Hello, everyone. Welcome to the fourth chapter of my first story for the Harry Potter section!

Firstly, thank you again, everyone, for all the support, the favs, follows and obviously, the reviews! I never imagined reaching almost 800 favs, over 1000 follows and more than ten C2s! They have been totally helpful, and I hope that I managed to answer every one of you and not forget anyone. If so, I'm sorry, but know that your time in writing one for my story is super-appreciated!

Secondly, but not less important, well, it's not almost a year like last time, but I definitely hope that I can manage to shorten my schedule a bit for the next chapters, with the next one being around the half-way mark in the whole story. There is also a request for you all at the end of the chapter, please read it!

I hope my English will be good enough for you international readers. Also, I do not know a lot of British English expressions, so please bear with me for that. Rating is M for some swearing and future possible intense scenes. In this AU some characters will be OOC, and there will be bashing around. The pairing is Harry/Daphne, my absolute favorite, with a Powerful!Independent!Harry on the stage. Get ready for another "above orbit over the top" Harry Potter!

Please Read&Review!

I would like to dedicate this fic to the awesome writer Dorothea Greengrass. Her Harry/Daphne stories are simply great, so go and read them!

DISCLAIMER: I obviously, and unfortunately, do not own Harry Potter and everything associated with it. JKR does, and she did a fantastic job of creating our favorite Magical World. I only own the idea of this fanfiction.

"normal speech" - 'thoughts' - "$parseltongue$"

Blood, Fire, Venom and Tears

by Stormchaser17

4. A Bad Surprise

The first things that Harry could feel were the animated whispers of people around him. Immediately after that, the usual Medical Ward clean odor pervaded his nostrils and a well-known groan escaped his lips.

He was, again, in the clutches of the Mistress of Medicine, Ms. Pomfrey. He so wanted to avoid it this time, but apparently, after his passing out in the tent no one of his friends managed to bring him back to some hidden place since the Chamber would be useless without him speaking the password in Parseltongue.

Opening his eyes was a fatal error, because the light of the day burned instantly in his retinas, forcing him to shut them close again, and take cover under the thick blanket.

Unfortunately, his movements alerted the group of professors next to his bed that halted what they were doing to look at him. If he could have seen them at that time, the scene in front of his glasses would have been almost incredible, for some: in the far corner of the room, protected by fumes and ingredients wards, was Severus Snape, heatedly writing something on a board, and analysing the violet potion that he had used in the Task.

Around a table next to that position, Professors Vector, Babbling, and Flitwick were discussing the fragments, bits and pieces of the ritual that he used, together with the runic matrix that apparently managed to help him regulate his blood in some kind of way.

In the opposite corner, huddled together, Minerva McGonagall was furiously gesticulating towards Bagman and Crouch, angrily shouting at them behind what was almost surely a soundproof bubble, while Dumbledore was massaging his temples in a vain tentative of making the already big and pounding headache go away.

Professors Sinistra and Hooch were instead drinking what appeared to be tea while making small chat with each other, and looking at him every now and then. Pomona Sprout was with them, while Sybill Trelawney was for the moment out of the room.

Harry managed another groan and felt some people back off from his bed while hearing some fast steps approaching. One of the smells that he felt linger for another moment and then disappear was definitely Daphne's and this brought a smile to his face.

"It is good that you are smiling after your adventure Mr. Potter. You almost scared everyone to death with your stunt in the arena."

Poppy's tone was just a little bit reproachful, but most of it was just born out of worry. "I would not have had anything different, Ms. Pomfrey." He tried to sound funny, but the huff from Tracey and the double snort from Luna and Astoria immediately told him that he failed, hard.

While the mediwitch continued fussing around him, checking his vitals and the progress of his healing after the overpowered pepper-up potion that he took, all the others began approaching his bed, stopping just to not be a big overbearing presence over him.

"How do you feel, Harry?"

This was McGonagall. He did not know precisely how to confront them, but he had to respond to their gesture before the First Task, so he would be civil. At least until someone did not start to antagonize him.

"Like I have been beaten down from two dragons Miss McGonagall."

"Know that your cheek will not save you from everything Mr. Potter, but after all, it may be impossible from you to do otherwise."

"And it is always a joy to talk with you, Professor Snape."

His answer surprised the bat-like potion teacher, and it brought back the twinkling in Dumbledore's eyes. He truly feared that they had pushed him too hard, too far away.

Harry managed to get up on his elbows, and Poppy gave him his glasses, with which he managed to get his good first look at the room. His eyes zeroed immediately on Daphne, who had a beautiful smile on her lips, looking radiant with sparkling eyes.

She did not manage to resist anymore and sending their first intention to keep their relationship hidden straight to hell, ran up from her chair and embraced him strongly while murmuring sweet things in his ear. He reciprocated in full, mirroring her movements perfectly.

Surely, that was not what the whole Hogwarts' Staff was expecting. Having the perfect, prim and proper Miss Greengrass, top marks in almost everything and one of the most talented students of the school together with the scruffy-looking, messy haired, mediocre Boy-who-Lived was a total surprise!

"Miss Greengrass!" Aurora did not want to squeal, she was a pure romantic at heart, and the scene in front of her just appealed to her senses.

Harry and Daphne just looked at each other, chuckled a bit, and said together. "Well…" Their friends just cracked in laughter at the stupid display from the couple.

"No, you can not give us just a Well… Mr. Potter and Miss Greengrass. And do not think that this will be overlooked. There will be no unsavory behavior in the halls!"

Minerva would always be the same, Flitwick was laughing at the scene, feeling happy for his students, and Dumbledore just looked like a cat which had eaten the whole canary.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, the face of Severus Snape was a mix of emotions, disgust for crazy Gryffindors always present, but at the same time, a very painful memory of the past coming out from his carefully organized mind, bringing recollections of a fantastic red-haired Lioness with a black-haired Serpent under the shade of a big tree.

Tracey, Astoria, and Luna decided to participate in the big hugging that was going on Harry's bed, and a second later, a mess of limbs and laughing faces joined the wizard for a short while.

After some minutes, Dumbledore could be heard coughing to attract attention, after dismissing the two Tournament officials, and every student disentangled himself from the others, and seated again on one side, with Daphne's hand never leaving Harry's.

"It is a joy to see that you have not suffered lasting damage from your fight Harry. As Ms. Pomfrey already said, you gave us all a scare in more than one occasion."

