Well Eton's not perfect you know. They've created their own drug rehab centre for crack-heads like our beloved prince. :lol:

That's because their "muggle lovers" who don't give a crap about pureblood traditions. And I refuse to congratulate that idiotic ass-licker.

 

We shall congratulate him 'cause ven after growing up in this muggle loving family he still has the pureblood manners and style. Sure he is an
ass-licker but he found the inner force to quit the fools.

Well we got off topic here.

 

Thanks for the Britpicking Master S. I will keep it in mind for the future. As far as patting Percy on the back . It would only generate a thud, since he is dead, though I am sure he would appreciate the sentiment.

Wow should have joined this page weeks ago! You guys have a bit of fun here.

 

Harry slapped him and threw him into a cabinet filled with office supplies in mine. Does that count?

 

O course.
Fun with office staplers

 

Story rating

One of the reviewers was nice enough to caution me that FF.net has been deleting stories with borderline ratings. I had always intended this story to be the equivalent of PG-13. Given that and how the story has gone so far, do you believe that the rating should be bumped up to mature?

My second question is does changing the rating screw with C2's, favorites and alerts?

I would rather not mess with it, but if it prevents the story from being randomly purged...

 

I doubt it. When I change mine, it didn't do anything as far as I remember.

If I were you I would change it. Most people don't care about ratings and those who do are usually the ones that pray to Tom Felton anyway.

 

I care about rating - M stories always get a few extra brownie points.

 

Thanks for the advice. I just bumped the rating to mature. If anyone loses it, then I am sure they will find it again.

 

“Why Charles, you do keep in shape.”

Comic gold.

 

Re: New Chapter up!

So despite the unjustifiable meddling in his life, the deceit, and worst of all, the fact that it was all coordinated right under his nose all along, he's going to still be friends with them in some way? I understand Dumbledore is a necessary evil at this point, as Harry know's not how to defeat Tom, nor has the ability (I assume, from what you've said), but it seems like the only excuse the entire group gave him was 'we didn't tell you because we knew you'd be mad'. Well no shit, considering it was unethical and they had no (moral) right to do it, I can't imagine why. I don't think meat grinders are required, but please tell me 'strained' is a nice way of saying he won't be forgiving them. The fact that the entire society, through these backwards and arcaic laws, seems to accept these practices doesn't mean Harry should have to accept that people he trusted betrayed him like that. There's a pretty wide gap between maturity insofaras not being petty, and being a complete doormat, bending over and taking it from some imbred mages who don't know the mening of civil rights (though Hermione is a Muggleborn and her nonchalant acceptance of this has me confused - Harry isn't a pureblood, and even if he was, her reaction to houseelf enslavement is proof enough she wouldn't act the way you portray unless she was being malacious - in which case severing their friendship has another arguement). I think accepting the end-of-line clauses is okay, since there's some flexability (he ges to choose,and knows what he's gong to have to do) and they weren't that bad, but Albus and Co went a bit further in their attempt to control/direct his life than that and none of the group (AD, SB, RL, MW, HG) were giving Harry any basic freedoms - basic freedoms they had no right to interfere with and would not in good consciencness (sp?) have taken away from someone they truely cared about. I hope the argument that it was for the greater good or that they did it out of love for him are not excuses that will ever win Harry over in your fic, because that'll kill it for me. If I was in Harry's position, I would never speak to any of them except Albus again, and even Albus would be business only. And that wouldn't be immature, IMO, it would be a justified response to their actions, one they brought on themselves and Harry should feel no guilt over (I wouldn't).

So... am I going to be disappointed with the future of your fic? I hope not, I largely enjoyed the fic thus far (except Harry choosing not to taunt Bellatrix... as if she wouldn't hurt ppl anyways. That was lame that you copped out with him being brow beaten into acting 'mature' when it would have been perfectly fine). I hope this post made sense, my mind is all over the place atm.

 

Wow! I appreciate the long note. Defending Hermione and the Weasleys on this board might actually be hazardous to your health, but I will try. Ron really hasn't done anything other than be Ron. He didn't know anything about this. (Would any thinking individual trust Ron with any information of value?)

Hermione on the other hand is too trusting that the adults are in control of things. She knew he would have to get married before he turns 18. (Never suspecting he would be emancipated prior to that.) I am sure if her name was on that marriage contract, her objections would be more vehement! To fill in a little of the backstory in my head, they told her that as a result of becoming head of the family he would have to marry within one year after he becomes Lord Potter. Doesn't really equate with house elf enslavement. Hermione is smart enough to see all the Hogwarts girls fawning all over Harry. She knows he will basically have his pick of the litter when it comes down to it. Plus she knows how much Ginny adores him. They make such a good couple after all. Plus they promised to tell Harry during his sixth year and her poor friend has so much on his shoulders already.

