#i found a weirder one. (drawing) it reminded me of last year and the beginning of this year. but it makes me feel less weird actually

[squirmydonnie]

Old Cookie drawings from 7th grade

[let-it-raines]

Prompt: we met each other while each doing the (separate) walk of shame after a night out with other people.

Just a continuous shoutout to @shireness-says for sending me the most random but best prompts and also for only judging how bad of a cook I am a little 😘

on ao3 | here | if that’s how you want to read!

-/-

Emma doesn’t have rules about a lot of things in her life, but she has rules about this, about one-night stands.

Rule 1: They are always, always, always one night.

Rule 2: They never come back to her place.

Rule 3: She always gets up and leaves before they wake up, if she falls asleep there at all.

It’s not the nicest move in the world, but, well, Emma isn’t hanging around with these guys to be nice. She’s not there for the small talk, for the sink sharing as she brushes her teeth with a little toothpaste on her finger. She’s definitely not there for the breakfasts. She’s sure that they’re fine, that some of them are more than good, but, well, she doesn’t really care enough to get to know how the guy likes his eggs. The guy definitely doesn’t care how she takes hers. He probably just wants another fuck, and no matter how good the night before was, Emma doesn’t do more than one time.

Rule number one and all that.

And it’s not that she’s going around having one-time things all the time, and it’s not that there would be anything wrong with that if she was. But she’s been around the block enough times to know to come up with her rules.

Right now, she hates herself a little for falling asleep, but she’s become a tad bit rusty on this whole thing. It’s been awhile since she’s done this. She was with Walsh for a year, and, well, it took her awhile to need to scratch the itch after that ended. But last night…let’s just say she needed to last night, so she put on some mascara and a red lip, found a dress that was a little too tight and a little too low cut, and she went to a club for the first time in ages. She nearly texted Ruby and Mulan and asked them to come with her, but she chickened out at the last minute.

Emma Swan: catches bad guys for a living, chickens out asking her friends to go drinking and dancing with her.

The cold morning air nips at her legs and her shoulders, and she wraps her arms around herself as she dodges a sewer grate to keep her heel from getting caught. She’s nearly to her apartment door. She won’t freeze before then. Still, next time she’s remembering a jacket.

Emma speeds up when she’s a building away, especially as more people start leaving their apartments and heading for work or the gym or wherever else people go on Saturday mornings, and just as she’s reaching for the side door of her apartment building, someone else’s hand touches it first. She watches it, taking in the dark hair over the knuckles and up his forearm, and Emma’s eyes follow up his arm. He’s wearing a dark gray shirt that only has one or two buttons down at the bottom in order to show off an impressive amount of chest hair, and when she looks at his face, the first thing she notices is how messy his hair is and then the red pillow creases on his cheek.

Oh.

Emma blushes, but she doesn’t know why. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, especially since they’re both coming home from the same exact thing.

The man flashes a smile, bright white against the black of his slightly overgrown stubble, and pulls the door open before gesturing for her to move forward.

“After you, love.”

“Thanks,” Emma mumbles.

She ducks her head and walks inside the building, reveling in the heat that immediately comes down on her skin. She walks down the hallway, and the guy’s footsteps follow behind her. She gets into the elevator. He does too. If she didn’t slightly recognize him, her shoulders would tense and her nerves would stand on edge. She does recognize him, though, from around the building. She’s sure she’s seem him once or twice before.

“Cold out there this morning,” he whistles as his fingers begin to toy with his shirt, one more button closing, not that it helps.

“Yep.”

“Almost makes staying until they wake up worth it.”

“Or paying for a damn cab.”

He huffs and tilts his head back to scratch his jaw. That is an unfairly sharp jawline. “Killian Jones. Floor seven.”

“Emma.”

“No last name? Or floor number?”

“Oh Jones,” Emma sighs, twisting toward him. She crosses her arms under her bust despite knowing it will draw attention to her boobs, and sure enough, he glances down. “You’re going to have to watch me do the walk of shame a few more times before you get any of that.”

There’s that smile again. The door opens on his floor, and he steps through the opening but still places his hand on the door to keep it from closing. “It’s only a walk of shame if you’re ashamed of it. I prefer to think of it as a stride of pride. Or perhaps, just a very satisfied walk home.”

And then he’s gone, and the doors close behind him as Emma goes up one more floor.

-/-

“Well, you certainly look different.”

Emma’s shoulder’s tense, and slowly, she turns on her head to see what jackass is talking to her. It takes her a moment to recognize him, a moment of cold weather and tired eyes and the slightest bit of a hangover, but she rarely forgets a face. Or a man who displays that much chest in nearly freezing weather. Then again, she was doing the same. She notices he seems to be doing the same thing now while she’s got on a shirt that covers almost all of her.

“Yeah, well, I find flannel is much more comfortable than skin-tight sequins.”

She’s in her pajamas in the lobby of her building getting the mail. Yeah, most people are just now getting home from work and are in real clothes, but when you have the day off, there’s no reason to put on real pants.

“Oh, I agree. I can’t tell you how uncomfortable it is when I have to wear sequins, Swan.”

She fully turns. “I never told you my last name.”

Killian leans forward and taps on her mailbox where E. Swan is written. Just below it, there’s a K. Jones. Oh.

“If you’ll excuse me.”

Emma locks her box and steps to the side so Killian can get his mail. There are only two envelopes in there, and one of them is a slip to pick up a package from the front desk. Emma swears it’s the only reason they still have these mailboxes. She realizes she’s standing there staring at the back of his head and at the suit he’s wearing even though she has no reason to still be there. She needs to be back up in her apartment getting dressed to go to the gym since she’s neglected it all day today. She should have gotten up this morning and gotten it over with.

Idly, she wonders what he does for a living, but then she remembers she needs to go before she seems weird.

Weirder.

She’s definitely already weird.

-/-

He’s at her gym.

Granted, it’s literally the gym in the building next door to her where all of the residents go, but still. She’s never seen him in there before.

She also rarely goes at this time.

He’s running on the treadmill in a fitted shirt and pair of joggers, and she’s on the elliptical behind him, warming up before her Pilates class. Emma ducks her head and focuses on her music and her movement, trying not to draw his attention.

When he winks at her in the mirror, she knows she’s failed.

When she nearly falls over on the elliptical, she decides she’s going to have to move apartments.

(Not really. She’d never leave this place, not when it’s a damn good apartment.)

-/-

Emma hates doing honeytraps. They feel demeaning and a little sexist, but they work. She puts on a skintight dress, pushes her boobs up, combs out her hair, and she can get the guys she needs to pay her enough attention that she can easily handcuff them and bring them down to the closest precinct.

Tonight, it went fine. It took her longer to curl her hair than to get the guy to flirt with her at the bar, but on her walk back to her car from the precinct, someone drove by and splashed dirty water all over her. It was a good dress. She should have worn the cheaper one.

It’s long past midnight when she gets back to her apartment, and even though she looks like she’s the one who got arrested tonight, she walks through her lobby, nodding at the night guard, and then heads toward the elevator with her wet shoes in hand. It’s amazing that no one complains about her and gets her kicked out. There’s a group of women in this building who take pride in judging anyone who isn’t just like them, and Emma avoids them at all costs.

Who she can’t seem to avoid, however, is Killian Jones, because he comes sulking in the side door and gets in the elevator at the last moment, sticking his hand through the closing doors until they open back up just for him.

“We have to stop meeting here,” he teases.

“I believe last time we met at the gym.”

“Well, I’d say we’d have to stop meeting there as well, but I’m sure you had a grand time staring at my ass as I ran.”

“Are you always this conceited?”

“Confident.” Emma rolls her eyes as the elevator doors finally close. “Rub some detergent on your stain and then scrub it with a toothbrush before washing it. The stain should come out.”

Emma looks down at her outfit. It’s far beyond the point of repair, especially with a toothbrush. “Uh, thanks.”

“And maybe don’t sleep with a man who ruins your dress like that.”

“Oh, this is from work,” she laughs, adjusting her heels in her hands.

“What in the bloody hell do you do?”

“Bounty hunter, bail bonds, things like that. A little bit of everything. This,” she gestures to her dress, “was an accident from a reckless driver speeding outside the police station.”

“Just who are you, Swan?” Killian asks with a smirk and raised brows. She has a feeling he does that a lot.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

He smiles at her teasing, leaning in that little bit closer to her, and she’s reminded of how small this space is. Emma wants to change the subject from herself, so she quickly asks, “aren’t you a little too overdressed to be coming home from your…stride of pride?”

He smiles and scratches behind his ear. “Coming home from the office, actually.”

“It’s one in the morning.”

The doors open again on his floor and he steps outside, holding his hand to the door. “Work never stops when your boss is an asshole who thinks contract negotiations cannot be handled during normal business hours. See you around, Swan.”

Emma waves and smiles as the doors close again.

-/-

Emma goes weeks without seeing him, and she nearly forgets about the man who keeps seeing her at slightly low points in her life. It all goes on. She goes to work, and since the scumbags are out in full force, she makes enough in a month to cover rent for six months. It feels damn good to be that secure in her life when half a decade ago she never would have been able to consider living in a nice place and knowing she could pay for it. She goes out with her friends, sometimes stays in since David and Mary Margaret are homebodies ever since they decided to try for a baby, which Emma knows way too much about – seriously, Mary Margaret shares details about the positions and tracking apps and womb temperatures, and it’s a great way to make sex seem unappealing –  and things get back to normal as winter melts into spring and the miserable chill of Boston fades away.

But then she has a bad day.

“What do you even know about family?”

The words were spit at her as the man ran out of the restaurant in the same way that he’d run out on his family, and even though he’s now going to be held accountable for his actions, nothing about it sat right with Emma. How can you have a family and just leave them? Why do people keep doing that?

So instead of going home, she goes to a bar, ordering a drink and sitting in the corner as she watches other people drink and talk and, quite frankly, dance poorly. It’s entertaining if only because it keeps her mind off her own life, and then she sees him.

He’s in dark jeans and a button-down, black leather jacket still on, and even though he seems to be in a group of friends, Emma walks over to him, tapping him on the shoulder until he turns to look at her with a smirk and a raised brow.

Yep, he definitely does that move a lot.

“Fancy seeing you here, love.”

“I could say the same to you.”

The smirk widens to a smile, and he has ridiculously blue eyes. She didn’t even know that kind of blue was possible in such dark lighting.

“Swan, this is Rob, Will, and Eric. Mates, this is Emma. She lives in my building.”

They all mutter different versions of ‘nice to meet you’ and Emma returns the platitudes. Then Killian orders her another glass of wine while ordering himself some more rum, and instead of sitting alone all night, she sits with him.

And his friends. But she kind of forgets about them as she talks to Killian. He’s charming, funny too, and while she tends to think corporate lawyers must have had their soul sucked away at some point in their lives, she doesn’t think that about him.

She likes him.

It’s a weird feeling after going so long floundering around after Walsh, not sure that any man is capable of keeping her genuinely entertained for more than an hour, but it’s three hours later, and her jaw hurts from smiling. After earlier, she definitely didn’t think she was capable of smiling that much.

Or at all.

At some point, she tells Killian her guilty pleasure food is grilled cheese, as greasy as you can get, and they end up in a small diner with grilled cheese and cups of coffee in front of them. It’s damn good grilled cheese, and after she finishes chewing, she covers her mouth and laughs.

“What?” he asks with his mug in front of his lips.

“You really took me to get grilled cheese as if me liking it was a personality trait.”

His brows raise, little lines raising with them, and he takes another sip of his coffee. “I don’t know about you, but a night out drinking now isn’t the same as when I was twenty-two. You have to do the hangover prep beforehand.”

“Old man.”

He shrugs. “I imagine I’m not much older than you.”

“Yeah, but I can handle my alcohol better.”

“We’ll have to see about that another night.”

“Yeah?”

“Oh, absolutely.”

They leave the diner and the neon signs behind sometime around three in the morning, and when they get back to their apartment and into the elevator, Emma gets off on the sixth floor instead of the seventh.

-/-

Rule 3: She always gets up and leaves before they wake up, if she falls asleep there at all.

When Emma opens her eyes, she knows she’s failed herself.

The sun is shining through his curtains, indicating that it’s long past her normal escape hours, and even though the view outside is the same as her apartment, she knows that she isn’t in her apartment. Not even close.

Well, geographically speaking, no, she’s actually very close. She’s only one floor below. Her bedroom is right above this, and her bed is in the exact same place.

But her bed is empty, the covers still pulled up, and there isn’t a naked man in it.

Or a naked Emma.

Shit.

Killian’s hand is on her boob, his leg half-draped over hers, and slowly, she moves them both off. She has to go, to get out of her, but just as she’s moving him, he moves himself.

Closer. He moves closer.

“Hmmm, morning,” he hums, flicking his finger against her breast before moving it down over her side and to her hip. His hands are surprisingly calloused for someone who spends all day in an office, but she likes it. She remembers thinking that last night too. “Do you want breakfast? Or do you need to go? Either is fine with me.”

She’s almost offended he gives her choices, but then she realizes what he’s saying. He doesn’t care if she stays or goes, and that makes the ball of anxiety in Emma’s chest get smaller. Emma flips over to face him. His hair is a mess and a red mark is on his cheek. He sleepily grins.

“I need to go. This was great, but it was a one-time thing.”

He flips over on his back and crosses his arms behind his head. The comforter is pulled just low enough on his hips that she can see just enough to entice her to stay, but she doesn’t. She goes, getting dressed as he watches her before awkwardly saying goodbye.

“It’s a stride of pride,” he yells out, his accent thicker than usual, and Emma finds herself smiling as she closes the door behind her.

-/-

Rule 2: They never come back to her place.

Okay, so the thing about Killian living in the apartment below her is that he knows where she lives. And that’s fine. She’s pretty good at reading people, and she didn’t peg him as someone she needed to worry about. From their first meeting, she knows he’s comfortable with one-time things. He’s not going to be someone who tries for more, which is what she’s like.

But now he’s at her door, take-out bag in hand, saying he stopped by after work but decided he didn’t want the grease. Is there any chance she’d like it?

She would.

And despite the fact that she practically raised herself and didn’t exactly teach herself manners, she does have some. So she lets him in, offers him some coffee that he takes, and they sit and talk for awhile, about nothing and everything and all of the other things in between. It’s nice, and it’s not until he takes off his suit jacket and undoes the buttons on his shirt that she remembers that they slept together.

Several times in one night.

Because she’s, well, an idiot.

And now he’s at her place drinking her coffee while she eats food he brought her. It’s all a little too domestic for her, a little too comfortable, so instead of water, she grabs wine to dull her mind.

“You like wine?” Emma asks.

“Love it.”

“Good. Let’s drink.”

Killian chuckles. “Let me finish my coffee first, and then I’ll join you. Mind if we move to the living room?”

She absolutely minds. That’s a horrible, horrible idea.

“Not at all.”

-/-

Rule 1: They are always, always, always one night.

She messed up.

Big time.

Okay, so she’s messed up big time, multiple times.

Because Killian is asleep in her bed with only his boxers on, she’s wearing his shirt like some kind of movie cliché, and there’s a mark on her neck that’s going to require some makeup to hide.

Great. Just great.

It can’t get any worse.

-/-

She offers him breakfast.

He accepts and stays.

Shit.

-/-

Emma’s life is pretty unpredictable. From her job hours to her appetite to the outfits she’s going to wear. She likes it that way. It keeps her from getting bored or thinking too much. She likes not having a routine.

She likes it, and plans on keeping it that way.

But little by little she starts to notice a routine forming.

He’ll show up at her apartment with food. She’ll show up at his with nothing most of the time but sometimes a bottle of wine or rum, since she now knows that’s what he prefers. They talk, they laugh, maybe they watch a little TV, but it always, always, always ends up in the same place.

In bed.

Or on the couch. Once or twice in the kitchen even if that is the devil on her ass and her knees, but in the moment, she’s not thinking too much about that.

Or about how she’s broken every single one of her rules more than once. They are gone, out her window, and she doesn’t know how to get back to them.

Emma doesn’t think she wants to. She likes this arrangement. She’s got a friend and a fuck buddy all in one, and she doesn’t have to go out to find someone. There’s no lingerie or hour’s worth of makeup or heels that hurt her. It’s pajamas and whatever unmatched underwear she happens to have on that day. Killian doesn’t care, and she likes that.

She likes spending time with him.

That was not in the plan.

-/-

There’s a tap on her bedroom floor. Then another one. And another.

Emma picks up her phone.

ES: Are you hitting a broom against your ceiling?

KJ: Yes, come down here.

ES: You come up here.

KJ: No. I need to show you something.

ES: If it’s your dick, I’m not leaving my apartment. I’ve seen it.

KJ: And it’s very impressive, I know. But no, that’s not it.

Emma laughs and rolls off her bed, pulling on boots with her jean shorts and t-shirt. She looks ridiculous, but she doesn’t care. When Killian opens his apartment door, he glances down at her for a moment, but then he’s ushering her inside and shoving a stack of paper in her face.

“What’s this?” Emma asks.

“Read it,” he insists, bouncing on his feet.

Emma reads it, doesn’t understand what the hell any of it means, but there are two very clear words written at the bottom.

Junior Partner.

Holy shit.

“They’re making you partner?” Emma gasps, looking up at him. “Holy shit, Jones!”

“I know,” he laughs. “Who would have thought the arrogant, Navy-educated asshole would make Junior Partner at the ripe old age of thirty-five?”

“Hey, you’re only, like, a minor level asshole.” He rolls his eyes, and Emma drops the paper down before stepping forward and wrapping her arms around his neck. “Congratulations. You deserve it.”

“Oh, I definitely don’t, but if I’ve fooled them into it, I won’t correct them.”

Emma laughs and hugs him tighter as his hands move up and down her back, settling just above her ass. “Should we celebrate?”

“What are you thinking?”

“Go out? Or stay in and eat cake? Sex?”

“There’s a company party at my boss’s house if you’d like to come.”

“All for you?”

