Author Feedback: Thanks aditivats! I hope the rest continues to hold your interest!

Author Feedback: Very foresighted, I commend you.

To answer your question, it is certainly a good thing. Iain didn't fully explain this, because it was early and his pupils were tired, but what they are doing with wandless magic is giving theirmagic-producing viruses (which I explain in a previous chapter) a jolt of energy through their emotions, anger in this case, which would allow them to expel the potential magical energy stored up within them to release more of it, and therefore expel it from the body without the aid of a focusing device (i.e. a wand).

Think of it like Harry is a rechargeable battery, with magic instead of electiricty, and the magic-producing viruses are his recharger. When he expends energy, the recharger releases some of what it has stored up to 'top off the tank.' What the emotional jolt (which has no scientific explanation at this point) does is force the recharger to release some energy into a full battery. The excess has nowhere to go, so it forces the energy around the edges into the outside world; basic displacement.

The emotional energy achieves this by 'launching' itself into the viruses. A side effect of that is that it is assimilated and reprocessed into magic. Therefore by channelling the anger, they are also expelling it. For reasons that are not yet understood, this only works with the detrimental emotions such as anger, hate, jealousy, and greed.


In response to your second comment, I do have a supplementary explanation. With enough practice, wandless magic can be triggered by any emotion conceivable. However when one is beginning to learn the skill, their cells are not prepared to deal with it; it defies their basic 'programming' of keeping themselves self-contained.Therefore the easiest way to start is to begin with the most powerful, anger and hate, in order to give the cells the larger energy boost they need to bypass the natural defences. They do eventually learn to open up, little bits at a time, to less powerful emotions. This is why Harry is ahead of the game.

Another reason is that anger is easier to isolate than any other emotion.

My point is that this is not a worrisome topic. I spologize if this explanation is a little long, but magial biophysics usually is.

Author Feedback: Well thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying it so far.

I'll be sure to update whenever I can, but it may be a while yet.

Author Feedback: Really? Well now, Cho is involved in a small subplot that I'm rather fond of. It will come up shortly after the Chistmas break, and she won't be doing much of anything until then. In fact, I've already laid the seedlings for it.

All good things to those who wait. The accomplices got off easier, but Zabini's punishment is documented far more fully in some later chapters. I assure you, by the by, it will be extraordinary.

No, I don't mind. What Iain does, quite simply, *is* transfiguration. I explain it far more fully in a little story I'm working on, mostly for my own amusement, that will be posted on ff.net if anywhere.

Iain is, as you have no doubt guessed, a remarkably powerful wizard. The full extent of his abilities is reached later, as well as an explanation as to how he became as powerful as he is. He has reached a level of magical mastery that he no longer needs to use a wand, or even utter the incantation, for his will to be done; he merely needs to will it. In that particular case, he is doing a far more complicated version of what Marvel Comics' Sandman villain does naturally: he is literally turning every one of his cells, and therefore himself, into dust and reforming them into a human again. It's more or less the same way he emerged from the stone statue, and how he will do every transfiguration you will ever see from him.

Author Feedback: I'm working on it. If I can't figure anything out, rest assured I will make up for it.

I don't want to give too much away, but I promise that Zabini's punishment will be severe.

Author Feedback: Last things first: don't worry about sounding negative. I actually prefer negative reviews, as long as they aren't flames, because they give me somewhere to improve. While good reviews make me feel all warm and fuzzy, they don't really bolster my story-telling skills in any way.

On with the show. No, I am still learning the ropes of smut. I read very little of it outside of fanfiction (read: none), so my version is heavily influenced by what others have written. I'm sad to say that the cliches are inevitable in such a case. Predictability stems from the same source. I will try to improve as best I can, and I fully intend to continue with my smut. I will take your advice to an extent however, and will not write much of it. In response to your question: Some people naturally require a lot of stimulation, teenaged or no. Also I do not believe that Harry is completely unexperienced in femenine relations, although he is certainly a virgin. Take that however you will, but in this case the asnwer is yes.

Martial arts in general, not necessarily Japanese. Moody is not an expert on these techniques; his hand-to-hand combat training is mostly street fighting-esque. Use what you can, when you can, to keep yourself alive. Iain, on the other hand, has a great deal of experience in many areas. This is one place where he tops Mad-Eye, so he handles that portion.

Up to this point, keeping in mind that Ch. 11 takes place on September 19 1997 (Hermione's eighteenth birthday), Mad-Eye has been focusing them on magical combat and physical conditioning. More on that in chapter twelve.

Author Feedback: Yes, I gave Harry a ridiculous amount of money. My own personal satire of all those stories where Harry has more dough than he knows what to do with, but they never tell you exactly how much. Now you know!

