Child Of Grace: Chapter 51 - Skeeter's Scurrilus Scoop
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Chapter 51: Skeeter's Scurrilus Scoop
ZeldaQueen: The entire first part of this chapter is Holly bitching about Rita Skeeter. Yes, really. It doesn't make a ton of sense, given that Harry had all kinds of weird stuff going on with him and had people actively feeding Rita false information and Holly does nothing all while her cronies shield her from the world. But, whatever.
We start off with "In a word, Holly Potter was... annoyed. No, annoyed didn't quite cover it. Irritated. Exasperated. Infuriated. Those fit much better. Much better indeed as she all but ripped her magazine in half, balled it up, and set it on fire with her wand just because she could. She threw the still flaming remnants on the table, and only Luna's quick thinking kept them from engulfing the wooden surface. Holly shot a glare at the soaked and sodden mess as though it had personally offended her". So, she's still her sweet self, I see.
Apparently it's been nothing for Holly but a solid week of every newspaper writing about who she's dating and who she's dumped. Her friends constantly tease her about this, and here's just a snippet of some of it
"'You mean that you aren't having Viktor Krum's lovechild?' Gavin asked with a raised eyebrow and a far too mild expression.
'No ménage à trois with him and Blaise?' Milli added, and her grin was a wicked, wicked thing.
'Oh, I thought that she was supposed to be cheating on Blaise with Viktor,' Pansy inserted from the other side.
'Or was it on Krum with Blaise?' Theo questioned. 'I forget which it's supposed to be.' He idly tapped the periodical in front of him, the latest edition of Everyday Wizard.
'You should know better than to read that rag,' Milli snarked. 'The Times clearly states that they were a threesome and that Krum was trying to convince them both to take their OWLs early and go on a world tour with him.' She sniffed and lifted her nose in the air.
Draco rolled his eyes and set aside his Witch Weekly. 'No, Viktor stole her away from Blaise. And now, Blaise is trying to steal her back. Maker, can't you lot even read properly?'
'You have it all wrong,' Cynthia insisted, still holding her copy of the Nyx Herald. 'They're both still competing for her affections. Trying to prove that they're worthy of her.'"
ZeldaQueen: You know, I really have no idea how the reporters know all of these things. After all, Dumbledore didn't let any of them onto the Hogwarts grounds. Rita only got her articles by spying. And it couldn't even be that she wrote a bunch of stuff, because her article is still to come up. There's no way that any other wizarding newspapers would have gotten this information. The only way any of this could have been known is if the Suethor was under the impression that the Yule Ball was like the Oscars and Holly was on par with, oh say, Angelina Jolie...
I'm sorry. Let's move on, before the implications make my guts explode.
So Holly is all bitchy and tells everyone to shut the fuck up please, they are displeasing her. Everyone quiets up, like it's a big surprise that teasing someone about stuff like that will bother them. They instantly start kissing her butt and bring up the other stuff in the papers, like how Bertha Jorkins is still missing. It's made very clear that Holly and everyone else in the room knows that Bertha's dead and that Voldemort killed her. Say, don't they also know that there's a spy hanging around somewhere? And they haven't gone to a teacher why?
They speculate that Voldemort's behind Holly's entering in the tournament (WHY AREN'T THEY TELLING SOMEONE THIS?) and wonder why Voldemort is going to all of this trouble, instead of killing or kidnapping Holly directly. Riddle says that when the solution appears, "it will probably be so obvious that it's painful". Darling, it's so obvious that it's painful right now.
And then, in comes Blaise. Hooo boy. He's got Rita Skeeter's article with him. They briefly note that there's also an article on how sick Barty Crouch has been, which is the only foreshadowing thus far of what's going on with him. They then dive into the article
"His words crashed through her in a torrent. And despite the fact that he was less than a foot away, Holly merely caught snatches over the roaring in her ears. Blaise's hand on her wrist was probably the only thing that kept her from leaping to her feet, storming down to Skeeter's office, and hexing her within an inch of her life. It was one thing for them to besmirch her honour, for them to throw her proverbial self at every male she'd so much as looked at funny during her tenure at Hogwarts. To accuse her of switching boyfriends like some girls changed their knickers. But bringing Blaise into the mess was something else entirely. To accuse him of being unfaithful was another level still. And love potions! Where the hell was this woman getting her information? Where were any of them getting this?
