A few abstract textures and fractal designs I made.

Baffled and Bedazzled, Murder Yet Again "A James Moriarity Story." by John Pirillo

Baffled and Bedazzled, Murder Yet Again

"A James Moriarity Story."

Same old story. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Girl eats boy. Period.

James scratched his mop of hair thoughtfully a moment with the tip of his pen, probably adding some ink to the stains already on his scalp, but at that moment he didn't care. A person had died tragically and he needed to record it before it slept from his memory. 

August 21, an auspicious day for Kenneth Anger, a young man dead set on conquering the world with his cleverness and his ability to swift talk any young woman into his inner sanctum. He prided himself on his looks, his sharp mind, and his nose for smelling out the young pretties that he hoped to carve away from their happy niche in life, and add to his list of conquests. Little did he know at that time that as he was carving one niche, someone else was equally as dead set on carving another kind of niche.

"What a beautiful day!" He exclaimed, casting his thick bedcover, which his grandmother had knit for him as a child and he had kept as his good luck for many years now, not just for warmth. He slipped his slender, well proportioned feet into some handmade slippers that had been imported from the Chinas, then slogged his way into the bathroom of the flat he shared with his Jewish roommate, Naier God, an industrious young man, shy and reclusive, who had never dated a single young woman yet, as he neared the ripe old age of eighteen.

"Naier!" He called out.

"Mister Anger?" Came the return reply from the bathroom. 

"I need to avail myself of our potty at once."

"Yes, Mister Anger."

Naier piled out of the bathroom, slipping on his tattered pants, which he had purchased from a second hand street down Augur Way. A tiny shop that specialized on reselling old clothing and other old things.

He and Naier had both found something they desired there. Naier the pants, and he a lucky charm. It was a young woman, the top half of her body emerged from a body of water, the bottom half invisible. Her face had an inviting smile.

"Were I to meet this one, I would surely fall in love." Kenneth had exclaimed as he purchased the charm.

The saleswoman, an elderly woman of cracked face and sharp eyes, had given him a piercing stare. 

"Be careful what you wish for, young man."

"Oh, I am. I am." He replied tartly, unmindful of the warning tone of her voice.

She had given him another look, then made a sound of disgust, and handed over the charm as he handed over the cash.

He finished scrubbing his body, then emptied himself, slid into his natty suit he had purchased uptown, putting on the top hat that all gentlemen of station wore, and headed for the flat's door.

Naier had followed him. "When will you return?"

"When I'm through shopping."

Naier cringed. He knew what that meant and found it instantly distasteful. So much so, that he didn't hide his feelings about it.

Kenneth clapped him hard on the back, causing Naier to fall back in alarm. "Naier, you really do need to get our more." Then he had clasped the door handle and exited the flat, heading for the docks. He found the women who went there to be easy to talk to, and also...he grinned...more willing.

He reached the docks a bit later than planned, having had to take a more circuitous route to the Wet Bar and Grill, a pub for the locals there, where a young man of his age would be accepted, even if a bit offsetting to the native sailors who frequented the place.

He had settled into his usual corner at that time and noticed an older gentleman seated there. The man was gigantic. He easily towered over all the men in the place, had a strong face, if somewhat rounded, and earnest eyes that seemed to look into a person's soul.

"Good morning, sir." He had greeted the man, settling opposite him.

"And to you, young man." The stranger had replied.

"I hear the breakfast here is to die for." He had told the older man, who looked startled for a moment, then laid aside his mug of tea to rise. 

"Pray that not be the case."  The older man had told him. The older man had been James, though young Kenneth knew it not at that time and never would.

James went to another booth and sat down there, and began furiously making notes in a small leather book he carried. It appeared well used, stained and cumbersome, but small enough for a man of his side to handle easily enough.

"Drink sir?" The Barkeeper asked, wiping the table where James had been.

"Who is that man?"

"Oh him? He's investigating a murder case."

Kenneth's heart skipped a beat for a moment. "Here?"

The Barkeeper smiled, revealing tobacco stained teeth. "Not likely. But on a nearby merchant vessel, the Queen of the Atlantic."

"Heard of her." Kenneth acknowledged. "Never thought something like that would occur."

"Strange thing too." The Barkeeper said.

"How so?"

"The young sailor who died had been eaten to death."

