Chapter 39 *spoilers*

[jgkitarel]

But there are a couple of things that happened in this chapter that ought to be concerning the reader... (Unless maybe my foreshadowing needs to be less subtle?)

It's dealing with his magical core, isn't it? There were a few points there which remind me a bit on what happened to Nanoha Takamachi between the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's and StrikerS series. He's pushing himself way too hard and is having to deal with having his future self's core merge with his, which puts even more strain on his body and magic. For all his power, he is still in the body of a 13 year-old boy who's body is not conditioned to handling that much power.

If it is, it is going to bite Harry in the ass hard. Hopefully he won't end up as bad off as Nanoha did.

...

That seemed to be the most obvious one, there. The fact that the other side is going with less conventional methods is also a concern.

[demonclownbaby]

I was on vacation at Disneyland and after a hard day's playing, I grabbed my phone and on a lark checked viridiandreams.net which I do perhaps once a month, sometimes twice a month, because hope never dies, you know.

And chapter 39 had been posted!

I read half of it and purposely saved half til the morning to prolong the experience. Who would have thought a week at Disneyland with my daughter could be even better?

Great stuff. Of course, when I found the fic two years ago there were already 38 chapters, so a single chapter update has never happened before... of course it wasn't long enough! But I'm not actually greedy.

By the way the http://www.viridiandreams.net/donate/ link has no actual links to donate... I PM'd the Evil Authorlord about it.

Anyway, I loved Ron's line, "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!" While Harry may have killed Dementors using wards, he's never (even in his future self) seen a wizard kill a Dementor in *melee combat* and is rightfully impressed. After all, how many can even fight that closely to a Dementor without being kissed or overcome by the despair it produces?

Because of the time difference between 38 and 39, I had in my mind that the muggle strike force would be a much bigger part of the story than they were. I'm sure that thread wasn't meant to dangle for so long, but after nearly three years the resolution (they all die!) seems anti-climactic. But on the other hand I feared too much involvement of muggles and muggle technology in the story so I'm glad they were just a one-off pawn sacrifice of a magical villain.

So Pettigrew is not locked up... surprise. Harry could have killed him while he was being Scabbers, and of course as far as defeating Voldy that may have been a good move, but he needed to use him to free Sirius properly. Not that it worked, but he could hardly help but make the attempt.

He must have known though that since the Ministry is so corrupt, that Pettigrew would not stay locked up. But he knows Voldy's return is inevitable anyway.

Since Harry prevented a whole year of terror with the Basilisk, the bad guys aren't going to just say "oh well" and do nothing... they wanted to stir up a ruckus and so they have escalated. I really have no idea of who is running the show for the adversaries. In canon, Lucius Malfoy planted the diary, but then the next big move was Barty Crouch two years later, and that was part of a long game to get Voldy resurrected.

Is Lucius running the current campaign? Who is Pettigrew working for? Is Voldy's resurrection part of the plan, or has no one thought of that yet? In canon, Pettigrew sought him out at the end of book three. He's clearly not running around Albania or wherever at the moment, but after working for whoever he is working for, maybe he'll escape and try that next.

Still no idea who the agent-in-place is.

Harry had better learn to control his power or he's in serious trouble. Chest pains? His wand could overheat and snap. He won't be of any use to anyone if he overdoes it. It's not like his patronus, however large and impressive, was enough to save everyone anyway, so channeling more raw power didn't help, did it? He better not come to rely on just being big and strong, magically. He's got to really think, especially now that things have gone so far off the rails.

If I were him, I'd have started reading the minds of every student in the school after Bulstrode was murdered, since things are clearly different now. (But then, I guess he'd be revealing his abilities to anyone who knows Occlumency, which might be the very person(s) he's looking for, so maybe that's not a good idea after all.

But he should be trying to be Batman with detective skills, use that invisibility cloak, man! There's stuff going on you don't understand... get to the bottom of it!