As you can see there are arguments on both sides. Harry can't really blame Sirius, he's dead and shouting at a picture won't help. He can surely be angry at Remus, but only to a point. Remus is really a pathetic creature and it is hard to kick a mangy curr isn't it.

Harry will be distant with Dumbledore. Business only. It will be harder to avoid his friends completely. He has classes with them all the time. They will probably never be but a pale shade of what they once were. Obviously, if his friendship with Hermione is to be repaired, it will have to come from her.

Hope that answers your post. Is it forgive and forget? Hell no! Will they be hexing each other in the corridors? No fraid not (unless I have something more up my sleeve).

Jim

 

Read it and I liked it with a few exceptions.

-Harry should of went t-totally apeshit in the will reading. It reads like he's bothered by it, but his closest friends and family "members" plotting to marry him off (including Lupin and Sirius?!) against his will, shoudl of driven him nuts, not as calm as he takes it.

-Penelope as Voldie's goddaughter, while original, wasn't explained well enough to be believable. She finds out that Dohlov is her dad, he brings her to Voldie, and Voldie accepts becoming her godfather, so she spies on the guy she's been dating faithfully since Hogwarts. She has a kid with him, and manipulates him into making an oath that forces him into a corner to swear an oath to Voldemort.

Narcissa I liked alot, you could play that angle with her later, and have her come back and help out Harry by springing into being contingency plans she'd made to screw Malfoy over if they ever seperated.

 

To address your first point, Harry has been working really hard on his occulmency. He knows that a meltdown will not do a damn bit of good at the moment. Add to the fact that Susan is sitting next to him. Hard to impress your girlfriend when you are acting like a complete twit. Most importantly, everything they were trying to do was failing. Cleftskull was destroying Dumbledore's arguments. It would have been a different story if Dumbles was succeeding.

Sorry you didn't find Penny believeable. She is in chapter 9 which I am working on (about 4000 words so far). Perhaps I should expound upon the relationship some more. Whoever said she was faithful? I did point out that they had broken up while she interned at the ministry. They only got back together when she was assigned to him by her father and godfather. Voldie's original plan was to wait until next year when he was at power and perform the ritual and increase his power (not just restore his power).

Narcissa may be back, we will see how the story plays out. People seemed to really take to her. I hadn't planned on it, but if popular demand leans that way. It might be possible.

Jim

 

Quick points, 1. The Percy Voldemort Birthdays don't REALLY line up. Think about it. Tom was 15 in 1945 MAYBE turning 16 if his Birthday fell during the school year. Percy is 4 years older than Harry, as he was working for the ministry during GoF. This means 1976. As we are told by canon, Voldemort disappeared for a decade at the age of 21 after getting Helga Hufflepuff's cup. He learned Dark Arts (although how much could he REALLY learn if he had already made his first horcrux at the age of 15 (the Diary)). Anyway, he returned to ask for the DADA job, and then a few years later, began his reign on terror. We'll say this is 1964 and Voldemort is now 34 years of age. Percy, born CLEARLY in 76 is 3 years short of the mark you set for him.

Doesn't matter much and I doubt anyone will notice, so KEEP UP!!!

Regarding the will-reading, I felt that it would have been childish for Harry to blow up. This seems like a traditional sort of thing (arranged Marriages) I doubt that NO matchmaking was involved in the Lucius Malfoy/ Narcissa Black union. On a side note, I still expected Harry to get angrier with Narcissa he has nothing but bad history with her and EVERYONE in her immediate family (i.e. Draco and Lucius). The only relatives that Harry seems to like are Tonks and Sirius, and they are by NO means the standard. Is a Black only in name considering she was raised by a muggle and her mother, Andromeda. Sirius was SO shameful he was kicked out and DISOWNED, (as was Andromeda actually).


Last thing, the deal with Penny came as a BIG shock. Good twist, but maybe a little more background? Right now it feels like it came out of leftfield.


UPDATE SOON!!!

 

[quote="jbern]Ron really hasn't done anything other than be Ron. He didn't know anything about this. (Would any thinking individual trust Ron with any information of value?)[/quote]

I sure wouldn't. lol Yea, except how he might react to Harry/Susan, Ron hasn't done anything. I should have made it clearer I meant Hermione only really. I'm a pretty big Ron hater, personally, but I'm not a 'have angsty Harry hate everyone for no reason' person.

Forcing someone to marry against their will seems pretty even with forcing someone to work against their will. In fact, houseelves want to work, so if anything, it's worse. I can't see Hermione bing okay with forced o arranged marriges, if only on principle I think her character would oppose it.

