Definately AU. XDD Slash! You should know that by now. Plenty of angst factor, and fluffy romance. Continued from Into the Cold Fire- Harry returns home to a world different from that which he left. The wizarding world is falling apart due to Voldemort's last curse, and the people he love is dying. Can he find a counter-curse before everything is lost?
Dedicated to lizziebordon! Because she's waited so very long for this chapter! ^^;;
Chapter 4: The First Signs
Shamera
blurring and stirring the truth and the lies
so i don't know what's real and what's not
always confusing the thoughts in my head
so i can't trust myself anymore
i'm dying again, i'm going under
drowning in you, i'm falling forever...
-Evanescence, "Going Under"
"I hate you and everything about you!"
Harry slammed the door of the Gryffindor common room on the shocked face of Draco Malfoy. The raven-haired boy was absolutely furious with himself, and with the blonde Slytherin. The circumstances at the beginning of fifth year had lead to the historic rivals to be unlikely and shaky friends who sometimes talked civilly with each other and sometimes couldnt stand each other. Harry couldn't understand why he had chosen to confide in Draco about the Dursleys, as he had unconsciously known the Slytherin's reaction before he even started the conversation. Having grown up so pampered, Draco wouldn't possibly understand Harry's childhood, and their previous conversation proved it.
It had really been a moment of weakness, Harry thought bitterly as he leaned against the portrait door, seething with anger. He had just gone through another argument with Dumbledore about having to stay with his relatives for the summer, and the Headmaster had insisted that Harry stay for the protection that his blood relatives could provide. Dumbledore had tried to be as gentle as possible to Harry, but the boy wouldn't take any of the kindness and had stormed out of the office, upsetting the phoenix on the perch.
The first person he had encountered had been Draco, who had just come in from a Slytherin Quidditch practice. The two had been on one of their better weeks, and the blonde boy had been shocked by the anguish on Harry's face and the lack of Ron and Hermione from his side. He had led Harry to an empty classroom in hopes of trying to pry why the boy was in such a bad mood out of the Gryffindor. Harry had known from the beginning that Draco wouldn't understand, but had desperately needed someone to talk to.
The only problem was, instead of Harry feeling better afterwards, his temper only got worse when Draco had asked why he would allow muggles to disturb him so. He had tried to contain his anger, knowing that it was rare for the two of them to be on such good terms, but after a few more ignorant questions from the Slytherin, Harry just couldn't take it anymore. He might now have known what he needed back then, but he knew that it wasn't someone berating him for not fighting back against his relatives.
"Harry?" there was a timid knock on the Gryffindor door, and Harry heard Draco outside ignoring the offended squawks of the Fat Lady. "Look..." the raven-haired boy could practically feel the blonde trying to repress his pride, knowing that he didn't want to lose the hesitant friendship that they finally shared. "...I'm sorry if I offended you. You don't really mean it, do you?"
The Gryffindor swallowed thickly. He had regretted what he said the moment that the words came out, but his pride and anger wouldn't allow him to admit it aloud. He knew that it wasn't Draco's fault that the blonde didn't understand; only that Draco had tried to correct a situation that was way over his head. It wasn't the blonde boy's fault, as it was Harry who blew up.
But he was still too angry to speak.
"Harry?" the voice was becoming more irritated. "Cant you at least tell me what I did wrong?"
The dark-haired boy exhaled openly through his mouth, trying hard to keep back his anger. It wasn't Dracos fault, he kept telling himself. It was his own fault for flying off the handle so easily. But... it was really hard to muster up the courage to admit it aloud.
Unfortunately, a Malfoy's pride stung more than a Potter's, because Harry could hear a distinctly hurt snort from the other side of the portriet door. "Fine. If you don't feel like telling me, I'll just let you alone, then. It's more than obvious that you don't want to talk to me."
Harry felt a surge of panic despite his vehement reluctance to speak with anyone at the moment. It was easy to see that if he didn't respond right now before the Slytherin could leave, then they would loose the fragile friendship they had somehow formed that year.
So, naturally, he was prompted to speak... although it wasn't exactly what he meant to say.
"Fine then, you prat! Just leave me here... it's all your fault that you can't seem to put the effort into understanding me!"
Ehh... But Harry's hurt pushed through the confusion and the small voice in the back of the head telling him that he was just making an idiot out of himself, and Draco would never speak to him again after this...
