Morgan Micro Fiction

[Mira]

Morgan arrived 10 hours after Harry went into the foster care system. I don't expect Morgan to go into the details of the system of care for orphans, so I'm assuming he just means from the custody of first responders to the child care system. I imagine that could easily take a couple of hours. Justin wasn't a foster father. He adopted Harry. Foster care is generally considered temporary. Adoption is permanent.

Since Harry was only about six years of age when Malcolm died.. Traumatic for a small child to wake up and discover his daddy cannot, the police I imagine would have arrived first, then the ambulance, he would have been given a teddy bear and handed immediately to child services.  There may have been some attempt to locate immediate family, but there were no emergency contacts for little Harry, so he'd go pretty rapidly into foster care.  While Justin didn't have contact, there was a "nice
lady" who did, and that was Lea.  She'd have the power to wall Harry off, but why?

The thought just came to me that since he was a star child, Lea knew that there were enemy forces out to get him, so she kept him hidden.  However it would be hard to hide the fact when his powers began to awaken.  Why she let Justin have him is anyone's guess, but even she isn't immune to making mistakes.  I doubt she was on Justin's side or knew fully of his intentions otherwise she wouldn't have helped Harry get ready to kill him.

[Con]

While Justin didn't have contact, there was a "nice
lady" who did, and that was Lea.  She'd have the power to wall Harry off, but why?

The thought just came to me that since he was a star child, Lea knew that there were enemy forces out to get him, so she kept him hidden.  However it would be hard to hide the fact when his powers began to awaken.  Why she let Justin have him is anyone's guess, but even she isn't immune to making mistakes.  I doubt she was on Justin's side or knew fully of his intentions otherwise she wouldn't have helped Harry get ready to kill him.

Lea thinks that Justin was a great teacher, using pain and emotional manipulation to forge him into a weapon. It's kind of her thing.

[morriswalters]

Lea knew that there were enemy forces out to get him, so she kept him hidden.

Has anybody considered that Lea is enemy forces?

[Mira]

Has anybody considered that Lea is enemy forces?

   I have, or I wrote about is a few years back, it was when I did my first reread.  While yes, when
we first meet Lea it is seen though the lens of Harry's extreme paranoia about her, not helped by her
desire to turn him into one of her hounds to keep him "safe."   Having said that, her ambition and thirst for power comes through which ends with her bargaining a Holy Sword for the Knife, which we now know is infected.  The general theory is she was infected by the Knife and was later cured by Mab when she put her on ice.  It was my opinion then that she might have been infected before she came in contact with the Knife.   If she was, it would account for her being okay with Harry going to Justin for his training, then when Harry proved himself by escaping enthrallment, neutralizing HWWB, Justin could be discarded.... So she then supposedly helped Harry eliminate him, what she did was trick an inexperienced sixteen year old kid into a bargain.   We find out later that she did little to aid Harry except perhaps a "confidence boost" as Jim puts it, but it makes Harry obligated to her with the hope of later making use of him.  All this plays into the Enemy's hands, except Mab had other plans.

[noblehunter]

   I have, or I wrote about is a few years back, it was when I did my first reread.  While yes, when
we first meet Lea it is seen though the lens of Harry's extreme paranoia about her, not helped by her
desire to turn him into one of her hounds to keep him "safe."   Having said that, her ambition and thirst for power comes through which ends with her bargaining a Holy Sword for the Knife, which we now know is infected.  The general theory is she was infected by the Knife and was later cured by Mab when she put her on ice.  It was my opinion then that she might have been infected before she came in contact with the Knife.   If she was, it would account for her being okay with Harry going to Justin for his training, then when Harry proved himself by escaping enthrallment, neutralizing HWWB, Justin could be discarded.... So she then supposedly helped Harry eliminate him, what she did was trick an inexperienced sixteen year old kid into a bargain.   We find out later that she did little to aid Harry except perhaps a "confidence boost" as Jim puts it, but it makes Harry obligated to her with the hope of later making use of him.  All this plays into the Enemy's hands, except Mab had other plans.

Lea did have the fairy godmother bargain running at the time which complicates her relationship to Harry.

What's clear from the journal though is that whoever killed Malcom wanted Harry to go into the system. Disappearing someone from the bureaucracy in less than a day is way more work than faking an identity long enough to kidnap a kid with no relatives. Harder to maintain, too, since foster parents/orphanage staff complain if they've got an extra kid so you'd need to create a cover identity that holds well enough so no one asks why Harry's name on the paperwork is different. To my mind, that strengthens Justin's place at the top of the short list.

