Disclaimer:

J.K. Rowling is the owner of Harry Potter. Stories she has written and characters that she created are not mine. I don't take credit for any of her work. I do thank her for providing such a wonderful universe to dream about and write in.

Harry Potter and the Shadow of Evil

By: Starwin

Chapter 20 – Legion Ex Voldemort

Slowly, Harry opened his eyes. The world was unfocused without his glasses on but he knew where he was. He had seen this ceiling more times then he cared to remember.

Reaching out to the nightstand he found his glasses and pulled them onto his face. The hospital wing snapped into view around him. For one horrible moment he had feared that they had not made it back. He did not remember the trip home but everything appeared as it should be. No beds were overturned and the sheets were white and clean.

Harry sat up. His ribs were sore. At the moment the hospital wing seemed to be void of anyone but him. Harry considered leaving but the pain of his bruises still hurt very much.

The creaking of the hospital wing door drew Harry attention away from his pain. Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville had all appeared at the door. They were talking and laughing with one another. Harry couldn't help but smile as he saw them.

Ginny's eyes widened as she spotted Harry sitting up in his bed. Without waiting for the others she sprinted across the room to Harry and crushed him in a hug round his middle. Harry grunted in pain. Ginny let him go and took a step back looking shyly down at the floor.

"You're not still mad at me?" Ginny asked not looking up. Harry wasn't sure how to feel. The last thing he remembered was her trying to kill him. But he couldn't really hold her accountable for things she hadn't done yet. What if by saying yes, he had caused her to become evil or even by not saying it?

"No, Gin," Harry said with a smile. It wasn't the whole truth but for the moment it was close enough. The rest of his friends arrived at the foot of his bed.

"Well, looks like you left me out of all the fun again!" Ron said in mock anger. "Merlin and King Arthur! I can't believe I missed it!" Harry tried to force a smile. He couldn't believe most of it either. Hermione had obviously already told them about their trip but she hadn't told them all of it.

Maybe she didn't remember the trip to the future. But hadn't she and Solaris been awake right before they left? Perhaps she just didn't want to talk about it, Harry certainly didn't.

Something about the way Hermione was smiling that made Harry felt like she was trying to hide something. In fact now that he thought about it, everyone, except Ginny, who was still looking sheepishly at the floor, had an uneasy smile on their face as though they had something to tell Harry that would make him very mad.

Maybe Hermione had told them about the future and they were all horrified that it was Harry's fault. But how much could she really know about it? She had been asleep almost the whole time.

"What?" Harry asked uneasily when no one came forward to speak the secret.

"There's something else…" Hermione said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the two halves of Harry's wand. Harry felt his heart lurch in his chest. He had forgotten about that. No, he hadn't forgotten he just hadn't wanted to believe it was true.

Seeing his wand actually broken before him confirmed all the horrible events he had seen. Up until now, part of him had been hoping it had all been a dream.

"When I brought us back from the past," Hermione said. "We sort of, uh, appeared a little higher off the ground than I thought. Your wand… I'm so sorry Harry…" Hermione handed the wand parts out to Harry. He took them, confused.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked confused.

"You must have landed on it or something mate," Ron said. "You did kind of fall out of the sky. Even have a shiner to prove it." Ron said pointing at Harry's face. Reflexively Harry raised his hand to his eye and felt a bruise around it.

"This didn't happen from a fall," Harry said looking defiantly up at his friends and holding out his wand. "It happened in the future." The words had just sort of come out. His friends were all looking uneasily at him. He hadn't wanted to bring this up. He didn't want to tell them about the things he had seen. But now that he had said he felt as though a great weight had been lifted from his chest.

Hermione glanced sideways at Ron and then back at Harry.

"No," Hermione said. "We couldn't have."

"You don't remember because you were asleep, just like Solaris was after we went to the past." Harry said. All of his friends were looking at him uncertainly.

"No, Harry," Hermione said. "I mean we couldn't have because you can't travel into the future."

"What?" Harry said, that sounded like the strangest thing he had ever heard. "Didn't we just travel into the past and then back into the future?"

"No, not exactly," Hermione said. "We traveled into the past and returned to the present. It's technically the future of that past, yes, but it's our present, not our future. Time travel just doesn't work that way. There are very few objects that can move you through time, like time turners. But time turners only send you backwards, and even then not very far. There are other magical objects that can move you back and forth between times, but never beyond the point you started from."

