Harry Potter and the Prancing of Ponies

by The Guy Who Writes

Chapter 69: On the Other Foot

"So I am sending you outside of Time, to a frozen instant from which neither I nor any other can return you. Perhaps Harry Potter will be able to retrieve you someday, if prophecy speaks true. He may wish to discuss with you just who is at fault for the deaths of his parents. For you it will only be an instant – if you ever return at all. Either way, Tom, I wish you the best of it."

-Albus Dumbledore, HPMoR Ch110

---

It was a large assembly that met in front of the portal that Saturday, all wearing necklaces that had been distributed minutes ago.

Draco, Hermione, Harry, and Autumn stood at the back.

Lucius Malfoy, Minerva McGonagall, and Michael Verres-Evans stood in the middle.

The Defense Professor stood in front.

Everyone present was an Occlumens, and most had been sworn to secrecy by various methods, some of which overlapped into redundancy.

One by one they stepped through the Mirror, each adult wishing to confirm for themselves that it was safe before allowing their children and charges to go through.

The Defense Professor reassured them that this had been done many times before, and nothing should go wrong.

So when, after Autumn and Hermione stepped through the portal and the surface suddenly changed into solid reflection, no longer showing Draco or Harry on the other side, the Defense Professor was naturally the first suspect, the first to blame, the first to be bombarded with demands for an explanation.

He stated that certain devices are informing him that they are not trapped here, the worlds are still connected, the door still exists, it is just, for some reason, shut…

---

Harry and Draco had both given a start when the image of their party disappeared and was replaced. Draco, in particular, almost suffered a heart attack.

"Headmaster?!" asked Harry in sheer shock.

Sapphire eyes behind half-moon glasses looked down and beheld two children of Hogwarts. "Hello, Harry," said the ancient wizard, looking surprised himself, and relieved. "It is good to see you in what seems to be, and what I hope, is genuine health and youth. Congratulations on accomplishing the impossible. On two counts."

"Er… thanks," said Harry, genuinely, but still in a shocked voice. "What's going on? How are you here?"

The ancient gaze turned to the other. "That would, I believe, be thanks to the young Mr. Malfoy."

"Me?!"

Dumbledore looked considering for a moment. "And perhaps you as well, Harry. I am here because one or both of you blames me for the death, or other departure, of a parent, or parental figure, and because you have not yet forgiven me for it."

"What?" asked Harry. "What does that have anything to do with it?"

Dumbledore smiled. "You cannot see it yourself, Harry?"

Harry paused. Took a moment to think. Came up blank. He could probably get it if he thought for five minutes, but Headmistress McGonagall and his dad might be getting worried.

"Sorry, no, and I don't have time to figure it out right now. You're… kind of blocking the way to Equestria. It's possible my dad, Draco's dad, your deputy, and the Defense Professor just got stuck on the other side for however long this lasts."

"Ah…" said Dumbledore. "In that case I shall try to be quick. I stand before you because you have triggered the potential prerequisites for the trap I turned upon myself, the trap meant for Voldemort. Anything trapped by the Mirror has conditions for release, whether it be a person or an object."

"Or a whole city," Harry said casually.

"Or that… I suppose…" said Dumbledore. Then the old man's eyes widened. Suddenly, a couch appeared behind him, and he collapsed into it. After a few awkward seconds of silence in which Draco had no idea what to say, the Headmaster said, "Harry, please don't do that."

"Sorry," said Harry.

"Do what?" Draco asked.

"He casually told me what happened to Atlantis."

"He WHAT?!"

"Did you figure it out yourself?" asked Dumbledore, ignoring Draco's undignified but involuntary outburst. "Or was it the Defense Professor?"

"The Defense Professor told me that I had enough information to figure it out for myself and didn't tell me anything else," said Harry. "So yes, he deduced it first."

"I see," said the old man.

"Hold on," said Draco. "What happened to Atlantis?"

"You weren't following?" asked Harry.

"I was…" Draco trailed off.

He understood what Harry meant by his disappointed look. Draco should already know the answer to his own question. So, Draco thought about what he just heard. The headmaster was talking about the Mirror trapping things outside of time… and Harry said 'or a whole city'… then Dumbledore mentioned Atlantis…

"Atlantis is in the Mirror?" he asked, his eyes very wide. The Mirror is said to be an Atlantean device...