Kenneth laughed, taking it as a joke. "Speaking of eating. I'll take my usual and a pint of ale."

"Coming right up, young man." The Barkeeper replied, heading for the back.

Kenneth was giving some thought to the conversation when he felt someone sit next to him. How unusual he thought, and then he turned and looked into the most beautiful green eyes he had ever seen. They were large and luminous, as if he were gazing into the depths of the depths of the sea. Her eyebrows were a soft brown and her hair was loose and freely hanging, but in a unique style he had never seen before. Other than that, she looked perfectly normal. And lovable. 

At that moment he uttered, much to his dismay. "I think I'm falling in love."

She blushed, and then put a hand over his. "I hope I am not intruding upon you, but I am quite hungry and new to this town, and hoped you might be able to help me in two ways."

"Most certainly." He replied, touching his hat in a friendly gesture.

She dimpled, and then smiled coyly at him.

"Perhaps we could grab something to eat here and bring it with us as you showed me the town?"

"What an excellent idea." He proclaimed, feeling the web threading before him to capture this n new denizen of feminine treasure.

They took their food and left the Pub. A moment later James came out as well, his eyes on the two of them. At first he started off in a different direction, and then as they continued into the city, he followed at a discrete distance.

"My name is Amberly." She told Kenneth as he very carefully took her free hand and pressed it with his own. She squeezed back.

"You're a bold one, you are."

"Seize the treasure is my motto."

She smiled. "I like that. We're almost there." She told him slowing.

"Almost where?" He asked in perplexity. He thought they were heading to the park nearby, but instead she guided him back again towards the pier and a lone vessel that was moored there, its flags of an unusual color, laying slack in the lack of a morning breeze.

"What is this way?"

She laughed. "Why our meals of course. I have something wonderful to show you."

He smiled. "Of course." His heart skipped a beat, when he saw something a bit unusual in her smile, but he was so dead set on adding her to his list of trophies, that he ignored his intuition, squashing it flat.

She urged him towards the moored ship. He followed, like a lamb to the slaughter. When they proceeded up its gangplank, he became more nervous. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"I always know what I'm doing." She told him.

As they reached the main deck a huge man with a dark face and menacing brows stepped from the Captain's Cabin. "I'd like you to meet father. He's eager to eat you."

"You mean meet me, don't you?" He corrected her.

The words no sooner left his lips when a number of other crew members arose from various hiding places and surrounded them. "What's the meaning of this? I'm an important person, you touch me and you'll be punished to the full extent of the law."

The Captain loomed over him, smiling, revealing very sharp teeth, chiseled to points. "Aye, we'll be punished all right, but not by the likes of you, mortal." He laughed, and then lunged forward to grab Kenneth.

Kenneth dodged his grasp and ran to the Captain's Cabin and threw himself inside. He slammed the door shut and bolted it. "I'll just wait out this insanity." He said to himself, his whole body trembling with fear.

"Why, what a pretty young thing we have here." He heard from behind him. He turned and what had been invisible in the shadows of the dark cabin was a beautiful face, even more so than the young woman.

"This is my lucky day." He said out loud, congratulating himself on locking himself inside.

"Come to me, young man, I think we need to talk." The woman ordered him.

He went to her, with fancies of a warm and comfortable dalliance dancing in his heart and mind, but when he got further into the back, she rose slowly higher and higher, revealing that the bottom half of her body had scales like a fish. He cried out in horror as she lunged for him, her mouth open, 

revealing sharpened teeth.

On the pier James had been following the couple, and saw the altercation. He had come back with Inspector Bloodstone, knowing he couldn't protect the young man by himself. They boarded the ship. The Captain and his crew all leapt from the main deck into the Thames, vanishing into the depths of the waters, with no further sight of them.

The scream came from inside at that moment.

He and the Inspector rushed to the Captain's Door and broke it down. Inside they found a hatch that opened to the waters, open and a large fish's tail slithering through it. 

"Bloody Hell!" The Inspector cried out at the sight, then again as he spotted the remains of Kenneth Anger. 

James finished his journal entry, and then closed the leather book containing it. He put his hands on his eyes and rubbed them.

He had pieced the tale together from Naier and the young man's propensities from his conquest, his deductive powers and Crystal Palace allowing him to see the entire episode up until the death of the young man.