"It was really close when the Empress impaled me, Headmaster. If the activation sequence of my Matrix had not been shortened as I wanted… well…" He choked up at the thought. To never see his new friends, or even worse, Daphne, again?! That was a horrible thought.

"Yes, I think that everyone can imagine what the result would have been."

Dumbledore made a pause, to organize what he wanted to say, and how to say it. "Again, Harry, I wanted to express…"

"No, professor. What had to be said has already been said, or is there anything else that someone wants to add?"

The Professors shared a glance at each other and nodded resolutely. "No Harry. You are right, what has been done to you in the past, directly or indirectly, will always be a shame for us, and we all know that you will never forget anything about it. But we hope that we can proceed towards a better future, together maybe?"

"Yes, I do not want to do anything else than solve this problem once and for all, Professors."

A collective sigh filled the little Medical Ward, and for the first time, Harry recognized that while the place had the same smell of the Hospital room, he was not in that one at the moment.

Poppy noticed this and answered for him. "Your friends entered the tent after you collapsed and explained the situation to me. In the midst of it, the Headmaster arrived, and they pleaded him to continue to keep you hidden from the others…"

"…not a new thing, unfortunately…" Murmured little Flitwick.

"…and we decided to repurpose one of the unused rooms on the fifth floor, near the Professors conference room, in a small and sterile medical quarter."

Minerva added. "We took some turns, outside our teaching and staff hours to keep an eye on you, and let me tell you, convincing your friend and your owl of leaving you alone at times was impossible."

Her exasperated tone made Harry smile a little, he was sure that Hedwig had been a complete annoyance to whoever wanted her to leave him alone. And he was sure that his friends had been almost as intense.

"Well, I know that you want answers Harry and that you want them fast, but maybe before everything, we could talk about your feats in the Task?"

The black-haired wizard adjusted himself on the bed, in a more comfortable position, never leaving Daphne's hand alone, and asked. "What do you want to know?"

Immediately, the floodgates opened, and every professor started to ask something, just to be overshadowed by the next one in line, creating a mayhem that only Poppy's shout of Order in the Medical Room! Managed to calm down.

Surprisingly, Snape asked first with his ever-present sneer. "How did a dunderhead like you manage to create this version of a Strengthening Solution?" And he shook the vial that he recognized using during the second part of the Task. "It is at least twenty to thirty times more concentrated compared to the normal one, and I refuse to believe that a failure like you in my subject could create such a masterpiece."

While he was trying to reign in his temper, and while Dumbledore managed to give his Potion Professor a scathing look, Tracey became red as a tomato at the mention of a masterpiece.

"You are right, Professor. I am horrid in potions." The smile on his face did not manage to restrain the disdain on Severus' face. "Tracey was the one who did it. She is the genius you are looking for."

The poor girl's face immediately took the tones of a nuclear reactor meltdown, she was so nervous after being put onto a pedestal like that, but at the same time, so happy that a Master of Potions like Snape praised her work, and that his best male friend was doing the same.

"Miss Davis?"

"Y… Yes, Professor. I made the potion that was in that vial. It is a combination of two different reagents that when combined together give out that result."

"How did you manage to control the reaction of…" He glanced at his blackboard in the corner to take another look at his notes. "…Salamander Blood in the general mix without a cauldron and a live flame?"

Harry almost whistled from the question. That was technical speech, and with his poor interest in the subject, he felt that he could never keep up to it. Surprisingly, as Tracey had already done with him before handing him the two vials, she managed to explain everything easily to everyone.

"I added the Griffin Claw while the potion was still in the cauldron, like in the normal preparation sequence. After the one day, fifteen hours of simmering, I reduced the fire to one seventh of the required amount and added only a third of the necessary Salamander Blood…"

"But doing it like that would give you an imperfect combination, the potion would fail."

"Yes, but continuing to simmer it for another bout of time of the same length of the first, I managed to reach a lighter turquoise coloration, so I thought that what I wanted to obtain was in reach."

"And, if I may ask, Miss Davis, what did you want to obtain?" The Headmaster's curiosity was overflowing, this was a breakthrough in Potions not seen for many years.

"Well… after Harry told us of the Dragons, we wanted to help him, no matter what he said on doing everything by himself because he did not want to involve us in something that dangerous." She spared a glance at a sheepish-looking Potter. "So, while our little Astoria here, true to a real Slytherin, managed to stealthily collect and sort every information about the behavior of the dragons, and Daphne offered good advice on spells to use, I wanted to help with some kind of potion."

Astoria blushed from the praise and Daphne beamed at the mention, since she was the one to ultimately convince Harry to accept their help, with a long stretch of alone time together. Everyone knew what they had done in the little room on the side of the Chamber of Secrets, and they managed to tease them for days.

"And what did you do after the second simmering?"

"I started adding gradually the remaining second portion of the three, adjusting the fire every time that the potion would start changing density, color, and vapor consistency, and finally, I extracted a part of the potion itself and put it in a second cauldron where I put the remaining third of the Blood. Finally, I used a Linking Charm to connect the two together, so I was able to regulate both at the same time if needed."

The whole Staff was silent, listening to her explanation. It was something never tried before, but that gave out a great result in the end, so no one wanted to miss a single word.

"After that, the problem was how to make the two react together away from a normal cauldron." At this Snape nodded. "And that is why I spent so much time in the library, but I could not find anything useful, unfortunately, and I got back to racking my brain to create a solution."

"It was until Professor Flitwick's lesson on the very first advanced charm of his course that, to use a muggle expression, a lightbulb lit up in my head!"

The poor pureblood professors needed a brief explanation of the saying, while Flitwick immediately remembered that particular lesson. He was teaching the combined Ravenclaw-Slytherin class, using charms to control the proprieties of materials.

"So." The potion professor said. "You managed to find… what?"

Tracey and Harry looked at each other. The exchange was not unnoticed by the assorted professors, but the answer they were looking for was just seconds away.

"I thought that, if the linking charm could be extended, and maybe adapted to the single vials, the potion could be safely stored and moved, even if for a limited amount of time, the duration of the charm itself." The teachers nodded to that, it all depended on how much magic and intent you put into the spell itself, a first-year lesson for all the students.

Tracey shook her head. "A step forward, two steps back, unfortunately."

"What do you mean?" Asked the flying mistress, Hooch.