But of course that's easy for me to say, I have no detective skills myself and Harry doesn't really either, and the agent-in-place is apparently *very* good at hiding their activities.

Anyway, great chapter.

[Lightwhispers]

In general, I liked the chapter. Here, Ron, have some fame for yourself. Never quite fits right, does it?

However, I had one problem I noticed on second (or maybe third) reading: nowhere does it say that blowing up the gates opens a hole in the wards. Unless there's an opening in the wards at the gate, or the bomb was somehow able to damage the wards, the dementors should have fried when trying to cross them.

Also, Sonorus is less likely to rip the back out of your throat if you cast it on your lips, rather than your voicebox...
And Madam Pomfrey is indeed a Dark Lady. I hear that medical professionals can take courses in that.

[gamebrain89]

It says somewhere in the chapter the bombs knocked the wardstones out of alignment or something similar to that, and that they fixed it so it couldn't happen again. It was a one time thing.

[Lightwhispers]

Ah, right. Missed that.

[Mirista]

After "lurking" and reading here for more years than I can remember, the long awaited update to this great story moved me to finally register. I started reading NFP in 2006 just after I started reading on-line fanfic--I've been involved with print fanfic/fanzines since 1979. The saddest reality of on-line fic for me was the many stories--some of them really great ones--that were unfinished/abandoned. So it's thanks to "The Evil Authour-lord" for persevering and giving us a new chapter to chew on.

But there are a couple of things that happened in this chapter that ought to be concerning the reader... (Unless maybe my foreshadowing needs to be less subtle?)[/quote]

As others have mentioned, Harry's "pain in the chest" when using his power is worrisome. Are his 2 cores of power not merging well?

But I find something else that I've not seen mentioned yet, even more ominous. Specifically, on the one day that the Dementors will be able to attack Hogwarts and the students (if the Muggle attack succeeds in damaging the wards) Slughorn called an "all house" meeting for the Slytherins ostensibly because of their bad behviour the day before in Potions class--something that hasn't happened in months. This means that everyone from that House would be safe in the dungeons when the attack happens.

this brings up some questions: Is Slughorn not what he seems? Did some/all of the Slytherins receive a warning about the attack? And is any of this connected with the group Millicent Bulstrode mentioned in the last chapter, the group of purebloods that were "aligning their interests"?

Why do I get a creeping feeling that Voldemort may wind up being almost (but not completely ) irrelevent in this timeline ( Harry already has most of the Horcruxes ) and that Harry and company's biggest problem will come from a completely unexpected direction and they will find themselves dealing with a dangerous conspiracy of Purebloods? Ones willing to sacrifince magical children as well as Muggle borns to Dementors and display other nasty behaviour?

However, Yeah! for Ron. And despite a dislike of the politics at the end--but reluctantly conceding the necessity--Yeah! for getting the parents and other adults involved. IF the bovine excrement is about to hit the spinning air circulation device, then Harry and Co. are going to need help.

[jgkitarel]

After "lurking" and reading here for more years than I can remember, the long awaited update to this great story moved me to finally register. I started reading NFP in 2006 just after I started reading on-line fanfic--I've been involved with print fanfic/fanzines since 1979. The saddest reality of on-line fic for me was the many stories--some of them really great ones--that were unfinished/abandoned. So it's thanks to "The Evil Authour-lord" for persevering and giving us a new chapter to chew on.

Welcome to the asylum Mirista. Let's see if we can address the concerns you have from the chapter via rampant speculation.

As others have mentioned, Harry's "pain in the chest" when using his power is worrisome. Are his 2 cores of power not merging well?

Well, it could also simply be that he is just not physically able to safely channel so much power yet. One of the things that gets hammered home here is that Harry trains himself mercilessly to get his younger body in shape, but there are limits to how fast he can progress it without risking permanent harm to himself. He is caught in the position of having too much power without being able to use it all. When the dementors attacked, he went all out from the get go. Considering that he is physically thirteen years old, he also has to contend with other factors as well.