He had fallen from the Crystal Palace in horror when the young woman's mother had begun eating on young Kenneth, and so now he sat there somberly in the flat that was 221B. Here he shared his work and his companionship with his good friend, John Watson, who had recently lost his best friend, Sherlock Holmes, to a terrible fate.

James rose and looked out on the street below.

"Death come not as a friend to me,

Sheathe thy deadly claws,

Shut thy foul maw

And crawl away.

For you shall bedazzle me, baffle me

And eat my soul no more."

James thought of the elderly poet, Poe, who had written the verses a moment, and then at the sound of Watson coming up the steps, he turned a cheery smile to his companion to greet him. The past was gone, tomorrow was now.

"Watson!" He greeted as his friend entered. 

"You look good." Watson noted.

"Fresh sea air will do that for a man." James answered mysteriously.

(New) The Green Horney, Episode One with Bruce Lee as Kato

Bruce Lee was underused in this series, but later on would become world famous for his Martial Arts expertise and excitement.

Enjoy!

John

(New) Avengers Infinity War Teaser HD

I seriously doubt this is a Marvel release, but it's a nice setup anyway.

Enjoy!

John

ultraman ginga - ultra monster hero battle royal

Some late night fun.

Enjoy.

John

Those American Fools "A Rocketman Story"

Those American Fools

"A Rocketman Story"

John Pirillo

 

Jet shivered in the hold of the cargo plane, while Harry strapped into his rocket suit. "Not my idea of a vacation, Harry."

"You were expecting Florida, maybe?" Harry asked, as he drew his helmet down to lock onto his shoulder pack. Now he could navigate without his eyes burning out of their sockets from the air friction.

Jet saw he was ready and put on his own goggles, strapping them extra tight. "This is going to be a close one, you know."

"For the Fatherland I would do anything." Harry quipped, a scowl of a smile lighting the eyes behind his rocket suit helmet.

"Yeah. We do go back a ways with father, don't we?" Jet grinned, and then stood up, clutching the parachute strapped to his chest. "Still I don't think hanging from the arms of a flying bomb is such a hot idea either."

Harry ignored him and activated the rear door of the cargo plane, causing the door there to begin lowering. Wind rushed inside, shoving at them. Harry turned around. "Come to Papa."

"You better not drop me." Jet warned.

"That's what parachutes are for." Harry quipped.

"Yeah. That and a two by four over the back of the head. Don't drop me!"

"Ease up, soldier. This is a piece of cake. We jet over to the experimental air carrier; deposit our token of friendship to the Fatherland, then get the hell outta there."

"Roger that, but..." Jet gave Harry a stern look. "Don't drop me!"

Harry crossed his heart with a gauntleted hand. "Swear!"

"Why don't I trust you when you say that word?" Jet asked, turning around for Harry to grab him.

Harry didn't give him a chance to say anything more or move. As soon as Harry turned, he rushed forward, then grabbed him by the shoulder harness there, then threw them both off the back of the plane.

"Don't dropppppppp meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Jet cried out as they plummeted towards the rugged mountains below.

Then Harry's jets came to life as he triggered them with his chin and nose controls and they leveled out, then as Harry angled his arms skywards, they shot like a rocket towards the moon high overhead.

=========================================================================

Colonel Wilhelm Smitzhkipf, a high ranking Sturmgard in service to the Fuehrer, paced the capacious deck of their experimental carrier, going from one needle nosed jet fighter to the next, first examining their armaments, then the pilots who stood at attention beside them.

Satisfied, he stopped in front of the phalanx of jets and pilots, then gave them a stern look of approval. "The Father will be proud of you."

The pilots all saluted at the same time. "Heil Hitler!"

The Colonel nodded his head and gave them a weak salute in return, and then he struck his small hand whip against the side of his pants and looked towards the rear of the carrier, where the large door was already sliding open for the jets to launch an attack.

"Switzerland has been holding out for neutrality." He explained, his attention barely on the men.

"We shall teach them that there is no such thing as neutrality."

"Heil Hitler!" The pilots said again with a salute.

"Yes. Yes. That too. But now..." 

He turned to eye them, his face less stern. 

"You, my children, are the finest of the finest. We have spent years cultivating your abilities. You have been enhanced with sciences the West is not yet aware of, but soon will be. You are the first of our Sturm Drangers...Super Soldiers."