"It's impossible to be 100% certain," said Harry, "but when Merlin himself is recorded as saying Atlantis was severed from time, and the only surviving Atlantean artifact has the power to sever things from time, well, you can see why that would be the obvious guess." Harry tapped his cheek thoughtfully. "The Defense Professor thinks that Equestria might be Atlantis… or, he thinks the whole planet might be Atlantis, or something like that. Anyway, he thinks the Equinoids are the direct descendants of the original Atlanteans. And yes, that means we're going on a field trip to Atlantis. Maybe. Anyway, and more importantly," he said, turning back to face the Headmaster, "if you're here, does that mean we can get you out of there?"

Dumbledore thought for a moment, then slowly shook his head. "Not yet, I think. The condition for my release, the universal clause I set the Mirror to accept for whomever it traps, is that someone else who has come to blame the prisoner for the loss of as many parents as have been taken from them must stand before the Mirror. That party must then forgive the prisoner after knowing everything of their motives and means of murder, or other attack. I thought that would prevent Voldemort from ever being released, since he would not know his own release clause, and even if he did, nobody would ever forgive him for such a crime if they knew everything, especially you, Harry." He tapped his side of the Mirror's surface with his index finger. "Since I am not already free, I assume that means you never blamed me for the death of your parents in the first place? Even after you learned of my prophetic manipulations?"

"Your what?" asked Draco.

"In short," said Harry, turning to face Draco, "he knew that if Voldemort attacked the Potters, then Voldemort would immediately be vanquished for a good amount of time. I'll show you the full memory later, but part of it goes, 'And so, the great and good Albus Dumbledore sacrificed his unwitting pawns, James and Lily Potter, merely to vanquish me for a few years.'"

(He'd not yet shown any memories involving the Mirror, partly because he didn't want to alarm them before they had the experience of safely walking through it to reach Equestria – of course that would go wrong – and partly because he wanted to show the memory immediately after their entrapment too, waking up in that meadow. But that would spoil the pony surprise, at least for Draco, so he held off on showing it.)

"But the truth is," Harry said, continuing his defense of Dumbledore, "that's what real war is like. He even almost got it so my mother didn't die. He managed to get Voldemort to offer Lily Potter the chance to flee instead of just killing her outright. Although my original suspicions that he did something along those lines is what prompted me to realize I should consult you about his character, Draco."

Draco seemed to understand this, even if he had to blink a few times in the processing. "Wow," he said. "That's…" he trailed off, looking at Dumbledore. "How did you get the Dark Lord to do that?"

"Through the powers of plotting and madness, of course."

"It's complicated," Harry answered. "And the answer involves secrets we're not privy to share with you or anyone else, strangely enough." It involves Snape's love life, after all. "I will say that the planning and execution was just as impressive as the feat itself."

"You do me too much credit, Harry. Lily did not survive in the end."

"Yes, but this is one of those rare times that I'll say you did your best to save as many lives as possible, including my mother's, and that it actually means something that you got as close as you did. You didn't put her wand in your fate room, did you?"

"I did."

"Well, if that room is meant to remind you of your biggest regrets and mistakes, maybe rethink my parents and put them in the Egg room instead. Also, you should have consulted me to think of a better trap rule for Voldemort. I don't think yours was the best idea."

Because Harry did come to forgive his creator for killing his parents. If current-Riddle was trapped in the mirror under that clause, he would be released upon the instant. Even his past self hadn't been as bothered by that fact as Dumbledore would have expected, and he might have come to forgive pre-redemption Professor Quirrell somehow. And it might have also been theoretically possible that Voldemort couldn't have been trapped by that, since Voldemort killed his own parents, and the him of thirty-five subjective years ago might have 'forgiven' himself enough to satisfy the phrasing of the release clause.

"I implemented the rule before you knew of our world," Dumbledore remarked. "Although I could have changed it later, I suppose. It had to be a rule by which I myself might also be trapped, you see, and hopefully have a better chance of escape than he, should it be turned on me. In the end, things may have worked out for the best, as there is now a likely candidate who might some day come to forgive me for taking his parent away." Dumbledore looked at Draco as he said this.

"I forgive you," said Draco.

His father had sworn to take Dumbledore to trial if he returned, and it would be better if that happened while the crime and the declaration were still fresh in everyone's memory. Plus, like Harry said, Father might be getting worried about them; best to get this over with if they can.