But I find something else that I've not seen mentioned yet, even more ominous. Specifically, on the one day that the Dementors will be able to attack Hogwarts and the students (if the Muggle attack succeeds in damaging the wards) Slughorn called an "all house" meeting for the Slytherins ostensibly because of their bad behviour the day before in Potions class--something that hasn't happened in months. This means that everyone from that House would be safe in the dungeons when the attack happens. this brings up some questions: Is Slughorn not what he seems? Did some/all of the Slytherins receive a warning about the attack? And is any of this connected with the group Millicent Bulstrode mentioned in the last chapter, the group of purebloods that were "aligning their interests"?

You may be reading too far into Horace's motives and not looking more carefully at the house he is in control of. It is easy to forget that the majority of Slytherin House is not full of Draco Malfoy clones. Most of them are smart enough to let the more foolish members of their house draw attention away from them. Since they went out of their way to attract the ire of their teacher to be stuck inside the school at the time of the attack, a subtle warning was probably passed through the house to stay inside on that day.

Also, Harry's actions over the previous two years have drawn attention to him, so many of the more dark inclined or traditionalist families may be seeing him as a potential threat to the status quo. While I doubt many of the pureblood families would have gone with the dementor plan due to the risk of it going horribly right and risking their own children and heirs.

Why do I get a creeping feeling that Voldemort may wind up being almost (but not completely ) irrelevent in this timeline ( Harry already has most of the Horcruxes ) and that Harry and company's biggest problem will come from a completely unexpected direction and they will find themselves dealing with a dangerous conspiracy of Purebloods? Ones willing to sacrifince magical children as well as Muggle borns to Dementors and display other nasty behaviour?

Again, I seriously doubt the majority of the purebloods aligning their interests would have gone along with the plan had they known what it really entailed. Much of the main issue that Harry is likely to be facing, aside from Voldemort, is that he is dealing with a hopelessly corrupt set of institutions that many powerful families have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. They will become even more desperate and vicious to keep things the way they are.

However, Yeah! for Ron. And despite a dislike of the politics at the end--but reluctantly conceding the necessity--Yeah! for getting the parents and other adults involved. IF the bovine excrement is about to hit the spinning air circulation device, then Harry and Co. are going to need help.

Much of the focus for the third year is certainly along the lines of politics and everything.

[LordVisser908]

I liked this chapter. I admit the idea of killing a dementor using the sword of Gryffindor seems a bit overblown, but it's handled fairly maturely, so no complaints. The dementors are FINALLY leaving. I love that. And like everyone else, I'm guessing Peter's master is Lucius Malfoy. I just personally don't think Fudge would use the Cruciatus. Then again, this is assuming it's canon Fudge, rather than HPNOFP Fudge, who is nastier. But it's also hard to see why he'd be siccing dementors on his own civilians because he honestly believes they're there to protect the students. Oh well. I look forward to the next chapter to explain these mysteries. Will that take another three years too, though?

[firesoul1]

I liked the chapter as a whole, and I'm gonna throw my hat in for it being Fudge who's controlling wormtail. He's likely from slytherin. He wears a green bowler hat in the series and wears a silver pocket watch. While not damning evidence, it does point to a slytherin education, he doesn't wear any other house colors.


However, I have a nagging feeling I'm thinking too much for an evil group. Or rather a too slytherin group. I have a feeling that its actually someone from either the puffs or from Ravenclaw. I don't have any leads, possibly even a Lion that is now a well intentioned extremist and is doing evil acts, soreading terror, to possibly try to keep his nation sharp, or get them past the idea that purebloods are the greatest and that they have no reason to fear.

[Theshelleyboat]

Does no one else find it hard to believe that a bomb could blast a hole in the wards? If it was a matter of physically moving keystones around, that could be accomplished with magic so even the old wards would have taken precautions. Magic can create explosions of that magnitude easily, a few dozen powerful blasting curses at the ground would do it. After so much emphasis on these incredible wards, it doesn't make sense that a physical explosion is all it takes to punch through.

