Volegov Afternoon Warmth

Volegov Afternoon WarmthVolegov Afternoon SunshineVolegov A Walk in SunshineVolegov A Mid-Morning Chat
few final words. I suppose you feel that everything has gone off splendidly and according to plan?’‘Yes, I do,’ said Bilbo. "Though that flash was surprising: it quite startled me, let alone the others. A little addition of your own, I suppose?’It was. You have wisely kept that ring secret all these years, and it seemed to me look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts. Well-preserved indeed!’ he snorted. ‘Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can’t be right. I need a change, or something.’Gandalf looked curiously and closely at him. ‘No, it does not seem right,’ he said thoughtfullynecessary to give your guests something else that would seem to explain your sudden vanishment.’‘And would spoil my joke. You are an interfering old busybody,’ laughed Bilbo, ‘but I expect you know best, as usual.’‘I do - when I know anything. But I don’t feel too sure about this whole affair. It has now come to the final point. You have had your joke, and alarmed or offended most of your relations, and given the whole Shire something to talk about for nine days, or ninety-nine more likely. Are you going any further?’‘Yes, I am. I feel I need a holiday, a very long holiday, as I have told you before. Probably a permanent: I don’t expect I shall return. In fact, I don’t mean to, and I have made all arrangements.'I am old, Gandalf. I don’t

Shotwells BASIC SPACES

Shotwells BASIC SPACESShotwells AUTUMN VOYAGEShotwells AURORA FIELDSShotwells AQUA WORLD
pain. "Examine him. Tell me whether he is dead."

　　　Harry did not know who had been sent to verify. He could only lie there, with his heart thumping traitorously, and wait to be "Yes," he breathed back. 　　　He felt the hand on his chest contract: her nails pierced him. Then it was withdrawn. She had sat up. "He is dead!" Narcissa Malfoy called to the watchers.

examined, but at the same time nothing, small comfort through it was, that Voldemort was wary of approaching him, that Voldemort suspected that all had not gone to plan . . . .

　　　Hands, softer than he had been expecting, touched Harry's face, and felt his heart. He could hear the woman's fast breathing, her pounding of against his ribs.

"Is Draco alive? Is he in the castle?"

　　　The whisper was barely audible, her lips were an inch from his car, her head bent so low that her long hair shielded his face from the onlookers.

Felisky Carmel Mission

Felisky Carmel MissionFelisky Carmel By The SeaFelisky Brunch Overlooking BonnieuxFelisky Brown Door In Chertsey
only came out because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here."

"I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you Mudblood, it just – "
　　　" – to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?" 　　　He struggled on the verge of speech, but with a contemptuous look she turned and climbed back through the portrait hole…
　　　"Slipped out?" There was no pity in Lily's voice. "It's too late. I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends – you see, you don't even deny it! You don't even deny that's what you're all aiming to be! You can't wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?"

He opened his mouth, but closed it without speaking.

"I can't pretend anymore. You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."

"No – listen, I didn't mean – "

Klimt Garden Path with Chickens

Klimt Garden Path with ChickensKlimt Farmhouse in Upper AustriaDancer Sweet SurrenderDancer Sieta Hermanas
but hobbled away, hunch-shouldered, muttering under his breath.

　　　"And now---Piertotum Locomator!" cried Professor McGonagall. And all along the corridor the statues and suits of armor jumped down from their plinths, and from the echoing crashes from the floors above and below, Harry knew that their fellows throughout the castle had done the same.
　　　"Now, Potter," said McGonagall., "you and Miss Lovegood had better return to your friends and bring them to the Great Hall --- I shall rouse the other Gryffindors." 　　　They parted at the top of the next staircase, Harry and Luna turning back toward the concealed entrance to the Room of Requirement. As they ran, they met crowds of
　　　"Hogwarts is threatened!" shouted Professor McGonagall. "Man the boundaries, protect us, do your duty to our school!"

　　　Clattering and yelling, the horde of moving statues stampeded past Harry, some of them smaller, others too, and the clanking suits of armor brandished swords and spiked balls on chains.

Munier A Sprig of Berries

Munier A Sprig of BerriesMunier Portrait of a Mother and DaughterMunier May I Have One TooMunier Two Girls Praying
What are we going to do, then, Harry?" asked Seamus. "What's the plan?"