That hardly, IMO, wold ustifying keeping his from him. Remus, etc. might feel no obligation to Harry, but he is both an older and closer friend to Hermione than Ginny, and she has always broke the rules/ignored adults when Harry needs her in canon. She might be hesitant to break the news to him, but I truly feel she would hav doe so over being loyal to Ginny or the adults, even if she wasn't morally outraged about wizarding laws, she was basically lyng to her first and best friend at Hogwarts, the only benefit of which was coercing Harry towards a less than honest reationship. I could actually see Ron lying for the sake of H/G over Hermione. That's just my opinion of course.

Couldn't hurt either though, and as his magical guardian, Sirius had a moral obligation to explain the inevitble obligations to Harry. I'm sure Sirius and say Draco for instance were educated well before hand. First he (Sirus) isn't there for Harry beause he plays vigilante, and then he decives him for whatever intentions when he ought to be making it up to him? Pretty shitty. Poundig his fists against the frame won't do any good, but just as true, having tea and discussing Quidditch with his portrait when it is put where ever seems off. Granted, you did't say he'd do that either.

In a fic I'm working on, Harry lets Remus take the wrap for killing Sirius, getting him the Kiss. And then, two universe jumps later, he kills Remus so he can steal Tonks (to use her to replace his braindead gf). As you can see, I would kick him. ^_^ That's what he gets, the filthy halfbreed...

That's great, Hermione approaching Harry is what I was getting at. I was afraid Harry might shrug it off and forgive her without any effort on her part. As long as they have to work for it, and aknowledge they did violate his trust, I can live with any reckonciliations. I won't mind any spontanious duels though... :wink:

 

I'll take Chuck's post first. I must have miscalculated the age gap between V and Percy. Your math makes sense, so I must be forced into the obscure arithmatic calculations which forced Voldemort to count only a portion of his "living as a spirit years". His magical energy was in such a residual state that he had to adjust his equation. When this fudge factor is applied, it saves the author's behind and harmony is restored!

Seriously though, thanks for keeping me honest.

Your second point about Penny, she gets some more time in chapters 9 and 10. I will try and work some background in there.

As for SlytherDamien man what have you got against Remus? Umbridge must luv you! Now I must simply read your fics. Sirius never had to worry about the EoL for his family. Other Blacks were around and just because you are incarcerated others can't move to seize your title. He knew they existed though, so his actions aren't completely excusable.

 

My issues with Remus are many, but they can be summed up in three things for the most part. 1) He's a good guy, and a bland, unremarkable ne at that. I like villain and character, neither of which Remus can lay claim. 2) Tonks. Pure and simple, she has toomuch potntial to be saddled up with him in canon, and Rowling really pissed me off here, ot only makng her (Tonks) dig him, but making theprick reject her (likely only temporary, but still, since she's to good for him... *simmer*). 3) This is the biggest one: though he had no technical obligation to Harry, as one of Harry's parents and furter, magical guardian's, best friends, Rems had a duty to them if not Harry to be there for Harry. I understand the ministry might have had issues with full on custody (though they were apparently not well informed enough on his condition to disallow him teaching at Hogwarts a full year, suggesting that Ministry wide bigotry is either exagerrated, or they do not keep lycanthropy records on file to begin with). I understand that Dumbles may have said to back off pre-'91 for various reasons. Even taking these possible but unconfirmable obsticals into factor, he still could have stepped up to the plate, at the very least as a stand in for Sirius in introducing Harry to the wizarding world and sharing stories about his parents. Even assuming Dumbles went way overboard and forbade even this simple gesture, Remus pretty much just stopped talking to Harry post-OotP to, best case scenerio, give him space, or worst case scenerio out of some immature sense of blaming the kid. Bottom line, the werewolf has a pretty pathetic life, as you said, and has chosen repeatedly to act pathetically in the few matters he could change that fact. The sole positive thing I can say about Remus Lupin is that he taught Harry the Patronus.

I should get to actually writing them first... I have lots of ideas, but the nuts and bolts of sitting down and writing I'm not so good at. And my revision never fully satisfys me. I've been reediting the same four chapters for months now, and sadly I think of serious ways to improve them so I keep worrying that if I post a chapter I'll have some great idea and need to take it down.

I hope you don't take my mentions of my own unpublished junk personally -- I'm very shameless about talking about myself.

 

Chapter 9 Just Posted!

Okay chapter 9 is up. I will post my author's notes here tomorrow morning, but I wanted to get this chapter out the door tonight. Enjoy, Jim

 

This was the best chapter so far.

Everything was great - corporate Peter, negotiations with Dementors, Lily the gold hunter, the reasoning behind the Dursleys' conduct (except for Dudley - he's a spoiled brat & bully for no reason). Harry & Susan romance might have kicked in too soon, but it can be explained by marriage contracts.

Honestly, I don't remember when was the last time I've seen so many new and original concepts introduced in a story. Good work!