[Frances]

That's a reasonable question. How wards actually work isn't really explained that clearly in JKR's original stories, so authors of fan fiction are at liberty to make up many of the rules that govern wards. We do know that wards guard against some things and not others, which suggests, though doesn't prove, that this is by design. The wards that protected Harry while at the Dursley house protected him from Voldemort and disguised his location, but didn't interfere with him getting beat up by Dudley, or receiving owl post. As the author of this story demonstrated clearly, receiving mail is a security flaw if you can be mailed a box of aggressive, poisonous, flying animals. (No word on whether Voldemort could have successfully mailed a box of Doxies to Harry, but it appears he didn't think of it.)

A metaphor that makes sense to me is computer security. When I want to protect my home computer, I can use anti-virus and/or firewalls. I can make sure my Flash is always the most up-to-date secure version, or I can take it a step further and not use Flash at all. I can keep all my operating system and programs patched. I can make sure that all incoming files are scanned for threats before use, and I can use software to monitor against privacy-invading advertisers cookies. Most of the things I can do to protect my computer help to guard against specific types of attacks, and I may not guard well against a type of attack I'm not expecting. For instance, most of my protections are useless against someone who sits down in front of my computer. All I really do to prevent that is to keep my front door locked. This wouldn't stop a determined intruder with simple tools at all, but the area is safe and the odds of a break-in are extremely low. (I also live a couple buildings down the road from a police station, which I'm sure helps.)

So the wards at Hogwarts guarded against what they were set up to guard against. They weren't going to keep out dementors until they were specifically modified to do so. They had guards against physical assault that simply failed to predict the type of physical attack that could be managed in the modern era. Wizards are notorious for not keeping up with the advancements of the muggle world, so while it would never occur to me to try to make my home proof against bomb-wielding attackers, the wizards are even less likely to have thought of it since they are probably at best only vaguely aware that bombs exist. The protections against the ward stones being physically assaulted might have included making them hard to approach, and making them sturdy enough that conventional projectiles (e.g. cannonballs) would have a hard time shifting them. That would have been more than enough for most of human history.

In the context of NoFP, the argument that wizards are mostly unaware of the threat of explosives is bolstered by Malfoy mailing Harry those Doxies. He could have been much more likely to take Harry out with an explosive charge triggered to blow half a second after Harry lifted the lid. If he didn't know enough to handle the explosives himself, Malfoy certainly has the resources to hire someone with the skills. But wizards just don't think of bombs. Maybe after this attack on Hogwarts that will change.

[jgkitarel]

Indeed, and the issue of the wards having a hole blown in them via a keystone getting damaged by a bomb blast is actually very realistic. I've handled enough high explosives and set them off to know that unless something is built specifically to resist them, they will punch a hole in it. Even then, they will only resist the blast and maintain structural integrity, not be undamaged.

[Aldraia Dragonsong]

Regarding mundane vs. magical explosions, there may be some qualitative difference between the two that requires different types of wards to block them. Wards against magical explosions may rely on preventing the magic from going off at all or disrupting/weakening it, which would have no effect on nonmagical explosives.

[jgkitarel]

I also think we may be over thinking this. The wards themselves may actually be able to redirect a blast, be it magical or otherwise, but again, it was one of the keystones which was damaged. Whoever came up with the plan to use terrorist proxies knew exactly where an easily reached vulnerability was and used a method that was not considered when the wards were set up.

[UpdateFast]

Great chapter, just got done finishing reading it today... So when's the next update? :P

[Tempest Kitsune]

Great chapter, just got done finishing reading it today... So when's the next update? :P

The next update is whenever it gets posted, unless you'd like to bankroll Viridian's cost of living.

[Dechstreme]

I would appreciate actual discussion on the chapter itself rather than just asking when it updates next. There are a lot of things to talk about with the chapter.

[jgkitarel]

The main concern here, aside from the issues Harry is about to have in the future, is that whoever Peter sold himself to is far more pragmatic that what we've seen from Death Eaters in canon and from Harry's flashbacks in NoFP.

