Chapter 14 - Clara Oswin
The next two days passed very quickly. After he'd gone back inside the castle, Zyrath had immediately began the process of clearing up the battlefield by removing the remains of the dead Zygon soldiers. He had then graciously left the castle's grounds clear of Zygon activity for 24 hours, so that the students and teachers could remove their dead as well. It had been a long and heartbreaking process, with many students becoming overwhelmed with grief as they stared down at the remains of their fallen classmates. Unfortunately, only a small number of the bodies were identifiable, as the majority of casualties were caused by the Zygon dehydration gun, which left only a few bone fragments and pieces of tattered cloth. All one could do about that was to stare sadly at the piles of bone and wonder if you were looking at all that was left of a dead friend.
Negotiations began on the second day, with the Professor Smith appointing himself the human representative, much to the teacher's annoyance. Although they tried hard, nothing they said would make him change his mind.
"The Zygons will listen to me, and you lot would only mess the whole thing up," he said, before being teleported to the Zygon command ship.
After several hours of debate, Professor Smith, General Zyrath and Commander Gratan finally reached a decision. The Zygons would remain on Earth, but would colonise the many Scottish lakes, allowing them to live undetected by any human. While Zyrath had readily accepted the proposal, Gratan seemed more reluctant, wanting to wait for several more days before what he called, 'rushing into action'. Zyrath disagreed, and the decision was made to notify the Zygon Council of Professor Smith's proposal, while Professor Smith would seek the approvement of the teachers at Hogwarts.
There was, however, one final loose end to be resolved...
Professor Smith and Zyrath stood up.
"Great. The teacher's should agree; they're a sensible lot." Professor Smith said. "Oh, I believe that you're still holding several students captive in one of your ships, would it be possible..."
"To release them? Yes, of course. Gratan will take you down to his ship now," Zyrath replied.
"So it was you who captured Ron and that other woman?" Professor Smith said, frowning at Gratan.
"Yes," Gratan said indifferently. "Step into the teleportation booth, please."
Professor Smith complied, and it wasn't long before he felt himself being pulled apart by the blue residue of the teleportation energy. A second later, the large negotiating room of the Zygon spaceship was replaced by a dimly lit, crowded control room of another vessel, the one crashed at the bottom of the lake.
"So this is the source of my troubles for the last month," Professor Smith commented, striding out of the teleportation booth. Something caught his attention as he looked around the room.
"Oh, a Time-Space Visualiser!" he said delightedly, spotting an instrument on what appeared to be a control panel. "I keep forgetting about the one in the TARDIS, haven't used it for, oh, about a thousand years. But," he added, frowning, "where'd you get it?"
"The War," Gratan hissed.
"Sorry?"
"The Time War. We were on our way to this miserable planet when we found it floating in space. We recognised it as Time Lord technology, and...adapted it."
"So that's how you knew to impersonate that other woman." Professor Smith said quietly. "You found a bit of rare Time Lord space junk and used it to show the future." He gazed at Gratan for a few seconds before taking out a pair of glasses and putting them on. "Well, you won't be using it anymore, the circuits are all fried," he said, tapping the instrument. "Not really compatible with the organic ship you've got here."
"An unfortunate development. A device such as that has infinite possible uses. I could see whether your proposal as to where we should settle will work. Or look back at history...the Time War, perhaps."
"Well, that's not gonna happen," Professor Smith said calmly. "The War's Time-Locked, a Time-Space Visualiser would never be able to break through to view what lies within. Not that you'd want to know anyway."
"Why not?" Gratan hissed. "The myths and legends of the War are not able to be trusted, I would prefer an account of someone who actually experienced it..."
"Ah, the amber sleep controls," Professor Smith said, ignoring Gratan. "I'll just turn it off...there we go!" he said brightly. He turned to Gratan. "Which way to the cells? I spent half a year trying to get in last time, I'd rather I only spent about five minutes this time, if you don't mind."
He made for the door, but Gratan blocked his way.
"I'll take you where you need to go when you tell me what the War was like!" he said loudly. His eyes bulged, and his face was contorted into some kind of maniacal grin; he seemed very eager to glean as much information about the Tome War from Professor Smith as he could.
But something else had attracted Professor Smith's attention.
"Hold on," he said angrily, marching over to an obscure part of the room. "A time reverser!" he said, picking up box-shaped device with a display screen and several controls on it's uppermost face. "So this is how you degenerated me!" Professor Smith said, glaring at Gratan. "You scavenged more Time Lord technology, then cobbled together this. I wouldn't be surprised if it's got a bit of dalek technology in it as well."
