701 - 720 of 8,870 Stories

Voldemort's powers are growing. To the world, Harry Potter was destroyed at the dark wizard's Azkaban fortress. With hope apparently gone, who will come forth to save the world from Voldemort's grasp?

One Halloween at Hogwarts, the students participate in a fancy dress ball, staff vs students Quidditch, and a secret after-party party, where a drunken game of Truth or Dare reveals a hidden desire between two of the most infamous students...````Featuring: a stereotypical Hermione, a party-animal Ron, a bored Harry, and a sexy sneering Draco!

COMPLETE. What is it about Scarlett that sparks a phenomenon unlike any Hogwarts has ever seen? What is it about her candid newsletter that has the boys writing her avid fan mail? What is it about this woman that has the girls seething with jealousy? What is it about her that sends the teachers to the end of their last nerve? And why in the world has she fallen in love with Gregory Goyle? Is there more to her than meets the eye? Find out in "The Scarlett Letter"! Based on true events.

Five years into his imprisonment, Sirius finds an article with a picture of his godson. He escapes Azkaban, determined to see Harry at all costs. But when he finds the six and a half year old child neglected and abused, he makes a decision that traps him under more troubles than ever before.

A romance during Harry's sixth year. During the Christmas Holidays Harry gives Hermione a special gift which turns out to be a lot more than either he or Hermione ever bargained for. ``H/Hr

Hermione's at the Institute for Furthering Thaumaturgical Study, Harry has a real job, Ron's trying not to get one, and Viktor just wants to find an intelligent woman in professional Quidditch.

Picks up right where OoTP leaves off. Harry is released from the Dursleys early and spends the summer with the Weasleys, and goes back to Hogwarts with strange new feelings for Ginny. He is visted by a mysterious Shadow who teaches him about the Power Within...Love. Ron is experiencing some odd side effects from the brains, and Malfoy is curiously quiet.

Harry learns that he is a wizard long before anyone intended. Without anyone teaching him, he does not know what should be impossible. He breaks the rules of magic with help from his bushy-haired friend. AU from age 7 through 7th year. Eventual Harry/Ginny/Luna soul bond, and a sibling bond with Hermione.

Set ten years after Hogwarts, two enemies meet again.``Harry is a star quidditch player,``Draco is an... Unspeakable``Hermione and Ron are married.

Things seem more complicated than they are when Harry and Draco serve detention class together.

SLASH! PARODY! These raunchy journal entries expose the burning, secret``thoughts and desires of Hogwarts’ sex-crazed students and staff! Warning:``contains excessive references to Harry’s eyes, Draco’s cherry, cold showers,``kinky leather goodies, and a virgin sacrifice for Uncle Voldie!

Harry lives only to fulfill the demands of the Prophecy. When a vague companion prophecy makes it clear that death may come sooner than he thought, he is content to oblige. Rated for violence and suicide themes. Post-Hogwarts, Non HPB/DH compliant. Complete

In the summer after Ginny's fifth year, Harry comes to visit the Burrow, and chemistry emerges. Everything is perfect (despite a disgruntled Ron). That is, until Draco shows up on their doorstep (and Ginny is the only one who knows he is there), telling the story of how he fled from his own home because his father is planning to become the next Dark Lord. Harry, Draco and Ginny come to realize that they may have a bond stronger than any Hogwarts rivalry.... Mostly H/G and D/G, but there's also R/Hr, D/Hr, D/OC, and a tad of H/OC. Beware - jokes, countless ships, fierce snogging, and fluffiness abound. You have been warned.

Draco is innocently wandering the corridors when he stumbles on a meeting of an underground Harry Potter fan club, and recruited into it against his will. However, he soon realizes he doesn't mind some aspects of the club...such as spying on Potter.

Set weeks after “From Dreams to Reality”, Hermione’s newest sequence of Clairvoyant Dreams turn her world upside-down once more. With new sleeping arrangements and a complicated, changing relationship with Draco, Hermione fights to pass her upcoming NEWTs and sort out Harry’s new advances while still running her busy life. And over time, she is, along with Harry, Ron, Draco and a few others, faced with the hardest challenge she has ever faced: Fighting against Voldemort … in her Dreams! (D/Hr & a tiny bit of H/Hr – Impossible to resist!)

