A/N: Let’s just skip the part where I apologize for being so horrible with keeping up with this story and just let you know that there’s about two, maybe three more chapters and Never Alone will finally be done. Enjoy!

S~S~S~S

Ch 56.
Echo

Headmistress McGongall was sitting at her desk, looking over documents from the Hogwarts’ governors requesting the school be shut down until Voldemort was defeated. As much as Minerva hated the idea of backing down in the face of danger, it was getting much too dangerous for the children. While the upper years could probably hold their own, the younger children were at too much risk. The Headmistress had hoped to avoid this situation altogether, but it was too late; the issue was upon her now, and she had a decision to make.

As she shuffled a few parchments around her desk, her hearth flared to life, bathing her office in emerald green and startling her into crumpling a few parchments. She knew very few people were keyed into her wards, specifically Order members, and immediately knew something was afoul. Minerva stood as first Ron, and then Remus came out of the flames, dusting the soot off and vanishing it with their wands before it could touch the expensive Persian carpet.

“Good evening, Minerva. Ron and I were hoping to gain passage to the second floor girl’s lavatory,” Remus explained with a warm smile.

Minerva was momentarily befuddled as to why two men wanted anything to do with a girl’s bathroom, specifically one at Hogwarts, when she remembered what lay beneath that particular lavatory. “Why on Earth would you need to enter the Chamber? I don’t think it’s safe down there. Didn’t you say there was a cave in, Mr. Weasley?”

“Er, yeah, but I think we could clear it if we’re careful. Also, my mum wants you to know they’ve started the floo network for the Order. Harry’s already talking to Moody, Kingsley and a few others to create a plan, but we’ll need all of the Order groups called in. I think this is it, Professor.”

Minerva felt as though the floor had been pulled out from underneath her, and clutched desperately at her desk. It was so sudden, and yet she couldn’t be happier with any other news. “I’ll start with my end of the network, then. There are no students in the castle, seeing as it’s still summer holidays, so you should be clear to get to the Chamber. Do be careful. If anything happens and you need assistance, send your Patronus immediately!” the Headmistress informed them as she unlocked a drawer of her desk and pulled out a sleek black notebook. It contained the names and addresses of all the member of the Order, of course warded and scrambled into a code only she could decipher.

“We’ll be safe, Minerva. Thank you.”

The journey from the Head’s office to the second floor was a little eerie and uncomfortable. Ron couldn’t remember ever spending any time alone with Remus, and the fact that he was Harry’s step dad now made it even more awkward.

“So, Ron, are you planning to ask Hermione to marry you after the war?”

Ron blanched and nearly tripped over his own feet as he stared, wide eyed and disparaging at the tall man beside him. “Er, to be honest, I’ve not really thought of that yet. I mean, sure I love her and I’d love to marry her, but we’re only seventeen, sir. I think we’ve got a bit more growing up to do.”

Remus smiled and clapped Ron firmly on the shoulder. He had intended to frighten the boy, but he had been surprised with a very intelligent answer, not that he thought the boy was stupid. He knew Ron was very intelligent in his own way. As good as Remus was at chess, Ron could beat him ten times over with his strategy skills. “Good thinking, Ron. Just remember that next time there’s a pregnancy scare,” Remus chuckled, his mirth increased by the alarming shade of red the young man beside him turned.

“That was an accident, honestly. I’ve never been so terrified in my life. And it wasn’t even the prospect of being a father; it was the idea of telling my mum! I respect Hermione too much. We should have been more careful. Teach me to get hammered with my girlfriend…” Ron muttered, causing Remus to laugh openly.

They had arrived at the second floor corridor containing Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, and suddenly the playful atmosphere was sucked out of the air.

“Did I warn you that this is going to be very unpleasant? And slimy?” Ron asked with a gulp as he pushed open the door and led the way in.

Surprisingly, the floor wasn’t flooded as it usually was. Myrtle had a tendency to deter people from gawking at her by overflowing the toilets and sinks. Why she then lamented her lack of visitors, Ron had yet to figure out. Before he made it all the way to the tap with the snake engraving, there was a loud groan in the pipes and a sudden splash from one of the stalls.

“Visitors! Oh, it’s been ages since anyone has come to see poor, dead Myrtle. Who’s come to see me now? Oh…it’s you,” the opaque, misty-eyed girl pouted as she spotted Ron and the DADA Professor.