　　　"Plan?" repeated Harry. He was exercising all his willpower to prevent himself succumbing again to Voldemort's rage: His scar was still burning. "Well, there's something we – Ron, Hermione, and I – need to do, and then we'll get out of here."
"What is it?" "I – I can't tell you." There was a ripple of muttering at this: Neville's brows contracted. 　　　"Why can't you tell us? It's something to do with fighting
Nobody was laughing or whooping anymore. Neville looked confused.

"What d'you mean, ‘get out of here'?"

　　　"We haven't come back to stay," said Harry, rubbing his scar, trying to soothe the pain. "There's something important we need to do – "

Yue Minjun As Graceful As A Crane

Yue Minjun As Graceful As A CraneYue Minjun A Young MuleYue Minjun A JokeRenoir Yvonne and Christine Lerolle Playing the Piano
curious sensation shot down Harry's arm, a feeling of tingling, warmth that seemed to flow from his mind, down the sinews and veins connecting him to the wand and the curse it had just cast. The goblin took Bellatrix's wand, examined it closely, and then said, "Ah, you have had a new wand made, Madam Lestrange!"

"What?" said Hermione, "No, no, that's mine--"
"Oh yes, I see," said Travers, looking down at Bellatrix's wand, "yes, very handsome. and is it working well? I always think wands require a little breaking in, don't you?"
　　　"A new wand?" said Travers, approaching the counter again; still the goblins all around were watching. "But how could you have done, which wandmaker did you use?"

　　　Harry acted without thinking. Pointing his wand at Travers, he muttered, "Imperio!" once more.

　　　

Knight Daniel Ridgway Knight

Knight Daniel Ridgway KnightKnight Knight DaydreamingKnight Knight ClammingAbbema Abbema Flora
think so. Subtle laws govern wand ownership, but the conquered wand will usually bend its will to its new master."

　　　"So I should use this one?" said Ron, pulling Wormtail's wand out of his pocket and handing it to Ollivander.
　　　"I think so," replied Ollivander, his protuberant eyes upon Harry's face. "You ask deep questions, Mr. Potter. Wandlore is a complex and mysterious branch of magic." 　　　"So, it isn't necessary to kill the previous owner to take the possession of a wand?" asked Harry.
　　　"Chestnut and dragon heartstring. Nine-and-a-quarter inches. Brittle. I was forced to make this shortly after my kidnapping, for Peter Pettigrew. Yes, if you won it, it is more likely to do your bidding, and do it well, than another wand."

"And this holds true for all wands, does it?" asked Harry.

Sarto The Last Supper

Sarto The Last SupperSarto Disputation over the TrinityBeardsley Aubrey BeardsleySarto The Annunciation
To be polite, he took a sip from his cup too, and almost gagged: The stuff was quite disgusting, as though someone had liquidized bogey-flavored Every Flavor Beans.

　　　"Well, you see, believers seek the Deathly Hallows," said Xenophilius, smacking his lips in apparent appreciation of the Gurdyroot infusion.

"But what are the Deathly Hallows?" asked Hermione.

Xenophilius set aside his empty teacup.

"I assume that you are familiar with 'The Tale of the Three Brothers'?"

　　　Harry said, "No," but Ron and Hermione both said, "Yes." Xenophilius nodded gravely.

　　　"Well, well, Mr. Potter, the whole thing starts with 'The Tale of the Three Brothers' . . . I have a copy somewhere . . ."

Gockel Sunset Promises I

Gockel Sunset Promises IGockel Sunset Landscape IIGockel Sun Fish IIGockel Sun Fish I
Harry could not answer. The silver doe was nothing, nothing compared with Ron's reappearance; he could not believe it. Shuddering with cold, he caught up the pile of clothes still lying at the water's edge and began to pull them on. As he dragged sweater after sweater over his head, Harry stared at Ron, half expecting him to have disappeared every time he lost sight of him, and yet he had to be real: He had just dived into the pool, he had saved

　　　"It was y-you?" Harry said at last, his teeth chattering, his voice weaker than usual due to his near-strangulation.

"Well, yeah," said Ron, looking slightly confused.

"Y-you cast that doe?"

"What? No, of course not! I thought it was you doing it!"

"My Patronus is a stag."