"Well, the vials were made of glass, and as such, it is impossible to maintain any kind of potion inside them without violently reacting. We needed a standard cauldron."

Snape interrupted the young witch. "That is not entirely correct, but it is seventh year material, so I can excuse you not knowing it, this time." Tracey had blanched a little, hoping that her mistake was not that important, but relaxed immediately after. "The dunderheads that will manage to reach the second NEWT year -so not you, Potter- will learn that some potions have to be so well prepared and simmered that only a cauldron made of pure crystal can help the whole process."

Harry almost scoffed at the barb, but he knew that it was a losing game, trying to reason with Snape. He had way more important things to be preoccupied for.

"Wow! I thought that platinum-made cauldrons were at the top, and I heard rumors about diamond ones, but never crystal! And then their…"

"Tracey!" Daphne was fast in reminding her best friend to not go into one of her rants about potions and potionmaking, she could be as bad as Granger in certain instances, too much passion!

The brunette just stopped and flushed, she did not want to be caught like this. "Ah! Sorry professors! Potions is one of the most interesting subjects for me."

Harry gave out a horrified look that earned him a slap behind the head from his girlfriend, a snicker from Astoria, the usual look from Luna and a pointed dark look from Snape. Well, two could play the same game!

While the other professors had amused expressions, the chocolate-eyed girl continued. "However, I was stuck on this for four days, until Harry found a solution for me!" She clapped her hands excitedly.

"What did you do, Harry?" Dumbledore was curious as any of the assembled Staff.

Now that he was on the spot, but it was awkward to talk about a failure that turned out good. "Well… Tracey needed a silver cauldron to prepare the potions, so we thought, what if we had silver vials linked to the cauldrons with the two potions inside?"

"But there are not silver vials available anywhere. I do not think that they have ever been produced." McGonagall looked at Dumbledore and Snape, and they confirmed her assumption.

"Exactly. But, we are in a magic school, where everything is possible with enough power and intent, right?" Rebutted Astoria, with the very same words that she said that time.

"True! So, we tried to research how to create them, but conjuration is…"

"…conjuration is a NEWT level subject. Are you telling me that you managed to conjure it?" The look on the transfiguration professor was a mix of an astonished and a surprised one.

"Not that. I tried and tried, but the only thing I managed to conjure was wood. Always wood no matter how much I put my intent in it!" There was a bit of frustration in Harry's voice.

"Well, I have to commend you nonetheless! Conjuration is extremely difficult, and only a good knowledge of transfiguration combined together with arithmancy, not to talk about the required power, can achieve it."

Harry looked immediately resigned and a bit ashamed. "Care and Divination were not the good third year electives, right?"

"Well, Mr. Potter…" Septima Vector used this opportunity to insert herself into the discussion, together with her friend Bathseda.

"...yes, they are good subjects if you have the gift of divination, and if you want to pursue a magizoologist career, but otherwise…" The rune expert left the sentence at that point, her meaning clear for everyone.

"See Harry? It is like I said to you last year, but nooo… you had to go and take those!" A harrumphed Daphne, almost pouting, was too cute for Harry to resist and not to embrace her again.

"I am sorry Daphne, but last year I was still with them." The final words were said with absolute venom. He was disgusted by himself for allowing to be pushed around by his two ex-friends.

"What happened?" Dumbledore, like the others, was curious about the enormous rift that opened between him and his friends. It worried him because it would have meant that for the young wizard friendships were not so important anymore.

Luckily the old/new ones that he was cultivating seemed as strong as the previous ones, but the interest remained.

"Ron has practically no interest in any kind of studying, and truly I think that the only reason that he is passing the courses is because Hermione forces us to give her our essays to be corrected."

"What?!"

The enraged and surprised shout of Minerva would have been heard at least from half of the castle, if not for the silencing spells around the room. And the pointed glare that she gave him it was a clear request for more details.

"It started after Christmas, or Yule, first year." Some of the people were glad that he remembered the old and more traditional festivity. "You know that before the incident with the troll… well, we were not friends at all. And to tell you the truth, I did find her behavior a little grating, but for sure at no level to tell her something bad like Ron did at the time."

A series of nods confirmed that the professors already knew this, so he continued.

"After coming back from the holidays, she started asking, no requesting, that we had to give her our assignments because if not, we could only guess how far we could go without her!" He fisted his hands and Daphne, while furious for the situation, reversed the hug, and encircled him with her arms, to try and soothe him.

The situation did not go unnoticed, obviously, and the adults in the room were reminded again that the two seemed to be together for good. Some of them smiled, it was definitely about time that Harry had something really positive happening to him, and this relationship with Daphne maybe was truly what he needed to overcome everything that was happening to him.

A beacon of light in stormy waters, as they say.

"Three years ago… I was not in a good place regarding friend relationships, courtesy of the Dursley's." A look towards Dumbledore, the Headmaster immediately appeared ashamed of a situation that he created. "And, I am sure you all know, she can be so oppressing and pushy that in the end, we relented just to make her shut up!"

He exhaled slowly, his frayed nerves calming a little bit. "It was only after meeting Daphne and Tracey -which beamed at the memory- during the second year that I started to notice what was going on, and I tried distancing myself."

The deprecatory chuckle that he gave out told everyone the truth. "But in the end, I did not do it. They were my only friends at the time, and the thought of being left alone…" His body shuddered as he recalled his times in isolation in the cupboard. Tears started to moisten his eyes, so Daphne started talking for him, adjusting herself to be able to face the professors without leaving his side.

"Do you know that she stole his broom during the third year? As soon as he left it in his room unattended she went and took it to bring it to professor McGonagall with her pathetic excuse."

Minerva was appalled, that was not what Miss Granger said at the time! "What do you mean? Miss Granger told me that Harry wanted to be sure that…"

"Sorry for the interruption madam, but Harry did not know of the stolen broom until you came and confronted him on the matter. Now, we could even understand the fact that she was, maybe, worried of some foul play put in place by Sirius Black, but that was no way to behave herself."

Tracey picked up. "And after that, do you know how they treated him inside Gryffindor, especially those harpies of the Quidditch Team? For losing what they thought was their precious broom!"

Now the Transiguration professor was really embarrassed, and the looks that the others were giving her did not help her situation at all.

"And obviously, as soon as he got it back from you, he immediately was back in the graces of everyone, especially because he knows to use it, not like that pathetic Malfoy!" The brunette ended her rant with a huff.

