Harry woke up to the sound of faint murmurs as the bright light made him groan and shut his eyes quickly before he slowly opened them again, letting them get used to normal lighting as he realized he was in the infirmary with all the smells of potions, medicines and he small number of house elves which all talked amongst themselves while doing small chores like helping Pomfrey with carrying potions and medicines around.
"He's awake." Harry heard someone say as he heard footsteps and saw those beautiful eyes of Daphne as she came right over his face, looking at him with worry.
"Hey, Mrs Potter," he said with a smile and a very low, whispering, dry and tired tone.
"You heard her, didn't you?" Daphne said as she and Harry chuckled before she carefully hugged him as Hermione, Luna, Susan and Neville surrounded his bed. "You scared the hell out of me!"
"I'm sorry," Harry said as he looked at his friends. "Hey, guys. I didn't expect to see you all here."
"Don't speak rubbish!" Susan said. "You really scared us, Harry! Really! What happened?"
Harry didn't know how to answer that. He honestly had no idea himself as to what had happened to him. All of a sudden he'd felt a strong sense of pain as if someone was drilling holes in his skull and brains from all sides. But that wasn't it. He also saw flashes of pictures or rather memories and in some of them he saw the familiar face of Gaanieda. If he wasn't wrong he would say he saw the memories of the Yayu. Had the Yayu attacked him from the inside, Harry had no idea but he would like to think so but then how could he see its memories? Why would the Yayu, who'd been so adamant and successful in preventing Harry from seeing its memories so far would suddenly allow him bare access to it? It technically wasn't any sort of access, though. Harry wondered whether the Yayu had lost control of its own memories when attacking Harry from the inside.
He quickly used occlumency to make sure his memories were all there and they were which further puzzled him. The pain surely came from his memories as he'd later realized but his memories were all intact so why did the Yayu attack him in the first place?
"…rry? Harry!" He blinked his eyes realizing Hermione was calling him as he looked at her when Pomfrey arrived at his bed.
"I know you all are very happy to see Mr Potter awake but please, I need to do further examinations on him to make sure he's completely fine," said the medi-witch.
"When can he leave, Madam Pomfrey?" Daphne asked.
"I can only say that once I've examined him thoroughly and for that to happen, you all need to leave, Mrs Potter," Pomfrey said.
Susan snickered when Pomfrey called Daphne 'Mrs Potter' as Daphne glared at her before softly kissing Harry on the cheek.
"Does this man you forgive me?" he asked, a little surprised from the kiss.
"Don't get your hopes up…Mr Potter," Daphne said with a slight smirk as she got off the bed.
"If he isn't released today can we come see him later on, Madam Pomfrey?" Hermione asked. The medi-witch nodded as Hermione looked at him. "Get well soon, Harry," she said carefully hugging him as Harry hugged her back. Luna and Susan also hugged him while Neville simply nodded. Harry nodded back before they all left the infirmary as he watched them go.
"You've got a really good company of friends, Mr Potter," Pomfrey said.
"I know," Harry said, still looking at the door from where they'd all left before looking at the medi-witch. "What happened to me, Madam Pomfrey?" he asked.
Pomfrey's expression turned solemn as she looked at him. "About that," she said as she stopped her examination of him and stood up. Harry saw her walk over to the floo where she floo-called someone. It was a bit far from his bed so he couldn't really hear whom she as floo-calling but a moment later he saw Snape come out through the green flames and he was a little surprised. Snape and Pomfrey talked for about a minute, occasionally looking at Harry before Pomfrey left to attend other students while Snape walked towards Harry's bed.
"It's good to see you awake…Harry," Snape said.
Although Snape had called him by his first name many times now (only whenever they were alone or when Snape and Draco were training Harry) he still found it a little weird being called by his first name by Snape.
"I suppose you know what happened to me?" Harry asked.
Snape cast a privacy ward around them before sitting on the chair beside his bed. "I suppose by now you already know that the pain you felt wasn't physical or mental," said the DADA professor.
"It was my memories," Harry said. "I still don't understand how one can feel pain through their memories."
"Neither does me," Snape said. "Did you check your memories? Are they all there?"
Harry nodded. "I…saw something. While I was experiencing pain, I saw something."
"What did you see?" Snape asked.