Dumbledore's eyes widened in surprise, but after extending his hand forward and placing it flatly on the surface of his side of the mirror, he sighed. "Thank you, Draco Malfoy. I am glad to know that you want to forgive me, or at least that you wish to set me free. But forgiveness is not as simple as saying the words, young Slytherin. You must feel it in your heart, and in your mind, and in your soul. All blame must be replaced with understanding, or humility, for true forgiveness to emerge."

Draco's eyebrows furrowed. Well, so much for the easy way out. As for the hard way…

The truth is, he really doesn't feel much blame towards Dumbledore anymore. He'd been feeling less and less blame ever since Father told him, the day his mother had been returned to them, that the Dark Lord had ordered Father to torture Aberforth Dumbledore into insanity, and then sent the memory to Albus Dumbledore to rub it in. And that was after attempting to ransom Aberforth for a hundred thousand galleons.

If not for a year of friendship with Harry Potter, during which the two of them reached true empathy about the deaths of each other's mothers, that new knowledge of Dumbledore's motives would not have done much to change Draco's mind. Draco doesn't have a brother himself, so no amount of automatic empathy would have kicked in at the story. But he has watched the play of the Elric brothers many times – it was his second favorite after the Tragedy of Light – and that had allowed him to understand the anger Dumbledore must have felt when the Dark Lord tortured his brother insane, using an unmasked pawn, Father, to carry out the order.

According to Father, the Dark Lord had said, "Your Polyjuice shall hide your true identity, my servant," for the sake of plausible deniability, just in case Dumbledore attempted to use the memory in the court of the Wizengamot (not that memories are admissible anyway) or in the court of public opinion. Dumbledore would have understood that it wasn't Polyjuice. Your average stupid citizen would be skeptical, and scared of angering the Malfoys with a potentially false accusation.

---

A/N: This is another one of those canon-compliant-but-not-ACTUAL-canon moments. Here's the direct quote from HPMoR, Chapter 82: "Do you also wish to see my brother as he died under the Cruciatus?" said Albus Dumbledore. "Voldemort sent me THAT memory as well!"

It's possible there's a different quote in the story that I'm forgetting about that specifically says Aberforth died at the Dark Lord's wand. If so please tell me, but based on my current knowledge, and based only on that quote, it's possible Voldemort ordered a servant to do the torturing so Voldemort himself could witness it and produce a memory that was as clear as possible. And if it DID happen that way, it's almost certain that Lucius was the torturer, because Dumbledore took 'revenge' on Narcissa in particular. I don't think that actually did happen in HPMoR canon, but hey, exploiting things that are left open to interpretation is what fanfiction is all about.

---

Ever since the full picture had been painted for him, Draco understood Dumbledore's desire for revenge, and he was surprised that Dumbledore actually turned out to be something like the saint he pretended to be. At first, Draco had expressed to Father the sentiment that an actual saint wouldn't take someone's mother away and pretend that he tortured her to death.

"Perhaps," Father had said with a detached, neutral expression. "Perhaps not. As a military tactic, it stopped everyone from going after uninvolved family members, while our leaders remained. If not for Dumbledore, after the Dark Lord's defeat Mad-Eye might have sought my life in revenge for the Potters, or the Longbottoms. And he might have succeeded in taking it."

A whole summer break to stew on that, along with a few other disproofs of standard Death Eater rhetoric, had done much to dampen Draco's dislike of Dumbledore. Apparently, that failed to factor as full 'forgiveness'.

Was Draco still clinging to more blame than he realised? Was there something else Dumbledore had done aside from getting revenge in one of the least evil ways possible? Was there something Dumbledore did that the Dark Lord had not done first, only ten times worse?

Then Draco suddenly understood why Dumbledore wasn't already free, assuming it had nothing to do with (a) his many ingrained biases that he was still having a hard time unwinding or (b) his thought that Dumbledore would soon go on trial after release.

"Did you plan to use my mother's life as blackmail against House Malfoy?" Draco asked. His suspicion of that hypothesis, he realized, might be the main barrier in the way of forgiveness.

Dumbledore's eyes grew very sad, his face seeming to develop a number of new wrinkles. "As an absolute last resort, when the threat of Voldemort yet loomed," admitted the old man. "I was sorely tempted to do so in Hermione Granger's trial. If not for Amelia, I would have given in. Do you remember that moment, Harry?"

"I remember," Harry nodded. "At the time I thought you were considering confession. That really puts it in a new perspective."

"Why didn't you say it?" Draco demanded of Dumbledore.

But before Dumbledore could answer, there was a crack of fire, and Professor Monroe was there, gripping Father's arm, and Hermione was there with a phoenix on her shoulder, holding the hand of Harry's father.

