The End of the Beginning
The expression on Bellatrix's face is contemptuous, her once beautiful features twisted into a gaunt mask of hate and gloating.
"Stupid Mudblood," she punctuated her sentence with a sharp backhander to Hermione's cheek. "What did you think that would -"
Suddenly there was a rush of wind and Alice was buffeted forwards. Rather than a swirl of colours around her she found herself enveloped in a bright light which tingled and stung as it touched her skin whirling her up into the air and knocking her against solid objects which felt like elbows and knees. Screwing her eyes tightly shut and ignoring the pain this induced in her face Alice prayed with every fibre of her being that this would work. Even if they weren't taken home, any other time was better than the one they had landed in.
Eventually the whirling, the light and the shrieking, unearthly howl which seemed to accompany it ended and Alice found herself flung onto her back with the wind forced from her lungs once again. Battered and bruised she remained still with her eyes closed, dreading what might be revealed when she opened them.
"Is everyone alright?" Ron asked after they had lain on the ground, stunned for several moments. There were several groans in response and Alice could hear her friends stirring, but she continued to lie immobile on her back exactly where the Time Turner had dropped her.
"Alice!" Harry suddenly seemed galvanised into action and scrambled across the ground towards her. "Are you alright?"
Hearing the concern in her brother's voice Alice forced herself into a sitting position, trying to keep at bay the wave of dizziness which swept over her.
"Are you alright?" He repeated skidding to a halt and dropping to his knees next to her.
Alice nodded, or would have, but that made her dizzy again so she curtailed the motion. "Yes," the whisper was less than convincing.
"Oh, Alice!" The others gathered around her now, tousled, but essentially unharmed she saw with relief. The were all gazing at her in concern and sympathy.
"I'm fine," she repeated more loudly. "Hermione, are you alright?" Her best friend's eye looked red and swollen where Bellatrix had struck her.
"Of course I am," she waved it off, "it's not me we should be worrying about. Here, let me fix that," Hermione knelt and gently cupped Alice's cheek, murmuring a healing charm. Instantly a pleasant, cooling sensation flooded her face, driving back the dull ache of before. "I don't know the exact curse she used," Hermione looked at her worriedly, "so I can't heal it properly, it's swollen and looks scarred, but I'm sure Madam Pomfrey can fix it."
"It's fine." Alice wiped away the worst of the blood with her sleeve. "I'm fine," she reassured her, sounding like a stuck record, when her friends continued to look anxious, "honestly. They're gone, we're all safe. That's all that matters."
"I just can't believe -" Hermione began.
"They were so close," Ron continued, "all that time they had been here and we never knew. And we... you don't suppose they're still around do you?" His head shot up and he scrutinised the hillside in case a Death Eater happened to be lurking behind a bush.
"I don't reckon they'd hang about for long," Harry reasoned, "not with the chance of Dumbledore discovering they were here."
"Besides," Neville added, "you heard what they said. They thought they knew where to go and find You-Know-Who."
There was a long silence as they all contemplated this gloomy and terrifying prospect.
"I don't care where they are so long as it's not here," Hermione shivered and Harry put an arm around her, planting a quick kiss on her temple as he did so.
"Are we home do you think?" Alice asked squinting up at the sun beaming down on them. "Can we go home now?"
The others all looked at each worriedly, the answer plain on their faces.
"Well we need to get help anyway," Harry reasoned, "Ron needs that leg looked at and Alice -"
"I'm fine," she told him.
Harry snorted. "Anyway, we should probably find a Healer or Madam Pomfrey. We need to walk through Hogsmeade to get to the castle anyway so we can work out whether the spell worked. Come on." He gave Alice a hand to her feet where she swayed precariously for a moment, waiting for her blood to catch up and reach her head.
"Are you sure you're alright?" The concern in Harry's eyes as he whispered the question forestalled the lie on her lips. "I will be," she told him eventually, it was only when she went to give his hand a reassuring squeeze that she realised her own was shaking.
"Oh!" Suddenly she was engulfed in a cloud of brown hair as Hermione threw herself at her in a violent hug. "I'm so glad you're ok."
Alice wrapped her arms tightly around her friend and tried to relax the tightness in her shoulders, the twitchy urgency in her legs and arms. She was safe, she repeated it to herself, they all were. The Death Eaters were gone. When Hermione pulled back both girls had tears in their eyes, though Hermione's were also streaming freely down her face.