'I can't believe this!'
Everyone's gaze riveted to her. But Holly was too furious to notice.
'I can't believe that she did this. That she suggested-' Holly shook her head. Unable to even say the words.
'Believe it,' Blaise said from beside her. His fingers tightened on her wrist almost painfully.
Holly let out a burst of air. Most of the others did, too.
'How can she get away with this? How can any of them get away with this? Isn't this slander?' Autumn questioned.
'Libel,' Tom corrected absentmindedly. 'When it's written, it is called libel.'
'Whichever,' Milli dismissed with an angry roll of her shoulders. 'Shouldn't she be fined for this?'
'In the Muggle world, she would be,' Gavin pointed out, now standing behind Milli. One hand was on her shoulder as he reread the article over her head. 'And heavily I should think.'"
ZeldaQueen: Oh yay, a list! We haven't had one for some time!
First of all, why is this the article that has Crossed The Line? Holly knows that the papers have been speculating about her and Blaise! What was all of that stuff before about a threesome between herself, Blaise, and Krum? Doesn't that count as dragging Blaise into it as well?
Second of all, the love potion stuff's still in there? Really? Why? For those of you who don't know or remember, the article in the books accused Hermione of only having the affections of Krum through a love potion. There's a big reason why this would not work here - SKEETER HAS NOBODY FEEDING HER INFORMATION! Seriously, that's how she got a staple of her quotes and "information" in the books! The Slytherins gladly fed her lies and biased views on Hagrid and the trio! And Rita gladly lapped it up because hey, it would sell! It was perfect, the Slytherins got to watch people they hated be humiliated and Rita could claim "Oh, I didn't make it up! That was straight from an interview". Because yeah, Rita was unethical and biased, but as far as I recall, she never outright made something up. She implied, she used biased and bad sources, but she didn't just sit down and make it straight up. Clearly the Slytherins in this POS aren't talking to Rita or implying that Holly has been brewing love potions, so how the fuck did that come up? Actually, why is this coming up at all? In the books, Rita was actively fishing (har har) for gossip on Hermione, because Hermione fought with her. Holly and Blaise never fought with Rita, so why would she act like she has a grudge against them?
Third of all, oh so Muggle laws suddenly have a lot of merit, don't they? Now that they could be used to cover Holly's ass, it looks like you're warming up to them, aren't you?
Fourth of all, did I call this or what? Hagrid was accused of being a horrible monster? His mother was dragged through the mud? He received hate mail and calls for his resignation and goes all depressed over this? They treat the entire thing like it's well below their attention and pretty much just stand around and smile and pat him on the head. Holly is accused of being a whore and that's it? OH NOES, CALL THE PRESS ARREST FOR LIBEL AUGH!!!
Fifth of all, this just smacks of Bella Swan being such a victim when anyone calls her out on being a cocktease
Sixth of all, if it turns out that Ron or Hermione or Ginny or some other similar character was feeding this information to Rita, I will have a tantrum and it will not be pretty
Right. *deep breath* They decide to leave it to Sirius to solve, because these people never do anything.
Scene break, and now we're at Easter - excuse me, Ostara - break, and Holly is at home, with Sirius and Lupin. Lupin is still helping Riddle research horcruxes, and I can't wait to see the Suethor dance around the "you must murder to split the soul" thing. Holly also angsts a bit over her mental bond to Blaise and studies for the third task and, for no reason at all, runs through a laundry list of her classes. There's SUBTLE FORESHADOWING about Snape bitching over how someone's been robbing his potions stores. This comes right after Holly goes on about how crazy Moody has been. You know, Moody? The guy she can't read the mind of?