“No,” he laughs, kissing her forehead and patting her back once more. “For the fourth tomorrow, but it’s free booze and free food.”

“Then I’m there.”

-/-

Even with the free booze, free food, and ridiculously gigantic pool, Emma kind of regrets coming to this thing. She doesn’t know anyone but Killian, and every single person keeps calling her his girlfriend even when he corrects them.

Emma is definitely not his girlfriend.

But after awhile, there’s only so many times you can deny it, and Killian starts telling people different stories of how they met, making them more ridiculous as he goes along. She doesn’t know how this won’t backfire since he has to work with these people, but he assures her they all work in different departments. He never sees them, and they never see each other.

To one man, they met on a cruise. To another, it was in the buffet line at a shopping center. To someone in accounting, they met at a cooking class where Emma was just struggling so much that he had to come help her out.

She’s offended even if that’s totally what would have happened had she gone to a cooking class.

There are so many different stories and meetings that Emma can’t keep up, especially as she tries to remember names. Eventually she gives up and laughs along at how good of a liar and storyteller that Killian is. She could listen to him do this for hours.

And she does.

The sun starts to set, and they settle on a swing in the backyard, his arm around her shoulder as they sway back and forth. Her skin is sun-kissed, her eyes tired, and she hasn’t felt as content as she is right now in a long damn time.

“This was fun,” she tells Killian.

“Aye,” he agrees, kissing her temple and rubbing his hand up and down her arm. “Thank you for coming with me. I’m sure you had better plans than to come to this.”

“Not a one.”

He raises his brow. “No?”

“Nope. I can’t think of anything better than drinking free alcohol and lying to your coworkers about how we met. None of them know it was because both of us were coming home from one-night stands.”

“And that’s the most romantic one.”

Emma tilts her head back in laughter. “Ah, yes, the old ‘we met after fucking other people.’ A classic love story.”

Killian kicks at the ground to keep them swinging, and Emma pulls her legs up, curling them underneath her. “You know, Swan, that was the best one-night stand of my life.”

“She that good?”

“I don’t even remember her, but I remember running into you. You were, are, gorgeous, and I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Believe it or not, I do fancy you from time to time.”

Emma’s heart is doing something ridiculous, and she doesn’t think she can stop it.

“Is it all the orgasms?”

He laughs at her joke, but he pulls her closer, resting his cheek against her head as they keep moving. “Those are bloody fantastic, but I like other things about you too. I like doing things like this, talking, having a cuddle, watching my boss make an idiot of herself on her diving board. I’d like to do it more often.”

“Are you asking me out on a date?” She’s half-joking, but when she twists her head to look at Killian, she sees that he’s not.

Oh.

Oh.

“Aye, I am. If you’re amenable to that.”

Emma gulps to get air down in her lungs, and before she can think too much about it, she nods her head and leans up to kiss Killian in a way that she’s never really kissed him before – with no intention of it leading to something more than this, the two of them swaying on a swing wrapped around each other. “I would definitely be.”

“Good. Tomorrow?”

“I’m busy. Going out with a new guy. But maybe another time.”

She knows his eyes roll as he kisses her, and Emma could get used to this.

-/-

New rule: Never, ever, ever kiss anyone but Killian Jones ever again.

Emma thinks she can definitely stick to that rule.

[halothenthehorns]

THE HEIR OF SLYTHERIN

THE HEIR OF SLYTHERIN

James kind of got the worst chapter on this, again, didn't he?

HPHPHP

James began, feeling like ice was trying to freeze him over. He really didn't want this chapter, but he also was dying to know what on earth had happened to his son down there. Steeling himself, he forced out.

Harry found himself in yet another long chamber, with the ceiling so high up he couldn't even make it out, and no light source visible though everything had a green tint to it. Stationed and spaced around the room were stone carvings of snakes larger then Harry, all seeming to watch him walk. Which only reminded him of where the Basilisk could be.

"The Basilisk still isn't my biggest concern right now," Remus grumbled, "I want to know who dragged Ginny down there, who's been doing this stuff all year!"

Harry just looked at him miserably, as hungry for those answers as any of them.

Still, his biggest concern was, where was Ginny?

Then he nodded to himself, this question was still number one to him. Despite his gut feeling that Ginny was okay, in this particular moment anyway, he still had no idea what to make of that other memory flash, he desperately wanted to hear the book confirm this.

Still walking along as quietly as possible, he tried to ignore the paranoid feeling that the frozen snakes were watching him, and a few times the shadows made it seem as if they were moving.

"Creepy," Sirius said, drawing the word out for emphasis.

The end began creeping into sight, and Harry found himself facing a huge wall that climbed high above his head.

James bleakley remembered just a few hours ago when he'd made a joking comment that he hoped Harry found this place. It was something new, a part of the school's history that hardly

anybody would have known about. He'd wanted his son to find something like that, now he just wanted to drag him out of there as fast as possible.

Harry had to tip his head all the way back to make out the person etched into the stone, whose features seemed monkeyish.

All three boys couldn't help but release a snort of mirth at the beginning of that description. All five of them had a very good guess that this statue was of Salazar Slytherin, and the three boys were picturing someone walking up and calling him a monkey to his face.

The dry humour only lasted for a moment, but it was appreciated nonetheless in the tense silence. As much as they were all praying Harry would simply find Ginny and get out of there without running into anything, if history had taught them anything so far, Harry's life wasn't going to be that easy.

Laying facedown at the foot of this, was a small body with bright red hair.

"Ginny," they all breathed, Harry in relief, the others with trepidation.

So Harry had found Ginny like they were hoping, but the fact that she was face down meant absolutely nothing good. Could Harry's gut reactions finally be wrong, and the poor girl was

already dead? James wasn't going to sit around speculating, he blasted on.

Harry ran forward without thinking, throwing his wand away in a panic,

"You did what!" The four of them screamed. It must have been quite a racket, even upstairs, because the baby went off again. Gently placing the book aside, James blasted off to the stairs,

while Lily demanded, "Harry, he was joking right? You didn't really-"

Harry didn't even begin to deny it, his abashed face was all the answer they needed. His only defence was, "I'm sorry. I panicked, it was in my hand and I wanted both hands to-" he trailed off giving a helpless shrug, "I know now it was stupid."

"At least you recognize that," Remus sighed, flopping back against the couch.

"Honestly, remind me again why we don't have an elementary wand-safety class?" Sirius demanded. "Don't put your wand in your back pocket, don't toss it around like a stick, don't go

waving it around like a toy." He said all this in a very huffy tone of voice, clearly mimicking someone Harry couldn't place as he continued in his normal tone, "I didn't even like her and I

listened to those stupid rules."

"You can't call them stupid and then say they're needed," Lily pointed out as James came back down the stairs, childless and only slightly less grumpy than when he left.

"I thought you said you put a silencing charm on his room?" He directed at Sirius, pretty sure he was the last one to be up there.

"I did," he defended at once.

"Well it must have worn off then," he sighed, flopping back into his spot, "good lord how long have we been at this?" He demanded of nothing, rubbing at his eyes, then directing at Harry, "I

assume they all told you why that was stupid then?"

"We didn't have to," Lily defended, "he recognized it was stupid himself."

"Atta boy," James said, grinning weakly, "guess I can't blame you too much. You were in a pretty awful situation."

"Merlin," Sirius said in shock, causing the three of them to turn their attention to the other two, "has anyone seen the time? We've been at this all day, it's no wonder the charm wore off."

James really did check his own watch then and let out a low, throaty whistle while saying, "damn, we missed dinner."

Lily released a snort of mirth before saying, "well, we'll have a late one then. I don't want to delay this any longer, and I want Harry out of there. So keep reading James."

He shrugged, in no mood to argue the point, and began a little more easily now that he'd had time to clear his head.

so that he could grab her shoulders and roll her over to find a face whiter than snow and so cold. Her eyes weren't opening, which meant she hadn't been Petrified. His mind jumped to the only other thing...

All five of them shivered in disgust. The four of them never having even met Ginny, and still horrified at the mental image of the dead girl. Harry felt sick inside, even knowing it wasn't true, that was one memory he would gladly erase away all over again.

Harry kept shaking her anyways, watching her head move lifelessly as he begged her to wake up. Then a voice behind him whispered that she wouldn't.

They all started then, not having expected that. They had thought whoever had dragged Ginny down there must be with the Basilisk, so if someone was talking to Harry then they didn't need the book to tell them something really awful was about to happen.

Harry turned around to find a dark haired boy leaning against one of the stone snakes and watching him.

"You didn't recognize him?" Sirius asked, puzzled at once that a name hadn't been in there.

"He must be someone at the school though," Remus said, brow furrowing in confusion. "Admittedly we haven't come across anyone this year who it could be, but no one but the students

and staff are in the school enough for him to not stick out and be suspicious."

Harry was frowning for a different reason this time, somehow knowing the answer was going to be far weirder than anyone would see coming.

The longer Harry stared, the more he noticed that this boy was blurred around the edges, like looking at him through fog.

This just piqued their interest even more. By that description, it clearly meant whoever this boy was, he was wasn't really there. But they'd never heard of this type of communication before, which still didn't bode well for Harry.

Still the name jumped into Harry's mind, and he whispered Tom Riddle.

"Wha-" James began, triple checking that he had read that right.

"That arse who framed Hagrid all those years ago?" Sirius demanded. "You must be joking?"

Harry shook his head sadly from side to side, saying aloud, "no, it was him, or else he has a twin brother who looks and sounds just like him."

"But, fifty years later?" Remus demanded. "I don't care about genetics, that can't be the same person, or even his son. No one looks exactly like someone else. This isn't possible, he still

wouldn't look the same."

"I think you're all missing the point," Lily whispered, eyeing the book with high trepidation, "which is, why is he down there with Harry?"

That brought them up short. The odd realization that some kid who still looked the same fifty years later was weird, which had derailed them from what Lily had reminded them. After a drawn

out pause, James finally asked, "how?"

"With any luck, he'll explain, 'cause I've got nothing," Harry sighed, looking longingly to the book. He was very sure that the headache that was pounding away at him would finally be at ease

after this horrid year. Unlike last year, he'd gotten none of his answers slowly throughout the year, but more questions on top of questions. Now here he finally was, at the climax of this disastrous year, and he felt it was high time to get this over with.

James relented that if there was any justice, this wired ghost Riddle kid would explain something, soon.

Harry turned his attention back to Ginny, asking what he meant? Riddle admitted that while she was still alive, it wasn't by much.

Even with Harry's reassurances and Riddle's own declaration, that still wasn't making anyone in the room feel any better. There were some worse things to be then dead, and Ginny seemed to be heading that way.

Harry felt distracted once again by watching this boy, who by records should have been fifty years older, not the exact same sixteen year old Riddle as Harry had seen in that diary. Harry asked him if he was a ghost.

"That's not how ghosts look and you know it," Remus said, not reprimanding even, just being his typical self in pointing things out.

Harry pointed out right back, "like you, I wasn't exactly expecting that. It was the first thing that came to mind."

Riddle told that he was a memory, who had been saved in a diary all these years.

"That's, possible," Sirius said, slowly and uneasily, "but not to this degree. The most advanced form of that is the magical paintings, and even they can't leave their bindings. Since that diary is his binding, he should not be able to leave it and 'walk' around."

Harry was very curious to hear more about that, but now didn't seem the time.

He gestured to the little black book at Ginny's feet Harry recognized as having found in Myrtle's bathroom all those months ago.

All of them puzzled at this, indeed wondering how it could have made its way down there, and how it was all connected? This still didn't even answer their question of who was doing all of this, it actually managed to raise more!

Harry remained frozen in shock for a few moments before deciding he'd deal with that later, and asking Tom to help him with Ginny, trying to lift her into his arms himself. He voiced that the basilisk could be coming even as they spoke, but Riddle didn't even twitch.

"I didn't like him before," Lily began, notes of unease already creeping into her voice, "and I'm liking him less and less as this goes on."

"He's unnatural," Remus agreed, "whatever is going on here is something very Dark. How Ginny got mixed up in all of this still blows my mind."

Harry was frowning and shaking his head from side to side, somehow he just knew all of the pieces were right there in front of him in that moment, and so he begged his father on so that they would finally come together.

Harry only got to his feet with her for a few moments, before he reached for his wand and found it wasn't there.

"Not good," James hissed, beginning to bounce in place, though stopping quickly as this made it very hard to read, "very not good."

He began to ask if Tom had seen his wand, when he looked up to find said Prefect twirling it about in his hand.

"He shouldn't be able to do that," Lily yelled, her voice an octave higher than was normal.

"Nothing like this should be happening," Remus snapped back, then immediately apologized and said, "sorry Lily, just on edge."

She acknowledged the apology with the barest of nods, not having been the least bit offended by him. They were all beyond off edge by this point.

Harry thanked him for grabbing it, reaching out his hand expectantly.

Sirius had to restrain himself from laughing out loud at this. His poor pup, there was no chance that this would simply be resolved that easily. No, Riddle was there for some very Dark reason, and giving Harry back his wand most likely didn't involve those plans.

Riddle only smiled a bit, but didn't even move one bit towards giving it back. Harry's knees began to shake with the dead weight of Ginny.

Harry shuddered at that figure of speech, still not appreciating its meaning.

He tried to convince Riddle that they really were in a hurry, as the basilisk would be here soon, but Tom cut him off by saying it wouldn't come until called. Harry finally lost the battle and lowered Ginny back onto the ground, then asked what Riddle meant, then demanded his wand back. Tom only smiled wider saying Harry wasn't going to be needing that.

"I don't like this," Lily moaned, her hand beginning to dig into Harry's again. She really needed that reassurance right then, that her baby really was going to be okay.

Harry returned the pressure with a reassuring squeeze, the only comfort he could offer right then.

Harry began to ask what he meant, but Riddle cut him off by saying he'd been very eager to see Harry for a long time.

"Why?" James demanded through gritted teeth. "What on earth could he possibly want with you?"

Harry had no answer for him, except the instinctive one that they weren't going to like his stay in the Chamber.

Harry's temper was wearing in now, saying they could talk later, but they needed to get out of here now! Riddle shot back that he was in no hurry, and he wanted to talk now, then he put Harry's wand in his robes. Harry started to get a prickling feeling up his spine.

"Glad you picked up on that," Sirius said weakly, not mocking really. Harry was only twelve at this time after all. Any normal student wouldn't really question too far what was going on, except trying to get out of danger like Harry was.

He asked the first thing that came to mind, what had happened to Ginny?

"I'm getting a really bad feeling about that," James murmured, his words not nearly covering the feelings of unease that were still rampaging through him.

Riddle seemed amused by the question, saying that was quite a story. It started with the fact that Ginny had been talking to a diary for nearly a year.

Remus' mouth opened with a little pop. Upon questioning though, he just shrugged and murmured, "just, processing is all. I knew I didn't like that diary, but I really don't like what he's

implying. Just keep going James, I want to hear this."

James wanted to do the exact opposite in fact, and simply take Harry's word for it that everything was fine and move past this already. Still, he couldn't very well leave it like this now could he.

How the book that Ginny'd been writing in all this time had been so kind to her, how she'd bemoaned about her life of being poor and how the noble Harry Potter would never even look at her.

"This is foul, beyond loathsome," Lily hissed. "How dare he mock her for this! What on earth, why-" she sputtered out of air then, simply waving James on when she realized he still hadn't

really answered anything. He was just insulting the insecurities of an eleven-year-old, which in itself was awful.

The longer he spoke, the more hunger swam in his eyes as he kept staring at Harry.

"He's creeping me out with that," Sirius muttered, mostly to himself.

Riddle sighed about how boring it had been trying to comfort her, but she'd eaten it right up as she constantly thanked him for being such a good friend. Then he laughed, such a terrible sound that it made all of Harry's hair stand on end.

That had already happened to James a long time ago, and he wasn't even there to hear this in person. Just listening to his cruel depictions of mocking Ginny was enough to give him the creeps.

Riddle congratulated himself that it had always been easy for him to make others see the better side of him. Ginny had poured her heart and soul into that diary, and her soul had been just what Riddle needed.

Remus shuddered in disgust, not really wanting to answer when Harry asked, "I don't get it? Why would he want that?" He didn't seem able to bring himself to say those exact words Riddle had.

"Not for any good reason, I'm sure," Sirius almost whispered.

"What exactly is this thing?" Lily demanded. "I've never heard of anything like it?"

"I'm positive I don't want to know the answer," James huffed, before forcing himself to keep going anyways.

Finally Riddle had been feeding off of Ginny long enough that he could start giving her a little of his soul back.

Sirius actually did retch then, going a funny green colour at the thought of that.

Harry still dearly wanted to ask what on earth was going on, what this thing was, but one look around and he realized they had no more idea than him, which was the opposite of comforting.

He concluded by saying that Ginny Weasley had been the one opening the Chamber of Secrets.

'She can't have' James wanted to snap, but really he had no way to say it. All the air seemed to have gone out of him.

"Is it, possessing her?" Harry asked, looking from the book back to the others very quickly now.

"Seems like," Remus forced the words out, "but again, I've never heard of anything, anything, like this."

"Which is, above all, the creepiest thing," Sirius said in a ghost of his old teasing voice, "we're supposed to be able to use you as our walking dictionary."

Lily let out an almost hysterical laugh, which died quickly.

None of them could really think of anything else to say, though the dominant thought was 'why Harry?' Why on earth had he been the one to come across this, and why was this thing so transfixed on him? Of course they all had a pool of concern for poor Ginny as well, she was clearly a victim of something very wrong going on, something that still managed to tie into Harry.

James hated every word out of his mouth as he choked out.

Riddle continued in a happy voice that Ginny had been the one to tell the snake to attack those Mudbloods, and Filch's cat. Harry tried to deny it, but it hardly made it out of his mouth.

Harry very dearly wanted to interrupt again, with questions like 'why hadn't any of them noticed Ginny was acting weird all year?' At least her brothers should have noticed something! These questions though, would never truly be answered.

Riddle laughed, still speaking as if of the weather as he admitted that she didn't realize she was doing it at first, which had been the most amusing of her entries into the diary.

