One Galleon, swapped at Gringotts for pounds sterling.

Well, I expect the Finnegans and O'Brien's are Catholics, and there was no divorce in Ireland before 1995, so he never actually married the Other Woman. But he was severely, devastatingly spooked by his encounter with wizards. He learned about Death Eaters before he learned about the "good" wizards. I wonder how any of us would react if that kind of thing were possible in real life?

The A/N refers to various other stories that I have written.If you're interested in HP and Christianity, keep reading: the chapter called "Redemption" deals with most of the questions.

Well, I was engrossed, so I'm glad you were too.

Thank you!

Thanks for caring about Miles. Some families just don't deserve children, do they? Surrey is quite a distance from Cambridge, so someone as stupid as Marcus wouldn't know where to start looking for his missing sibling. Frankly, I think Marcus went on to relish the advantages of being an only child. Thanks for reviewing, GhV

Thank you! I'm so glad to hear the pleasure was not all mine.

Thanks for taking the tine to write in and review,

. I have written two more chapters, but I couldn't find beta-readers, so they are on hold for the time being. Best wishes, GhV

Dear

,Thank you for enjoying my stories and for writing in to tell me so! I wanted Miles to survive because his family were placing their trust in magical power and money, but when those things are gone, surely there are other things worth more? I don't think Marcus ever amounted to much, even if he was still alive by the end of the war, but Miles could have been a happy Muggle.I strongly recommend you read this essay on wizarding genetics http://www.sugarquill.net/index.php?action=gringotts&st=genetics. A few of us at the Sugar Quill collaborated over it, but Shinelikestars did most of the work and pulled it all together out of her professional knowledge. Briefly, the theory is that magic is originally a recessive gene, but when a person is a wizard, this releases enzymes that alter the structure of the original gene and make it dominant. SLS had other theories that explain why half-bloods never pass on their non-magical zygotes and why the magical gene needs to be actually damaged before there can be a Squib.Your interest has brightened my day. Regards, GhV

If I'm not mistaken, isn't Marcus Flint the one who -- as a result of an apparent oversight or episode of forgetfulness on JKR's part -- apparently remained at Hogwarts longer than he should have?  If he was "held back" one year as students here in the United States sometimes are when they don't do well academically, then Marcus indeed might not amount to much!

Yes, this is the origin of the fandom term "Flint" for mistake. A reader asked how Marcus Flint could be in Y6 in 1991 yet still at Hogwarts in 1993, and JKR ad-libbed that he had to do a year again. Later her editor changed the text of PS to make Marcus only Y5, but I think JKR regretted this change. The readers don't like Marcus Flint and are very happy to have him too stupid to pass his exams. In a subsequent interview, JKR admitted, "I'd rather believe that he made a mistake than that I did." In my story, Marcus (= "belonging to Mars," the god of war) has the magical power, but it's Miles (= "mild") who has the brains.

There was no nice way to tell this story, was there? But in the end, Miles is the only Flint who can truly survive. Take away money, blood status and magical power, and the others are revealed as pretty pathetic. Thanks for your long and faithful reviewing!

Thank you! The distaste can definitely go both ways, can't it?

Thank you! Magic can't do much to alleviate poverty, but it has to be able to do something, doesn't it?

She dies of tuberculosis in the Snatchers' prison. It seems that nothing could undo the fragility of her early years. I'm sad too - by the time I'd finished this, I almost wanted to change the ending of Hearthlinks!

Dear

, Actually Louise manifested earlier than she realised. She was the one who lit the fire that took hold of the whole house (although the reader couldn't know that), and Sophie wasn't able to deal with the bailiffs until Louise came to join forces (which you might have noticed if you knew what to look for). But Sophie probably made a good head of family, and Louise had indeed developed a pattern of relying on her big sister to do everything. Thanks for writing in, GhV

Dear

, Yes, I feel I've now done to death the theme of "the day we all found out..." Whatever the Boots might have felt at first, they are now used to Terry being a wizard, and this story is about the issues of living with it. As you point out, for the parents it's not so different from having to live with his being a Christian. Fortunately Britain doesn't have too many crackpot pastors like Ewald, but it only takes a small amount of crooked thinking to rock the boat. Thanks for reviewing, GhV

Thank you! More different characters are coming up.

Thank you! But I'm not so sure you couldn't write - you just need an idea that's fighting its way out of your mind. I'm sure there are enough ideas (and more) to go around all of us writers, so I hope to see something by you soon.

Utility or futility? Let's hope Linda has a better side, even if Derek can't think about it today. Thanks for writing in, GhV

Fortunately she won't have to explain too often, as most Muggles won't think to ask!To be honest, I named her in a hurry; I just wanted a Latin name to complement "Terry". But Lucy (= light, as you doubtless know) works rather well in this case.

Selfishness never helps, does it? It wasn't until I reached the end of the writing that I realised this couple were probably going to stay together regardless. Thanks for reviewing.

