Thanks very much! There will be another one up in a few days.

Blurting might be good . . . but sometimes not thinking doesn't work so well, either. We shall see!

And yes, given the dearth of baby dragons, a puppy is a very good thing!

Thanks for reviewing! 

They can bring out the best in each other . . . or the very worst. *sigh*

I'm glad you like Malcolm. He does have a bit more "cool" than Quin does, and while they may both be non-conformists and very sweet in their own ways, Quin is much more steady and less exciting and unpredictable than Malcolm.

I have been able to write in the evenings a lot, so hopefully the next update will not be long in coming. But it depends whether my energy level stays high enough to keep it up. Some nights, I just wanna veg!

Thank you for reviewing! 

Many thanks! :)

Thank you!

Yes, well, we are closing in on the final crisis, after which things will look up, to put it mildly! Thanks for reviewing!

Thanks very much! Glad you enjoyed the chapter. And you aren't alone -- many people were under that impression. But I don't think that the title for the chapter in which they finally figure out their biggest misunderstanding will be anything like "Seduction." *grin*

Thank you for the review as always! 

Yes, Valerianna is pretty dreadful! Vile Val!

I didn't think you meant co-dependent, just that they have been focussed on each other, and they need to be reaching beyond that, in a way.  

Thank you very much! *blush* I really appreciate the sentiment! And I'm glad that you found the Albus-Gertrude interaction believable!

And as direct as Gertrude may be, she is still a Slytherin, and she also knows how "balky" her Gryffindor friends can be at times, and pushing too hard might be a mistake. Maybe not, but she wants them to find each other with just a few nudges here and there. And she wasn't sure of Minerva's feelings toward Albus until the party, really. And you may be correct about the emotional dependence. 

As always, thank you for the review! I' glad you enjoyed the chapter. The next one will be up toward the end of the week, if RL cooperates! Definitely by the weekend, though, I think! 

Sounds like you are a bit surprised. Taken aback. Startled. Shocked, even! LOL!

I'm glad the chapter was entertaining! And yes, Valerianna was pretty terrible.

Minerva wasn't trying to give Gertie the third degree, she just couldn't help herself. And she was concerned about her. And about her brother. She was unsure who to be more concerned about!

Thanks very much for the review! I enjoyed it, especially the multiple exclamation points! LOL! (It's nice to know the story isn't stale and dull and still has a few surprises for folks!) 

The next chapter will likely be up on Wednesday or Thursday, but it really depends on how cooperative RL is! 

Thanks very much! Glad you enjoyed it!

I have parts of future chapters written, and I have a very detailed outline that I work from and add to as I think of things that I don't want to forget to put in. There were some chapters that were written way in advance of their being posted, or at least, drafts of them were written. The three "Albus chapters" are the best example of that. I wrote the essence of those chapters back in March or April, knowing that I wouldn't get to the point in the story to reveal them for a long time. When it came time to "write" the chapters, then, I took what I'd already written, was one big single thing, reorganized it, put it in a first-person narrative, and polished it up.

I tend to write large chunks of the story at once and then go days without writing much, if anything. I prefer to be at least a couple chapters ahead of where I post -- best to have four or five chapters written, actually -- so that when I have periods when I can't write, I still have chapters to post. I try not to get to the point where I'm posting the last chapter I have written, although that has happened a couple of times, and one time, people had heart attacks when it took me two weeks (!) to update. I had people PMing me and asking if I'd abandoned the story!

I don't think I could sustain such a long, complicated story without a detailed outline. I also have character sketches for a number of the main characters. Malcolm's character has had a sketch for months and months even though he didn't appear until recently. Of course, some of the other characters did talk about him.

Glad you're enjoying the backstory!

She had seen Albus's growing affection for Minerva and was getting the sense that his feelings toward her were changing, then when he came back from her Challenge, she was pretty sure that he was falling in love with her, though he wasn't completely aware of it yet, and she wasn't completely certain that it was going to last, but she thought that they would make a good couple and were well-suited, and that in any case, his heart was not as entirely devoted to his courtship of her as he believed it was. So it was difficult for Gertie, but she did what she thought was right for Albus.

