Hello readers! I know it's been quite some time since book 4 ended, but I promised an author's note and here it is! I'll be answering questions ( not as many as last time for some reason), addressing some criticisms ( not as many of these either, sweet!) and giving some tidbits of information about book 5, including the title.

First though, I have something to say. You can completely skip this if you want- as I've definitely said it all before, but I really can not post an author's note without saying it. Thank you, so much, to all of you. I never dreamed that these stories would reach the level of popularity that they have, and I never expected people to be so involved with them; to read and review and theorize and comment and all sorts of things. I started reading fanfiction after the fifth HP book came out, because I'd just found out about them and had never had to wait for a book before. Once I learned it took years, I become obsessed with it entirely. The first stories I ever read were a pair of continuation stories written by an author named Logical Raven ( Weird mentioning it, as I'm pretty sure they don't know I exist, but I still feel obligated to give a shout out) and I remember thinking wow...this person is keeping me interested in Harry Potter. Keeping me alive basically while I crave the sixth book. What an amazing thing to do. And after finishing the epilogue of book 7, I wanted to find that again- that same passion. And I decided to write my own, and told myself that if I get just one reader, one reader to be kept alive like I was, it'll all be worth it. Four stories, more than 500 reviews and 10,000 readers later, I've never been more pleased with myself; I can honestly say that every one of you has contributed to my self confidence, and my overall happiness, immeasurably. The amount of recognition that I've recieved is truly amazing, and I've learned that nothing feels better than knowing that people appreciate your hard work. For the first time ever, I'm telling my friends and family that I write, and aspire to be a writer. I was kind of known as the kid who was really loud in high school; you know the one. He's more concerned with making people laugh than doing work, talks to the teachers like he would a regular person, borrows pencils and never returns them, etc. But having fans that are so interested in my work, and so willing to be with me for every stap of the way, has made me proud of what I do, and proud to say that I do it. You don't get paid for fanfiction, but really, I don't even care. Your readership- all of you, those who review and those who don't- really is priceless. So thank you so much, and I promise I will do everything I can to make sure that you enjoy my writing as much as I enjoy the thought that you guys are reading.

Okay, all skipped? Let's get into some questions!

1. When will we see the next book?

- Can't say for sure, sorry. I can say however, unfortunately, the wait will probably be longer than the wait for 4. Enough of my friends convinced me to file for financial aid and apply for Community College, and I'll be doing so come September. This doesn't mean that my stories are on an indefinite hiatus or anything, it simply means that I'll have to work out a schedule for writing, and I don't want to start posting without enough planning beforehand. Book 5 has some big scenes already in my head, but it's not quite as well planned out overall as 3 and 4 were. It's definitely coming though, just have patience : )

2. What happened to Blackwood and will she play a bigger role?

- Blackwood is currently on the run from WAR- they consider her a traitor now, because of her willingness to protect Albus and because of her defiance of Waddlesworth. I can't say that the size of her role will increase or decrease, but she's definitely in book 5.

3. Will Darvy have mastery over the Dragonfang Wand or did Ares transfer full mastery to Albus?

- Well you'll just have to wait and see : ) But seriously, those of you who want a bit more information on this question, I suggest you re-read the first chapter of book 4, specifically what Vesnovitch says about the way the wand works. It was modeled after the Deathstick, but he also said it was improperly designed...

4. Will the person engraved in Fairhart's ring play a part?

- I can't tell you specifically what makes this person important, but I can say that you'll learn more about this person's identity in book 5- rather early on actually.

5. Will there be a prophecy?

- I seriously considered it, but then decided against it. As of now, my books are prophecy free. If I realllllly need to fix an error something though, I'll throw one in XD

6. Will Harry regain his post as Head Auror?

- Well, as I already debunked one, I'd might as well confirm another. Yes, Harry will regain his post. And expect things to work a bit...differently with his public reception back up.

7. Does Albus blame himself for everything that happened?

- An interesting question. To some degree, he acknowledges that the massacre at Hogsmeade was not completely random violence; he was the target. And people did suffer because of it. But at the same time, he's learned to cope. The conversation with his father was meant to let Albus empathize a bit, and realize that whatever happened has already happened; it's time to progress.

8. Will the Dragonfang Wand's power come out more in Albus in the 5th book?

- Can't say : )

9. What ever happened to The Hammer?

- He's alive, still doing brute work for his master. The Hammer's actually a pretty funny character to me. I designed him to be this really intimidating figure- this hulking monster to run from, and he really is. I mean, you saw how little he cared when he tortured that little girl. But if there's one thing I love in fiction, it's when characters get really hyped up and then get SMACKED DOWN. The only actual magical confrontations that you've seen him in were against Ares and Fairhart, arguably the two most powerful OC's in my stories, and the only physical confrontation was against Hagrid, which is unfair any way that you slice it. So he really had no shot against any of them. That being said though, he still is a dangerous character, and you can expect most of the bruises he got from foolishly attacking Ares to be gone by book 5. He'll definitely be in it.

