A/N: Yay for reviewers! A couple of quick notes which I hope won't get me in trouble with this whole "no responding to reviews" policy: A few of you commented that Harry was surprisingly quick to forgive Hermione and Ron. I see where you're coming from, and agree that it could also have been written with him getting furious... However, I think Harry's capable of understanding where his friends are coming from, and seeing the big picture, in which they had his best interests at heart. Especially because this works a lot better for the purposes of my plot than a prolonged argument would have. Secondly, some of you mentioned that even with the clues Rowena gave, you didn't know where the Horcrux was... Well... you're not supposed to. Read on, and all will be revealed. Note: Thanks to those reviewers who pointed out that I had Bill and Charlie confused. I've switched all the instances I could find where I had used Charlie's name, and hopefully I caught them all. Let me know if you find more.

Chapter 14

Rowena's Revelation

Although Harry was quite shocked when Hermione announced that she knew the location of the next Horcrux, he decided to take the news in stride. Accordingly, instead of shouting "How the hell do you know everything?" at her, he simply gawked at her for several consecutive seconds. Ron did the same.

Ginny was the first to recover from the shock, and said, quite conversationally under the circumstances, "Where is it, then?"

"But... no, it doesn't make any sense," said Hermione, apparently oblivious to Ginny's question.

"What doesn't?" said Harry, who was the second to recover from the shock of Hermione's apparent omniscience. Ron was still staring blankly at her, but then, Ron did that a lot, so it may have had nothing to do with the shock of her knowledge.

"It's a tourist attraction!" said Hermione.

"Great. Now she knows too and she won't tell us, either. I knew she had too much in common with this Rowena character," said Harry, gesturing at Hermione with the book. Showing that she still apparently had some knowledge of her surroundings, even though her concentration was apparently quite elsewhere, she reached out toward the journal.

"Let me see that for a moment, would you Harry?" she asked.

"Not until you tell us what you've figured out," said Ginny, who was apparently also put off by being left out of the loop.

Hermione sighed. "I don't think I'm even right about it, as a matter of fact, but if you must know, I think the location is Hufflepuff's Hill"

This woke Ron up from whatever trance he had apparently been under. "But don't you--?" Hermione cut him off, leaving the question unfinished.

"Yes, Ron, I live five miles from it. I even visited there this summer. Dragged my parents along, too. They didn't mind too much though, they just went shopping," said Hermione.

"They what?" asked Ginny. "They went shopping at a place called Hufflepuff's Hill? And how does Ron know about this if I don't?"

"Well, that's not what the Muggles call it, of course. And Ron knew because I had mentioned it in a letter I sent him" explained Hermione, impatiently. Yeah, Harry reflected shortly, she's the one who's getting impatient.

"And what do the muggles call it?" asked Harry, wondering what the chances were that he had heard the Dursleys talking about it at some point over the previous years. He doubted it though, because normally when the Dursleys talked, he had made it a point not to listen.

"They call it North End Shopping Mall," said Hermione.

"Voldemort hid his Horcrux at a shopping mall?" asked Ginny, incredulously. Being wizard-born, of course, Ginny had never technically been to a shopping mall, but she knew enough about them from her 3 previous years of Muggle-studies to know that it was a rather incongruous place for Voldemort to hide a Horcrux.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out, if Harry would give me the journal," countered Hermione.

"I thought you said it was a tourist attraction... You meant it was a shopping center?" asked Harry.

"No, there's a small side operation located at Hufflepuff's Hill which caters to certain historically-minded witches and wizards who want to see the place where Helga Hufflepuff died."

"In a shopping mall?" asked Ginny, smiling at the irony.

"Well, the shopping mall wasn't there when she died!" said Hermione, who seemed to be personally offended by the positioning of the shopping center over a historical landmark.

"I know that!" countered Ginny. "But you've got to admit, it's still pretty funny."

Apparently Hermione had to admit nothing of the sort. There was an awkward silence, during which Harry noticed that Hermione's hand was still extended in an attempt to retrieve the journal from him.

He gave it to her, and she began to search through the pages for the last one that was written on. Now that she had the journal and was about to be able to clear up the confusion with Rowena herself, she seemed in a bit more of a mood to talk. "As you should recall from our History of Magic classes-" Hermione paused for a second while Ron and Harry both snorted at the assumption that they should remember anything from History of Magic class, especially something not directly related to the troll-rebellions which seemed to be all Professor Binns was willing to talk about. "-Hufflepuff's Hill, or rather the catacombs beneath the hill, was the site of Hufflepuff's last battle."