And Albus is brilliant in many areas, but not when it comes to women, unfortunately! Part of it comes from his not having had a real romantic relationship for so many years, but it's complex. 

Thank you for your review!

Thanks much! And you were right!

Minerva wasn't too pleased, either! LOL. Glad you're cheering Gertie on, though! Thanks for reviewing!

Thanks very much! I'm very glad you liked the last bit with Malcolm and Gertrude. It was a section I was fond of and hoped would work well, so it's gratifying to hear that you loved it.

I am still planning on writing the AAoL sequel -- it's actually aout half-written. Oddly enough, I think I want to finish writing the sequel before I write the epilogue for AAoL, which is why that's been a long time coming. I do need to write all of this sequel before I begin posting it, however, because I want to be able to go back and reintegrate things as I need to. I haven't worked on it in a while, however, being somewhat caught up in RL and spending most of my writing time on RaM.

My Thanksgiving was very nice, thanks! I really needed it. It was cut short somewhat because of a meeting I had to be back in town for, but that was okay.

I had people who, when reading DH, said they were confused because they kept thinking of RaM events that weren't there! So I think you have company! They would have been even more confused if I'd already posted the three "Albus" chapters where he tells of the lessons of his youth. Haha!

Thank you very much for the thoughtful -- and kind -- review! I really appreciate it! 

"loved the chap and am demanding the next one (nicely, of course!)"

I don't mind the nicely delivered demands for the next chapter, especially after an appreciative review! LOL! But that doesn't necessarily mean that the Muse and RL will cooperate as well as I'd like. But I'll try to get them to play nice so I can get the next chapter out in the next day or two. I never like to post a chapter unless I have at least two written, sometimes more, depending on the point I'm at in the story. And RL is being rather pesky, unfortunately!

Glad you like the "wall sex"! You'll be happy with one of the upcoming chapters, then -- it's a few chapters away, so don't hold your breath for it, though! (I do write part of things in advance. Much of the three "Albus-chapters" were already written last spring, and just sat and waited patiently for me to get to them and finish them up -- and change them into first-person narrative, which was a bit of a pain . . .)

And yes, in the next chapter, we will learn where Albus went and what he did and what a nice time he is not having. Er, what a nice time he is trying to have? Something like that.

Glad you liked Gertie and Malcolm together.  

Thank you for your review! I look forward to your reaction to the next chapter!

no need to explain your posting speed! please ignore my demands.......it's just my way of tell ing you that i can't wait for more.honestly i can't believe how fast you are - it takes me forever to update my fics, especially lately. real life is way too demanding!!i should post some of them here actually....if i ever get around to itxxcocoa

I thought the chapter title was slightly tricky, but certainly descriptive! I'm glad you liked the Malcolm/Gertrude pairing and how they came together. They will show up again!

Their fantasies are tame . . . at least, in terms of description. So maybe you ought to keep a fire extinguisher handy!

And yes, Minerva is going to have trouble, poor thing . . . and it will take a major shaking for him to actually figure things out.

Glad you liked Eliphelet, the old letch! He was trying to behave himself. And he didn't do terribly badly, aside from the "young heifer" remark! LOL!

Up next is Albus's holiday. Such as it is. We'll get a little peek at what's going on at Hogwarts, then we see Albus not enjoying his holiday. And we'll get a glimpse at some of his thoughts and some of his memories, and I think you might find them interesting . . . .

Thank you for the review! I'm very glad you enjoyed the chapter! 

Thanks very much! Glad you liked the chapter -- and Malcolm!

He certainly is one very loyal friend, and ready to stick with you through thick and thin! Friends like that are true diamonds! Knowing you have a friend like that is very heartening, even in dark and difficult times, I agree!