He put the device back. "You're just lucky that Zygon's are rubbish at temporal engineering, or you'd be in a lot of trouble," he warned. "Now, I'm only going to say this one more time: take me to the amber sleep chambers!"
Gratan scowled, but relented and showed Professor Smith to the amber sleep chambers.
When they arrived, they were greeted by thirty odd confused Hogwarts students, plus one extremely irritated journalist.
"Excuse me, could you please tell me what the hell is going in here?" Rita Skeeter asked furiously the moment Professor Smith walked into the room.
"Yes, yes, in a minute," Professor Smith said quickly, before raising his voice. "Alright, alright, calm down," he said loudly.
To his surprise, the chatter if the students died down almost immediately.
"Right, now I'm sure you're all confused -"
"To right we are!" called a Hufflepuff student. "Where are we?"
"You're on a ship at the bottom of the Black Lake," Professor Smith explained. "You were kidnapped by Zygons, but they've agreed to let you go." He shot Gratan an angry look. Something about the Zygon Commander wasn't right; it was if he was going along with everything, biding his time. Someone would have to keep an eye on him.
"Gratan, if you would be so kind to activate the teleport..."
Gratan flicked a switch.
Several of the students screamed as their bodies were surrounded by blue sparks, no doubt reminding them of how they'd been captured in the first place. A moment later, however, the lost students of Hogwarts were standing in the Great Hall.
At first, the students were a bit confused, but they soon cheered delightfully when they realised where they were.
"We're back in Hogwarts!" a Second Year shouted.
"How'd we get here?" a Fourth Year asked.
"Must've apparated," his friend replied.
The other occupants of the Hall were initially stunned to see the new arrivals, but soon hastened to greet them, with friends hugging each other while the teachers made sure that everyone was unharmed.
Rita Skeeter quietly slipped away during all the hullaballoo. Wouldn't she have a story to give the Daily Prophet when she got back to London! They'd have to hire her, that Granger woman be damned.
Dumbledore detached himself from the crowd of rescued students and made his way over to Professor Smith. "I must thank you, John," he smiled, shaking Professor Smith's hand. "You've done Hogwarts a great favour."
"Oh, it's nothing, don't worry about me," Professor Smith said, shrugging the compliment off. "Just enjoy the peace while you still can. For some reason I'm getting the feeling that it's not going to last..."
"No, John, I refuse to allow it!" shouted Umbridge. Professor Smith had called a staff meeting in Dumbledore's office to discuss the plans for the Zygons to colonise the lake. So far, only Umbridge had disagreed with the proposal.
"Why not?" Professor Smith shot back. "They've as much right to life as you do!"
"B-b-but we can't have our enemies living in the lochs surrounding the school!" spluttered Umbridge. "That's madness."
"Yet we have the centaurs living in the Forest, and the merpeople living in the Lake," McGonagall pointed out.
Snape nodded. "And according to you, they're our enemies as well."
"That's different!" Umbridge said at once.
"Of course," Dumbledore said amusedly. "But I'm afraid, Dolores, that you no longer have the right to make decisions for the school.
"Oh, and why not, Albus?" Umbridge sneered. "Last I checked, I was still Headmistress."
"That's true, and you still are, officially," Dumbledore admitted. "But I find it curious how Hogwarts recognises authority, and how that authority remains with me."
Umbridge took several deep, calming breaths. "This isn't about the school, Dumbledore, it is about thr Ministry," she said through gritted teeth. "The Ministry would have to classify these 'Zygons' as creatures of near-human intelligence, then restrict them to certain areas so they won't attack us -"
Professor Smith sighed in exasperation. "There's no danger, Dolores. The zygons will keep their word and never attack the school again."
"Can you be one hundred per cent certain?"
Professor Smith hesitated, giving Umbridge an opportunity to go on the offensive.
"There!" she cried triumphantly. "We can't even be certain that allowing these zygons will keep their word! At the very least, they should all be rounded up and tagged. Personally, I think they should all be killed, every last one of them!"
Professor Smith narrowed his eyes. "Are you suggesting the magical community commit genocide?"
"Yes, I am!" Umbridge said proudly. "And I will get an official order from the Minister himself."