"I don't know exactly but if I had to take a guess I'd say I saw the flashes of the Yayu's memories," Harry said.
Snape kept looking at him for a minute before he took out a letter from his pocket. "Draco wrote me this morning," he said. "He thinks he knows what's happening to you. He should be here tomorrow. I'll tell you if he arrives. If he does, you need to meet him."
"Where?" Harry asked.
"I'll tell you then," Snape said before standing up and leaving.
Harry watched him go before looking at the ceiling and thinking about the memories he'd seen about the Yayu. They didn't make sense at all and he wondered why he kept seeing Gaanieda every time. If possible he needed to find more information on her. He knew it would be difficult but any little information could help. He also wondered what Draco wanted to talk to him about. He knew Draco was on the quest to find Grindelwald on his own with the help of Selandra but if he knew what had happened to him then it would really help Harry understand things a lot more clearly…especially with the Yayu.
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"Did you bring him?"
Grindelwald put the covered body on the floor which already had a rune drawn on it connecting to the large cauldron in which he laid submerged up to his neck – Grindelwald's master. "Yes," Grindelwald said as he began unwrapping the cloth in which the body was covered, revealing a twelve foot long black and hairy monstrous werewolf. It had only recently started to decay and was covered in soil.
"Bring him to me," said his master as Grindelwald picked up the dead werewolf, grunting as it was so heavy before bringing it to his master who moved his head closer to the dead beast as its wounds started to bleed all of a sudden. Some fell in the boiling liquid of the cauldron Grindelwald's master was in as he put his mouth on one of the bleeding gashes before drinking the dead werewolf's blood until his thirst was quenched. "Let's begin," he said as Grindelwald nodded before he put the body back from where he'd picked it up as he began chanting the spells.
The rune glowed bright red while the liquid in the cauldron began to boil violently. There was no fire heating up the liquid. It boiled by itself as the werewolf's body began to contract as if someone was sucking it dry. Its skin stuck to its skeleton as all the muscular mass seemed to have been sucked out of it when little by little its body hair started to fall on the floor until none remained. Even the maggots which were feasting on its body were sucked dry until nothing but a skin covered skeleton of the werewolf remained.
The vigorous boiling of the liquid inside the cauldron died down back to the bare simmer as it was before as Grindelwald picked up the boney werewolf with ease before putting it entirely into the cauldron as it dissolved into the liquid instantly.
"See, I told you he would be useful," Grindelwald's master said as Grindelwald smiled looking at the fallen hairs of Fenrir where his dead body was laid on the rune.
"How are you feeling?" Grindelwald asked.
"Much better than before but as you know this is not enough," the master said.
"When will the final sacrifice be done?" asked Grindelwald.
"At the end…when I've had enough," said the master. "Until then…I need you. I need you to make sure that I recuperate and gain my powers completely."
Grindelwald bowed.
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Harry was discharged from the infirmary a few hours after Snape met him. Pomfrey cleared him off but did tell him to come to her immediately if he felt anything similar again, no matter how faint. Harry nodded, thanking the medi-witch before he came out of the infirmary where, to his surprise, he saw Daphne sitting at the bench.
Daphne saw him and stood up immediately. "Were you here the whole time?" he asked.
"No," she said looking away as Harry walked over to her and hugged her. She was surprised at first before she hugged him back as Harry realized she was crying. "Hey, it's okay," he said.
"Don't scare me like that again. Do you understand?" she said looking into his eyes.
Harry looked back before he smiled. "I can't promise anything," he said. "Trouble has its way of finding me, Daphne. You should get it by now."
"Prat!" she said, smacking him lightly on his arm before kissing him deeply. Harry was stunned for a moment before he responded back when they heard a familiar voice as they stopped and looked at Pomfrey looking at them with her hands on her waist.
"While I admire that you both care about each other so much, can you show each other your affections somewhere else?" Pomfrey said as Harry and Daphne noticed a few junior year students in the infirmary were looking at them.
Daphne blushed while Harry grinned. "We're sorry, Madam Pomfrey," he said to the medi-witch before leaving with Daphne. Pomfrey watched them go with a smile on her face. At that moment they both reminded her of Harry's parents when they first got together after years of bickering and sort of hating each other. Lily and James were polar opposites of each other. One was a studious, serious and responsible girl while the other, was a carefree, notorious and fun-loving kid from an ancient and noble house.