"But I saw the future, it was just like the vision I had on Avalon." Harry said. For the first time Ginny looked up. Hermione's face tightened. Both Ron and Neville looked clueless. "My wand was broken in the future by…" Harry's eyes betrayed him as they flicked to Ginny. "…by a death eater and these bruises are from the future." Harry said trying to make his friends understand.

"Maybe you should tell us about the dream," Hermione asked. Harry took a deep breath looking around at his friends. He wasn't sure he wanted to recount the story.

"I don't really want to talk about it." Harry said.

"You don't have to tell us everything," Hermione said looking at the others.

"Yeah," Ron said quickly. "I mean what's the worst that could happened? I'm not bald and fat am I." Ron chuckled. Harry managed a weak smile but there was laughing inside him some place.

"Just tell us what you feel comfortable sharing," Hermione said, her eyes flicked to Ginny too and Harry was sure she already knew the reason Harry didn't want to talk about it. "You saw something bad about me didn't you? And its not going to come true, I'm not stranded on Avalon am I?"

"I'm still not sure it was a dream," Harry said. "It felt very real."

"Maybe we should just let Harry have some time," Ginny said looking at the others. "If he doesn't want to talk about it then we shouldn't make him!"

Harry thought for a long moment. "No," Harry said at last. His eyes were very determined. "If I didn't tell you, then I would be just like Dumbledore. If it is a vision of the future you all have a right to know."

His friends listened as he recounted the events of the future. However untrue to his word Harry omitted mentioning that the Death Eater he had fought at the end of the dream had been Ginny. Harry finished, his friends sat wide eyed.

"I'm bald!" Ron said. "Harry, you're joking! Please tell me you're joking!"

"Ron," Hermione said rubbing her head, "Please…"

"It does sound very much like the journey of truth you had on Avalon." Hermione said, "Oberon said it wasn't the future you saw then, and I don't think it was the future you saw this time either. The journey of truth is usually an answer to a question. But it's sort of odd, because I mean we aren't on Avalon."

"But my wand!" Harry said holding out the broken pieces. "How did it break if we didn't go into the future."

"You said that the death eater broke it under her foot?" Ginny asked. Harry swallowed hard and nodded. "Did you get it back before you left?" Harry pulled the piece back to him and looked down at the splintered halves. He hadn't retrieved it, there had been no time.

"No," Harry said. How had his wand come back with him?

"It's because you didn't go into the future," Ginny said she sounded a little annoyed.

"But what if I did! Shouldn't I take try and prevent it from happening!" Harry said. Hermione shook her head. "If I can figure out what things went wrong in the past I can…"

"Second guessing yourself can only make things worse." Hermione said, interrupting Harry. "Have you ever heard the story of the midnight meeting in London?" Harry shook his head. "A man in Scotland was out walking one day, when he noticed Death beckoning to him from across the road. Fearing what would happen if he stayed in Scotland, the man rushed home, got his car and drove as fast as he could to London.

"As he closed his door to his hotel room there was a knock upon it. It was Death. The man asked why Death had been beckoning to him earlier that day in Scotland. Death replied that he had not been beckoning the man, he had merely been confused as to why the man had been in Scotland because he knew they had a meeting in London tonight."

"Hermione, what does that have to do with anything!" Ron said.

Harry had to agree with Ron, Hermione's story didn't make much sense to him either. They weren't in London or Scotland and Death wasn't beckoning Harry anywhere.

Hermione sighed. "It means," Hermione said agitated, "that second guessing yourself is really what leads you to destruction. You might have seen the future, you might not have. The point is that we make our own future, by trying to second guess around events that haven't happened you might very well make them happen."

"You don't expect me to do nothing?" Harry said.

"I didn't say that," Hermione said pointedly. "I just meant that you shouldn't think the future is written in stone."

---

Madam Pomfrey informed Harry later that night that he was fit enough to leave. Harry still wasn't sure how it was possible but it still seemed only to be Sunday. Harry felt as though it should be more like Christmas.

The rest of the week went without much out of the ordinary. Harry had half expected brain eating slugs to march on the school, or something to that effect. However nothing of the sort happened and Harry was left with actual classes and schoolwork.

The only real trouble was that Harry no longer had a wand to practice with in class and the first chance he would have to go to Olivanders to get a new wand was months away.

Harry still had not thrown his old wand out, someplace inside he hoped that it was still possible to repair it. But Harry had a sinking feeling that it was most likely impossible. The words Hermione had told him in the hospital wing still sat uneasily. He wasn't sure he fully understood what she had meant.