"While I can find the misadventures of Mr. Potter amusing, we are straying from the main topic." The cold voice of Severus Snape snapped everyone from their funk and, McGonagall first, just reminded Harry that if he wanted, she would be available to talk, to really talk with him. Harry thanked her with a half-smile and got back on track.

"After a while, we stopped trying to conjure silver and tried to transfigure the glass into the material." He gave an embarrassed laugh. "We should have done that from the beginning, but then we met a new problem."

"Yes, after the charms needed for the potion were applied to it, it always reverted to glass, and we were unable to discover why in the short time we had available." Tracey supplied.

"So, we… let's say we forced the matter." Concluded Harry with a little smirk. The professors were interested and got a vial for a practical demonstration.

Harry managed to change it wandlessly, surprising everyone again, but as they stated, as soon as Tracey applied the charms, it went back to being made of glass.

This was a strange new thing, and immediately Snape, Flitwick, McGonagall, Dumbledore, Bathseda and Vector started discussing the possible magic interactions in a potions, transfiguration, charms, runes and arithmancy fast brainstorming session.

The linking charm to the cauldron was deemed responsible at a first glance, and the interference of the potion itself could have destabilized the magic keeping the original glass vial silver. Vector asked then. "Then, what do you mean when you say that you forced it?"

Every teenager looked embarrassed at that, but Tracey answered for them, being the one who suggested the thing at the time. "Harry continued to apply the transfiguration while I was applying the charms, and while Daphne moved the potion inside the vials."

That simple yet complex solution left everyone stunned. It was never heard of before, mainly because potionmaking was the domain of a single master, and all the new discoveries were made by a single person, not groups of wizards and witches interested into some kind of collaboration.

"I had the time to recreate the potion with the same equipment you used after we found your little laboratory, miss Davis. Could you do a test for us?"

Tracey, expertly -since she did it more than she would care to remember- moved everything to recreate their successful procedure. The ward to disperse the fumes of the potions was extended until it encompassed Harry's bed after Poppy deemed that there would not be consequences deriving from potion exposition, so that he could do everything without moving. His muscles were still sore, now more from the fact that he did not move them for many days than from the injuries and the strain of the Task itself.

Everything went as the young girls and boy said, and the transfiguration held as long as Harry put some power into it. It was easy to imagine that using his newly acquired capacity thanks to the Goblet, he could override every spell basic control, creating that interesting conundrum.

Strangely, the most excited one was the potions professor, which looked at this with a certain unusual light in his eyes.

"A final question, Miss Davis? Why do all this for a Strengthening Solution, albeit a more powerful one? A Stasis Charm would have been more than enough to preserve a normal one for later use."

Tracey was prompt in her answer to her Head of House. "Because the vial with this new potent concentration that I have obtained would violently explode every time if we put the potion in it after the end of the simmering. While, instead, combining the two and drinking the result in less than thirty seconds solved the problem."

That was not what the professor was expecting. Was it possible that the new potion was so strong to create such a reaction? Dumbledore built a containment ward and tried the experiment. As soon as another vial transfigured by the resident cat animagus was filled up a third with the solution, it exploded with an almost deafening bang, while the vial was simply vaporized by the blast.

"Do you all understand the implication of this?"

"What do you mean, Severus?"

"This Strengthening Solution is so concentrated that I think that if I tried to replicate it in a single cauldron it would meet the same fate of the vial! It is so concentrated that if the process could be replicated with other potions we could achieve…"

Madam Pomfrey completed it for him. "…bone-knitting done in half of the time, blood replenishers that would work almost instantly instead of taking hours, skelegrows that could be used on the field instead of in a controlled environment like a Medical Ward…"

"Exactly, the possibilities are virtually endless, as soon as we can understand every step that is behind Miss Davis reasoning."

Tracey, like all the others, was shocked at the reasoning expressed by two of her professors. She never thought that a simple want to help Harry in overcoming his trials would transform into something so great.

Only then she noticed Snape observing her pointedly. "Miss Davis, know that I will offer you this opportunity only for a single time and that I do not make it lightly."

Her nervousness was increasing more and more. What was the issue?

"If you manage to maintain your actual course, with the current marks, while adding some extra materials to work with that I will provide to you in the next three years, I will be proposing you for a Master in Potions qualification after your NEWTs."

Of all things that she could envision, never, in a million years, she imagined being offered the highest certification regarding potions in the world! And sponsored by Severus Snape no less!

She felt faint all of a sudden and had to steady herself on the bed, while Daphne was ecstatic for the opportunity given to her dearest friend, and Harry just looked between his worst fan and his friend with an expression of wonder.

The two girls ran to embrace her, while Luna gave her usual happy smile and Harry gripped one of her hands. "Congratulations Tracey! This is fantastic!"

After a couple of minutes, the excitement died down and the brunette gave her answer to the professor. "Y-yes Professor Snape. I would be honored by doing this."

Severus nodded once. "I will require absolute perfection, Miss Davis. Do not disappoint me like some others." He looked again at Harry.

Daphne was starting to become incensed with this kind of treatment, but a glance from his boyfriend silenced all thoughts on the matter.

"I am more than capable of doing something else better than potions, professor." He was sorry to ruin the atmosphere, but now he felt the need of having some of his questions answered, even if the other professors were waiting to hear about his runic matrix. His expression gave out that.

Dumbledore took the stage again and asked everyone to give him, and Harry, some moments alone. There would be time to explain how his ritual was connected to the venom and the tears in his bloodstream, and more importantly, he noticed the little signs that while the boy wanted to continue, the more pressing matter was eroding his patience.

The Headmaster erected a soundproof barrier around Harry's bed, and the boy crooked an eyebrow at that. Would it mean that the old wizard had finally decided to come clean and explain everything to him?

"Harry."

"Headmaster."

The two stood in front of each other for what seemed a long time, but mere seconds passed in reality. Then the supreme Mugwump started talking.

"After we will have finished this conversation, maybe you will be able to understand my behavior in the past years, and why, after your misadventure with Professor Quirrell, I told you that you were not ready to hear the real motives behind Voldemort's attack on you and your family."

Harry nodded at that. He remembered vividly what happened in front of the Mirror of Erised and the literal flood of questions that his mind created after his first encounter with the Dark Lord.

"I still think you are too young to know the truth, but now, I realize that by omitting the truth itself I allowed worse things to come upon you."