"Amusing?" Lily hissed. "Did he really just say that? I can't imagine what must have been going through the poor girl's mind, but amusing is far from it."

"This thing is a sadist," Sirius grumbled.

Harry couldn't really feel the horror on his face as he listened,

None of them needed to imagine that, since it was on Harry's face right now, and most likely mirrored on their own.

to Tom explain that her entries were now of how she'd woken up covered in rooster feathers and red paint. She had no idea where she'd been on Halloween night, how she had no recollection of what she'd been doing when the students were attacked, and she feared she was losing her mind.

By the end of this, Harry wanted to yell and rage and scream that he needed to shut up now, but it would be pointless yelling at his dad for that.

Silence seemed to have struck the room as Riddle just seemed to keep talking, none of them able to think of anything to add to how horrible this was.

Harry felt his hands tense up, white knuckled, as Riddle admitted that Ginny finally came to realize she shouldn't be trusting her diary and tried to get rid of it, when Harry found it.

'Which is when the attacks stopped', Lily realized, wanting to slap herself for not having linked that together before.

"Of all the-" Remus began, but quickly cut himself off. If Harry hadn't found it, then some other unsuspecting soul would have come across it. Since it had been in a girl's bathroom, even a mostly unused one, Harry finding it was almost, barely, a good thing. For if another girl had found it, she possibly would have gone through the same process as Ginny all over again. At least Harry had never written in it more than once, saving him from this horrid fate.

Riddle couldn't have been happier, as Harry was the one person he wanted to meet more than anything.

Sirius opened his mouth to repeat the question that was on everyone's mind, why on earth this demon seemed so intent on Harry, but James quickly kept going.

Harry could hardly spit out the words he was so angry, but he managed to ask why? Riddle told how Ginny had given him the story of the Boy Who Lived, and how Riddle must reach Harry and talk to him about this.

Sirius then had to bite his tongue to keep himself from making a 'fan girl' joke. Now wasn't the time, nor would it be appreciated.

Tom had chosen to show Harry the vision of capturing Hagrid, insulting the man a bit, just to get Harry to trust him.

"Don't insult him," James snarled. "While I'd love to burn this thing, I can't wait to find out where on earth Ginny got it, and drag it to the Ministry and prove it wasn't Hagrid you-" he cut himself off in a muttering of curses.

Lily blinked in surprise, this question hadn't occurred to her yet, but it was a good one. Where had Ginny gotten a hold of this thing? She couldn't imagine it would have been anywhere at her own house, her parents would probably die before bringing something so Dark into their home, and it couldn't be at the school. Where had she come across this?

Harry spat back that Hagrid was his friend, and Riddle had framed him! Riddle laughed again, clearly pleased at Harry's retort as he admitted it wasn't hard as he'd been the perfect school boy, very heroic, a prefect, perfect grades,

"Crazy, psychopathic, sadistic-" Remus had to poke Sirius in the ribs to get him to stop.

while Hagrid had been the opposite, always sneaking around wild animals, trying to take care of werewolf cubs,

All three boys were in too much of a towering temper to correct such a ludicrous sentence. On top of everything, this idiot didn't know the first thing about werewolves, and the fact that werewolf cubs didn't even exist!

Harry dearly wanted to ask about this, but still held his tongue.

or sneaking into the forest to fight trolls,

"This thing knows nothing about magical creatures does it?" James really did scoff this time.

"While there are forest trolls, there aren't any in the Forbidden Forest."

"You would know," Lily said, trying for a bit of good-natured humour, which really was appreciated right then.

but even Riddle had been shocked when people bought his story so easily. Anyone who looked twice at Hagrid should have realized he couldn't be the Heir.

"That is a very good point," Harry was loath to admit and agree with anything this thing said, but since it was about Hagrid...

Riddle had spent the past five years learning about the Chamber, then scoffed that Hagrid didn't have a portion of the knowledge to do half of this.

"And he's got an ego on top of all his other lovely qualities," Sirius grumbled.

Dumbledore had been the only one who didn't believe Riddle's story.

"Really?" Lily demanded. "Only Dumbledore? No other teacher, hell anybody with a brain, bothered to question this?"

"Prejudices," Remus offered bitterly. "I'm sure most anyone can guess Hagrid's half-giant. So when someone like Riddle would have come along and accused Hagrid of doing this, they ate it

right up."

"This is disgusting," James growled, he might have even kept going, but Harry was quick to get him back on track. While he hated this idea as much as anyone, there was no good in sitting about and talking about it, when they could possibly fix it.

Dumbledore had been the one to convince Dippet to hire Hagrid as the gamekeeper, and Dumbledore had also been the only teacher never to fall for Riddle's charm.

"Can't imagine why," Remus said, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. "Could it possibly be he didn't fall for your demented act?"

Harry wasn't surprised, saying he was positive Dumbledore had seen right through Riddle. Tom agreed Dumbledore became a bit of a nuisance after all of that, it hadn't been safe for him to reopen the Chamber in his own time, so he'd laid aside the diary to do the work again for him later.

"With the blackest, cruellest kind of magic I've never even heard of," Remus said through clenched teeth.

"There's no way a sixteen-year-old did this," Sirius said weakly, "this is the darkest, most advanced magic-"

"Can we not," Lily moaned. "I don't want to be sitting around thinking about this. It's dark, and twisted, evil and weird, we all agree, but I want to see Harry getting out of there before midnight."

That silenced them for now anyways.

Now he could be free to finish Slytherin's true calling! Harry laughed aloud this time, pointing out no one had died this time, not even Mrs. Norris.

"Do you think," Harry began hesitantly, "is there any way Ginny was somehow, I don't know, trying to influence so that these set of circumstances happened? It can't really be a coincidence no

one's died."

They puzzled this for a moment before James said, "you know, I wouldn't be too surprised if that were true Harry. Everyone who's been attacked had a means out, Ginny may have been semi

influencing the choices to give them a chance."

Harry beamed, knowing this could never be proven one way or another, no way would he ever ask such a thing, but liking the idea anyways.

Riddle didn't seem concerned, saying that he had switched goals. Now he felt his job was to kill Harry.

James choked out that last word as if he'd had a dung bomb tossed down his throat. The horrid idea that someone wanted his son dead was awful enough, let alone him having to say it.

"Why?" Lily demanded of no one in particular, "this is, I don't even know what this is! What on earth does this creature have against you?"

Harry just shrugged, feeling frustrated he couldn't remember, though he was sure he found out in a few moment's anyways.

Harry just gaped at him. Riddle kept talking, speaking of his surprise about how the next time someone had written in his diary it had been Ginny again.

"Why would she go back to it?" Sirius grumbled. "If she had the ability to throw it away the first time, why didn't she just try again? Or better, go get a teacher, or-"

"Oh, now I understand," Remus cut him off, "it was Ginny who stole the diary from Harry. Ginny pieced together what had happened to her, which is why she got rid of it, she must have

recognized it was doing something to her. When she saw it in Harry's possession though, she was afraid the same thing would happen to him."

"That still doesn't explain why she didn't take it to someone," Lily sighed.

"I think," Harry said slowly, then broke off as soon as he had begun. Growing far beyond annoyed at his inability to give these answers, he instead said, "I know I understand everything

before the night's over. Let's please just hear about Ginny getting out of here, then we can keep questioning this" he all but pleaded in the end.

Nodding in assent, James forced himself to read on.

She must have seen Harry with that diary and feared Harry would use it. What if Riddle told Harry everything she'd written? What if Riddle had even told of how Ginny had been the one doing all of this?

All five of them grimaced as they got their answer anyways. Yes, the fear that Ginny would be blamed for these attacks would certainly hold the girl's tongue about this evil diary.

Riddle wasn't too concerned though, now knowing that Harry would go to any lengths to solve the mystery, especially if a certain muggleborn friend of his was set upon.

Harry gritted his teeth so hard he could almost hear them cracking. Riddle had targeted one of his friends on purpose that time! If this spectre didn't die this night, he certainly was going to soon.

For an added bonus, he'd made sure to have Ginny sign herself away and come down to the Chamber. She had tried to fight it off, becoming quite boring to Riddle.

'So now it's boring to watch a child beg for her life' James howled in his head, but didn't interrupt himself to say it aloud. Everyone here looked on the brink of yelling themselves soon.

Then all he'd had to do was wait, and sure enough Harry had come. Riddle added that he had a lot of questions for Harry.

Remus swallowed hard as he realized something else, he was feeding off of Ginny. The longer this conversation went on, the closer she was to dying. That's why all the talking, and explaining. He was purposely drawing all of this out. He very dearly wanted to point this out to the others, but either they had already realized it for themselves, or it would do no good in the end. So he decided against it, knowing it would only hurt Harry.

Harry growled that what could he want? Riddle's first question was, how had he done it? How had a baby defeated the most powerful wizard to exist, Lord Voldemort?

"Voldemort?" Sirius asked in genuine confusion "What on earth has this got to do with him?"

Harry opened, and just as quickly closed his mouth. He had known there was something significant about the name Tom Riddle, and he just knew they were on the brink of figuring it out. He tried his best to explain this, and now very curious James read.

Harry asked why he'd want to know, as Voldemort had rose after Riddle's life, but Tom gave a small smile as he said Voldemort was his life.

All five of them felt themselves going slack-jawed for a moment, but James wasn't giving anyone the chance to say anything until he read.

He used Harry's wand to spell out the name TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE. Then he gave it a flick, and the letters moved around until they instead formed I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.

"Voldemort is just an anagram?" Sirius said, almost laughing in shock.

"I suppose that makes sense in a certain light," James agreed. "After all, it's not a surname or anything of the like. I guess Riddle or Tom just wouldn't have the same spooky effect."

"Are you kidding me?" Lily screeched, going white as a ghost. "How are you laughing about this? What, how, why is Voldemort's... I don't even know how to phrase this it's so ludicrous."

"How is a bit of Voldemort walking and talking through a diary?" Remus offered weakly.

Lily nodded quickly as she said, "yes, that."

Harry very dearly wanted to answer, but the price was yet another stab at his brain, a very powerful one this time he was sure. He had known from the get-go that there was something very

particular he should remember about this diary, and it related to that question...but what?

The others were so stumped, they couldn't even begin to speculate on this. They had never heard of anything like this, even Sirius who had heard of some pretty dark magic growing up around his kind of family couldn't piece this one together.

Only taking a brief comfort in that Harry was still here now, and his insistence that Ginny survived this, was James able to read.

Riddle seemed quite pleased now as he explained that he would never keep the name his family had given him, his wasteful Muggle father.

Sirius suddenly snorted so violently, Remus leaned over him in shock and concern before Sirius began laughing, hard. James had to reread that sentence almost a dozen times, and he was still

frozen in shock.

Coming out of his laughing fit, only slightly, Sirius said in a breathy voice, "V-Vol-Voldemort's a half-blood! Oh Merlin, I can't breathe-" and he really didn't seem able to keep sucking in air as he continued laughing.

"The pureblood supremacists of the world, is a half-blood." Lily said the sentence slowly and distinctly, tasting the words and cracking a smile herself. "Well, that's certainly something I never saw coming."

"I'll bet his followers don't know that," Remus cackled. "I've always said there's no way possible every Death Eater's a pureblood, there's just not that many of them! It's no wonder Riddle's so lax."

"Is that what we're going to call him now?" James asked in a conversational tone of voice. "Riddle? I am completely okay with this."

"Well he certainly doesn't deserve the title of Voldemort, supreme ruler of liars any more," Sirius agreed, finally gaining back his breath. He still had a gleam of victory surrounding him, he had been contemplating going over to his 'oh so proud' parent's and informing them a little bit about their 'saviours of the wizarding world.'

James pressed further, asking, "so, Dumbledore knows this, right? After all, Ollivander knew Tom Riddle turned into Voldemort, and I'd bet my wand Dumbledore must know this! So Dumbledore would have looked into this, and known about him being a half-blood. Why hasn't he spread this around? It would put a real cramp in his regime if everyone knew."

"Maybe he can't prove it," Lily offered. "I mean, I'd love to look into this myself, but what if you just can't. Wizards aren't very good about birth certificates or anything..."

"This is fun and all," Harry said, a silly smile still plastered across his face watching his family enjoy this revelation, "and I hate to break the mood, but can we please finish this year? I'd still feel better seeing Ginny get out of there."

"What's a matter pup, don't trust your own gut?" Sirius joked.

Harry merely grinned, not willing to admit that this was it exactly. He knew by now though that if he said this aloud, they would all tell him that they trusted his gut, but he dreaded the idea that sometime soon his gut feeling was going to be wrong, and it was going to lead to something awful happening. So he brushed off the joke, and James decided to keep going.

He, who had the fortune of Salazar Slytherin's own bloodline from his mother, would never consider keeping such a Muggle name of the man who'd abandoned his wife when he found out she was a witch.

"Really?" Lily said, looking truly upset at this. "The worst wizarding war that's existing right now, all stems back to the fact that Voldemort has daddy issues? I'll admit, it's absolutely horrible his father abandoned them, because his mother was a witch, but-" she broke herself off shaking her

head sadly from side to side, unable to continue it was so pathetic.

Sirius couldn't help but release another snort of mirth, putting it like that made Voldemort look like

some bratty child rather than the darkest name in their history.

Riddle wouldn't stand for it, so he created his own name, one that the whole of the world would one day not even dare to say, and become the most powerful wizard there was.

"Cause that's not, you know, the most big headed thing I've ever heard," James scoffed.

"That's rich coming from you," Lily poked fun, grinning over at her husband, "considering how big your head was through most of school."

"Aw, I deflated, kind of," James grinned, not looking nearly offended by that as he once had been.

Sirius and Remus both gave appreciative chuckles, while Harry watched his parent's curiously. The two of them seemed like two people with completely opposite personalities most of the time,

so he was genuinely curious how they had gotten together. He really wanted to ask that question eventually.

Harry shot back that he had failed, that Dumbledore was!

This time Remus began applauding Harry, backing him up on that one hundred percent. Sirius and James considered it for a moment before deciding that they agreed, there wasn't another living

person who had done half the thing's their headmaster had done.

Lily was the only one who looked about disagreeing, but she was also just that little bit sore from last year. Still not completely convinced he hadn't set Harry up last year to do all those dangerous stunts, and he had hardly done anything this year to prove otherwise.

At this moment though, she would have gladly taken Dumbledore, or anyone for that matter, down there with her son. So she wasn't going to go around disagreeing with what he said either.

Despite the situation, James still had a bit of a goofy smile on his face as he said.

Voldemort scowled down at Harry, pointing out that Dumbledore had fled the school because of his memory!

"Actually, it was a corrupt government board, headed by a pompous arse," Sirius corrected, "and even then he won't be gone long. I'm still positive there's no way he made that injunction legally, so someone's going to be able to get around it soon."

Harry wouldn't let go though, saying Dumbledore was never gone so long as there were those to remember him! Riddle made to say something back, but was cut off by music.

"Music," Lily puzzled, wondering if she'd heard that wrong.

"Did you decide to start singing or something?" Remus asked.

Harry deigned him with a 'you're not funny look', but James didn't even look up.

Both of them looked around in confusion to find a bird flying towards Harry, bright red in plumage, and music coming from its windpipes.

"Fawkes?" James breathed in surprise.

"Unless there's another phoenix loyal enough to Dumbledore to respond like this," Remus agreed, grinning wildly.

"Does this explain the music?" Lily asked. "Why is it cawing music?"

"Phoenix music is rumored to embed those it trusts with bounds of strength," Sirius told her brightly, "it's supposed to encourage bravery and make you fearless and stuff."

"I give you half points for that explanation," Remus laughed out right at him, "you sounded pretty smart until you finished with 'and stuff.'"

Sirius just rolled his eyes at him, while James still continued on now more curious than ever.

The bird came swooping down towards Harry, something dark crumbled in its sharp claws,

No one stopped this time to ask what on earth Fawkes could be holding.

which it dropped at Harry's feet, and then settled on Harry's shoulder. Riddle was eyeing the bird with dislike as he pointed out that was a phoenix,

Remus gave a slow sarcastic clap this time, giving Sirius the joyful opportunity to smack him again and get him to stop.

and then noticing that it had dropped the Sorting Hat.

"Do what?" Lily couldn't help but ask this time.

"Why," James couldn't help but agree, "would Fawkes bring that? Is he planning to try and convince Riddle he didn't belong in Slytherin, and ruin his life further?"

Harry chuckled in amusement, but none of them had any idea what could be going on right now.

Then he started laughing again. Mocking Harry that he should feel so much better, with a stupid bird and a random hat. Harry felt like vomiting. Riddle didn't seem to care as he decided to move on, pointing out that Harry had already met him twice,

"Thanks' for that awful reminder," James muttered in disgust.

and Harry had lived both times. If Harry told him how, it would keep him alive all the longer.

"Something you'll never understand," Lily hissed viciously, wanting more than anything in that moment to be there for her son again, to stand in front of him and curse this demented creature into oblivion for threatening her baby.

Remus couldn't help but wince, remembering all over again why Riddle was drawing out this conversation.

For the first time Harry once again noticed the odd blurred lines around Riddle, and how the longer they'd been talking, the more they'd been vanishing. Harry realized that Riddle was still feeding off of Ginny, that the longer this drew out the more powerful Voldemort was getting.

Remus looked around and noticed no one seemed too surprised by this, so they had all worked it out then. They all looked equal amounts pissed off that Harry was being threatened like this,

again, and worried about his situation at hand. How had Harry made it out of this alive? Did he summon the basilisk and have it kill this evil spirit?

Harry shot back that he wasn't positive of how it had all happened, but he did know it was because his mother had died to save him!

"Personally, I wouldn't have told him that," Sirius scoffed, "not that he can do anything against you, but it still would have been all the more fun for him to never know the answer to that."

Harry shrugged, he had just enjoyed that one moment of lording that over the Dark Lord.

Mocking Riddle that he'd been overcome by his muggle-born mother!

James voice rang with pride for his son as he read out that last part.

