Update! Woo! This was an exceedingly difficult chapter to write, because everything just kept getting worse and worse. I guess that's what I get for writing a war story, eh? Anyway, I thank Il'Diko for the review last chapter, and here's to hoping people like this one as well!

She was too drunk for duty again. Emmeline stumbled out of her house, ashamed enough to not look over at whoever was sitting in front of the fire. She barely bothered to fasten her cloak properly before she vanished with a loud crack at the end of the lane into the windy October night.

Her feet led her to a bar in Muggle London. She preferred the Muggle bars because she wouldn't run into someone she knew, or at least that was the theory. But the alcohol helped. It was the only thing that did. After drinking enough to dull the memories, she paid her tab and went for a walk, her feet drifting slightly from side to side as she staggered to a small, deserted park and lost herself to tears.

She put her head down on her knees and gripped her hair with shaking hands. "I can't keep this up," she whispered, swallowing hard. She needed something, a release from the memories that wasn't self-damaging. The dark-haired witch drew in deep breaths, trying to calm herself enough to get somewhere else, somewhere not London.

"Emmeline?" A familiar voice asked. "Emm, is that you?"

"Shit," she muttered, turning her face away.

Sirius walked up to her. "What are you doing out here?"

"Trying to be left alone."

"We're all worried about you."

"Don't be. I'll be fine." She stood up and turned to walk away, cloak whipping around her heels. She ignored him as she left, or at least tried to before she walked into a trashcan, the alcohol level in her blood affecting her depth perception. Tripping over her own feet as she tried to recover from the bump, she fell to the pavement, her gasp of pain turning into a sob.

"Emm!" Sirius hurried over to her and knelt down. "Are you alright?"

"Just go away. Please, just leave me alone," she managed through her tears, air catching in her throat.

"No. Come on, I'm taking you home."

"I can't go back there, don't make me go back there. I can't, I can't..." She was begging him, clutching at the front of his robes with desperate hands.

"Are you drunk?" Sirius was finally able to smell her breath, and he made a face. "Merlin, Emm... get up, I'll take you to my place." He helped her to stand, then picked her up gently as she almost fell again. He Apparated the both of them to the doorstep of his flat.

Once they were inside, he deposited her on his couch and went to make tea after telling her to stay put. She nodded dully, staring into the fire. The drink coursing through her head made her drowsy, and she stared into the fire like it held the secrets of the universe. She drifted off to sleep before Sirius came back.

When she woke, she had a raging headache. Mercifully, the curtains had been shut and though she could see weak October sunlight streaming through the edges, it didn't hit her in the face. She buried her face in the pillow and tried to remember what had happened the previous night.

"Good morning," a quiet voice greeted her. She raised her head far enough out of the pillow to see Sirius walking into the room holding two cups of steaming something. It smelled nice. She blinked at him, causing him to smile a bit. "Hangover? Here, drink this. It'll help."

Emmeline took one of the cups. It felt like it weighed as much as a hippogriff, but she sipped at it before setting it back down. Whatever Sirius had put in the tea did help, just like whatever Gideon had done when she'd... her eyes filled with tears again. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, trying to distract herself from the burning behind her eyes, trying to keep her lips from trembling. It didn't work.

She swiped at her face, trying to contain the tears before they got out of hand. "Hey, I thought you were done with the emotions," Sirius teased her gently, setting a hand on her shoulder. He handed her a handkerchief and she took it gratefully, dabbing at her eyes.

Once she was slightly contained, she took another drink of her tea. "Sorry," she said thickly. Sirius started to shake his head, but she cut him off. "I don't mean just breaking down right now. For everything. I'm an awful person. One thing happens and I completely lose it. I'm a liability to the Order and you all shouldn't have to deal with—"

"Shut up," he said calmly, placing his palm over her mouth. Surprised, she stopped speaking. "If you say those things, they might become true. Emm, we're all hurting. Things just keep getting worse and worse, and it seems like half the world's in hiding and the rest of us are a step from it. But it will get better, I promise."

"How can you promise something like that?" She felt like a child begging for reassurance, and she hated it.

"Because it has to be." That bore a striking resemblance to what she had said to Auggy and Ziggy after Caradoc vanished, and Emmeline wasn't sure if she liked the thought of that. Sirius sighed. "Look, Emm, I need to leave. I've got the patrol, and I should probably let people know that you won't be going home for a bit. You're welcome to stay here as long as you like." He stood up and brushed a hand through her hair lightly, then vanished down the hallway.