"Heil Hitler!" Even louder this time.

He smiled like a wolf about to eat a lamb.

"You shall teach the meaning of real peace to those fools below, who huddle in their simple cottages and unprotected towns next to their...disgusting lakes and ducks."

The pilots burst into laughter then.

He grinned. It was working. He had then firmly in the grip of his hand. Not one of them was questioning the fact that their jets had only enough fuel to attack, but not to return to the Fatherland.

"Now, prepare to launch."

"Heil Hitler!"  The pilots hailed one last time, saluted, then dashed up the small ladders into the cockpits of their jets as flight crew assisted them.

At that same moment something roared through the open area in back to the surprise of the Colonel.

Harry landed in front of him and let Jet go. 

"Go, Jet!" Harry commanded.

Jet dashed for the front of the carrier with his small package held tightly in his hands.

"Seize him!" The Colonel ordered and several of the flight crew ran after Jet.

"So." The Colonel said, walking closer to Harry. "I see our friends in the West have been working on a little surprise for us. After we kill your companion, we shall take your suit back to our Fuehrer and make thousands of them!"

"Nice fantasy, Colonel. But I don't think so."

"There is nothing you can do to stop us!" The Colonel said, his face screwed up in anger.

"Uh actually, there is.'

Harry pointed to the back of the plane where another package stood.

The Colonel's eyes widened.

Harry gave the Colonel a three fingered salute, and then launched towards the front of the carrier. He slammed through the flight crew chasing Jet, then grabbed Jet's harness and lifted him off the flooring. He angled put on speed towards the distant cockpit where a wide panel of glass gave a view of the Alps below.

"Harry, please tell me you're not going to do what I think you're going to..."

Harry drew his arms back, allowing Harry to fall below and to the rear so that his helmet and shoulder armor would take the brunt of the crash, then slammed into the glass paneling before the Pilot and Co-Pilot of the Nazi Carrier.

The paneling shattered like a soap bubble, instantly sucking the Pilot and Co-Pilot through the opening to their deaths.

Behind them the Colonel ran towards the package in the rear, his face red with exertion and fear. He reached the package, heard a ticking sound, which stopped.

Nothing.

He grinned. The fool Americans had failed.

He lifted the package. It was heavy. He saw some writing on it.

He read it. "Give my regards to the Devil." It read.

The package exploded.

=========================================================================

Behind Harry and Jet the vast Nazi Super Carrier exploded at its tail and the explosion ripped forwards, tearing the vast vehicle into a thousand pieces of flaming debris.

Harry brought Jet forward.

"We're safe now."

Jet looked up at Harry's helmeted face a moment, then down at the Alps below. "I'll believe that when we land. And next time, you run and I fool."

"It's a deal." Harry said, and then executed a sharp angled turn, which plummeted them like a rocket, which he was, towards the secret base below.

"Jets away!" He cried as they shot towards home.

Ultraman Cosmos Chapter 31

More Kaiju to wake up your day.

Power Rangers to the Rescue!

Whoops! Wrong Kaiju.

:) John

Caspar the Friendly Ghost animation

Caspar the Ghost was a very popular comic book when I was a kid, and his girlfriend Wendy had her own comic for awhile as well. Loved them.

The cartoons are silly, sweet whimsy.

The movie version that came later was interesting and had lots of potential, but it's hard to top the comic books and cartoons, because they are meant to be real and the movie was too real.

Enjoy

-- John --

The Shadow, Chapter One of a classic Columbia Movie Serial

The Shadow (1940) was the ninth serial released by Columbia Pictures. It was based upon the classic radio series and pulp magazine character with the same name. The Shadow battles a villain known as The Black Tiger, who has the power to make himself invisible and is attempting world domination.

I watched this as a kid and also listened to chapters of it on my parents old RCA radio, which stood about three feet all, looking beautiful, made of shiny wood and chrome and played all my favorites: Superman, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, The Shadow, Doc Savage, Batman, the Inner Santcum, Batman and on and on.

I have to think in retrospect that it was much more fun to listen to the radio, then to see the movies, as the radio required me to use my imagination, which may be why it is so big now. Who knows?

Enjoy!

John

Just posted my new blog and its first entry. Lots of cool stuff on its first week.