Riddle considered this, admitting this was a very old bit of magic, that could be quite useful.

"It genuinely bothers me that he knows about that, and I've never heard of it," James huffed.

"Guess we should just be happy we don't really know the same things as this nutter," Sirius offered.

"Plus, we know now," Remus added vindictively.

Admitting how this didn't really change anything, as it meant Harry was nothing important.

"I disagree," Lily snapped with pure venom, "his very existence as being a loving person makes him infinitely more special than your heartless arse."

Harry blushed furiously at the compliment, while the other boys couldn't help but agree.

Riddle had been wondering on this, as there were similarities between the two of them,

James smile vanished at once, he looked like he was being force fed vomit as he continued.

that they were both half-bloods, orphans, and brought up by Muggles.

Sirius was muttering a couple of foul things under his breath, very much wanting to deny those last two, and hating that he couldn't.

The rare gift they both possessed in being Parselmouths, most likely the only ones since the original Slytherin. They even had a bit of the same features.

James was grumbling and snarling that these were all circumstantial, stupid things. For anyone to imply his son was the smallest bit like Voldemort made all four adults in the room want to curse something into oblivion.

Harry, who had begun to look rather upset at what he clearly did see as parallels, smiled around at them all again. Clearly, his family wasn't reading into these things, so he had no inclination to do so either.

Riddle was more than satisfied now though, realizing this was all unimportant. Harry stood stock still, readying himself for a fight as Riddle continued that it was high time the question be answered, and to pit the Heir of Slytherin himself against Dumbledore's greatest weapons.

"Well this can't be good," Lily moaned.

"What even would happen if he tried to use a spell with Harry's wand?" Sirius asked curiously. "I mean, he's tangible enough to hold it, but I still don't even know what he is! Will the wand

recognize magic in him, and perform the spell, or..."

"Maybe this memory doesn't know itself," Remus shrugged, "and he's not going to risk it. Whatever he is planning though, I agree with Lily. This isn't going to be good." He mentally

added that, if Ginny did die, this thing very well might likely be at least some kind of human again and could possibly do whatever the real Voldemort had done was doing now. Time travel was making this way too complicated, since his instincts now was crawling at the idea of two Voldemort's existing at once, while he reminded himself that in this timeline Voldemort had died

and this would be a rebirth of him?

He stopped his brain from trying to continue the paradox as James continued.

Riddle turned away from Harry, now looking up at the statue as he spoke in hissing tongues.

"He's summoning the Basilisk?" James asked wearily.

"Well this shouldn't be too bad," Sirius said with far more confidence than he really felt, "since Harry can control it just as well as Riddle."

"But," Lily began, then bit at her lip again. Then, sucking in a deep breath, she voiced, "but, Riddle obviously has far more experience with this. He's also been controlling this snake longer, so what if..." she couldn't even finish, the idea swimming around was too awful to put into words.

Since none of them really had any idea how Parselmouths worked, James simply hoped the book would explain.

Harry began backpedalling in fear as he realized what was going on, and Fawkes took flight from his shoulder. Harry didn't get a chance to see where he was going, as he slammed his eyes shut at the same time something heavy hit the solid floor. He wanted to call the bird back, he didn't want to be by himself, and he had no confidence this phoenix could do anything against the king of snakes.

"Quite a bit I'd wager," Remus offered weakly, "as highly intelligent as they are. Fawkes might not be able to win this fight, but he will be of use."

Harry turned blindly to start running, and heard the hissing command from Riddle to kill him.

James couldn't help but retch all over again at having to say that, dearly wishing he'd never have to hear those words again in relation to his son, let alone have to say them as many times as he had in this chapter.

While Harry began to blindly stumble along, feeling the snake in pursuit, all he could hear was Voldemort laughing behind him.

'Is Harry not even going to try speaking to it?' Remus wondered, but kept that thought to himself.

If Harry didn't think of it himself, well he could hardly blame his cub since the act of speaking and controlling snakes was still new enough to him.

His feet failed him, he hit the ground hard and felt blood spring into his mouth. He felt the beast rearing up behind him,

All four of them recoiled from that disturbing mental image, now willing to give up their lives all over again if they could have just been there for Harry in that one deadly moment.

but he was saved this time when something hard smashed into him and he went sailing into a wall. He must have been struck by the snake's tail rather than teeth. He remained stock still, waiting for something else to happen, but all he heard was jumbled hissing.

Harry felt very bad for his family, who all looked akin to corpses they were getting so pale. He floundered, trying to come up with something to help distract them again. Clearly his mental imagination was going to be the death of them all. The only one that came to mind was to offer up the explanation to them that this particular Basilisk never actually spoke to him in words and a language like he knew he could understand in the Chamber. Maybe it couldn't speak its own mind when under the command of someone telling it what to do, but Harry got the impression none of them knew enough about this to offer their own opinion, and wanted too much to hear of anything else but the giant killer snake for Harry to start a discussion about it. So Harry in fact had nothing of comfort to offer them. In his young life, this was by far the scariest thing that had happened to him yet, and words of comfort just weren't going to cut it this time. So he instead remained quiet, hoping the book would get past this quickly, and skip to however he got out of there with an alive Ginny in tow.

Finally Harry's curiosity won out, and he cracked his eyes open to find Fawkes flying around the snake's head, pecking furiously at the yellow eyes and avoiding the fangs that were longer then Harry's arm.

James at least no longer sounded like he was reading his own death warrant. Harry wasn't as alone down there as he had been thinking. Admittedly a bird, even a phoenix, wasn't the kind of help he would have been for his son then, but it was better than nothing. Even if Fawkes tipped the scales just that little bit, made it possible enough that Harry could get out of there, then he'd be just a tiny bit happy again.

Blood was starting to go in rivulets down the scales, and Harry was so transfixed by the sight that he had no time to close his eyes again when the head swung around and Harry should have been staring at the deadly eyes,

Then James voice choked off all over again when he realized Harry was looking into his own death. No one had air in their lungs to question the fact of Harry's survival. James himself only managed to keep going out of the will to see this miracle.

but nothing happened, because the eyes were gone. In their place were bloody sockets, with holes jagged into them from the furious phoenix who was still streaming around its head and cawing as the snake roared in pain.

"It's blind," Sirius finally broke the long stream of silence.

"Thank Merlin," Lily practically sobbed.

"Thank Fawkes, or even Dumbledore for owning the bird, or-" Remus broke off in semi- hysterical laughter.

"How come Fawkes didn't die if it was looking into the Basilisk's eyes?" Harry asked, a bit too late, but finally coming up with another random question.

James was more than happy to respond, saying, "phoenix's are damn near indestructible. They have healing tears, so their eyes are the most invulnerable part of their body. No one's ever put this to the test, but I guess phoenix eye's beat basilisk eyes."

Still shaking a bit, though now in relief, James was finally able to keep reading in almost normal tones.

Riddle realized what was happening, and howled at the snake to forget about the bird, go after Harry. The snake could still use its other senses to kill him!

"Guess it is still poisonous," Remus muttered to himself, "and how big again?"

The others ignored him, now confident this bird was the reason Harry had survived. Had Fawkes even somehow found a way to kill the Basilisk? They certainly hoped it got to that part soon.

The snake responded as told, still as deadly as ever as it blindly lunged, but Fawkes wasn't having it as it began scratching at the green nose.

Sirius released a semi-hysterical giggle as he said, "now he's trying to make it lose its sense of smell too. Next thing, he'll be trying to rip out its teeth."

Harry could do nothing as he lay on the floor, whimpering for someone to help him.

While none of them had exactly been back to a 'happy place' in this story, this verbal reminder from Harry himself needing help made them all want to take him up in a hug and never let go.

Fate be kind, the snake's back end was still waving madly, and flashed something across the floor right into Harry's face. Harry blinked in shock to find the Sorting Hat.

Well this was a pretty easy distraction. Had any of them ever figured out why the Sorting Hat was even there? Why had Fawkes grabbed it? None of them bothered voicing these questions allowed though, since no one had any answer, and they were all just too eager for Harry to hurry up and get out of there.

He didn't stop to consider it, shoving his head up under the material and begging the hat to do something, anything.

Lily felt such a tightening in her throat, it was almost impossible to swallow and continue breathing. Her little baby, reduced to cowering on the floor from a deadly snake, alone with

nothing but a rangy old hat. She had never wanted that mental image, and now wanted to burn her mind for giving it to her.

He wasn't expecting to nearly black out when something hard smashed over his head.

James tone finally changed from outright fear, to genuine puzzlement. A much better way of reading then every other word pondering if his son was going to die.

Half dazed and more than confused, he groped above his head and had to pull the hat off for quite a bit longer then he would have expected, when he was done a sword came toppling into his lap, the hilt inlaid with rubies as big as his fist.

"A sword?" Sirius burst out. "Not some nice advice on, I don't know, summoning a rooster or something, but a bloody sword? What the bloody hell is Harry supposed to do with that, duel the

stupid snake? Why, where did the sword even come from-" Sirius had been silent and pent up for so long, it seemed he would never stop his fountain of questions, but then Remus gave him a very sharp poke, causing Sirius to go silent again. None of them had an inkling of an idea how the Hat worked, that was old Founder magic. They wouldn't get an answer to any of these questions, until the book said them. If the book even did answer.

Riddle was ignoring all of this, still yelling for the basilisk to kill Harry already! The snake tried to respond, turning on Harry and with one, precise strike, came forward, only managing to smack into the wall as Harry rolled away.

"Ha!" Remus and Sirius both breathed, taking relish in this small victory.

He ended the manoeuvre by landing on his feet, sword poised and ready. When the snake moved and went for him again, Harry was ready, point perfectly positioned for the snake to come forward and the whole of the blade to run through the top of its skull.

Then their mouths flopped open in horror at all the horrible implications of that. Harry had stabbed it in the roof of the mouth, most likely hitting its brain and killing it, but that also meant Harry's whole arm was in between all of those poisonous deadly fangs! Each one of them took a moment to inspect the boy again, as if confirming he still had that arm and it wasn't snapped off.

The snake froze up before slumping forward and Harry felt a fountain of blood running down his arm from the twitching animal. He was more stunned to find a fang had managed to stab right through his own arm right above his elbow.

James couldn't help it, that was the final straw. He actually did twist over the side of the couch and vomit. Harry leaped back in shock, looking to the others in genuine concern. His mom was openly crying as she produced her wand and vanished the steaming pile. Remus and Sirius looked ready to keel over any moment.

Harry's mind scrambled about wildly as he finally blurted out, "are you okay?"

James brushed the back of his hand against his mouth, giving a weak chuckle as his hazel eyes met Harry's green ones. "Am I okay?" He repeated, as if he'd never heard such a sentence in his life. "Harry, I just read a sentence, that under any normal circumstances, would have meant that you would be dead. Not sitting there, but dead. On the floor-" he broke off before his mouth could keep going, shuddering all over again.

Harry looked about the room again, then offered, "did you want to me to finish? You know I'm not dead, but if this is too awful-"

"No," James said, bolstering himself up again after one more furtive look at his only child. "No," he repeated with conviction, "you did survive. There's a phoenix in the room," he reminded the others, the only explanation remotely possible as to why he was talking to his son, "and so Fawkes is going to save you, and I will later be embarrassed for my overreaction."

"That wasn't an overreaction," Sirius told him weakly, "since I actually did black out there for a minute."

Lily was brushing tears furiously from her face, and Remus was rubbing his eyes hard like he was trying to prevent himself from joining her. Harry felt something stirring inside himself, warmed beyond belief that these four cared about him so deeply like this.

Sucking in one, two more deep breaths, James forced out.

His body began seizing up at once as his limbs failed him, he grasped for the long white point and yanked it out of his arm, knowing it was no good, that the poison was already eating away at him as the colours of his surroundings began swirling out of focus.

Despite his own words of comfort, James still couldn't help his upper lip from curling in disgust as he continued reading about Harry dying like this. No one could muster themselves up to interrupt, the only comfort any of them had right now was the red and gold bird that just had to appear any second now...

A bright flash of red flew past his eyes, and Harry could just make out the sound of talons clicking across the floor towards him.

They all released a collective breath of relief at this confirmation.

Harry managed to choke out a thanks to Fawkes, telling him he'd done great.

Sirius had to choke himself off from saying something along the lines of 'you would thank the bird, while you're dying', but even the thought of those words being put through his mouth made

him want to pass out all over again.

Riddle came over to gloat, laughing that Harry was dead now, and even Dumbledore's pet was crying over it.

Remus actually did release a funny sound, like a laugh but strangled with emotion. Clearly Riddle didn't know the properties of phoenix tears, his ignorance would be Harry's salvation.

Harry's fuzzy eyes did manage to focus in on the bird, who was laying his head against the puncture in Harry's arm, bright tears trickling into the wound. Riddle clearly didn't care as he continued by saying Harry could take his time finishing up dying, he enjoyed watching.

James very dearly wished his son found some way to murder this apparition of Riddle soon, just to get him to shut up. He was still so emotionally wrung, he didn't think he could take much more of this taunting over his son's body before he really did curse something.

Riddle found the whole thing rather funny, how Harry was to die alone in this Chamber, with no friends,

Lily muttered something indistinct under her breath. The boys might have caught a few words, but they were all so disturbing they pretended they hadn't.

who was finally vanquished by Voldemort who he'd foolishly challenged all those years ago.

"Challenged," Harry grumbled out loud, "I'd gladly avoid him for the rest of my life! He keeps bothering me!"

All four of them really did laugh then, a genuine sound of amusement at Harry's truly annoyed look. His use of 'bothering' to describe constant attempts of murder was just slightly

underwhelming as well.

Harry would have the joy of being back with his Mudblood of a mother in a few moments.

James then groaned again, pressing his face into the pages of the book in utter disgust. Pulling away, he asked the ceiling, "what are the bloody odds I got every single stinking chapter, where someone said that horrid word!"

Lily reached around and gave her husband's shoulder a comforting squeeze, which James took gladly.

Harry wasn't listening all that much anymore, he was starting to think that dying wasn't all that unpleasant as the pain started to go away from him.

They all obstinately ignored that putrid sentence, since they knew the opposite was happening.

It was odd though, that instead of everything going dark, his surroundings were instead coming back into colour. His eyes were focusing much better now on Riddle hovering nearby, and Fawkes who was still crying into Harry's wound, then he blinked again and realized there was nothing there.

All five of them couldn't help but beam with pleasure. They had known without a doubt this was what was going to happen, but hearing it in words made the whole ordeal bearable.

Riddle realized this at the same time as Harry, and he pulled out his wand and shot a spell at the bird who flew away.

Then they all grimaced when they realized Riddle really had grown so powerful he could use spells now. This didn't bode well for Ginny, or Harry for that matter. Now the snake was dead,

but how had Harry gotten past Riddle?

He was cursing himself for having forgotten that phoenix tears could heal anything.

"Twat" Remus snapped, more than happy at this psychopath's lap in knowledge.

Then he glanced down at Harry and decided he didn't mind, he'd much rather be the one to kill Harry with his own power. He began raising up Harry's wand,

James couldn't help but wince all over again. Harry had just skipped death, and now his very own wand was being thrust back into his face for yet another go! Was Fawkes going to take this spell to? How long could they keep playing this game before someone's luck ran out?

but Fawkes reappeared above Harry and dropped something onto Harry's legs, the diary.

"While I agree that thing needs to be burned," Sirius said slowly, "what good is it going to do now?"

"Riddle said it himself," Lily pointed out, going bright eyed with glee now, "he had put a bit of himself in that object. So maybe, if Harry destroys it, this thing will finally disappear."

James fervently hoped so, now reading eagerly, almost praying this is what happened.

Harry only hesitated a second, then he reacted on instinct by picking up the fang that had nearly taken his own life, and stabbed it into the binding of the book.

"If that doesn't do it nothing will," Remus beamed.

Riddle had no chance to stop him, he was clawing at his chest in obvious pain, screaming at the top of his lungs, and then, he was gone.

"And good riddance to rot in hell you-" Sirius finally did get all of his pent up emotions out by spouting every foul word that came to mind. The others sat there and let him, venting in his own way until he finally ran out of steam.

Harry's wand fell to the floor, while the diary continued dripping ink. Harry got unsteadily to his feet, gathering up the hat, and wrenching the sword out of the dead snake.

"Souvenir," James said weakly, causing Remus and Sirius to burst out with renewed genuine laughter at what was clearly an old joke between them.

Harry and Lily smiled indulgently at each other, more than willing to put up with all their inside jokes if it meant nothing this awful ever happened again.

Then he heard a faint noise behind him, and he turned to find Ginny sitting up. She was blinking sluggishly as she glanced at her surroundings, then her eyes found the diary in Harry's hand, and she began to sob.

"The poor thing," Lily almost sobbed with her as she remembered all over again the traumatic experience this eleven-year-old had been through, "it'll be a miracle if she isn't scarred for life

because of this."

She began brokenly trying to explain herself, saying she hadn't done it on purpose, that Riddle had made her, the last thing she really remembered was Riddle appearing out of the diary.

James read all of this with a miserable look on his face. What Harry had just endured was the epitome of awful, but this little girl had been through something equally as tormenting all year.

She wasn't even his kid and he wanted to hug her in comfort.

Harry showed her the now destroyed book, comforting her that it was all over, but Ginny wouldn't be comforted, wailing in anguish that she was going to be expelled.

"Never," Remus vowed at the suddenly heartbroken look on Harry's face. "If there's any decency in the world, no one will look twice at Ginny once you tell them what happened."

"But I broke the diary," Harry seemed unable to stop himself from arguing back, "what if she really does get in trouble for this?"

"It's not going to happen," Sirius all but growled, "it's just not possible anyone could believe Ginny could do something like this."

Harry nodded, feeling relieved for once his first instinct was to agree with them, it was just his pessimistic side that was trying to say otherwise.

She'd wanted to go to this school her whole life, and what were her parents going to think?

"Thank god you're alive," Lily stated at once, "and the only reason you wouldn't come back next year is because they'll be worried sick to let you out of their sight again."

