fascinating story so far. i'm enjoying your take on dark magic very much. i'll admit that i didn't notice the lucius-shouldn't-have-been-able-to-talk continuity problem before you pointed it out. maybe the easiest thing would be to change the wards of the library to something like you can't talk about what you talked about but you can say you met so-and-so and your impressions of them. after all, the only truly personal info lucius mentioned was hp being muggle-raised and working for zate. the former wouldn't hurt anything by it's absence, though you could change it to "i don't think he had a good childhood". the latter is easy, too, as you could just have lucius look straight at zate and say "someone else could say more about him than i". or something. hope that helps.

i'm curious how hogwarts is going to work - of if it will. hp is already having trouble turning back to harry now. by the end of the summer i could easily see it being impossible as his image of self becomes so completely different. while it could be interesting to send him back as harry, it feels to me that the "new and improved" hp would quickly find himself unable to hold the act. of course, if the mark comes through to harry, that could be a couple of hysterically funny confrontations between harry/hp and draco and/or severus. would severus betray "potter" to dumbledore just on general hate or would he hold his tongue for another dark wizard and maybe even change his attitude?

however, with access to zate, and now the remaining dark community, he could have all the private instruction he needed/wanted. not every child goes to hogwarts, after all, and certainly hp isn't on the rolls. he could easily stay away and get his education up to snuff. his absence might even be construed by hermione as the life-changing thing he was talking about.

on a side note, i think turning the muggleborns to the old ways might actually be somewhat easy as they've not been raised with that visceral prejudice against it. a few oaths not to speak of what they learn, a couple of good lectures about the real differences, maybe a demonstration of what was possible and i think there would be several converts. namely one hermione. she already sees the wizarding world as prejudiced and she has a drive for knowledge. i could see her turning dark just as fast as hp once she realized the fundamental difference wasn't good and evil but just a way of accessing magic. just a thought.

very much looking forward to the next chapter!

i love this story i haven't gotten the chance to read it when you first started it but i wasn't able to step away from it. The idea of harry being on the opposite side of a ron/malfoy argument was pure genius.

i love it! Please dont bother with a pairing, cause there are enough interesting things going around without that. Does Harry's face show the mark too?

Good chapter

Well about your mistake concerning his identity you could make a minor alteration that merely things discussed not such things like names is covered by the privacy charms. ;)

Greedily awaiting the next chapter of what seems to be an amazing story. :)

OMG! This is so exciting! Next chapter soon, please? Btw, if Harry has a coming of age ceremony as Hephaestus, how will he be able to have it on his birthday? 'Cause he told the dark wizards that his birthday was on the 28th when it's really on the 31st (I think...) And shouldn't he have it on his magical birthday? Either HP would have to come up with a really good excuse, or they should find out about his true identity before then . . .
Also, I think the best Christmas present a writer can give to its readers is a new chapter (or more if you have time) It would be greatly appreciated.

raining ink, i just wanted to let you know that i have enjoyed this story so much. the plot develops smoothly, the story is interesting, and it keeps me wanting to read more and more. keep up the great writing, and im hoping for another update soon! =)

I absolutely cannot wait for the next chapter

A very nice story. I'll admit I was a little skeptical of the harry/draco thing's eventual destination, but that's just because so few people treat Draco as anything other than a mindless buffoon or a "hot gay lover". XP Not this fic, thankfully. The dark vs Dark aspect was a very interesting distinction that I've seen made once or twice before, but usually not this well, or in stories that are actually legible and feel like they have a plot. Robin and the ladies at the Doxy are nice touches as well - all of your side characters, really. It's always nice to see someone who can develop additional characters well and keep side characters from feeling flat and two-dimensional. Anyway, given the chapter number and the time-frame they came out in I will admit I'm a little disappointed not to see more updates. Though if you're anything like me you have tests and finals running up the next week or two.. so.. any chance of an update around/after christmas? or going with older traditions around/after the winter solstice perhaps? ;)

I've just finished catching up to this story and I have to say that I've loved every bit of it. One question though: Would Tom Riddle be considered a Dark wizard or someone that simply flings around hexes. He seems to have zero respect for the traditions of the society and only cares for the practices if they bring him power.

A very interesting story. I'm not sure how I feel about the semi-nice Draco, which seems pretty OOC and isn't really justified by the idea that he's only nasty to the people he doesn't like, but aside from that, the story very good, especially the depiction of dark society. Parts of the history between light and dark sound almost like Nietzsche's description of master and slave morality.
About the accusations of Harry/Draco slash, I can see where they are coming from. Your dialogue is very good, but I don't think you've quite gotten the hang of teenage male-male interactions, and they do come off a little effeminate. Still, nothing major, and certainly not something people should be whining about if you've made it clear it isn't the case.
Oh, and I loved the bit in the tenth chapter about Canada being a lawless magical country. We never get to be the bad-asses.

Great story. When's the next chapter :)

Awesome story! I really love your take on Dark magic and the Dark marks. And I love Draco! I always thought he had a lot of potential as a character and it's great to see him like this. Can't wait for the next chapter.

I'm just reviewing again because I was reading some of the reviews and wanted to say something. There were a couple of people who talked about the pool in Hermoine's back yard and how most people don't have one in the UK and all that... well her parents ARE dentists - meaning they would have more money then the regular family... anyway I just had to say something about that because I thought it was incredibly picky and your fic is awesome. I hope you update soon!

This is brilliant. I haven't read such a well written and thought out fanfic in a while. Please keep writing. Thank you.