Emmeline closed her eyes for a few moments before downing the rest of her tea and slipping out the door. She didn't want to see Sirius leave, because it would be one goodbye too many. Every single time now, it felt like bidding someone farewell meant a lot more than it ever had previously. Because now, it might really be goodbye for good.

She ended up walking aimlessly down a street, not looking at the other people on the sidewalk. It was early afternoon, and she would have ordinarily felt foolish for sleeping so late, but it was difficult to feel anything besides sadness and loneliness any more. A brisk wind nipped at the gap between her cloak fastenings and her shirt.

She needed catharsis. Something final, something to help her move on from the memories. Wracking her brains as she walked, inspiration struck her as she walked by a tattoo parlor. It was a Muggle tattoo business, and so that would mean no magical enhancements to the art, but even so... maybe that was better. She made up her mind as she strode into the shop, the light of purpose glinting in her eyes for the first time in almost a month.

"Hey there," the man behind the counter greeted her. He had tattoos all up and down his arms and neck, and she would hazard a guess that the rest of him would be covered as well. They were beautifully done, and she wondered if some were his own work.

"Hello," she replied. "I need to get some tattoos."

He raised an eyebrow. "Do you have any now?" He asked dubiously, running his eyes over her.

"No."

"And you said you wanted 'some' tattoos?"

"Yes. Three. A pair of foxes on my ankles and a tiger going up my hip." She didn't know where the sudden certainty had come from, but she knew it was right.

"Well alright then," the man grinned at her. "I'm Damien Jonson, pleased to meet you."

She shook his hand. "Emmeline Vance."

He shooed her away after clarifying some details about what she wanted, and she ventured to Diagon Alley to get Muggle money. Damien had given her a rough price and she made sure to change extra Galleons into the funny Muggle paper, just in case. He hadn't had any appointments that day and so she returned later in the early afternoon to see his drawings.

When she walked back in the shop, he held up his sketchbook proudly. Two identical foxes danced on the first paper, and a tiger snarled on the next. Nodding, Emmeline felt a bit of a smile touch her own lips. "Let's get to work," Damien said, ushering her over to a table.

It was going on midnight by the time he was finished. Emmeline had subtly used a localized pain-numbing charm on her ankles and hip, which had certainly helped because she wasn't twitching from the sting of the needle. When Damien finally sat back, he grinned in satisfaction. "Take a look," he suggested, pointing at a full-length mirror.

She stood up and walked over to it, the entirety of her right hip and leg bare. There was a black line drawing of a tiger climbing its way up her hip, its face turned out in a possessive snarl. Its tail curled around to her inner thigh. Looking down at her feet, she saw two identical foxes on the outside of her ankles. Her flesh was red and slightly inflamed, but she was pleased.

"Well done," she commented quietly as she paid him. He had wrapped the new tattoos up gently after letting her see them, but her clothes still rubbed against the coverings and tickled the wounds underneath.

"Thanks. Can I ask what they're for?" Both had been silent during the procedure, and she hadn't told him beforehand why she had chosen what she did.

"The foxes... my boyfriend and his brother died two weeks ago. And my best friend in the world, who the tiger is for, died just before them." She was surprised at the steadiness of her voice.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "Losing those you love is always horrid." He didn't ask why they had died and for that she was grateful – how would she explain a secret world war to a Muggle?

"Yes it is," she agreed in a murmur, before shaking Damien's hand and taking her leave of the shop. She paused for a split second as she stood in the doorway, then slanted a glance back at him. "I may be back." It was the closest to a fatalistic comment that she had ever come, and it was also the closest to realizing and accepting and moving past the face that her friends would continue to die until the madness ended.

Damien seemed to get it in the split-second that their eyes locked. "I hope you aren't. Not that I don't appreciate the business, but if you're coming in to commemorate more friends then you have my sympathies."

A ghost of a smile flittered across her face before she stepped out into the night, ankles starting to tingle as the effects of her pain-numbing charms began to wear off. She slipped into a darkened alley and Disapparated back to her home.