"You think you can appeal to a higher authority?" Professor Smith asked angrily, raising his voice. "You can't, because there's no one. It stops with me!"
"Then you're too late," Umbridge said smugly. "A hit squad of aurors and dementors are on their way to clear out the Zygons."
Professor Smith groaned and ran his hands through his hair. The woman was mad, there was no way she would listen to a logical argument! He changed tactica..
"Dolores, listen to me," he pleaded. "You have no hope of killing the Zygons. Even if you somehow manage to kill the ones here, the Zygon Council will just send reinforcements! They'll destroy Hogwarts if need be!"
"Nothing can destroy Hogwarts," Umbridge declared, walking out of the room. "Especially not filthy half-breeds."
"For the last time, you can't fight Zygons!" Professor Smith shouted desperately at her retreating form. "Humans!" he muttered, before dashing out of the room, heading down to classroom six. He had to stop Umbridge.
"Oh my god, Ron!" screamed Hermione, running towards the redhead as she and Harry walked into the Great Hall. The had finally decided to leave the Forest after several hours of silence from the castle. To their relief, everything had been all right.
"Geroff, Hermione," mumbled Ron into her shoulder as she hugged him. "I'm fine."
"I know, it's just – it's just that I was so s-scared about you, Ginny, Fred and George," Hermione sobbed in relief.
"It's okay, they're all fine. It's just," he swallowed heavily, "...well, we lost a lot of good people today. Parvati, Seamus..."
"Seamus?" Harry asked in disbelief.
"Yeah," Ron answered shakily. "He fell right on top of me, though I s'pose it'd be more accurate to say that he blew all over me. I never want to see that happen to anyone, ever again."
"I'm with you there, mate," Harry agreed solemnly, remembering the sight of Crabbe's skin drying and cracking like parched mud, until it fell apart.
'They're dead,' a voice in Harry's head said. 'Parvati and Seamus are dead, killed by the zygons. How many others were killed too, how many did you know person-.'
'Shut it!' a second voice said viciously.
'But it's true,' the first voice continued nastily. 'You are a coward, you put yourself and your friend over the lives of everyone else. They became second to you. How disgusting is that; imagine what how your mother feels, knowing that she sacrificed herself to save someone who doesn't have the decency to do the same for everyone else!'
"I SAID, SHUT UP!"
Harry came to his senses, realising that he had fallen to his knees, clutching his head. Breathing heavily, he stood up.
"Come on," he said shortly, walking quickly out of the Hall. Hermione and Ron exchanged glances before following him.
They found him in classroom six, standing next to a window, overlooking the lake.
"Harry, what was it? Did you get another vision?" Hermione asked worriedly, as she and Ron walked up to him.
"No," Harry admitted. "It's just that...Am I a good person, Hermione?"
"Of course you are, Harry, you're one of the few truly good and selfless –"
"No," Harry said, cutting her off. "I'm not selfless."
Ron laughed. "Course you are, mate. Look what you did in second year, you went all the way to the Chamber of Secrets just to find and save Ginny."
"And your fought of a hundred dementors in third year," smiled Hermione.
"But that was different, Hermione," Harry said. "When the Zygons landed and started attacking...all I could think of was to run. I should have stayed and helped the teachers protect the rest of the school, a shield charm, or maybe a patronus could have worked!"
"You're thinking of weak excuses, Harry..."
"No, Parvati, Seamus, Ernie, Padma...they died, and it was all my fault!"
"Despite our best efforts, there are always those you can't save."
All three Gryffindors whirled around to see Professor Smith leaning against his blue box, a large, gun shaped device propped up next to him.
Ron's mouth dropped open in shock, and he reached for his wand, but Hermione held him back, shaking her head.
"Yeah, but that only counts if you tried. All I did was run away!" Harry said.
"Yes," Professor Smith said firmly. "And if you'd stayed, chances are you would have been killed. Sometimes, running away is the best thing you can do."
"How would you know?" Harry shot back, angry. "Every time something bad happens, it's because I run away. Ginny almost died because I ran away from my duty of telling Dumbledore about our suspicions. My parents died trying to save me because they ran away. Umbridge made this place hell because Dumbledore ran away. Lots of people died a few days ago because I ran away. VOLDEMORT ALMOST WON BECAUSE PEOPLE LIKE YOU RAN AWAY!"
"Harry, calm down!" Hermione said desperately. "He's a friend."
