Part III: Revelation
Chapter VII: In Which Corinna Has the Worst Luck
As spring officially left for summer to move in, Corinna and Harry found themselves spending more and more time outside. They liked sitting underneath the beech tree with the duvet spread out underneath them. Normally, Harry would be braced against the trunk of the tree while Corinna relaxed against his chest unless, of course, they would rather snog than talk. And they talked about anything and everything.
"I promise you," she said one day once he was released from Snape's clutches. It seemed like he was keeping Harry later and later each detention, just to add insult to injury. Just to spite the Defense professor, they found themselves rather enjoying the chill in the evening air. "As soon as I get my Apparition license, I am just going to pop in on you."
"Please don't," said Harry honestly. He had his arms wrapped around Corinna's chest as he looked up at the sky through the leaves. "The Dursleys are not a pleasant lot. I would rather you not meet them."
"They can't be worse than the lot I'm unfortunately related to," said Corinna as she tilted her head to look up at Harry. It was a very odd angle, she had to admit. "But, fine, I'll wait until you are sprung to the Weasley's to come and visit you."
"I appreciate it," said Harry. Corinna righted her neck and Harry rested his chest on her head. "Have you gone to see Winky lately?"
"I tried," said Corinna, remember the disaster that was her second attempt at talking with her old house elf. As promised, Dobby was able to keep her from the drink so Corinna could try to talk to her sober, but that seemed to make things worse. Winky was shaking from head to foot, her eyes almost spinning from the repetitive motion. She just kept talking about how much of a failure she was and would not let Corinna get a word in edgewise on how that wasn't the case. "Dobby said he was going to go to Dumbledore and see if there was any help that can be done for Winky."
"That's good, at least," said Harry and Corinna closed her eyes as the sun was dipping lower to the horizon. The remained that way until just before curfew where they reluctantly trudged back to the Common Room.
In the aftermath of the quidditch finale, it seemed that everyone had almost forgotten that Harry had used dark magic on Malfoy as everyone was talking about the spectacular plays. It took a few days, but Terry went back to talking to Corinna and Seamus. In fact, they were on such good terms, that Terry invited Seamus when his family went to France to help his sister move back to the UK as she accepted a job in Wales to be closer to her family. He was uncertain if his mum would be okay with it, but he held out hope.
The problem was Ron and Hermione. Corinna had caught them a couple of times being close, but as soon as they saw Harry, they would shoot away from each other and act like nothing was happening. Corinna thought to ask about it, but Ron would just pretend to read whatever he was holding even if it was a throw pillow, and Hermione would ask her if she had told Harry where she had hidden the Prince's copy of Advanced Potion-Making. Corinna just let them have their secretive romance or whatever it was supposed to be.
Personally, Corinna found it odd that Harry hadn't asked her about the book, even if his potion-making was suffering because of it. She did her best to help him out, but she was nothing compared to the Prince. Plus, Slughorn seemed to be catching on that they potions were practically identical, so she had to even quit doing that much to help him. Although it meant that he was now focusing more on Corinna and Hermione's efforts, she could tell just how much Harry wanted that book back. But, until he said he wanted it back, she was not about to volunteer to go and grab it from the Room of Requirement.
When she wasn't studying or hanging out with her friends, she found herself in an abandoned classroom working on her potions. She had borrowed a book from the library about various healing potions from the general to the case specific. She had perfected the Wound-Cleaning Potion and a handful of others such as Murtlap Essence and the basic Wiggenweld. She kept some in a pouch in her bag as she knew how accident prone the people she chose to associate with were.
June approached, as did their exams, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was last year. Instead, they all watched the current fifth years with pity and relief that they had a year between the two most important exams of a young witch or wizard's life. Dean seemed despondent in the common room as Ginny was busy studying in the library and Seamus was off with Terry. She thought about inviting him over to where her, Harry, and Ron were sitting by the window, but then Hermione came blazing with stiff purpose.
"I want to talk to you, Harry."
"What about?" said Harry, focusing on One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi without taking a word in.
"The so-called Half-Blood Prince."
"Oh, not again. Will you please drop it? I haven't even asked Corinna to grab it."
"I'm not dropping it until you've heard me out. Now, I've been trying to find out a bit about who might make a hobby of inventing dark spells—"
"He didn't make a hobby of it—"
"He, he—who says it's a he?"
