William Martin posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 12:52pm

According to the HP Lexicon it's Pomona.

William Martin posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 12:37pm

Thank you again for a really great story.
You seem to know the cannon of both X-Men and Harry Potter Characters well. That creates a very believable story.

Anois posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 12:33pm

Thanks for the update. it's an amazing chapter. I enjoy your writing very much, you use great charactor development and plot movement. I am really intriged by the thought of Snape having a horcrux. So many potential storylines with that.

Stay well. :)

James Barber posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 11:31am

nice and interesting chapter...but I thought you were tired of writing about voldie and trying to find a way to off him, in your a/n you said you like going totally au and getting away from voldie, thats sound good to me, I like those types of stories myself, my favorite of those is "summer of independence" by redfrog and or loralee stuff or udderpd stuff, well you get the message, I hope!

Now with all that said, why are you bringing whore crutches into this story! I thought the ideal was stupid the first time I heard it and it is still stupid but at least logan got the word right!

Sorry for my bitchen, been long damn and hot day and my damn air conditioner quit working right at 7pm and the a/c guy wont answer his damn phone! so sorry for my rant! I do like your story, just dont like whore crutches!

knightsbridge posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 11:10am

I know you don't really get "into" writing this story...but damn it's good!!!

Darian

Shawn Pickett posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 10:57am

Well, an interesting chapter to be sure, a lot of plot building. Dumbledore is going to be forced to make a choice soon, because the Death Eater contingent is moving itself into a postion where Harry and company are going to have to kick their asses with extreme prejudice. I wonder which way Dumbledore will go when that happens. Outstanding story, thank you.

jalva200 posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 10:17am

woot update!!!

Yay i love thie story, love the disclaimer, and damn that is kind of messed up bob!

Love harry and gin when done right like the xmen crossover keep it up !

David Shadel posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 10:15am

great chapter

Nyeshet posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 10:08am

"Dumbledore shook his head in dismay. He could not afford to have the Boy-Who-Lived killing Death Eaters! Society needed that blood!"


I must admit to complete confusion over this line. Albus has never been one for blood purity (in fact, quite the opposite), and as I recall from canon he always sought to have those with the Dark Mark (not merely under Imperius) imprisoned at Azkaban. For instance, he considered the numerous Death Eaters imprisoned at the end of book 5 to be a notable victory, albeit short lived as Voldemort freed them by the start of the next book (a few months later). While he is against killing in general, he is not in favor of re-integrating Death Eaters back into society. Thus the line about 'Society need[ing them]' makes no sense. While it is true that their society is very small, a mere few thousand in the UK, he does not desire to have such horrible miscreants as a part of it, and even without them the society is large enough to maintain itself - both genetically and socially (economically, governmentally, etc). The line seems to suggest views counter to those of Albus - and indeed most light-minded wizards - to a rather extreme degree. I literally was unable to read further into the story for a few seconds while trying to understand this non-sequetor.

'These children need to be shown that their path is wrong. I can't do that if they are killed.'

*This* line made *much* more sense, but it still does not match or follow the prior line about society needing their blood. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is the opposite of that line, in intention at least. In the first line, their importance is only due to their blood status (or possibly their genetic status as being magically capable and thus likely to have magically capable children), while in the second their importance is due to their age and inexperience. These are two very different views on the situation: the latter in line with the canon attitudes of Albus, while the former is more in line with the canon views of Voldemort. It would have made more sense for Albus - in the first line's location - to be worrying about the consequences for Harry for taking such extreme measures against those perhaps only suspected of being Death Eaters (ie: slaying without overt proof - at least as far as the rest of the magical world was concerned). Or perhaps worrying about Harry slaying those who might be leaning towards darkness but not yet irreconcilable. Or perhaps even worrying about Harry becoming so willing to kill others for even this reason: ie, Harry's own potential slide towards darkness. All of these would be more understandable than worrying about blood purity of those killed. One might state that Albus was only worrying about having enough wizards and witches to carry on a magical society, but in worrying about those who would certainly be placed in Azkaban - where there is no likelihood of their having children - such a view becomes moot at best and conflated with blood purity concerns at worst. Further, in the former (moot) situation, the idea should not even have arisen in the first place (as they would be unavailable to procreate given their likely long term in Azkaban), which in turn strongly suggests that it must be the latter situation (blood purity) that came to mind. As already stated, this is opposite Albus' normal views, making the line quite confusing.

I am further confused because (due to Harry's economic actions during the prior summer) the Death Eaters lack any economically means of affecting - let alone aiding or upholding - magical society. And with Azkaban likely awaiting them (for at least a few years, even for those redeemed) having magical children is also unlikely (at least for the more serious offenders) and so there is insufficient reason for concern over their influence with magical society. So for what reason did Albus think that 'Society needed [their] blood?' Society does not need them for genetic reasons (there are enough other wizards and witches) nor for economical reasons (they have lost most of their wealth). Just what was Albus considering when he thought the line?