"See?" asked Professor Monroe, then paused. "Hello, Albus."

"Hello," Dumbledore said back with a nod. "And hello to you, Ms. Granger. I cannot tell you how glad I am to see you alive and in good health."

"Likewise," said Hermione, smiling gently.

Dumbledore smiled back, then faced the Defense Professor again. "Enjoying your freedom?"

"It has its ups and downs," he said. "But on the whole, I'd say it's been a good few months. Though with all the obligations I've undertaken, I would hardly call it freedom."

Draco felt Father's hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright, my son?" Draco glanced up to see Father eyeing Dumbledore cautiously.

"Worry not," said Professor Monroe. "Observe. Az-reth."

Draco felt Father's arms grip his shoulders just a little tighter as a jagged rune of blood red fire became a small snake, which slithered menacingly towards the mirror, bounced off the surface, and hissed indignantly. Dumbledore hadn't flinched. Then it slithered to the mirror's side, collided with the golden frame, and extinguished as it did so. Fiendfyre had lost.

"The Mirror can even deflect a Killing Curse," the Defense Professor remarked. "Your son was in no danger."

Father's grip loosened, but did not leave entirely. "Spells are not the only form of attack," he said. "What did he say to you, my son?"

"He told me how he got trapped in there," said Draco. "And how I'm the only one who can get him out."

"Not the only one," Dumbledore gently rebutted. "Just the most likely candidate, I think."

"A lie," Father said at once.

"No, Lucius," said Professor Monroe. "It's true. And ironic, is it not?"

Draco felt Father stiffen. "Ironic how?"

"You wish to take him to trial for what he did to your wife. And yet, in order for him to be released, your son must forgive him for that very same act. Do some of my past remarks make a bit more sense now?"

Father stiffened further. "Your remarks and… recommendations, yes," he said in a strange tone, which Draco understood as 'orders' in a flash of sudden insight. "You would see Dumbledore free?"

"I would," said the man. "Hogwarts isn't the same without its powerful, ancient, mad Headmaster. Not to mention the added military might his presence would add to our various operations, should they require protection. And his prophetic knowledge, among other things."

"You know the truth of him, Lucius?" asked Dumbledore.

Father nodded cautiously.

"And does your son?"

Father addressed Draco. "Did you choose to sign and be told?"

Draco had not sent any letter even hinting about this topic due to fear of interception. "I did."

Dumbledore's eyes flickered to Harry's direction.

"Dad's up next to be told," said Harry. "Can you beat three drops of Veritaserum yet, Dad?"

"I just managed last Wednesday," said the man. "And I did it again Thursday and Friday."

"Great!" said Harry. "…but now's not the best time." Harry's voice spoke a bit louder, projecting in Professor Monroe's direction, speaking to the Headmaster. "Is this the only chance we'll ever have to set you free, or…?"

"No," said Dumbledore and Professor Monroe, as if speaking in the same voice. "You're right, Mr. Potter," continued Monroe. "We should get back to the planned tour. We don't want to use all of the scheduled wiggle room on this. Come, side-along phoenix travel will work."

"Just remember," said Dumbledore seriously as they grouped around the Defense Professor. "As you travel to awesome and powerful places, never forget the most important things." He gave them all a cheerful wave. "Make friends, and have fun."

Draco couldn't help but think that Professor Monroe might have a point. Hogwarts is missing something without its mad headmaster, its dangerous potions master (for all that Snape might have been unwittingly damaging Slytherin's reputation by Dumbledore's design), and its grumpy squib janitor (for all that Filch might have been harming students, and personally tried to murder Draco over the death of his pet cat). Draco isn't mourning the loss of the Filch or Dumbledore, but all of those factors were important to the mystique of Hogwarts, and the school does feel... diminished, lesser, weaker without them, even with all that Professor Monroe has done in their absence.

At least they still have a ghost teaching History, a half-giant Keeper of Grounds and Keys, a former dueling champion with goblin ancestry teaching Charms, and the world's most powerful Dark wizard teaching the potentially-still-cursed class of Battle Magic. (Which Draco just now realized was cursed by the very same Dark wizard currently teaching it, which is also fitting). And Slughorn seems good too, for Hogwarts and Slytherin both.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

It would be a bit excessive if the Potions Classes ended up being taught by a cross between HEX and the Glooper?

