I have often wondered how the Muggle authors could know that, for example, cooking and baking on the Muggle way is much better than doing it magically (impish grin).
Obviously, the link between Ginny and Harry is becoming stronger; Ginny now often can feel Harry's emotions. It can only be good for Harry when he is more at Ginny's direct influence. When I think about it, the other way around, it seems to me, that Harry cannot feel Ginny's emotions so often, right?
I was a little surprised that Molly and Arthur know about the financing of Ginny's treatment and wonder how. The conversation with her mother helped Ginny a lot.
And yes - I was afraid that something will happen to Harry on his birthday ... with all the wishes that it should be a special day for him. It is certainly a curse, but also helpful for Ginny that she can experience it so directly.

Many thanks for another great chapter!


Author's Response: Of the two, Harry is the one in this story who has the biggest emotional fluctuations and the strongest emotions; Ginny is a bit better adjusted emotionally than Harry, so it stands to reason that she be the more receptive of the two. You're also correct that something bad just may happen to ruin a perfectly pleasant day and Ginny being tuned into Harry's emotions just may come in handy. As for Molly and Arthur cottoning on to the fact that Harry paid for Ginny's medical bills, they probably started putting the pieces together: they are familiar with the British Health Care system, they know that the treatment their daughter needed was probably not financed by said system, their daughter's boyfriend is independently wealthy, the boyfriend is emotionally invested in their daughter, and the money was found after the diagnosis was made. When you look at it that way, it's really not hard to guess who put up the money to see that Ginny recuperated where she wanted to be and what the outcome would be. Finally, if you like to cook like I do and really get your hands dirty making splendid meals and using old-fashioned "elbow grease" to do certain tasks like kneading bread, at least this Muggle cook will always say that not using magic for certain tasks is best. For me, when I use a appliance to knead my dough or make pie crust, I feel cheated because I didn't have the hands-on experience. I think Molly and Ginny are of the same mindset when they make the decision to use magic for a cooking task.

I was really touched by the conversation between Ginny and Mrs Weasley. She seems to realise how special their relationship is (and who would have guessed that they had worked out almost from the get go that Harry was behind the financial help!) and I loved the part where she offered to make sure they had time alone together if it was needed when Harry arrived on Saturday. I kept re-reading it and focussing on her deep understanding of the pair of them.

Now of course everything is up in the air. What on earth has happened? Where are they? Why has Harry surrendered his wand to Ginny? How did he send it to her in the first place?

Got to read on!!!

Author's Response: While raising so many children, I think Molly Weasley would have cultivated the wisdom to understand just how important Ginny is to Harry and with the help of Arthur, put two and two together and come up the the donor of the money for Ginny's recovery. In fact, the way JKR writes Molly, nothing much seems to slip past her, which makes it easy to write a grateful and caring woman who opens her heart to a boy in need of love and positive role models and more than a little understanding. As for the end of the chapter, I'll let you in on a little secret: Harry took a huge gamble when he sent his wand to Ginny... and then he only did that out of desperation. I'm glad you're going to read on.

Hmmm I would speculate that here Dumbledore is weakened and that's why they got captured yes? Only plausible explanation heh

Author's Response: Your hypothesis is correct. The curse Dumbledore suffers from wearing and then taking off the ring horcrux has been draining his magic, so in this chapter his power is greatly diminished, enough so that he is unable to defend himself adequately against the Death Eaters who have been sent to chapture him and Harry. Keep reading... you're getting to the exciting parts. Thanks for checking in.~~Arnel

Heh -- write and re-write as much as you like: you're doing very well.

Hmm... the disposition of Harry's wand was rather curious.

It should be interesting ot see what happens during the next chapter.

I was a tad confused, though: Ginny says near the end something about Harry & Dumbledore being ambushed between Edinburgh & Hogwarts, but earlier, she mentions Harry being angry "at Dumbledore for wanting to fly back to the school from Glasgow." Now, I don't know theprecise location of Hogwarts, but it doesn't seem very plausible to me that either would be on the route to Hogwarts from the other....

Author's Response: Wolfs_Scream, First things first... Harry was taking a huge risk when he sent his wand to Ginny. His main concern is its connection to Voldemort's wand and he didn't want the holly wand to fall into enemy hands; hence, the risk of sending the wand away and never seeing it again. I want to thank you for catching the "Edinburgh" mistake. I originally had used that city as the jumping-off point for Harry and Dumbledor's flight, but the further I went into the next few chapters, the more I needed to have a more direct flight path over some specific land features (the importance of which will be brought up in chapter fifteen). I therefore changed the city from Edinburgh to Glasgow and thought I'd found all the names that needed to be changed. I didn't and appreciate your telling me I'd missed one. I'm glad you're encouraging me to keep rewriting. Its reviewers like you who keep me on track and excited about writing.

Yikes...what a terrible cliffie. I like the connection between H/G and that he was able to send her his wand. Very interesting.

Author's Response: I don't think you'd believe me if I told you the cliff hanger wasn't intentional! That connection between Harry and Ginny is going to prove valuable in the next few chapters; things just become curiouser and curiouser. Thanks for reviewing.