To Fight the Coming Darkness

The Joke Shop? Of course it was a silly idea... and the events I suggested if pulled on Voldy would of course result in the latter getting cheesed off and flattening the whole place... but it would still be in character. The TWINS are silly.

Good point.  I think when I was writing that section I was too wary of Supercool! Twins - the pranksters that outwit Dark Lords.  It didn't fit well with the narrative I was trying to build.  Maybe if I had sent a bunch of DE thugs it would have been a good scene, but the novelty of Voldemort going into WWW was too good to pass up.

Actually I'd always figured the joke shop was rather thoroughly boobytrapped - the baddie pulls out a wand, whoever's on duty cries "Zounds! A Death Eater!" and the attacker gets a puff of dust in the face that turns him into a giant canary, or gets dropped into a cage in the cellar, or gets sucked up by a giant vacuumcleaner into a cage in the attic, or a large boot descends upon him from the ceiling, a'la Monty Python.

Fair enough point, but I always thoguht it was a silly idea.~Jim

Hm, interesting going over Greyback's past. Though all that backstory, interesting as it was, seemed to be kind of pointless, as he was killed soon after.

If Harry doesn't figure out a plan to save them both, I hope he chooses Luna purely on rational resoning. Sure, Fred's going to get tortured, but Luna would be getting tortured AND raped. Seems like she's getting the short of the stick.

Little taken aback over the death of George, and how quick it came about. But this is war, and characters don't get an invisible shield around them just because we like them.

I was kind of doing the whole CSI beginning there where you get a snapshot of the victims life before it is brutally snuffed out.

Lee and Katie also got whacked.~Jim

Wow. Loved your imagining of how Fenrir Greyback came into being. Also adored how you mentioned Voldemort in the back of Quirrell's head during staff meetings. Horrified as I am at the carnage (noo! You killed them all! It's just not fair! etc.), it's refreshing to read Voldemort killing people in Diagon Alley not just yelling "Crucio!" at his own Death Eaters. You've definitely achieved a meaty villain. Poor Luna!

Voldy had to get to the top by gettin his hands dirty.  War is seldom fair, but thanks anyway.~Jim

Voldie thinking about whoppee cushions at a Death Eater meeting was a snorter.

Poor Neville - heck, POOR Luna.

Perhaps my crowning achievement, having Voldemort shopping in Fred and George's store!  I recall when I first published this chapter that I lost a chunk of readers due to the deaths of several characters in this chapter.  Some made it seem like the end of the world!  I didn't know that George, Lee and Katie were that essential to victory.  Hope you liked my more violent version of Hagrid?~Jim