No one had ever thought that Lily or James would ever be a couple but in their sixth year when they both confessed their feelings for each other everyone was shocked. Even some of the faculties then who'd bet that something like that would never happen lost a good chunk of their money.
Pomfrey had often wondered how Harry's parents would've taken in on the situation their son was in if they were alive. When he was born everyone wondered whom would he grow up to be like – his father or his mother. He definitely grew up to be like his mother in terms of character. He was growing up to be even more than what Lily had been. It was true that his circumstances had made him mature before his age and there was nothing wrong in that. While some would argue that because of all this Harry was missing out on his childhood Pomfrey thought otherwise. To her a good childhood wasn't all about playing and enjoying life as a kid. It was about having a good company of friends and Harry had no shortage of that. This is why he was enjoying his childhood even though he had to live like an adult both character-wise and legality-wise.
Harry and Daphne walked into their quarters when his eyes fell on the letter at the table by the couch. Even Daphne noticed what it was as it wasn't there when she'd first left. Addressed to Harry, she wondered who'd sent it as Harry picked it up and opened it. She read the letter with him and saw it was from Snape. It said about Draco wanting to meet him in the forbidden forest today after lunch.
Daphne asked him what this was all about and so Harry made her sit down before he began to tell her everything that had happened – about the pain that he'd experienced.
"Would it be alright if I came with you as well?" she asked.
"I wouldn't say no to it but may I ask why?" Harry asked.
"The last time you went with Draco you were gone for over three months," Daphne said. "I want to make sure it doesn't happen again. If you go then I go."
Harry smiled before half-hugging her as he nodded.
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The two entered the vicinity of the forbidden forest when they saw there was someone else there with Draco. Approaching closer they realized it was Hermione and Daphne was shocked. "Hermione, what are you doing here?" she asked.
Hermione looked at Harry. She was in the belief that Harry would be coming alone. "I'm going to assume that he told you that he was coming today and you, Draco, I think are here for over an hour and you only just called me now," Harry said.
"Are you feeling jealous that I met her before meeting you, Potter?" Draco said with a smirk as Hermione controlled herself to not chuckle. As all of this happened Daphne was the only one who was still shocked when she smacked Harry on the arm making him look at her.
"You knew about them…Hermione and Draco?" she asked.
"I told him no to tell anyone," Hermione said before Harry could figure out an excuse so as to not get Daphne angry with him. She'd just forgiven him and Hermione didn't want them both on 'no-talking' terms again. "Can you keep this secret as well?"
Daphne looked from her to Harry before nodding. "That will be my pleasure," she said. "I was just thinking isn't there anything we can nail Susan with?"
"If you girls will excuse us," Draco said, "Potter and I have something to discuss."
"Hold up, Mr Killer of Voldemort," Daphne said surprising everyone, especially Draco with the way she called him. "You aren't taking him away again, are you?"
Draco looked from Daphne to Harry who simply shrugged. "Is that why she came with you?" he asked.
"I couldn't stop her even if I wanted to," Harry said.
"Now you get it why we told you not to keep connections for all those months?" Draco said looking at him.
"Wait, Harry said he didn't contact us because you guys trained him too much that he would end up extremely tired by the end of his training," Daphne said.
"That and we didn't want him to be distracted while he was with us, training," Draco said. "Distractions are bad, especially when your training is as sensitive as his. His life isn't exactly a very normal one, you know? If he was aware of everything that was happening in his absence with you all and the rest he wouldn't be able to concentrate properly on his training and that would be bad."
Daphne said nothing to that as she simply nodded. "Come, Hermione," she said. "Let the boys talk."
The girls left them alone as they headed off towards the castle. "So?" Draco said looking at Harry.
"I suppose you know better than anyone as to what happened to me?" Harry said.
"I do," Draco said, "or at least I have an idea. You need to make sure you wouldn't hurt the people around you, Potter."
Harry's expressions changed hearing that. "What…do you mean?" he asked. "Is it about the pain I felt?"
"I think Selandra and I know what Grindelwald's true intentions are," Draco said. "He is trying to revive Merlin."