"Yeah..." Ron coughed awkwardly, "and I'm really glad you're alright too, Alice."
"Thanks, Ron."
"Me too," mumbled Neville, "but -"
"Neville if you apologise I'm going to put a silencing charm on you. This was not your fault alright?! You didn't mean to fall over and they would have caught us anyway."
Neville nodded mutely and they began to make their way towards the village the others helping Alice and Ron along despite the fact they both protested they could manage themselves. It wasn't until they reached the Hogesmeade that they all stumbled to a halt.
"I'm guessing we're not in the past any more then," Ron hazarded.
Plastered to a board outside the Three Broomsticks was the torn out cover of a copy of the Daily Prophet and emblazoned across it in large letters were words which made the five of them look at each other in nervous confusion.
Boy Who Lived and Friends Vanish: Dumbledore Refuses to Confirm Rumours.
"Is there a date?" Alice asked as Hermione went to examine it more closely.
The photo beneath was one of Alice and Harry at the Quidditch World Cup with smaller clippings of the others stuck around them. "It says June 23rd," Hermione exclaimed, "that was four days after we left!"
There was a sickened silence as the others contemplated the implications of this fact.
"Right," Harry said eventually, "I think it's high time we got back up to the castle again, don't you?"
By general consensus they stayed out of sight as they skirted round the edge of the village, the last thing they wanted to do as create an uproar by suddenly reappearing and Alice was very conscious of the fact she was covered in blood.
"Wait a minute," she told the other as they reached the castle gates. Pulling the set of robes she had stolen from herself out of her pocket she resized them and pulled off the bloodied set she was wearing. "There's no point in scaring everyone," she told Hermione who was watching her with something close to amusement as she pulled on the clean robes.
"I don't know," her friend smiled, "you can be pretty terrifying when you want to be."
"Do you suppose they'll have dinner out yet?" Ron mused as they walked, and in his case limped their way, up to the castle. "I'm starving."
"You're always starving."
"Yes, but I've had a near death experience, that would make anyone hungry!"
Alice decided she'd rather dwell on dinner than the near death experience and focused on the ever increasing size of the castle in front of her. She didn't think she had ever been so glad to see Hogwarts in her entire life.
They had barely set one tentative foot in the entrance hall when Professor McGonagall came rushing down the main stairs towards them. She looked panicked and relieved, dishevelled and agitated all at once and she was running which confirmed to Alice as nothing else would that they had been missing some considerable time.
"Oh, thank goodness, there you are. Where on earth have you been?! Mr Weasley, are you quite alright? Miss Potter what...?" She fired questions at them then trailed off as she saw Alice's face, paling slightly. Was it really that bad? "I think you all need to come to the Hospital Wing with me. Now. We can answer questions later."
Obediently the Gryffindors allowed themselves to be shepherded along in silence. For her part Alice was trying to work out what time of day it was. There were no students around and judging by the steady hum of noise coming from behind many of the doors they must all have been in classes, still the sun had been almost directly overhead as they walked to the castle. Just before lunch perhaps, or just after?
"Minerva, what's -" Madam Pomfrey stuck her head out of her office as they swept into the Hospital Wing. "Oh," her eyes widened as she saw the fourth years, "oh, you found them! Sit," she told them all, instantly business-like as her assessing gaze swept over them, pointing towards the nearest of the beds as she did so. Gingerly they all obeyed.
"I'll be just a moment," Professor McGonagall gave them one last worried glance before sweeping from the room.
Once she had gone Madam Pomfrey bustled around muttering to herself and clicking her tongue critically as she examined them. Wet flannels were passed over their faces, ribs were prodded and poked for signs of injury and Ron's ankle gave a loud click as she touched her wand to it before a swirl of bandages appeared from nowhere to encircle it.
"Is this all yours?" She asked Alice, sponging the dried blood from her cheek and neck. Alice nodded meekly. The look Madam Pomfrey gave her at this response was both concerned and mildly apologetic. "Everyone wait here a moment," she vanished back into her office only to re-emerge moments later with a bottle in one hand and an armful of goblets. "I want everyone to drink some of this. It will make you feel better."