"You're the only person I've spoken to about this in such detail," Harry kept ranting, unable from stopping himself and pounding his fists against the door, imagining it was his rival. "And after I tell you everything, you look at me like I'm an stupid. Like everything I've been through in my life is so trivial that you can't bother yourself to even consider how I feel!"
What he was saying was barely making any sense, as the dark-haired boy was trying his best to get his furious feelings out that he skipped out on coherent thought. Surprisingly, there was not much of a response from the other side of the wall. Either Draco had already left or he was really listening to Harry this time.
"I hate how you can't even bring yourself to understand!" Harry continued shouting, not caring if anyone else heard him. "I hate you for having parents and not knowing how much it hurts... I hate that you're so pampered and safe that you can't concieve of the idea of me not wanting to go back home! I hate you for having that bloody attitude.... like, like everyone just too beneath you for you to notice them and listen to them once in a while."
Harry broke off as he quickly ran out of steam, realizing how childish he was being. He didn't want to think about how most of what he said wasn't Draco's fault, or that he really didn't want to yell anymore. Now he just felt tired. More tired than he could remember feeling for a long time... he wanted nothing more than to just fall onto the floor and stay there, not sleeping but not moving nor talking either.
He closed his vibrant eyes and leaned his forehead against the abused door, letting his slight weight rest completely against the wall. This was ridiculous. He was talking to Draco Malfoy, after all. He should never have expected the blonde boy to understand.
There was the quiet sound of shuffling feet on the other side, eliminating the idea that the Slytherin had left while Harry had been ranting. The shuffling stopped after but a moment, and the Gryffindor could hear from the other side:
"But... you don't hate me, right?"
The voice was much too childish for that for a sixteen year old. There was too much confusion and self-doubt in that sentence for Harry to make out, especially when he couldn't make out all of his own feelings.
"No." He said quietly. "I don't hate you."
And surprisingly, he didn't. It wasn't Draco's fault that the blonde could not understand. Draco had been raised in a priviladged family, despite the deep resentment the Slytherin felt at times when he was denied his own choices because of his social standing. And it was Harry's own fault that things had gotten out of control in the first place.
Harry breathed out a deep sigh and then pushed himself away from the door, opening it slowly to see Draco on the other side, looking slightly nervous about being near the Gryffindor rooms. The blonde boy was glancing around every few seconds, determined not to be caught by anyone other than Harry so close to the Gryffindor common room.
Harry felt too tired to apologize, but seeing the silent anger in Draco's eyes at being yelled at for absolutely no reason, he knew that he would have to.
"I'm sorry." The green-eyed boy said. "I was just angry. You didn't deserve to be yelled at."
It was true. Draco shouldn't have stayed. He shouldn't have stuck around after Harry got mad, seeing as he wasn't the type to take being the scapegoat. It was usually Harry that stood shock still when someone ranted at him, but Draco had never been the one to stick around after someone got angry.
"I wanted to make sure you were alright."
It was as if Draco had read Harry's mind and answered the question of why he had stayed. Grey eyes surveyed the Gryffindor, and then deemed him to be stable at the moment. Two hands reached out to adjust Harry's glasses, making green eyes widen considerably.
"After all," Draco continued, quite nonchalant. "If I'm going to pursue someone, I'd like to know they're right in the head."
"P-pursue?"
"Yes." Draco smiled. "You might not think that I understand you now. But I will. I'll learn everything about you in time. That way, you can't say I don't understand anymore." He leaned in close. "Sweet dreams, Harry. Don't forget that we have Double Potions together tomorrow."
Satisfied when Harry could only gape at him, Draco turned and walked away, a smile sneaking up on his face. He had worried for a moment that Harry really did hate him, and all his plans would fail... but that didn't seem a problem now.
Harry took a small break to sit back and stretch as he heard Hermione recast the Heating Charm in the room which they were doing their research. It had only been two days after their Christmas shopping, and the three of them had been contacting other researchers and requesting information at just about every hour of the day. Christmas was creeping up on them, but the brightness and cheerfulness of the snow and season outside didn't seem to penetrate into the small house in which they resided.