Harry felt like someone had punched him in the gut. If that was true…then it wasn't good at all. "How…How can you be so sure?"
"We are not sure but like I said, we have reasons to believe that he is," Draco said. "And after Snape's examination of you when you felt that pain we are ever more so certain."
"We have found graveyards being robbed off of the bodies." Harry saw as Selandra slithered down from one of the trees beside Draco. She was in the size of a large python as she slithered and coiled beside Draco, raising her head up to his waist level, looking at Harry.
"But…shouldn't it be caught?" Harry asked.
"He's been very careful and thorough with everything that he's doing," she said.
"Do you remember the news that came in the Prophet about a graveyard being robbed off of all the bodies?" Draco asked.
"I had a feeling it was either Voldemort or Grindelwald," Harry said. "But at that time I was under the belief that they both were working together."
"Anyone would think that," Draco said. "After all, Voldemort did break Grindelwald out of prison."
"Bu ever since then he's been careful," Selandra said. "We found many more graveyards devoid of any bodies in many abandoned towns and villages…all over the world."
"How many?" Harry asked, unable to guess the scale of these graveyard robberies.
"Over a hundred, at least," Draco said. "We still don't know how many more there are that he's already cleaned off but this number…I think it's very small in comparison to how many graves Grindelwald has already cleared off of any bodies."
"And that makes you think that he's trying to bring Merlin back to life?" Harry asked.
"Using the dead bodies as a source of power is a very old and dangerous magic," Selandra said. "It is so dangerous that people who know about it or at least knew, they categorized it under black magic. It is very powerful, very unstable and very demanding."
"Demanding?" Harry asked. "Of what?"
"A cost," Draco said. "It can be anything but it's never anything good."
"He's using the dead bodies of magical people in order to revive Merlin?" Harry asked.
"Not just magical but normal people," Selandra said. "And he's not extracting residual magic out of them. He's extracting any source of power he can from them – living bacteria, the dead and undead cells, dried -off blood…anything that can be used."
"And we have reason to believe that if not truly Merlin has been revived at least partially," Draco said. "And we think that the pain you felt is because of that."
Harry felt his body trembling when he heard that. "How…how can you be so sure?" he asked.
"Because you have his creation living inside you," Draco said. "It makes sense that the first thing that Merlin will do or has done is trying to look for the Yayu or try to contact it which is inside you and when he tried to do so it caused you pain."
"How do I make him not to do it?" Harry asked.
"You can't," Selandra said.
"THERE HAS TO BE ANOTHER WAY!" Harry screamed as he fell on the forest floor, his entire body trembling as he thought what it actually meant for him and the people around him if what Draco and Selandra said were true.
Draco and Selandra looked at each other before he walked over to Harry. He sat down beside him, his hand on Harry's shoulder. "We are still not sure about it, though," he said, "which is why for now all we can do is tell you to be careful. If you feel anything…ANYTHING abnormal, especially regarding your memories distance yourself from everyone immediately. Find a place no one else will know about where you can go to in order to isolate yourself. Make it impenetrable as best as you can. If you want we can help. If we can't stop this thing than the least we can do is prevent it from causing any harm as best as we can."
"I am a danger to my friends and everyone around me," Harry said in a whispering tone as he looked up at Draco. "I want to come with you. We need to stop Grindelwald."
"We can't," Draco said. "What do you think Selandra and I have been doing all this time? "We don't know where he is and even if we did…even if we faced him I would end up dead and while I don't much care about that Selandra would end up being absorbed by him which, as you can tell, is something that we clearly want to avoid. Since we've known about this it makes sense why Grindelwald has been going after the divine beasts. We cannot let him get his hands on any more of them. As for you," he said looking at Harry, "you have the very weapon that Merlin made which brought him so close to winning against the divine beasts. If he's actually revived, partially or completely, the last thing we want is for him to get his hands on the Yayu. He wouldn't think about your life or anyone else's. He will just take out the Yayu from inside of you and I don't think we have the power to stop him. It required all the divine beasts to come together last time in order to defeat the Yayu and Merlin and he already has his hands on three of them which already put us at a disadvantage."
"So…So what do we do?" Harry asked.