What would have happened if Harry's parents killed Voldemort on that night? Would Harry have grown up a rich snob like Malfoy? Would he have been more like Ron and his family? What would everyone in general's life have been like? Would they have still been friends with Hermione? All questions shall be answered within. Please R/R!

Hogwarts is under seige, and even when the battle is won, the problems have not been solved. It will take all of the houses working together to set things right, and that means that Harry and Draco must work together. Appearances by Tom Riddle, Lily and James Potter, and many many more...

Harry has been in Azkaban for years. When he is finally set free, he finds Dumbledore dead, Snape insane, Remus turned into a wolf, and Lucius Malfoy a fugitive innocent of the murder he's blamed for. When Sirius shows up, though, many things are resolved.

Harry ran away from the Dursleys when he was six. Now, ten years later, he's been found. And he's not planning on being anybody's hero.

Ginny Weasley meets the object of her affections for coffee every morning in an Italian caffé down the street from their apartment buildings. A sometimes light-hearted, sometimes angsty look at the frustrations involved with being in love with Harry Potter after the war. Set in a wizarding university town inside of London.

HPFD, post GoF. Thanks to a mysterious voice, Fleur Delacour stops Harry Potter from touching the trapped Cup and discovers that the two of them share an ancient and powerful connection.

-"Draco Malfoy: The Saga", Sometimes in dark times it is the evil man that is the hero and the hero that needs saving. Yes, I want power and strength, but I also want Potter! I just happen to want Potter more then power and strength. Where is it written? That I can not have Potter, Power, and strength? I just have to be "Good" *shudders* I can pull that off! Book 1: "The Tale of Two Rings"

Third installment of the Mage Knights series. Peace has returned to Magiterran, and happiness reigns throughout the Four-Kingdom Alliance. Yet, there is a shadow on the horizon for evil has survived, in the form of an ancient crystal.

The war is over; Harry has buried himself in the tedium of a job, Draco has lost himself in stale vengeance. When Harry loses his memory, Draco steps in to tell him an alternate version of their lives. There are lies and then there are truths that only look like lies.

Ginny Weasley, the girl with a past she has not quite come to terms with. Grappling with the threat of a renewed war in the wizarding world, her own adolescence – a growing confidence versus endless worries, insecurities and rapidly accumulating ghosts – and her search for her own voice, Ginny subsequently learns to tackle an embittered Harry, a less-than-perfect Cho, a not-quite-repentant Percy, a self-deprecating Ron…and to befriend an indefinable, contradictory Draco Malfoy. Through it all, Ginny tries to redeem what she had gambled and lost in her first year, but unbeknownst to her, darkness often has a way of claiming ownership over more than what it owns…Post OoTP, possibly D/G or H/G, with references to former Tom/G.

The night James Potter died, Sirius Black stopped to think, and three lives unfolded another way. One-shot, AU, RL/SB.

When Draco Malfoy decides to put on a show, boy, does he have a lot to show. And when he puts on a show for Harry Potter, everyone gets to enjoy the act...

Draco, Ginny, Hermione, Harry and Ron are all transported to the``time of the founders, under the guise of the founders themselves. There they``must retrieve a hidden gem which is, in the present day, in the hands of Lord``Voldemort. With it he can destroy the world. But things then don’t go quite to``plan…With snogs, love triangles, angry wives and black silk boxers.

Post-Hogwarts Ron has a midnight visitor - when will Harry learn to call ahead? This, my friends, is a friend. Features Ron's observations on the Ministry, Harry's sex life and the infamous WUC. Written for the Boozefest http://boozefest.netfirms.com.

Sequel to "For Better or For Worse". It's been almost a year since Ron & Hermione's wedding. Neville & Ginny are about to walk down the aisle while Ron & Hermione are celebrating their first anniversary. Cho Chang is still carrying a torch for Harry Potter. Not to mention the fact that Luna & Hermione are expecting at the same time (one is planned, the other not-so-much). Come along for the sometimes bumpy ride on this long, strange trip into marriage, parenthood and friendship with plenty of humor, romance (and a little betrayal) mixed in for good measure.

AU – The life of Harry Potter, the schoolteacher, changes abruptly, when a party of rich unmarried men comes to visit his town. Will he be able to win over the man he loves?

The Trio are caught in Hogsmeade. Voldemort decides to have a little fun before offering Hermione a horrible choice.