'These students are witches and wizards with an extra ability. And that is exactly how we will treat them.'

This line, however, was very in line with Albus' normal attitude. It strongly reminded me of his willingness to take on Remus as a student despite his being a werewolf.


I have to admit, the idea of Snape having a horcrux - and Voldemort having found it and is now using it as a control over him - is both original and in some ways ingenious. The only issue I have with it is that Snape seems to feel remorse for creating a horcrux. This is only a step away from feeling remorse for the act that created it. Per canon, once Snape feels remorse for that act, the soul pieces are rejoined, and the horcrux ceased to exist as such (ie: there is no longer a soul fragment within the item). If Snape knew enough to create one, it is likely he knows how to unmake it. This gives him a simple means of escaping Voldemort's (incredible) power over him: feel remorse for the murder that created the horcrux. Considering Snape's horror of the situation in which he is trapped, one would think that he would be working on at least trying to feel remorse for the act - thus freeing him (from utter destruction, if not death, as I imagine Voldemort would soon realize the item had lost its fragment of soul, and he would be angry at his loss of certain control over Snape).


Why was Albus' hand so less injured than in canon? Especially considering Voldemort's stronger hold on Snape than in canon, I could see Snape purposefully using less potent medication. Or perhaps Snape - due to his study of horcruces - better understood the nature of the hex that was slowly killing Albus, and so was better able to deal with it? Is that why the burn was not spreading over the hand and (eventually) up the arm? Something must have made a notable difference, for Albus was not only less injured - he was not dying. In the books Albus knew he had less than a year to live - thus the reason he insisted Snape be the one to kill him if Draco's plan came to a head. If he was 'defeated' only due to Snape following Albus' order, per canon it would not be a true defeat (as in successfully overcoming Albus in combat) and the power of the death stick / elder wand would die with Albus, thus robbing Voldemort of ever acquiring such power. Without this limiting factor (of time before certain death) I wonder how this will alter the Headmaster's various decisions.


Other than that one confusing line first mentioned, I quite enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next one.

Bobmin356 replied:

"as I recall from canon"

This sums up and negates your entire review. If you want canon, read the books. We are ignoring canon like we do in all our stories. Please point out the X-Men's involvement in canon to us, we'd like to know what we missed.

Think of Dumbledore as the great redeemer, he is trying to conserve and protect magical society as he sees it.

Harry's financial actions over the summer only bankrupted a few DE families, not all of them. And surely you don't think Voldemort hasn't any money squirreled away elsewhere.

Snape's only regret is that his horcrux has been taken from him. Not that he made one.

Orion posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 10:06am

Great chapter.

The Snape twist was perfect - never seen that before.

I'm also glad that Harry's starting to warm up to his old friends just a bit. He really does need friends.

Thanks for writing! (and posting it too)

Tumshie posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 10:02am

We are not worthy, we are not worthy, we are.. another masterful chapter of this story, thak you for sharing, 10 virtual donuts to Bob and ten posters of Alan Rickman in a posing pouch to Alyx in thanks for this

Jonathan Langford posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 9:55am

I admit that I'm starting to find it frustrating the way that people keep "warning" Dumbledore, but no one actually forces him to change things--or takes independent actions to change things definitively at Hogwarts. Harry's back and things don't really seem as different as they ought to be, from the perspective of things changing at the school itself. It makes the mutants seem almost as impotent as the wizards in this situation.

liquidfyre posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 9:14am

Squees in insane glee as he reads the chapter including hte kickass intro

so what server do yall play?

*humps bob's leg in an orgiastic display of happyness at the new chapter*

I can't wait to see ickle harrikins get his hands on a death niblet.

webdoc posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 8:57am

Thank you very much for an enjoyable update to this story.

tw posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 8:54am

Amazing. Simply amazing.

Shadalarion2 posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 8:23am

Nice chapter update. So I guess when you both not writing you both playing World of Warcraft then?

:)

Treck posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 8:20am

I do hope that Dumbles policy of trying to save all those DE kids comes back to bite him in the ass. It might sound callus (sp) but I really hope that everyone of the marked kids rise up and try to take the castle leaving a great hall of dead and a live headmaster to ponder the greater good while standing in a sea of innocent blood.

charlotte posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 7:47am

Alyx you do DND, cool. I loved the Frying Pan of Infinite Attacks, Very tightly written chapter btw.

BloodRedJawz posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 7:46am

too much mushy bs to be decent...

mwinter posted a comment on Wednesday 1st July 2009 7:45am

I hope for the next time some "tests" harry and we see what happens to the little deathmunchers when they go to far.