When I first started reading DH, I thought I might be able to change my story of Albus around to be DH-compliant and have it still fit in with RaM, but as I continued reading, I realised I really couldn't because there were some fundamental differences between the two, not to mention that I'd already fairly well set up his family background, at least with regard to his having married young & lost his wife and the fact that he went to his uncle, rather than to his father (who was the absent one) for advice after his wife's death, etc. The few similarities that remain originate, I think, from the themes that I (and others, of course!) picked up from the books and that I extrapolated to create AD's history -- the idea of one or more absent parents (a theme I got a little too carried away with in RaM, I'm afraid, but by the time I realised it and had a good laugh about it, it was too late to change it! -- but there are a lot of orphans and "half-orphans" in the books, as well, so it's okay, I guess, to have gotten a bit carried away with it!), the presence of Muggle-ancestry for both TR and HP, the importance of choice, of responsibility, and of love in AD's personal philosophy, the notion that with great gifts comes great responsibility, and that mistakes that might be small ones from someone else are huge when committed by someone with such great gifts and great responsibility. I had tried to create a personal history for Albus that would tie all that together and that would also tie him to Minerva, in a way, through the wands, and to make the wands' nature somewhat reflective of their relationship.

I am trying to get a bit of writing done today, but the next couple weeks will be very busy ones for me, so although I'm still "ahead" by a couple chapters, I haven't much of a cushion in reserve and don't want there to be a long dry spell with no updates, so I'm going to ration the next updates some. It's for your own good! LOL! Dont' want folk to go through too much withdrawal! *grin*

If you think Minerva's fantasy was hot, "reality" will be (I hope) much better! ;)

Thanks for reviewing! I'm very glad you are enjoying the story so much! 

ok i'll take your word for it that waiting is for our own good loli forgot to mention that i loved the little detail that the two wands ollivander made for dumbledore to try were in fact harry's and voldemort's wands (eventually)very cool....and when you do get to the sexy bits, i hope it is drawn out. i'd hate it for the thing to end all in one chapter!!cheers

Don't worry -- after the long build-up, it won't all be over in one chapter, and there will be a few chapters that are zesty for you (and for poor Minerva and Albus, after all they've been through in this story! LOL!), and I hope the end will feel like a completion and not just where the story stops.

I had that thought about the Fawkes feather wands ages and ages ago -- before I even knew there was any such thing as HP fanfic, in fact (hard to believe there ever was such a time! LOL!) -- I was just trying to figure out how and why there would be those two wands, and I thought, well, maybe they were supposed to be for Dumbledore, but they weren't suited to him for some reason. It was fun to be able to explore that idea in this story. 

"You are really spoiling us you know. This chapter-a-day stuff is addicting."

I do hope you don't get the DTs when the pace becomes more sedate now! Or at least if you do, your delirium includes visions of Albus and Minerva. Or Maria. Whichever you prefer! LOL! (I picture a young Salma-Hayek-type, for some reason, but feel free to substitute, if you like!)

Thanks very much for the review. I'm glad you enjoyed it! 

Thanks!

I have a lot of it written -- I started it back, oh, about a hundred chapters ago. (I will also give you a hint -- that little thing that Albus keeps in his desk drawer that he wrote while Minerva was at the Gamps and thinks he should destroy, that little parchment will play a role, and was written at about the same time as the chapter in which Albus wrote it, just a couple weeks before that in RL.) The outline has been complete for months and months, though as I have ideas or things I realise I might forget in the meantime, I either add them to the outline or to this other document full of notes and character sketches and that sort of thing. So I suppose you could say that I'm holding out on you! LOL! However, I'm having tons of fun telling their story. 

I am having a lovely weekend, despite the grey weather and the early dusk. The Guinness might be helpingwith that, though . . .

Thanks much for the review!!!

Thank you! I'm very happy it struck a chord with you and you found it evocative. I'm off to bed now, myself. 

Thank you very much for your reviews!