FOREWORD

Welcome to the sequel of In Spite of Obstinate Men. As with that work, the title is derived from a quote from a Hercule Poirot story. This time, it's from debatably the most famous of the stories: Murder on the Orient Express, with the quote being "The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances."

Anyway, I was surprised at how popular In Spite of Obstinate Men became. What began as an experiment in Fleur/Harry shipping with a mystery storyline appended became immensely popular. As I begin writing this story, it is currently over the 160K views mark, and has 900 favourites. My next most popular work to date, Harry Potter and the Cetra Heritage, has less than half those views. Although I considered doing the whole fic covering the events of The Goblet of Fire as well as the events of The Prisoner of Azkaban, I decided to make that a separate fic, partly because I want more completed fics to my name.

One complaint about the original story was that there wasn't quite enough Harry/Fleur, and more of an emphasis on Hercule Delacour. That was the way the story evolved, but I hope it will be a better balance in this story. But while we will be starting to get to the romance in this instalment of the story, there'll be no sex scenes. One, Harry is somewhat young (he's fourteen during the events of The Goblet of Fire). Two, I'm probably crap at writing them.

As with the penultimate chapter of the previous story, I'm dedicating this story to the victims of the recent terrorist attacks in France. Je suis Paris. Vive le différence!

Anyway, some disclaimers before we get to the story. Firstly, there will be spoilers for the Harry Potter series. You have been warned.

Secondly, there will be annotations. If you feel the urge to complain, then resist it, or better yet, strangle it.

Finally, the following is a fan-written work. Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and other owners. Please support the official release. Otherwise, they'll throw you into the First Task…naked. Imagine having to fight a dragon with no wand and no clothes. Not a pretty thought, eh?