"Our best bet is to go after Grindelwald," Draco said. "While that is dangerous if we can somehow bring him down we can make him tell us where Merlin is. If we're lucky, Merlin hasn't revived completely and then we can hopefully defeat him before it's too late."
"Just the two of you?" Harry asked.
"We already have Fawks on our side," Selandra said.
"He's with you two?" Harry asked.
"We've met," she said. "However, we need to find the other beasts as we can't let Luna or Neville into this. They've been hosts for Celia and Griffin for way too long which puts them at a disadvantage."
"A disadvantage?" Harry asked.
"They cannot stay physically separate from Celia and Griffin for too long," Draco said.
"Wait a minute," Harry said. "I thought it was just a physical manifestation – the divine beasts taking a corporeal form outside their host's body. Like you are doing right now," he said looking at Selandra.
"It is and it's not," Selandra said. "What you are seeing is the real, complete physical appearance of me. I, too, share this connection with Draco but since we haven't been together that long I can stay separate from him – mind and body – forever, if I want to. When he and I are merged, though, he can create a physical manifestation of me using my powers combined with his, the kind you saw during the raid of Riddle manor.
"For Luna and Neville, though, because they have been hosts to Celia and Griffin for so long their magic has begun to co-existing with those of their divine beasts," she continued. "This means that they cannot stay separate from their beasts for too long as their magic will start acting up. That may lead to accidents and in extreme cases their own deaths."
"Selandra and I will also reach that state in a few years," Draco said, "if, we both don't separate before that. It can be reversed, though. But for that to happen they would need to train themselves, or more specifically, their magic in order to learn to exist without relying too much on the powers of their divine beasts."
"So if this happens," Harry said, "how will it go?"
"We haven't thought that far," Draco said. "We first need to figure out how much of Merlin has Grindelwald revived."
"How much?" Harry asked confused.
"An individual that powerful," Selandra said, "his revival will take time. We know his revival has begun since you felt the pain but we don't know how much far it has already happened. If we can confront him before his complete revival then we still have a chance of stopping him which is why we have no choice but to make our move now."
"How long will it take for you to find the others?" Harry asked.
"We don't know but if we've sensed Merlin's revival than I am sure the other beasts have as well," Selandra said. "The only problem is we don't know how many of them will join us."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"We barely made it out with our lives the last time we fought him," Selandra said. "And even then he killed one of us, Gak, and managed to keep us entrapped by shattering the pathway to the spirit realm. Without any direct connection to our own world we stand at a huge disadvantage in this fight."
"What she means to say is that the divine beasts cannot use their full powers because their connection with the spirit realm has been severed," Draco said. "This is one of the main reasons why Dumbledore was able to keep Fawks under his control for that long and Grindelwald was able to absorb his first divine beast. There is no way for any mortal to subdue any of the divine beasts because they stand no chance against them but because of the absence of this connection the divine beasts cannot harness their true power."
"Isn't there a way to fix or create another path?" Harry asked.
"If there was it would've already been found and none of us would be here," Selandra said. "You need to stay careful, Harry. We do not know how Merlin's revival will affect the Yayu because the two share such a direct bond. We've trained you. Put that training into practice and make sure you don't become agitated in any manner whatsoever because there's no telling how it will affect the Yayu inside of you."
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"…following of which the bill is now passed in the Wizengamot and by the ministry." The sound of the gavel banging on the block closed the bill, confirming it being passed by the governing body of Wizengamot as the Chief Warlock announced the session's end.
The members of the Wizengamot slowly stared to leave the hall as did Harry. He was accompanied by Sirius and Augusta who soon left to attend some other official works leaving the two together.
"Will you be going to the manor?" Sirius asked.
"No, I've got classes," Harry said. "I've missed enough of them as it is. Hermione's thinking I am using my title as a lord and an emancipated minor to skip classes a bit too much."
"Is it true?" Sirius asked.
"A little," Harry said with a smirk causing his godfather to laugh as he patted Harry's back. "But don't tell her otherwise she will kill both of us."
Sirius stopped laughing at once. "Why me?" he asked.
"Because now you know it too," Harry said as they both left the ministry building and came outside on the street. The warm sun felt nice considering the Wizengamot hall was all old, cold and had a damp feeling about it. It felt a lot like Sirius' home at Grimmauld Place which is why Sirius also hated the Wizengamot hall.
