, if I do say so. The question of Verrine's intentions and hidden motives will bug us all until the next update - which I hope will come out soon. And I'm very curious about Meciel's apparent lack of reaction. Harry is a teenager, and it looks like he is rapidly losing control over the situation. I wouldn't put it past Verrine to attempt to seduce the young boy and try to kill him in the process - would it really be so hard to do when he is focused on the pleasures of sex? I seriously doubt that Meciel will allow things to progress in that direction, though...

(Mental image: as Verrine sits on Harry's lap and murmurs something into his ear, Meciel appears in his line of sight with a disapproving expression on her face and a murderous glare that would befit a mother (e.g. Molly Weasley) who had just returned from the grocery and discovered her son (e.g. Ron) with a half-naked woman at least twice older than he (e.g. 'Nymphomaniac' Tonks) - make it two thousand times, actually...)

Eagerly awaiting the next update! Hurry up, but not to the point of losing the quality and general awesomeness!

 

Oh, Jon, do you really need these words to be said aloud? Do you not know that deep inside our pathetic, soft and humane - or maybe in some cases ruthless, cold and unforgiving - hearts we hold a place for you that expands a little every time your interference brings the new update closer to its release?)

 

WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? I even sent you love messages on MSN about it.

Shezza: That was perfect. Exactly what I had in mind. Glad you took my suggestion, or begging to heart.

 

*bows to your greatness* great chapter Shezza, I cant wait to see where this goes

 

Epic one-liner for Harry at the end (though out of character if he really is bewildered): "What the hell, Verrine. I've never tried it, but we'll see if 'mo' cushion fo' the pushin'' really is any good..."

 

Verrine won't be trying anything since she still needs Harry/Meciel to pwn the other denarians, which makes whatever plan she has even more vexing.

 

Trying anything? She obviously just wants some cawk. It happens. To girls, sometimes, even. Amazing, I'm sure.

 

To girls, yes. To Fallen Angels? Are you so good at xenopsychology?

 

I was a bit confused about the whole Sword thing. I mean correct me if I am wrong but all of Harrys latest fights have been either opposed to the Denarians or Voldemort right? Both of which are struggles that the Sword should happily want to help with. So it makes absolutely zero-sense that the sword would somehow compel Harry to leave it at home at those times, which is the impression I got, afterall even if Harry were to forget, Meciel certainly would not.

If I were a more suspicious person, I would wonder if maybe you(the author) had completely forgotten the swords existence during the more recent action-scenes and are now trying to justify its absence retroactively? Good thing I am not suspicious eh?

For that matter, why is Harry so opposed to the idea of going out and whacking baddies for the sword. I thought he liked fighting and enjoyed "robbing" the victims of valuables too. Also it was not that long ago since the fight against Rosanna where the Swords luck helped. The sudden opposition to the sword seems a bit sudden, especially since I am assuming that Harry does plan to rescue Amaris and going against Maeve without such a valuable tool seems foolish.

The second big thing in this chapter was Verrines little seduction. I wonder how that will play out. Personally I rather hope that Harry wont fall for Verrines little scheme. Hot-sex is great and all but given that just a few paragraphs earlier we had Harry proclaim his distruct for Verrine, it would not make much sense for him to leave himself so vulnerable to Verrine as required by sex. Harry has claimed to Meciel before that he is not controlled by his penis. I suppose we shall see.

Oh, and what does Meciel think about the whole thing? Even if Harry were to lose control, I have trouble with the idea that Meciel would allow Harry to lower his defences against another fallen like that. Infact it seems strange that Verrine seems to have forgotten that too, surely she would not have forgotten that while Harry is the one speaking, Meciel is still lurking inside his head too. Does she truly expect Meciel to just stay quiet and dormant while her young host leaves himself physically and perhaps emotionally vulnerable. Surely not?

And speaking of Verrine, there is something that rather puzzled me. Verrine admits that she has "deep-seated issues about her appearance". That makes no sense at all. Verrine is a fallen right? Which means that the body she is currently controlling is not hers at all, but rather some poor schmuck that she has managed to enslave.

so:

a)Why would Verrine care so much about what her hosts body looks like, its not like its really HER but rather just a puppet that she controls. The real owner of the body is trapped somewhere deep inside her mind or something and Verrine is just the driver.

b)If Verrine does not feel the body is attractive enough, why not just change it. Surely it would not be that difficult to lure in some vapid super-model with promises of eternal youth and then control that person too. Someone capable of changing bodies like normal people change clothes should not really have appearance issues.


Looking forward to the next part.


PS. Good work Jon! Keep it up!

 

Nope. Definitely not the reason.

 

Why in the heck does Harry have no response? Just bend her over and fuck her silly! That's a good a reposnse as any! Or is Maeve right and Harry has turned in to a complete sissy? Even if he doesn't screw her, should at least Crucio her for her insolence!

 

I was actually the one who asked that it be left to reader interpretation. I think i'm probably one of the only guys who doesn't have the huge obsession with sex that every other guy on here seems too.

I'd rather not read smut as it is, anyway. Smut for smut, meh, ok. Smut in fics. I dunno, not as much of a fan.

Hate away.