Emmeline let herself into the Sea Tower through the red door, closing it with a soft click behind her. She was relieved to see that Sirius was on duty in front of the fire, and he greeted her softly. She returned the greeting and retreated to her room, nursing her hip as she lay on her bed. The tattoos stung, and she could tell that her skin was still inflamed under the bandages. She wouldn't go to a healer (namely, Alice or Hestia, because St. Mungo's was flooded these days) about them though, because... if pressed, she would call it a personal thing. The tattoos were hers, as the memories were hers.

It wasn't quite the catharsis she had wanted, and it by no means made it better, but somehow, having the tiger on her hip was reassuring. The tiger was her patronus as well, and while it wasn't like Benjy was actually there for her, maybe his shadow was.

She visited the Tinworth cemetery the next day and sat down with her back to his tombstone. The midday light was weak, shining through clouds about ready to burst with rain. There wasn't much wind, which was strange. "You wouldn't approve," she commented lowly. "It's not exactly something my parents would be happy with either. Or at least, I don't think so. Then again, who really knows? Fabian and Gideon... the old Gideon, at least, would love them. I think you would like the art, if not the fact that I got three tattoos in one day."

A few raindrops began to patter down, and Emmeline knew that the storm would drench her soon. "I shouldn't be out in the rain, that's what you would tell me. You would also tell me that I need to go back on duty, get some sort of routine in my life, but I can't be trusted with anyone else's lives. Or I shouldn't be, even if I could convince people that I'm alright. Benjy, I can't do this without you. I can't take care of Auggy and Ziggy – I was always like the cool aunt, and you took the place of father better than even Caradoc could, really.

"Gideon told me something that helped for the time, but then they died too. He said that whether I could or could not didn't matter, because I didn't have a choice. But he was wrong, because people always have choices. I could just run away from it. I could go to the mainland and wait out the war. I'd have to live with my choices and I would hate myself, but I could do it. It's tempting."

She was surprised that she wasn't crying. "But you wouldn't do it, and you didn't run away from caring for me when my parents died. But you've always been a stronger person than I am, and I'm scared." She didn't know how long she sat there beneath the stone tiger before she stood and headed home slowly.

The days passed in a haze of fear and blood. Patrols had stopped because the Order had been decimated, but almost every night there would be an attack on someone. Emmeline started going with Hestia when the Healer had to make a midnight run to save someone's life. Partially because going anywhere alone was a bad idea (not that going in pairs or trios seemed to be safer either), but also because sitting around in the empty Sea Tower was the last thing she wanted to do. It was amazing to watch Hestia work – she was a good Healer, and she specialized in stabilizing people long enough for them to reach St. Mungo's.

Emmeline wished that she could do something like Healing that really helped people, but she'd never had the needed skills in Charms. Instead, she kept drowning her failures in whiskey and gin. She made the trips to fetch it alone, and the only association that she attempted with people were the times she went Healing with Hestia.

The morning of the first day of November, she was awakened in front of her fire by Hestia shaking her by the shoulders frantically. "Emmeline! Emm, get up!"

"Wha?" Emmeline blinked her way back from unconsciousness, hangover pounding her in the temples. She looked blearily at Hestia. "What?" she finally managed to enunciate correctly.

The other witch seemed to be a strange mix of delirious elation and overwhelming sadness. "He's gone!"

Emmeline had lost too many 'he's.' She tilted her head slightly, uncomprehending. Hestia hadn't relinquished her grasp of Emmeline's shoulders and shook them again. "You-Know-Who. He's gone."

"Now I know I'm still dreaming," Emmeline groaned, pulling back from Hestia.

"No. No, Emm. He's gone, completely gone. It happened last night."

"All Hallow's Eve? That's damned appropriate, don't you think? Seriously, Hestia... you know better than to joke about that. Not even Sirius would make mock of him like that, or mess with all of us by joking that he was gone..." Emmeline trailed off as she saw Hestia's face darken at the name of their friend.

"Emmeline... I'm not joking." The words were slow and Hestia's face was utterly serious. "I wouldn't lie to you about that. But Black – " She let out a choked sob. "He betrayed them! He betrayed Lily and James and little Harry! They're gone, Emm. They're dead."

"You-Know-Who is gone?" Emmeline was in a slight state of shock. Then her brow furrowed at what Hestia had said after that. "Lily and James and Harry are dead?"

"Not Harry, I don't think. Something... something happened and Harry defeated You-Know-Who! Lily and James are gone – Harry's still alive, so Dumbledore says. Black was their Secret-Keeper – it's his fault!" Hestia was completely beside herself, a mentality that Emmeline had never seen the normally composed and calm Healer in.

