corwalch posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 8:55am

I love it. Waldorf the idiot, just made it possible for Harry to steal all the evil aritfacts that the Church has. I look forward to reading the next installment.

Adam posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 8:48am

this was fun, and I get the idea that the vatican will realise that backing harry into a corner is a bad idea lol.

So harry has a price on his head, oh well wonder who will try to collect on the bounty next.

I can see that hermione and blaise are getting along following hermione's blunder concerning harry :)

warpwizard posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 8:32am

Very good stuff. Nice levels of ambiguity. Also fairly exciting. :)

I'm thinking that Harry should abscond with Basilisk and Dark paraphrenalia and create his own, supreme, cache of evil artifacts. Or just destroy all but one and move that one + Bask to the COS.

uthamm posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 8:02am

Wow. Just . . . wow. Your work is always fantastic. This series and the 'Betrayal' series are two of my top five in the whole fandom. I love the Harry that you have created here - savvy and confident, dangerous but moral, mature but insecure, powerful but trustworthy, scheming but impulsive. I love the 'I wonder if this is how Slytherins always think' line and Ron the 'two-metre-plus Celtic berserker throwback' getting physical with the Malfoy throwback enemy was priceless. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your talent.

nigellusblack posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 7:40am

Brilliant Chapter, can't wait to be read more.

kainboa posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 7:28am

great chapter, can't wait to see what harry will have the huge snake do about the artifacts

keep up the great work :)

Eliew posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 7:26am

Hmm...interesting battle Harry had against the bounty hunters, y guess would be that they were sent by the mafia. Is Harry going to persuade them to remove the bounty on his head?

As for the deal with the Basilisk, my guess would be that Harry getting everything transferred to some other location, together with the guardian, probably the Chamber of Secrets, or some other such places, since Harry currently doesn't really trust Dumbledore, unless he isn't going to let the headmaster knows about about the new Hogworts tenant.

amulder posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 7:09am

That is really, really going to irritate Dumbledore. Putting a Basilisk BACK into the chamber of secrets?

I think the man might have a coronary.
Or at least lose his cool.

So what is up with Darius, Hmm? The man is on his way to an early retirement I'd say.

The plot is quite complex, I must say.

Banner posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 6:50am

That was intense - exciting and intelligent. The characterizations and motivations were excellent. I love it when people have reasons (other than just being "the good guy" or "the bad guy.") The basilisk said that it had been down there for two thousand years. That's a very significant number, under the circumstances. Was it Peter who bound it?

Shawn Pickett posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 6:30am

I can't wait to see what Harry has up his sleeve for this one. I expect Waldorf will be lucky to find himself living at the end of this. I found the situation with the Aurors to be somewhat amusing, I'm assuming that will blow over after a bit. I also find it to be an interesting gag how you manage to put off the inevitable Harry/Hermione confrontation. The funny part is, there really is nothing for it, as the situation stands now, the only feasible course Harry has in regards to Hermione is to break up with her (remember that Hermione is generally one of my favorite characters). The lack of trust she displayed in him with her read on Harry's actions towards Snape displays that their relationship is a failed one, they may remain friends, but for them to try to continue as something more would be a lie.

bratling posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 6:25am

Need more, please!

Prince Charon posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 6:04am

Very, very interesting. I like Harry's sense of irony.

Thank you for the update.

More soon, please.

Kinsfire posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 6:00am

Why do I have this horrifying thought of the Vatican having to admit that their ENTIRE collection has gone missing? (More precisely, they'd claim that it was time and past to destroy them all, and send more wizards to hunt down and try to kill Harry. Again.)

I have a sneakling suspicion that Harry may have to pay a visit to Falcone personally and inform him that he will be next if he keeps sending people to try to kill him for his son's stupidity.

Actually, from what little I know of the Mafia in Italy and Sicily, there's a good chance that they'll start sending people covertly into England to go after Harry. A Mafia Don of Falcone's type can't let the death of his son go unpunished, so he'd start expanding his operations. And the Ministry is certainly corrupt enough to have almost the entire Auror Corp sell out to him.

Nice bit with the Pope giving himself plausible deniability there. And to kill to problems at the same time - the basilisk and Harry, the only person to break in and steal something. The situation with Waldorf was siomply too pat for it to have been anything but a set-up by His "Holiness".