[Fireeaters]

That's an interesting quandary for draco and his father

[MLfan]

Sorry, this one doesn't do it for me. Normally I love this story, but this plot point feels unearned. I thought Dumbledore's fate at the end of HPMoR was fitting, the irony of someone who doesn't fear death being granted an eternal half-life. Him being alive in the mirror in this fic has been a great way of keeping him in the story already. Reversing that so easily, it feels like it undermines the point. There's no consequences anymore. Like, he's gonna be in that mirror for a few months from Earth's perspective, seeing how close Draco already seems to forgiveness.

Thinking on it, I could see this being a clever turn. Harry often has wildly outpaced Dumbledore's time estimates in the past. See: defeating Voldemort within hours of learning the truth. I could imagine him working a way out with a lightning pace. And it makes sense in-lore: the mirror working in terms of conditions is well-established. The biggest problem is, it doesn't feel earned. If Harry worked out some clever solution, if he had figured out the release conditions himself somehow, it could have felt clever! Honestly, Harry hasn't had a chance to show off much recently, it could have been a good moment for him to shine instead of the elder Riddle for once. But no, the solution just falls into the characters' laps. Dumbledore will be freed, and the MCs won't have to work for it beyond maybe a bit of therapy for Draco. I still love the story overall, and I'll see where this plot goes. I could see myself turning around on this. But my initial reaction is a distinct distaste, unfortunately.

[The Guy Who Writes]

11652027
Yeah, I never said this outside the comments section, but Harry stopped being this story's protagonist around Chapters 46-47. The original idea I had for an HPMoR fanfiction, where I played the sequel straight without any MLP stuff involved, would have gone the direction you're looking for, would have had Harry doing everything basically himself, including getting Dumbledore out of the Mirror, which (I wrote in the first and only complete chapter of that story) is something that logically has to come before reviving memoryless-Voldemort, which is the end-goal his irrational inner-emotional-utilityfunction ACTUALLY wanted to do. You can see hints of that story in this one; the memory-restoration ritual Harry hypothesized is the one he would have used at the near-end of that other story to get PQ back.

I had always planned for this mechanism to be Dumbledore's release clause. As I said from the start, I want my story to be an explanation of sorts, a delve into all the unexplained and/or unexplored mechanics and plot threads of HPMoR, and this point in the story was the natural part to explain Dumbledore's release clause in particular. You're right that this story isn't that, that this scene was utterly unearned by Harry and Draco. But that's largely been the case in every present-day chapter since Chapter 47. Among many other things, Harry is being given as much of his stolen childhood back as can be managed by Riddle. He's back on the guiderails of the competent adults around him, which has its downsides from a narrative standpoint.

I'll mention that the release solution only seems to fall into their laps; if you read closely, this occurrence wasn't an accident. But as with just about everything else since they got back, most of the important moves are being made by this story's ACTUAL protagonist, and a lot of them are being made quietly in the background. He overcomes these sorts of obstacles relatively easily because that's not where his struggles lie, that's not the real conflict he has to manage. His conflicts are mostly moral, not technical, and that's what this story is trying to explore. For better or worse.

[Poparakelis]

Bro is complaining the school isn't fantastical

[Greenhorn]

He gave them all a cheerful wave. "Make friends, and have fun."

Well, at least he managed to one-upped Celestia - even just a little bit. Since all she told Twilight was to make friend, but she forgot to tell her to enjoy life while doing it.

[MLfan]

11652135
I get where you’re coming from, here. Up to this point, that’s felt fine. I still wish Harry was a bit more active than he is now, even with that choice in mind. You can be an active character without being the protagonist, especially if you’re the primary POV. I totally understand Monroe taking control, seeing as he is now a powerful light rationalist. Really, it’s been fun to see his maneuverings up to this point. I don’t want that to change. I don’t need Harry to lead the plot again. I just want him to do a bit more. Harry can have a few moments of brilliance while still letting Monroe shine, I feel. Harry is still a Riddle, even with a bit of fun in his life.

Fine, you’ve went this way. Its a bummer, but Monroe is entertaining enough I won’t mind too much if Harry doesn’t get to do much from here on out. That aside, this one feels bad even inside that narrative choice. Because honestly, besides this chapter, I haven’t felt anything has been unearned so far? Harry earned everything he’s gotten when he made a plan that redeemed Voldemort. For me, though, Dumbledore’s trap feels like something more important than that. It feels like something that shouldn’t be overcome due to an off action Monroe. I thought this was something Harry needed to overcome. Heck, this is tech complex enough Monroe seems like he would have trouble getting Dumbledore out. So this in particular still crossed a line for me. I suppose that’s just me, though.