Although Harry was weary from their lack of success to find anything useful, it was obvious that both Draco and Hermione were worse off. Hermione's eyes were drooping most of the time, and she grimaced from time to time as if suffering a horrible headache. Draco was even worse off, opening rubbing his forehead almost constantly, and needing batches of painkilling potions to be sent to him from the Ministry. His temper was more than frayed as Harry continuously tried to make Draco rest.
"I don't need any more rest," Draco would grumble. "I need something to do. I need to help as much as possible and find the counter-curse for this. I promised you forever, didn't I?"
And Harry was hard-pressed to disagree, knowing that all the help available was needed. He knew that Draco worked so hard and so consistently not only because of himself, but because the blonde ex-Slytherin was deadly scared that Harry would be sick too, or that either one of them would die and the leave the other. It was a possibility neither of them wanted to think about currently.
It was just that information was so hard to find, and it was even harder to discern fact from fiction. A lot of past wizards enjoyed writing their findings into one glorious story, and Harry was skeptical as to what really happened. It was like looking into thousands of tomes of self-proclaimed Gilderoy Lockhearts, and Harry twitched whenever he thought about having to go through another book.
The dark-haired boy pushed up his glasses to rub at the bridge of his nose, irritated with how a headache was already coming on. It was morning still, but he had been up since dawn when a Ministry owl had nearly destroyed the window outside his and Draco's room. The ex-Slytherin barely twitched in his sleep, whereas Harry couldn't stand the noise outside.
At least Draco got the extra sleep. Harry waved a hand vaguely to renew the table light. The dim winter light that filtered through the windows wasn't enough to read by, and the teenager had discovered that it was easy to renew the lumos charm. At first he had feared that just the simple act of keeping up the first-year spell for long periods of time would tire him out, but Harry found that it barely took anything out of him at all. And it was good practice for him to do wandless magic.
All in all, he hadn't had much chances to experiment with his magic. They had found his wand again and had given it back to him, but the phoenix feather that had been the core had burned out. Harry didn't know what to think about it, so instead chalked it up to it not being able to withstand the force of the last battle with Voldemort. Wandless magic was harder than he had originally thought. It wasn't that the magic was not obeying him… almost the opposite, in fact. Harry didn't tire with wandless magic as most people predicted. He found it easy to find the magic within himself that provided for his spells, but had a hard time manipulating it and twisting it so that it came out the way he wanted it to.
It was something that he wanted to talk to Hermione about. The girl (or rather, young woman. They had all been through too much to really be children anymore.) had been badgering him about it.
Getting up from the cushions that lined up his chair, Harry gave a full body stretch, groaning slightly as he heard several joints pop back into place. He was careful not to knock over his books and notes, since he really didn't want to organize them again.
"That's disgusting." Came the comment from the other side of the room.
Harry grinned, and turned his neck to look at Hermione, whom had been distracted by his antics. "Don't tell me it never happens to you, with all the studying you do."
The girl had already buried herself back in another book, but quirked her lips when Harry talked. "Of course it doesn't happen. I just use a spell to make sure that my muscles are relaxed before I start."
He blinked. "You mean there's a spell for long-term studying?"
"Don't sound so surprised! I'd have developed scoliosis by third year without that spell."
No wonder Hermione never complained of back pains like he and Ron had all through the school years. It was almost funny, really. How come he had never thought of something like that? "Where'd you learn a spell like that?"
Hermione finally looked up at him, grinning mischievously. "It's a long held secret of the Ravenclaws. They teach it to their first years- it's the first spell that they learn, even before the teachers start teaching spells in classes. I just happened to have overheard it, that's all."
Harry sat back down, feeling much more comfortable now that he had stretched. "Why do I have a feeling you're not going to tell me this spell."
"I can't. Swore on a Ravenclaw's honor never to tell."
"But you're not a Ravenclaw!"
"Doesn't matter." Hermione laughed. "But I suppose I can perform it on you." With a few muttered words and a wave of her wand, Harry felt that he was about to melt into his seat.
"I should have asked to be sorted into Ravenclaw." Harry muttered briefly as his muscles finally started to relax for the first time in days. "If they teach you spells like this, no wonder they had no problem studying…"
"I don't think you would have ever made it into Ravenclaw, Harry. Both you and Ron certainly acted as if you were allergic to learning."
"Maybe it was all an act." Harry hinted.
"Maybe the both of you were just too lazy to do well in classes."
Harry pouted. "Speaking of Ron, what was in his letter to you, anyway?" And why didn't he get a letter as well?