Monday was possibly one of the worst days of Harry's life. Snape had found a potion so hard to make that Hermione had barely been able to complete it. Care of Magical creatures had been canceled, due to Hagrid's unexplained absence and Harry had to endure a two hour session of Defense against the Dark Arts class, which to his horror was being taught by Snape.

For a few horrible moments Harry thought that Snape would try to do what he had done to Professor Lupin and assign reading on Seraphims. But it turned out to be much worse than that. Apparently Solaris had asked Snape to teach the class because this week they would be studying magical defense and illusion potions. Which meant that Monday consisted of one very long potions class.

Harry was also reminded, by Hermione, about the large amount of homework he had been neglecting. It wasn't his fault, really. So much had been going on that homework had just sort of taken a back seat. However by Wednesday Hermione's nagging was so insistent that Harry finally buckled down and started on it just to give his ears a rest.

Harry was also surprised by the way Ginny was acting. She seemed to have gotten over their fight on the field much quicker than Harry would have expected. She wasn't as bright and cheery as normal was but she wasn't totally ignoring Harry either. They still sat together at breakfast and did homework at the same table at night, but she almost never looked at him any more and her smiles always seemed to be missing something. Harry wasn't sure if it was Ginny or him who was different. Either way Harry felt uncomfortable around her.

At last, in what Harry was sure had to be the longest week of his life, Thursday finally came. After the long assortment of classes, his first Quidditch practice, with his new team, arrived. It was horrible. Harry had never seen players so bad before. The chasers kept dropping the Qualfful. The beaters kept sending bludgers at the chasers and even Ron seemed to be having trouble blocking easy shots from getting past him.

Thirty minutes into the practice one of the beaters sent a bludger into a chaser and knocked her off her broom. Harry's quick flying was all that saved her from the severe injury of a fifty foot fall. Through a bloody nose and a red face she announced that she didn't want to play any more. Harry had spent the next twenty minutes yelling at the beater that had hit his own teammate. He too finally decided that Quidditch was not for him.

Not wanting to lose any more players Ron suggested that they end practice for the day, pointing out that they did not have enough players anyhow to continue. Harry agreed but did not follow the rest of his team into locker room. Instead he remained on the field trying to replay in his mind what had gone wrong. But the same conclusion kept coming to him, his team was just bad. They would have to hold tryouts again this Saturday for another chaser and a new beater.

Harry slammed his fist into the ground. One practice down and only five more until their first match against Slytherin. At this rate Harry couldn't see how they were going to win.

---

Harry did not go to divination on Friday. He'd had enough of seeing the future and sitting in a room with Professor Trelawney hovering over him, speaking in her mystical voice only supported Harry in his decision.

Harry had also not found time to get ready for the DA meeting nor was he sure how he was going to conduct it without a wand. All week long Harry had felt his wand's absence. He felt naked without it. Like part of him was lost. He had expected attacks from every side but not even Malfoy seemed to be paying attention to Harry this week.

With his free time from the missed Divination class Harry snuck to the room or requirement and pulled down as many books as he could stomach.

They had many new members that still needed training. They also had many members who were advanced and should be made commanders so that they could start teaching others. But Harry hadn't even taken the time to review the list.

Harry jumped when the door opened and Ron, Hermione and Ginny all appeared. He hadn't found anything new or exciting to teach to the students yet. And certainly nothing that didn't require a wand.

"So this is where you've been hiding?" Ron asked. "Ah Harry you missed a great divination lesson." Ron beamed. Harry looked up unable to believe what he had just heard. "Trelawney tried to enchant this piece of paper and she set it on fire! Course she said it was a dark omen, but most of the class couldn't stop laughing so she let us out early. Oh Harry the look on her face."

Harry smiled weakly.

"So," Hermione asked coming and sitting down near Harry, Ron and Ginny did the same. "What's the plan for tonight?"

"I don't know yet," Harry said closing the book he'd been reading. "I don't really have a plan."

"Well," Hermione said, "I have our new message system ready."

"And I guess I can start forming up squads," Ron said looking uneasily at Hermione. The two of them seemed agitated for some reason. Most likely they were just nervous about the meeting.

Harry looked at Ginny expecting her to have something to say as well but her eyes were focused elsewhere, not really looking at Harry. She had been like that all week long. She had been there but someplace else--only talking when spoken too and never really looking at Harry or anyone else, as if she had tuned the world out. It was starting to get on his nerves.