With a glance at each other as they were handed a goblet of steaming, sour smelling liquid they each took a sip. For all that it tasted as foul as it smelt Alice felt a rush of energy run through her as soon as the potion passed her lips so she took another sip for good measure. "Now let me take a look at this." Madam Pomfrey took hold of Alice's face gently with her fingers, she meant it kindly, but the touch was so reminiscent of Bellatrix grabbing her earlier that Alice couldn't help but jerk away reflexively for a moment before realising what she had done and looking apologetically up at the Matron.
"It's alright, dear, this won't hurt a bit." She ran her wand gently over Alice's cheek as the girl shut her eyes and tried to stop the memories come flooding back. When she opened them again Madam Pomfrey was frowning critically at her. "What have you all been...?" She seemed to think better of her question. "This one may take some work, I -"
"Ron!"
They all jumped, startled, as Mrs Weasley burst into the Hospital Wing closely followed by Bill, and much to her joy, Sirius.
"Alice, Harry!"
They leapt up from the bed, pushed past the Matron and in seconds had crashed into their godfather, enveloping him in a fierce hug.
"What happened? Where have you been? Are you alright?" Sirius released them and dropped into a crouch so he could look up into their faces. "Alice, what happened?" He turned her face to look at her cheek and she felt herself flushing in embarrassment and shame. "I think you had better start at the beginning."
"I think," Dumbledore spoke from beside the door he had just come through with Professor McGonagall behind him, "that would be for the best."
As they all went back over to the now very crowded bed, Mrs Weasley broke off from smothering a thoroughly embarrassed Ron in kisses and hugs and turned her attention to the others. "I'm just so glad you're alright," she kept repeating.
"Now, Molly," Dumbledore said as he conjured chairs for the adults to sit in, "let them speak. Your parents and grandmother have been informed of your safe return," he added to Neville and Hermione. "I imagine they will wish to see you when they arrive shortly. Miss Granger we will make arrangements for your parents. Now, you may begin."
The five of them looked at each other pensively for a moment. Where should they start? Eventually Hermione drew the crushed and mangled remains of the Time Turner from her pocket and held it up to the adults where it swung and glinted languidly in the sunlight streaming through the high windows. When she had taken the time, or had the presence of mind, to pick it up Alice couldn't fathom.
"Ah," Dumbledore made a noise of understanding and his long fingers reached out to take it from her.
"Ah?" Sirius asked. "I don't see how that makes anything clearer."
"It's a Time Turner, Sirius," Professor McGonagall informed him in the sort of tone Alice imagined she had used when he was a student. "Miss Granger's Time Turner to be precise. Though how it got to look like that I would dearly love to hear."
"It broke," Harry told her after another very pregnant pause. "We got into a fight with Malfoy in the corridor and the Time Turner got smashed..." With help from the others he began to relate the events of the last few hours or days depending on which way you looked at it. Sirius tried to interrupt several times and Mrs Weasley looked as though she was about to faint and kept squeaking in shock every time some new danger was mentioned, but McGonagall and Dumbledore kept them quiet for which Alice was grateful. It was difficult enough without having to repeat themselves all over again. When they reached the part in the tale where the Death Eaters featured Alice realised she was gripping Harry and Hermione's hands tightly and tried to ease some blood back into their fingers, still she refused to let go, she was afraid she would start crying uncontrollably otherwise.
It sounded even more horrendous to hear the others tell it, how they'd thought Alice was dead for a moment, how they had watched Bellatrix carve into her face... eventually Alice tried to block out the words and stared fixedly at her muddy shoes.
When their story came to an end a deep silence had settled over the adults.
"And you are sure," Dumbledore was watching them all intently through those piercing blue eyes of his, "that they said they knew where Voldemort was?" Mrs Weasley and Madam Pomfrey flinched and the muscles in Neville's face twitched.
"But surely he's not... he can't be able to - to come back?" Mrs Weasley leant forwards in her seat to place a worried hand upon her son's knee.
"Muuuum," Ron protested.
"Voldemort was ever a master of evasion, I would never presume to rule anything out where he is concerned."
McGonagall began to ask a question, but the Headmaster forestalled her. "I think perhaps that the young ones might benefit from going to bed. It has, after all, been a rather long day for them."
Alice would have argued, but a yawn was creeping up on her.
"Are you finished with your charges, Madam Pomfrey?"
The Hogwarts Matron nodded, still pale from having heard their story.