Harry took several deep breaths, realising that, in his anger, he'd marched right up to Professor Smith, and was staring him in the face. "Well?" he demanded.
Professor Smith looked at Harry, pain and suffering evident in his eyes. "It hurts," he said simply. "Running away hurts, but sometimes, you have to do it. Believe me, I know."
"Explain."
Professor Smith sighed, at sat down at his desk. It was time to tell Harry, Ron and Hermione the truth.
"I know, because once, a very long time ago, I ran away myself. I suppose you could say it all started when I stared into the Untempered Schism."
"The untempered what?" Hermione asked.
"The Untempered Schism, a gap in the fabric of reality, from which the Time Vortex itself could be seen. Children from my world were made to watch the raw power of the universe, as an initiation into the Academy. Some were inspired, some went mad, and some ran away, scared."
"What did you do?"
Professor Smith stared off into space. "I ran away; never stopped really. I went through the Academy, got married, had a few kids then...ran away again, taking my granddaughter with me. In time, I ran away from her too," Professor Smith sniffed. "That's the one thing I've always regretted," he said sadly, "running away from the one person I loved more than myself. After that, my entire life's been me running away from my past, never once looking back. I hate myself; I'm a monster" he said, spitting the words out like venom. "That's the truth, Harry. People run away, not to save others, but to save themselves. I'm over a thousand years old, how do you think I'm still sane? I've had so much pain and loss in my life that the only way to life through it is to run away. Oh, there have been times when I've stood and fought for what I believed to be right, but it never works. Running away is the only refuge I've found."
Professor Smith looked sadly at Harry for a moment before jumping to his feet. "Righto, we've got to stop Umbridge before she gets us all killed."
The sharp u-turn in emotion was quite jarring, and Hermione blinked in surprise.
"By using that?" Ron asked, pointing at the large, gun shaped object.
"Well..."
"What is it?" Hermione asked, frowning. "It looks like a weird gun."
"You're right, it is a gun, but it's a lot more advanced than normal ones. It's a De-mat Gun," Professor Smith explained. "It erases anyone or anything from space time, so that they never existed. Found it in a cupboard in the TARDIS, must've been left over from the..." he coughed.
"Professor, Professor!"
Professor Smith looked up to see Clara Oswin run into the room.
"Yes, Clara, what is it?"
"Professor, the other Professors sent me to tell you that the dementors and aurors have arrived!" Clara said, bending over to catch her breath.
Professor Smith stood up, shocked. "I thought they'd be slower! Allons-y!" he cried, grabbing the De-mat Gun and running out of the room.
"Professor," Clara called, rushing after him. "If I'm not mistaken, that looks very much like a gun."
Professor Smith glanced at her. "How would you know?"
Clara smirked. "Muggleborn. Our knowledge isn't as limited as the general magical population. So, is it a gun?"
"Unfortunately." Professor Smith grimaced. "I don't like guns, in fact, I hate them, but given the circumstances..."
"But you're not going to use it?"
Professor Smith snorted. "Course not. But Umbridge doesn't know that, does she?"
Clara grinned.
"Oh, by the way," Professor Smith said. "Did I ever say I was sorry for causing your mental breakdown?"
"No..." Clara said. "You still owe me an explanation as to why you look different anyway...you are Professor Smith, aren't you?"
Professor Smith nodded.
"Then why do you look different?"
"Degenerated into my previous body. Long story," Professor Smith said as they hurtled down the marble staircase. "Anyway, sorry for your mental breakdown. I thought you could handle it faster-than-light travel."
Clara shrugged. "I learnt a lot," she smiled.
Professor Smith grinned.
Back in Classroom Six, Harry was still sitting in his seat, contemplating what Professor Smith had said. He had to admit that running away made sense, especially for self-preservation, but Professor Smith had said that he'd done it to keep himself sane. What had Professor Smith done to warrant such drastic action? But still – running away from anything and everything? What a coward.
"Harry! Harry!"
Hermione shook his shoulder in an attempt to get his attention.
"Yeah?"
"We need to go, otherwise we'll never catch up to Professor Smith."
"He was wrong, Hermione."
"Sorry?"
"Professor Smith was wrong. Running away is never the right answer. You need to stand for what you believe is right, and defend it to the death, no matter what the consequences. Running away gets you nowhere."
"Oh, Harry," Hermione said softly, taking his hand. She paused before continuing. "Come on, we need to go!"
Harry sighed and got up, following his friend out the door.