“Yeah, nice to see you too, Myrtle. We’re just passing through, today. Go swirl around a u-bend or something,” Ron informed the ghost, turning back toward the sinks to look for the tiny engraving that labelled the Chamber’s entrance.

“You’re not going down into that terrible place again are you? There’s a giant beast! A horrible monster! It killed me, or haven’t you noticed I’m dead?” Myrtle shrieked, causing Ron to cover his ears and Remus to grimace as his sensitive ears were pierced unkindly.

“As if you’d let us forget you’re dead, Myrtle. Harry killed the basilisk nearly five years ago, or haven’t you noticed it’s dead?” Ron groused, still rubbing his ears as he felt along the pipes and taps, searching for the tiny snake. He hoped he pronounced his Parseltongue right, or there’d be no telling what would happen when he hissed the instructions.

“I could tell you which sink it is, but you’re a mean bully, so I won’t. I wish Draco would come back to see me. He was a nice boy, unlike you! Hmph!”

There was another loud splash and the unpleasant feeling of cold water, unfortunately from a toilet, raining down on them as Myrtle made her exit. The only plus was that this bathroom was never used due to Myrtle’s presence, so the water was more than likely clean.

“Dramatic, that one,” Remus commented with a smirk as he watched Ron continue to fumble around the sinks and taps. With a noise of discovery, the redhead finally identified the right tap and pulled out his wand.

“You’ve no idea. Ok, you might want to step back a little. The sink is going to move around and a hole will open up into a tunnel. Here goes nothing. Open!” Ron hissed. He wasn’t sure if he needed his wand to complete the command, but he gave it a sharp jab, just in case. As he and Remus took a few steps back, the horrible grinding sound of stone on stone began to fill the lavatory, echoing off the tile. The mirror lifted as the porcelain of the sink sunk backwards, revealing a dark chasm that sent up the most rancid smell they had ever experienced.

“Oh bloody hell, it smells like a trolls arse!”

Remus chuckled as he performed a freshening charm, but the stench seemed to permeate his very skin. His sensitive nose wrinkled in distaste, but he was used to being assaulted by strong smells he was not a fan of. Such is the life of a werewolf.

“So, shall I go first, or would you like to be the leader?” he asked Ron as he lit his wand and pointed it down into the tunnel. The blackness seemed to swallow the light before showing him anything of importance, and a small spark of excitement ran up his spine. It had been awhile since he had experienced any thrill that wasn’t life-threatening.

“I can go. When you start to see the light of the tunnel opening up, cast a softening charm, or you’ll be awfully sore when you get to the bottom. Oh, I hope it isn’t as slimy as last time…” Ron whined as he too lit his wand. He sunk to the floor and shifted closer to the opening, letting his legs dangle down into the darkness. Pointing his wand down to light his way, he gave Remus a short salute and pushed off, letting out a yelp as the tunnel sucked him down into the cold, slimy, raunchy darkness.

S~S~S~S~S

The smoke billowing from the cauldron in the centre of the lab smelt of burning rubber, the clouds black and thick. Three people stood bent over the work tables, crushing, slicing, mincing and chopping away.

“Depending on how much venom Weasley and Remus bring back, we may be able to use aconine as the base. Having the venom as a catalyst will cause the alkaloid to become poisonous once more, and highly acidic. While the basilisk venom should take care of destroying the soul, the aconine will dissolve the vessels in which they are stored,” Severus explained as he measured out a beaker full of the derivative of Wolfsbane.

“Wouldn’t we need nearly two litres of basilisk venom in order for it to counteract the base? Aconine is pretty harmless without a strong catalyst.” Hermione was enjoying getting to work so closely with her potions professor once more. Not only was she helping in the efforts to finally rid the world of Voldemort, but she was getting to learn from one of the greatest Potions Masters on the planet, one on one.

Lucius poured the tiny bit of powdered moonstone he had ground up into the cauldron, quickly stirring with a golden rod four times counter-clockwise, and once clockwise. “Ah, but one of the best properties of basilisk venom as a potions ingredient is that it is four times concentrated. Therefore, we would need only half a litre of basilisk venom in order to change the base to a poisonous acid.”

Severus gave the blonde man a quick nod, trying not to show just how impressed he was. Basilisk venom was not a very well-known substance outside of the art of Potions Mastery. Lucius knew more than he had suspected. No wonder Draco was a natural at potions.