"Hufflepuff died in a catacomb?" asked Ginny, laughing out loud this time, and registering that that was even more ironic than the fact that the site was now covered with a shopping mall.

"Yes, there was a small-scale wizarding war in the late tenth century, over who the next British Magical King should be (they didn't have ministers back then, it was a hereditary position, but even as such, there was always contestation over who the person with the more legitimate claim to the throne was), and one of the battles occurred in the wizarding catacombs which had been built into this hill. The details of the battle are of course, lost, as it happened so long ago, but there is still a steady trickle of visitors to see the place where one of the greatest withces of all time made her final stand," said Hermione, ending with an oddly reverential-sounding tone of voice.

While neither Ginny, Ron, nor Harry understood why Hermione had come to the conclusion that this was the place the Horcrux was hidden, none could come up with any particular questions to ask to help them understand. Harry reflected that the location made at least some sense. With the amount that Voldemort knew about the founders, he no doubt was aware of the place that Helga Hufflepuff had died. And, of course, Voldemort always did have an obsession with death, so this location made more sense than it would have if, say, he had placed the Horcrux at the place where Hufflepuff was said to have been born.

In the silence that followed, Ginny, Harry, and Ron each focused their attention on the chalkboard as Hermione wrote in the journal.

"But why would Voldemort put the Horcrux at Hufflepuff's Hill after he failed to scare the Muggles off?" she wrote.

Harry was about to ask Hermione just how Voldemort had failed to scare the muggles off, but was distracted as Rowena responded promptly.

"Well. That was quick. You're cleverer than I had imagined," responded Rowena. Harry was moderately surprised that the journal seemed to have a sense of length of time, but he figured he had more important things to think about at the moment.

Hermione seemed to be torn between being flattered that Rowena had complimented her and frustrated that she would not simply answer her question.

"What do you mean he failed to scare the muggles off?" asked Ginny.

"Well..." said Hermione, apparently reluctant to be torn from her written conversation with Rowena, "Voldemort thought that the muggle presence on the site of one of the wizarding world's most important historical landmarks was insulting, so one of the more horrific muggle-killings he carried out during the last time he was rising to power was an attack on this muggle shopping mall, in the middle of the day. He single-handedly killed about 30 muggles before the Aurors arrived on the scene. The entrance to the wizarding catacombs is located in what the muggles believe is a department store. Voldemort was more concerned with killing muggles on this occasion, so the wizards and witches working in the tourist facility were the ones who notified the Aurors when they noticed a lot of muggles fleeing from the mall. As part of the containment policy, of course, the Aurors modified the memories of the muggle survivors so that they didn't know that they had just been attacked by a wizard. Instead, they thought they were the target of some anti-capitalist terrorist organization or something. There were calls from some that the mall ought to be closed down, which was just what Voldemort wanted. However, muggles can be downright stubborn, especially when their shopping's being interfered with, and so they decided that the best way to get back at the terrorists would be to keep the mall open. Which they did. Of course, Voldemort was angry as anything, but the Minister of Magic made a point to cover the mall with a few aurors, and apparently Voldemort felt that the muggles weren't worth the second attempt at that point, with the added risk. There's always the possibility that Voldemort would have come back and tried again, but that was toward the end of his first reign," said Hermione glancing over at Harry, apparently subconsciously.

"Well... So your point is that it doesn't seem like that would be something that Voldemort would want to commemorate?" asked Harry, trying to understand why Hermione was doubting her own guess as to where the Horcrux was hidden.

"That, and besides which, I told you, I've been in the catacombs myself. I'm not saying I would necessarily have sensed that there was Dark Magic there, but I should have been aware of it, especially if the point of the magic was to keep people away from the Horcrux, which it would be," explained Hermione.

"Good point," conceded Harry, remembering the security measures which had protected the previous Horcrux. He reckoned that Hermione would have noticed if there were Inferi running around in the catacombs.

Hermione had not responded to Rowena's compliment, but Rowena had, to Harry's surprise, continued on in her response to actually answer Hermione's question.