"Ginny?" Harry asked. She didn't look up as she spoke.

"I don't have anything important to present yet, but I am working on it." Ginny said. Harry nodded. He was worried about her. There had been times throughout the week where he had considered sitting Ginny down and telling her everything about the dream. But Harry just couldn't bring himself to do it.

"I think we need to start breaking up the meetings again. Every Friday is just what we've fallen into but it isn't enough time for us to get new things ready." Harry said.

"Well, luckily," Hermione said pulling something from her pocket. "I have our new message system ready. Here let me show you how it works."

Hermione produced a piece of parchment, two quills and a bottle of ink. She handed one of the quills to Harry then dipped her quill into the ink bottle and began to write.

Harry watched Hermione write the upside-down words. Finally she finished and with a quick tap of the quill the words vanished from the parchment. A moment later the quill in Harry's hand began to vibrate slightly. Harry looked at Hermione confused.

"Go on, write with it," Hermione smiled. Harry touched his quill to the paper and began to write. The words that were coming out were not the words he was writing, they were different.

'The magical pens of Dumbledore's Army,' Harry lifted the quill. The color of the ink was also different. The ink in the bottle had been black but the words were green.

"It's a magical message spell. It copies any message written into the mater pen to the rest. Instead of sending just numbers to our members we can send them fulllength messages. And they can even write us back!" Hermione reached across the paper with her quill and ran a line through the words Harry had just wrote and whispered, 'eradacus.' The words sunk into the parchment and vanished.

Harry had to admit that he was impressed. "Alright," Harry said feeling much more sure about the meeting now, "Let's get set up."

---

It was the first thing all week long that had gone right. Harry was most impressed with Hermione's quill idea and it seemed many of the students were too. But Ron was the real surprise.

With courage that Harry had never seen before, Ron quickly separated members into squads and announced commanders. Harry was even more surprised that Ron had made Ginny a commander. He knew she had asked to be one but it was the last thing he'd expected Ron to do.

The DA was starting to feel like a real army--like they were really taking important steps forward. But Harry still couldn't shake the feeling uneasy. The nightmarish future, dream or not, still weighed heavily on his thoughts.

Harry was still questioning himself. He knew what he had seen was the future, even if it was a dream, and yet he had taken no steps to change it. Every time he thought about saying something Hermione's strange story ran through his head. Each time it seemed to make more and more sense.

At last the meeting came to an end and members departed from the room.

"Well that went very well," Hermione said.

"Yeah," Ron said coming over. The courage and fearlessness Ron had had throughout the whole meeting seemed to have vanished.

"Have you thought about getting a new wand yet?" Hermione asked. She had been asking Harry this all week long. And every time Harry had avoided the question.

"No," Harry said. "I was just thinking I would have it repaired or something."

"That's not the sort of thing you can repair," Hermione said. "Once a wand is broken it loses much of its magic. You'll have to get a new one."

"Is there anything you don't know," Ron asked irritably. Hermione turned on him.

"Only how you continue to speak without any brains in your head," Hermione snapped back. The two friends faced each other like enemies.

"No brains in my head?" Ron snarled back. "At least I'm not a stuck up bitch like you!" Ron turned and stormed out of the room. Harry stood dumb struck, unsure what had just happened. Hermione turned back to him like nothing had happened.

"I think you should send a letter to Mr. Olivander and ask about…" Hermione continued calmly.

"Hermione!" Harry blurted out, "What the hell was that?" Harry said gesturing after Ron who slammed the door to the room.

"It's nothing," Hermione said waving it off. "Ron just can't accept things the way they are."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked. Hermione's cheeks warmed.

"Excuse me," Said a Slytherin boy, who looked like he was a sixth year. Harry hadn't even noticed him still in the room. "I need to talk to you."

"In a minute," Harry said more harshly than he had meant to.

"Please, its really important," the boy pressed.

"Alright," Harry said closing his eyes and waving his hands praying to find calm. Even though he had accepted the idea of Slytherin members the reality hadn't fully sunk in yet. "What?"

"Last Sunday Draco Malfoy approached me," the boy said. Everything rushed out of Harry's head and all he could suddenly think about was that the DA had been exposed. Harry looked around to see if anyone was listening. Other than Ginny everyone except himself, the boy and Hermione had left. Ginny was putting cushions away ignoring the three of them.

"He said he was starting a club and he wanted me to join," the boy said. Harry remained silent thinking. Anything that Malfoy was doing couldn't be good news.