The Baker Street Universe

I've just started a blog devoted entirely to my Baker Street Universe. All adventures will take place in the alternate world Victorian London I have created, with emphasis on Sherlock Holmes and his companions.

CLICK HERE to go directly to the new blog.

Enjoy,

John

A Touch of Special "A Harry Houdini Story"

A Touch of Special

"A Harry Houdini Story"

Wedina Myers was only ten, but already she saw the world through darker glasses than most as she stood in the freezing snowfall, her tiny pale hands turning blue from the cold, as she strove to sell at least one of her specials. She called them specials, because to her they were the most precious thing she could offer to the adults who sometimes, out of pity, or charity, purchased one.

Tiny dolls made of paper that she wound in special ways so that they turned into living pieces of art. But in the falling snow they were in danger of being buried by the snow, and then as it melts, made limp and useless.

She turned her pale blue eyes skywards, noticing that the sun was close to the rooftops on Ashbury Street, where she stood this day. She never occupied the same corner twice, because sooner or later a Constable would find her and encourage her to hurry home to a mother she didn't have any more.

Wedina was only ten, and she had been abandoned by her mother when he, a sailor, had been offered a better position on a new merchant vessel and threatened to leave her mother, unless she sailed with him.

Wedina shivered and wrapped the newspaper tighter about her shoulders to avoid the briskness of the northerly breeze that was driving the falling snow. 

Her mother loved her. She could tell that early on, because she never had enough to eat, clothing to wear, even when her mother was drinking and eating more than enough for four. Her mother  had outgrown her job on the piers...which she had told Wedina had something to do with selling her wares, though she could never figure out what those wares were, until she heard her mother come home late one night with a stranger and tell him a price for the wares she sold.

Wedina had wept in shame at that moment. Her mother had never bothered to tell her exactly what she had done, sending Wedina off to a church school that was free, and the Nuns had no questions besides which religion she was. She had told them she didn't know what religion was, and so she had become a personal project for them.

And now, as a result of their mercy, she had found a warm place to live a short scant hours after being abandoned, but in a sense was tragically caught in a religious vice that saw her as no more than property to evangelize, then send out to raise money for the church.

So she had learned early on that not all adults had the best in mind for a child, and few if any of them cared whatsoever about what happened to a child that was not their own.

In the midst of her dark funk she arose from her thoughts to find a slender, dark complexioned man standing before her, lifting one of her creations in the air and admiring it with eyes lit up like blazing coals. She had never seen eyes like that before.

"My specials are only ten pence, and the money goes to the church." She told him, trying not to mash her words between her frozen lips.

He set the special down. It looked like a tiny man on an elephant.

"How do you come up with these ideas, if I may be so bold as to ask?"

At first she was frightened, thinking he might be assuming she had stolen them, just like the Constables that always chased her off, then she saw he was looking directly into her eyes and there wasn't the shadow of anger, or accusation in his eyes, only a soft gentle kind of laughter and light.

She was about to tell him, when her legs began to tremble and shake. She gave him a horrified look, then strove to stop them from shaking, thinking her plight might drive away his sail. But to her utter horror, he swept her up into his arms and even as she was about to protest, she lost consciousness.

"Poor dear, sweet thing." Mrs. Hudson whispered quietly, her hand on Wedina's forehead, with Watson beside her.

He put away his stethoscope and set it in his bag, the sat in a chair opposite the bed she lay upon. Watson had given it up for her.

"Harry, she's waking." He hollered to the other room.

Wedina pretended to still be asleep, even though she could sense them close to her and watching. She didn't want the warm hand on her forehead to go away, or the kindness of the man who had examined her to stop. She could tell they cared in some kind of primal way or her welfare.

"I should hope so. She's been asleep for forty-eight hours."

Watson stood up so Harry could take his place and examine Wedina's face. "She's listening to every word we're saying, you know."

Wedina's eyes popped open and she tried to jump up and dash off.

Harry gently caught her and pressed her back, while Mrs. Hudson placed another blanket over her lap. "Dear girl, we're not here to hurt you."

Wedina looked at them all in terror, and then she noticed where she was. It was beautiful and warm and cozy. There were warm drapes across the window of the room and she lay on a real cotton mattress with soft covers and sheets and a bedcover made of down. She could smell the fragrance of the geese it had been taken from. 

Harry laid down a special in her lap as Mrs. Hudson helped her to sit up against the bed's head board. "Better?" She asked.