The use of IRA proxies was sheer genius, as they are easily disposable, the Dementors would kiss them leaving no witnesses for Dumbledore or the Ministry to interrogate, and the story is taking place before the Good Friday Agreement which happened in 1998. Also, the more militant members were still highly skeptical of any chances for peace, despite serious attempts on both sides (and unintentionally sabotaged on both sides) to bring about a settlement.

Peter being coached to say something in a way to get them to go along with the plan, would work in a way, despite the fact that he is a Brit.

My question, is who was the one behind the plan. It wasn't Peter and I highly doubt it was Lucius (not saying it wasn't, but it is outside of his MO).

[Kitty-Chan]

The main concern here, aside from the issues Harry is about to have in the future, is that whoever Peter sold himself to is far more pragmatic that what we've seen from Death Eaters in canon and from Harry's flashbacks in NoFP.

The use of IRA proxies was sheer genius, as they are easily disposable, the Dementors would kiss them leaving no witnesses for Dumbledore or the Ministry to interrogate, and the story is taking place before the Good Friday Agreement which happened in 1998. Also, the more militant members were still highly skeptical of any chances for peace, despite serious attempts on both sides (and unintentionally sabotaged on both sides) to bring about a settlement.

Peter being coached to say something in a way to get them to go along with the plan, would work in a way, despite the fact that he is a Brit.

My question, is who was the one behind the plan. It wasn't Peter and I highly doubt it was Lucius (not saying it wasn't, but it is outside of his MO).

I figured that Pettigrew just Imperious'd the guy he showed the "proof" to.

[Dechstreme]

JG is talking about who Peter's master, the person who concocted the plan might be, not how Wormtail pulled it off.

[jgkitarel]

My doubts as to it being Lucius comes from the fact that it would be outside his normal MO, though the NoFP Lucius is a nastier character. We do know that the Death Eaters had penetrated the Auror Corps and the Ministry in general, so it is certainly possible that it could have come from that direction.

[MantisFA]

Somebody tipped off the Slytherins about the impending attack; most of them presumably didn't know WHY they were supposed to provoke Slughorn into calling a House meeting for Saturday, but any excuse to act out against the other houses would probably be enough for the Death Eaters-in-training among them. More reason to suspect the agent in place is a Slytherin prefect, too -- he could have started the ball rolling with a few words in the ears of other Slytherins he could count on not to rat him out, stayed out of trouble himself, and suggested the Saturday House meeting to Slughorn as a solution. I wonder if Harry or any of his friends will be sharp enough to work that out once things settle down.

Those poor, misguided terrorist bastards; I'd be hard-put to say that even a bunch of IRA bombers deserve what's about to happen to them….

More Harry-Ginny sweetness, and quite in character; she was established in OotP as the most perceptive of Harry's inner circle with regard to what was troubling Harry and how to deal with it. She's not as academically gifted as Hermione, but she has more emotional intelligence than the entire (canonical) Golden Trio put together.

I like the bit from Madam Rosmerta's POV; nice to see a bit of the adult population of Hogsmeade's perspective on current events. I'm hoping you'll find some interesting use for Aberforth as well (probably the one person in the original timeline who saw Albus with absolute clarity, right through both his fame and his surface eccentricity) before this story ends.

Oops; the gates are warded six ways from Sunday against all kinds of magic, but nobody thought about the kind of simple, physical force a judicious application of high explosive could deliver. As for the Dementor handlers, one has to wonder if they're really hopelessly incompentent, or if one or more of them are in on the plot and doing something to subtly sabotage the rest.

Who knew a simple "Sonorus" could result in a Crowning Moment of Awesome? It reminds me a bit of a scene from one of the best of the Miles Vorkosigan tales, "The Borders of Infinity" (don't want to spoil the circumstances for anyone who hasn't read it and might in the future; if you've read it, you know what I'm talking about).