"Did he tell you anything about the club, Morag?" Hermione asked. Morag looked around as though someone might be listening.

"Yeah, a dark arts club," Morag said his face looked a little paler than usual. "And they're calling it the Legion Ex… Ex you-know-who."

"What?" Harry said. "The Legion Ex Voldemort?" Morag shuttered at the name, but nodded.

"Interesting," Hermione said. Harry looked at her, Hermione's behavior tonight had been most odd. She had said "interesting" like she really meant, fascinating. "Well, I mean that. First, they pick a name which everyone is afraid to say, even Malfoy. And second they pick a title that is almost the opposite of ours. The Legion of Voldemort? Were Dumbledore's Army, I mean it's really uncanny. It most likely means that they know about the DA and that it's still active." Harry nodded thoughtfully.

"What did you tell him?" Harry asked.

"I said I would have to think on it, I was too afraid to tell him no." Morag said.

"I don't think you should tell him no," Harry said.

"What, you aren't seriously saying he should join Malfoy's club?" Hermione said in surprise.

"Malfoy may have handed us a golden opportunity." Harry said. "Placement of a spy inside his group. But," Harry looked pointedly at Morag. "It has to be your decision, I won't order you to do this if you don't want to. It will be very dangerous. And if you're found out they might kill you." Morag looked at Harry, thinking for a moment and then took a deep breath.

"When you asked if I was ready to die for what I believed in I said, yes," Morag said determinedly. "If you think this is something that will help us win the battle against you-know-who, then I am ready." Harry nodded and put his hand on Morag's shoulder.

"Alright, let's work out the plan," Harry said.

---

Harry lay restless in his bed that night. The thoughts of what he had just done still weighed heavy upon him. He had sent a fellow student, a member of the DA into something very dangerous. Harry wasn't sure he would be able to get the boy out of if things went badly.

Harry turned his head to look over at Ron's bed again. It was empty. There was worry in Harry's head for Ron too. Why hadn't he come back yet, where had he gone?

Harry closed his eyes trying to clear his mind. But thoughts kept drifting in on him. He wasn't sure when the wonderings finally became dreams.

---

Harry wasn't sure where he was. He didn't recognize the room he was in. A stab of pain coursed through his scar. Harry touched his hand to it and found blood on his fingertips. Evil laughter echoed off the walls. Something was coming. Harry whirled about, his wand coming to bare, but his wand was broken. The face of Snape appeared out of the shadows. His hands were behind his back like he was hiding something.

"Upon the Hour between the days the dark lord he does go," Snape spoke the words like they were a taunt. "What he seeks he soon shall find unguarded and alone. The boy who lived shall lose tonight the love that he holds dear. The shadows will again be free again at five past the New Year." Snape said as he walked. Harry wasn't sure what he was talking about, it was something he had heard before. A riddle? No a prophecy. But he had prevented it, hadn't he? Voldemort had been after Hermione and Harry had saved her.

Snape stopped in front of Harry, his hands coming out from behind his back. In his open palm was a beating heart. Blood pumped from it onto the floor. Snape seemed to be offering the heart to Harry. Harry reached out and took it. As his hand closed around it the heart stopped beating. The outside became black and turned to ash in Harry's hand. Wind blew across lifting the ash into the sky.

Snape took a step away. Shadows cloak him and his eyes began to glow red. It was a form that Harry had seen far too many times. "Time is eternal, I am eternal. What has happened, has happened and will happen again. The past is written in stone. Nothing you do can change the future." The same dark voice said.

"No," Harry said angrily. "You're wrong, none of it has happened, time is not written in stone."

The monster took a step forward. Beneath it was Ginny, naked. She made no attempt to cover her exposed body. But Harry did not find any of this arousing. Blood ran down from her eyes as though she was crying it and her body looked beaten with bruises. Harry staggered away. Ginny reached out an arm and the shadow monster behind her did the same.

Harry felt the claw of the shadow monster close upon his bicep. Pain exploded in Harry's head. Harry pulled away. The arm of his robe had been burned away. Strange black marking spiraled down his arm. With a rush of fear he sat up in bed. His scar was on fire. Harry touched it with his hand. Something wet was there. Harry reached over to the nightstand and turned the light on. It was blood on his fingertips. His scar had never bled before.

There was also pain in his left arm, hidden away by the fire in his forehead. Harry pulled up the sleeve of his nightshirt but there was nothing on his arm, not even redness. Harry flexed his arm as though checking to make sure it still worked. Harry fell back into his bed, his head turning instinctively towards Ron's bed. It was still empty.