"Oh yeah. I thought it looked different. No antlers."

O'Keeffe Sunflower, New Mexico 1935

O'Keeffe Sunflower, New Mexico 1935O'Keeffe Summer Days 1936O'Keeffe Series No.1O'Keeffe Red Poppy
mentioned a friendship with Bathilda. Now, however, was not the moment to cast doubt on Hermione's theory, not when she was so surprisingly willing to fall in with Harry's dearest wish.

"Yeah, he might have done! So, are we going to go to Godric's Hollow?"

　　　"Yes, but we'll have to think it through carefully, Harry." She was sitting up now, and Harry could tell that the prospect of having a plan again had lifted her mood as much as his. "We'll need to practice Disapparating together under the Invisibility Cloak for a start, and perhaps Disillusionment Charms would be sensible too, unless you think we should go the whole hog and use Polyjuice Potion? In that case we'll need to collect hair from somebody. I actually think we'd better do that, Harry, the thicker our disguises the better. . . ."

John William Waterhouse Gather Ye Rosebuds while ye may painting

John William Waterhouse Gather Ye Rosebuds while ye may paintingLeonardo da Vinci Leda and the Swan paintingLeonardo da Vinci Head of Christ painting
object twitched close to his face. He pushed himself onto his hands and knees, ready to face some small, fierce creature, but saw that the object was Ron's foot. Looking around, Harry saw that they and Hermione were lying on a forest floor, apparently alone.
younger, they were more widely spaced, the ground clearer. 　　　He met Hermione, also on her hands and knees, at Ron's head. The moment his eyes fell upon Ron, all other concerns fled Harry's mind, for blood
　　　Harry's first thought was of the Forbidden Forest, and for a moment, even though he knew how foolish and dangerous it would be for them to appear in the grounds of Hogwarts, his heart leapt at the thought of sneaking through the trees to Hagrid's hut. However, in the few moments it took for Ron to give a low groan and Harry to start crawling toward him, he realized that this was not the Forbidden Forest; The trees looked

Gustav Klimt Expectation (gold foil) painting

Gustav Klimt Expectation (gold foil) paintingSalvador Dali The Persistence of Memory paintingSalvador Dali Figure at a Window painting
"Kreacher, I'd, er, like you to have this," he said, pressing the locket into the elf's hand. "This belonged to Regulus and I'm sure he'd want you to have it as a token of gratitude for what you—"
in his dirty blankets, and assured him that they would make its protection their first priority while he was away. He then made two low bows to Harry and Ron, and even gave a funny little spasm in Hermione's direction that might have been an attempt at a respectful salute, before Disapparating with the usual loud crack.
　　　"Overkill, mate," said Ron as the elf took one look at the locket, let out a howl of shock and misery, and threw himself back onto the ground.

　　　It took them nearly half an hour to calm down Kreacher, who was so overcome to be presented with a Black family heirloom for his very own that he was too weak at the knees to stand properly. When finally he was able to totter a few steps they all accompanied him to his cupboard, watched him tuck up the locket safely

Vincent van Gogh Olive grove painting

Vincent van Gogh Olive grove paintingVincent van Gogh Le Moulin a Poivre paintingVincent van Gogh Landscape with Olive Trees painting
We'll have time later," shrugged Ron, snatching three butterbeers from a passing tray and handing one to Harry. "Hermione, cop hold, let's grab a table…. Not there! Nowhere near Muriel –"

　　　Ron led the way across the empty dance floor, glancing left and right as he went; Harry felt sure that he was keeping an eye out for Krum. By the time they had reached the other side of the marquee, most of the tables were occupied: The emptiest was the one where Luna sat alone.

"All right if we join you?" asked Ron.

　　　"Oh yes," she said happily. "Daddy's just gone to give Bill and Fleur our present."


　　　Hermione aimed a kick at him under the table, but caught Harry

Salvador Dali Sleep painting

Salvador Dali Sleep paintingSalvador Dali Pierrot and Guitar paintingSalvador Dali Leda Atomica painting
sat, spectacles perched on the end of her nose, scanning an immense list of jobs that she had scribbled on a very long piece of parchment. "Now, Ron, have you cleaned out your room yet?"

　　　"Why?" exclaimed Ron, slamming his spoon down and glaring at his mother. "Why does my room have to be cleaned out? Harry and I are fine with it the way it is!"