"Although he didn't actually get the muggles to leave the mall, this killing was the largest single muggle massacre to its date, and it raised fear among the wizards across the country. If Voldemort was willing to not only blatantly kill so many muggles, but also do it in plain sight, it called into question just how long the muggles could be kept in the dark about the danger. Historically, in cases of Civil War amongst wizards, both sides tacitly agree to honor the usual statutes of wizarding-secrecy. Of course, had Voldemort gained full power like he wanted to, he probably would have abandoned the principals of wizarding secrecy in favor of a world wherein wizards were fully declared and demanded whatever muggles they allowed to survive to serve them. This large-scale attack helped to make this clear. While it didn't scare the muggles as much as Voldemort would have liked, it was a show of power to the magical community. Although there were Aurors posted at the mall from then on, everyone knew that there was no way aurors could protect every place that muggles congregated in large groups, and this attack was anticipated by many to be only the first of several. And they were right, there were a few more large scale attacks like this one in the time following."

Hermione chewed on the quill that she was writing with. "But what about the dark magic that you mentioned? I took a tour of the catacombs during the summer, and I didn't notice anything unusual."

"Well, you wouldn't have," responded Rowena. "The public does not have access to the oldest and most sacred bits of the catacombs, including the actual spot where it is rumored that Hufflepuff died. However, I made a point to get myself quite lost during a public tour, and went far enough into the entrance of the older portion of the cave to detect signs of dark magic before I decided it would be best to put off the search until I was healthier."

"Of course!" said Hermione, who seemed to be amazed at her own error of thought. "It wouldn't have to be the whole catacombs that were covered by the dark magic."

"This actually kind of seems to make sense," said Harry, now coming to the conclusion that Rowena had finally proven herself to be useful for once. His emotions were a combination at triumph at finally having discovered a lead on the next Horcrux and a rising anxiety about the actual task that now lay before them. Luring a snake into a graveyard was one thing, but Harry had the feeling that penetrating the security measures around a stationary Horcrux would be quite another. However, Harry was also feeling a sense of rising adventure. One that he had not believed he'd feel again after Dumbledore had died. Harry felt a twinge of sadness at remembering Dumbledore's death again for what seemed to be the ten thousandth time in the past six months. However, this feeling was countered somewhat by the knowledge that retrieving the next Horcurx, as he was now preparing to do, would be the best possible way to honor his memory.

"Yeah, it does make sense," said Hermione, allowing herself a small smile. "Finally, we've figured something out."

The four sat in triumphant silence for several seconds.

Then, Ron broke the silence. "What do we do now, then?"

"Tell McGonagall?" asked Hermione. Suddenly, Harry's mind flashed back, and he grinned a bit in spite of himself, as he pictured how well those words would have flowed out of the mouth of an 11 year old Hermione. But, in spite of that, Harry figured Hermione was probably right. McGonagall had given them the idea for destroying the basilisk, maybe she would have some advice on this. But somehow Harry already anticipated that no matter what help McGonagall could offered, it would have to be he, Ron, and Hermione who actually went in and retrieved the Horcrux.

Within half an hour, Harry found himself leading Hermione, Ron, and Ginny up the now familiar path to the Head's office. Hermione still had the journal, now holding it almost lovingly in contrast to the frustration which each of the teens had felt toward the journal not long before.

Harry had been given the password for the gargoyle guarding the staircase to the head's office, for just situations like this one, so they passed by that landmark unbothered. Once they got to the door to the office, Harry knocked.

"Come in," called McGonagall's voice.

When Harry opened the door, a rather nervous-looking kid who Harry recognized as a third year Gryffindor turned around to look at them from the near-side of McGonagall's desk. Harry remembered that the girl was named Nancy Tarr, and she had almost perfect attendance at the Defense Club. She seemed like a bright kid and Harry rather hoped she wasn't getting in too much trouble.

Luckily for Nancy, the excitedly nervous looks on the four teens' faces communicated quite well that they had some information which McGonagall would like to hear right away. She gave Harry a meaningful look that told him she'd be with them momentarily and then turned quickly back to Nancy. "So, in other words, while Professor Slughorn can't actually expel you for enchanting his robes to say 'Slytherins are gits' in the middle of a Potions' class, you would do well to show your professors a greater level of respect in the future, especially as he would be well within his rights to take points off of Gryffindor for any infraction of this type. And, as you may know, although I am headmistress now, I still have a bit of a soft-spot for my old house." She paused. When Nancy made no move to leave, she said, "You're excused, then."