"We've been through this. Prince, Hermione, Prince!"
"Right!" Looking frazzled, she slammed a piece of paper down on the table in front of them. "Look at that! Look at that picture!"
Harry picked up the picture and both Ron and Corinna leaned over to look over his shoulder at the moving photograph of a sullen girl around fifteen. She looked at the caption below the yellowing photograph that must have been from an old newspaper article. Eileen Prince, Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Team.
"Her name was Eileen Prince. Prince, Harry."
Harry and Ron looked at each other as Corinna studied the picture, thinking that Hermione might be onto something when the two of them busted out laughing. "No way!" said Harry. "You think she was the Half-Blood…? Oh, come on."
"Well, why not?" Harry, there aren't any real princes in the wizarding world! It's either a nickname, a made-up title somebody's given themselves, or it could be their actual name, couldn't it? No, listen! If, say, her father was a wizard whose surname was 'Prince' and her mother was a Muggle, then that would make her a 'half-blood Prince!'"
"Yeah, very ingenious, Hermione…"
"But it would! Maybe she was proud of being half a Prince!"
"Listen, Hermione. I can tell it's not a girl. I can just tell."
"The truth is that you don't think a girl would have been clever enough."
"How can I have hung around with you for five years and not think girls are clever?" Harry seemed miffed by the accusation, but she was leaning towards Hermione on this one. This was the only solid lead they had on the identity of this Half-Blood Prince. "It's the way he writes. I just know the Prince is a bloke. I can tell. This girl hasn't got anything to do with it. Where did you get this, anyway?"
"The library. There's a whole collection of old Prophets up there. Well, I'm going to find out more about Eileen Prince if I can and the first place I'll look is records of old Potions awards!" She took the photograph back and turned sharply on her heel to marched out of the portrait hole.
"Do you think it could be this Prince person?" asked Harry, looking between Ron and Corinna.
"Well, it is a solid lead," said Corinna.
"You're only saying that because Hermione thinks it's a bird," countered Ron.
"And you lot just think it's a bloke because you're blokes. You don't even have any solid evidence to support your claims."
"You both are just annoyed that Harry outperformed you in Potions."
"I got over that," said Corinna, "and Hermione just wants to be proven right. And she's doubling down because you both are fighting her on it."
"Well, she needs to chill out."
"Or maybe you should just shove your tongue down her throat," Corinna said under her breath.
"What?" said Harry, turned to look at Corinna, but he was distracted by one of the Gryffindor beaters came up with a scroll for Harry. "It's from Dumbledore!" He unfurled the parchment and read it quickly. "He wants me to go to his office as quick as I can!"
Ron was too busy seething to reply, so Corinna stepped in. "You think he's found…?"
"Better go and see, hadn't I?" She shifted aside so Harry could jump to his feet and hurried out of the Common Room.
"CouldyounotsayanythingtoHarryfortheloveofMerlinsbollocks," Ron said very quickly, making it sound like a single word.
"Why haven't you told him?" asked Corinna as she grabbed the parchment that was supposed to be her Herbology essay, but all it had was her name written on it.
Ron's ears turned pink as he stared down at his open Herbology text. "Because we're…we're nothing. We're not doing anything. I'm not talking about this."
Corinna narrowed her eyes at Ron and nudged him. "I won't say anything to Harry, but I'm also curious and nosy."
"No shite," Ron muttered. "I'm still not talking about it." She nudged him again. And again. And again. "I grew up with five brothers and a sister. You're going to have to do better than that."
Corinna retracted her arm and glared at Ron. Ron stared down at his open book and Corinna tried to focus on her essay, but her mind kept wandering. She found herself staring out at the sky as it steadily grew darker outside. Worry started to eat away at her as Harry seemed to be gone awhile. Although he was excited at the prospect of going with Dumbledore to find the Horcruxes, Corinna couldn't help but worry. Knowing You-Know-Who, it wouldn't be as easy as stopping by an curios shop and purchasing whatever item he put his soul into.
They looked up when Hermione came back with heavy volumes in her arms. "I will find some connection Eileen Prince has with potions," she said. "I will find it!"
Corinna and Ron looked at each other and the silently agreed to just drop it. Neither of them were in the mood to argue with her. She sat down across from them and opened up the books in front of her as she quickly skimmed through the pages. She turned her attention back to her Herbology essay as she started to scratch out an introduction. They all worked in silence until Harry came back looking frazzled.