"Can't blame them," James muttered sadly.

It took a bit more soothing words from Harry before she hiccupped herself into sense again, and Harry supported her to her feet and began leading her back through the tunnel to the sound of rocks being pushed around.

"Ron," they all said in relief, the distant memory of his wand cursing Lockhart seeming like a gold mine of happiness compared to what they had just been through.

Harry called out to his best friend at once, telling him his sister was okay! Ron's face appeared in the hole of rocks he'd created

"Damn," Sirius said in congratulations, "and he did that without magic. Props to that kid."

shoving his arm through it and grasping hold of his sister, pulling her into his chest with a tight hug and screaming in relief that she was okay, then getting distracted by noticing the bird and asking where that had come from.

"Long story," James said weakly, drawing the first word out in remembrance, and dearly hoping he wouldn't have to reread that story himself, again.

Harry explained it was Dumbledore's, then Ron asked where Harry had got the sword from.

"A question I'd still like answered," Sirius said in an almost chipper tone. Their utter relief that Harry was finally out of there was more than palpable, and finally bringing normal conversation back around.

Harry promised to explain later, still keeping an eye on Ginny who had her face buried in Ron's chest. Harry didn't want to go into details of who'd been opening the Chamber with her in the room.

"So sweet," Lily sighed, unable to stop herself from grinning at her son who was still trying to put the girl's feelings first.

Then Harry asked his own question of where Lockhart was, and Ron said he'd taken him back to the entrance, he was in bad shape.

"And I still regret nothing," Remus said in full glee, "he deserves every bit of that irony."

Ron led them back to where Lockhart was leaning against the wall absently, smiling vaguely into space. Ron explained that the man's memory was gone, the spell had backfired, and he had no idea who he was, let alone where.

'Know the effects of that all too well' Harry thought bitterly, an inkling of pity beginning to form for Lockhart.

Harry then asked how they were supposed to get back up the tunnel, and Fawkes saved the day again by landing in front of him and waving his tail in front of him.

"And he saves the day again," Lily grinned, "you know James, I'm genuinely thinking I want one of those."

"First a jarvey and a crup for our garden, now you want a phoenix, we've already got Click and Hickory. Exactly how many pets do you want?" James demanded good naturedly. To be perfectly honest he didn't mind one bit, he would always indulge his wife in whatever she wanted.

Lily shrugged, not looking the least bit deterred at the animal count that was beginning to stack up.

"I'm wondering though, that there must be another way to get up," Remus voiced. "I suppose I can think of a spell or two, but you'd really think Slytherin would have given some kind of ladder back up."

"Let's not have Harry stick around to find out," Sirius grumbled.

Harry correctly guessed that the phoenix could fly them all up, and had them all hold hands, Professor Lockhart at the end.

"I think you can finally stop giving that bonehead such a title," Remus told Harry pleasantly.

Harry shrugged, it hadn't yet occurred to him, he had too much other stuff on his mind at the time.

The moment he took hold of the golden plumage, he began to feel light as a feather himself as they all rose up the pipe, Lockhart swinging along below them and calling out how cool this was, it was just like magic.

Despite how much all five of them genuinely hated this guy, they couldn't help but weakly laugh at this childlike innocence.

Before Harry could even really enjoy the ride, they were being set back down in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, with the entrance closing behind them.

"And may it stay that way forever," Lily muttered in disgust, to general nodes of agreement except for Harry, who had an odd feeling he'd find that Chamber opened at least once more, but not for anything bad...

Myrtle seemed shocked to find Harry back, pointing out that he was alive.

"And a good day to you to," Sirius grumbled, not really appreciating how close that sentence came to not being true.

Harry told her she sounded far too unhappy about this, while getting rid of some blood from his glasses.

"Ew," James huffed, trying to distract himself from why that stuff was there.

Myrtle blushed a bit by admitting that she'd thought Harry would die down there, and if he'd come back, he could have shared her toilet.

"Oh yes, that's just what Harry needs," Remus said, trying his very hardest to suppress a grin, "another admirer."

Harry didn't even have the energy to glare at him for that joke, he was just as ready for this year to be over as them.

Ron couldn't help mocking his friend for that bit as they went outside of the loo, telling Ginny she may now have a competitor.

"Really Ron?" Lily demanded of the ceiling. "Is now really the time to be poking fun at your sister?"

"I find it rather appropriate," Sirius countered, "it's kind of his way of saying, the world goes on. You nearly died, but I'm still going to poke fun at you."

Lily was beginning to understand why Sirius and his little brother didn't get along very well. Then again, she wasn't all too clear why she herself put up with him. If he wasn't James best friend, she was sure she would have strangled him out of pure annoyance ten times over. Never mind the fact that in recent years she had come to see him as her own sort of brother.

Ginny didn't react, still silently crying. Ron gave her a concerned look as he asked where they should head, and Harry gestured after Fawkes who was leading the way to McGonagall's office. They followed him, knocked, and then went in.

"Why did you knock if you were just going to go in?" Remus couldn't help but ask.

"Why did you knock at all?" Sirius grinned, "I think, in this particular set of circumstances, you really could have just waltzed in."

Harry just shrugged as Sirius took the book, having no response to any of them.

[hunger-and-desire]

The Battle for the Mirrorverse, Pt 3

Based off an old idea Crow/ @ghostsandmirrors​ and I were throwing around. Was seized with the need to write it. So here’s the first of what will be I don’t know how many parts.

Basic jist: The horsemen have teamed up with Misfortune to overthrow the Lady of the Mirror and take over. After a surprise attack, Famine, Bringer, and the Mirrorverse folk are scrambling to defend themselves and the Mirror World from the attackers. It doesn’t go their way.

Disclaimer: I don’t know what this place looks like so I just made it up. Sorry, Crow.

Famine wrapped the bands of leather tightly around her knuckles, flexing her hand as she went to make sure she could still move her fingers. Tucking the tail of the last band into itself, she admired her handiwork. It had been a long time since she’d dressed for a fight, a true fight, but she still remembered how to wrap the knuckle guards so that she didn’t shred the backs of her hands when she inevitable rolled her blade wrong (intentionally or otherwise). It’d taken too many years for her to come to this solution, something thin enough to keep her hands bare but wide enough to protect the flesh close to the blades.

Standing, she walked over to where she’d draped her long coat over a chair. Pulling the heavy green fabric on and feeling the cool silk insides slip over her skin, she was reminded of days long ago, in Calpur, when she was preparing to go to court or make a visit to a governor or duke’s castle. It’d been a different coat then, much more refined and elegant, and she’d been dressed for parties and ceremony beneath, not war. Fastening the clasps along the front, Famine pushed away the memories. Now was not the time for reminiscing.

Arranging the skirt of the coat so they covered her mostly bare legs and feet and then grabbing her blades, Famine strode off towards the courtyard. Much of the army was already gathered when she got there. She paused a moment on the steps, looking down at the gathered people. Some were talking while others looked over their weapons. She could see the General moving among, checking on everyone. How many of these people wouldn’t come home at the end of the day? How many of their bodies would be left on a battlefield, far from loved ones, dying alone?

Famine spotted Bringer at the front of the courtyard and started off towards them. She stepped silently up beside them, the whisper of her coat on the stones the only noise. They were looking out beyond the town at the field where they’d been instructed to meet Misfortune and the horsemen. They glanced her way, a shift of the eyes really, to acknowledge her presence, but then went back to look out at the field.

“How’s your knee?” she asked after a couple more moments of silence.

“Fine,” the Bringer sighed, glancing down at their legs, “Still hurts, aches really, but it’s fine.” They looked back up to her. “How’s your nose?”

The horseman shrugged, “Fine,” It honestly hardly bugged her at all.

The pair started to lapse into silence once more when Famine screwed up her face. “Does it look crooked?” she asked, crossing her eyes as if trying to look down at it. A dry laugh left Bringer’s lips though their expression hardly changed.

“Only a little, if you squint,” they answered.

Famine uncrossed her eyes. “Oh good,” she sighed, seemingly relieved, “I could illusion it straight, but I’d still know it was there, so,” She gave another shrug as if to say ‘what could you do?’ The briefest of smiles crossed Bringer’s lips as they turned to face the gathering soldiers.

The General stepped over to Bringer and Famine. His eyes narrowed when he saw Famine. “Going for a walk on Zonfer?” he asked.

“Trust me, it’ll look weirder later,” she mused. Normally, she’d just wear the pants and top she wore beneath the coat, but since she was around so many people at the moment, she didn’t want to risk all the exposed skin; she’d rather kill her enemies than a fellow in arms.

The General looked like they wanted to comment but didn’t. Instead, he turned to Bringer, “We should be moving out, if you’re ready.”

“Alright,” Bringer sighed with a nod, “Let’s go.”

The General disappeared back into the throng of people. “Well,” Famine mused, “I’ll see you on the battlefield, I suppose.”

“I suppose so,” Bringer responded.

“Don’t die, alright!” Famine called over her shoulder as she started off towards where Desire was waiting for her.

The Bringer chuckled, but it was humorless. “I wasn’t planning on it.”

Famine held out a hand to the large, dark horse as she approached. “KetrabE, Isydrie,” she muttered, lightly running her fingers over the horse’s snout. Desire snorted, warm air brushing over Famine’s fingers.

“You have good horse,” came Liaxee’s booming voice, though it was slightly quieter than normal as he addressed Famine. He stepped around her horse, gently petting Desire’s mane. “Not as good as Iec, though.”

“You don’t think any horse is as good as Iec, Liaxee,” Famine laughed quietly.

The large man shrugged innocently. “Because it is true.”

The horseman shook her head as she stepped into one stirrup and hauled herself onto her horse. She was adjusting the reins and making sure everything was settled when she realized Liaxee was still standing there, petting Desire’s nose quietly. “Liaxee?”

“You will be okay, sey?” he said, the phrase both a question and a statement. It was such a genuine question, full of care and concern, that Famine had to sit with a moment before even beginning to formulate a response

“Yes, of course,” she finally said, “And you?”

Liaxee beamed up at her, “Of course.” He gave Desire one last pat and then stepped back, turning to head off. “When we are back, we will have another fight, you and I!” he said as he went, “You will have to teach me your tricks!”

“What tricks?” she called after him, but he was already gone. Famine shook her head, laughing quietly to herself despite the situation; Liaxee’s positivity was as contagious as the plague.

The army moved to the field, an undulating mass of people. Famine and Desire cantered out ahead, the tails of Famine’s coat streaming out behind her as they went. The other army was a dark line on the horizon, slowly coming closer, a growing storm.

Feeling that she was suitably close to enemy lines, Famine pulled Desire to a stop and swung to the ground. The moment her bare feet touched the ground, the grass beneath them started to die. Famine unclasped her jacket and tossed it over her saddle before crouching and digging her fingers into the dirt. The death spread, racing across the field, turning the once green grass gray and brittle. Standing, Famine surveyed her work and then turned back to her horse. “Let’s burn some shit, Isydrie.” As if in response, her horse let out a loud shriek and then charged forward.

The idea was to create a funnel, make sure that, if the other army was going to sneak behind them, they would have to go all the way around, giving the Mirrorverse army a better chance at noticing and reacting to that threat. So as Famine and Desire flew along, Famine leaned down over the horse’s side and stretched her hand out until they brushed along the top of the dead grass. Sparks lept from her fingertips and quickly ignited on the dry kindling. She drew a semi-circle of fire across the field, pulling herself upright onto her horse as she found it long enough. She just leaning down to start the second wall of flames after leaving a gap between the two when an arrow sailed out of nowhere and buried itself in her shoulder. The force of it unsettled her just enough that she was sent tumbling off of Desire. She tucked her head in as she crashed to the ground, rolling a couple times over before using the momentum to propel herself back to her feet.

Famine glanced at the arrow in her shoulder before looking up to find soldiers advancing towards her. With a snarl, she hurled a line of fire at them, wrinkling her nose at the smell of burning flesh. She yanked the arrow out of her shoulder and threw it to the ground. Drawing her blades, Famine faced down the army ahead of her, preparing herself for what she knew would be a long haul of a fight.

 Famine was small at the distant side of the field. Bringer watched as she discarded her great coat and crouched. Though they’d never say it out loud, they were worried for her. Famine could hold her own in a fight, they had seen that many times, but Bringer didn’t know what they’d do if she died. They’d already lost the Lady, they couldn’t lose her too.

“Are you alright, Girnber?”

 Bringer looked over at Nergale, who was watching them out of the corner of his eye. “Fine,” they answered, looking out at the oncoming army. Nergale hummed as if he didn’t quite believe Bringer, but didn’t say anything else.

They watched as Famine remounted her horse and raced off into the field, drawing the first wall of fire. As she drew herself upright, Nergale turned and looked back at the army behind him. “Let’s go!” There was a raucous cheer and Bringer remembered the last time they’d been in battle. That hadn’t gone particularly well.

They drew their blade and were about to teleport down onto the field when they saw Famine go tumbling from her horse. There was a moment of fear before they saw her come back to her feet and incinerate the people in front of her. In a blink of an eye, they appeared down on the field by her, not appreciating the odds of a sole horseman against an army. Famine glanced their way and smiled, her teeth sharp and long. “Fancy seeing you here!” she shouted. The Bringer couldn’t help a small laugh but was quickly distracted as soldiers descended upon the pair.

 Going back to back, Famine and Bringer faced down the enemies around them. “Did you not think I could hold my own down here?” Famine asked above the din of battle.

 “Oh, I just didn’t want to miss the party,” they responded, lashing out at an approaching soldier.

“Right, because this is a fucking riot,” she laughed.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself.”

“Well, it’s not every day I get to return to my roots.” There was something unnerving about her roots being in slaughter, but Bringer didn’t mention it.

Time was an illusion among the corpses and roiled earth. It could have been minutes or it could have been days since the start of the battle, Famine couldn’t tell. She was in the thick of things, meeting an enemy at every turn. She’d long since been separated from Bringer, both of them having charged off to deal with other people. Her blades and hands were becoming slick with blood as she hacked down soldier after soldier. She was beginning to feel herself tire and as her next victim fell, she grabbed them, feeling their energy leech through her skin and revive her.

As the corpse fell, she found herself with a rare moment breath. Scanning the area around her, she saw Liaxee not too far away. He was facing down several soldiers at once, swinging both sword and shield wildly. At one point, he simply took his shield and bashed into the head of one of his attackers. Wasn’t a tactic Famine herself would have though of, but then again, she wasn’t one for shields.

Just as she was turning to dart off somewhere else, Famine spotted another soldier sneaking up behind Liaxee, entirely unnoticed. She was beginning to draw her bow, aiming at his head. Famine pivoted and launched herself in Liaxee’s direction, taking the woman down. Famine rolled to her feet as the archer struggled to regain her footing. Wielding the half-moon blades as one, Famine brought them crashing down into the shoulder of the archer, knocking her back to the ground. Having freed himself of the other fighters, Liaxee was quick to turn and drive his sword into her back, making sure she didn’t get up again. “You alright?” Famine asked.

“I am still standing, sey?” he replied.

“That’s one way to look at it,” the horseman mused, “Keep it that way, would ya?” A wide grin spread across Liaxee’s face.

“Only because you asked.”

Famine couldn’t help a laugh, but all gaiety was gone as Liaxee yelled, “Duck!” causing Famine to drop into a low crouch as the large man swung his sword at something behind her. Blood spattered across her back, almost cool against her warm skin.

Feeling she was sufficiently free from being stabbed, Famine stood and glanced at the body Liaxee had just felled. “Sorry,” he said, motioning to the blood speckling her back. The horseman narrowed her eyes and cocked her head before waving a hand at herself to highlight the amount of blood she was already covered in, most of it not her own.

  “Hazard of war.”

Liaxee nodded. “Hazard of war.”