As Nancy passed them, she smiled gratefully at their good timing. Although Hermione did not return the smile (probably thinking the prank childish), Harry, Ginny, and Ron grinned back at the girl, each being forcibly reminded of antics of this type that had been pulled by Fred and George a couple of years before.

As they approached McGonagall's desk, Ron said in an undertone to Harry (Harry briefly wondered whether he was trying to keep this comment from Hermione, McGonagall, or both), "Think if we write to Fred and George telling them what kind of stuff she's been up to, they'd give her discounted merchandise?"

Harry nodded, suppressing a grin. It was nice to know that even with Voldemort threatening to rise again, there were still pranksters and purveyors to provide them with the goods they needed to get the job done.

"So, what is it?" asked McGonagall with audible concern in her voice.

"Well, we finally got the journal to tell us something," explained Harry. "You might as well read it for yourself." Hermione handed her the journal.

McGonagall began to read their latest conversation with the journal. At one point, she looked up and gave Hermione an appreciative nod. "I'm not sure I would have figured that one out myself," she admitted. Hermione beamed as McGonagall continued reading to herself.

"So, you think that's the right place?" asked Harry, when McGonagall was done reading.

"I think it's worth looking into, at the very least. I don't think we can send you in right away. It would have been one thing for Rowena to get herself lost on a tour, but, Harry, it might be more difficult for you to go missing on a tour without someone expecting that you're up to something. And, obviously, we want to keep this secret if at all possible. I think we should send a scout from the Order to the cave, one who's a bit less recognizable, to get close to where Hufflepuff died to see if they can tell what kind of magic's being used to guard the area." She shifted her gaze to Ron, then Ginny. "I think your brother Bill might be just the wizard to do it. I knew it'd come in handy to have a curse-breaker within the Order. He might not be able to break the curses straight-away, considering that they must be very strong if they were put there by Voldemort, but he could at the very least tell us what we're up against. Here, let me write out a letter, and if you would then be so kind as to take it to the owlery for me?" McGonagall began to write.

Hermione looked concerned. "Are you sure it's good to send Order information by Owl Post?" she asked timidly. For all of Hermione's growth in the past few years, Harry noticed that she was still a bit too intimidated by authority.

In this particular situation, however, the authority seemed to have the situation under control. "Not usually, but all this letter says is that I want to meet with Bill Weasley. For all anybody intercepting this would know, we could be asking him to be our new Quidditch coach."

So, the four took the letter to the owlery. Then, it seemed, they would have to return to their civilian lives until they received any more word about what they would be up against in the catacombs.

The next couple of weeks passed rather slowly for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. Each time they entered the Great Hall, they looked expectantly at McGonagall, hoping that they would be asked to her office to talk about the Horcrux. As December rolled around, Harry started to get antsy, and was going to ask McGonagall whether they knew anything more than before, when two rather interesting developments about the Horcrux surfaced in the same day.

When Ginny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered the Great Hall on Monday morning, McGonagall greeted them with a quick invitation to her office. "Come by my office at 3:00 this afternoon. None of you have classes then, right?" she asked.

None of them did, so they began to speculate on the way back to the table about what exactly they'd find out at the meeting.

"So do you think that she'll have us go soon?" asked Ron, with a look of nervous anticipation.

"Probably," said Hermione thoughtfully.

"Sooner makes just as much sense as later, right?" Ginny asked. Harry was starting to get nervous because Ginny had started to talk like perhaps she thought she too would be going on this next expedition. That was, of course, not the way it would go, for all the reasons Harry had already outlined to Ginny, but he didn't feel like having this discussion with her again anytime soon. He was rather hoping that there would be no confrontation about it this time, but he figured that he could still put off talking to her about it for at least a little while longer.

"Oooh, do you think that Bill might be there to tell us what he found out in person?" asked Ginny excitedly. She didn't get to see her older brother often enough, in her opinion, as he was usually in Egypt.

They were just contemplating this possibility when the post came. Hermione, of course, was still getting the Daily Prophet, considering that it was still quite important to keep up with the news in the wizarding world.

Just how important became quite apparent that very morning. Within about a minute of scanning headlines after paying the delivery-owl, Hermione gasped and pointed at a story. Ron, who was sitting beside Hermione, looked at it. Harry and Ginny, on the other hand, had to lean across the table to read the headline upside down, as Hermione was too enthralled in the article to pass the paper around. The headline read "Hufflepuff's Hill to be closed for renovations."