Taking place directly after Harry's sixth year, "Soul Splitting" deals with the search for Horcruxes, as well as how Harry and his companions deal with the build up to the final battle against Voldemort. Along the way Harry must do his best to uphold the lessons Dumbledore taught him, which means putting his trust in someone he never would have imagined -- Draco Malfoy. Eventual Harry/Draco slash.

The fifteen-year-old Harry Potter had been staying at the Dursleys for a whole week now. He would constantly get owls from his friends but these weren’t enough to cheer his bleak existence. The thought of Sirius falling through the veil would always flash inside his head whether he was awake or asleep. He hated doing chores but it helped him get his mind off those sad memories.

This is a sweet Harry/Ginny school romance which could be set in the summer of almost any year at Hogwarts and still make sense. No spoilers, no real angst and completely unrealistic. Practical AU.

A Post-Hogwarts Story. How do you reconcile when you’ve changed so much and yet so little?

What if Harry Potter had not been left on the doorstep of Vernon and Petunia Dursley after his parents were killed? What if he had not grown up reviled and abused, living in a cupboard under the stairs? What if, instead, he was adopted, and loved, by a very different family? Here's one AU version of what might have happened.

Harry gets attacked by two creatures and becomes a combination of both. But that's not all he has to deal with in his 6th year at Hogwarts.

At sixteen, Harry made a terrible mistake that will cost him for the rest of his life. His new necromancer teacher saves him, giving him new abilities and a strange new appearance in the process. Over the course of three years, the war with Voldemort progresses and the Order of the Phoenix is losing. Even their most powerful Auror, Harry Potter, cannot stop the newly-immortal Dark Lord. Nineteen-year-old Harry decides to return to a time when he could. His sixteen-year-old self must take his place in the grim future. AU, time travel, themes of suicide/depression.

Every Friday night there's a party somewhere. This is the story ``of Harry Potter's party and the events that come after it. If you ever wondered ``what the gang is like when they're drunk, this fic will answer all of your questions.

"If it had been someone else, maybe they had been pushed over the edge earlier, but that doesn’t matter. The fact is that this was my last push, the last thing that was needed to block me from the world." Is Harry able to handle Sirius death and the new about the prophecy? The answer is no.

Hampered by bureaucratic red tape and a distinct lack of clues, Harry is nearly twenty one and is scarcely any further along with the Horcrux search than he was three years earlier. Only now - as Harry and Ron are taken firmly under the wing of the Auror Department, Hermione returns to London after two years of further study, and Ginny begins working for the deeply mysterious Cryptology Bureau - do the pieces start falling into place. Sinister affairs at Charlie's Romanian dragon camp spark a series of events which opens up a world of intrigue and begins a perilous quest that will take the quartet all over the globe. Exotic locations, dungeons, dragons, Unforgivable Curses, old friends (and foes!), and the essential ingredient, romance!

Three years post-HBP. Hermione and the Order want to break Harry out of Azkaban. The bespectacled twit got himself thrown in there when he failed to kill Lucius Malfoy subtly enough. Starts off H/G and R/Hr but Ron and Ginny are killed off in the first chapter. Hermione burns Harry in effigy, kills Draco, negotiates with a traitorous and unredeemable Snape, brews potions with Fleur, gets drunk with the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan, organizes an illegal jailbreak, writes columns for the Quibbler, and helps Harry come to terms with his Animagus form. This fic comes with a warning (aimed at diabetic readers) for an excessively sappy ending.

Ron Weasley has always been the brother of whoever Weasley or Harry Potter's sidekick. He knows no other life. So he makes a decision to find his own identity. But what happens after he's discovered who he really is?

Harry gets an unexpected visit at the Dursleys' from Lavender. Together they must set out on a journey to rescue Lavender's parents. A journey which will include adventure! surprises! danger! and....snogs! *gasp*

Over the summer, Harry Potter starts getting mysterious letters from a guy that claims he wants to apologize for all the stuff that is going on. Then, when he gets back to school, he finds out that someone is starting a band and decides to change his appearance so he has a chance to be in it. Who is this mysterious letter writer?

Four years on from Hogwarts, Ginny has faced up to Harry's indifference and made a life for herself. However, she is forced to re-examine her feelings when he returns to London to solve a mystery and save his friends from grave danger.