[hellosaltysaladcollectionstuff]

https://ift.tt/2A4LP93 For PC gamers, the launch of Steam’s Summer Sale is one of the biggest days of the summer, offering an opportunity to snag some of the platform’s best games for their cheapest price yet. While multi-platform games have the chance to be featured in multiple sales, like Nintendo’s or PlayStation’s, PC-exclusive games like Total War: Three Kingdoms, Gears Tactics, and Half-Life: Alyx only get a chance to shine in the Steam Summer Sale, so it’s worth paying extra attention to those games–you might not see them at this price for a long time. From turn-based strategy and digital board games to fighting games, action RPGs, and more, here are some of the best PC exclusives in Steam Summer Sale 2020. Please, see our overall list of the best Steam Summer Sale 2020 game deals and the best cheap Steam games under $10. Total War: Three Kingdoms $45 / £33.74 / $67.49 AUD (25% off) Total War: Three Kingdoms still hews closely to the series’ expansive strategy sim framework but makes a few key changes that, along with the ancient Chinese period setting, make it stand out within the series. The increased emphasis on individual commanders and general gives each playthrough with a different army a new flair, and whip-smart enemy leaders make it difficult to simply steamroll the map on your way to victory, making this an intense new entry with a lot of depth. See on Steam Gears Tactics $40.19 / £33.49 / $66.96 AUD (33% off) Gears Tactics takes a more bombastic approach to the XCOM school of turn-based strategy and melds it with the pulpy, war-fueled world of Sera. Each of the Gears franchises’ iconic weapons like the Lancer, Gnasher, and Longshot translate seamlessly to a strategy game, and their abilities serve to differentiate each of your squad members in combat. You’re also closing up emergence holes with grenades and mowing down Wretches with machine-gun fire–just like in the third-person shooter franchise Gears Tactics takes its name from. See on Steam Half-Life: Alyx $45 / £34.86 / $63.71 AUD (25% off) There are quite a few great games you can play on VR headsets, but Half-Life: Alyx is one that really makes the case for games designed exclusively with VR in mind. Grabbing and throwing objects with the new Gravity Gloves feels fantastic, and trying to stay quiet so a blind, unstoppable monster doesn’t hear you makes you naturally hesitant to even close a cupboard door. Exploring City 17 feels incredible through a headset, from the moment you see a Strider towering above the city’s rooftops in the first few minutes of the game to the moment you begin a mind-bending trek near the end I won’t spoil here. Alyx quickly becomes an essential part of the Half-Life universe, even if you think you know how it all ends. See on Steam Killer7 $10 / £7.74 / $11.97 AUD (50% off) If you’re a fan of any Grasshopper or Suda Goichi game (No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned, Let It Die), you owe it to yourself to experience Killer7. It’s undoubtedly his most surreal, trippy game, and this remaster of the original Gamecube and PS2 classic updates it for PC, complete with higher resolution options and mouse-and-keyboard aiming, making it the best way to experience this strange masterpiece in 2020. See on Steam XCOM: Chimera Squad $15 / £12.74 / $22.46 AUD (25% off) XCOM: Chimera Squad is a smaller entry in the series that focuses on a single squad of fleshed-out characters rather than a platoon of random soldiers and offers a few twists on the intense XCOM firefights we’re familiar with, like a back-and-forth turn order, breaches that give you a chance to whittle down enemy squads from the jump, and special abilities that give each member of your squad a special role in fights. See on Steam Disco Elysium $30 / £26.24 / $42.71 AUD (25% off) Disco Elysium eschews the fantasy trappings, combat-oriented encounters, and easy morality that underpin a lot of RPGs and instead lets you tell a story that truly feels your own. As an alcoholic detective hitting rock-bottom just as he’s assigned a major murder case, you explore a city block in the middle of a conflicted territory recovering from a political revolution. The conversations you have with various denizens around Revachol have you re-litigating the city’s tumultuous past, putting together a dance club in the middle of a church, and delivering heartbreaking news to unsuspecting families as you come to terms with who you were before your last bender. It’s a long journey with twists that flip from pensive to laugh-out-loud funny to solemn on a dime while somehow telling a consistent, powerful story along the way–something I can’t say about many other games. Disco Elysium is planned to release on consoles later this year, but for now, you can only enjoy this incredible narrative experience on PC. See on Steam Tabletop Simulator $9 / £7.49 / $14.47 AUD (50% off) The coronavirus pandemic has forced many people to spend much more time indoors and distance themselves from friends and family, so finding ways to stay connected while apart has become crucial. One of my favorite ways to hang out with friends virtually has been Tabletop Simulator, an indie game that lets you play digital versions of board games in a player-driven physics sandbox. The game comes with classics like chess, poker, and dominoes included, but the real draw is the massive collection of free player-created board games and card games available in the Tabletop Simulator workshop. Here, people have recreated some of the best board games around, including Pandemic Legacy, Gloomhaven, and Root. Obviously, some of these creations are more polished than others, but the larger games tend to work really well; in fact, I was really shocked how well complex games like Root worked within Tabletop Simulator. Some publishers have also published official DLC for Tabletop Simulator, so there’s no shortage of content available to try out. If you’re a board game fan like me and can’t always get friends together in person to play, Tabletop Simulator is worth every penny. See on Steam Mordhau $24 / £25.14 / $34.36 AUD (20% off) Mordhau is a fun medieval multiplayer game that features some of the most involved first-person sword-fighting out there. It’s not exactly a sim, though–there are lots of hectic, one-off multiplayer moments that will probably remind you of games like Battlefield, but the strong emphasis on teamwork and sieging castles set it apart. See on Steam Black Mesa $13 / £9.74 / $18.81 AUD (35% off) This remake of the original Half-Life has been over a decade in the making, but it’s finally complete and definitely worth the wait. It features revamped graphics and overhauls the previously-maligned Xen section of the original but manages to keep the soul of Half-Life intact, making this the best way to see Gordon Freeman’s first encounter with the G-Man and alien life if you’re looking to catch up on the series before playing Half-Life: Alyx. See on Steam Jackbox Party Pack 3 $16.24 / £12.34 / $23.36 AUD (35% off) It’s hard to find a series that’s more immediately accessible than the Jackbox games. These party games, which you can play with others online or in-person through your PC or phone, have you responding to all kinds of outlandish prompts, drawing your own (often lewd) pictures to show off and working together to accomplish a common goal. The entire series is on sale for cheap, but Jackbox Party Pack 3 is the one to play, since it’s the best collection of games overall. Quiplash 2 lets you answer a bunch of weird questions with even weirder answers and then pick the funniest ones. Meanwhile, Tee K.O. has you separately drawing pictures and coming up with taglines, then putting together a shirt based on the pictures and tags you randomly get from the group. See on Steam Them’s Fightin’ Herds $10.04 / £7.63 / $14.40 AUD (33% off) Originally developed as a My Little Pony fan game, Them’s Fightin’ Herds has blossomed into a unique fighting game all its own, complete with new equestrian designs from MLP producer Lauren Faust. The roster is small compared to its higher-budget competition, but there are a lot of creative concepts packed into each of these manes, and tutorial and single-player options are more diverse than you might expect from a fighting game made by a smaller team. See on Steam Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition $15 / £11.24 / $17.21 AUD (25% off) For some history buffs, the empire-building sim genre that slowly evolved into the 4X genre began and ended with the Age of Empires series. The iconic second entry is finally available for modern computers, complete with 4K visuals, a remade soundtrack, and a new “The Last Khans” expansion that includes more campaigns and civilizations to round out this strategy classic. See on Steam If Found If Found is a deeply emotional and resonant visual novel that follows Kasio, a woman struggling at a crossroads between ending her education and looking for a career with meaning. The gorgeous illustrations give the game a vibrant style, and its focus on smaller moments and more relatable topics make it a fantastic palette cleanser between other games on this list. See on Steam Monster Train $22.49 / £17.54 / $32.35 AUD (20% off) Deck-building roguelikes are pretty popular nowadays, but Monster has a few tricks up its sleeve that have proved popular with a growing fanbase. The deck-building mechanics are top-notch, and the presence of factions, which act as a way of theming your deck, make building effective combos easy and natural. See on Steam from GameSpot - All Content https://ift.tt/3dwkx97

[dramacurrent]

Even though Ma Sung and Gi Bbeum have found each other again, things are not as easy the second time around.  Will their fated connection be enough to draw them back together?  Devilish Joy Episode 2 gives us more questions than it answers.  (We are doing this people!  We are going to recap all of Devilish Joy.)

Recap Devilish Joy Episode 2

We open where we left off in the last episode.  Gong Ma Sung(Choi Jin Hyuk) stands over Joo Gi Bbeum(Song Ha Yoon) and demands what she is doing with her camera.  Gruffly, he orders her to hand him the camera and reaches out his hand.  As he does, his sleeve pulls up and Gi Bbeum sees for the first time the tattoo of the memory flower on his hand.

Memories swarm back to Gi Bbeum of their day together and seeing the memory flower.  Unaware Ma Sung doesn’t remember her, she hides her face.  But Ma Sung is still fixated on the camera.  When she doesn’t give it to him, he pulls it from her hands and sends it flying to the floor.  In the same instance, the camera breaks and Gi Bbeum’s bag of stinky fish splatter at their feet.

Ma Sung scolds her and turns to leave.  But, seeing the expensive camera broken, Gi Bbeum leaps to her feet and yells at him, “Hold up, Mr. Gong Ma Sung!”

Ma Sung’s countenance shifts in surprise.  “Did you call my name?”

“Yes! Don’t you remember me?” Gi Bbeum barks.

“Are you so important to be worth remembering?”  Ma Sung asks her and turning to go steps on one of her many spilt fish.  Angrily he tells her to clean them up.

In that moment, jerk cameraman arrives to see his camera in shatters on the floor.  He yells at Gi Bbeum while she stands numbly apologizing.

Back in his office, Ma Sung trashes his soiled shoes.

Later that day, Gi Bbeum sits across from her friend Ko Nan Joo(Lee Soo Ji) (Aw, it’s the pig-tailed assistant.  Note: we will be calling her Nan Joo from now on.) and sorts her fish.  She tells Nan Joo about meeting Ma Sung.  Nan Joo doesn’t seem at all surprised that Ma Sung didn’t recognize Gi Bbeum.  She is convinced he did remember her, but didn’t want to admit it considering how differently Gi Bbeum is from back then.  Gi Bbeum decides her friend is right.  “Whatever!” she tells her.

Gi Bbeum tries to give her friend some of her fish as a “thank you” for helping her set up her clothing store when she didn’t even have money for rent, but Nan Joo is less than thrilled to accept the smelly red gurnards.  She carries the bag of fish at arm’s length into the other room.

Walking home, Gi Bbeum discovers tabloids pasted on the side of a building advertising “Joo Gi Bbeum’s Closet: Amazing Sales.”  embarrassed for people to see how fall she has fallen, she begins to tear the sheets from the wall and window.

That night, Ma Sung is dropped off at home by his secretary chauffeur.  But before he goes in, his driver asks why Ma Sung is not wearing his shoes.  “I threw them out,” he grumpily tells the man and asks for him to buy the exact same shoes for tomorrow so he isn’t confused.

At her home, Gi Bbeum’s younger brother, Joo Ja Rang(Kang Yoon Je,) cooks red gurnards for dinner while Gi Bbeum watches.  Gi Bbeum asks what happened to the gas to their stove, and he tells her it was turned off by the company.  Gi Bbeum doesn’t seems totally surprised.  Continuing to cook, Ja Rang asks if she is not scared of the sea now, seeing as she went out on a boat today.  “I’m more scared of not catching fish.”  She tells him honestly.

Their conversation is interrupted by the sound of Gi Bbeum’s younger sister, Joo Sa Rang(Kim Ji Young) pushing their very drunk father in a shopping cart.

The siblings sit down to eat their fish dinner while their father(Oh Gwang Rok) lies on the floor beside the table.  Randomly, he pops up to quote pieces of poetry at them.  As their dad falls back asleep on the floor, Gi Bbeum notices the rude words on her younger sister’s shirt: “What are you looking at!?!”  Motherly, she tells her to not wear the rude shirt and instead to wear something from Gi Bbeum’s store.  As she pulls clothes from her backpack, Ja Rang notices the crumpled tabloids at the bottom of the pack.  He is annoyed, but Gi Bbeum makes light of them, telling him she is saving the paper for recycling.

At his own home, Ma Sung is also eating dinner.  Ironically, the menu for tonight is red gurnard, which (hilariously) annoys him.

Before bed, Ma Sung goes to his room of notes to write down his memories for tomorrow.  He is careful to detail each part of the day, but when he gets to his meeting with Gi Bbeum, he tells himself.  “It is a blessing to forget about such incidents,” and leaves her out.

Back at Gi Bbeum’s house, she heads to bed in the room she shares with her younger sister.  Laying down on the bottom bunk, she wistfully stares at the headshots of her former self tucked in the bars above her head.

At precisely 10pm, Ma Sung lays down to sleep.

We watch as the light around him darkens and then reemerges with the dawn.  As is his custom, Ma Sung awakes and goes to take a shower.  But as he stands under the water a memory of Gi Bbeum from yesterday flashes through his mind.  Startled, Ma Sung stands dripping and wonders who the woman is in his mind.

Now on a mission, Ma Sung rushes to his Memory Room to read over his notes from yesterday.  But, of course, there is nothing to be found about the mystery woman.  Still more baffled, Ma Sung calls his secretary to come quickly.

The secretary arrives carrying Ma Sung’s replacement shoes.  Ma Sung hands the man a sketch he has drawn of Gi Bbeum with her mound of fish and camera parts.  The driver wonders if maybe the woman was just a nightmare of Ma Sung’s.  But Ma Sung reminds him that he hasn’t had a dream in three years. After determining it wasn’t a dream, he realizes excitedly that Ma Sung remembered something for the first time.  (I’d disliked this guy before, but his reaction is so genuinely happy for Ma Sung I might have to change my mind.)

Across town Gi Bbeum enters jerk cameraman’s office cautiously.  She tries to give him clothes for his family as a peace-offering, but jerk cameraman won’t even let her near him.  The broken camera’s lens alone will cost him almost $2,300 to replace.  Gi Bbeum is very penitent and promises to buy the lens for him.  Jerk cameraman accepts her offer but fires her anyway, convinced she brings bad luck.  Gi Bbeum relents, but only if he promises to delete the embarrassing video he took of her.  Angrily, he barks that the video was deleted when the camera broke.  (I smell a rat.)

Calmly, Gi Bbeum heads to work at her shop, “Fantastic.”  Her phone is filled with text messages from people, but they aren’t customers with orders.  Instead, the phone rings with one hateful anti-fan text after another.  Without expression, she replies a reminder to them to only text with orders.

At the same time current star Lee Ha Im(Joo Yeon) sits in her van taking selfies on her phone.  Her assistant begs her to exit the van for the shoot, but Lee Ha Im keeps the door locked.  She calls him on his phone to tell him she won’t come out today because the dust is too heavy.  The assistant tries to relay her message to the director but is only told to try again.

Outside the van, Nan Joo and her team stand impatiently waiting for the spoiled starlet.  As they do, Gi Bbeum calls Nan Joo’s phone to tell her she has been fired.  Nan Joo is actually relieved she isn’t working for jerk cameraman anymore — she was sure he was a con artist anyhow.  Gi Bbeum assures her he wasn’t.  However, Nan Joo is not convinced and questions whether Gi Bbeum made sure the embarrassing video he took of her was deleted.  Gi Bbeum assures her he wouldn’t upload it.  (I have a bad feeling about where this is going.)  Since she’s jobless now Gi Bbeum asks if she could work at Nan Joo’s shop every day now, which Nan Joo emphatically answers her she can.

They hang up, but Nan Joo forgets to end the call.  Gi Bbeum continues to listen as Nan Joo’s team begs her to not let Gi Bbeum work with them.  Annoyed with them, Nan Joo defends her friend vehemently.  Sighing heavily, Gi Bbeum she presses the end button on her phone.

At Ma Sung’s company, his aunt stands in her office talking with her advisors and Ma Sung’s secretary and doctor.  The advisors tell her that her son, Ki Joon(Hoya), left the US early and has arrived in Korea already without her knowing.  Mom is furious and tells them to freeze his credit cards.

Her face now slipping into a smile, Aunt asks them how Ma Sung is doing.  They tell her of the “Healing Village” he is creating for dementia patients.  Although a good intention, they are concerned that the village will not be profitable.  She then turns to ask Ma Sung’s doctor how Ma Sung is doing physically.  He tells her honestly that he is not improving.  Turning her attention, she asks Ma Sung’s secretary, to ask for his schedule.  (This woman is giving me the creeps.  Every time she is around she is trying to put down or control Ma Sung or Ki Joon.)

Downstairs Ma Sung tries to lead a meeting on his new “Healing Village,” but his mind keeps distracting him with the memory of Gi Bbeum.

After the meeting ends he goes to visit his doctor.  The doctor is confounded to hear about his new memory, but Ma Sung has a theory.  (I forget Ma Sung is a neuroscientist too.)  He believes that the reason this memory was saved is because of a special relationship he must share with the mystery woman.

Afterwards, Ma Sung asks his secretary to locate the woman in his drawing. But the secretary is incredulous and scoffs that Ma Sung has become weirder lately, first with the new shoes and now this.  Baffled, Ma Sung retorts that he bought his own shoes in Milan long ago.  But the driver assures him he asked him to buy an identical pair yesterday.  Ma Sung shakes his head, wondering why he asked for replacement shoes.

Across town, Ki Joon stands in front of his entertainment agency building, sighing happily.  As he does, Lee Ha Im’s van pulls up to the building.  Ki Joon immediately recognizes her as the woman his mom slapped at the beauty shop and happily tries to start a conversation.  Lee Ha Im, however, isn’t interested.  But when she tries to enter the building, she can’t remember her password and Ki Joon has to let her in.

Inside, Lee Ha Im talks with her manager about some new scripts she’s been looking over.  (Gasp! It’s Gi Bbeum’s horrible manager from last episode.)   She isn’t happy with the scripts she’s been offered, insisting that she can only star in a “masterpiece.”  Her manager cruelly puts her down, even comparing her to Gi Bbeum when she threatens to end her contract.  Lee Ha Im is finally annoyed but subdued.

Upstairs, Ki Joon enters his entertainment agency just as his manager tells an assistant how he hates Ki Joon and wants to humiliate him.  But Ki Joon only hears “humiliate” and thinks it is a joke.  He eagerly tells his manager he ran into Lee Ha Im downstairs.  The manager is impressed, but Ki Joon declares she really wasn’t as pretty in person, nothing like Gi Bbeum.

However, his manager doesn’t agree and tells him that the only way their tiny company will survive is if Ki Joon can sign Lee Ha Im.   Ki Joon pouts that he thought he was going to be a big star for them.  But the manager tells him that he can’t make a comeback right now and suggests he give up and crawl back to his mom.  When pressed, they admit Ki Joon’s company is broke.  It is then that Ki Joon realizes his mom has cut off his funding.

Back at his office, Ma Sung is puzzling over his new shoes when Ki Joon calls his phone.  He tries to ignore the call, but Ki Joon bursts through the door, surprising him.  It is the first time Ki Joon has seen Ma Sung since the accident three years ago.  They bond for a moment before Ki Joon adorably (and hilariously) begs his cousin to buy him lunch.

On the way they fuss about everything from the menu to the car music.  But Ki Joon has a special surprise for Ma Sung.  Instead of a restaurant, he takes him to his entertainment agency, “Star Entertainment.”  Ki Joon starts to tell Ma Sung his tale of financial woe, but is interrupted immediately.  Ma Sung saw this trap coming from miles away.  He may have money, but he is a doctor not a real estate investor.

But Ki Joon persists.  There is someone he needs to save.  Ma Sung is intrigued at that choice of word, but Ki Joon will only tell him it is someone who was wrongfully framed.  Ki Joon brings all his cuteness to bear and begs his cousin to invest in him.  Ma Sung finally asks how much it costs; at which point Ki Joon launches at him in a hug.  (Aww, loving the bromance here.)