"If I may ask, Headmaster, what caused this… change?" Asked a curious Harry. Until before the first task the behavior of the head of the school -and of the professors- was completely different from what he could see now.

What caused the shift?

"Well… I could say that I recognized, together with the other teachers, that it was the time that something changed in Hogwarts. That it was time to let some things of the past go to look forward."

At Harry's not trusting look he gave a chuckle.

"I could… but that would make me and this institution complete hypocrites."

Harry was surprised by that admission. He always thought that the Headmaster saw himself as perfect, a person who could not do any wrong at all, and whose work was dedicated to the betterment of the community.

His train of thoughts was interrupted by another chuckle by the older wizard. "I can almost see what you are thinking Harry, and trust me, probably most of it will be true."

"To tell you the truth, it was your letter that gave us, as the muggles, use to say, a good kick in the back."

Harry blushed a bit, he remembered very well how incensed he was after seeing Luna's conditions, and the consequent venting in the howler.

"While, probably, the wording could have been better, it was what we needed, Harry." Dumbledore made a little pause. "We found young Miss Lovegood the next day while being comforted by your friends, and together we managed to fill a picture of what was going wrong with this school."

"I am sure that the others will tell you everything in the next hours, or days, but to make it short, we decided that our behavior had been, in many occasions, wrong. And the students suffered from it."

Harry agreed. It would have been good to have some kind of better support in his first three years, instead of just obscure warnings and half-truths told just when the situation required them.

"So, Miss Lovegood was the starting point. And we are planning to do a lot more in the next months and years, to be able to give every single pupil the education they deserve."

The Headmaster coughed a bit, and Harry looked amazed that a single howler could have generated so much change. "Going back to our original discussion, Harry, you have to know that after the everything of the war against Grindelwald, but most importantly, after the First Wizarding War, I found myself disillusioned with all the Magic politics and anything connected to that." Harry watched him with wide eyes. "Yes, for a short time all I wanted to do was to go and retire somewhere, to study and explore the deepest secret of Magic, and maybe discover something myself as my older master did."

At the inquisitive look from the younger wizard, he answered with a simple "The Philosopher's Stone."

Harry nodded again, remembering the story, which he still found a little sad, about the Flamels and their destiny after their precious artifact had been destroyed.

"Unfortunately, and here I want to involve you personally, the worst roles are imposed upon us by something bigger than each one of the witches and wizards of the entire world."

"So… you are saying that I have to blame… Fate, or something, for what happened to me?"

"Maybe, maybe not… but I am sure that you are one of the people who does not fully believe in Fate."

"Well, if what we could see in Professor Trelawney's class was something, then, no, I think that there is something more out there, but not that kind of thing we can see in Divination."

"Exactly! A most insightful answer, Harry! I would award points to your house if what happened at the feast did not come to pass." He paused a bit. "However, it is a good coincidence that you nominated our Professor in that subject, because… she was what started everything." The Headmaster concluded with a deep sigh.

Harry's expression immediately turned dark, but he managed to reign in his temper. After the first haze of rage passed, he started thinking more, and for what could rationalize with the little information he had, it was impossible that Trelawney was a Death Eater on the payroll of Voldemort…

Then, it hit him. And Dumbledore realized that too.

She made a prophecy!

A damn prophecy!

That was what condemned his parents to die, and many other good men and women to meet the same end at the ending of the war. And his life to be shot to hell!

"From what I can see, Harry, you have reached the correct conclusion." Dumbledore seated himself on a chair he conjured. "During her interview to apply for a position here at Hogwarts she suddenly started speaking in an otherworldly tone of voice, typical of seers while they are giving prophecies, and unfortunately, one of Voldemort's men was there to hear the first lines of it."

Now Harry understood in full what Luna had done when he met her for the first time days before. Or was it weeks? He realized only now that he did not know the time or the date. However, his brain immediately classified that information as irrelevant at the moment, so he concentrated again on the prophecy.

"Again, you are correct Harry. Miss Lovegood seems to have similar capacities, even if the team we recruited to understand what she could see was definitely baffled by her behavior."

Harry smiled at the thought. Luna had definitely some quirks, but that did not mean anything in the end. She was special in her own way. He addressed another point, however. "Headmaster, it is uncanny how you can understand what I am thinking without reading my… you are not reading my mind, right?!"

He was immediately suspicious of that. If he learned something about Magic, is that anything could be possible, given time to study and practice it.

"While I admit that there are branches of Magic which would enable the user to get in someone else's mind, no, I am not reading your thoughts."

Harry was startled at the sudden confirmation of his hypothesis and Dumbledore was again reassured that the wizard in front of him had potential.

"Let's… let's go back to the prophecy. What does it say?"

The Headmaster gave out another deep and loud sigh as if he was still debating if to reveal the full truth to him. Then, he spoke.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...

born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...

and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...

and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...

the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

Harry remained speechless while the sentences repeated one after the other in his mind, seemingly without end. This was what created and destroyed everything for him.

After some minutes he came out of his funk and said the first thing that came out from his brain. "But it does not make any sense! It could have been literally anyone in the Wizarding World! Why did he come for me, for my family!? Why!"

Anger and sadness were equally pouring from his being, and an overwhelming sensation started to encompass his body. He remembered, from the Dementor induced nightmares that his mother shouted to Voldemort to kill her in his place!

So, the logical conclusion was that the Dark Lord was specifically after him, and no one else. He suddenly wanted to break something, to let out all the grief that was accumulated in his mind and his heart at the situation and to scream in rage.

The Headmaster put a calming hand on his shoulder, and at the same time hit him with a wandless and wordless soothing charm, seeing after some seconds that both of the gestures had the desired effects.

"Harry, can you hear me?"

"Yes… yes, Headmaster. I do not know what was happening."

The old wizard answered him. "A simple yet very high fluctuation in your magical core. I sent a charm that should be helping your emotions to become stable again, and I am sorry to have done it without asking for permission."

"In this situation, thank you."

Dumbledore understood the underline meaning to that. Thank you but if you try to do something to condition me in a normal state there will be problems on the horizon.

"Please, continue." Harry took a deep breath to help himself calm further. "I assume that there is more."

"Unfortunately, yes."

"As soon as Voldemort knew of the prophecy his, to use a muggle wording, modus operandi changed."

The young wizard was interested. "In what sense… it changed?"

"Let me go back a bit Harry, even if it will delay our conclusions." The Headmaster looked at him again. "It will help you to understand."