“I’m still so worried. We haven’t figured out how Harry is to get around the twin wand core conundrum. I know we should take it one step at a time, and the potion is a good starting point, but in the end, the part of soul that matters the most will be the one still within Voldemort himself. If only we could just dunk him in the cauldron too…” Hermione trailed off on her tirade as her eyes became wide. She nearly dropped a tiny beaker full of Thestral tears as she turned on her heel and stared at the Potions Master.

“That’s it. We need to find a way to either soak Voldemort in this potion, or have him ingest it. It would work essentially the same way on him as all of his other Horcruxes. He’s just a vessel, like the rest.”

“And just how do you suppose we soak Voldemort in a dissolving potion? I don’t think luring him to a nice boiling bubble bath of death is going to work. Offering him a drink might not go over well either, I’m sure. Any ideas, Lucius?”

“Well, actually, I do have one, but without inside help there’d really be no way to pull it off.”

Severus stopped crushing ingredients and looked up at the blonde man, his eyebrows nearly disappearing into his hair. “Why not humour us, Lucius? What idea do you have?”

“I’m surprised you didn’t think of it first, but I suppose you weren’t quite as close with the Dark Lord after his return. He carries a hipflask at all times full of a rejuvenating potion. The potion he used to bring himself into a human body once more was meant only to provide him a body. The aging and upkeep would be up to the Dark Lord. It’s vanity at its finest, my dear Severus.”

“You’ve got to be joking. The Dark Lord uses beauty potions to sustain himself? That would be a good opportunity, if we had inside help. Do we have anyone on the inside?”

Lucius shrugged his shoulders, managing to make the common gesture seem elegant. “I’ve no idea, seeing as how I’m not exactly a key member of the Order.”

Severus sighed and turned back to his ingredients, crushing, grinding and chopping away with expert speed and agility. “I do believe we’ve descended into grasping at pixies, here. We must find a way, but we mustn’t lose our heads over it just yet. As much as we all want this to be over and done with, we can’t rush into things headfirst. Being outnumbered by Gryffindors, we’ll need to be the voices of reason, of course,” Severus said with a smirk, which Lucius reflected back at him.

“Some of us still have the power of logic to work off of, thank you very much,” Hermione snapped as she sliced valerian roots. As she was reaching for another root to slice, the lab door opened to reveal Remus and Ron, both covered head to toe in some sort of putrid slime that made all but Severus gag, as his senses were used to rank smells from years of potion brewing.

“Bloody ghastly snake smelt like the arse end of a dead hippogriff, it did,” Ron grumbled as he and Remus pulled flask upon flask from their robe pockets and set them gently on a worktable.

“Will three litres be enough, Severus? We weren’t sure how much to get, so we filled all of the flasks we could carry,” Remus asked nervously. He really hoped to never have to enter that dank and foul chamber ever again.

Severus performed a quick cleaning charm on both his husband and the Weasley boy before pulling Remus close and kissing him soundly. “Three litres is quite enough, yes. Thank you for braving the Chamber.”

“It was pretty interesting down there, other than the horrid smell of rotting flesh and Harry’s blood stain from when he was bitten.”

“I’d forgotten about that,” Severus said with a shiver as he pulled one of the many flasks of venom towards him. He was careful to keep it away from any open flame, as it was highly flammable.

Remus shuddered as well, glancing over at Ron who was greeting his girlfriend with a chaste kiss. “Yes, I hadn’t really been aware of it until Ron told the story, actually. Bloody lucky he is, having Fawkes around to save him.”

Severus agreed. Their son seemed to have a special knack for escaping death over and over again. He just hoped beyond hope that Harry hadn’t used up all of his luck just yet.

S~S~S~S~S

Harry had the mother of all headaches. He was half listening to the argument going on between Draco, Moody and Kingsley about finding a way around the twin wand cores, considering the Elder wand would be useless to Harry since Voldemort was its master. They’d come up with any number of plans that had holes, gaping ones that would most likely get multiple killed. Switching wands with others, disarming Voldemort to gain mastery of the Elder wand, using the Elder wand anyways; everything they came up with included a body count.

