Heartwarming / Turn Coat

• Harry and Murphy, in Chapter 35.
  She reached up with both hands, put them on the sides of my head, and pulled me down a little. Then she kissed my forehead and my mouth, neither quickly nor with passion. Then she let me go and looked up at me, her eyes worried and calm. "You know that I love you, Harry. You're a good man. A good friend."... "My world would be a scarier place without you in it."
  Then I bent down and kissed her forehead and her mouth, gently, and leaned my forehead against hers. "Love you, too," I whispered.
• Another happens just after Peabody is killed and Morgan is dying on the ground. He explains to Dresden why he didn't turn Molly in to the Wardens for using psychomancy:
  "Do you know why I didn't? Why I came to you?" I shook my head. "Because I knew," he whispered. He lifted his right hand and I gripped it hard. "I knew that you knew how it felt to be an innocent man hounded by the Wardens."
  • Considering how Morgan was the one who had dogged Dresden the most in an effort to prove him being a warlock, it makes the moment of empathy all the more striking, even to Dresden.
  It was the closest he'd ever come to saying that he'd been wrong about me.
  He died less than a minute later.
• Anastasia finding out Thomas is Harry's brother is this mixed with a bit of Tear Jerker. She understands immediately why he's doing what he's doing, and Harry's words just sum up his inflexible views on the matter.
  "Are you going to tell anyone?" I asked quietly.
  She looked out the window as she considered the question. Then she said, "Not unless I think it relevant."
  I turned to look at her. "You know what will happen if they know. They'll use him."
  She gazed straight out the front of the car. "I know."
  I spoke quietly to put all the weight I could into each word I spoke next. "Over. My. Dead. Body."
• When Harry shows up at Will and Georgia's place, muttering what probably sounds like gibberish, they snap into action and help him out, bringing him to their bedroom and giving him fresh clothes.
• After Molly violates her parole, meaning that she and Harry will probably both get killed by the White Council anyway, of course Harry's angry. But instead of just blowing up at her, he lays out exactly what she did wrong, why it was wrong, and offers her another chance.
  Harry: So you've got a choice to make, grasshopper. You can come with me, knowing the cost if we succeed. Or you can go.
  Molly: Go?
  Harry: Go. Leave now. Run, for as long as you can. Hell, it looks a lot like I'm going to get myself killed anyway. Probably Morgan, too. In that case, things will go to hell, but the Wardens will be way too busy to chase you. You'll be able to ignore what's right all you want, do whatever you like — as long as you don't get caught.
  Molly: [sobs]
  Harry: Or you can come with me. You can do something right. Something that has meaning.
  Molly: [looks up to him]
  Harry: [very quietly] Everyone dies, honey. Everyone. There's no "if." There's only "when." [...] When you die, do you want to feel ashamed of what you've done with your life? Feel ashamed of what your life meant? [long pause] I promise that I'll be beside you. I can't promise anything else. Only that I'll stand beside you for as long as I can.
  Molly: [leans against him] [whispers] Okay.
• In turn, when Harry goes off to do the sanctum invocation, she offers to protect Morgan if he doesn't come back-even though he's a) been a total Jerkass and b) it would make hiding harder for her.
• Though it's revealed that Luccio was mind-whammied by Peabody, they break up on good terms, and it's made clear both through this book and the next that they genuinely do care for each other, even if it's not love. That was real.
  • The Gatekeeper is also very sympathetic, and promises Harry to keep it to himself.
• While it's also a Moment of Awesome and a Tearjerker, the fact that Morgan loves Luccio enough, after all these years, that he unhesitatingly took the blame for her murdering LaFortier, is pretty amazing.
• The lengths Lara goes for some of her siblings in this book, sharply contrasting how she feels about her siblings to that towards her cousins. From the cold threat to the naagloshii maiming a sister, a twisted mix of this and nightmare fuel (horrifying Harry) in her feeding her men to two of her sisters to save their lives and then the rescue of Thomas himself.
• Harry and Ebenezar's respect for one another throughout the story is very sweet. Harry implicitly lets him know what's happening with Morgan, and Eb in turn constantly argues for and defends his apprentice.
• Whilst also tragic and into tearjerker, the Heroic Sacrifice of various wizards to defend others from the mordite. One elderly wizard lost an arm for some aiming for a wizard two rows above her (meaning she must have been reaching up) and another shoves one out the way and takes the fatal hit himself.
  I saw one elderly woman lost an arm at the elbow as the mordite-laden cloud sent a spear of darkness flying at a wizard seated two rows behind her. A dark-skinned man with gold dangling from each ear roughly pushed a younger woman who had called a light crystal in her hand. The tendril missed the woman but hit him squarely, instantly dissolving a hole in his chest a foot across, and all but cut his corpse in half as it fell to the floor.
• Harry's way of honouring Kirby after his death and missing the funeral due to being in hospital: Kirby had been the GM for the TTRPG campaign Harry and the Alphas were in, so he shows up to the usual place wearing a nerdy T-shirt, having recruited Butters to run a game - making it a way of remembering Kirby, but not letting it be buried with him.
  Harry: Life. It keeps going...I don't think Kirby would want us to stop playing completely.
• For all that Ebenezar often is portrayed as being gruff and grumpy, this one, wonderfully heartwarming bit of dialogue shows that he's really where Harry got a lot of his idealism from:
  Listens-to-Wind: "There is the world that is, and the world that should be. We live in one."
  Ebenezar: "And must create the other, if it is ever to be."

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