10. What happened to Waddlesworth?

- Oh he's still slinking around, giving rousing speeches and telling the public to fight back. WAR isn't going anywhere. That being said though, you may see a bit of his softer side in this next book. I think I inadvertently made Waddlesworth too much of a villain in this book. Yes, he did want Albus dead. But it wasn't out of evil or anything- he truly did believe that killing Albus bfore Ares got to him would save lives. With Darvy making his plans for destruction known, you can expect Waddlesworth to spend a lot more of his time saving innocent lives than trying to kill a single child. Though of course, his "by any means necessary" approach will remain intact.

11. Are there any new characters in the next book?

- There may be a few, but I'd say that most of the main characters in my books have been introduced or mentioned enough. There won't, for instance, be anyone as important as Waddlesworth and Blackwood were in this book, and indeed, to the overall series.

12. Will Al and Mirra get official and will Rose and Lance break up?

- Ahh alas, you KNOW I can't answer this one. But everything certainly won't just be ignored next book.

13. Will there be any legends from The Tales of Beedle the Bard incorporated?

- Probably not, but only because I don't want to get too repetitive with the whole Deathly Hallows situation. I pretty much already ripped off the Wand and Ressurection Stone.

14. Will Rose have a bigger role/ stop being such a jerk?

- I think I like her role as it is, honestly. I really tried make Rose an accurate mix of her parents, and I think it does wonders for the story, because whereas Mirra is the soothing voice in Albus' ear, steering him away, Rose is the barking teeth that normally pushes him over the edge. She'll undoubtedly mature over time, but I wouldn't expect too much development too soon.

15. What impact will the fact that Hugo lost faith in Al have on him?

- It pretty much already did. A lot of people wanted me to include more Weasleys, which is hard to do because there's so many and giving them all unique personalities puts a lot of emphasis on them. But Hugo's role had little to do with him being a Weasley, and more to do with his timid nature and idolation for Al. Albus has idolized characters throughout the series...His father, Darvy for a little bit, Fairhart. And they've all disappointed him in different ways. It's reached the point now however where Albus can no longer look up to people; he has to realize that now he's the one that people have to look up to. Hugo was his first test, and he failed. You can expect this to linger, though admittedly, it probably won't directly effect things like climactic battle scenes and such.

16. Will Al learn to accept his mistakes and stop trying to fix them?

- To be fair, this is kind of the driving point of the series. Al does finally understand the severe consequences of his actions, but this works two ways. Now not only will he try to be better with the decisions that he makes, but you can now also expect him to put more effort into rectifying them as well. I would expect Al to be more complex than whiny in this next one.

17. Will we get to see Hermione duel?

- I hope so XD. I know that sounds terrible, 'cause like "You're the author, you can do anything you want!", but really, it has to fit into the story. Twice now I've wanted to show off Hermione's dueling skills. First time was the Department of Mysteries at the end of book 3, but having her fight would have meant that Albus couldn't really be guided out by Fairhart, whose allegience I really wanted known. And the second time was in the riot at the beginning of this book. She came very close to it, but I decided that it was more of her character to let her husband fight while she made sure their children were safe. There's no actual action scene planned for her in this next book, but you can be sure I'll try and fit one in- it just needs to be natural.

18. Someone asked if we ever would learn more about Fairhart, like what happened to his face, as well as if there would be things like flashbacks to help flesh out his story. Yes, there will be. Fairhart is one of the most planned out characters I created, and by the end of my series, you'll probably know even more than you wanted to. That being said though, book 5 won't exactly be packed full of information about him.

I'm sure there were a few more small ones, but I'm really trying to condense this, so sorry if your question wasn't answered. To be honest though, there were more than I thought there were when I started this update XDD

And now, a few criticisms, plus a question that I really want to ask you guys.

1. The main criticism in this book was Al's character over all. He was bitter, whiny, confused, agitated, and probably a lot like that kid in school that you hated. In other words, he was fourteen. I confess that writing characters of younger ages is not my strong suit- I'm turning 19 in a week. But I really wanted to capture the confusion of the book, and I really wanted things like morality to come into focus here. I wanted Albus to endure things that no fourteen year old should, mostly to prepare him for what may happen and also, to make the good moments all the more sweeter. The "Kiss" by the lake in particular I wanted to build up to by putting Albus through the worst few weeks of his life beforehand. I admit that I failed overall in making a morally complex, but likeable protagonist. That being said though, I do think he'll be a bit more enjoyable in Book 5.