Harry was swirling the dregs of his tea around as his mind drifted off, wishing he could just grab a gun and pump lead into Voldemort instead. It’d be so much easier, so unexpected that Voldemort wouldn’t know how to defend himself from it, but that still left the problem of his soul. Would simply killing Voldemort get rid of the dark wizard’s soul? Harry wasn’t willing to risk that, but it did give him ideas.

“Guys, I think we’ve been making this more complicated than it has to be,” Harry spoke up across the heated argument around him.

Draco was scowling, annoyed that Harry interrupted him when he had almost convinced Moody that allowing him to disarm Voldemort and then having Harry disarm him would do the trick. “Right, because this is actually a simple task. Please, Harry, indulge us,” Draco snapped.

Harry huffed and glared at his boyfriend. He forgot how nasty Draco could get when he was in a foul mood. “I didn’t say it was simple, Draco. I just meant that there might be a different way, something we haven’t thought of. The Prophecy doesn’t say I have to kill Voldemort using magical means. What if I attacked him muggle style? He’d never expect us to attack with guns.”

“But surely as soon as it was clear what our plan was, it would be simple enough for the Death Eaters to transfigure our guns into rubber chickens or some such. While I agree Voldemort wouldn’t expect it, it’d be easy enough to get around, and most of the Order would have no idea how to handle a gun,” Kingsley stated as he folded his arms across his chest.

Harry rubbed at his forehead and sighed. “Of course, you’re right. Maybe guns aren’t such a great idea, but I still think that the right way won’t be something magical. It won’t be a spell or just a switch up with my wand. We need to think outside the realm of magic here.”

Moody was giving Harry a look that suggested he’d finally lost the last of his marbles and was worried to be in the same room as him, but Draco had a contemplative look on his face.

“Well to those of us who weren’t muggle-born or raised by muggles, that’ll be a little tough. Maybe we should get Granger and call all the muggle-born Order members so they can brainstorm? That seems like a better plan to me, because honestly, I don’t have a bloody clue what a ‘gun’ even is,” Draco admitted.

Harry nodded, feeling like he was finally getting somewhere, finally useful. “Right, I think that is a good idea Draco. We’ll have to be careful with word choice, but I think gathering those with knowledge of the muggle world is the best idea we’ve come up with all night.”

And so it was an hour later that the basement kitchen of Grimmauld place was inhabited by the members of the Order who knew a thing or two about the muggle world.

Hermione and Harry were sat beside one another, with Tonks beside Hermione and Fred and George across from her. The Weasley twins weren’t muggle-born, but their father had been the head of the Misuse of Muggle artefacts department in the Ministry and they often tinkered with muggle technology when developing their jokes and pranks. Remus and Severus were beside Harry, both having at least one muggle or muggle-born parent and being raised around muggles to work off of.

“So I’m sure all of us here understand what the main issue is; the cores of mine and Voldemort’s wands are twins. They can’t be used against each other without weird stuff happening, like Priori Incantatem. I think that, perhaps, we have to go about this another way. The one thing Voldemort would least expect and be the least prepared for is an attack based on muggle technology.”

“But wasn’t Riddle raised in a muggle orphanage? He may be a prejudiced arse, but he’s no stranger to muggles,” George pointed out, his brother nodding in agreement beside him.

Severus leaned forward, his fingers steeped in front of him while he thought long and hard about what he was about to say. “While that may be true, Voldemort won’t be expecting us to launch some sort of muggle attack on him. However, I think we’re still thinking too big here. Something small and subtle that we can sneak past him and his Death Eaters is the way to go. Launching canons would give us away. It needs to take him by surprise.”

“The only problem with that is the need to get close to him. If someone tries to walk up and just stab him with a muggle knife, no one will ever get close enough,” said Tonks.

Everyone at the table became quiet as they all became lost in thought. It seemed every plan they came up with, magical or not, just wasn’t going to cut it. They had all of the Horcruxes – or at least they knew where they all were – and they had the dissolving potion ready to destroy them. They were missing the last piece; the final sliver of mutilated soul that resided in Voldemort was the key to it all ending.

“Stabbing…that’s it! Severus, what if we used a syringe? We could fill it with the variation on the dissolving solution and inject Voldemort with it. Once it’s in his veins, there’ll be no stopping it,” Remus said, feeling his heart race with excitement. If they could pull this off, it would be near fool proof. There was still the most obvious problem however.

