Chapter 28: Mea Culpa

This story represents a massive failure on the part of the author. I spent over two years on this, off and on, and this is the best I could do.

But if I could have done what I wanted you would have read a story where it was more obvious that Harry's life became bound by the rules of God – his commitment that gave him authority also bound him to far stricter rules of behavior than anyone else had to follow.

Originally, Harry was to fail to follow the rules he was given, and suffered the consequences until he repented of his failures and followed his original commitment. I found that I didn't have the talent (or skill) to write that. Instead, you got a story of the triumph of authority over power. Harry is parlaying God's authority that he can borrow into a power of its own.

There are also some issues that readers have not understood, and I have to take responsibility for that. Sorry folks: the goblin interaction seems to be badly explained.

The idea I was trying to get across was that the spell itself was given to the goblins so they could develop countermeasures. However, they didn't have a license to actually use the Door. That's the price that Hermione is negotiating, and why they would want that to be as low as possible. The price needs to be low enough that they could pay it - but high enough that they don't want to use it to, say, preemptively attack the Ministry and wipe out the Aurors in their beds.

I conceived of this like MAD; if the goblins use the Door spell, then they have to pay this enormous penalty. If they don't, then the contract is broken, and Harry & Co. are practically obligated to rob as many vaults as they can. If the robberies happen before any breach of trust by the goblins, then the Goblins can use the spell with no penalties.

And all this was supposed to be implied by the story, but I can see that it wasn't.

Another question was about the "Eugenics War" that Harry started. Ostensibly it was Harry attempting to prevent such a War that was his excuse to bringing up the possibility with the Slytherins. It was a flimsy excuse, and Harry thought better of it in time. The castration as well as the "stolen magic" ideas were smoke screens - ways to divert Dumbledore's attention until Harry was ready to cancel his influence. Magic *is* primarily stolen, and Harry used that fact to destroy the foundation of the Wizarding society - the formation of magical families that collect and conserve resources for the next generation. Without that, magical individuals will all be on the same playing field, and the prejudice should be isolated instead of systemic.

Magic is a gift that is given - sometimes on purpose, sometimes by random chance - to individuals. Since that gift is distributed across all populations, the only way for the majority of magicals to be in Wizarding families is for them to transfer that gift from someone else - most likely a Muggleborn. And the majority of "purebloods" are not born with the gift of magic. There may be some who are, and then they get an additional gift through the Naming Ceremony (lame name, but I couldn't come up with anything better); Harry and Albus and Tom probably have a double gift. So Draco was born a squib, and only has magic because it was taken from a muggleborn. And Harry? Yes, he had a natural gift as well as a stolen one … and I decided that it came from his cousin Dudley, for irony's sake.

About the ending? I have no idea what Harry will do now. He's a little despondent, thinking about how few witches would be willing to live a life under the restrictions he has to deal with, and it depends on how quietly Dumbledore leaves public life (I'm betting not quietly at all), and Hermione is really the only female he knows that might accept him as he currently is, but he's been at odds with her for most of the year (Even though she's been thinking about romance with him since before Christmas) ... life *is* open ended, and Harry explicitly says that God's plan is to do whatever you want. What does Harry want?

I just don't know. It took me two years to break writing block after writing block so I could finish this, so I doubt that I'll ever revisit this world. I'm more relieved to have this finished and done than anything else.

If there are any other sections that I get questioned over, I'll add the clarification here.

And for fun:

OMAKE

The angels gathered around Harry as he stopped in front of the Death Eaters. He announced to them, "One of the most enduring pieces of knowledge we have about angels is of their songs. So … what do you think that angels will sing to you?" Harry's announcement was vaguely threatening, and the Death Eaters knew it.

Around him, the gathered angels began to hum. Pulsing. Driving. Insistent. Harry could feel … something … gathering. The bass and baritone voices brought up rhythm that made Harry twitch slightly to follow it.

And off to his left, a tenor voice sang out, "Dashing and daring, courageous and caring …" before the owner received a right hook across his jaw.

"Damn it," said the shortest angel that had accompanied Harry. "Disney channel." The voice was full of loathing. "I keep telling him," the angel's voice lowered, "he doesn't get to be that kind of angel."

-o-

*SIGH* From my PMs, this was interpreted partly as a plea for ego boosts. Not so - I'm pointing out that I'm very much an amateur, and that I can't provide the story that I wanted, so you got this instead ... and that it's not explained all that well at the edges. Please don't try to give me a virtual hug or anything - just cut me some slack on the quality, eh?