The boy on the bed nodded, he had to admit that he was curious about the origin of Lord Voldemort. Not because he wanted to emulate him, obviously, but as the Headmaster said, to understand what made him what he had been.

"Tom Riddle." The strange name resonated in Harry's mind. "This was the original name of Lord Voldemort, Thomas Marvolo Riddle, as you well know."

Harry's head bobbed again, he recalled well the conversation in the Chamber of Secrets almost two years before.

"He is not a pureblood, but instead, he is a half-blood, like you, or me, son of Merope Gaunt, a squib from that disgraced family, and Tom Riddle, who was a muggle, as you again know."

He continued. "What probably you do not know is that Merope coerced and forced Tom to love her with Amortentia. Do you know what that is?"

Harry put his hands forward in a sudden stopping motion. "Wait, wait a minute! Are you seriously telling me that Voldemort's father and mother were together only due to a… love potion?"

"The most potent love potion that any wizard or witch has ever created in time." He almost chuckled at the stunned expression on Harry's face. "May I ask how you know about it? It is not covered until our sixth year."

Here the raven-haired wizard grimaced a bit. "When I went down to the Chamber after the Goblet… did what it did… my mind had become a little paranoid, Headmaster."

At the man nodding he continued, with difficulty, since he still had some problem in explaining himself and his feelings to the others. Dumbledore, at the same time, swore on his magic that he would not disappoint the young man anymore, since, due to his misgivings, he had suffered so much.

"The first thing I thought was how to procure myself at least a meal a day. Dobby would have been too evident, especially since the other elves like to talk a lot, and since he works for you. So, when Daphne -he sighed thinking of her, moving his gaze to her persona for an instant- started to bring me food… well, it was not that I did not trust her, or Tracey, or Astoria for that matter, but I had to be completely sure that they were not laced with anything."

Dumbledore seemed to wilt on the inside, showing its mood only with the disappearance of the blinking in his eyes. No one in his school, in any school, should ever have to confront himself with those problems.

"So, after the first meal I had down thee the first book I decided to take out of the library -he admitted with an embarrassed expression- was one on how to detect poisons and potions inside anything. And Amortentia was right there in the first chapter, and I have to say that it appalled me to know that it was not a restricted potion."

The Headmaster nodded sagely at that. "Yes Harry, banning or not that specific potion has been a thorn in my, and many other, sides for a long time. Unfortunately, as you rightly said on that day, common sense is not fully rooted in the minds of wizardkind."

"However, going back to Tom Riddle, when his mother told his father that she had laced him with the potion, he abandoned her, while she was still pregnant, and almost near giving birth, on the spot, without looking back."

Harry did not know how to feel about it. On one side, it was what she rightly deserved for enslaving a man against his will, and technically raping him, but from the other, the memories of his mother trying her best to protect him in front of certain death made him think about what would have happened if she was not left alone in those days.

Dumbledore continued. "Unfortunately, Merope Gaunt died for complications after the birth of Tom, and the little boy, without having any living relative that was in agreement to adopt and look after him, went to, I have to admit, one of the worst orphanages that were around in Britain at that time."

Harry was again speechless by the revelation. He could imagine how it would have been to live and grow up in a bad orphanage. Unloved, with uncaring people, that maybe bullied him, roughed him up every day, without… friends, without… anything, or… anyone…

He was not obviously justifying his actions, absolutely not. What he did afterward, when he was an adult, was nothing short of a monstrosity. At the same time, however, slowly, but decisively, Harry came to a shocking and revolting conclusion.

He could have been like him!

Like Voldemort!

His eyes immediately shot up to the Headmaster, which now had a look full of regret on his face.

"Do you understand what you could have caused by leaving me at the Dursley's?"

He shivered at what he was about to say. "I could have been like him! That is why he told me that we were similar, in the Chamber! Oh Merlin… I could have been a deranged man like Voldemort himself, bent on revenge without any care… Oh Merlin…"

Dumbledore twinkle returned full force, and Harry felt the pressure of the calming charm decrease his frantic emotions to a more normal level, for the second time. He was really near the breaking point, and he did not know how much his mind could take, but he needed to know the truth!

Seeing that, again, the storm had passed, Dumbledore chuckled deprecatingly, like all the faults he committed in his long life were suddenly multiplied by a hundred. "You would never have been like him, Harry." He said with absolute conviction. "I know the depth of your morals, and you would never, ever, transform yourself into the monster that Lord Voldemort became."

"You can not know that."

"I can, Harry. And there is a simple reason for it."

Harry made a gesture for him to move on, not fully convinced. "I will not ask you to trust me, Harry, because our current relationship will not permit it, but I can surely ask you to trust the young Miss Greengrass."

"…Daphne?"

"Do you really think that if you had the potential to be that person filled with so much evil since the beginning, someone like her would have been interested in you?"

Harry thought about that, it made sense from a certain point of view. Daphne and Astoria were purebloods, but friends with Tracey, who was a half-blood, and interested in him, Harry, not the Boy-Who-Lived or other stupid names that the press liked to call him.

And she demonstrated more than one time that she was above the general idiocy of the Wizarding World, since their first meeting in the second year.

He looked at her again, while she was discussing something with her friend, and Astoria was pestering her for attention. Just that simple moment managed to bring a smile to his lips.

Dumbledore was elated at the calm expression that Harry was now displaying. Especially since not even two minutes ago he seemed ready to blow up something. Miss Greengrass was a true boon for him.

Coughing a bit, to get his attention back from the young lady -he had been young too, many years ago- the Headmaster continued. "For the rest, I see that you reached that conclusion by yourself. Yes Harry, after the very unfortunate passing of your parents I thought that placing you in the muggle world, and with your mother's sister, was the best choice for you."

He grimaced, full of guilt. "Obviously, I was wrong."

Harry wanted to snort at the old wizard in front of him, chastise him, deride him for his short-sightedness, but it would have had no good result at all. Doing it would not give him back any of the years spent in the cupboard, as a slave to his ungrateful remaining family. He could vent by himself by blasting some rocks or whatever else crossed his mind to release some steam.

"But I digress, before the awful events of that cursed night happened, you have to know that the charisma of the Dark Lord was incredibly well attuned to the pureblood faction of our society, and I think that you have already seen that."