"What about -?" Sirius gestured to his own cheek indicating Alice's injury.
"I'm afraid there's nothing more I can do about it for the moment," Madam Pomfrey told them. "It was created using dark magic and will take all my skill to heal, if I can at all. I will need to consult my books. I am sorry," she said this to Alice as much as to her godfather.
"That's alright," Alice nodded trying to bite down the tears that welled within her. They stood and shuffled slowly out into the corridor, Sirius, Mrs Weasley and Bill following behind them.
"Get some rest dears," Ron's mother told them dolling out affectionate strokes to their hair and cheeks, "we'll be here when you wake up. I'll just need to go and send an owl to your father," she told Ron. "And don't worry about a thing, my dear," she said to Alice, "I'm sure Pomona will be able to think of something, and you can barely see the mark." She gave them all one last hug before going back into the Hospital Wing followed by her eldest son.
"Off you go now," Sirius ruffled their hair, "Dumbledore's right you deserve a rest."
"Are you going to be...?" Alice wasn't sure what she wanted to ask and couldn't think of a way to say it.
"I'm not going anywhere," he reassured her.
With a silence born of extreme tiredness and punctuated only by several sniffs and yawns the Gryffindors dragged themselves up to the dormitories, which she had never been so glad to see in her life, and where Alice promptly collapsed on her bed, fully clothed and immediately fell asleep.
Her dreams were filled with running, blinding flashes of light which occasionally shone green and Death Eaters, lots of Death Eaters. More particularly her dreams were full of Bellatrix Lestrange's face looming out of the shadows to taunt her, cackling madly or whispering threats in her ear. When the witch rushed from the dark swirl of her nightmares to grab her face once more Alice jerked awake, sweat sticking her clothes to her body as her eyes flew open.
She jumped.
Three pairs of equally startled eyes were staring down at her.
"When did you get back?"
"Where have you been?"
"What happened to your face?"
Parvati, Sally-Anne and Lavender fired questions at her with curious insensitivity.
"You were moaning in your sleep," Lavender added helpfully.
"Was I?" Alice asked dodging their questions as she sat up, wiping the beads of perspiration from her face.
"Yes." Lavender told her with far too much enthusiasm. "I couldn't tell what you were saying though. So," she perched on the end of Alice's bed now she was sure the girl wasn't a raving loony. "Where in Merlin's name have you been?! The whole school's been in uproar since you all disappeared! You've been gone six whole days!"
Alice was sure she had enjoyed every minute of it.
"I'm not allowed to say," she remembered Dumbledore's warning.
"But surely you can tell us," Sally-Anne wheedled, she went to put a hand on Alice's shoulder and it was all the other girl could do not to flinch away from the sudden touch.
Breathe, she told herself, just breathe and relax. It was a dream. She was safe now.
"We are your friends after all."
"What time is it?" A voice asked from the other side of the room. Hermione, who had possessed the foresight to close the curtains around her bed, now pulled them apart and swung her legs round. "I'm starving. It must be nearly dinner time. Do you want to go and get something to eat Alice?"
"Sure," her friend smiled, grateful for the excuse to slip away. "Let me just go and freshen up a bit first." She grabbed some robes from her trunk and padded across to the washroom. It wasn't until she had shut the door behind her and caught sight of her face in the mirror that Alice stopped. Beginning beneath her eye and curving towards her jaw before coming to rest at the corner of her mouth was a pale, pink line, slightly shiny and puffy, the scar stood out noticeably against her pale skin, It looked a week old at least thanks to Hermione's healing charm, but it would still be immediately obvious to anyone who looked at her.
Turning quickly away from herself Alice washed and changed before brushing out her long, curly hair and trying to coax it to cover her face. As she gazed into the mirror her reflection gingerly reached up and traced the scar's arc with a tentative finger. It changed the whole shape of her face, made it more lopsided and seemed to swamp everything else. Blinking away the tears which had sprung up again Alice turned away and went back to the others.
"I'm ready," she told Hermione. She might as well get this over with.
The boys still seemed to be asleep so the two girls made their own way down to the Great Hall, they hadn't even made it over the threshold though before they were suddenly attacke by a skinny, redheaded whirlwind.
"Alice, Hermione! You're alright! Of course I knew that, Mum said you were, but you're back! Are the boys with you? Oh Alice..." Ginny released them from their hugs and trailed off as she caught a glimpse of Alice's face.