"We are holdin
　　　"And are they getting married in my bedroom?" asked Ron furiously. "No! So why in the name of Merlin's saggy left –"

　　　"Don't talk to your mother like that," said Mr. Weasley firmly. "And do as you're told."

　　　Ron scowled at both his parents, then picked up his spoon and

George Frederick Watts paintings

George Frederick Watts paintings
Guercino paintings
Drop in currency value since a year ago: 28%The Aussies' unoriginally named currency almost managed parity with the American dollar in recent years. Not anymore. The Down Under dollar now gets you only about 66 cents. Book a spin on a "champagne flight" on the London Eye — the giant Ferris wheel (and millennial white elephant) on the banks of the Thames — for a mere $692. Or don't.
Henry Peeters paintings
. But that opens the Land of Thunder's many delights to the American budget traveler — once, of course, you mortgage your devalued Home for a plane ticket. Round-trip tickets from New York City to Sydney are going for about $1,400. On the upside, when it's winter in the North, it's summer over there. GREAT BRITAINDrop in currency value since a year ago: 23%Admittedly, it's difficult to put England on any kind of budget-travel list, given that a brief, one-way trip on the 145-year-old London Underground will still run you more than $6. But compared with a year ago, when you needed more than $2 to buy a single coin with the Queen of England's face on it, Britain has gotten considerably cheaper — relatively

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge A Friend in Need painting

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge A Friend in Need paintingEdvard Munch Puberty 1894 paintingEdvard Munch Madonna painting
probably his niece, and he felt ashamed that he didn't know her name -- was taking Polaroid snapshots of Changez with his visitors, and the sick man was enjoying himself hugely, pulling faces, then kissing the many proffered cheeks with a light in his eyes that Salahuddin identified as nostalgia. "It's like a birthday party," he thought. Or: like Finnegan's wake. The dead man refusing to lie down and let the living have all the fun.
"We have to tell him," Salahuddin insisted when the visitors had left. Nasreen bowed her head; and nodded. Kasturba burst into tears.
They told him the next morning, having asked the specialist to attend to answer any questions Changez might have. The specialist, Panikkar (a name the English would mispronounce and giggle over, Salahuddin thought

Edvard Munch The Scream painting

Edvard Munch The Scream paintingGustav Klimt Mother and Child detail from The Three Ages of Woman paintingGuido Reni The Archangel Michael painting
from the pilgrimage, and was mooching along disconsolately, a little distance apart from the rest, sniffing the bougainvillaea bushes. Saeed jumped out of the Mercedes and rushed off to Ayesha, to make another scene. "You monster!" he shouted. "Monster without a heart! Why did you bring the old woman here to die?" She ignored him, but on his way back to the station wagon the Sarpanch came over and said: "We were poor people. We knew we could never hope to go to Mecca Sharif, until she persuaded. She persuaded, and now see the outcome of her deeds."
Ayesha the kahin asked to speak to the Sarpanch, but gave him not a single word of consolation. "Harden your faith," she scolded him. "She who dies on the great pilgrimage is assured in Paradise. Your wife is sitting now among the angels and the flowers; what is there for you to regret?"
That evening the Sarpanch Muhammad Din approached Mirza Saeed as he sat by a small campfire. "Excuse, Sethji," he said, "but is it possible that I

Vincent van Gogh Road with Cypresses painting

Vincent van Gogh Road with Cypresses paintingVincent van Gogh Peach Tree in Blossom paintingVincent van Gogh Olive grove I painting
exercises. "Miss Alleluia Cone, the one who climbed Everest. I was meaning to introduce you two. She knows, I mean, she's apparently with, Gibreel. Gibreel Farishta, the actor, your fellow--survivor of the crash."
_Things are closing with fluorescent paint; Mishal probably had on some piece of space-age junk jewellery. -- But his other self took over again, _she's off limits to you_, it said, _not all possibilities are open to us. The world is finite; our hopes spill over its rim_. -- Whereupon his heart got in on the act, bababoom, boomba, dabadoom.
Now he was outside, with Jumpy Sikelel" iAfrika_. As if all causes were the same, all histories interchangeable. -- But he said none of these things, because his head had begun to spin and his senses to reel, owing to his having been given, for the first time in his , a stupefying premonition of his death.
-- Hanif Johnson