Moments later, Ma Sung signs the contract over lunch.  As Ki Joon stuffs his mouth, Ma Sung questions him about the strange memory he has had today.  Through his food, Ki Joon declares it must be an unrequited love that is causing Ma Sung to keep thinking about her.  Perhaps she is his lover?  (This kid is smarter than he acts.) However, Ma Sung is unamused.

After lunch, Ki Joon drops Ma Sung back off at work just as his phone rings.  It is the manager’s assistant with terrible news.  The embarrassing video of Gi Bbeum is online.

Around town Gi Bbeum’s brother discovers people watching the video and calls to warn his sister.  Too late Gi Bbeum rushes to jerk cameraman’s office.  The building is empty.

At the same time, Ma Sung discovers his secretary watching the clip.  The man shows him the video, but instead of laughing like everyone else, Ma Sung is startled to recognize the woman from his memory.  The driver laughs in amazement when Ma Sung tells him this is the woman they are searching for.  How can they be searching for THE Joo Gi Bbeum?

But, having lived out of the country before his accident, Ma Sung has no idea who Joo Gi Bbeum is.  The driver pulls up an old news video to watch from when Gi Bbeum was accused of killing Min Hyung Joon.  The newscaster explains that even though Joo Gi Bbeum was found not guilty, her image was ruined and all her supporters and sponsors turned on her.  His interest piqued, Ma Sung asks his secretary to look for Joo Gi Bbeum.

Not long after, the secretary returns.  He has discovered Gi Bbeum’s online store, a phone number where she can be texted to place orders, and her home address.

Later at home, Ma Sung stares at the note with Gi Bbeum’s contact info.  After hesitating, he throws the note to the ground — only for it to stick to his foot.

Back at their store, Nan Joo scolds Gi Bbeum for not confirming the video was deleted.  As Gi Bbeum literally pulls her hair in frustration, a text message alert rings on her phone.  It is Ma Sung with a message: “Can I place an order?”  When she doesn’t respond right away, he adds “20 pieces of clothing.”

But Gi Bbeum can’t imagine anyone would place an order with her right now and ignores his text.

When she still does not answer him, Ma Sung sends another text, “I mean, 50 pieces.”  Now Nan Joo and Gi Bbeum really think he is crazy.

Deciding it is still not enough, Ma Sung sends a final text.  “100 pieces!”  This does it.  Nan Joo and Gi Bbeum bounce with joy as they realize what a sale like this means for them.  Trying to keep her voice calm, Gi Bbeum calls her new customer.

“Hello, I’m from the Fantastic Shopping Mall” she cheerfully chirps when Ma Sung answers.  Her voice stays business like as she confirms that he really wants his large order, but outwardly her whole body riggles with joy.  He confirms he does want his order, which send the two girls into thrills of excitement.

“But I do have one condition.”  Ma Sung interrupts their joy to announce.  “The owner of this cellphone, so in other words, the owner of this shop must deliver the clothes herself.”

Thinking this a very suspicious request, the girls tell him that it isn’t possible.  But when Ma Sung threatens to cancel his order, Gi Bbeum immediately relents and agrees to come herself.

After hanging up, Nan Joo wonders whether the customer is some sort of weirdo to make that request.  But Gi Bbeum karate chops her in reply.  “I’m more concerned about not getting any orders!”  She snaps and hurries off to gather the order.

Soon after Gi Bbeum crosses town carrying a big black bag full of clothes.  She calls Ma Sung’s cell for directions.  However, instead of directly telling her where his house is, Ma Sung sends her through a series of ridiculous lefts and rights and up flight after flight of stairs as a test of her character.

Finally in front of Ma Sung’s house, Gi Bbeum moans to herself, “Of all places.  I used to live here.”

Seeing her outside his door, Ma Sung nods his head.  It really is the girl from his memory.  The door open, Gi Bbeum pulls her black burden awkwardly inside.

But when she raises her eyes Gi Bbeum is astonished to see Ma Sung is her mystery buyer.  “You’re the one who placed the order?”  She says in amazement.

Inside Ma Sung continues to test her patience by ordering her to pull her load of clothes to the bedroom and then the bathroom.  But when Gi Bbeum goes to the various places without needing to be told where they are, he becomes very curious.

Gi Bbeum doesn’t want him to know she was the previous owner, though, and tells him that house plans are all very similiar.  Ma Sung doesn’t buy it.

“You know me, don’t you?”  He asks her directly.  “This is a very important question to me so answer me seriously.  I feel like you know me.  Perhaps did we used to date?”

But Gi Bbeum misunderstands his meaning, assuming that he is asking because he is a flirt who can’t remember her from among his many dates.  “We didn’t date.”  She snaps at him.  Still annoyed, she wonders aloud if it bothers him that he broke the camera lens yesterday.  This triggers a memory of the camera breaking for Ma Sung, and he offers to pay for the damage.

Gi Bbeum tells him the totals for the camera lens and the clothes he ordered.  After transferring the money into her account, Ma Sung tells her that he doesn’t really want the clothes afterall.  He had called her to ask a question and he believes the reward was enough for the cost of her time.  She can “throw the clothes out”, he tells her.

Tearfully Gi Bbeum asks if he will regret his decision.  (I spy a deeper meaning.)  But Ma Sung retorts that he won’t regret what he won’t remember tomorrow.  (I know that this answer makes sense from his perspective, but from from Gi Bbeum’s viewpoint, ouch.)  Before leaving with her clothes, Gi Bbeum straightens and tells Ma Sung that although these clothes might not be worth anything to him, they are her a matter of survival to her.

But standing outside his house, Gi Bbeum is far less brave.  She crouches down in the street and reminds herself not to cry.  (Sniff! I’m not crying, you are.)

On street in front of Gi Bbeum’s home, Ki Joon sits watching the road.  When suddenly Sa Rang slams down on his windshield making him squeal in fear.  She glares at him through the windshield with eyes of death before pulling off and heading inside.  But Ki Joon is undeterred and runs after her.

“Is this where Joo Gi Bbeum lives?” He asks her.  Sa Rang retorts that it is her house before turning to go.  As she leaves we see her shirt again rudely states “What are you lookin’ at!?!”

Just then Gi Bbeum herself comes walking down the road awkwardly dragging her black load.  Ki Joon’s smile explodes across his face when he sees and goes running toward her.  “You’re still shinning as ever, my first love.”  He says happily.

However, Gi Bbeum has no idea who he is and pulls back in confusion.  “Who are you?”  She asks.  In reply he tells her they were in a drama together five years ago and that they even kissed.

At that Gi Bbeum does start to remember.  In flashback we see a much younger looking Ki Joon awkwardly chewing his nail as Gi Bbeum creeps playfully up behind him.  But instead of telling Gi Bbeum he loves her, Ki Joon fouls up the line and says he “persons her.”  At that the director cries cut in exasperation…apparently this isn’t the first time.

Back in the present, Gi Bbeum really does remember him, which delights Ki Joon no end.  Ki Joon notices her bag of clothes, and Gi Bbeum admits “some weirdo” bought them and then didn’t want them.  She figures that she seems pathetic for bringing the clothes back.  But Ki Joon assures her she is just thrifty.  Gi Bbeum says she isn’t sure what to do with the clothes, at which Ki Joon beams.  He has the perfect idea.

Cut to Gi Bbeum and Ki Joon driving up to a street full of homeless people.  Moments later the people dance in joy as they wear Gi Bbeum’s new clothes and the givers give eachother a high five.

Back in his study, Ma Sung is again trying to write in his journal.  But he can’t stop thinking about Gi Bbeum.  He reaches a hand up to feel his heartbeat.  “That woman has a way of making people feel uncomfortable,” he notes.

Moments later we see Ma Sung sitting in his car.  Strangely, He is wearing sunglasses even though it is night.  He reacts as a car’s headlights pass in front of his car.  “What am I doing?!”  He asks himself, but ends up driving anyway.

On the road in front of Gi Bbeum’s home, she and Ki Joon are saying their goodbyes after their fun afternoon.  After she leaves, Ki Joon does a happy dance.  He could not be happier to have been with his idol.  “I’ll make you big again.”  He quietly promises.

Before Gi Bbeum can reach her house, though, Ma Sung arrives at the door.  He walks into the front yard  and heads up to the curtain door.  But before he can know Sa Rang screams “It’s a thief!” at the top of her lungs.  Ma Sung is confused and laughs that she thought he looked like a thief.  But cocky Sa Rang insists he did and tells him to get lost before walking around him to go inside.

Just then Gi Bbeum’s dad comes up drunk as ever and accuses him of eating the ramyun from the bowl in his hand.  Ma Sung assures him he did not eat the ramyun.  Dad decides to believe him and let him “pass.”  By now Ma Sung is very confused and turns to leave, but Dad calls him back for a lecture on the dispossal of cigarette butts.  (Bwahaha!)  When Ma Sung assures him that he doesn’t smoke, Dad again agrees to let him “pass.”  Again Ma Sung turns to go and again Dad calls him back to ask if he knows how much government spending is wasted on trash people don’t sort properly.

Before Dad can “pass” him again, Gi Bbeum comes up and sends Dad inside.

After seeing Dad is safely inside, Gi Bbeum turns to ask Ma Sung what he is doing there.  Ma Sung doesn’t answer though, and instead questions her about who the people are that he just met.  Gi Bbeum answers him but then demands how he found her.  He tells her that he found the address on her website.

But Gi Bbeum flatly responds that she never put her home address on her website.  Skirting the issue, Ma Sung tells her he came for the clothes he bought.  Gi Bbeum tells him that she doesn’t have them anymore, which Ma Sung assumes means she sold them again.  He marvels at her amazing survival skills.  But he isn’t mad.  If she doesn’t have his clothes, he will accept a few minutes to talk with her instead.  (Awkward lover boy is adorable.)

Gi Bbeum refuses to talk to him for even two minutes.  Ma Sung feels very put out by this and scolds her for not even talking to him when he has gone through so much hardship to come here.

“Why should I have to waste my precious time on you?”  Gi Bbeum snaps back.  “I can’t even spare one second.  I don’t want to.”  (You tell him, girl!)

Ma Sung is flabbergasted and wonders at her confidence in ignoring him, especially considering the position she is in.  Gi Bbeum assures him that confidence does not come from the environment, but the heart.

“So this is why people hate you so much.”  Ma Sung softly observes.  “Because of your unwarranted confidence.”  (Too far, Ma Sung.  Don’t you dare hurt our tender girl.)  He notes her many anti-fans, finally deciding there is no way he would have aquainted himself with someone like her.

He leaves, but Gi Bbeum follows pounding after him and throws the bag she was holding hard against his back.

“What are you doing?” He asks her.

“I’d like to ask you the same thing.  What are you doing?”  She snaps back.  “Why?  Are you angry?  Hurt?  Like me, do you feel it is unfair?  Evil jerk.”  Ma Sung sputters at this, but she continues, “Why didn’t you show up that day?”  By now she has Ma Sung’s full attention.  “You even kissed me,” she tells him.

Ma Sung is astounded and repeats, “I kissed you?”  But Gi Bbeum assumes that he can’t remember because he doesn’t want to.  Ma Sung begs her to be more specific, but Gi Bbeum angrily tells him she shouldn’t have to remind him.

“It’s because,” he tells her sadly, “I can’t remember that I’m asking.”  But Gi Bbeum misunderstands believing he is a playboy.  She firmly warns him never to fall in love and hurt someone with his memory again.  She adds for him to never acknowledge her again, even if they see eachother.

“Is this how we broke up?”  He asks her quietly.  “Did you try to push me away while I tried to stop you?  Well, now it is time for you to decide.”

“Decide what?” She huffs back.

“Whether it would be okay for me to remember you tomorrow.  Or if I should erase you.”

At this Gi Bbeum breathes in sharply.  Her eyes drift down to the tattoo of the memory flower on Ma Sung’s hand.  “Don’t remember.”  She tells him and walks away.

Ma Sung nods his head, but his eyes follow her sadly as she goes up the stairs back home.

My Thoughts:

Although I am still in love with this show, Ma Sung’s personality change has really been for the worse.  It feels like his dementia has affected every part of his character and caused him to be rigid and rough — like every other snotty kdrama chaebal.  I am really ready for Devilish Joy to return my happy puppy.

Also, the way he interacts with Gi Bbeum is strange.  I get that he is self-concious about his inability to remember and has gone to great lengths to keep it from being noticeable, but come on!  EXPLAIN IT TO HER!  She has no idea that he can’t remember her so she completely misunderstands everything he says to her.  If he really thinks that she has this deep connection to him he might want to rethink his way of treating her.  Does he expect her to want to know him after he harrasses her and tells her she isn’t worth remembering?

Ki Joon on the other hand is entirely adorable.  I love how he manages to find the greatest joy at the smallest thing, like when Gi Bbeum remembered his name.  And I don’t even mind how obsessed he is with her, although it does border on stalking, because he is more of a daddy long legs than a full on stalker.  Seriously, this kid has a heart of gold.

The exact opposite is Ma Sung’s aunt.  This woman is giving me chills in the biggest way.  The way that she secretly watches and controls every part of her son and Ma Sung’s life feels so wrong.  And seriously, why is Ma Sung’s doctor even telling her everything she asks?  What happened to doctor/patient confidentiality?  Ugh.

But it is interesting to me that all of our characters in one way or another tie into a theme of protectiveness in this drama.  Ma Sung’s aunt showed it by being overprotective of her boys; Ki Joon showed it through his obsession with restoring his “first love” to her former glory; Gi Bbeum’s friend and family had it constantly; and Ma Sung showed it most of all in the first episode when he was drawn to Gi Bbeum because she needed rescuing from the gang of thugs.  If she hadn’t need him he might never have been attracted at all.  And then we saw it again when he saved her from drowning and was oddly protective and sincere about promising never to leave her.

I wonder how much further the drama will take the protective theme.  It would be nice to see if they can tie it into Gi Bbeum’s relationship with Ma Sung more.  Maybe Gi Bbeum could use some of her bright spunk to protect Ma Sung from himself and others…especially that weirdly protective Aunt.

So what did you think of Episode 2 of Devilish Joy?  

Read More:

Recap: Devilish Joy Episode 1

  Recap: Devilish Joy Episode 2 Even though Ma Sung and Gi Bbeum have found each other again, things are not as easy the second time around.  

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MYSTERIOUS MURDER(S): CHARLES C. MORGAN

Researching and writing this reminded me of why I absolutely love investigative blogging. This mystery started in March of 1977 and by the time we get to the end three people will be dead, a family left shattered and confused, and a reporter that followed the story of a lifetime will have a hit on his own life! In Tucson, AZ Charles C. Morgan went by the name “Chuckie” to his friends, family, and business associates. He owned an escrow company and lived the average normal life with his wife and four daughters.

Except…on March 22, 1977 Chuckie vanished after carrying two of his daughters to school. He finally stumbled back into his home in the middle of the night three nights later.

He claimed he couldn’t speak but wrote his wife (Ruth) a crazy unbelievable message claiming that somebody “painted his throat with a hallucinogenic drug.“ He wrote to her a message of torture, threats, and fear.

According to his wife, he was missing a shoe, had a plastic handcuff around one ankle, and had his hands tied together with a plastic zip tie. He asked her to move his car because he didn’t want “them” to know he had returned home. However, he would never tell her who “they” were. He also told his wife to not call the police and to not call for an ambulance.

Over the next two weeks Ruth nursed him back to health. She fed him with a dropper til he was able to talk again. He never spoke about the kidnapping except to drop hints that he was a “spy for the Treasury Department” and his life was in danger because of his statements against criminals.

After the kidnapping he became extremely paranoid. He only allowed himself to drive his daughters to and from school, and spoke with the school demanding nobody ever be allowed to pick them up.

Two months after the first disappearance Charles went missing yet again. During the days he was missing, before his body was found, his wife Ruth received an anonymous phone call. The woman on the line referred to herself as “Green Eyes”. “Green eyes” said nothing to Ruth except “Ecclesiastes 12:1-8,” the same citation her husband would later be found with - hiding in his underpants. Nobody has ever figured out the meaning of this depressing bible verse. It has never brought meaning to his murder, has never identified his killer, and only leaves more questions.

https://biblia.com/bible/niv/Eccles%2012.1-8

Remember your Creator

in the days of your youth,

before the days of trouble come

and the years approach when you will say,

“I find no pleasure in them”—

2 before the sun and the light

and the moon and the stars grow dark,

and the clouds return after the rain;

3 when the keepers of the house tremble,

and the strong men stoop,

when the grinders cease because they are few,

and those looking through the windows grow dim;

4 when the doors to the street are closed

and the sound of grinding fades;

when people rise up at the sound of birds,

but all their songs grow faint;

5 when people are afraid of heights

and of dangers in the streets;

when the almond tree blossoms

and the grasshopper drags itself along

and desire no longer is stirred.

Then people go to their eternal home

and mourners go about the streets.

6 Remember him—before the silver cord is severed,

and the golden bowl is broken;

before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,

and the wheel broken at the well,

7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from,

and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

8 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.

“Everything is meaningless!”

This time he was found 11 days after his disappearance, outside of his new Mercury Cougar, in the middle of the Arizona desert, 40 miles west of Tuscon.  It was ruled a suicide even though the kill shot entered the back of his head. He had been shot with his own .357 magnum revolver. There were no fingerprints on the gun. Inside the car there was a cache of weapons and ammunition. His NEW mercury cougar had also been altered so that the doors could be locked and unlocked from the fender (remember…this was 1977! Also…if a reader knows WHY a person would do this kind of alteration please comment and let me know. I don’t understand what the point of locking and unlocking from your fender would be!?)

He was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time of death, was found with a pair of sunglasses that did not belong to him, had one of his own teeth in his pocket wrapped in a handkerchief, and had a $2 bill stuffed in his underwear, which was annotated with seven Spanish names and a Bible citation – Ecclesiastes 12:1-8. On the opposite side of the $2 Bill there was a drawing of a map. It was a map of Robles Junction and Sasabe, both are well known areas for smuggling and criminal activity.

https://biblia.com/bible/niv/Eccles%2012.1-8

After his first kidnapping Charles had told his father that if anything ever happened to him he had hidden a letter that would explain everything, and would name names. This letter was never found.