I can't believe how dense these people are. Especially with things like this
"A look at the Marauder's Map didn't show anyone going for ingredients, but it did show another anomaly. Namely, the fact that for man supposedly on personal leave for health reasons, Bartemius Crouch was still well enough to loiter around Hogwarts at all hours. And while Holly never actually saw him in person, she didn't need her cloak to follow and track people. She just took to watching her map at odd times between classes and before bed, and she never failed to find Crouch on it somewhere. He seemed to be patrolling through the school, even checking the perimeter. She just couldn't figure out why he was there, what he was trying to accomplish. He certainly wasn't there in an official capacity, and from what Neville had told her, Percy Weasley reported that he hadn't been in the Ministry for weeks. Not since before the second task. What could be so important that he skipped work and lurked around Hogwarts? Was he searching for something? Someone? Was he waiting for them to arrive perhaps? And if so, who could it possibly be?
None of it made any sense, and when she wrote to Remus about it, he and Sirius couldn't tell her much. Just that Crouch had once been an up and comer in the Ministry, the Head of Magical Law Enforcement, before it was revealed his son was a Death Eater. He'd lost his position after Crouch the younger went to Azkaban and was shuffled into the Department for International Magical Cooperation. His wife had died not too long after that, most likely from grief, and his son had been soon to follow. He didn't have any immediate family left and no real ties to anyone outside of work. No clues as to why he would be at Hogwarts and not his home or the Ministry.
More and more mysterious"
ZeldaQueen: And she isn't even given the excuse implication that Crouch is a paranoid bastard trying to catch another Death Eater, like Harry had. So for all Holly knows, Crouch is wandering around Hogwarts at night for no reason at all, someone is stealing Polyjuice potion ingredients, there's a spy hanging around who is working for Voldemort, who she knows is alive and active and working to kill or kidnap her AND SHE STILL HAS TOLD ANYONE!!!
This very well might be worse than Rose "I'll Just Let Pettigrew Escape" Potter. Might be.
But oh wait, even though she hasn't bothered to tell any teachers about this, she has taken the time and effort to rummage through their thoughts and feelings. But hey, since they aren't worried about anything, it must be nothing, right? Not like there's something going on that they don't know about! And it's not like she can't read Moody's mind at all, but that must be because of his paranoia from his Auror days, manifesting as a trained mental shield! Right? And he must have called in Crouch to do searches of the castle at night, to find out who entered Holly in the tournament! Right? RIGHT?
Well, at least there's good news. After one half of a chapter of bother, Sirius has gotten the reporters to stop hassling Holly. Apparently Rita has also backed down, but Holly knows she's waiting for the Sue to do "something newsworthy". Considering how boring this chick is, Rita's going to be waiting for quite some time.
God.
So, Holly's Just So Good that she's already brushing up on her dueling practice with Malfoy and Luna. In the midst of this, some of the others show up and comment on how Blaise isn't around her for a change. Holly asks whatever could they mean, because she's a total dumbass, and they marvel at how she's failed to notice that Blaise is never away from her side unless he's asleep. Holly insists that this isn't true, because she takes showers and goes to the bathrooms on her own. Um...
Everyone else continues to point out how clingy he is to her and that this is why Blaise doesn't like Krum. Holly, still utterly oblivious, asks why on Earth Blaise would be bothered by her going on a date with another guy. After all, they're just friends! Malfoy replies that "He's used to being the focus of your life. To having you all to himself. To being the centre of your universe. Don't you remember how he was with Sirius at first? Guarded and untrusting". Luna chimes in that Blaise sees Krum as a "threat" and only warmed up to Sirius and Holly's other friends because she never showed a bit of romantic interest towards them. So Blaise wants to have all of Holly's time and attention, sees anyone who might have interest in her as well as a threat, and only is alright with her having other friends if it doesn't look like any moves are being put on. Sounds like a great catch. Is this supposed to be sweet? Because it's actually creepy. Hello thar, Edward Cullen! Or maybe Eclipse-Jacob! Are we still sure that Stephenie Meyer didn't write this?
And that's pretty much where the chapter ends, with her angsting about how she was such an idiot and didn't notice any of this. I'm not going to disagree with you there, you little idiot
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AN: I've had several comments on why I have Tom as the second character and not Blaise.
ZeldaQueen: Because you can't make up your mind on who you ship your Sue with?
The reason for that is when I started writing this way back in 2004, Blaise wasn't on the list of characters. I've just never bothered to change it over, and I probably never will.