[The Guy Who Writes]

11652573
Well, it's not like Dumbledore is actually OUT yet. From a narrative standpoint, I couldn't really see any realistic way in THIS story for Harry to get involved in Dumbledore's release unless he actually knew about the release conditions. And with all the interaction between Dumbledore and Riddle that would happen over 35 years, I couldn't justify Dumbledore keeping quiet about his release conditions after he decided Riddle was redeemed, and therefore I couldn't justify Riddle NOT plotting moves that might lead to Dumbledore's escape.

There's also the fact that, if Draco DOES manage to forgive Dumbledore, a lot of the groundwork for achieving that was laid by Harry in the first place. In HPMoR and by Yudkowsky, sure, but it'd still largely be Harry's indirect accomplishment. And if Harry does it himself, if it's something Harry can figure out in his own mind, with his own strange and unusual blocks in the way of forgiveness, that would also be his own accomplishment.

I think what it comes down to is that it feels to me (and correct me if I'm wrong) that you're saying merely being presented with the puzzle, its constraints, and/or the intended solution has to itself be earned. That Harry and/or Draco were given far too many hints, or that they shouldn't have been told the end-goal of the puzzle, they shouldn't have been told what the solution would be. It might not be the best analogy, but pretty much all logic problems in Philosophy 101 will tell you the answer you are trying to reach, give you a few constraints, and then your 'solution' is the series of proof steps in REACHING that answer. 2-D Maze puzzles will also often show you the maze's exit, which allows for a 'working backwards' approach that some solvers feel is cheating.

I confess to having my own distaste for those kinds of puzzles on average. The most realistic puzzles don't presume there even IS an answer in the first place. I think that's why A20 Slay The Spire is so popular; because there are literally unwinnable seeds, the best players have something like a 60% winrate, and it's not a guarantee that you can think your way out of your current predicament, so you have to accumulate as many advantages and resources as possible in advance, to give yourself the best shot at winning. Ideally, the solver is working under conditions where they are uncertain about the problem's possibility, and "not possible" is a perfectly plausible answer. There's a good moment in planecrash like this, where Asmodia can't solve the Most High's problem because it CAN'T be solved.

Like I said, if it were my original sequel idea, Harry would have had to theorize a million different release clauses for Dumbledore - AFTER presuming upon the uncertain hypothetical that such a thing exists in the first place - and then he would have had to try a bunch of different approaches. And then, as I would have written into THAT story as well, Draco would have stumbled upon the Mirror and accidentally activated Dumbledore, who would have immediately shared his release conditions in hopes that Draco, friend of Harry, might succeed in freeing him. Draco probably would have been alone, in that iteration of the scene, possibly because he'd have been challenging his personal wizarding prowess against Dumbledore's 3rd floor corridor, which Harry decided as the official Boy-Who-Lived of Hogwarts to leave in place, Mirror and all, mostly because he hasn't yet figured out how to move the Mirror from its anchor spot, but also because all of Gryffindor (and the Weasley Twins in particular) say it's a fun test of skill, knowledge, magic, and bravery.

TL;DR: They haven't earned Dumbledore's release yet. Dumbledore is still trapped in the Mirror. And hey, maybe the Mirror interpreted the trap's release conditions in an unusual way, so the problem isn't as straightforward as it seems.

[The Guy Who Writes]

11652337
Oh, yeah. Good point.

[MLfan]

11652606
I think my main issue is I don’t feel like I’ve been presented with a puzzle. I feel like I’ve been presented with a solution. I like your analogy, actually. This is something that, based on what I imagined, should be like A20 in STS. Instead, it feels like a connect-the-dots. I think I know how Dumbledore will escape, and I have trouble imagining that many pitfalls in the way of that plan. That said, if there’s some catch that makes things harder than they seem, I’m all for it. I’ll wait and see about that.

Still love the story, I don’t comment negative things about things I don’t love. If I don’t like something, I just leave. This is the first thing Ive had a major complaint with in the whole story, honestly. Seeing your thought process, with this twist in mind, I see why it couldn’t really be done better. If this is the only thing, it’ll still be one of my fav figs out there

[The Guy Who Writes]

11655012
Ah, yes. Meant disassociate. I'll fix it.

[Black--Soul]

Funny how things in time twist and turn in unexpected ways. Fantastic chapter!