I do have a very detailed history of Moody's life, mostly because I used to RP as him a great deal, featuring assorted others, and I was planning to include it somewhere. However, since I haven't been able to figure out how as of yet, I'll give you a sneak preview.

In my stories, Mad-Eye was born in 1934. He had a very interesting childhood, and is Irish if you want to know. On the Hogwarts train, September 1 1945, he met the people who would be his best friends for the next seven years (in one case) and the next fifty-two and counting (in the other). These two were Iain Menzies and Minerva Mcgonagall, respectively.

So, to answer your question, they were the very best of friends. When they were at school all three of them were more or less social misfits, so it was them against the rest of the school. Can't really think of anyone else Minny would want to walk her down the aisle, with the possible exception of Iain. Of course he was en absentia at the time, but that's another story for another day.

And don't you worry about a thing, I have no intentions of stopping this. Until I reach the inevitable end of course, but there's already a sequel working in the back of my mind. But you didn't hear that from me. <.<

Author Feedback: Thanks winky! You know, it's people like you that are one of the biggest reasons I keep writing; you actually enjoy my work!

To answer your question, there are several trains of thought on the subject. The first is that all works of literature are already written, and they're just waiting for the right vessel to commit them to paper, in which case I was meant to produce this piece of work. The other largest is that there is a magical closet in an alternate dimension, and every now and then it opens up and drops dirty socks of inspiration through the space-time continuum and into my head. Take your pick.

The quotes are easy; Wikiquote and the small mountain of books I read.

I'll update as soon as I can. In the meantime, I suggest taking a look at some of my other stuff posted on here and ff.net; maybe youll find something else you like.

Author Feedback: *bow* I aim to please.

All your points are true. However, Dementors were not the only factor to be considered. Not only were there an unknown number of them, but there were also an unknown number of Death Eaters milling around in an unfamiliar area. It's a strategic nightmare. And both times when Harry was captured, they had been taken by surprise. The area is already infested with Dementors, so they wouldn't notice another few sneaking up on them.

And to your second; that's the question, isn't it? Death Eaters had also invaded, so we can infer that they had taken over the major defence centres (such as the MLE and Auror department). That would be our best guess, although we really don't know.

Kingsley was killed for two reasons. The first was that it was a surprise attack. He had focused all of his energy at that moment to warn Moody, which left him wide open to a sneak attack. Everyone has their off days, you know. The second reason was that nobody else does it. Just about every other story I've read has had Kingsley live and become Minister. I wanted to break the mould. Dare to be different, as my art teacher used to say.

Oh don't worry about all the questions. It makes it that much more interesting to read reviews.

Author Feedback: Canadian, actually. My mastery of Russian comes from a combination of Wikitionary and an online language translator.

In case you couldn't tell, the word 'mastery' in the above sentence is meant to be sarcastic. *whisper* My Russian isn't very good.

Author Feedback: Harry won't kill him. Even if he was able to, we all know he wouldn't. But that doesn't mean he has to go easy. But what they will be going through is bascally a trial by combat, an antiquated ruling where the victor is deemed to be right and the loser is punished. I pretty much just wanted a good reason to have Harry kick Zabini's ass back to the stone age.

The reason I almost feel sorry for Zabini: He (almost) did a great deal of physical and psychological harm to the person Harry cares most for in the world. Harry is extremely powerful, and does not have an enormous amount of control over his power. Whatever happens to Zabini in that duel, it will not be pleasant.

The dream is your standard deal; he's afraid he can't protect her. It is derived from a number of places: The main basis is taken from the late Richard Bachman's 'The Long Walk.' The black-and-white-but-for-some-very-specific-details element is from Steven Spielberg's 1993 epic 'Schindler's List,' a phenomenal movie that everyone and their mother should see. Actually, not their mother; it is pretty violent.

Author Feedback: Well it shouldn't! Of course I can say that, since it's one my country's proudest moments.

For those of you who don't know, and wind up reading this reply, the Summit Series is a hockey championship between Canada and Russia (who was still the USSR in two of the three Series to date). There were three, in 1972, 1974, and 2007, although the last was called the 2007 Super Series. It was an eight game series, and the two teams pushed it to the eighth. Near the end of the third period, the score was tied. if the Canadians didn't score, the Soviet would win the series based on number of goals.

Then, with thirty-four seconds left in the game, Paul Henderson scored the winning goal in what is undoubtedly the most famous moment in Canadian sports, and arguably in international ice hockey (even topping Wayne Gretzky's record-breaking 894th regular season goal).

And this means nothing to so many of you, it's depressing.

I'm sorry, but this is a really big deal for me. And Canadians in general.