ZeldaQueen: Because it's such an effort to change the two main characters on FF.net
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Onward to: Chapter 52: River Of Dreams
Back to: Chapter 50: Qui Vive
Return to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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Chapter 51: Skeeter's Scurrilus Scoop
ZeldaQueen: The entire first part of this chapter is Holly bitching about Rita Skeeter. Yes, really. It doesn't make a ton of sense, given that Harry had all kinds of weird stuff going on with him and had people actively feeding Rita false information and Holly does nothing all while her cronies shield her from the world. But, whatever.
We start off with "In a word, Holly Potter was... annoyed. No, annoyed didn't quite cover it. Irritated. Exasperated. Infuriated. Those fit much better. Much better indeed as she all but ripped her magazine in half, balled it up, and set it on fire with her wand just because she could. She threw the still flaming remnants on the table, and only Luna's quick thinking kept them from engulfing the wooden surface. Holly shot a glare at the soaked and sodden mess as though it had personally offended her". So, she's still her sweet self, I see.
Apparently it's been nothing for Holly but a solid week of every newspaper writing about who she's dating and who she's dumped. Her friends constantly tease her about this, and here's just a snippet of some of it
"'You mean that you aren't having Viktor Krum's lovechild?' Gavin asked with a raised eyebrow and a far too mild expression.
'No ménage à trois with him and Blaise?' Milli added, and her grin was a wicked, wicked thing.
'Oh, I thought that she was supposed to be cheating on Blaise with Viktor,' Pansy inserted from the other side.
'Or was it on Krum with Blaise?' Theo questioned. 'I forget which it's supposed to be.' He idly tapped the periodical in front of him, the latest edition of Everyday Wizard.
'You should know better than to read that rag,' Milli snarked. 'The Times clearly states that they were a threesome and that Krum was trying to convince them both to take their OWLs early and go on a world tour with him.' She sniffed and lifted her nose in the air.
Draco rolled his eyes and set aside his Witch Weekly. 'No, Viktor stole her away from Blaise. And now, Blaise is trying to steal her back. Maker, can't you lot even read properly?'
'You have it all wrong,' Cynthia insisted, still holding her copy of the Nyx Herald. 'They're both still competing for her affections. Trying to prove that they're worthy of her.'"
ZeldaQueen: You know, I really have no idea how the reporters know all of these things. After all, Dumbledore didn't let any of them onto the Hogwarts grounds. Rita only got her articles by spying. And it couldn't even be that she wrote a bunch of stuff, because her article is still to come up. There's no way that any other wizarding newspapers would have gotten this information. The only way any of this could have been known is if the Suethor was under the impression that the Yule Ball was like the Oscars and Holly was on par with, oh say, Angelina Jolie...
I'm sorry. Let's move on, before the implications make my guts explode.
So Holly is all bitchy and tells everyone to shut the fuck up please, they are displeasing her. Everyone quiets up, like it's a big surprise that teasing someone about stuff like that will bother them. They instantly start kissing her butt and bring up the other stuff in the papers, like how Bertha Jorkins is still missing. It's made very clear that Holly and everyone else in the room knows that Bertha's dead and that Voldemort killed her. Say, don't they also know that there's a spy hanging around somewhere? And they haven't gone to a teacher why?
They speculate that Voldemort's behind Holly's entering in the tournament (WHY AREN'T THEY TELLING SOMEONE THIS?) and wonder why Voldemort is going to all of this trouble, instead of killing or kidnapping Holly directly. Riddle says that when the solution appears, "it will probably be so obvious that it's painful". Darling, it's so obvious that it's painful right now.
And then, in comes Blaise. Hooo boy. He's got Rita Skeeter's article with him. They briefly note that there's also an article on how sick Barty Crouch has been, which is the only foreshadowing thus far of what's going on with him. They then dive into the article
"His words crashed through her in a torrent. And despite the fact that he was less than a foot away, Holly merely caught snatches over the roaring in her ears. Blaise's hand on her wrist was probably the only thing that kept her from leaping to her feet, storming down to Skeeter's office, and hexing her within an inch of her life. It was one thing for them to besmirch her honour, for them to throw her proverbial self at every male she'd so much as looked at funny during her tenure at Hogwarts. To accuse her of switching boyfriends like some girls changed their knickers. But bringing Blaise into the mess was something else entirely. To accuse him of being unfaithful was another level still. And love potions! Where the hell was this woman getting her information? Where were any of them getting this?