Emmeline got up out of her chair and retrieved a fresh bottle, not even bothering to make a toast or any note that You-Know-Who was gone. She popped the cap and took a long drink, enjoying the searing of the burn traveling down her throat. Hestia was too disbelieving herself to do anything about Emmeline's drinking, which convinced the witch even further that her friend was telling the truth. "Need t'tell Alice," she muttered, falling to her knees in front of the fireplace and throwing a handful of Floo powder into the dying embers.

After informing Alice she went back to the chair by the fire. Hestia had gone and Emmeline didn't blame her – Emmeline knew that she wasn't any fun to be around, even on a day such as this. She sat there thinking instead.

There were parties and memorials, and Emmeline sang at Lily and James's funeral. It didn't go over as badly as Benjy's had but her eyes were still wet throughout the whole of the song. She saw the memorial raised and listened to people paying their respects. The days were colder and the nights were longer, but she hung on to her sanity and humanity by her teeth, dealing with the pain with alcohol. Her tattoos scabbed over and healed, although the skin was still slightly tender.

One night she was drunk out of her mind when Alice appeared in the fireplace. "What're you doin' here?"

"Emmeline Vance, you shouldn't be drinking," Alice scolded, sounding strangely like Emmeline's mother when she'd caught her daughter and Benjy all muddy or windswept from their Quidditch practice.

The thought made her smile wryly and she toasted her friend with her cup. "Yes Mum."

"Emm, really." Alice gave a sigh. "I just wanted to let you know we're alright. Neville and Frank are on the couch."

"Good. S'good to hear. Can I see m'godson?" Emmeline was slurring her words more than usual, but it was late and she was tired and drunk and depressed, so she couldn't be bothered to care. Alice nodded and called to her husband to bring Neville over, clearly hiding her concern. She'd never been that good of a liar to Emmeline.

Chubby little baby Neville reached out his hands to his godmother, and Emmeline felt a smile touch her lips, the first real on in too long. "Emm! Emm!" Tears stung her eyes as she reached a hand through the fire and let him grab her fingers.

"Hey there kid," she murmured. "Nothin's gonna happen t'you, Neville. I promise. Benjy promised too, an' everyone promised, but I promise more..." Some part of her knew that she was making a fool of herself – some calculating, judgmental part of herself knew that she was acting the idiot, that she needed to pull herself together and deal with everything that had happened, that she needed to be strong, but she just couldn't listen to it. Everything hurt. Remembering, thinking, eating, trying to move on with life, it all just hurt. And this kid, this little child knew so little of war and pain and she envied him that, but she knew that she had to help protect him from everything that could happen... She was crying for real now as Alice stepped through the fireplace. "I promise, Alice."

Alice said something that ended with 'off to bed' and Emmeline didn't fight her. She let her friend guide her up the stairs and then steal away the cup of whiskey before Emmeline fell into bed. "I promise..." the dark haired, alcohol-stinking, completely plastered witch said. She didn't remember drifting off to sleep.

She woke that morning with a pounding headache. Groaning lightly, she rolled out of bed and almost onto the floor. She went downstairs and fixed herself a cup of coffee before putting on a cloak and staggering outside to restock on her alcohol. As she was returning from the pub, bottles clinking in a drawstring cloth bag at her side, she saw Remus Lupin standing by her gates. He met her gaze slowly and then looked down at the drawstring bag and sighed.

"What?" she demanded, slightly more aggressively than she intended. His eyes were shadowed and he looked thinner than when she had last seen him. She softened slightly and sighed as well, glancing to the ground.

"Emmeline, I'm so sorry."

Her eyes flickered back up to him, meeting his own warm hazel-gold stare. "About what?"

"Alice and Frank were attacked. They're in St. Mungo's now."

Emmeline's lips parted slightly and the bottles shattered on the ground as her muscles went limp. Remus stepped closer to her as she burst out, "But they were supposed to be safe! You-Know-Who's gone, he's gone, and they were safe... I promised, oh Merlin... I promised just last night." That memory was clear, even though the rest of the night was hazy.

She broke down crying and Remus caught her before she could collapse on the ground. He pulled her to him and she could feel how skinny he was as she clutched him, soaking his thin jacket with her tears. He muttered comforting nonsense to her and eventually her tears abated, although she kept sniffing. "What about Neville?" She managed, voice thick and low.