Hermione finally put down the thick tome she had been browsing through, looking quite put out. "It was just him writing letters for Mrs. Weasley. She wants all of us to visit the Burrow for Christmas, seeing as there's only so many of us left now. That poor woman… to be losing her children like that…"
"How come she didn't write it to us herself?" Harry questioned, not wanting Hermione to go off on a tangent.
"She's sick. Just like the rest of us, only she's doing worse. It could be because she's further along then everyone else, or just because the loss of family members has hit her too hard." Hermione shook her head sadly. "Either way, Ron was really upset in his letter. He's been taking care of the rest of his family, but… I don't think he should be out of bed himself."
The way she said it made it sound like the common flu that everyone had. Harry couldn't fathom how she was dealing with the idea that everyone was sick… or that this sickness led to death.
"Don't worry." He said softly, not sure if he should be mentioning this at all. "We'll find a cure. I promise."
Hermione looked at him blankly, and for a moment, Harry was almost scared to think that she had not seen him at all- only the wall which was behind him. She looked too pale and tired at that moment, and Harry could just see that she wasn't feeling too well either. He could almost feel the headache which strained at her thoughts, and the dull ache in her joints that persisted even after she had rested. There was an uncomfortable pull in his mind that hinted at a phantom pain- like the feeling of a missing limb.
He shifted uncomfortably.
Hermione finally snapped out of it and gave a tired smile. "You shouldn't promise things like that, Harry. Some people might take it the wrong way." She hesitated. "Although I do believe you. We'll find a cure."
Harry toyed with his empty wand for a bit as he leaned his face against a warm palm. Hermione had finally kicked him out of the room when he just couldn't sit still. So he settled to sit in his own room and watch Draco sleep for a bit, trying to distract himself from thinking. It hadn't taken long before he started shifting around again, not knowing what to do but at the same time not wanting to wake Draco. The other boy hadn't too many opportunities to rest lately.
He wondered how much magic he could do without waking Draco up, and quietly uttered a spell to conjure up water. For some reason, he had a continued fondness of the element that would lead up to him playing around with it unnecessarily. Water had been one thing that would never require a spell from him, instead molding itself to his thoughts so that he could change its shape with a flick of his fingers.
It was gravity defying, that's what it was. The pretty droplets of glistening liquid, sparkling even in the dim lighting, hurried about to obey Harry's every thought. It stretched and molded itself, giving the raven haired boy something to concentrate on, leaving the rest of his thoughts blissfully blank.
Was that considered wandless magic? Harry wondered, trying to remember if the Elementals had required wands when working with the element of their choice. Did elemental magic come as easily to others as it did to him? Or did they have to use a wand to wield the elements as well?
Shaking his head to clear those thoughts, Harry finally noticed Draco watching him with amused eyes, lips in a quirk of a smile, and unmoving so not to disturb him.
"You're awake."
The liquid which had been hovering and wavering in the air above them disappeared suddenly as Harry's attention was turned elsewhere. Draco only blinked once at the unspoken banishing charm that Harry must have used, before allowing a strange look to appear on his face. "You just can't keep quiet when you're bored, Harry."
Harry grinned. "I can so. You're just a light sleeper, that's all."
"A light sleeper? I recall when you've said otherwise."
"Trying to wake you after History of Magic does not count." Harry replied dryly. "Especially when Gryffindors and Slytherins had just about every class together in sixth year."
Draco gazed at him intently. "I'm glad we did, though."
Yes. He was glad as well. It was because of that reason that the two of them had gotten to be friends. Because even if there was nothing they had in common at that time, they still had the same class assignments. Being partnered up in various classes helped that tremendously.
Harry smirked in remembrance. "I hated the teachers for always putting the two of us together. Even though we could talk to each other civilly by then, I hated that I would never be paired with other Gryffindors."
Draco grinned. "I loved it."
"Oh, yes. Your stupid plans to foil me at every turn." Harry was smiling despite his negative words. "Didn't exactly work, did it?"
The dim lighting in the room made it easy for Draco to catch Harry off guard, easy for the blonde boy to yank him from the chair in which he had been comfortably seated, to falling perpendicular on the bed, hands scrambling for balance before the green eyed boy could crush Draco with his slight weight.
Harry yelped when Draco sat up, bringing to two nose to nose.