'I can't believe this!'
Everyone's gaze riveted to her. But Holly was too furious to notice.
'I can't believe that she did this. That she suggested-' Holly shook her head. Unable to even say the words.
'Believe it,' Blaise said from beside her. His fingers tightened on her wrist almost painfully.
Holly let out a burst of air. Most of the others did, too.
'How can she get away with this? How can any of them get away with this? Isn't this slander?' Autumn questioned.
'Libel,' Tom corrected absentmindedly. 'When it's written, it is called libel.'
'Whichever,' Milli dismissed with an angry roll of her shoulders. 'Shouldn't she be fined for this?'
'In the Muggle world, she would be,' Gavin pointed out, now standing behind Milli. One hand was on her shoulder as he reread the article over her head. 'And heavily I should think.'"
ZeldaQueen: Oh yay, a list! We haven't had one for some time!
First of all, why is this the article that has Crossed The Line? Holly knows that the papers have been speculating about her and Blaise! What was all of that stuff before about a threesome between herself, Blaise, and Krum? Doesn't that count as dragging Blaise into it as well?
Second of all, the love potion stuff's still in there? Really? Why? For those of you who don't know or remember, the article in the books accused Hermione of only having the affections of Krum through a love potion. There's a big reason why this would not work here - SKEETER HAS NOBODY FEEDING HER INFORMATION! Seriously, that's how she got a staple of her quotes and "information" in the books! The Slytherins gladly fed her lies and biased views on Hagrid and the trio! And Rita gladly lapped it up because hey, it would sell! It was perfect, the Slytherins got to watch people they hated be humiliated and Rita could claim "Oh, I didn't make it up! That was straight from an interview". Because yeah, Rita was unethical and biased, but as far as I recall, she never outright made something up. She implied, she used biased and bad sources, but she didn't just sit down and make it straight up. Clearly the Slytherins in this POS aren't talking to Rita or implying that Holly has been brewing love potions, so how the fuck did that come up? Actually, why is this coming up at all? In the books, Rita was actively fishing (har har) for gossip on Hermione, because Hermione fought with her. Holly and Blaise never fought with Rita, so why would she act like she has a grudge against them?
Third of all, oh so Muggle laws suddenly have a lot of merit, don't they? Now that they could be used to cover Holly's ass, it looks like you're warming up to them, aren't you?
Fourth of all, did I call this or what? Hagrid was accused of being a horrible monster? His mother was dragged through the mud? He received hate mail and calls for his resignation and goes all depressed over this? They treat the entire thing like it's well below their attention and pretty much just stand around and smile and pat him on the head. Holly is accused of being a whore and that's it? OH NOES, CALL THE PRESS ARREST FOR LIBEL AUGH!!!
Fifth of all, this just smacks of Bella Swan being such a victim when anyone calls her out on being a cocktease
Sixth of all, if it turns out that Ron or Hermione or Ginny or some other similar character was feeding this information to Rita, I will have a tantrum and it will not be pretty
Right. *deep breath* They decide to leave it to Sirius to solve, because these people never do anything.
Scene break, and now we're at Easter - excuse me, Ostara - break, and Holly is at home, with Sirius and Lupin. Lupin is still helping Riddle research horcruxes, and I can't wait to see the Suethor dance around the "you must murder to split the soul" thing. Holly also angsts a bit over her mental bond to Blaise and studies for the third task and, for no reason at all, runs through a laundry list of her classes. There's SUBTLE FORESHADOWING about Snape bitching over how someone's been robbing his potions stores. This comes right after Holly goes on about how crazy Moody has been. You know, Moody? The guy she can't read the mind of?
I can't believe how dense these people are. Especially with things like this
"A look at the Marauder's Map didn't show anyone going for ingredients, but it did show another anomaly. Namely, the fact that for man supposedly on personal leave for health reasons, Bartemius Crouch was still well enough to loiter around Hogwarts at all hours. And while Holly never actually saw him in person, she didn't need her cloak to follow and track people. She just took to watching her map at odd times between classes and before bed, and she never failed to find Crouch on it somewhere. He seemed to be patrolling through the school, even checking the perimeter. She just couldn't figure out why he was there, what he was trying to accomplish. He certainly wasn't there in an official capacity, and from what Neville had told her, Percy Weasley reported that he hadn't been in the Ministry for weeks. Not since before the second task. What could be so important that he skipped work and lurked around Hogwarts? Was he searching for something? Someone? Was he waiting for them to arrive perhaps? And if so, who could it possibly be?