"I guess I will see you then," Sirius said hugging his godson who hugged him back before Sirius apparated away leaving Harry alone. He silently caste a revealing charm making sure Sirius had actually left before he disguised himself so as to not be noticed. He them headed back into the ministry building and towards the elevator, hitting the button for the floor he didn't honestly want to go to.
The elevator came to a halt with its doors opening as Harry stepped out of it and undid his disguise charm, looking around the empty corridor before walking over to the small desk where an Unspeakable sat, both his/her hands on the table and his/her hood in place, hiding the identity from anyone.
"Ahem," Harry cleared his throat as he came and stopped by the Unspeakable. "I would like to visit the Hall of Prophecies, please," he said.
"That place is forbidden for everyone unless they believe they have a prophecy made for them," said the Unspeakable in a disguised voice.
After Voldemort's fall there had been many changes done inside the ministry and one of them was this as Harry asked the Unspeakable for an identity revealer which was nothing but a small charmed bowl which the Unspeakable slid towards him. Inside it was a small blade which Harry used to make a small cut on his finger before letting a few drops of his blood fall into the bowl.
The cut healed automatically as the Unspeakable cast some charms on the bowl which had Harry's blood before he/she stopped and seemingly stared at Harry for quite some time. The Unspeakable then stood up and came around his table. "Follow me, Lord Potter."
Harry began to follow the Unspeakable as he was lead to the section which had the familiar circular corridor which began to spin as soon as they set foot in that corridor. Harry tried not to feel dizzy when it came to a stop and he saw a closed door in front of him.
The Unspeakable took a step forward and turned the door's knob, opening it slightly before turning towards Harry and signaled him to go inside.
Harry made sure his hidden wand was there as he had submitted his original one at the entrance of the DoM when he'd come out of the elevator. He looked at the Unspeakable for a moment before pushing the door open and walking inside.
He saw the familiar unending and seemingly roofless extent of the room with countless glowing spheres, each containing a prophecy for someone, made sometimes in the past whether a second ago, a day, a week, a month, a year…or like in his case, at the time when the Divine beasts lost their battle against an evil wizard called Merlin.
Harry saw there was no identity verifying cauldron like last time. Maybe this was one of the changes that had been done. He had no idea how much things had changed since last time but he had no time to think about them. He was here for one thing and that was to get the prophecy sphere which supposedly was meant for him.
He wondered how he would look for it in this unending place when he took a step forward and the glowing of all the spheres died down instantly, leaving the entire place in pitch-black darkness. It was as if someone had turned off all the lights as Harry tried to see around but couldn't. His wand slipped into his hand but before he could cast a spell or two to light his path he noticed a very faint flow in the very far end of the room.
He tried casting a lumos charm but it didn't work. He tried the patronus charm and other charms and spells that could somehow provide a little bit of lighting in this place but nothing happened. It was as if his magic was not responding. Sighing he decided he had no choice but to feel his way through the darkness and hopefully not hit any of the shelves containing hundreds and thousands of prophecy sphere, hitting any of which would mean an instant death.
So he took the first slow step, then the second, third and continued walking towards the faint glow as he realized after carefully walking that he wasn't hitting or feeling anything either in front of him or around him. Gaining a little confidence from that he increased his pace more and more until he began to walk normally towards the sphere and after about half an hour of walking, he finally reached it.
He had no idea that the sphere was this far into the room but it didn't matter now as he looked at it or more specifically the cloudy smoke inside it which was the actual source of the sphere's glow and a way for a prophecy to be seen. He looked at its bronze holder. It definitely looked old as its engravings were all eroded and there was no name of the subject of the prophecy on it. He wondered if it was meant for him but all the other spheres had stopped glowing except this one. He slowly reached for it before stopping mid-way, wondering if this was a good idea in the first place.
"It shouldn't be as bad as me killing my friends from the Yayu's influence," Harry said to himself as he held the sphere carefully in his hand.
Nothing happened.
Harry wondered if it was supposed to be like this. He had no idea how the prophecy sphere worked in the hands of its subjects but seeing he couldn't experiment anything with it here he put it in the pouch he'd brought with himself before leaving the place.
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Thanks for reading…
