In Cold Days on the way to the Outer Gates, Mother Summer and Harry talk as they go.  On page 327 she says a couple of things that caught my eye upon rereading.

I walked for a little while, considering that. "You are saying that I have a chance to stay me."
"I'm saying many things," Mother Summer said.  "Do you have a chance to remain yourself despite the tendency of the mantle
 to mold your thoughts and desires?  All Knights, Winter and Summer, have that chance.  Most fail."
"But it is possible," I said.
She looked up at me and her eyes were deeper than time.  Anything is possible."
"Ah," I said, understanding. "We're not really talking about me."
"We are," she said serenely, turning her eyes away.  "And we are not."
"Uh," I said.  "I'm getting a little confused here.  What are we talking about, exactly?"
Mother Summer smiled at me.  And then she clammed up. We are?  We're Not?

I think this means that Mother Summer knows what Mab's plans are for Molly whether Molly becomes Summer Lady or as turned out, Winter Lady.  However because that is in the future and would affect how Harry was about to act, and the stakes are too high to mess any of that up.  Mother Summer won't tell Harry there is any plan for Molly, her name isn't even mentioned.  However Mother Summer does tell Harry  he has a chance to defy the odds and remain himself even with the Winter Mantle.  Then she gets cryptic and hints that it isn't just him that has a chance to keep his own identity.  The only one I can think of is Molly, who as we know by the end of the book is about to become one of the Ladies.  If Harry ever remembers this conversation he should be reassured for Molly.

Now this could be part of some deal that Mab made with Uriel ahead of time, so that she could make Molly one of the Ladies.  Because of Michael and his service I doubt that Uriel would go along with Molly losing her soul to become one of the Ladies,no matter how important for the cause that Molly become one of the Ladies.  So I imagine Mab agreed to allow that choice, and Molly has a chance to remain very human with a soul even as a Fae Lady.  Actually there is some evidence that this was explained to Michael and perhaps Charity as well, since they both took the fact that their daughter is now a Fae Lady very well, which I don't think they would if they thought Molly was losing her Immortal Soul.

It may also be why in Battle Ground Mab ordered Harry to kill Molly if she were killed and Molly become Queen.  Mab fears that an all too human Queen wouldn't be up to the job.  Also maybe why she is pushing Harry to marry Lara..

  We are told from the get go that the Fae cannot lie.  It is Mab's standard reply to any question or problem Harry may have with something she has asked of him... The Fae cannot lie, even though Harry may feel like she has moved the goal posts to suit whatever it is in his dealings with her. We've also heard Lea say it, it is established that the Fae cannot lie.

Uriel is an archangel, I don't think in general they are liars either.  One of his kind is called," the Prince of Lies," better known as Satan, who was kicked out of Heaven for that among other offenses.  Anyway Google the question, "can angels lie?" You will get different answers, in Jewish religion, no.  In Christian religion, yes, if it is for your own good,and no,the holy angels never lie because that would be a sin. Confusing ain't it?  So when it comes to angels apparently it becomes an article of faith in their truth and trust in your belief system..

I ask this question because at the end of Ghost Story Mab is telling Harry just what she expects of him now that he is her Knight.. As you know Harry isn't very happy with what he is hearing, and neither is Alfred, aka Demonreach.

page 475 Ghost Story

"To ourpurposes now."
The very ground seemed to quiver, to let out an unthinkable low, deep,angry,growl.
Mab's eyes snapped to Demonreach.  "I have his oath, ancient one.
What he has given is mine by right, and you cannot gainsay it. He is mine to shape as I please."
"Damnit," I said tiredly.  "Damnit."

Now comes the interesting bit.. Harry hears a calm gentle voice whispering in his ear, Uriel's voice I presume..

And a voice---a very calm, very gentle, very rational voice whispered in my ear,"Lies. Mab cannot change who you are."

By my reading, somebody just called Mab, the Winter Fae Queen, a liar.... So, if it was Uriel calling her that, was he lying? Or is Mab a liar? Harry did indeed feel better after he heard those seven words, so according to some Google research on the question, Uriel could be lying about Mab for Harry's own good.. However if you want to go to the Jewish or other Christian faiths, Uriel, being a holy angel, cannot lie.. So is he mistaken? Did Mab just lie?

Uriel, or did someone, hey it could have been his mother who whispered it, [Margaret is neither angel nor Fae, so she could lie to make her son feel better,] just called Mab a liar?

  Okay, can't remember how many times I've reread this novel, but it has been a while since I last read it and the series has moved on considerably since it was written.. There are hints or possible hints of what was to follow later..

The conception of little Maggie;

This has always been a source of debate among us, many posts, some blaming Harry, some blaming Susan, and some blaming Molly and really blaming Harry for taking the advice of at the time a fourteen year old.