"What did Dumbledore want?" said Hermione, but Harry continued past them. "Harry, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," said Harry as he rushed up to the boy's dormitory, nearly knocking over one of the Creevey brothers in the process. The three looked between each other, trying to figure out what he was trying to do. He came racing down just a minute later and stood between the two couches. "I haven't got much time. Dumbledore thinks I'm getting my Invisibility Cloak. Listen…" He quickly summed up what he overheard from Trelawney when he went to see Dumbledore, and then what had transpired in his office. He ignored any questions or gasps they had about it. "…you see what this means? Dumbledore won't be here tonight, so Malfoy's going to have another clear shot at whatever he's up to. No, listen to me! I know it was Malfoy celebrating in the Room of Requirement. Here—" He shoved the Marauder's Map into Hermione's hand. "You've got to watch him, and you've got to watch Snape, too. Use anyone else who you can rustle up from the D.A. Hermione, those contact Galleons will still work, right? Dumbledore says he's put extra protection in the school, but if Snape's involved, he'll know what Dumbledore's protection is, and how to avoid it—but he won't be expecting you lot to be on the watch, will he?" When Hermione went to interrupt, he continued. "I haven't got time to argue. Take this as well."
He shoved a rolled-up pair of socks into Corinna's hands. "Thanks. I've always wanted a pair of used socks, but my birthday isn't for another couple of weeks."
"You need what's wrapped in them. It's the Felix Felicis. Share it between yourselves."
"No," said Corinna quickly, trying to shove it back at Harry. "We don't want it. You take it. What you're doing is way more important."
"I'll be fine," said Harry, looking Corinna in the eye. "I'll be with Dumbledore. I want to know you lot are okay. Oh, don't look at me like that." He leaned down close to Corinna, bracing against the back of the couch. "I need to make sure you're okay."
As he was about to give her a kiss goodbye, she put a finger against his lips. "No. You expect us to have the luck, then you aren't going to get a kiss until you are back here safe and sound." Harry seemed annoyed by that, but he straightened up and bid everyone a goodbye. She immediately regretted denying the kiss as she watched Harry's retreating form head for the portrait hole. The last thing she saw was his jet-black hair before the Fat Lady swung her portrait shut.
"When do you think we should take the potion?" asked Corinna as she did the math in her head. Harry took about three hours' worth to get the memory from Slughorn. If they perfectly split it up three ways, that would give them about three hours of luck each. "We don't know how long they are going to be gone."
"Let's call the meeting first," said Hermione as she dug into her pocket and pulled out the fake galleon. It seemed that they all kept them on their persons just in case. "Who knows who has kept theirs on them."
They decided to meet outside the library as it was somewhat centrally located and on neutral territory so everyone who was in the D.A. despite house affiliation could join in. "Maybe we should take it now," said Corinna. "We don't have enough for everyone and it should last us past midnight. As long as we each stick to someone who doesn't have the luck potion, we should be fine." She unfurled the socks and passed the golden potion off to Hermione. She eyed the vial as if to estimate how much she should take and took a quick swallow. Ron did the same and passed it back to Corinna. She thought there seemed to be a bit more than her third, but she just chalked it up to margin of error and swallowed the rest.
"I'm understanding why Harry was so barmy," said Ron, and Corinna couldn't agree more. She compared it to feeling tipsy where you weren't inebriated, but you felt light and weren't thinking such complicated thoughts. Instead of going on autopilot because of the drink, you were going on autopilot because of the potion.
"We need to focus," said Hermione. They stood up from the couches and Corinna bent down to grab a pouch from her bag and shoved it in her pocket. They abandoned their bags and books as they were certain that Felix would keep them safe.
They ran into Neville at the portrait hole. "There's a meeting?" he asked, looking excited.
"Not quite," said Hermione as she took Neville's arm and lead him out of the portrait hole. "We'll explain when everyone else gets there."
They ran down to the library where Ginny and Luna were waiting outside. They both looked exhausted from revising for their OWLs, but they both looked ready and determined. "What's going on?"