"It's fine, honestly," Alice waved off her concern. She didn't really want to talk about it or be reminded. It was enough that half the tables already seemed to be staring at them. "Let's just get something to eat and you can fill us in on everything we missed."
Ginny paused for a beat before deciding to do as she was told and accompanied the older girls to the nearest available space at the Gryffindor table.
"The Third Task mainly. It was to get through a maze set up on the Quidditch Pitch and the Triwizard Cup was at the centre. Cedric won by the way. It was a bit of a shame really, no one really got excited about it because you lot had gone missing and now the fact you're back is all they'll talk about so he's not really going to get a spot in the limelight."
Alice was surprised to discover she only felt slightly sorry for him over this. Too much had happened for her to worry much about the outcome of the Tournament.
"So, have the other students gone home?" Hermione looked around the Hall for evidence of the foreign students.
"No, they're staying on till the end of term. They -"
"What on earth happened to Malfoy?!" Alice had just caught a glimpse of the Slytherin slinking into his place bearing a slight limp, his arm in a sling and a patchwork of bruises littering his face.
"Oh." Ginny somehow managed to look abashed and amused all at once. "That might have been Fred and George."
"What?" The girls asked in unison.
"Well, when you disappeared the whole school went mental, they didn't know what to think and there were so many rumours going about - anyway, Malfoy had been shouting his mouth off to the other Slytherins about how he had something to do with your disappearance and the twins caught wind of it. They decided to teach him a lesson. I don't even think they used their wands!"
Hermione scowled over at the boy for a moment whilst Alice tried not to remember the last time she had seen his father. "I bet he's just putting half of it on," the brunette opined. "Madam Pomfrey could fix all that in a heartbeat if she wanted to."
"I think that's exactly the point," Ginny's grin broadened. "I think she had heard the rumours too."
That did manage to lift the corner of Alice's mouth into a smile which stuck despite the fact it made her cheek twinge a bit. They ate largely in silence after that or until the twins appeared anyway and scooped Alice bodily from her seat to give her a welcoming hug. To their everlasting credit neither of them said a word about her face.
Several days passed and they found themselves the object of constant curiosity from the other students. If they weren't being openly harassed and quizzed on what had happened to them then students were standing on tiptoe to stare. All the newfound, unwanted fame Alice had had to put up with since the start of the year magnified tenfold. The scar began to subside slowly, but she remained very conscious of it and the staring didn't help. Neither did the nightmares; every night Bellatrix Lestrange would return to carve into her face anew.
Lack of sleep and stress made her irritable and twitchy so to cheer her up one day her brother took her flying. Soaring over the forbidden forest and the overgrown Quidditch pitch allowed her to forget, if only for a while, what had happened. It was only afterwards that it was brought up again, and surprisingly Alice was the one who did so.
"Harry, are you alright?"
"Yes, why?"
"You've been somewhere else for the last fifteen minutes. I was calling the Tornadoes all sorts of names and you didn't even blink."
"Oh... sorry, it's just that… never mind. What were you saying?"
"No, come on, tell. You don't get off that easily." She saw the reluctant set of his jaw and her own stubbornness kicked in. "Harry James Potter, if you don't tell me what the matter is I'm going to hit you with this broomstick!"
Harry grinned and pretended to duck to avoid such a fate. "Alright. Alright," he protested, "I'll tell." His expression sobered again and he gazed out towards the distant edge of the lake which they seemed to have stopped beside. "It's just been that all year, since I found out about the prophecy, I've been able to forget almost. Even with everything that's happened this year, it hasn't been directed at us or at me, I've almost been able to be normal and forget that…"
"That Trelawney predicted you would have to kill Voldemort," she whispered.
It had been something that had never been far from Alice's mind, although she had tried to ignore it. The fact that Voldemort's return had been a vague possibility rather than a certified fact had helped, but with the Death Eaters on the loose it would surely only be a matter of time. Harry hadn't said anything though so she had followed his lead and ignored the subject. No longer.
"You know we're with you Harry, don't you? You'll never have to do this alone."
"But it says -"
"I know what it says, but it also says that you will have a power the Dark Lord knows not or some rubbish like that. Well, what if your friends are that power? I'm fairly sure that Voldemort won't have any of those if he's out there."