Here is the conclusion I came to after this reading, blame the vampire venom and Susan's half vamp status putting pressure on her.  While yeah, the two are still attracted and love one another, but when Susan first comes to Harry's place it nearly gets out of control, would have been, only Mister jumps in with a loud MEOW!  Which seems to bring both back to their senses, then Martin'
comes on scene.. The person in control right?  Given what happened in Changes? Maybe not so much. But the bottom line is while Harry and Susan sill liked one another it wouldn't have almost gotten out of control if it weren't for the vamp pheromones..

Molly's suggestion leading to the actual sex act;

Okay, Harry is up in the tree house and up comes Molly dressed very punk rock including piercings.
As she changes back to her conservative school uniform proper look you gotta wonder, how come Charity never noticed?? That's for another time, anyway in the course of conversation, Susan comes up and Molly suggests that Harry tie her up to safely have sex with her.  Harry is a bit shocked, and though later he does tie Susan up and they do have sex, it isn't because this thirty something year old man is taking sex tips on bondage from a fourteen year old girl.

What really happened is Harry got wounded in the leg because of a gun shot, so blood.. In the course of the rescue from Nic, Susan is stimulated to the max, the tattoos on her face and body are blazing warning that anymore stimulation and she would be in grave danger of turning.  Susan
and Martin decide that they needed to get Harry to a safe place because Nic wasn't keeping his side of the bargain in the trade for Shiro.  Susan and Harry jump out of the moving car, more injuries, more stimulation, more blood.  Then they get blasted with an entrophy curse, and the only way not to be killed is for Harry once they get to his place, was for him to set off some serious wards.. The wards work, but they work both ways, no one can get in, but also no one can get out.. Susan, to her credit knows she is in danger of turning and killing Harry, who exhausted and injured hasn't the juice to fight off a vampire.  He cleans his wounds, but she can still smell blood... Then he remembers some rope that he had made up to tie up ghouls, for his protection, and hers, he ties her up, not because he wants to have sex safely with her.  However the venom and vamp urges win out along with their own desires.. So sex happened, it wasn't planned, it wasn't rational, and nine months later little Maggie came along..  And no, Susan really wasn't fair to Harry at the beginning of Changes when she seemed to be blaming it all on him.

Ortega warns Harry that if the Reds are beaten in the war, there will be an in balance of power.. Which we saw later, once the Reds were wiped out, the Fomor stepped in and things got worse..

Marcone was very intrigued with the idea of the coins and they power that comes with them.  Nic sort of back handedly offers him one, Marcone doesn't say yes or no, but he clearly thinks about it.
So later when Namshiel's coin is loose in the helicopter in Small Favor it would end up in Marcone's hands, and that Marcone wouldn't hesitate to accept it.

Oh on that note when Harry sends Bob out to check on Marcone, he gets torn up because suddenly Marcone has wards.. First hint that Marcone wants a piece of the supernatural action.

Chapter ten of The Law, Bob and Paranoid Gary have ferreted out some interesting information as to who Mr Winter Winter is..  Then Bob says something that really caught my attention about the attack on Arctus Tor and well as Harry's reaction to that remark.

"Ouch," I said.  "How come Lapland and Inverno are working for freaking Marcone?"
"Take that up with Mab," Bob said. "But based on Inverno's court records, it looks like she stuck the pair of them out in the mortal world not too long after Arctis Tor got slagged."
"She doesn't trust them."
"Guy's a demigod of strife and division," Bob said.

I think this could be the significant paragraph in the whole novella.  There has been wild speculation about the attack on Arctis Tor, one being that Namshiel was in on it since there was Hell Fire present.  Another that it could be an inside job, or pulled off with inside help, Maeve being one of the candidates for that.

Invenrno and Ms Lapland seek shelter and are taken into the Winter Court by Mab. He happens to be the demigod of strife and division, what is associated with strife and division? Nemesis.. It is possible that they were a mole planted by Nemesis in the Winter Court.  After the attack on Arctis Tor, Mab plants them in the mortal world, supposedly for balance.. Or double agent? Interesting that one of his main clients is the Baron Marcone, seems natural enough, he is a signer and member of the Accords.  Or is it? When a pissed off Mab turns everything to ice in the chapel at the end of Small Favor, it is because she realizes that Maeve is now infected.. She also remarks that her and Uriel had a common enemy that day, i.e. the Denarians who were in on the attack on Arctis Tor.  Could it be that she also knew that Namshiel had lost his head on Demonreach and that Marcone had gotten hold of his coin, even if he hadn't taken it up yet? Honestly I don't where all of this will lead eventually, but to quote Alice, "Curiouser and curiouser.."

  Got it last night and read it twice.  It is a fun read, good pacing, must take place with in a
month of the battle.  Some observations;

 Grief has hit Harry very hard, but he is coping, he is also still recovering from injury.  He
is sheltering a number of people, at least one is an Alpha.
Bob has shed his skull and now seems to reside in the castle walls, he also seems to have a
handle on the built in defense system, but he makes mistakes.
Toot is tall and so is Lacuna, their "steel" is made by the svartalves, I think the kitchen appliances must be also because Harry doesn't seem to have trouble with modern appliances now.  It also allows for serious "steel" swords for Za-Guard that are not made quite the same as those made from "bane," though the kitchen counters are made from it, and there is a standing suit of armor in the hall also made from "bane."  Interesting touch, fitting decoration for a castle, but I can't see Harry decorating with one, but left over maybe from Changes when Lea dressed him that way?  Or left over from when Marcone was in residence?  Who knows?  Gremlins can apparently use iron without harm.  A lot of work and repairs still need to be done on the castle, tarps are everywhere.