They waited for others to show up, but none came as the precious minutes ticked by. Corinna could only guess that Neville and Luna had kept their galleons on them all year as they were both the most eager for the DA meetings to continue, and Ginny just happened to be with Luna studying in the library for their OWLs. Once it seemed that they had their little group set up, they found an empty classroom. Hermione quickly explained what Harry suspects is going to happen tonight. No one questioned it as their jaws were set in determination, or maybe Felix was helping speed things along. They had also checked the map to see that Malfoy was nowhere in the castle, which indicated that he had to be in the Room of Requirement, and Snape was tucked into his office, pacing back and forth.
"We need to split up into two groups," said Hermione once she was done explaining. "Three of us should go up to the Room of Requirement and keep an eye on Malfoy and the others should go and keep an eye on Snape."
"I'll go with Corinna and Neville up to the Room of Requirement," said Ron, sounding more confident than Corinna ever thought he had heard him. "Hermione, Luna, and Ginny will go down to Snape's office."
"We'll need a way to communicate," said Corinna as she considered their options. "Hermione, do you know how to use the Patronus Charm to send a message?"
Hermione looked uncertain but nodded. "I think I can manage something. Can you?"
"It's how I've sent a few messages to Dora—er, Tonks," she said as a couple of them looked confused as to who she was talking about. "Mine's a dolphin and yours is an otter, right?" At Hermione's nod, she added. "We'll only send them if it's necessary."
Corinna couldn't help but think it was odd to not have Harry around as their leader, but she knew that they had all easily rose to the challenge. With that in mind, they each split up into their respective groups with Hermione leading Ginny and Luna down to the dungeons, and Ron leading Corinna and Neville up to the Room of Requirement.
"Should we try to get in?" asked Neville as they quickly went up the staircase.
"There's no way," said Corinna. "Harry had been trying for months now to no avail. Unless we know what Malfoy needed the Room for, we can't go in."
"But Trelawney got in," said Ron as they all but ran down the corridor to the Room of Requirement. Corinna considered it very lucky that they hadn't run into any teachers as it was now passed curfew for older students.
"Who knows what she was trying to do in there where she was able to run into Malfoy."
They all fell silent after that as they all stood guard. Ron and Neville had their wands trained on the wall where the Room of Requirement would appear while Corinna paced back and forth to keep an eye out for anyone who might want to get in. At random intervals, Ron would check the Marauder's Map in case anyone unsightly joined them, and to see if Harry and Dumbledore had arrived back yet. They only thing interesting was how there were teachers and a few Order members—Dora, Lupin, and Bill Weasley—were patrolling the corridors. Corinna thanked Merlin (or, more accurately, Felix) that none of them were going down the corridor where they were keeping tabs. She also considered it a sign that Harry hadn't been able to convince Dumbledore that Malfoy was some sort of threat. Luck potion or not, they would be down here if they had suspected anything.
Snape also remained in his office, still pacing. It seemed that the others had taken up a similar patrolling style with two of them, Luna and Ginny, keeping an eye on Snape's office while Hermione paced the corridor. She imagined with them being right outside Snape's office, they were also being as stoically silent as Ron, Corinna, and Neville.
She kept glancing at her watch as the minutes ticked by and worry burned at her throat. Nothing was happening with the Room and nothing was happening outside it. She could feel Neville and Ron fidgeting behind her as they were growing weary. Maybe nothing was going to happen tonight and that they had wasted the potion and risked detention and house points for nothing.
It had been well over an hour of their patrol when the door to the Room of Requirement crashed open. Malfoy stood at the threshold, his face whiter than his hair, clutching a shriveled hand tucked under his arm. In his hands was a pouch where he quickly grabbed a handful of whatever was inside. Before any of them had a chance to stun him, he threw down the powder-like substance and immediately everything turned to pitch.
Corinna couldn't even see her wand trained in front of her. "Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder," Corinna heard Ron shout in the din as other voices could be heard, but they were indistinct and seemed to be everywhere, adding to the confusion.
"Lumos," Corinna whispered. She knew the spell had to work. It was one of the first spells she had learned and had used it often to read late into the night whenever she was at Hogwarts. She even pulled her wand tip so it was very close to her face and she still couldn't see it. In the distance, she could hear Neville trying to summon his own wand-lighting charm. She switched tactics as she extended her arm again. "Incendio." She could feel the warmth of the fire-making charm, but still no light permeated the darkness surrounding them.
"Nothing is going to work on this until it clears," said Ron. "We'll have to feel our way out."
