Author notes

Harry's characterisation in this story is taken from "That Idea?" by Elsbeth Ravensblood, FFN story ID 13539450. Meaning, Harry loves magic but he scorns British magical people. Harry sees "Light wizards" as Pureblood bigots who don't have the courage to say they're bigots.

The words in this chapter are a mixture of JKR's words and my own.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapter 8, the behaviour of Amelia Bones is a puzzle. She does not join the Fudge-Umbridge lynching party that is trying to convict and punish Harry, regardless of the law or the facts; but Bones keeps interrupting Harry's testimony and she actually calls Harry "boy" during his trial. NO. Even a cadet Auror would know better than to do something this unprofessional in a courtroom, much less the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. So I am throwing out JKR's canon portrayal of Amelia Bones, and substituting my version of Director Bones from my prior stories.

In the aforementioned canon Chapter 8, there is no mention of Lucius Malfoy being present at Harry's trial.

In most of my Harry Potter stories, I write Harry as close to canon, both in terms of personality and magical abilities. However, in "The Snorkackic Trio" and "Hermione's Prophecy," I gave to Harry, Merlin-level magical power. Beginning here in Chapter 2, in this story Harry shows Merlin-level magic, combined with a Muggle-born's scorn for British wizard-raised magicals. In this story, Harry is not close to canon at all.

In the previous chapter, I was not clear about one part of the timeline. At Grimmauld Place, Sirius, Harry and Hermione walk into the kitchen at 4:40, and are sucked into arguments with Molly, Ron and Ginny. Arthur also is in the kitchen, but takes no part in the argument. Remus is reading in the library. Sirius stuns Molly, then refuses to

Rennervate her after Arthur leaves the kitchen (and the house). Sirius tells Ron in essence, "You want your mother awake, you revive her; I refuse to." Then Sirius leaves the kitchen. Sirius then goes to the library or to the loo (take your pick), but he does not

go to the Floo Room. At 5:04, when Sirius and Remus saunter into Dumbledore's office, coming from the Grimmauld Place Floo Room, Molly has been awakened (sometime between 4:40 and 5:00) and has already flooed to the headmaster's office.

I hate not being clear in my writing, and I apologise to whoever was confused by that part of Chapter 9.

Reader Bane2000 suggested edits to the relevant paragraph in Chapter 9, which I put in, with minor changes. The relevant chapter now reads: "Sirius smiled at the gobsmacked faces of all the Order members already there, whilst he made a cheery, relaxed wave.

Sirius ignored Dumbledore completely, and likewise ignored Molly (who was glaring at Sirius). Sirius felt surprise that Ron Weasley was able to wake his mother in time, but decided not to say as much to Molly. Eventually Sirius sat down, next to Remus (who had sat down next to Tonks)."

In this chapter, Gringotts follows the same rules for dealing with thieves that I laid out in "The Boy who Planned" Chapter 5.

When a thief is caught, Gringotts tries to transfer 110 percent of the stolen money from the vault of the thief to the vault of the theft-victim.

When a shortfall results because the thief does not have enough money in his vault,

Gringotts seizes property belonging to the thief, and transfers ownership of the property to the theft-victim. Neither the thief nor the theft-victim has a say in what property

Gringotts shifts in this way. When the value of the shifted property is greater than the shortfall, the theft-victim does not have to repay to the thief any of the property's extra value. When Gringotts has a choice, Gringotts transfers property whose value is much, much greater than the shortfall, as a way to mindfuck the thief and to make him bitterly regret his choices in life.

If all of the property of the thief is shifted and a shortfall still exists, the thief is beheaded. If the thief's situation is not so dire, the thief—besides getting his money and property shifted—is sent to work in a goblin iron mine or gold mine. The length of the sentence depends on how much the thief stole. Even if the thief stole only one galleon,

the minimum sentence is six months of hard labour in a mine.

Gregory Goyle's letter contains many misspellings. Spelled correctly, what it says is this

—

To Harry Potter, who is Lord Goyle and Lord Crabbe and Lord Parkinson,

Demodocus Cooper is a Death Eater who was not at Malfoy Manor when you killed everyone there. He is calling together a group of other Death Eaters you didn't kill,

along with kids who you killed their fathers (Vinnie Crabbe and Pansy Parkinson). They plan to attack your new school sometime this week. That's all I know.

Pansy's a right bint, but Vinnie's just stupid. Please don't kill Vinnie if it's possible.

You killed my Pa too, but it's not like you walked into the dining room whilst he was eating with me and Ma and Galina, and you AK'd him in the back. You killed Death Eaters and Pa was a Death Eater. But then you saved Galina from becoming a whore, and I like it you did this.

At the end of Chapter 2, I promised you that Dumbledore would suffer "a fate worse than death." In this chapter, Dumbledore gets karma'd in a way that he hates, and that I guaran-bloody-tee that you readers never have seen before.

The "SPEAK-speak-speak-speak TRUTH-truth-truth-truth" spell (imagine an echo- chamber effect) that I use to great effect in this chapter, appeared before in Chapter 7. Only Merlin has the magical power to counter the spell.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I know what some of you are thinking: "Gregory Goyle's timely tip saved many lives at MMA, and especially saved Hermione's life, and Goyle's only 'reward' is a bloody thank- you letter?"

Goyle eventually will be richly rewarded, but this won't happen till Chapter 24.

Some of you are wondering who Sam Flint

JKR never tells us whom Daphne Greengrass marries after Daphne sits her NEWTs, so I made up a name and a backstory for Daphne's husband, as "unrevealed canon."

Sam Flint is the younger brother of Marcus Flint and is two years older than Daphne. In unrevealed canon, Daphne and Sam become betrothed in her sixth year, after Sam has finished Hogwarts. Daphne and Sam marry in late June of 1998. Sam Flint, like his older brother and his father, takes the Dark Mark and becomes a Death Eater, sometime after June 1995.

In many of my alt-history stories, the Daphne Greengrass-Sam Flint relationship is changed by the events of the story.

Again I give a warning to readers for whom English is not their native language: I've set up another pun. Ginny Weasley's shout of "Harry Potter's back!" can mean either of two things: Harry Potter is back or the back of Harry Potter. Hermione deliberately

misinterprets Ginny's words.

In this chapter is a scene of a little girl transfiguring peas and carrots into frozen mint ice cream. LeQuin wrote a similar scene in "Picnic Panic."