"It worked well enough." Was Draco's amused response. "I had you exactly where I wanted you. I still do."
They stayed in that position for a few minutes, not daring to move for fear of breaking that close moment. Finally, Harry raised a hand to brush the stray hairs out of Draco's eyes, and he smiled. "Are you sure that it's not the other way around? That I have you where I want you?"
"It might go both ways." Draco admitted with a grin. "What were you doing before conveniently falling into my lap, anyway?" He shifted to get into a more comfortable position, sitting up while Harry reluctantly moved to seat himself at the edge of the bed.
Conveniently falling into your lap? Pssst…
"Practicing." Harry replied, watching as Draco stretched and leaned one way to grab for the clothes lying upon the back of the chair that Harry had recently occupied.
"Elemental magic?" Draco merely glanced at Harry as he swung his legs out of bed. "What for?"
Harry shrugged. "It somehow seems easier now."
It was true. Elemental magic (and all magic in general) had been hard on Harry ever since he first learned it. While he was supposed to be more powerful than most wizards, Harry was the one in class having the hardest time. Sure, he could learn spells when it really mattered- like the Patronus charm in third year- Harry learned things faster than average when he really needed to. Other than that, he had an extremely hard time learning.
But that was no secret. It had taken him months just to learn Accio, after all.
"Maybe you're finally understanding magic with all the magical theory we've been going through." Draco suggested, changing out of his sleeping shirt and putting on his usual dress shirt. "Just like with your Potions lessons."
Draco had been teamed up with Harry in sixth year for a Potions project involving the research and making of an extremely complicated potion. With Harry struggling as he was in that class (he wouldn't have even gotten into the Advanced Potions class without the intervention of his Head of House- much to the despair of Professor Snape), Draco had to take over most of the project. It was during their studying time that the Slytherin realized the reason that Harry was struggling so was because Harry didn't know the basics of Potion theory.
"No, I don't think it's that." Harry said. "Hermione drilled Magical Theory into my head by third year. If that were the case, then I wouldn't have any problem at all during school."
"Really?" Draco was now intrigued. "Show me."
Seeing Draco still half-dressed, but leaning over the bed towards him, Harry had to squash down the mischievous thought about showing Draco other things- like maybe a passionate kiss. He swallowed thickly and nodded, completely forgetting that he had dropped his wand earlier when he blonde had woken up. Draco only looked amused at his response, and quirked a grin to tell Harry he knew what the other boy was thinking.
With a quick wave of Harry's hand, he conjured up the same floating liquid that he had been playing with previously, the malleable shape glittering above their heads in greeting. It changed different shapes with each flick of Harry's finger.
Remembering the conversation that he had with Dumbledore of the alternate universe, Harry tried something a little different.
Another wave of the hand brought a ring of fire to surround the pulsating liquid form, and changed the liquid into a spherical shape. Harry fought with a grin as he tilted the fire slightly to make it look like a liquid planet surrounded by a ring of flames. He caught the slight intake of breath from behind him, but was too absorbed in this new discovery to really notice.
This time, he didn't even have to wave his hand to bring into existence another ring of flames, intercepting the other ring like an X. Making sure that it all rotated in the same direction, Harry let slip his grin and finally looked over his shoulders to see an astonished Draco.
"Two elements?" Draco asked, his voice quite choked up.
"Dumbledore talked something about that." Harry tried to explain. "In fifth year, he said something about my connection with Voldemort making it harder for me to learn water magic. And then, when I was transported to the other universe, I remember how to two elements somehow combined. I figured that maybe if I absorbed some of Voldemort's powers when he attacked me as a baby, maybe I got his elemental power over fire when he died."
Draco swallowed heavily. "Someone with control over two elements is unheard of…"
"I know that." Harry scowled, although the dark expression was not aimed at the blonde. He hadn't felt uncomfortable about it before Draco had spoken it, because Harry had always been the exception to things. But now that he thought about it, having control over two elements only served to make him even more strange than he already was.
Feeling before actually seeing Harry's discomfort, Draco softened his expression into a relaxed grin. "But then, the Golden Boy is always more talented than the average wizard, isn't he?"
