Apology and Sneak Peak!
I would like to apologize to everyone for tweaking all the chapters and possibly spamming inboxes. I was rereading and came across some things such as Arthur's draw had dropped after reading the first line of the sentence and was still hanging open… that really irked me. As I'm sure you've noticed I also have ongoing battles with commas that I am trying to remedy. Needless to say, ignore the earlier chapters as many of the changes are minor – mostly grammatical, minor continuity errors, or stuff that spell check missed. Feel free to ignore them.
In other news, I have finally, after many, many months, finished the first rough draft of Chapter 9 and sent it off to my beta. Hopefully it will be up within the next couple of weeks. I will include a couple paragraphs from the rough draft as a thank you to all of you who have been so patient.
Finally, I think that before the story progresses any further, I need to clarify the issue of robes, since it's going to play an important background role. My first impression of robes that I gathered from the books when I first read them many moons ago was that they were akin to choir robes or graduation gowns. That in my mind has not changed very much over the years and I have found passages in the books that do support this idea. If people really want me to, I can write an accompanying essay for this story on my thoughts on what robes look like, but I think that "choir robes" and "graduation gowns" sums it up pretty nicely. Needless to say, if you keep thinking that "robes" look like what they wear in the movies, you'll be sorely confused in Chapter 10 (which yes, I've started working on!).
Anyways, onto the sneak peak!
"Draco, did you just spend all those Galleons just so we could be related to that blood-traitor lot?" he scowled.
"Well –" Draco began, but was interrupted by a hearty laugh coming from his bride.
"Really, Mr. Malfoy, have you never looked at your family tree? My grandmother was Cedrella Black, which means you became more closely related to 'that blood-traitor lot' when you married your wife." Ginny chuckled and shook her head while Lucius' face grew paler and stonier by the minute. Draco eyed his mother apprehensively.
"Well, dears," Narcissa said hastily. "I suppose it's high time you were off on your honeymoon! Best of luck, au revoir!" She thrust a small silver trinket at the two of them, which they both seized and were sucked off into the unknown.