Set five years after Harry, Hermione and Ron leave Hogwarts. They are back at the place that figured so hugely in their past, at a reunion that will prove to be very influential on their future. Ginny is all grown up, despite ``everyone's best efforts to stop her being just that, and she discovers that being an adult has several advantages, one Draco-shaped one in particular. Yes, Draco Malfoy makes an appearance, and causes the usual Malfoy-style impact. The plot (yes, there is a plot) will get darker much later on, but I don't plan for the fic to be that long in total.

This story begins where the Goblet of Fire left off. Harry has to come to terms with what has happened and the implications it has for the future. What is Arabella Figg's part in all this? Why is Neville so forgetful? And does Harry stand any chance with Cho?

The Ministry is in chaos- danger, death, & doomed romance all ensue with the advent of Voldemort. What will happen next to the``unfortunate students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy? There's lots of angst and drama in the later chapters. Written before OotP.

Due to a blunder by Neville, Harry is able to auras around others that tell him what they are feeling. Can the pure, undisguised love that Draco is sending Harry's way be a front, or is it something real? Can Harry deal with it if it is real? Will he be willing to give up his newfound love for an old family friend at his heart’s demand? Questions flow through Harry's mind as emotions scream through his heart.

Draco returns after an unexplained absence... Someone commented that the Escort Series didn't really belong on The Dark Arts. Well, this one does.

Aurora, a transfer student, begins her seventh year at Hogwarts. What follows is a year of friendships, pranks, revealing secrets, heartache, the Final Battle, and more.

Harry cannot cope with the tragedy. Dumbledore tries to cheer him up with a very unusual birthday present. Harry finds himself in year 1976 and he has one-in-the-lifetime chance to Meet the Parents.

They settled back into their old roles with an eerie ease, talking and pacing and arguing and assuring like the war still wasn’t over, for maybe it wasn’t, maybe they had been foolish to think that the war would end with Voldemort.

Albus leaves Hogwarts due to a important meeting and Snape seizes his chance to take over the school. NT/SS.

It's the summer before seventh-year and everyone is on their summer vacations. But mysterious events happen and twist the fate of the others. Harry receives a guest, Hermione runs into an alley where something is about to go down, and Ginny sees something strange in the distance. But that is just the beginning.

During the summer before sixth year, Harry Potter is sucked into another universe by forces not of this world. Dazed and confused, Harry finds himself in a world where his parents were never murdered, where Voldemort had never fallen and he is Voldemort’s key enforcer. Harry finds himself feared and despised within the community, revered and honoured by the Death Eaters, and endowed with instincts and abilities he has never known. As Harry discovers the terrible deeds he has done, he sets about trying to rectify what he never remembers doing.

Two days before the start of her third year at Hogwarts, Hermione receives a letter. But who from? And why is she suddenly having strange dreams?

If Sirius Black can handle Severus Snape for seven years at Hogwarts, then watching baby Harry, his godson, for the weekend should be a breeze, right? WRONG! Find out what really happens when James and Lily leave Harry in his watch.

Severus feels responsible to ease Harry's grief over the passing of Cho Chang. From there, their relationship grows. Slash.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione have been the best of friends since their first year at Hogwarts. It is now their fifth year. The truth finally comes out and in more then one way. Ron and Harry are sick of Hermione acting like she's better than them. Thus, the fight begins. Will this be the end of their friendship? Will Hermione seek forgiveness from her old friends or will she make a new friend? Read to find out.

In the December of his sixth year at Hogwarts, Ronald Weasley died. Throughout the year afterwards Hermione and Harry turned to each other (platonically) for support. Then Draco comes along and new feelings are introduced, secrets revealed, and friendships and relationships both end and begin. Takes place 7th year and ignores all occurrences in HBP. A Harry/Hermione/Draco poly (threesome)relationship fic.

Ever wondered what may have been if Harry had befriended Draco instead of Ron? If Harry was sorted into Slytherin? An AU eventual H/D slash fanfic.

What is Hermione really doing when she goes to the Library? Who is she with? Will she tell Harry and Ron, or will they have to find out themselves?

Hermione is \\

AU. What if Sirius Black had Disapparated right after Pettigrew framed him, and proceeded to kidnap Harry from the Dursleys'? Harry grows up with Sirius while hiding from former Death Eaters, the Ministry AND the Order of the Phoenix!