The Patronus Charm was a lot more effective in canon than you portray it to be here; once cast, we never saw any sign that it needed power to maintain, nor did we ever see a Patronus fade before it had finished routing every Dementor present, if that was what the caster intended. At the Ministry in Book 7, Patroni were used for hours on end simply to serve as shields between their casters and the influence of Dementors being used to guard prisoners in the dock.

And a bigger Crowning Moment of Awesome for Ron. I don't think that would have worked in canon either, but who cares? The only reason I wasn't jumping up out of my seat and cheering when it happened is that I was reading it on my phone in the car while while waiting in a parking lot for my next ride request (I'm a rideshare driver with Lyft and Uber these days). Ron couldn't have been quoting Robbie Williams' "Millenium," because it wasn't released until 1998, but that's what I thought of when Ron called out the other Dementors after killing the one that tried to kiss Hermione:

"We've got stars directing our fate,
and we're praying it's not too late,
'cause we know we're falling from grace...
Millennium….

Come and have a go if you think you are hard enough…"

Ah, so someone did do something to sabotage the Ministry employees that were supposed to be controlling the Dementors. Seems likely it was in inside job, but of course the Ministry won't admit that.

And now everyone thinks Ron is the Heir of Gryffindor. Hmmm. That actually seems like it would be more likely to happen if Year 2 had gone as it did in canon, with the basilisk attacks and the entire school speculating about the identity of the Heir of Slytherin, but I suppose him summoning and using the Gryffindor Sword in such a public fashion would lead someone to come up with that explanation anyway.

"She walked up right behind me as I said that, didn't she?" LOL! Of course, what he said wasn't really negative at all; I would think Minerva would just as likely be flattered as annoyed.

…And it looks like I was right.

Glad they fixed the flaw in the wards. Also, if the real target of the attack was the Muggle Protection Act (makes sense, since that was what the Diary was aimed at undermining as well), that would explain why even a fanatical blood purist like Lucius would actually do a little research into Muggle politics and military capabilities -- he's trying to manufacture a reason for the wizarding world at large to see Muggles as a threat, and for that, he needs them to be scary, not just contemptible. It's unfortunate that in order to thwart that political goal, the good guys are going to have to effectively let this incident slide, but a full investigation would simply accomplish exactly what Lucius wanted the attack to do.

Nobody's killed a Dementor in direct, hand-to-hand combat before, but Harry killed twenty of them last year by forcing them onto the wards around the Burrow. I was kind of hoping for a massacre at Hogwarts, too, with the Gryffindor Six and DA's massed Patroni working as a hammer to smash the Dementors on the anvil of Hogwarts' new wards.

Ron probably isn't really the Heir of Gryffindor in the sense that Riddle was the Heir of Slytherin, but Godric didn't share Salazar's obsession with bloodline's anyway; his heirs are spiritual heirs, and Ron is surely one of them, along with Harry, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Luna, and every other truly worthy member of Godric's House.

Ah, so Lucius was behind it, but Peter came up with the specific plan, based on what he'd learned about Muggles from Lily before he turned Dark. That makes sense. Another ex-Death Eater could have sponsored the plan, but Lucius is the one who specifically hates the Weasley family even more than he hates Muggleborns. And now Peter will probably be leaving his employ to track down the remnant of Lord Voldemort hiding in Albania….

By the way, after reading the climax of this chapter, I immediately came up with this little parody:
Narrator: In A.D. 1994 war was beginning.
Harry: What happen?
Madam Rosmerta: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Hermione: We get signal.
Harry: What!
Hermione: Main screen turn on.
Harry: It's you!!
Dementors: How are you children!!
Dementors: All your soul are belong to us.
Dementors: You are on the way to destruction.
Harry: What you say!!
Dementors: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Dementors: Ha ha ha ha....
Hermione: Harry!
Harry: Take off every 'Patronus'!!
Harry: You know what you doing.
Harry: Move 'Patronus'.
Harry: For great justice.