After his death, authorities discovered he had been hiding out in a west-area motel for the previous several days. An “acquaintance” told police he was trying to come up with enough cash to pay off a hit on his life. Another “acquaintance” who later admitted to being the mysterious caller “Green eyes” stated that the last time she had seen Charles alive he had had a briefcase filled with $60,000 in cash. “Green eyes” said that Charles had hoped to buy off the hit on his life. The informant gave enough personal details that the police were pretty confident she was telling the truth, at least as far as having known Morgan socially. Unfortunately, that was the last that anyone ever heard of Green Eyes, and the case went completely cold. Some people theorize that Morgan’s escrow company was a front for money laundering, and the whole thing went south. Or, maybe he really was a secret agent for the government. Or, there’s some third, even weirder explanation we haven’t guessed. I believe that would be reasonable since this case was so strange from the start, and had so many twists and turns that nobody could’ve seen coming.

Three weeks after his death two FBI agents showed up at his home demanding to search it. They tore the house apart. Its unknown what they were looking for or what things they had taken. A reporter, Don Devereux, that advocated for the family from the beginning contacted the FBI about the search and they deny ever sending agents to search the home. 

Ruth Morgan passed away in 2006. Ruth always maintained that her husband was murdered and that it was covered up by corrupt government officials and a corrupt police department. His four daughters also took on the fight for justice. They state that their father was murdered and would like to see justice brought to the person/persons responsible.

HUGE TWIST TO THE STORY: (This part gets a little confusing. While researching I had to re-read articles a few times to make sure I had the information correct and make sure I kept the case straight and accurate.) Here it goes… Don Devereux was a journalist that from the very beginning got sucked into the Charles C. Morgan case. He found it odd that Charles’ death was ruled a suicide when too kill himself, Charles would have had to have had stretch Armstrong arms! It was just crazy and implausible to think a man drove out into the desert, wore a bullet-proof vest, just to get out of his car stretch his arm behind his head/back, and shoot himself in the center of the back of his head, also leave NO fingerprints, and somehow hide the gloves he must’ve been wearing (since he left no prints) before he immediately dropped dead! Devereux investigated the case that police wanted no part of, he talked to people the cops wouldn’t make time for, and he spoke out and advocated for the Morgan family when no one else would. He kept the story in the media for decades.

During Devereux’s investigation he found evidence of Charles Morgan’s money laundering through his escrow company. Charles was also involved in gold and platinum transactions out of South Asia. Devereux also found that Charles kept duplicate records of all illegal transactions. Devereux theorized that whomever Charles was involved with found out about his shady record keeping, and wanted Charles taken out. (I haven’t found proof in my research but I’ve seen several reports that Charles did a lot of illegal business with some high ranking politicians and some extremely wealthy “business men,” and when I say “business men” I mean, wealthy mob bosses.)

On May 14, 1990 Doug Johnston left for his night shift job at a computer graphics company in Phoenix, AZ. An hour later he was found murdered in his company parking lot. Again…cops tried to rule it as a suicide. Doug had one shot to his head behind his left ear. Though the placement was better for a suicide ruling than Charles Morgan’s shot to the head, evidence was still on Doug’s side. There was no gun at the scene, no gun powder residue on his hands, and he was right-handed which made the shot to the left side of his head strange and awkward. In the end it was ruled a homicide. (At the time of Doug Johnston’s murder it was believed to be just a random, wrong place/wrong time murder, but within the next year events would play out to prove otherwise.)

In 1991 Don Devereux was contacted by Danny Casolaro, a writer from Washington D.C. regarding the evidence Devereux had about Charles’ money laundering. Devereux agreed to share all of the evidence he had uncovered. Before Devereux could mail it out, Dan Casolaro was found in a hotel bathroom. His wrists had been slashed. Yet again….a death was ruled suicide. Devereux knows it was murder, and Casolaro’s brother believes it was murder. Dan Casolaro’s brother stated that Danny was extremely squeamish around blood. He said IF his brother was going to commit suicide slashing his wrists would NOT have been the method used.

Six months after Casolaro’s death Devereux learned that there had been a hit placed on him. He learned that Doug Johnston’s murder in 1990 was a case of mistaken identity, and was meant for him.

Though names have not been released, a CIA officer, and an informant for Israeli Intelligence have confirmed the hit for Don Devereux’s life.

Charles Morgan, Doug Johnston, and Dan Casolaro’s murders have never been solved.

SOURCES:

http://tucson.com/news/local/crime/cold-case-strange-evidence-found-in-on-near-man-s/article_e84a1034-c078-5a43-81a1-e602f52eda02.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/4m3sq3/the_unbelievably_bizarre_case_of_charles_chuck/

http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Charles_Morgan

http://thesop.org/story/20140407/an-unsolved-mysteries-episode-charles-morgan-throws-you-down-a-spooky-rabbit-hole-with-zero-bottom.html

https://unsolved.com/gallery/chuck-morgan/

http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Doug_Johnston

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October Prompts: 21

If you are looking for October Writing Prompts follow this link:

https://carrieautumn.tumblr.com/post/165918058845/october-writing-prompts

Monster Movie

KreepyKatie Reviews: They Who Watch 9.5/10

You know that old superstition that having your picture taken steals a bit of your soul? Well that’s the closest thing I got to an explanation of what I have recently experienced. Except it’s more along the lines of the opposite. Well horror fans I got a find that will mess with your mind, but first a little back story. It’s important to understand that I am a veteran in horror, I am throughly desensitized to jumps and gore. Yet, this film was able to give me that kind of chill you just can’t shake. It’s subtle and, likely, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but still I give it one of my higher recommendations.

I’m a big fan of Halloween, always have been, even I as I grew to old for trick treating I still found other ways to celebrate this special time of year when Strange is King. I rent movies, I make gruesome foods and crafts, I read horror stories, I spend all hours of the day finding ways to keep myself up at night. Chasing that thrill of catching a glimpse at the unknown and unfortunate. Because Halloween is once again right around the corner I set out to find the best movie to review for you guys. This is harder than it seems as I don’t want to just recommend the classics everyone and their dead ancestors has seen.

As you can imagine I’ve seen just about every horror movie there is, even the bad ones. I’ve turned to message boards, looking for obscure foreign films that might scratch my itch since I’ve about drained the western world of it’s supply. There was one link that was posted, by a user whose suggestions are always a hit or miss, that seemed interesting. Their post read something along the lines of “I’m not sure what to make of this. It’s not horror per se, but I do feel off after watching it.” The comment chain below seemed to consisted of the same, so I clicked the link that took me to a site dedicated to strange and surreal films, ones such as Eraserhead or Inland Empire. This film was called They Who Watch. I was instantly intrigued by the title card, a woman with a disturbed look on her face with the top half in black and white and the bottom in color. Plot Summary. Warning: SPOILERS: It started out as a sort of cheesy monster film, which disappointed me at first because I had been in the mood for some mind-bending surrealism, I was unaware that I would get more than I had asked for. The premise was that a monster who could suck life force from photographs and videos, was terrorizing a young actress. It was explored as some sort of ancient evil, but was always kept vague. Throughout the film an actress who is the leading role in an upcoming movie becomes increasingly sick. She slowly begins to suspect that the director is the monster and realizes the filming is responsible for her poor health and nightmares, so she becomes reluctant to return to set. Yet, despite her health, all the people around her keep pushing and pushing her to complete the film. Her doctor even gaslights her, asking if she was sneaking drugs from the old sedated woman in her room, that particular scene is brutal and filled with secondhand embarrassment. I was surprised by how it effected me with this scene alone. It gets to the point where the woman can’t even stand, but the crew guilts her, basically threatening to have her institutionalized if she doesn’t complete her contract. Because she only has two scenes left she agrees, but only if she can complete them in one go. She arrives on set, pushed in a wheelchair by her agent, gets up and begins to perform. The room pans over all the people watching her, with a kind of sinister stillness to them. This part reminded me of Rosemary’s Baby and I began to suspect they were all in on it. She begins to falter and stumbles to the ground, looking directly into the camera as she sits on the ground and delivers her lines between panting breaths. That’s when you hear a voice asking her questions and she answers in character, the camera crawling closer. She then breaks, saying “So it was you.” The film pans around and the camera is revealed to be the one talking to her, and closing in. The director is a statue with the rest of the crowd in the background. The next scene was so abrupt, and almost cartoony that it made me shiver, it gave me a weird vibe. What normally in another film would have been corny effects, became very off putting. It had a wrongness that disturbed me. Basically the camera blinks into a weird humanoid monster and bites off the actresses’ head. Blood sprays out and her body slumps over with a headless neck stump. The room is quiet as this happens, as if they cannot see what is happening. The film ends with the movie being released, and audiences watching as the camera slowly draws nearer to the stumbling woman, as she delivers her final lines. It cuts back to the audience who are all dead, their hair white, eyes rolled back, and slack-jawed. Adults and children were depicted with very realistic expressions. The film is quiet as it ends and left me disquieted as well. It made me uncomfortable, and although the film was filled with obvious symbolism and took hours to get anywhere I thought it was good. I was unnerved, and felt that way for hours afterward. For days I would recall images of the movie, but I didn’t want to dwell on it too deeply. I didn’t want to share and talk about it as I normally would have. I feel as though I would have been complicit in something, by writing this post. However, duty calls! I write this now because I’ve begun to have dreams. Specific dreams involving the brief appearance of the monster from the film. I feel silly, in all my years I have not been jumpy over such silly makeup prosthetics, yet, I feel tired waking up dreaming of the man standing in the corner. Even weirder, last night I had a dream that I was watching myself dream, and a camera appeared in the corner of the room. Just filming me. It was enough to wake me up, and now I consistently feel watched. I haven’t been so stirred over a film since I was a child. The subconscious nature of the film and it’s effect on me has lead me to wonder over my level of suggestibility. I think I would feel better, if I could just find someone to educate me on the film. There are no credits, and I can’t find the names of the actors or the people who produced the film. If anyone finds anything, I’d really appreciate it. It’s an older film, 70’s maybe 80’s, I’m not sure, but if anyone can find any information I’d really appreciate it.

Love you all, KreepyKaty Kisses! <3

[hellosaltysaladcollectionstuff]

For PC gamers, the launch of Steam's Summer Sale is one of the biggest days of the summer, offering an opportunity to snag some of the platform's best games for their cheapest price yet. While multi-platform games have the chance to be featured in multiple sales, like Nintendo's or PlayStation's, PC-exclusive games like Total War: Three Kingdoms, Gears Tactics, and Half-Life: Alyx only get a chance to shine in the Steam Summer Sale, so it's worth paying extra attention to those games--you might not see them at this price for a long time.

From turn-based strategy and digital board games to fighting games, action RPGs, and more, here are some of the best PC exclusives in Steam Summer Sale 2020. Please, see our overall list of the best Steam Summer Sale 2020 game deals and the best cheap Steam games under $10.

Total War: Three Kingdoms

$45 / £33.74 / $67.49 AUD (25% off)

Total War: Three Kingdoms still hews closely to the series' expansive strategy sim framework but makes a few key changes that, along with the ancient Chinese period setting, make it stand out within the series. The increased emphasis on individual commanders and general gives each playthrough with a different army a new flair, and whip-smart enemy leaders make it difficult to simply steamroll the map on your way to victory, making this an intense new entry with a lot of depth.

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Gears Tactics

$40.19 / £33.49 / $66.96 AUD (33% off)

Gears Tactics takes a more bombastic approach to the XCOM school of turn-based strategy and melds it with the pulpy, war-fueled world of Sera. Each of the Gears franchises' iconic weapons like the Lancer, Gnasher, and Longshot translate seamlessly to a strategy game, and their abilities serve to differentiate each of your squad members in combat. You're also closing up emergence holes with grenades and mowing down Wretches with machine-gun fire--just like in the third-person shooter franchise Gears Tactics takes its name from.

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Half-Life: Alyx

$45 / £34.86 / $63.71 AUD (25% off)

There are quite a few great games you can play on VR headsets, but Half-Life: Alyx is one that really makes the case for games designed exclusively with VR in mind. Grabbing and throwing objects with the new Gravity Gloves feels fantastic, and trying to stay quiet so a blind, unstoppable monster doesn't hear you makes you naturally hesitant to even close a cupboard door. Exploring City 17 feels incredible through a headset, from the moment you see a Strider towering above the city's rooftops in the first few minutes of the game to the moment you begin a mind-bending trek near the end I won't spoil here. Alyx quickly becomes an essential part of the Half-Life universe, even if you think you know how it all ends.

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Killer7

$10 / £7.74 / $11.97 AUD (50% off)

If you're a fan of any Grasshopper or Suda Goichi game (No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned, Let It Die), you owe it to yourself to experience Killer7. It's undoubtedly his most surreal, trippy game, and this remaster of the original Gamecube and PS2 classic updates it for PC, complete with higher resolution options and mouse-and-keyboard aiming, making it the best way to experience this strange masterpiece in 2020.

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XCOM: Chimera Squad

$15 / £12.74 / $22.46 AUD (25% off)

XCOM: Chimera Squad is a smaller entry in the series that focuses on a single squad of fleshed-out characters rather than a platoon of random soldiers and offers a few twists on the intense XCOM firefights we're familiar with, like a back-and-forth turn order, breaches that give you a chance to whittle down enemy squads from the jump, and special abilities that give each member of your squad a special role in fights.

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Disco Elysium

$30 / £26.24 / $42.71 AUD (25% off)

Disco Elysium eschews the fantasy trappings, combat-oriented encounters, and easy morality that underpin a lot of RPGs and instead lets you tell a story that truly feels your own. As an alcoholic detective hitting rock-bottom just as he's assigned a major murder case, you explore a city block in the middle of a conflicted territory recovering from a political revolution. The conversations you have with various denizens around Revachol have you re-litigating the city's tumultuous past, putting together a dance club in the middle of a church, and delivering heartbreaking news to unsuspecting families as you come to terms with who you were before your last bender. It's a long journey with twists that flip from pensive to laugh-out-loud funny to solemn on a dime while somehow telling a consistent, powerful story along the way--something I can't say about many other games. Disco Elysium is planned to release on consoles later this year, but for now, you can only enjoy this incredible narrative experience on PC.

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Tabletop Simulator

$9 / £7.49 / $14.47 AUD (50% off)

The coronavirus pandemic has forced many people to spend much more time indoors and distance themselves from friends and family, so finding ways to stay connected while apart has become crucial. One of my favorite ways to hang out with friends virtually has been Tabletop Simulator, an indie game that lets you play digital versions of board games in a player-driven physics sandbox. The game comes with classics like chess, poker, and dominoes included, but the real draw is the massive collection of free player-created board games and card games available in the Tabletop Simulator workshop. Here, people have recreated some of the best board games around, including Pandemic Legacy, Gloomhaven, and Root.

Obviously, some of these creations are more polished than others, but the larger games tend to work really well; in fact, I was really shocked how well complex games like Root worked within Tabletop Simulator. Some publishers have also published official DLC for Tabletop Simulator, so there's no shortage of content available to try out. If you're a board game fan like me and can't always get friends together in person to play, Tabletop Simulator is worth every penny.

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Mordhau

$24 / £25.14 / $34.36 AUD (20% off)

Mordhau is a fun medieval multiplayer game that features some of the most involved first-person sword-fighting out there. It's not exactly a sim, though--there are lots of hectic, one-off multiplayer moments that will probably remind you of games like Battlefield, but the strong emphasis on teamwork and sieging castles set it apart.

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Black Mesa

$13 / £9.74 / $18.81 AUD (35% off)

This remake of the original Half-Life has been over a decade in the making, but it's finally complete and definitely worth the wait. It features revamped graphics and overhauls the previously-maligned Xen section of the original but manages to keep the soul of Half-Life intact, making this the best way to see Gordon Freeman's first encounter with the G-Man and alien life if you're looking to catch up on the series before playing Half-Life: Alyx.

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Jackbox Party Pack 3

$16.24 / £12.34 / $23.36 AUD (35% off)

It's hard to find a series that's more immediately accessible than the Jackbox games. These party games, which you can play with others online or in-person through your PC or phone, have you responding to all kinds of outlandish prompts, drawing your own (often lewd) pictures to show off and working together to accomplish a common goal. The entire series is on sale for cheap, but Jackbox Party Pack 3 is the one to play, since it's the best collection of games overall. Quiplash 2 lets you answer a bunch of weird questions with even weirder answers and then pick the funniest ones. Meanwhile, Tee K.O. has you separately drawing pictures and coming up with taglines, then putting together a shirt based on the pictures and tags you randomly get from the group.

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Them's Fightin' Herds

$10.04 / £7.63 / $14.40 AUD (33% off)

Originally developed as a My Little Pony fan game, Them's Fightin' Herds has blossomed into a unique fighting game all its own, complete with new equestrian designs from MLP producer Lauren Faust. The roster is small compared to its higher-budget competition, but there are a lot of creative concepts packed into each of these manes, and tutorial and single-player options are more diverse than you might expect from a fighting game made by a smaller team.

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Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

$15 / £11.24 / $17.21 AUD (25% off)

For some history buffs, the empire-building sim genre that slowly evolved into the 4X genre began and ended with the Age of Empires series. The iconic second entry is finally available for modern computers, complete with 4K visuals, a remade soundtrack, and a new "The Last Khans" expansion that includes more campaigns and civilizations to round out this strategy classic.

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If Found

If Found is a deeply emotional and resonant visual novel that follows Kasio, a woman struggling at a crossroads between ending her education and looking for a career with meaning. The gorgeous illustrations give the game a vibrant style, and its focus on smaller moments and more relatable topics make it a fantastic palette cleanser between other games on this list.

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Monster Train

$22.49 / £17.54 / $32.35 AUD (20% off)

Deck-building roguelikes are pretty popular nowadays, but Monster has a few tricks up its sleeve that have proved popular with a growing fanbase. The deck-building mechanics are top-notch, and the presence of factions, which act as a way of theming your deck, make building effective combos easy and natural.

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