She did not like the sound of that as she tried to remember how she was standing before the darkness, but in the confusion, she couldn't remember as she had been pacing. Instead, she put the wand on the palm of her hand and whispered, "Point me." She felt the wand shift and she turned towards where north would be. "Use the four-point spell," she told the others, "and head north."
They did as they were told, and Corinna took her first step in the darkness. She couldn't tell if it was because the pitch covered such a large area or because of her small, cautious steps, but it seemed to take an eternity to get out of the darkness. She winced when she came upon the dim lighting of the corridor. She blinked to adjust her vision and sighed heavily in relief when she saw Dora, Lupin, and Bill running towards them.
"What happened?" Lupin demanded as Ron and Neville stumbled out of the darkness.
"Malfoy," said Ron. "He threw the powder down and had a Hand of Glory to guide him through the darkness. He had others with him. Death Eaters."
"We'll have to locate them," said Bill. "They couldn't have gotten far."
Corinna silently thanked Felix again that they hadn't told them to go back to Gryffindor Tower as the six of them ran back down the corridor. They heard talking in the direction of the Astronomy Tower and they all quickened the pace. A couple of burly Death Eaters at the edge of the group noticed them first and shot stunners in their direction. They deflected away and drew in the attention of the other Death Eaters.
All hell broke loose.
Everyone was shouting spells and breaking apart as some began to duel one on one. Corinna focused on the one in front of her who was busy shooting off spells all willy-nilly. He particularly liked the killing curse. They seemed to fly all around Corinna without ever making impact. She jumped out of the way of one as the green light shot right passed her and hit a Death Eater coming down from the Astronomy Tower square in the chest. She watched as the Death Eater crumbled, his eyes staring up at the ceiling, unseeing.
Her brain did not process what had happened as she straightened up. "Stupefy!" she shouted, hitting the Death Eater who had just killed one of his brethren. He flew back into the wall and knocked one of the portraits down. Those in the portrait cried in indignation, but she had moved on to help the others. She took stock of those around them and her heart sank. She saw Neville limping and Bill was covered in bite marks across his face and chest. Corinna could not think of a spell that could do such a thing to him, but she looked up to see Lupin dueling Fenrir Greyback.
She looked around wildly as she tried to locate Malfoy, but he didn't seem to be anywhere. She ran for the Astronomy Tower just as she saw a Death Eater casting some sort of protection charm. He gave her a wicked smile as she ran into the shield and was thrown back. She crashed into the wall and crumpled to the ground. Bright lights shook her vision along with all the colorful spells being thrown around them. She could vaguely see Ron helping her stand up and she blinked quickly to clear her vision.
There was only one Death Eater now. The burly one who was shooting off spells every which way. It was all they could do to dodge the spells while Lupin and Tonks investigated the barrier. She saw Snape running down the corridor, tight-lipped and laser focused. She saw a green light flash next to her and she dodged out of the way again. When she righted herself, he was gone. She had looked up to see Lupin running for the stairs but was thrown back just like Corinna had been.
She rushed over and helped him back up, only for him to pull her down to avoid a spell from the Death Eater still attacking them. She landed on her backside and the sharp pain from getting thrown into the wall was back. "Son of a—Dora, look out! Flipendo!"
Dora landed flat on her back just as the ceiling collapsed from the Death Eater. He was caught under the rubble, but it seemed he was the only one. Ron had managed to pull his brother away from the wreckage and Neville was clutching his side, only getting caught in some of the dust. She saw some others had joined them as Professor McGonagall helped Dora up.
"Wotcher!" Dora said as she carefully stood up. "Thanks for that!"
Lupin and Corinna helped each other up as the dust slowly settled. She saw a couple of figures running from the scene, but then the Death Eaters were back in full force. A lumpy Death Eater locked eyes on Corinna and she raised her wand at him. "Crucio!" he shouted, and Corinna easily stepped to the side. "Crucio! You can't dance forever, little girl—"
"Impedimenta!"
She watched as the Death Eater she was trying to attack was flown back and hit the wall, hard. She turned to see who had cast the jinx and her heart about skipped a beat. "Harry! Where did you come from?"
But he didn't answer her as he ran full tilt into the fray. "Harry!" she shouted. She blocked a jinx from one of the Death Eaters. "Petrificus Totalus!" Their limbs locked together and they felt to the ground with a loud thump. She ran after Harry as the others seemed to have it under control. She found him tangled up with Neville, who was still on the ground and clutching his stomach.