As for Hermione in this relationship, unless Blaise starts showing some pretty ugly blemishes soon, it strongly appears that the romantic area has been rather neatly worked out. She explodes and does something stupid and then takes forever to try to apologise, then yells at him again in a letter, not understanding that perhaps he doesn't exactly have an idea of how to deal with her anymore. Meanwhile, Blaise comes across as righteously angry, with no real other faults coming to the fore. Now, the interesting thing would be if she tried to give Harry an ultimatum - "Either Hermione OR me - if she stays, I go." Given this Harry, I'd imagine that he'd take that as well as any of the other threats he's been given, and probably even politely show her to the door. Then SHE'D have to figure out how to repair the damage she'd caused, much like Hermione MIGHT be trying to do.

Sorry - these are just my thoughts on what I've been reading. This is an engrossing story, and I was rather pleased when I saw that the chapter was up. You do an excellent job, and I await all your stories eagerly.

DrT posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 5:34am

Puir Harry -- and Waldorf is going to be in a great deal of trouble after this stunt goes wrong!

"T"

darthloki posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 5:23am

Love these lines:


I sighed with exaggerated pleasure and gave a little twist of my wrist, letting the wand in my right sleeve drop into my waiting hand. "You know, it’s been months since anyone tried to kill me," I said casually. "I was beginning to feel distinctly unappreciated."

A veritable cascade of red, gold, and silver sparks erupted from the tips, which caused a number of small fires in Dumbledore's beard and hair.
You know, sometimes life just gives you a free kick. As much as I'd like to claim that, it was an accident.

I shrugged. "He can wait. So can the owl from the Pope. I need some advice."
One of Zab’s eyebrows migrated north. "Papal correspondence can wait? This sounds intriguing."

or he had learned that poking a lion with a stick was not a good thing to do when the only thing between you was the lion’s ethics.

"A muggle author once wrote that there are four different kinds of homicide, Professor. Felonious, excusable, justifiable and praiseworthy. While it would make little difference to Snape himself, I’m quite sure three-quarters of Wizarding Lawyers schooled at Hogwarts in the past fourteen years would argue that the death of Professor Snape falls into the last classification."

Finbar posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 5:21am

Ya know, I love how casual Ron is about all the shit that goes on in Harry's life. He is just so laid back. A trip to Itally....cool... Assasins ater us? Ok, whats for lunch. Brilliant!
Now Harry is going to abscond with the entire Dark collection and stick it in the Chamber of Secrets! After all, All secret chambers need a Basilisk! *snickers* I wonder how the Pope will react? His top dog, betrayed him, has been issuing death threats and was now directly responsible for the guarded collection of Dark Artifacts that the Popes have guarded for 2 milenia, to be stolen. Not just that, stolen because it was proven that the Vatican CANNOT be trusted. I just hope that HAry is bright enough to place the entire Chamber of Secrets under the Fidelius Charm. Dumbledore simply isnt trustworthy enough to get access to whats down there. It should also make the Snake happy.

Wonderbee31 posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 5:17am

A great section, with Harry getting exposed to more politics, as well as the way that others react around him. Going to be interesting to see what he and the Basilisk come up with to keep it from dying, and how he and Waldorf will interact afterwards.

atlantis-rob posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 5:05am

Wow! Great chapter D! That was great with the trip with Ron. The street fights setup and result were highly entertaining though I am very suprised that harry doesn't know at least a basic translation charm for reading/etc. The meeting at Popeland was excellent and the dialogue snappy. All of a sudden I think a Bailisk may be living in the basement of Grimauld...Cheers!!!!

aemon_targaryen posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 4:53am

As always, I enjoy reading your work. I love this Ron you've created-he's grown up and yet remained entirely Ron. It might be my favorite of all the Rons I've read-most writers do too much to accentuate his negative qualities, or try to do an "Extreme Makeover" of his entire personality and make him "Hero 1B" to Harry's "Hero 1A", or even worse-try to replace Harry with Ron. I rather like how you've kept the romance stuff in the background-it's interesting, but not the focal point of this story. I guess Italy's corruption is prevalent even in the magical side of things. I'm very curious to see what kind of deal Harry strikes with the basilisk. Looking forward to reading more of your work.

ThadiusZho posted a comment on Friday 23rd February 2007 4:52am

I'm just imagining a conversation.

"Hello Albus. The items in the Pope's secret room are now in the Chamber. Oh, here, a portkey to the place so you can look around."
"Thank you Harry. I thought you wouldn't give me permission to see them."
"You can go ahead. By the way, I also brought the Basilisk that was in the secret room. Hope you don't mind. It's just double the size of the last one. Oh, look at the times. Gotta split."

Great chapter. Loved the interaction with Ron and Wal the Dorf...