"Unfortunately, he was so good at convincing and manipulating people that even students which finished Hogwarts with him started to follow his example. And some of the others who started in your parents' generation were approached gently, inducted, controlled and given powerful positions inside his organization, each one of them drinking from his speeches about the preservation of the Magical World and vain promises of authority."

Harry had to recognize it, his enemy was truly a formidable one in the public relationships department. Compared to him, he was the exact opposite, hating the spotlight and wanting no more than living his life fully and without any pressure.

"Unfortunately, as I said in the beginning, one of these students managed to hear part of the prophecy that night, just the first two verses." Here his shoulders sagged. "But, unfortunately, enough to send the Dark Lord in a frenzy that had no definite pattern."

"As you can imagine, he started to search frantically for who could have been The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord, born as the seventh month approached, and started killing indiscriminately everyone who blocked his path, while before he was persecuting only the ones who opposed his vision."

"Since he was a little boy, and a student, he was always afraid of death, of being a nobody and disappearing without leaving some kind of trace in Wizarding history. So, in his eyes, everyone became immediately a potential target."

Harry did not know what to think. It was all fault of the Dark Lord for being a crazy bastard and this student who decided that having a child killed could get him a good reward in the circle of a maniac Dark Lord.

The only thing that came out from his mouth was "Who?"

Remorse was coming in waves from the centenarian wizard in front of him. "I can not say his name here Harry, but, you know him well."

Daphne was watching her boyfriend with apprehension while conversing with Tracey and at the same time while being annoyed by Astoria. However, her behavior was helping in her own special way in distracting her mind from the darker thoughts that her brooding mood would have created. Luna was being Luna, and no one exactly knew what was going on in her brain at any given moment. Did not diminish her company at all, though.

She realized, together with the others, that whatever words were being exchanged inside the silencing barrier, they must have been something life-changing for Harry. Probably, she thought with a mental snort, other and more difficult tasks for him to do in his future.

However, he was not alone anymore! She would accompany him to the ends of the world if that meant solving forever his problems with Voldemort. It was almost surprising that, after a long year of admiration and infatuation towards him, their relationship came along so smoothly after he relaxed around her. Her poor Harry was always overly tense when they decided to be alone together to have a simple chat, or even better, to have some girlfriend/boyfriend time.

The first time it happened he was walking on eggshells around her, always afraid that something he would say would enrage or annoy her, or worse, that she would go away and leave him alone again.

Luckily, he was a boy with a good head on his shoulder, a strange thing to say due to the behavior of many of the others, who after seeing the developments in hers and other girls' bodies started acting stupid in order to try to attract their attention.

So, after a good snogging session, and a good talking session, she managed to make him understand that no one was perfect, and errors were always around the corners in relationships. She asked what he would do if he did something that she did not like.

His answer was simple. "Everything to try and make it up to you."

She smiled because her answer was the exact same. Only then he understood that she wanted an equal partner, not a slave, not an overlord, just a partner to live together at her side, maybe happily ever after, if the Fates agreed with that view.

From that day on, something in Harry changed, for the better. He was straighter in his posture, a bit more convincing when expressing his ideas, and a good conversationalist on various topics. It was almost magical how he, with her help, managed to change himself in just a small number of weeks.

His ex-friends had instead only reinforced his insecurities, playing with his emotions and guilting him using his gentle behavior of wanting the people around him to accept him. So, instead of pushing him to do better, they pushed him deeper into the hole. Naturally, his conditioning thanks to his horrid family did not help at all.

She reached that conclusion when he, during one of their private moments in the Chamber, said, emotionally. "Thank you, Daphne. You do not know how much you helped me in these last years. I can not imagine how far I could have gone without your hidden support."

When she asked him to explain it he said that when Weasley started being afraid of him about the Parseltongue episode, and when Granger said that -it is dark magic because it is written in some book, so it is better that you do not do that anymore Harry-, and more, with the broom episode the following year, and now this Tournament… his mind was starting to go into gloomier and gloomier places, and it was only thanks to her, and Tracey by extension, that he managed to remain afloat.

All these sacrifices, just because he did not want to lose another friend any longer.

That broke the young witch's heart in millions of pieces, and she engulfed him in the strongest, biggest and most significant hug that she had ever given him. They were both crying at the time, to release their emotions and both felt a little bit closer, having declared what they meant for each other, Daphne having done it first with her -Tracey's- confession.

She was, however, brought out from her reminiscing of the past month and a half when she saw his boyfriend looking murderously at Snape and then starting hyperventilating, his pupils dilated. She could feel the accumulated Magic in his body pressed, pushed, tried to find an outlet, anything to get free!

Daphne noticed the two previous episodes, but this one seemed off-scale. In fact, after a few seconds ozone could be smelled in the little medical room, a distinct scent which became more and more pronounced, until a blinding magical discharge inundated the place in white, accompanied by a very loud sound of thunder which destroyed half of the windows in the room.

Luckily the explosion happened towards the exterior, so no glass splinters and pieces came out upon them.

At the same time of the thunder, an even louder piercing scream of pain echoed among the walls. It was a desperate, devastating sound, and Daphne had wanted to rush to his side almost immediately after the event, but McGonagall managed to restrain her, aided by Tracey, since it could have been dangerous for her.

"I know that it is difficult Miss Greengrass but let the Headmaster do his work. Whatever is happening, you know Harry will never forgive himself if he hurt you with something like that." He was stupidly, adorably noble like that, and that convinced her. But she could not wait for the discussion with Dumbledore to finish since she just knew that he had the need of having her next to him.

Just like her need was to have him next to her.

Everyone in the room managed to regain their view in half a minute or so, blinking out the white spots in their eyes, and Madame Pomfrey immediately rushed towards Harry's bed to check his and the Headmaster conditions. Daphne, once she managed to dislodge herself from the grip of the others, ran towards the bed, with her and Harry's other friends were hot on her heels, followed by some of the other professors.

It seemed that the wall behind him brunt the worst part of the energy release, now showing a blackened vaguely star-shaped figure, and Dumbledore was already working on him, trying to stabilize his magical core emissions to a normal level.

Almost incredibly, Harry remained in a semi-conscious state through the whole ordeal, and Daphne was relieved to see that he was mostly unharmed, if not for his hair becoming even wilder and untamable.

After a moment, however, everyone noticed the change on his forehead.