Harry and Draco have been secret lovers for a year and a half. Everything was perfect. But when Ron finds out about their affair, everything comes crashing down around them. (Post OotP slash)

The Gryffindor dorm is abuzz with laughter and gossip after curfew as the boys cover for their friends' hot date. The talk turns to sex, and Harry gives away a little too much information. ``"Oh. I've been around," Harry said evasively. Everyone turned towards him. If he was going out with anyone it was news to them. But it would be just like Harry to keep it a secret.

Harry finds what he needs most on his birthday -- a partner. H/Hr, mention of R/T

Harry is sad and lonely, whilst Draco is cold, and wishes people didn't hate him quite so much. Alone they are nothing, but together they have a chance to give each other what they truly crave. ``Slash.

Rated R. SLASH. Everyone has secrets. However, not everyone's secrets can ruin a reputation built by centuries. Draco Malfoy, driven to the brink by anger, accidentally lets his secret slip out...to Harry Potter. Pandemonium, a Wizard's Pact, and amnesia ensue. Harry/Draco.

AU. What if Harry had not gone and lived with the Dursleys? At least not for eleven years.``What if a certain werewolf had fought the fight of his life with the Ministry of Magic to get custody for Harry?``Love, peace and happiness for everybody involved? I don't think so.``Throw in the Dark Lord, Death Eaters, and escaped convict and an overprotective Lupin Family and you're in for a ride...a ride that lets Remus' custody struggle with the Ministry appear like a picnic.``The story takes place when Harry is seven years old.

Just what it says. Harry and Draco bask in the afterglow, and have a moment of Great and T00by Love. If this were any fluffier, it'd be cotton candy.

Post-Hogwarts. Harry Potter is no longer a boy. He is a twenty-year-old man, and he rules the world. He has defeated Voldemort. But he is alone; his friends have vanished. And resistance against his rule is annoying him.... The Prince is in for a shock when the identity of the rebels is revealed....

Stream of Consciousness. Ginny wants to get close to Harry, but how should she do it?

Ever wonder how Harry and Ginny went from acquaintances to Love of a Lifetime? It was not without a few bumps along the way, to be sure. See how Ginny's overprotective brothers help (or is it hinder?) their relationship.

Sixteen years after Harry Potter and the Daoimear de Dán, life is idyllic for the great heroes of the war. They love their jobs, their families and their lives. Mind you, sometimes things really are too good to be true.

This is my attempt at a cross over between Harry Potter and the Dan Brown series of Robert Langdon books (DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons). Langdon's knackered after a long speaking tour. He receives a call from an old student, Paolo Zabini, to pay him a visit for some rest and relaxation. That promised R&R turns into another DaVinci Code type-mystery with death around every corner and puzzles to solve. Kings Cross Station, Hogsmeade, Harris Tweed transforming into wizards robes, and Robert encountering some lively works of art. Robert's like a kid in a candy store, but reality will soon set in.

"Unusual Beginnings" is the first installment of my 'Unusuals' Series. "Beginnings" is a compilation of prologues about the years before my characters are accepted into Hogwarts. Read this first before reading the rest of the 'Unusuals' Series. Controlling fathers, Evil Charms, young Harry is abused and violent, very young Voldemort supporters, Voldermort is a half-spirit... and young Hermione is in the junior cheerleading team? Doesn't this spell chaos? Aye! And this is just the beginning!

Ron has always been overshadowed, either by his brothers, or Harry and Hermione. This is the story of how he becomes happy with who he is with help from a loving Hermione, and his best friend, Harry. For all those who feel like Ron, as well as the shippers of the classic pairings of R/H and H/G.

Harry and Draco have formed an unexpected alliance, but will their new relationship be able to survive a different kind of war?

Ginny wants to be with Harry, so she signs up for Hogwart's first spring play, in hopes that she can play his love interest in the play, which is about the founding fathers. She gets another part, where she is supposed to be in love with none other than Draco Malfoy. Ginny, soundly disappointed, heads on with the play, and gets more than she expects. A D/G fiction.

It's the summer before seventh year, and Harry receives a letter from Hermione inviting him to her house for the summer.