Out on the grounds, Umbridge was addressing the contingent of aurors and dementors, preparing them formtheir attack on the Zygon ship.
"You lot will attempt to enter their, err, vehicle from the entrance, while the dementors will charge from all sides. If everything goes to plan, the dementors will distract any weapons the vehicle may have, allowing you all to get inside, kill the half-breeds, and take control. Understood?" Umbridge addressed the crowd of aurors and dementors.
The aurors mumbled a reply and moved to take their positions, but the dementors ignored their orders and glided past them to the Forest.
"Where are you going?" Umbridge shouted at the dementors, but to no avail; they ignored her and kept gliding.
"What are you waiting for?" she shrieked at the aurors. "Go and get them!"
"Looks like your army is deserting you, Dolores," Professor Smith said cheerfully, approaching Umbridge as the aurors rushed off to follow the dementors.
Fuming, Umbridge turned to see Professor Smith standing a short distance from her, Clara right behind him. "This is all your fault, John!" she said, pointing a stubby finger at him accusingly.
Professor Smith shook his head. "No, it's yours Dolores. I'm giving you one chance to call off the attack. This whole thing can be solved peacefully."
"You are mistaken then, John. This conflict will not be resolved until every zygon has been rounded up and killed!"
"Then you leave me no choice." Professor Smith raised the De-mat Gun to his shoulder, pretending to aim. However, before he could attempt to force her to call off the attack, he found the gun spinning out of his hands.
"For such a knowledgeable person, you seem to forget a lot, John. There is such a thing as a disarming charm, remember?" Umbridge said sweetly.
Professor Smith's eyes went wide.
"I've had enough of your interference, John," Umbridge continued, her wand trained over his heart. "If the Minister knew what was at cost...yes, he'd let me do it."
Professor Smith frowned. Umbridge seemed to be trying to reassure herself of something.
"Yes, I will do it," Umbridge declared shakily. She took a deep breath, moving her wand so that it was aimed at Professor Smith's head. "Avada Kedavra!"
A stream of green light burst from Umbridge's wand before Professor Smith could do anything but blink. His eyes widened in shock – he wasn't sure whether the dose of radiation would be enough to kill him. He wanted to move, but his feet were rooted in place. He stood staring as they green bolt drew closer and closer -
"Doctor!" Clara screamed, shoving Professor Smith out of the way.
"No, Clara!" Professor Smith cried, as the spell hit the girl, sending her flying backwards like a rag doll. The energy from the spell furled sround her yiung body, its green tendrils leaving no part of her body untouched. With a thump, her body landed heavily on the ground, her eyes staring straight up, unseeing as the left over engergy briefly danced across her body before dissipating.
"CLARA!" Professor Smith ran over to her, already knowing that she was dead, but wanting to make sure, just in case, by a miracle, she was still alive. Bending down, he felt for a pulse in her neck. Nothing.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Professor Smith muttered quietly, stroking her hair, before standing up, extremely angry.
"You just MURDERED an innocent girl!" he shouted at Umbridge, who flinched. "An innocent girl, who was just on the verge of entering the adult world. She was seventeen, SEVENTEEN!" he roared. "And you killed her!"
"She was with you, hardly a loss," Umbridge retorted. "Order must be maintained."
Professor Smith glared at her, before suddenly reaching out and grabbing her wand. Ignoring her squeaks of protest, he snapped it violently over his leg and threw the pieces away. "You're right," he said, deceptively calm. "Order does need to be maintained."
Sneering at Umbridge, he walked over to the De-mat Gun, picked it up, aimed it, and cocked it.
"I wasn't intending to use this before, but you've made me change my mind," he said determinedly, hatred etched on his face. "Killing you isn't good enough – this will erase you from existence."
Umbridge paled visibly. "No, you wouldn't, no!" she begged as he advanced menacingly on her. Stumbling, she fell to the ground, and crawled desperately to a tree, backing up against it.
"Try me," Professor Smith spat.
Umbridge closed her eyes, waiting for her non-existence.
"No," he said, dropping the De-mat gun and walking up to her.
Umbridge's eyes snapped open. "What?" she asked disbelievingly.
"Even non-existence is too good for you; you need to suffer, for eternity."
Umbridge raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? I think it more likely that you just can't bring yourself to use a weapon."
"You're right, he can't," a voice from behind Professor Smith said.