Wedina looked at her, and her eyes widened. The woman was smiling. Smiling at her, like the morning sun rising through the misty fog of Ashbury Street sometimes.

"That's right, dear, we're friends." Mrs. Hudson reassured her.

Wedina gave her a tentative smile, and then looked at Harry, who had plucked her from the street corner as she lost consciousness. "You!"

"I."

She giggled, not knowing why.

That caused Harry and everyone in the room to burst into laughter, though they probably knew why.

Then her stomach made a loud growling sound.

Mrs. Hudson's eyes widened in alarm. "Oh my, she has a tiger eating her up from inside. I best hurry to the kitchen to feed it something before it harms our dear child."

Watson laughed, and went with her, leaving a bemused Wedina looking at Harry, whose face was unreadable for a moment, until he smiled, then once more she felt as if the morning sun were chasing all the fog of the day away.

"Where's your mother?"

"Gone."

Harry didn't ask twice. He read her well enough to know what she meant. He had experienced the same thing once with another friend's daughter. She had been abandoned when the man lost his job and his wife. He had urged his friend to stay, but he was selfish. Something Harry hadn't seen at that time, but knows in retrospect was crystal clear.

"You stay at Saint Ignatius, don't you?" He asked, without a hint of doubt in his voice.

Her eyes widened.

He smiled and gently touched her right hand and patted it. "I have friends there. I inquired the moment after I brought you here."

"Please don't send me back there." She pleaded. "This is so..."

"Home." He stated once again with certainty.

She nodded vigorously.

He leaned forward and looked closer at her. "I know a place that is much bigger than here, where children are loved and never abandoned. A place where all the adults care and love all the children, and not just their own."

"In London? I don't think I've ever heard of such, sir?"

He laughed. "No, I suppose you wouldn't." He answered, and then raised her special onto his palm. "May I have this?"

"Ten pence." She blurted out, before she realized how ridiculous that sounded.

"How about if we do an exchange?"

Her eyes narrowed. Here it came. He wanted something. Adults always wanted something and it wasn't always nice or safe.

"What?"

"You give me this and I give you..."

He waved his free hand and a circle of light began to spin. As it spun it broadened, deepened into a tunnel of pure golden light. At the other end of it she could see a beautiful meadow and many children playing, with adults watching and playing with them. It looked so happy.

"I give you this."

She clapped her hands together. "I'd love that very much. When can I go?"

"Don't you want to wait for the food Mrs. Hudson is bringing for you?"

"No, I'd rather go now, even though you've all been so kind."

She got up out of the bed, then dropped to the floor as light as a feather and stood before the tunnel of golden light. "It feels like summer. But with a cool breeze to drive the heat away. And I can smell roses and carnations. I hear water of a tiny stream and..."

She spun around and looked at him. "I hear grandma. How did she get there too?"

Harry smiled warmly and stood beside her, looking into the swirling tunnel of light. "Oh, she is the one who asked me to make this offer. She has missed you very, very much."

Wedina burst into tears, then clasped Harry about his waist and hugged him tight. After a long time she sighed, then wiped the tears away and looked at the light again. "You won't be offended if I go now? You've been so kind."

"Not at all."

She looked up into his eyes. "You're a good man, Harry Houdini." She almost yelped with shock after she stated those words, then she relaxed and giggled when he didn't react. "Now how did I know that?"

"You have a touch of special." He told her gently. "Never doubt it. Not now. Not ever."

He stepped back and she stepped hesitantly into the light, then she looked back. Mrs. Hudson and Watson stood there as well, wiping tears from their eyes.

"I love you all for your kindness."

Harry made a scooting motion with his hands. "Hurry now, I can't keep this tunnel open much longer."

She ran back and gave him one more hug, then burst into laughter and ran down the tunnel of light, still laughing until she reached the other side. The moment she did an older woman swept her into her arms, and then waved at Harry. Harry waved back and she led Wedina into the meadow with the other children. 

The golden tunnel of light brightened for a moment, and then collapsed into a view of the bedroom once more. 

Harry turned around and Mrs. Hudson sat next to the bed, holding the dead child Wedina's right hand as before. Watson had a grim look on his face.

Harry gently shut the eyelids of Wedina's face and kissed her forehead. On her face was the most beautiful smile any child could ever make.