Harry only rolled his eyes. Draco's sarcasm wasn't lost on him, and he appreciated the effort, he really did. It was just…
The green eyed boy glanced over to the still hovering elements, and with a thought, the two combined together. Instead of disappearing as the two contrasting elements hit each other, the molded perfectly, making the liquid sphere a beautiful reddish-gold color and lighting up the entire room with its glow. The surface of the globe looked smooth as flames, even flickering once in a while to dare someone to touch it. The dark haired boy reach up to coax the sphere down, and it settled an inch from the palm of his hand.
"What is that?"
Harry stared at the sphere for a little while longer before looking up into Draco's curious eyes. "That's what I would like to know as well."
"I think there's something very strange going on here."
Hermione looked up from the book that she was flipping through, blinking to adjust her eyes to the bright fire. It took her a moment to get used to the tired visage in the fire, and she set her jaw determinedly. "It doesn't matter if it's strange, Ron. All that matters at the moment is finding out what this means."
"The Ministry is utter crap, 'Mione." Came the tired response from a frustrated redhead in the fire. "Bollocks to what they say. I personally think that there's someone under You-Know-Who's command that's feeding all this information. Using muggle instruments for magic? It sounds more like something that Dad would do."
"Your dad was a smart man."
Ron's face remained stony. "I think it's faked. You can't measure magic with muggle devices. Magic can only be measured with magical devices! Muggle things can't detect magic."
"Don't be obscure. That's like asking whether the chicken or the egg came first."
Ron was taken aback. "That what?"
"The chicken or the egg- oh, it's a muggle expression. But if magic could only be measured by magical devices, then how did they figure out the magic to create magical devices in the first place?" Hermione didn't really want to argue with her best friend, but Ron was just being a complete git at the moment. Considering that he had Arthur Weasley as a father, she would have thought him to be more accepting of the new practices coming up.
Ron didn't look convinced.
"Look." Hermione finally relented. "The blood tests are coming back soon, anyway. And I know that Harry wanted to check it out just in case. You never know if You-Know-Who used a spell that just might be detected with muggle instruments. Maybe Harry was right and it is some type of poison. Then it would certainly be easier to combat."
His expression darkened. "I guess so."
"And why are you not talking to Harry, anyway?" She huffed out an irritated breath. "You know how he gets when he thinks that he did something wrong- it's impossible to get anything done around him when he gets antsy like that. I would have thought you'd be extremely pleased with him appearing. You were certainly grieving enough for him when he disappeared."
Ron looked down from the fire-call. He seemed slightly guilty, and abashed.
"Don't say that you're giving him time to adjust back here." Hermione continued. "Because I know you, Ron Weasley, and you would have just charged to him the moment he woke up demanding answers and reassurances. But you didn't."
Ron rubbed a tired palm on his jaw. "I couldn't."
"And why not?" She asked.
The redhead seemed to hesitate before speaking. "I… I promised Harry before the last battle. Right before we had to go for the all-out attack on the Dark Lord's forces. It was a stupid promise to make, really, but he looked as if he didn't believe we would win. I told him that everything would be okay again. Not that we would win the fight, but that everything would be fine. That's what I thought would happen then, I guess. Either that we would win and rebuild the wizarding world, or that we would all die together and not have to worry about it."
Hermione looked slightly sad at that.
"I never thought that this curse would happen. I guess I just feel bad. I can't face him until I know that what I promised… that everything was going to be alright again, would come true. I know that it seems wrong to avoid him, but I could tell… He believed me then, 'Mione. And I don't want to let him down." The last two sentences were said with a fervor that gave Hermione pause when she thought of yelling at him.
"But you're going to have to talk to him sooner or later." She pressed.
Ron winced. "I know. I'll talk to him when this is all sorted out."
Authoress' Rambles: Lookie! Ron's here! Way, way sorry for the long time it took for this chapter to come out! But now there's two mysteries. ^_~ What were Ron and Hermione talking about? And what's so different about Harry's powers? I am in desperate need to write a humor story. *twitches* Angst and romantic fluff just hasn't been sitting well with me lately. So sorry once again for the long wait, especially when I said that this chapter would be out soon. ^^;; But I'm finally through with the distractions- (*hands get slapped away from the Pirates of the Carribean DVD*) and back on track with this story! ^_^ A thousand thanks to people who kept believing in this story! It will be finished for you! ^_~
All repsonses to all reviews are in the previous author's note section, since I figured you might want more of this story than the notes. LOL