"He's with his grandmother. He's okay, Alice hid him somewhere and the Death Eaters didn't find him. It was Bellatrix and her husband and his brother. But they've been caught now, so don't get any ideas of Gryffindor heroics running through your head about hunting them down."

That was enough to cease Emmeline's tears out of surprise. "Bellatrix Lestrange has been caught?"

Remus was smiling a bit. "Strange, isn't it?"

"Can I go see Alice?" Emmeline sounded like a child and Remus sighed as he shook his head and explained that they were in intensive care and no one knew anything except that they were still alive. Emmeline sighed but accepted it – what choice did she have?

She invited Remus inside the house and he made them tea. Emmeline reached for the last bottle in her house to pour whiskey into hers before Remus took it away gently. "Neville doesn't need that in a godmother," he said softly. That started her tears again, and he patted her back and let her drench his shoulder until she stopped.

"I'm sorry," she whispered once she'd contained herself again.

"Emm, don't apologize. You've lost so much – I understand."

"You've lost too," she muttered back. "Lily and James... and Black betraying them and killing Peter... I haven't had to deal with betrayal."

Remus looked away and didn't respond, and Emmeline took in the sight of him. He was thin – she'd been able to feel that when he held her. But she hadn't noticed how truly ragged he was. His cheeks were sunken in and his eyes were dark with shadows from lack of sleep. "Remus," she murmured. His warm hazel eyes, touched with yellow, met her own soft brown gaze. "Remus, where have you been staying?"

He had been sleeping on Black's couch, before... everything. That had ended two weeks ago, she assumed. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep in a place that held that many memories. She saw the flick of shame in his eyes before it was smothered. "Here and there," he said.

"Stay here tonight," she asked. "Please. It's just me and Bludger now, and it's lonely." Her cat was sitting on a bookshelf and twitched his tail when he heard his name, but remained asleep. "I don't want to be alone." She knew it sounded like she was merely coming up with an excuse for him to stay, but she really didn't want to be alone. She hated the way the house creaked, even though it had once been comforting and one of the sounds of home.

Remus looked to be on the verge of refusing, before he slumped down and sighed. "Alright."

She smiled at him, her first genuine smile in what felt like years. "Thank you."

When Emmeline woke up the next morning, the absence of a hangover was strange. She forgot the feeling of waking with a mostly clear head. It put her in a slightly better mood until she remembered the news of the day before, and her smile slipped off her face.

The smell of breakfast cooking greeted her, and it made her think for one wild second that Benjy was in the kitchen. It was only Remus though, when she descended the stairs, who greeted her with a mild smile. "Good morning, Emmeline."

"Remus, we've talked about you calling me Emmeline," she responded. He passed her a plate full of bacon and eggs, with two biscuits sitting on the side.

"But it's such a lovely name."

She shook her head slightly, but didn't say anything. They ate in silence, and then Emmeline fed Bludger. Remus left around ten to look for a new job, which got Emmeline to thinking about a job as well. It would be something to occupy her days with, even though her parents had left her more than enough money to live on comfortably for the rest of her days. Still... the idea of sitting around all day in the Sea Tower wasn't appealing.

First though, she needed to check on something. She Apparated to Neville's grandmother's house and knocked on the door hesitantly. The old woman was fearsome when irritated, and she was more than a force to be reckoned with. Augusta Longbottom opened the door, wand in one hand and her grandson in the other. "Emmeline," she greeted coolly.

"Good morning, Mrs. Longbottom," Emmeline said back. "I... I wanted to see how Neville was."

"Emm?" The little boy questioned.

She managed a half-smile. "Hey kid."

Mrs. Longbottom's face softened a bit. "Come inside, Emmeline."

Augusta fixed them tea and Emmeline sat on a couch while the older woman reclined regally in an armchair. "How are Alice and Frank doing?" Emmeline asked quietly.

"As well as can be expected. They remember little, the Healers say, but in time perhaps that will change." Augusta sipped at her tea tensely.

"Will they be allowed visitors?"

"Not yet. I am not even allowed to bring Neville in to visit them."

"Will you please let me know when we can visit? I would like to see Alice..."

"Of course."

"And... and can I take Neville out sometimes? I would also like to spend time with my godson. He's all I have left of her right now."