Other people on the short list: Mab and The White King. Nic and Cowl would be on there but they didn't seem to show any particular familiarity with Harry. Both seem the type to drop cryptic hints while gloating.

[Mira]

Lea did have the fairy godmother bargain running at the time which complicates her relationship to Harry.

  But if she was fighting infestation the whole time it would throw her into conflict as far as her
promise to Margaret was concerned as far as playing god mother to Harry.  In Grave Peril when we
first meet her in the Nevernever, Lea claims that Margaret gave him to her, she also claims that Harry promised to be hers..  It is clear that she wants Harry for her own purpose, which speaks more to a grab for power than a promise of protection.  We don't know what the original bargain was with Margaret for Harry's protection, but Nemesis infection could distort that considerably.   Just contrast Lea's attitude in Grave Peril verses after Proven Guilty when she has received treatment..  In her case I don't think it was just the Knife, I believe she was infected before.

[Dina]

He said he arrived 10 hours after Harry went into foster care, not 10 hours after Malcolm died.  We just established that there's several years between.

@exartiem. "Harry went into foster care" means "Harry was sent to the foster system. He was recorded, sent to an orphanage" not "he has been adopted". That happened 4 years later. Mira is probably right about what happened immediately after Malcolm died, with police, social workers and so on. I imagine in a day or two he was in an orphanage, and someone hid him from other people, like Morgan. I think the easier option is that is Lea. She considered that Harry was safe in the system, but she made sure that no one else knew about him. She probably messed with the paperwork (which was not very complicated when Harry was a child) and did some glamour so he was magically protected too. I am not sure what "physically" meant here.

In other topics, it is very interesting that clearly no one seems to know about Elaine status as a starborn (which reminds me. We know that because of WoJ, but have we seen anyone on the books who explicitly knows that? Does Harry know that?)

[Mira]

@exartiem. "Harry went into foster care" means "Harry was sent to the foster system. He was recorded, sent to an orphanage" not "he has been adopted". That happened 4 years later. Mira is probably right about what happened immediately after Malcolm died, with police, social workers and so on. I imagine in a day or two he was in an orphanage, and someone hid him from other people, like Morgan. I think the easier option is that is Lea. She considered that Harry was safe in the system, but she made sure that no one else knew about him. She probably messed with the paperwork (which was not very complicated when Harry was a child) and did some glamour so he was magically protected too. I am not sure what "physically" meant here.

In other topics, it is very interesting that clearly no one seems to know about Elaine status as a starborn (which reminds me. We know that because of WoJ, but have we seen anyone on the books who explicitly knows that? Does Harry know that?)

  As far as I know, no..  I think the only mention of Elaine possibly being a star born came in the form of a WOJ, and that was some years ago now.   If anyone remembers something from the books please come forward, I don't remember any mention.  Only thing close to it is Lea saying that both Harry and Elaine were meant to be enforcers.  That doesn't say it, just puts them on par perhaps power wise.   So another Harry Potter parallel perhaps?  Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom, it was
a toss up between who was going to be the chosen one... Harry and Elaine, toss up as to whom was going to be the star born...

[forumghost]

Well, we know that Justin figured it out, so someone probably does.

The thing is that we don't know much about Elaine at all really, because she's been hanging in the background avoiding notice and probably plotting maniacally, and Harry never told anyone that a Second apprentice of Justin even existed.

It's possible that there's some other Wizard out there who's kicking themselves for failing Elaine's parents the way that Morgan apparently was for breaking his word to Maggie Sr, and we'll never know because Harry is covering for her.

[morriswalters]

Why would anyone believe that Justin figured anything out? Chauncy says early on the Margaret was headed to hell. Would it be unreasonable to suggest that Elaine and Harry were a part of some plot hatched before Maggie got cold feet and hit the road? 

It's always struck me as strange that in a span of less than two years, Maggie met, fell in love and had a baby by Malcolm, all while hiding from Papa Raith and an entropy curse. Knowing full well that she was ded dead. If still mobile.  Malcolm was always going to be a widower.  What kind of women chooses to have a child under those conditions.  And what kind of man would become a father under those same conditions. Here is the timeline.

~26-27 BSF: Thomas is given a pentacle necklace on his fifth birthday. His mother escapes Lord Raith.