"Snape and Malfoy…ran past…" Neville managed to choke out. Corinna could only assume they were the ones that she saw running after the ceiling collapsed.
"I know. I'm on it!" He briefly looked over at Corinna and his expression was unreadable. She only nodded as he scrambled up and continued running down the hall. She knelt down next to Neville and looked him over. His stomach was deeply bruised and one of the healing spells from her aunt and uncle's old healer books did the trick. She helped him up and he went to fight with the others. She went over to Bill and there didn't seem to be anything she could do. She wished she had thought to make a mixture of silver powder and dittany, but she didn't think a bloody werewolf would do something like this when it wasn't a full moon. All she could do was use the Wound-Cleaning Potion on the abrasions and give him a Blood-Replenishing Potion until he could get to Madam Pomfrey.
All she could do was focus on helping people. Some of the students had gotten out of bed and into the fray, and the various professors were doing what they could to get them back into their dorms. The sounds of fighting were slowly fading. She bent down next to help an escaped Hufflepuff girl just a couple years younger than Corinna when she felt a hand touch her shoulder. "Miss Crouch," said McGonagall, looking much older than she would have expected from the Transfigurations professor. "Madam Pomfrey is on it. Do you know where Potter went?"
"He was chasing after Snape and Malfoy," said Corinna, her voice hoarse.
"Go find him and bring him to the Hospital Wing," she said and then moved on to coordinate cleanup efforts. She pocketed the used vials and made her way down. There were Aurors at the Room of Requirement, so she did not think he would be there. She went down to the Entrance Hall, ignoring the various questions and demands from the other students who hadn't been ushered back to their dormitories.
The grounds were oddly quiet except for Hagrid's dog's loud barking. She looked in the direction of the sound and found Hagrid and Harry standing over a crumpled figure. Her voice caught in her throat as she made her way over to them, and froze when she recognized the crumpled figure as Professor Dumbledore. It didn't seem real, to see the Headmaster who greeted them warmly their first year and continued to be a solid edition in the staff table ever since. He was a force all his own and the only one You-Know-Who had ever feared.
"C'mere Harry," came Hagrid's voice. It broke Corinna's reverie and dragged her back into reality.
"No."
"Yeh can' stay here, Harry…Come on, now…"
Corinna rushed forward and knelt down next to him. "Harry, come on." She reached out and placed a hand on his to draw his attention away. When it seemed she had his attention, she stood with him and lead him back towards the Entrance Hall. She had placed an arm around his waist to help support him. He stared blankly ahead, his mind far, far away while his body was on the grounds with her. She wasn't even sure if he heard and saw all the people surrounding them as the battle had poured out of the castle and into the grounds. As they crossed into the threshold into the Entrance Hall, she heard the Gryffindor rubies from the hourglass crunch underneath her trainers.
"We're going to the Hospital Wing," she explained as they headed up the marble staircase,
"I'm not hurt," said Harry. He sounded like he was a million miles away.
"McGonagall's orders," said Corinna. She had to admit even her voice sounded hollow as the events of that night slowly crept into reality.
"Corinna, who else is dead?"
"Don't worry, none of us."
"But the Dark Mark—Malfoy said he stepped over a body—"
"He might have stepped over Bill, but he's alive," said Corinna. At least, she hoped he was. "He was attacked by Fenrir Greyback, so who knows what will happen to him since he wasn't attacked by a full werewolf. There was also a dead Death Eater, killed by another Death Eater's killing curse gone astray. But no one on our side." She kept seeing life leave his eyes over and over again in her mind's eye. She had never seen someone die, let alone watched them die from their life being taken away in such a brutal fashion. "In fact, if it wasn't for your potion, I'm afraid we would have all been killed."
I want to thank everyone who has left reviews! Every time one pops in my inbox, I grin like an idiot! I especially want to thank the guest named M who has left a review each time I uploaded. All I have to say is that you should be worried XD
Just a couple notes of housekeeping. There is only one more chapter for Revelation and then we get into Revolution, which was the main reason I wanted to bring Corinna's story to life. Where the other parts only had a handful of chapters, this one will have 24 chapters and is about the same length as all the other parts combined. I had the most fun (and the most tears) with this one, and I can't wait to share it with all y'all.
Thanks for everything, fireroastedjules!