Horrid looking black goo was pouring from his scar, which now was as red as a hot iron in a goblin furnace and looked very painful. His expression was frozen in a silent scream, his eyes wildly searching for something that probably only he could see, and his hands almost tearing apart the fabric of the sheets which were on his bed.

Seeing that Dumbledore whitened impossibly, his face becoming the same shade of his white beard, and Daphne could hear him muttering. "It is not possible… not possible…"

Careless of any kind of warning that the situation itself could suggest, her hands shot to his left one, managing to pry it from the bedding.

"Harry! Harry! Are you alright, Harry?!"

"No! Miss Greengrass, you must not…" Dumbledore's warning got lost in the loud voices that followed.

"What happened?"

"Why is he doing that?"

"Dumbledore?!"

But the Headmaster knew what the problem was, even if he had his suspicions but he did not want to admit it for fear of not being able to solve that kind of problem.

Harry Potter was an Horcrux!

And now, it seemed that the magical discharge, paired with his extremely unstable state of mind, was managing to chase Voldemort's soul out of his scar!

For the first time in his long life, he did not know what to do, and how to save the remarkable wizard in front of him.

But, this time, Fate intervened in their help, in the form of the young blonde-haired girl which held Harry Potter's heart within her hands. The simple fact that she was so brave to come to his side even in this dark situation pushed him to do more.

Fingering his Elder Wand again, he sent as much magic as he could towards the core of the boy, trying to even the energy output and not make him go into shock. He could feel that Hogwarts too was helping him to stabilize Harry's core! In the meanwhile, he shouted to Harry, trying to overcome the haziness that the Horcrux created in his mind to try and resist the expulsion, seeing it as an occasion to take control of the body.

"Harry! You have already defeated him many times! You can do it again!"

"…"

"Harry!" Now, this was Daphne, trying frantically in her mind to find a way to help him. "Please! Do not lose yourself!"

The other professors were slowly descending into something alike of a controlled panic episode. No one, except Snape and Dumbledore, knew what that black slime was, but it was causing Mr. Potter extreme pain, and it seemed that he was losing a fight within himself.

Tracey embraced Astoria tightly, both with tears coming out from their already reddened eyes. It hurt seeing someone you care in that state of pain and not being able to do anything to help him. She could not imagine how Daphne was feeling about that.

It seemed that Harry was starting to relax more and more, but that was not a good sign if paired with the fact that the black and foul tar substance was slowly going back into the scar while another bit was inching towards the place where Daphne's hands were touching Harry!

The Headmaster went again on total alert, seeing that probably Voldemort's soul was going to try and possess another vessel, and shouted to the girl. "Miss Greengrass! You must not touch Harry now! It is extremely dangerous!"

But Daphne was not listening, even if she noticed the goo advancing towards her. She did not know what that obscene thing was, but getting all the courage that she could muster, she kept on trying to reassure her boyfriend, both physically and emotionally. Consequences be damned!

Dumbledore was starting to lose hope, and he did not want to use the extreme solution of killing the only son of Lily and James to aid the war against Voldemort, before the possession of him, or Miss Greengrass, took place. He would not use it unless it was the very last thing to do!

No one of them was managing to overcome, with their words, the Horcrux whispers that the sliver of Voldemort in the scar was injecting into Harry's mind.

All of a sudden, Luna got up from the floor, her eyes suddenly focused and shining an eerie silvery light and approached her fighting best friend, her brother in all but blood!

She climbed on his bed and grasped his still twisted face with both hands. She exchanged a glance with her other friend, Daphne, and nodded to her with a smile.

She spoke with an almost ethereal voice. "Do you want to leave everyone to him?"

"Do you want to lose everyone to him?"

That had an effect. Harry jerked and fixed his eyes with hers.

"Then fight him!"

Harry jerked again, managing to close his mouth, but still gritting his teeth from the pain. Slowly, he lifted his other hand to his chest, and with a jolt, he activated his runic matrix.

The wonder of seeing such a fine masterpiece of magical art again almost made everyone forget the actual situation, but the attention of everyone was brought back instantly to the matter at hand, since the color of the matrix went from a gentle blue to a deep red in an instant, after Harry pushed against the outermost layer.

Suddenly, he spoke, with a strong tone, which did not leave any spot for misunderstandings. He, finally, was back in control of his body and mind.

"I know what you are. I know how afraid you are. I know how vile you are!"

The matrix seemed to condense into his hand, becoming smaller and smaller, before instantly dividing and encompassing every one of his fingers. That brought another episode of awe among the professors, it was runic manipulation taken to its extremes!

"I know that now I am poison to you!"

"And, you will not touch Daphne!"

He brought his hand to his scar, grabbing the tar and then he pulled hard!

A primal scream of pain erupted again from his throat, but he did not let go, willingly shifting all the settings in the matrix beyond the boundaries of safety. What now was in his hands was not his blood mixed with basilisk venom, it was only the venom!

He could feel it seeping into his skin, and he knew that in a minute or so he would have been dead. He had to be fast, hoping that he would manage do destroy Voldemort in that span of time.

For this instance, he could feel that finally something was going right, when, after just ten or twelve seconds the presence in the scar disappeared completely, with an enraged shriek which reverberated in the little room and a black shadow fleeing through one of the broken windows, sending deep shivers of fright down everyone's bodies.

His hand immediately shot into the matrix putting it into full reverse and hoping that the Phoenix's Tears would again save him from doom.

Before blacking out, he managed to send what he hoped was a smile towards the tear-stained visage of Daphne.

His last thought was that he would have to do something big to make her forgive him for the scare that he gave her seconds before.

Then, darkness claimed him.

END OF CHAPTER FOUR

Chapter Released on 24/09/18

This concludes the fourth chapter of this fanfiction, a good 10k words excluding the two AN at the beginning and the end of it.

As stated, the story will cover all the Goblet of Fire book (and movie), mixing elements from both. I hope that I'll manage to get the next parts as long as this one and that I will be able to maintain a good update schedule. I'm sure that many of you may have questions on what really happened with Harry's runic matrix and so on, but rest assured, the next chapters will slowly unravel the mystery.

A request for all you readers! On my profile (where you also will always able to find the status and the amount of work done for each fanfiction chapter) there is a poll regarding your preferred chapter length! Go and vote so I can best adapt my future stories to what you reader desire as an update! Naturally, bear in mind that longer chapters will require more time and vice versa.

I hope that you liked it! Don't forget to leave a Review!

See ya at the next one! Ciao!