Severus smirked at his husband, proud of the man’s clever ideas, and grateful for his inventiveness. “I actually think we might be able to work that out. Now, the issue of proximity will be our biggest challenge, but I think I may know a way around that.”

Harry gave his father a suspicious look and started shaking his head. “There’s no way I’m going to let any of you sacrifice yourselves and just walk up to him, Dad, forget it.”

“That’s not what I was going to suggest, Harry, though you still might not like the solution I’m going to propose. The risk of any one of us getting close enough to Voldemort to inject him with a syringe is too great; the likelihood of being killed either by him or one of his cronies is high. There is another option, however. What if there was someone who couldn’t die, someone intangible and impossible to deflect, who could inject the final blow?”

Everyone around the table had various looks of curiosity and confusion on their faces. Remus had gone a little pale beside his husband, and Hermione was biting her lip, sending Harry a worried look. Harry just looked confused like everyone else.

“Well unless I’ve missed something, I’m fairly certain all of us are mortal and still possess the ability to die,” Draco said a bit incredulously. This conversation seemed to be going around in circles and his godfather’s elusiveness was grating on his already overtaxed nerves.

Severus reached into the inner pocket of his robes and pulled out an ominously familiar handkerchief, placing it on the table before him. “Yes that may be true, Draco, but there’s a way we can bring someone here, temporarily, who is already dead and therefore cannot be killed again.”

“But Professor, we don’t know how the stone works, really. Even if we brought someone back, who’s to say they’d be cognizant enough to understand a battle plan and have enough skill to get the job done? How do we know they’ll even be corporeal enough to handle objects? It’s so unpredictable.” Hermione had had an inkling the entire time, but she wasn’t sure if the Potions Master would go through with proposing the idea. The question of who was left unasked, though she thought she had that figured out as well.

“Miss Granger, I do not plan to take the stone onto the battlefield with a half-cocked plan, hoping it all pans out. We’ll need to test the theory, to experiment first – unless you or anyone else has a better idea?”

No one else seemed to be willing to put an idea forth. The question on everyone’s mind was spoken aloud by Remus, who was fairly certain he already knew the answer. “Who would we bring back, Severus?”

“Well, after much research into the lore of the Resurrection Stone, it seems our best bet is to call someone back who has not been gone that long, who has a strong connection to whoever wields the power of the Hallows. Now we have the stone and the cloak, which will be enough; we do not need to be the Master of Death in order to use the power of the stone. At first I thought the best person to wield and call forth the spirit would be Harry, but I think there’s a stronger connection he could latch on to.”

“Severus, I don’t know if I can. Do you know what you’re asking of me? Think of the story of the stone, what it caused Cadmus Peverell to do,” Remus whispered, unable to meet his husband’s eyes as Harry gasped in realization.

“You want to call Sirius back.”

There was a long silence as everyone took that information in. Sirius had been a large part of the order, and very close to many people there. He hadn’t been gone for long, and if there were any stronger connections, one would be hard pressed to find it.

Severus turned towards Remus and grasped the werewolf’s hand in his own. “I know this is a lot to ask – too much – but I think this is the best option. Black hasn’t been beyond the veil for very long; he’ll be the easiest to convince, we won’t have to waste as much time giving him a rundown of the time he’s missed, and because he’s not so far beyond the veil, I think he’d have the best chance of being able to handle physical objects on this side of the veil. Trust me when I say that I’ve been going back and forth about this for some time. This wasn’t a recent idea. This is the best shot we’ve got, Remus. I know it will be…highly emotional and uncomfortable, but I will be here by your side through everything, I promise.”

Remus gripped his husband’s hand tightly, letting out a shaky breath. There was no amount of time that could ever prepare him for this, and as much as he wished to let sleeping men lie, he knew they were out of options. It would be selfish of him to refuse, and there was no way he was going to put his discomfort and grief above Harry’s life, above the entire wizarding world. He took a deep breath and nodded slowly, finally meeting Severus’ eyes. “Ok, I’ll do it.”

Severus gave his husband a relieved, soft smile and then turned towards his son, who looked about as shaken up as Remus. “I know this will not be easy for you either, Harry. Again, neither of you will be alone in this. There’s one thing you both must agree to first: once it is done, we have to send Black back. The stone only brings back shadows, not the actual person. There will be an echo of Sirius, with all of his knowledge and memories – his spirit – but it will not truly be him, he will never truly live again. I want a wizard’s oath that you’ll be able to let him go back.”

