Chapter 38...

[someone]

I think someone else has already announced it... if it is what I think it is...

If you are posting this here I'd guess you're also writing NoFP again?

[viridian]

Er, I don't think so. This news is as of today.

Check the announcements forum.

[Stormseed]

So... more updates then? *crossing fingers*

[SLAMU]

You big tease! Now I'm going to drive myself sane trying to guess what it is that you're working on/have finished!


...that was intentional, wasn't it?

[Comosicus]

Given that us mere mortals can not post in the Announcement forum, allow me to do it here and say a big

CONGRATULATIONS

on being published.

[Wittgen]

Congratulations oh mighty authorlord. The first one was pretty good, and I look forward to reading your contribution to the second.

[serbii]

CONGRATS!
I've ordered it and it'll arrive in forever (amazon international sucks) as I have money now and it is good. *nod nod*

screw me getting a cameo, I want our quest protagonists in.

[Arganaut]

Now that would be quite the treat.

Also, congratulations good sir, you definitely deserve it.

[someone]

Yep, it was what I thought it was...

Er, I don't think so. This news is as of today.

Check the announcements forum.

One of your colleagues was a few weeks earlier with that...

Will it only be in the American Amazon or will it also become available in other countries?

[serbii]

Will it only be in the American Amazon or will it also become available in other countries?

Other countries too, I bought it fine and I'm in Australia.

[viridian]

Yep, it was what I thought it was...

Er, I don't think so. This news is as of today.

Check the announcements forum.

One of your colleagues was a few weeks earlier with that...

Will it only be in the American Amazon or will it also become available in other countries?

Call me superstitious, I didn't want to announce anything until that sucker was live. I've had something like this fall through before, so... Okay, I *am* being paranoid.

[AntiNaba]

Caution is incredibly valid with stuff like this, man. No blame is laid.

[Zankaru Zelladonii]

Is there no kindle version? I could not see one. I have moved on from paper books to electronic, a shameful heretic am I.

[SLAMU]

Shameful heretic? *looks at eight pointed star displayed* Well, I can agree with one of those.

I don't know why, but although I enjoy reading fics online, I can't read a regular story without paper in my hands. Call me hidebound, a dinosaur, whatever, but it's just not the same.

[Zankaru Zelladonii]

I used to be that way too, but being able to carry around my entire library instead of just the three books I am reading that week is very nice. The kindle screen looks exactly like paper though, so that helps.

[viridian]

There should be a Kindle version. Runsamok is updating the bookshelf.

[ewuvi]

May get it for Kindle in that case.

[Zankaru Zelladonii]

Yeah, will get it this month definitely if kindle is available.

[MantisFA]

I really liked Harry laying the groundwork for a more constructive relationship with Scrimgeour; between him, Rita, and Slughorn, Harry's developing his own network of contacts which, when the crisis hits, should give him a power base completely independent of Dumbledore's with which to shape the course of events...

As he's already doing in some ways, like implementing Hermione's elegant solution to Millicent Bulstrode's problems. Given that the Bulstrodes appear to have some giant blood, I rather think Madam Maxime will be a better mentor for Millicent than anyone at Hogwarts could have been. If Millicent and her father are grateful to Harry for his clever intervention, and wise enough to blame the Death Nibblers in Slytherin and not Harry for Melissa's murder, they could prove very valuable allies down the road.

I love Luna's patronus -- of course she'd end up with the one mundane mammal weirder than any fantastic beast, whether observed and studied by Newt Scamander or only imagined in the pages of the Quibbler. (Dumbledore, of course, does have a fantastic beast as his patronus, but he and other wizards and witches with phoenix companions are probably the exceptions that prove the rule.) However, you did make a small zoological error: platypi and echidnas are not marsupials, but monotremes, the only surviving members of the primitive, egg-laying mammalian Order Monotremata; if Hermione learned about them from BBC nature programming (figures that would be her preferred kind of TV), she would probably know that. It's also neat that Ron's would be the symbol of Gryffindor, too, and Ginny's may be the female of the same species (though I think it would be even niftier if hers turned out to be a Smilodon once she gets it to firm up and become fully corporeal -- the WTF? factor from her friends would be hilarious).

With Slughorn's network of contacts, he probably engineered the bidding war over the basilisk parts; figures he wouldn't mention that aspect of it to Harry.

Some good Harry/Ginny character and relationship development here; it's a damned shame Rowling didn't give what would ultimately turn out to be Harry's primary romantic relationship anywhere near as much attention as you do, or even as much as she gave to his abortive crush/flirtation with Cho Chang.

Well, Snape's the kind of man who would always land on somebody's feet; I suppose it's not terribly surprising that he landed on Karkaroff's, and then took steps to dispose of the rest of him. Now he'll be back at Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament, possibly along with Draco -- although the latter isn't old enough to put in his name as a potential champion, and really shouldn't be allowed on the grounds, given the circumstances of his expulsion. He might stow away in the ship, though, probably with Snape's connivance.

So those were Provisional IRA Wormtail was meeting in that pub; I figured that's who they'd turn out to be, given that in 1993 the Troubles were still going strong. More evidence that someone other than Lucius is running the blood purist show; Lucius is probably too contemptuous of Muggles, and ignorant of Muggle affairs, to come up with the idea of using Muggle terrorists in an attack on Hogwarts.