2. Slytherins. It's actually pretty funny to me, a lot of people said that my characters weren't Slytherin enough, and then when Scorpius hatched his plan and butchered Rose's date with Lance everyone was all "That's terrible!" XDD Which is exactly what I wanted. My Slytherins can be sneaky, and conniving, and calculated and even power hungry. Some people however seem to want more Slytherin-esque tendencies. We'll see. I kind of like my characters where they are now. But times are getting tough...

3. Spelling errors, poor sentence structure, etc. This is completely my fault, no excuse here. After chapter 15 my beta got into a load of trouble, and I was in such a hurry to write the next few chapters that I decided to do the editing myself. I think I did a little better than last book, but I still probably sucked. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a poor writer when it comes to things like syntax, and I really paid for it here. Believe me, things sound a lot better in my head than they do on paper. The beta situation is still a little iffy right now- I'm going to try and contact my beta soon. If they aren't up for it though, then I'll post a note in chapter 1 of Book 5 asking for help. That won't be for quite some time though, so for now it's a bit of a wash.

4. Mirra. She actually wasn't a criticism in this book, but was a big one last book. Really, I'm just commenting here to ask if she got better or not. I really did try fleshing her out and imporiving her overall role, but I'm not sure how I did. That's not my question though, my question actually involves-

5. Ares. Only one criticism for him this book, mentioned by one person. But it was one that really made sense to me even as I was writing it. Someone mentioned that he seemed almost James Bond villain-esque during the monologue scene. This is interesting, because I did this on purpose. The thing about Ares is, I imagine him being extremely complex. His long, drawn out speech wasn't just my excuse in letting Albus live. It was his. I think that Ares knew what he had to do, and subconsciously, did everything in his power to prolong it. Ares is not a murderer. He's never murdered before. You'll undoubtedly raise your eyes at this and try and point out his victims, but I'll call you out on that one. I've been very careful to make him murder free. The wandmaker was killed by Darvy, as were the unspeakables in book 3, as mentioned by Darvy himself savagely. Madam Clearwater said that Ares could have killed James, but didn't- and everyone assumed it was because he was just in a hurry. Ron also mentions that during the Red War era, he was violent, but never killed as far as he knew. In fact, the only killing curse we see Ares fire is against Harry during the fight for the Foulest Book. Albus would have been his first victim. But that being said, Albus' death would have been the first that Ares counted as truly necessary. Which brings me to my big question...

What do you think he would have done? The scene in which Ares' arm shakes up and down violenty as he closes his eyes and points his wand at Albus' face has been in my head since book 1. And each time it ends the same way. With Harry arriving and stopping it. Even I don't know what Ares would have done. So what do you think? Ares was going to act when he saw Albus open his eyes. He was either going to raise or lower his wand. Which was it? Ares truly did believe that killing Albus was the first, and only, step to ultimately challenging the Ministry and changing the world. But in the world he wanted, innocent children didn't die. Isn't that what made him hate the Ministry in the first place? Seeing dead children, killed without justification? What was more important to Ares? What's more important to any person? A sense of destiny, and what thy percieve as necessary? Or their own morality? Would Ares have slaughtered an innocent child, do the thing that he hated most...to ensure that it couldn't happen again? I really don't know what he would have done. But like I've said earlier in this book, during a different situation, your answer might just say a lot more about you than it does Reginald Ares...

And now that all the booooring stuff is out of the way, it's time for some tidbits of info on book 5! There aren't as many this time, as like I've said this book isn't THAT well planned out apart from the main plot, but there's a few things I can give you.

- The creatures that you saw will be given a proper name, and will be more explained as well. They also aren't all that the Wand is capable of creating.

- You'll get to meet Morrison's family, including his promiscuous, squib sister.

- I will attempt to create a backstory for something from JK's books that wasn't given much detail. I'll stay hush hush on that for now however.

- There will be a new Potions professor, though their role won't be as big as Blackwood's.

- Here's a big one. Scorpius will, at one point, make his feelings known to Rose in this next book.

-Another character will die. I can't say that they're quite as big as Ares, as he's almost the backbone to my entire series, but I admit it will be personally hard for me to write. I'm quite fond of this character.

- Some chapter titles I have planned include "Necrosteeds", "The Elusive Warren", and " The Grand Architect".

- And finally, the title for book 5 is subject to change, but as of now, it's tentatively titled as "Albus Potter and the Silver Wizard."

Well that's it. You know, I've never really looked around, but I'm sure that there's a lot of Albus Potter stories out there. There are probably some more popular, and some better written, and some that really might just be considered canon one day. But the thing about my stories is...that they're mine. I wouldn't trade them for anything, and I wouldn't have them if it weren't for you guys. Anyone reading this right now has shown support in merely being a reader, and having that means the world to me. So once more, thanks for all of the support, and I hope you guys enjoyed Albus Potter and the Rise of the Dark Alliance!