Augusta looked at Emmeline for a long, silent moment. At last she nodded. "Very well, I suppose that would be alright."

"Thank you."

The rest of the visit was short as Emmeline finished her tea and then went home. Remus was waiting in the living room. "I hope you don't mind that I let myself in," he said as she hung up her cloak.

"Of course not. You know you're always welcome here."

He seemed nervous and Emmeline looked at him questioningly. "I've been trying to find a job," he explained. "Black was letting me stay on his couch, but I haven't been able to find anything... you know I hate asking for favors, but could I stay here a few days? Just until I get something worked out?"

"Where have you been staying?" She'd asked the same question the night before, but as he did then, he didn't answer and Emmeline didn't push the question. "Stay as long as you need or want. I have this big, empty house and I get lonely. It would be a relief to have you here." It was more or less the same thing she had said the previous night, but this time she was more sober.

He stayed that night, and the night after, and they fell into a routine. Remus would go out in the mornings and look for work, while Emmeline would amuse herself by reading or traveling, visiting old friends and trying to distract herself. She didn't drink anymore, and visited Neville at least once a week. Emmeline took him to the bookstore and the pet shop, to the river and everywhere else she could think of.

Eventually, she was allowed to visit Alice and Frank. Once she got that bit of news, she hurried to throw on a cloak and raced out the door, Apparating the moment she was past the wards. The greeting and instructions from the Welcome Witch passed in a blur, and Emmeline ended up outside a white door. She hesitated before going in, but after a moment's pause pushed the door open slowly.

The sight that greeted her nearly reduced her to tears before she even set foot inside the room. Frank gazed out the small window that was enchanted to look like summer. A small bit of drool was falling from the side of his mouth. Alice was staring at a blue flower, no expression in her eyes.

"Alice?" Emmeline brought herself to ask, voice breaking.

Her friend looked around at her in confusion, then fear filled her eyes and she let out a soft scream, scrabbling at her bedsheets. Even in her confusion, Emmeline recognized the movements of looking for a wand, desperate for defense and protection. But there was not a single scrap of recognition in Alice's eyes, and that was a punch right to the heart for Emmeline.

A Healer rushed in. He must have been alerted by some sensor or spell, she knew, and she watched helplessly as he restrained Alice. Frank hadn't moved. "Out," the Healer demanded, although he did seem apologetic about it.

Emmeline fled.

Remus made dinner again that night, and he noticed that she was even quieter than normal. "Are you alright, Emmeline?"

"Remus..."

"I know, I'm not supposed to call you that. But please, what's wrong?"

"I went to go see Alice and Frank today. I was hoping that they'd be okay, or at least kind of okay, or healing or something, but they're not. Frank stared out the window the whole time and was... he was a mess, and Alice screamed when she saw me, like I was a threat or sometime." She'd gotten choked up again just thinking about it and took a few deep breaths, trying to control herself. "She didn't know me, and we've been best friends for so many years. I'm the godmother of her child and she didn't know me. I want to help her and I can't. The only thing I could do would be hunting down the people who did this to her, but I can't even do that because they're already locked up."

Emmeline bit her lip to stop herself from rambling, then let her head fall into her hands. "I'm just so helpless. Everything keeps happening and I can't do anything about it, I can't fix anything. The war is done. It's done, but things are still so broken. We just always concentrated on winning the war, and no one thought a damn thing about what would happen after it."

Remus put his arms around her, and Emmeline cried into his shirt. She had gotten so used to crying it felt almost routine now, and with that sickening thought she pulled herself together. "I'll be okay," she said. "I will. It was j-just hard, to see them like that."

"Well, I'm less worried about you now." Remus smiled wryly down at her. "You didn't immediately go for a bottle when you got home, and you're not looking for one now."

"I can't. Neville needs me. Isn't that what you said?" Remus nodded confirmation. "You were right. I'm not drinking any more." Her voice was still shaky, but she felt more solid than she had in weeks. "There's no point to any of this if we can't raise the next generation to be better than we are. Neville won't be an alcoholic because of me, and neither will Auggy or Ziggy."

Finally, Emmeline is going to stop being such a drunk and do something with herself. I can't really say how exactly that's going to go just yet, but the goal is to get another chapter up before winter break, so we'll see by then. Thanks for reading this - it's just over 90,000 words now, so if you've stuck with me through it, or have just read it all, I thank you immensely.