"What kind of renovations could Hufflepuff's Hill need?" asked Harry, who was trying to figure out just why ancient catacombs would need to be renovated.

"I really don't think it would," said Hermione, looking up from the article after a few more seconds of scanning it. "And the article's no help. It only says that it's going to be closed to the public between December 29th and January 3rd. Of course, I've got a theory for why it might have been closed."

"You have, have you?" asked Ron, who had a sinking suspicion of his own.

Harry looked up at the faculty table, where McGonagall appeared to be reading the same article with a look of great concern.

"You think they're onto us?" asked Harry.

"That's what I'm thinking," said Hermione, nodding.

"There's probably a death-eater with some clout on the board running the site, and they were able to pass through this call for renovations that can't possibly need to be done. That way a bunch of death-eaters could go in there unnoticed and move the Horcrux," reckoned Harry.

"Okay. I can understand why they'd want to be away from prying eyes of wizards taking tours, but why couldn't they just go at night?" asked Ron.

"Well, first off, it's usually open 24 hours a day. You get your odd historically-minded wizard who wants to come in and take a private tour at 2 in the morning. Besides, for all we know, maybe whatever curses are guarding the cave will make the whole set of catacombs inaccessible once they're set off," Hermione explaining.

Harry pondered for a moment whether he was more concerned with what kind of curses there might be that would render the entire catacomb inaccessible or with the question of why in the world Hermione would know that the catacomb was open 24 hours a day. However, there seemed little point in worrying about either of these questions too much at the moment.

"So. If they're onto us, is that it, then? Are we back to square one, or do you think there's still a chance of going to get it before the Death-eaters have a chance to move it?" asked Ron.

"No," said Harry, "this isn't the time to retreat. This tells us, if nothing else, that the Horcrux will be there until December 29th. That's plenty of time to prepare to go in, and it's certainly not going to get any easier to take the thing once they move it."

"But do you think McGonagall will still let us go?" asked Hermione. "It could be more dangerous now, they could be watching the place, or there could be Death-eaters guarding the it."

"First of all, if they're watching the place, we've still got the invisibility cloak. If they're guarding it, they'd have to deal like the curses just like we would. And the fact that they're moving the thing makes it sound to me like they can't really stay in there too long with the security measures. And even if they could, I don't think that a couple of death-eaters guarding the Horcrux is really anything to worry about, considering the other security measures that will no doubt be in place. It's not as if Voldemort himself would risk going out there to protect his Horcrux. And I'm sure that McGonagall will understand that. This needs to be done. And it's really not up to her anyway. I'm going to go with or without her blessing. And you two are free to come or not come as you choose," said Harry. He made a quick check of Ginny's reaction when he said this. She seemed to be about to open her mouth, but then thought better of it. Unfortunately, he was beginning to think this wouldn't be the last he would hear on the topic.

"Yes, of course, if you're going I'll come," said Hermione, while Ron nodded his agreement.

"Thanks," said Harry, who was beginning to feel the familiar anxious weight that descended on him every time he remembered how much his friends seemed to rely on him to make decisions for them. He hated that he always seemed to be responsible for so much more than just himself. His friends, the Defense Club – even the entire wizarding world, depending on who he listened to. It was just too much to think about at that point. "Do you think we could talk about something else for awhile?" asked Harry.

His friends obliged, and he tried to keep his mind off of the Horcrux until the meeting with McGonagall. Granted, there were a total of maybe five minutes all day when he was able to fully concentrate on anything else, but Harry had gotten quite used to dealing with stress of this type, so he reckoned no one except for Hermione, Ginny, and Ron even guessed anything was wrong.

When they arrived at McGonagall's office that afternoon, they found both Bill and McGonagall there to greet them. Ginny rushed over to hug her brother. Hermione hugged him as well, and each Ron and Harry gave him a dignified sort of hand-shake.

McGonagall said, "Bill, if I could just ask you to step outside for a moment, I need to have a quick word with these four."

Once they had all settled in to their seats, McGonagall spoke briskly. "Mr. Weasley will tell you what he was able to find out shortly. First, though, we need to discuss the Horcrux itself, which I judged it best not to actually tell him about. He just knew he was checking the cave for curses, he doesn't know what they're guarding. I trust you've all seen this morning's Prophet?"