Juan Gris Pears and Grapes on a Table painting

Juan Gris Pears and Grapes on a Table paintingJuan Gris Guitar with Clarinet paintingJuan Gris Guitar on a Table painting
But Khalid, Mahound's general, could not find Baal. In spite of door--to--door searches, proclamations, turnings of stones, the poet proved impossible to nab. And Mahound's lips remained closed, would not part to allow his wishes to emerge. Finally, and not without irritation, Khalid gave up the search. "Just let that bastard show his face, just once, any time," he vowed in the Prophet's tent of softnesses and shadows. "I'll slice him so thin you'll be able to see right through each piece."
It seemed to Khalid that Mahound looked disappointed; but in the low light of the tent it was impossible to be sure.
o o o
Jahilia settled down a day, no alcohol, the locking up of wives. Hind herself retired to her quarters . . . but where was Baal?

Claude Monet Poplars on the Epte painting

Claude Monet Poplars on the Epte paintingBerthe Morisot Behind the Blinds paintingBerthe Morisot The Harbor at Lorient painting
and all, crying: "Father Christmas is dead! I have killed him! I am The Mao: no presents for anyone! Hee! Hee! Hee!" Allie on Everest, remembering, winced -- her mother's wince, she realized, transferred to her frosted face.
The tent at Camp Four, 27,600 feet, the idea which seemed at times to be her father's daemon sounded banal, emptied of meaning, of _atmosphere_, by the altitude. "Everest silences you," she confessed to Gibreel Far-- ishta in a bed above which parachute silk formed a canopy of hollow Himalayas. "When you come down, nothing seems worth saying, nothing at all. You find the nothingness wrapping you up, like a sound. Non-being. You can't keep it up, of course. The world rushes in soon enough. What shuts you up is, I think, the sight you've had of perfection: why speak if you can't manage perfect thoughts, perfect sentences? It feels like a betrayal of what you've been through. But it fades; you accept that certain compromises, closures, are required if you're to continue." They spent most of their

Thomas Kinkade Hometown Christmas painting

Thomas Kinkade Hometown Christmas paintingThomas Kinkade Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco paintingThomas Kinkade Evening on the Avenue painting
from her hairline to the tip of her nose, swung about and headed in an unbroken line inwards to her neck. He saw in the yellow light that her skin was growing darker by the minute, and her teeth more prominent, and her body as long as a child's stick-figure drawing. At the same time she was casting him glances of an ever more explicit lechery, and grasping his hand in fingers so bony and inescapable that it was as though a skeleton had seized him and was trying to drag him down into a grave; he could smell the freshly dug earth, the cloying scent of it, on her breath, on her lips . . . revulsion seized him. How could he ever have thought her even desired her, even gone so far as to fantasize, while she straddled him and pummelled fluid from his lungs, that they were lovers in the violent throes of sexual congress? . . . The city thickened around them like a forest; the buildings twined together and grew as matted as her hair. "No light can get in here," she whispered to him. "It's black; all black." She made as if to lie down and pull him towards her, towards the earth, but he shouted, "Quick, the church," and plunged into an

James Jacques Joseph Tissot Too Early painting

James Jacques Joseph Tissot Too Early paintingHenri Rousseau Woman Walking in an Exotic Forest paintingHenri Rousseau war painting
himself, not some minor sadist with a talent for extracting toenails or setting fire to eyelids, but the great haramzada in person. The day after Mahmood and Renata moved in to their new apartment a letter arrived for Mahmood. _Okay, shit-eater, you're fucking my woman, I just wanted to say hello_. The next day a second letter arrived. _By the way, prick, I forgot to mention, here is your new telephone number_. At that point Mahmood and Renata had asked for an exdirectory listing but had not as yet been given their new number by the telephone company. When it came through two days later and was exactly the same as the one on the letter, Mahmood's hair fell out all at once. Then, seeing it lying on the pillow, he joined his hands together in front of Renata and begged, "Baby, I love you, but you're too hot for me, please go somewhere, far far." When the Imam was told this story he shook his head and said, that whore, who will touch her now, in spite of her lustcreating body? She put a stain on herself worse than leprosy; thus do human beings mutilate themselves. But the true moral of the fable was the need for eternal vigilance