26 BSF: Maggie LeFay meets Malcolm Dresden.

~25 BSF: Collin Murphy saves rookie CPD officer Rawlins from an unspecified supernatural creature in a dark alley, killing it with a shotgun full of rock salt. (~30 years before Dead Beat)

26 BSF, some time between August and October – Malcolm Dresden and his heavily-pregnant wife Margaret visit the Lincoln Memorial.

That timeline is dodgy.

[Mira]

It's always struck me as strange that in a span of less than two years, Maggie met, fell in love and had a baby by Malcolm, all while hiding from Papa Raith and an entropy curse. Knowing full well that she was ded dead. If still mobile.  Malcolm was always going to be a widower.  What kind of women chooses to have a child under those conditions.  And what kind of man would become a father under those same conditions. Here is the timeline.

Eb says that meeting Malcolm gave the strength to leave Lord Raith.  However it goes back to my theory that Margaret was a spy, she ran with the bad crowd and committed crimes because that was the only way to infiltrate them.  What she saw made her decide that she had to do something more, when she found the right man, she did it.  Very few, maybe not even her own father knew the whole story.  The Micro fiction suggests that Morgan did, given her reputation and his reputation, pregnant or not, the Morgan of most of the books would have lopped off the head of anyone with her kind of rap sheet and asked questions later.   Instead he promises to look after her child? 

[forumghost]

I mean we don't know anything about Elaine, so it could be that she was just born in the right circumstances and Justin found her, unlike Harry whose birth was almost certainly engineered:

[Margaret] touched my face again and said, "I was so arrogant. I laid too great a burden upon you to bear alone. I hope that one day you will forgive me my mistake. But know that I am proud of what you have become. I love you, child."

"I love you," I whispered.

"An Outsider," Lasciel said. "I have felt such a presence before. This attack is drawn directly from the mind of the Outsider."

Gosh, that was interesting. Not relevant, but interesting.

"It is relevant," Lasciel said, "because of the circumstances of your birth - because of why you were born, Harry. Your mother found the strength to escape Lord Raith for a reason."

What the hell was she talking about?

Thud-thump : 1:26.

"There was a complex confluence of events, of energies, of circumstances that would have given a child born under them the potential to wield power over Outsiders."

So yeah, mumma Dresden (who we know was always a piece of work) totally had him on purpose to fuck up whatever her old cabal was up to. That she fell in love with Malcolm and chose him to be the father was probably just good fortune on her/Harry's part.

[morriswalters]

I mean we don't know anything about Elaine, so it could be that she was just born in the right circumstances and Justin found her, unlike Harry whose birth was almost certainly engineered:

So yeah, mumma Dresden (who we know was always a piece of work) totally had him on purpose to fuck up whatever her old cabal was up to. That she fell in love with Malcolm and chose him to be the father was probably just good fortune on her/Harry's part.

What I am suggesting is that Harry was what the cabal was up to.  And Elaine being random strains credulity to the limits.  Unless Jim is throwing reality straight out the window.  The timeline allows the possibility that Margaret ran because she found out she was pregnant and Malcolm's Saintlyness involved raising and loving a child he didn't father.

@Mira
Your giving Eb access to information that Eb shouldn't have had.  While my read of the text indicates that Eb was aware of Malcolm and therefore Harry  prior to Malcolm's death, there isn't anything to indicate that he ever spoke to Maggie before she died. If that is true he wouldn't have any idea of why she ran.

[apgrey]

Ref:  https://www.paranetonline.com/index.php/topic,50129.msg2289460.html#msg2289460

  I put out the theory a while back that perhaps Justin and Margaret LeFay were working together to learn how to create a starborn.
  This idea explains how Justin was able to find Elaine as well as Harry.  Both are powerful and skilled wizards, it is not believable that Justin could have found two such apprentices by chance.

APG

[Con]

Ref:  https://www.paranetonline.com/index.php/topic,50129.msg2289460.html#msg2289460

  I put out the theory a while back that perhaps Justin and Margaret LeFay were working together to learn how to create a starborn.
  This idea explains how Justin was able to find Elaine as well as Harry.  Both are powerful and skilled wizards, it is not believable that Justin could have found two such apprentices by chance.

APG

It's a common theory. Along with Maggie being the main recruiter of what we know of the Black Council, Black Circle and Black Hats. Or atleast being crucially involved.

But yeah that is what Maggie Sr and Papa Raith were working on is a common theory. Definitely seems likely that Justin was specifically able to track and train Starborns.