What a shame that the book Lucy mentions will never exist in her world...

Tenoh, you can thank Rory for the local colour. Niall didn't necessarily make the "right" decision, but was it really any worse than Maeve's decision to drop out of the resistance? The moral of this story is that Lord Voldemort destroys lives.

You are certainly right about Niall`s decision (and Maeve`s), but while cowardly, I won`t say that I blame him for it, as he thought he made the best decision there was to make for himself and those he loved.After all, not every is like Hermione (or Luna, Neville and others) and her unwavering loyalty, devotion and courage. (And I suppose Seamus was sorted into Gryffindor for a reason). ;)LV certainly destroyed many lives, but which megalomaniac doesn`t?This series of stories has really been very illuminating, thanks again.

Yes, just normal! The real problems here have nothing to do with magic. I'm glad I made you feel good, because I was out of sympathy wtih Linda by the end of the wrting. Now you mention it, however, she probably does have a better side that he's simply not talking about today.

Dear

,I'm actually not sure of the canon background to Seamus's parents. We never see his father but there's no scene where we could see him (Muggles cannot enter Hogwarts or go to the Quidditch World Cup). However, he doesn't seem to have much authority over the household; Seamus only ever talks about his mother; so I tentatively conclude that the father isn't there.I thought the "nasty shock" had to be something more than "I don't like magic," and once I realised that the O'Briens were related to the Goyles, it was obvious how Mrs Finnigan developed her attitudes. Of course Niall was deceiving himself. It would have been so much better if he'd stayed. What makes the canon material a story is that Seamus was braver than both his parents. I like to think he was reconciled to his father one day.Interesting observation about electricity. My parents in central England didn't have a telephone until 1973, and this was unusual. I don't like TV and I didn't have one in my married home until 2006, which was a great talking-point among our acquaintances. Rory, who found many mistakes in my original draft, didn't question this part; I don't know if it makes a difference that Patrick & Brigit Moon live in Dublin and are a cut above the Finnigans & O'Briens socially. I assumed their Muggle equivalents would have telephone & TV, even though I picture Tulsk as a near-medieval village. I think the moral here is that these cultural details need to be checked from someone who knows the culture from the inside - in terms of time, place and social class - and outsiders are unlikely to guess correctly.Thanks for writing in and for liking my stories, GhV

Update: Here is what Rory says about electricity in Ireland.On the subject of electricity: in 1955 we visited Inisboffin (island off west coast); no electricity. I can remember staying in a farmhouse in just outside Arklow as a child about 1958; no electricity in farmhouse, acetylene gas plant fuelled by carbide, but they had telephone. Next year we revisited and electricity had come. Arklow is a major town about 40 miles south of Dublin; it had electricity before 1958, but its hinterland didn't until 1959. By the time I went to university in 1963 almost all areas apart from the remotest seemed to have had electricity and entire rural electrification scheme was closed in 1979 as complete. Every town would have had a phone kiosk, or a payphone in the post office or local pub from the early 60s onward at latest.So I suppose I Cork man would be surprised to see a Dublin household without electricity in 1979, but perhaps only mildly surprised.

Thanks for going into so much detail about your thinking and for going back to Rory for his views.  I am talking from a secondhand point of view, of course, and from a mix of ROI & NI, so I don't claim great authenticity.  I have spoken to both my parents about them getting electricity and later TV, and my understanding is that was in the mid-1970s, though schoolfriends from the town did have both earlier.  My uncle who grew up the city doesn't remember not having electricity, and his family wasn't particularly well off.  My parents didn't have a telephone at home until they got married in the early 1980s, though they both had access to a local phone box. On the other hand, I remember a neighbour of my grandmother's who got electricity put in by the council in the late 90s because they had never chosen to put it in themselves.  I was also under the impression that though the government provided electricity lines, it was up to the homeowner to get it installed.  So all this led me to think that it wouldn't have been particularly shocking in a rural community to be without these modern conveniences at that time, and therefore that Niall was less oblivious than he may otherwise have been considered.  (Phew, sorry for the long response!)The TV thing popped into mind because one of my best friends spent her teenage years sans TV and it was a much-discussed topic, of the ''I can't believe your parents make you live in the dark ages'' variety.  Teenagers lol!

I go back to Rory? Oh, no! It was Rory who read your review and was so excited that someone appreciated his work enough to engage in a conversation about Harry Potter and Ireland both at the same time that he dashed off an answer to me before I'd even read your review myself! That's what I mean about the importance of conferring with a native. There's just no way that someone like me could be accurate to time, place and social class about a detail like that. But, yes, I take your point that Niall might have simply concluded that Patrick Moon wasn't quite as wealthy as the size/location of his house suggested and then not thought about it any further.

There's always a reason, isn't there? Seamus's family has suffered, but that's why he makes the right choice in the end. Thanks for reviewing.