None of it made any sense, and when she wrote to Remus about it, he and Sirius couldn't tell her much. Just that Crouch had once been an up and comer in the Ministry, the Head of Magical Law Enforcement, before it was revealed his son was a Death Eater. He'd lost his position after Crouch the younger went to Azkaban and was shuffled into the Department for International Magical Cooperation. His wife had died not too long after that, most likely from grief, and his son had been soon to follow. He didn't have any immediate family left and no real ties to anyone outside of work. No clues as to why he would be at Hogwarts and not his home or the Ministry.
More and more mysterious"
ZeldaQueen: And she isn't even given the excuse implication that Crouch is a paranoid bastard trying to catch another Death Eater, like Harry had. So for all Holly knows, Crouch is wandering around Hogwarts at night for no reason at all, someone is stealing Polyjuice potion ingredients, there's a spy hanging around who is working for Voldemort, who she knows is alive and active and working to kill or kidnap her AND SHE STILL HAS TOLD ANYONE!!!
This very well might be worse than Rose "I'll Just Let Pettigrew Escape" Potter. Might be.
But oh wait, even though she hasn't bothered to tell any teachers about this, she has taken the time and effort to rummage through their thoughts and feelings. But hey, since they aren't worried about anything, it must be nothing, right? Not like there's something going on that they don't know about! And it's not like she can't read Moody's mind at all, but that must be because of his paranoia from his Auror days, manifesting as a trained mental shield! Right? And he must have called in Crouch to do searches of the castle at night, to find out who entered Holly in the tournament! Right? RIGHT?
Well, at least there's good news. After one half of a chapter of bother, Sirius has gotten the reporters to stop hassling Holly. Apparently Rita has also backed down, but Holly knows she's waiting for the Sue to do "something newsworthy". Considering how boring this chick is, Rita's going to be waiting for quite some time.
God.
So, Holly's Just So Good that she's already brushing up on her dueling practice with Malfoy and Luna. In the midst of this, some of the others show up and comment on how Blaise isn't around her for a change. Holly asks whatever could they mean, because she's a total dumbass, and they marvel at how she's failed to notice that Blaise is never away from her side unless he's asleep. Holly insists that this isn't true, because she takes showers and goes to the bathrooms on her own. Um...
Everyone else continues to point out how clingy he is to her and that this is why Blaise doesn't like Krum. Holly, still utterly oblivious, asks why on Earth Blaise would be bothered by her going on a date with another guy. After all, they're just friends! Malfoy replies that "He's used to being the focus of your life. To having you all to himself. To being the centre of your universe. Don't you remember how he was with Sirius at first? Guarded and untrusting". Luna chimes in that Blaise sees Krum as a "threat" and only warmed up to Sirius and Holly's other friends because she never showed a bit of romantic interest towards them. So Blaise wants to have all of Holly's time and attention, sees anyone who might have interest in her as well as a threat, and only is alright with her having other friends if it doesn't look like any moves are being put on. Sounds like a great catch. Is this supposed to be sweet? Because it's actually creepy. Hello thar, Edward Cullen! Or maybe Eclipse-Jacob! Are we still sure that Stephenie Meyer didn't write this?
And that's pretty much where the chapter ends, with her angsting about how she was such an idiot and didn't notice any of this. I'm not going to disagree with you there, you little idiot
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AN: I've had several comments on why I have Tom as the second character and not Blaise.
ZeldaQueen: Because you can't make up your mind on who you ship your Sue with?
The reason for that is when I started writing this way back in 2004, Blaise wasn't on the list of characters. I've just never bothered to change it over, and I probably never will.
ZeldaQueen: Because it's such an effort to change the two main characters on FF.net
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Onward to: Chapter 52: River Of Dreams
Back to: Chapter 50: Qui Vive
Return to: Table of Contents