Order of the Sphinx... Why should HP get to have all the fun?

Final Authors Note

Phew… okay! I decided to save this final authors note for the end because I didn’t want to clog up the story.

Okay, well, I guess you could say it’s been with some trepidation that I posted these last two bits of OOTS today, and it’s safe to say I am feeling a bit teary now that I have.

This story has been my baby for what feels like a very, very long time, though, in essence, I know it’s about a year and a half. I guess to me it feels longer because Ileana and the Order have existed in my head for such a long time and now they have finally had their chance to shine.

I am unbelievably happy that I have finished this story; this is the only multi-chapter work that I have ever finished- Original, fan fiction or otherwise- and I am hoping now that I know how amazing the feeling you get after you finish a story is, it might prompt me to do the same for all my other numerous works in progress.  I feel a great sense of excitement and though closure in my mind for Anna is a little while off, it’s much closer than it was in December 2010.

Before I go any further though I’d like to thank you- all of you- for coming on this wild, crazy experience with me. I don’t know how many of you have followed me since the beginning as I know many of those originals stopped reading or dropped out of the fandom all together but the few who have remained I want to thank you. I’d also like to thank those who came in later in the journey. Hell, massive love to those who have only just joined us here! Welcome!

You have all put up with my crap through reading this and don’t be a smart ass and say I didn’t involve you in my crap because I know I did. You put up with my atrocious grammar and spelling in the beginning, navigated your way through numerous plot holes- until I sat down and physically drafted the story, then it got better- and put up with my notorious months between updating. If you are still here after all that, you are incredibly dedicated my friend and I hope the ending I have given you is good enough compensation.  I should make you a t-shirt that says “I survived The Order of the Sphinx”.

The support I have received throughout this journey has been incredible and I’d like to take some time out to thank specific individuals who have held my hand, listened to me whine and moan and sob throughout this, because if it hadn’t been for them, this story would have been abandoned long ago.

I’d like to thank first my best friend Jess. Jess, even though you probably won’t end up reading this authors note or ever get around to reading the latter half of the story I am absurdly grateful to you and your prodding. You were the one who bit your tongue and just nodded as I explained the plot to you in minute detail and managed to keep all sarcastic comments at bay when I told you about certain plot points. I also appreciate your ideas. Most of them ended up in some form in the story and if they weren’t in this one, I can guarantee you they will appear later on. Big Love sweetheart!

To SK. I know you don’t get online anymore and I know it’s been sometime since you read this, but I still want to thank you. You helped to fan this idea into a flame and it was your support and utmost faith in me and my writing skills- no matter how wrongly deserved your praise is- which gave me the confidence to post this out there for people to see.

To Nessie. Wow darlin’, I don’t think I could have done this without you. At times it felt like you were the only one out there who actually cared about Ileana and your support, ideas and constant encouragement were invaluable. I felt so much better after dumping my word vomit on you and your care is still to this day appreciated. I feel so bad how much I whinged and whined to you through the last year or so and I am really sorry for putting everything on you. I really hope this ending held up to your expectations as I know you have been dying to read it since I told you that you wouldn’t expect it.

To my two most dedicated reviewers, one on Wattpad and one on FW&R, JessicaDjLaGuera and Vamplvr. THANK YOU! You probably have no idea how much your kind words meant. Often, it was only your reviews which made me continue and write the next chapter. When I was angry at the world and ready to give up on the story, you both coaxed me back down from my height of arrogance and talked me into continuing. Your reviews made my week and I used to, and still do get so excited when I read a new one.

This isn’t the last you’ll ever here from me… nowhere near it. I have quite a few projects I’ve been quietly and slowly working on that still need to be given the light of day. There are a handful of stories that desperately need my attention at the moment, so my focus for the next little while is on them. So please, keep an eye out for them.

Also, I’d like to point out, as Ileana did in the epilogue that this isn’t the last time you will hear from Ileana, Alice and Jen and the rest of the Order. Far from it, I have been secretly working on the sequel for quite some time and the first chapter has actually been Beta’d and is waiting to go. However I am making the effort of re-reading the Harry Potter series again and until I am positive on the outcome on the next few chapters and until I am satisfied with their correlation to J.K Rowling’s universe, I shall not post the story or reveal it for human eyes.

I can though and will leave you with the title and a brief blurb to wet your appetite.  I actually think I’ve given you too many hints already about what’s in it, both from slip ups in my authors notes and comments back to reviewers and in the Order of the Sphinx itself. Ileana is not done; she’s still screaming at me, demanding me to let her out of Jail.

I fully intend to do what I have over the past couple of years; I’ll give into her demands gladly.

I know most of you had great hopes for the ending of this story and I sincerely hope that I have met them. If I haven’t… all the more reason to hang around for the sequel now isn’t there?

For FW&R members I am now focusing on ‘The Most Dangerous Predator’ and ‘James Potter and the New Marauders’ of which I am a co-writer. For Wattpad and other sites, I am focusing on ‘If I could Turn Back Time’ as well. I also have two- no three new stories that haven’t been published before which will soon make an appearance. The Most Dangerous Predator and If I could Turn Back Time are only very short stories and will only be 10 or so chapters at the most by the end. One of my new projects is a four-shot. So only little stories at the moment.

This has been an amazing journey, and I am keen to continue the next leg of it in a couple of months.

Thank you again for all your support and for actually reading. I’ve always wanted to be a writer and this story is, for me, a part of the way there.

The sequel’s title I hear you ask? Well, you asked for it.

It’s called- The Order of the Phoenix; Enter the Dragon.

The blurb?

It takes more than a Prison sentence to take down a Dragon Princess.

Ileana MacKay. Ex-Hogwarts Student. Convicted Murderer. Last descendant of the Varias Clan.

And very pissed off.

When the world again is faced by a terrifying Dark Lord, it seems all anyone wants to do is run and hide. Death Eaters should be avoided and feared. But Ileana just wants revenge.

Swept up again in lies, deceit and all too present danger, Ileana fights for everything she holds dear. Joining renegade Sirius Black, Ileana struggles to cope with outside life. Things have changed. Nine years passed.

Finding unexpected love in the most unusual source, Ileana must fight to keep herself and her friends and family alive. Flames of her past dance around the exterior, keen to burn and ignite the fragile self-control she holds.

When the world comes tumbling down, and the end is all too near will she continue to fight for the cause which sent her to jail, or will she abandon everyone to save the man she loves?

So it’s time to say one last goodbye to the Order of the Sphinx.

Adieu my friends, I hope to meet you on the other side

Love Dracula's Sidekick

Mischief Managed…