"You know, for someone who is supposedly so quiet, you don't half like to interrupt a person," Harry chastised her, but the smile on his face belied his words.
"Only when they're being nonsensical. Besides if you thought for one minute you would ever be able to do anything without me, Hermione, and Ron tagging along then you're stupider than you look."
"Thanks."
"No problem," she slung an arm round his shoulders and steered him back towards the castle. "If I was Ron at this point I would point out that dinner is probably on the table and this will solve everything."
Harry smirked. "You're better looking than Ron though... and shorter."
Alice elbowed him in the ribs and the two of them laughed their way up to the castle.
Alice lived for these little moments of relief, when she managed to forget and could enjoy being with her brother and her friends. Fred and George seemed to have made it their missions to ensure she laughed as often as possible. She told them all everything was fine, that they needn't worry about her. After all, hadn't they been through almost exactly the same experience. Poor Neville had been forced to confront his parents torturers for goodness sake! Surely if anyone deserved sympathy it was him? It didn't stop the nightmares though and after the second time Hermione commented that she had been muttering in her sleep Alice made sure she put a silencing charm around her bed. She didn't want to worry anyone unnecessarily or disrupt their nights.
It was with some disappointment too that her friend was told she would not be given a replacement Time Turner. McGonagall impressed upon Hermione gently, but forcibly that given everything that had happened both Professor Dumbledore and she felt it would not be wise to issue a new one. Hermione muttered darkly about how none of it had been her fault for a while, but it was with less upset that she conceded to drop Divination and after some thought Muggle Studies too which allowed her to operate under a normal timetable for a change. Alice couldn't help but feel that it was for the best really, the risk of magical disaster was all too great as they had seen for themselves and if nothing else it was probably better for Hermione's health and energy levels that she was forced to study normally for once, or as normal as it ever got for Hermione.
The end of term cam briskly upon them and Alice soon found herself trying to force her trunk back aboard the Hogwarts Express.
"It feels different now," Harry observed, staring out of the window as they sped along and watching the countryside melt from grey and purple hills into deep green meadows and fields. "The air, it's as though it knows something has changed, that it all will change."
"Let's not think about that now," Hermione told him resting her head on his shoulder as she fiddled with the corner of the book she was reading. "We've got the whole summer to look forward to. Let's just enjoy it, can we?"
Harry smirked and said nothing.
"Did you hear?" Neville asked suddenly. "Apparently Mad-Eye won't be coming back to teach next year."
"What?"
"Why?"
"But he was brilliant!"
Protests filled the compartment.
"I heard Professor Flitwick telling Professor Sprout," he continued. "Apparently Mad-Eye feels that with the current situation his skills will be put to better use outside of Hogwarts."
"That's a shame," Ron glanced up from where he was attempting to create a tower of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and failing miserably at it. "He was really good. Completely barmy, but he taught us some cool stuff."
"I wonder who we'll get next year?"
Hermione flipped open her book and began to read. "Someone good I hope, it's about time we got a good Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."
"But he was good," Alice told her, shocked.
"I know he was," Hermione agreed, "but Ron's right, he was completely off his rocker. It would be nice for once to have a normal teacher who doesn't try and kill us every twenty seconds."
"She does know what school we go to, doesn't she?" Alice whispered to Neville as Ron suddenly dived for his bag and began rummaging around before tearing out a sheet of crumpled, stained parchment. "I don't think normal ever comes into it. Ron, what are you doing?"
"Hang on," he held his tongue between his teeth as he concentrated on scribbling something down. "There, done. Sign that please." He thrust the parchment towards Hermione who just stared at him in blank confusion.
"Here," Harry took it from him and began to read, a slow smile spreading across his face as he did so. "I, Hermione Granger, did admit on 3rd of July 1995 that Ronald Weasley was right about something."
As their laughter echoed around the carriage and chased itself along the corridors of the train a tiny knot of tension in Alice's stomach seemed to dissolve. Whatever would come next, whatever the world, Death Eaters or even Voldemort, should he return, had to throw at them, she had her friends around her. Together they could face anything and support Harry through even the darkest of troubles and she had to hold on to that thought.
A/N: So there you have it loyal readers! Book 4 complete! Hope you enjoyed it, have a Merry Christmas and I'll be back with Book 5 in the New Year. I love all your reviews and thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment on my work.
hermy_madness