Professor Smith whirled around to see Harry holding the De-mat Gun, his extreme anger disappearing almost immediately. "Harry, what are you doing?" he asked, confused.
"I saw everything, Professor. Hermione, Ron and I, we saw Umbridge kill Clara. After all she's done to me this year, I think she deserves this."
Professor Smith's went wide as he realised what Harry intended to do. "No, Harry, you mustn't!" he cried desperately, but Harry ignored him.
"You've always told me that I must not tell lies, Professor Umbridge," he sneered. "And you're right, I mustn't. So I'll tell you something. Professor Smith can't bring himself to use a gun, but I can." He pulled the trigger.
A beam of golden energy shot out of the gun and sped towards Umbridge, enveloping her in a shimmering sphere. Umbridge only had time to give a small squeak before the sphere collapsed in on itself, erasing her from time and space forever, leaving no memory of her existence.
Author Note: Umbridge is dead! Or non-existent, but 'dead' sounds better! Is her fate a just sentence for murdering this version of Clara? And to clear a few things up, yes, the Doctor was going to use the De-mat gun after Clara was killed, the only thing stopping him was the prospect of making Umbridge suffer for eternity.
Replies to reviews:
Wonderbee31: Hmm, a one-shot were a character basically points out all of Ten's flaws does sound quite good. I'll think about it and add it to the list of possible future stories. Yes, I quite agree, Tom Baker is how you should play the Doctor, he was amazing. As for how we'll get 11 back (or rather, make 11 look and behave like 11 again), you'll have to wait and see!
arylos: I'm very sure the 8th Doctor just did a Superman and reversed time or something to bring Grace and Lee back, no exchange of regenerations involved. Yes, the Master is the definition of escaping the 12 regeneration rule, or at least attempting to.
Almost. If John Hurt's Doctor turns out to be the true 9th Doctor, then 12 will be the last incarnation of the Doctor, unless, like you said, that number was added to by River (which, I must stress again, isn't confirmed canon...yet).
TracyFace3: Yes, I agree with that statement, although I do try my hardest to make 10 sound like 10. It may also have something to do with the fact that I haven't regularly watched episodes with 10 for years, and so his mannerisms, etc aren't at the forefront of my mind.
Can't it? O_o And yes, you probably should! :p
SuOmAlAiNeN92: First off, thanks for the constructive critisism! You raised some valid points.
Hermione's quick acceptance that 10 is Professor Smith comes from the fact that she is extremely logical. She knows that Barty Crouch had his soul sucked out, and that no one can survive that. She also find Professor Smith to be very weird, which is also her first impression of the man in the Forest. She puts these to facts together, adds in the fact that the man said he was Professor Smith, and accepts it. That being said, I do agree that that scene is probably one of the weakest in the whole story, and needs some more work. I'll also address it later on in the story, probably after the Doctor looks like 11 again.
As for Snape, I think it is perfectly reasonable that the head-butt-to-transfer-memories works on him. And, as much as he's extremely horrid to Harry and co, I can't see him behaving the same way around his colleagues. Plus, with the school dealing with a life-or-death scenario, he'd have abandoned his nastiness to focus on defending the students and the school. He is a much better person than is generally believed.
It's Umbridge, I don't imagine she has that much brainpower when it comes to common sense and practical situations. She's only good with politics and cunning, etc.
And yes, an ontological paradox is a valid explanation, but that doesn't mean the teachers understand what it means! And just because the Doctor teaches science doesn't mean that the other teachers have any idea what his curriculum is. Sure, they might ask him, but would they really understand what he says? I like to imagine that they think he's a bit weird, and leave him alone for the most part. As for why they didn't consider whether Voldemort had rescued other Death Eaters? Well, for all they know, he could have, they just didn't turn up at Hogwarts!
I'm a fan of CinemaSins, and check their channel every now and then. They're very good!
MrsDalek: Thanks! Attention to detail is something I'm focusing on with the rewrite, and it's really enhanced the story. Thanks once again!
JoWashington: Off the wall? In what way? I'm genunitely interested as to why you think that, actually! Thanks!
transformice907: Thanks! Crabbe's not really that important (poor Crabbe!). With regards to the Room of Requirement scene, in this timeline, it'll be Goyle who dies from the Fiendfyre, just like in the movie. Thanks again!
taynikmadenmark: As shown in this chapter, that didn't happen!
Guest: Thanks! I hope the Sequel lives up to everyone's expecations!
Lovesbugsalot: Thanks a lot!