---

Harry held his robe tightly against his arm as he stood on the Quidditch field looking across the players that had shown up. There was nothing wrong with it, but for some reason Harry felt like his arm was unclean.

The dream was still vivid in Harry's mind. No matter how much he tried to make it go away the image remained. Throughout the day Harry had been checking his arm to make sure that the marks had not really appeared upon it. Telling Hermione about the dream did not appeal to him. She was his friend and he knew she would listen but he also knew she might tell the teachers about it, and that was the last thing he wanted to happen.

Harry turned his mind to the task at hand, finding a new beater and chaser. Most of the faces were familiar and Harry had a sinking feeling that this tryout would not have much better results than the last. It was almost time to start and Ron still had not shown up. Harry was starting to become worried about him. Without much other choice Harry began trying out Gryffindors for the positions of beater and chaser.

The turnout for the second set of Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts was much smaller this time. Word seemed to have gotten out that the team wasn't doing very well. The day concluded with a new beater, a fourth year named Melanie Boil. Harry had to admit that she was a rare find. Four times out of five she could send a bludger into a target. Harry was very impressed.

They had not, however, found a new chaser for the team. All of the students that had come to try out were horrible. Most couldn't even catch the Qualful on the ground let alone in the air. As Harry finally dismissed the last of the chasers, telling them he would think about it, Ron finally appeared on the field. He looked like he had been awake all night long. His clothing was in disarray and his face was dirty.

"Ron," Harry said taking his friend by the shoulder, "What happened to you mate, I was worried when you didn't come back last night."

Ron looked away and shrugged.

"It's nothing," Ron said. Harry knew it wasn't nothing but he also knew the more he pushed at Ron the tighter his lips would become.

"I don't know what we are going to do about the team," Harry said changing the subject. The last of the Gryffindor students vanish back into the castle. "We're still down a chaser and from what I saw today I'm not sure we're going to find one and have time to train them before the match with Slytherin."

"Well," Ron said darkly. "You could ask Ginny." There was a moment of anger in Harry but it passed quickly. After of the things he had seen, his feeling about Ginny seemed all mixed up inside him.

"I'm not sure we have any other choice," Harry said. "At least we found a great beater though." Harry proceeded to tell Ron about Melanie. Ron nodded but Harry could tell he was barely listening.

"Look, Ron," Harry said, "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

Ron swallowed very hard and his face became sullen.

"It's, it's Hermione," Ron blurted out. Harry nodded. This was ground he didn't want to walk on. He knew that Ron and Hermione and tried the dating thing a couple times. He wasn't sure how much further than that it went but he wasn't sure he wanted to know. What she and Ron did was their business.

"She told me…" there were tears in Ron's eyes now. Had they been fighting? It sure had seemed like it last night. But Harry had never seen it that bad before, usually after a fight they just didn't talk to each other. "She told me… she didn't feel the same way… and… and… Harry she dumped me!" Ron blurted out.

Harry sat dumbstruck. Of all the things he had been expecting to hear that was not one of them. Ron and Hermione always seemed to be fighting like they were married.

"You probably just did something to make her mad, I'm sure she didn't…" Harry said putting his arm on his friends back. He wasn't really sure what to do here. He had never seen Ron like this before. Ron had his head in his hands crying into it them.

Authors Notes:

Every chapter is important to the story and each part adds new important information critical to the ending. As much as I would like to make the next chapter a summary of all the events up to the end (because I want to write the ending sooooo badly) I cannot without killing the story.

I know some of it doesn't make a whole lot of sense at the moment, that lots of questions have yet to be answered but I am getting there.

A minor note on pervious AN's in chapter 18. When I was making a joke of the ripple theory of time I meant that I was merely changing some parts in previous chapters to better match the story. If I had the time I would liked to have written this all out before publication however, since I am putting it up in bits and pieces as I get them written some things are bound to change. Hey this is FREE, I'm not doing this for any reason other than I enjoy writing.

Again thanks for reading (and reviewing). Criticism is always welcome! Don't be afraid to give it. I would much rather be told that something is bad and work to make it better, than be lied to, that it is good, and be thought of as a fool. Flaming of course is never welcome and criticism without cause will draw the wrath of the vengeful god Bob down on your house. (did you know BOB spelled backwards is BOB? And inside out is )BB(, crazy isn't it?)

With that said onto chapter 21!