Remus nodded and sent Harry a miserably understanding look as the young Gryffindor’s breathing became laboured. Draco gripped Harry’s hand under the table and whispered consoling words in his ear.

“Ok, I can do that. How are we going to explain everything to him? He’ll want to know everything that’s happened since he went through that stupid arch.”

“I think the best way is have a private calling, so that we may sit him down and give him a brief rundown without overwhelming him with the entire Order surrounding him. You, Remus, and I will be there for the initial calling. After we update him on what’s happening, we can let everyone else see him. We have to be careful; we’ll need to explain to him as well that this is temporary, that he is not truly back and never will be. That may be the toughest part for all of us.”

The Order members present looked a combination of worried and frightened; the end was nigh and things were coming to a head. This was it. It had taken so long; they had all lost so much to get to this point. Everyone there had lost someone to this war, to Voldemort’s senseless violence and hatred. It would be a relief to get past this once and for all, but for now, it still seemed they were at the foot of Mount Everest with only dental floss and a paperclip to grapple with.

“When?” Harry asked, feeling his heart pound with both fear and anticipation. He kept repeating to himself over and over that this would only be temporary, that Sirius wouldn’t really be back, but that didn’t stop his heart from yearning to see his godfather once more, to hear his infectious, barking laugh and see his blinding smile. He hoped to Merlin this plan worked. He was about as far beyond stressed as one could get without going catatonic.

Severus shared a look with Remus and a silent conversation seemed to take place with just their eyes and expressions. They knew each other so well, inside and out. “As soon as possible. I say we take a break, get something to eat and time to settle our thoughts first, but I think tonight.”

S~S~S~S

At dinner, Severus, Remus and Harry agreed to meet in the basement kitchen at nine in the evening. They had been sure to communicate to the rest of the Order to steer clear of the area unless there was a dire emergency, and shut off the floo to all but distress calls. Severus and Remus sat on one side of the table with Harry across from them. The head seat was left empty; a peace offering and sign of welcome for their impending guest.

“From what I’ve read, the stone must be held in the palm of your hand and turned over three times while you concentrate as hard as you can on the person you wish to call forward. Be careful; if you concentrate on more than one person, you run the risk of bringing forth multiple echoes, and I don’t believe that would be wise. Are you ready, Remus, Harry?” Severus asked as he carefully unfolded the handkerchief and pushed it closer to Remus. He took special care not to touch the stone with his bare skin, as there was a strong belief that merely touching the stone could call upon echoes.

“As I’ll ever be, I suppose. He’ll most likely be confused and probably upset. I think we ought to ward the room, first. And Harry, if he becomes wild and belligerent, I want you to leave the room, ok? There’s no point in upsetting you with his actions. We both know how dramatic Sirius can be.”

While Harry knew he wouldn’t leave, no matter how Sirius reacted, he nodded his agreement. He and Remus performed a wizard’s oath with Severus to send Sirius back after it was all over and then it was time.

After warding and silencing the room, Remus reached slowly for the stone and picked it up. It was light, almost weightless in his palm, and the way the fire in the grate reflected off the onyx edges reminded Remus of cold, lonely night filled with despair after Lily and James had been killed and Sirius taken to Azkaban. Before the memories could take root, Remus thought as hard as he could about his deceased lover, his best friend and confidant as he turned the stone, one – two – three times in his palm, and closed his eyes.

With his eyes still squeezed shut, Remus felt an icy spike of fear and confusion rush through him, and heard tandem gasps from all sides of the room. Gripping the stone so tight the corners cut into his palm, Remus slowly opened his eyes and felt all the oxygen leave his body in a gust that ended in a soft cry.

At the head of the table, looking young and refreshed but confused, was Sirius Black.

S~S~S~S

A/N: Come on, you can’t tell me you didn’t miss my cliff hangers! Did anyone see this coming? If you did, let me know, because you’re psychic. I just came up with this plot twist within the last two weeks! So close to the end, guys. I won’t promise you anything, but because it’s SO CLOSE to the end, it’ll probably get done pretty fast. I already have half of the next chapter written. I think two more and an epilogue. I can’t believe we’re finally at the end! It’s been so long! Thank you guys so much for reading and sticking with me through this heinously long journey. Please review and let me know you’re still reading!