Sequel to the Veil of Memories. Thirteen years after the death of Voldemort, Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley have built on their love for each other to move beyond the nightmares of their past. But now the new problems of the world around them threaten to encroach on their new-found harmony: their only daughter Siosia is sorted into Slytherin; their best friends Ron and Hermione go through marital strife; and their niece Caroline becomes embroiled in a twisted new version of the Defense Association. But worse than all this, a shadowy, unseen enemy has emerged, one that could threaten not only the fragile peace that Harry and Ginny have forged but the fate of the wizarding world itself.

Harry time-travels back to the time his father was a student. Forced to remain at Hogwarts for a while, Harry pretends to be just another student. He needs some information, but he has a hard time finding anyone to trust: Sirius is too rash, James is worse than Draco Malfoy, and Peter might be harboring treacherous thoughts already. He chooses Remus, but in becoming Remus' new friend Harry inadvertently causes Remus to fall in love with him....

Hermione\'s back is always itching her. When she goes to see Madam Pomfrey, she finds out she has wings! H/Hr

Four years later, and Ron still hasn't gotten over Melly! Harry and Ron go to a Death Eater party - on purpose! - and end up getting captured and given to Melly to do whatever she pleases. What happens when Melly and Ron are finally back together again? What about Draco? And, the most asked question of all of Harry to Melly - Will Melly save Harry if he was dying at the hands of Voldemort? How many times will she have to do this before either Harry forgives her, or she just gets tired of saving him, and decides to let Voldemort do as he pleases? Finally, the second part of Secret Behind the Mask: Taking Over Me.

Harry's summer away from Hogwarts after Order of the Phoenix. A suprising change in Aunt Petunia, a visit to Grimmauld Place, and a revelation from Snape himself.

Harry's assumptions about Draco's motives and Draco's cluelessness about Harry's needs end them at a breakup that causes more pain than the relationship itself. Getting past the barriers to have a real talk may provide the solution, however letting go of the hurt is easier thought than done.

When Harry decides to go visit the Weasleys after leaving Privet Drive, Sirius has no choice but to reveal himself, leading them both into a different adventure. AU third year.

Death. War. Poetry. Love.

Harry faces up to his destiny as he begins the hunt for the Horcruxes. What price will he have to pay to finally vanquish the Dark Lord? Can he survive...will the Trio remain intact...will he finally get the girl and live happily ever after?

(Written pre-OotP) Picks up at the beginning of Harry’s fifth year. As magical terror spreads, a young girl at Hogwarts discovers herself caught up in the most horrible war in the history of magic. She finds herself fighting the darkness in her heart and she struggles to find the side on which she belongs. What connection does she have to Voldemort? She must answer this: whose side is she really on? The fate of the whole world rests on her decision when she is the only hope for either side.

If Harry had believed that defeating Voldemort would bring an end to his troubles, he would have been sadly mistaken. Fortunately, he was never that optimistic. In an increasingly paranoid, prejudiced and isolationist post-war wizarding society, Harry finds himself with far too many secrets for someone hoping for a long life. Like the fact that he's gay, and in love with his womanising best friend. And financing an underground resistance movement or two. And far more powerful than he dare let anyone suspect. But Fate hasn't finished with Harry Potter yet. Voldemort had a secret of his own. Harry hasn't uncovered that one yet, but when he does, it'll change everything.

AU. Harry and Draco are both having a bad start to their summers, but why would they be seeing each other in visions? And what is up with Professor Snape?

Harry falls in love, with Lavender Brown? Snuffles is at Hogwarts, and Lupin the DADA teacher is back teaching again. Harry can do wandless magic.

Post Hogwarts, with tension in the wizarding world and Voldemort lying low. Once, Ginny Weasley would have done anything to become Mrs Potter, but things change. In a frightening turn of events, she realises that it's not just her that has changed. GW/DM.

Harry will go through a lot during his fifth year at Hogwarts. ``Between constantly falling out of bed, plagues of nightmares, getting a little ``over exuberant with Butterbeer, dodging Weasley chaos, and finding out more about ``his past then he ever wanted to know; Harry’s in for the adventure of his life.

Voldemort has been defeated for the last time. Harry Potter is the hero of the wizarding world...``But no one in England knows where Harry is now. He left soon after the final battle and has been gone for more than a year. But why did he leave and when will he be ready to return?