"Yes," Harry answered, as the rest nodded.

"Well," said McGonagall, "I would suggest that you wait until the night of December 28th to go in. You could go in under the invisibility cloak. You could go in along with the last tour, then if there were to be any effects to the rest of the cave from you setting off the security measures, no one would be there to notice them." She looked at Harry appraisingly to see his reaction to the plan.

"Er, yeah. What kind of security measures are we talking here?" asked Harry.

"Well, as you know, you can't be quite sure what to expect until you get in there. But Bill's reconnaissance mission turned up a bit about the curses. I think we can invite him in now," said McGonagall.

When asked to explain the curses, Bill surveyed the four teens in front of him. "I don't know how you lot manage to get yourself mixed up in this kind of stuff all the time. But Professor McGonagall tells me you need to get in there. Won't tell me why, of course, but I suppose I can't expect to be allowed to know everything. What I do know, however, is that whatever you're trying to get at, somebody doesn't want you to see. I'm guessing, of course, that this person is You-Know-Who. There's 3 curses that I was able to detect, and I can't guarantee that there weren't more. But from the nature of these curses, which is pretty mild, I'm suspecting there's something a bit more solid than a curse waiting for you further down the catacomb."

"What are we up against, then?" asked Hermione. The tone of her voice suggested that aside from the tactical need to know exactly how Voldemort was going to try to kill them, she was just plain curious for academic reasons.

"Well, these are quite curious little enchantments. Except for the first one. It's a standard anti-apparition spell. The only odd thing is that it covers the whole catacombs. Not many people would know about this, since only a few people know the catacombs well enough to apparate there. And apparently those who do know about it don't find it worth mentioning. Next one is meant to keep out an undue number of intruders. It only allows a certain number of people through, then a wall appears that's solid from one direction. That is, those who'd already entered could get out, but no one else could get in. It looks like the limit on this curse if fairly low, I'd say maybe 3 people are allowed to get through. This curse is usually used when a person is guarding something that they personally want to be able to get to, but are looking to make sure that an army doesn't come in to occupy the area. It was an especially popular curse used on old castles for noble wizarding families back during the middle ages. The other curse is a fear inducer. Doesn't really do anything to you, except on a psychological level, but it'll put you to the edge of panic. In order to overcome that kind of fear, a person would either have to be a fairly good occlumens, or be really confident that there was nothing to be afraid of."

There was a bit of silence in the room. "Yes, well, I assume that you lot may need to be alone now again to talk a bit of strategy. I'll just go down to Hagrid's hut. Haven't gotten to talk to him for awhile. You lot can come and join us for tea once you're done talking if you like," said Bill.

"Sure," said Ginny.

"Yeah, see you in a bit," agreed Ron, as Harry and Hermione nodded agreement.

Once Bill left the room, McGonagall looked at them. "All right, then. Well, Harry, I had already assumed that it would only be you, Hermione, and Ron who were going to attempt to find the Horcrux anyway. However, I can post some Order members around the area that night, just to make sure there's no large movements of Death-Eaters into the area who might attempt to block your exit. They seem to know someone's been tampering with the Horcruxes, and they may well have closed the place partially to give you an opportunity to go in and retrieve it, with the intent of being there to block your exit once you've finished. We'll be there to make sure that won't happen."

They stayed for a few minutes to talk strategy, in which time it was agreed that Ron and Hermione would start going through occlumency lessons to help prevent the fear from the curse from overtaking them in the cave. As the four of them walked down the corridor away from the Head's office a few minutes later, Harry realized there were just under four weeks until he would be attempting to find another Horcrux. If nothing else, he was now confident that this year's Christmas break would not be boring.

A/N: So, obviously, you weren't going to come up with Hufflepuff's Hill from the books. But, I think this way, I avoided making it a chiche, and hopefully made it more interesting. If you've got a moment to review, I'd love to hear what you think. Also, since I've been on spring break this week, I've already managed to write a rough draft of the next chapter. I was going to hold onto it and wait for a week or so to post it, 'cause once I'm back at school, it'll be tough to find much time to work on subsequent chapters. However, if I get 25 reviews for this chapter (which I don't really expect to) I will proofread and upload the next chapter a.s.a.p. (If you'd rather I wait for the next chapter, don't let that stop you from reviewing, just suggest that I wait in the review).