So I strongly distrust the idea that Margaret was just a misguided but well-intentioned idealist.  Maybe it started out that way...

In the history of the world you will find that most of the murderous dictators and religious fanatics who are responsible for the death of millions started out as well-intentioned idealists.  Now you can argue about what exactly their ideals were, but there it is. 

In the Sixties, the anti-war movement was filled with well-intentioned idealists, most of them remained that way, others got splintered off into violent groups such as the Weathermen, while most took drugs, some got into the business of dealing drugs big time. 

The point I am getting to, is we know Margaret LeFay daughter of Eb, had a bit of a strict upbringing and apprenticeship, Eb admits to pushing her too far and hints at inflexibility on his part, and his daughter ran away.  Luccio hints and even the WC has dropped some hints that Margaret didn't care for the White Council system, too many constraints in her opinion, her youngest son shared some of those beliefs.  It is easy for someone angry, young, idealistic, full of herself [arrogant as only the young can be] like Margaret LeFay was,to get led astray or corrupted by someone older more powerful, like Nick would be perfect to take up her mentorship, then someone like the handsome urbane Lord Raith..  She'd even have a child by him, but in the end, Maggie LeFay found that she valued her own free will more, and Lord Raith found that he could never fully enthrall her to his will.  She escaped, eventually hooked up with Malcom a truly good vanilla human, from his example, realized with horror what she had helped in her angry idealism to unleash, so she devised a plan to counter it, that plan was to conceive a child under a special alinement of the stars with a truly good man, that child was Harry.

It could be that she did help to found the Black Council, but I suspect they have been around as long as the White Council.

I think that I may also have come up with a motive for why Malcom Dresden was murdered.  He was the only one who knew the full story of the how and the why of Margaret LeFay's redemption.  Only Malcom had the first hand knowledge, others had first hand knowledge only of her rebellion and her evil period, this is most of what has been passed on to Harry.  Even his grandfather, who wouldn't even tell Harry he was his grandfather, could have told him a heck of a lot about his mother, but didn't. Out of fear of what the knowledge might do to Harry maybe, or because nobody but Malcom knew the full story.

That full story would help erase doubt in Harry about his mother, make him less easy to lead astray by others, so Malcom had to die.  What is interesting, is Harry himself doesn't quite get the importance of knowing that part of the story, otherwise he would have asked Lea more about it, instead he pressed her to tell him who murdered him. Something he knew she really wasn't going to be allowed to tell him.

OK, Chaunzoggoroth is a demonic entity, and as such by definition untrustworthy.  Still, the only sucker bait it has to offer practitioners to summon it is useful truthful information.  So lying is highly risky, it needs a reputation for truthfulness to do its damage.  I suspect the only lie it told Harry was about St. Patrick being the source of the loup-garou curse.  For that, it suddenly switched from direct declarative statements to second-hand comments, "It is said..." etc.

I doubt he was telling a lie about any of it, what he was doing was putting bait on a hook to try and catch Harry.  What better bait than to tempt Harry with the full story of what happened to his mother and father?  Harry almost was willing to give up his full name for that, but not quite. 

Just as a side note, old Chez didn't have Harry's full name, wouldn't, unless Harry gave it to him, in contrast both Uriel and the Angel of Death had not only Harry's full name, but all the inflections needed to hold power over him.

Yeah, that bit really bugged me too! In Death Masks as well, Mort was described as "...A dumpy, balding man in his late forties..." which also does not translate to "self-destructively obese." Could it be that Harry was just trying to be nice in his descriptions of him before, and that now that he's dead he doesn't care as much about the potential for offending someone with an honest description? Or maybe now that he's dead he's seeing and remembering things with less self delusion. (Of course that doesn't in any way cover the house changes, but whaddaya do?)

Here's another thing: Every person that Harry has encountered since he died seems to have become a sort of idealized version of themselves. Take a look at the descriptions of Carmichael and Captain Jack, as well as Mort. (Obviously, since we've never met Sir Stuart before we have nothing to compare him with.) It made sense to me when we were just dealing with the dead guys; you've got that whole frozen at 30 thing going on and all. But it seems like he's seeing Mort (and Mort's yard, and Mort's house and its furnishings) in idealized forms as well.

If it isn't just one huge continuity flub (and it seems as if it's much too big to be one) then I'm guessing it's a 'dead' thing.

LML

  No one has taken Harry's age into account when we first meet Mort.. Harry was still in his twenties, his body type runs to thin and runner, even if his diet was crap.  So he sees Mort though the unforgiving eyes of a twenty something year old, so being a little heavy is " "self-destructively obese." " to someone who has never gain an ounce.  The whole bald thing and trying to hide it to look younger etc may not be seen in a charitable manner by a twenty something wizard who might live to the age of 300 and beyond.  

Harry was pushing forty at the time of his death, that waist of his is now or was harder to maintain, and in the last two books before he died Harry is suddenly aware that he is no longer a kid..

  I didn't know about the books because I read more pure science fiction than fantasy type novels.  I didn't look for many fantasy/wizard types because so many of them were unoriginal in my opinion.  The television series introduced me to Harry Dresden, then of course I had to read the books and was thrilled to find some really original work.  However one thing the television series did do better, the character of Bob..

Guys, if you want to talk about cat lifespans, just ask, and I'll happily split off a thread for you.  Otherwise, try to keep the Timeline thread free of chit-chat.  Thanks!

 Sorry, what started this is if the series goes on another ten or thirteen years, how old will Mister be? Or will he die?  So it does have to do with the timeline sort of..

 Sell ice cubes to Mab..

"Turn Coat," eleventh book in The Dresden Files, is released April 7, 2009.

 Do we have any spoilers yet?  Or at least some book cover art to talk about?  Hi, guys been a while since I posted, I know.. But I still love Harry..

   Loved the series, wouldn't rest till I got all the books and have been reading them non stop.. Just finished White Nights and now have started over again with Storm Front.. There are lots of pieces to the puzzle and I do not want to miss them.