Mab's frozen boogers

I think Toot is beginning to grow on Lacuna... Mister's age is mentioned by Toot, but also says he is a spry 30 pound old cat. Toot is very intelligent and loyal, though he sounds childlike and Bob treats him like he is a child.  Toot and Harry have a very special relationship, it is real friendship. Toot is trying to understand Harry's grief and what death and loss means, since this isn't something in the experience of Pixies.

All in all a nice little action story and begins to set the stage for Twelve Months and Harry's new life.

  I was looking up for laughs and giggles what the name of my dog, " Princess Buttercup" means.. Basically  "Buttercup is a humble sweet creature and she is that.. Then since my American black Lab's name is "Harry Barry Blackdog," out of curiosity I looked it up to see what "Harry" means.. What I found is interesting, in Hebrew it means "house protector or protector of the home," which sort of fits my dog, but more so Harry Dresden.  More interesting is "Harry" can also mean, "army commander."  Now this one really fits Harry Dresden if you believe that Harry is destined to be the "commander" against the Outsiders in the BAT.. Wonder if Jim looked that up and had that in mind when he chose the name, "Harry," or is it just a coincidence, because he was named after the magician as his father had told him?  Or both?

Why Mab so wants an alliance with the White Court.

Page 111-112 Battle Ground;

The Black Court had been all but exterminated, thanks to a really underhanded move by Lara's people a century and change back.  The only ones who were still alive--well, who continued to exist--were the oldest, wiliest, and most powerful of their kind.  These vampires were old-school, the real deal, nightmares of the Old World.  A Black Court vampire was a match for any dozen counterparts in the Red or White Court.

Yet, Lara's people all but wiped them out, underhanded move, but that fits the White Court's M.O.
Point is, her people did defeat them once, could this be the real reason why Mab wants the alliance between the White Court and the Winter Court, what's more a star born Winter Knight, to cover her flank against Drakul, a star born and the Black Court?

Which leads to another thought, one I think we've all had.. Wills, is mere will what sets a star born apart from mere mortals? 

Yeah, lots has been said about how if it hadn't been for Toot, Mavra would have had Harry.. Maybe, but for a microsecond, will against will, it was a draw between Harry and Drakul.  Drakul laughs it off, but...
pages 117- 118

Drakul's black-hole eyes swept back to me, and suddenly I was being crushed to the ground by the weight of the universe itself.  The very thought that I could have done something against a power like that was laughable---but I'd felt this kind of raw, universe-binding will before, in Chichen Itza.  Drakul, whatever he was, had considerably more personal power than the Lords of the Outer Night had ever managed to show me.  But I had hoisted those Red Court losers by their own petard,when everything was said and done.  I would be damned if I rolled over for Dracula's famous dad.  I ground my teeth and fought back against the power crushing me, not with my muscles but with my mind.  I pictured Drakul's will as a great, dark hand pressing me down--and mine as my own hand, rising to force it away.  I poured my will into the image, a couple of decades of disciplinw, experience, and focus,investing it with power, with reality with life.
   Gasping, one inch at a time, I lifted my hand until my right palm faced Drakul and steadied.  I couldn't stand--but I got an elbow underneath me and snarled silent defiance up at him, my right hand raised against his power.

Drakul smiled at Harry's efforts, one has to wonder though, what if Harry had put some soul fire behind it, or called upon the Spear of Destiny, what might have happened?  Then Drakul goes into his arrogance act and gives Harry a whole boatload of truths and half truths and perhaps some lies as well without really telling him anything as to why he was bred to be a star born,or what it means to be a star born, and what a poor ignorant fool he is with no style, or decorum, no gravitas.. If Harry had these things he would have seduced him into playing for his team.. Then just as Drakul is about to kill him, Harry uses all of the above to launch into a knock, knock joke, which confuses and delays Drakul until River and Listens get into position.  For a short while the three are doing okay until Mavra came on scene.  Now was it because Harry had no style that Drakul didn't seriously try to recruit him, or did Drakul realize that a guy who had resisted the Shadow of one of the Fallen, wasn't going to knuckle under to him whatever he promised?

Which brings us back to Mavra, and what Harry says to her back in Dead Beat.. Harry is warning her in the final chapter not to get to him through Murphy or his other vanilla friends.. Mavra laughs it off says he hasn't got that kind of power..

Page419

"This ever happens again," I said quietly.  "You try to get to me through other mortals again and I'll kill you."
Mavra's rotted lips turned up at one corner. "No, you won't," she said in her dusty voice.  "You don't have that kind of power."
"I can get it." I said.
"But you won't," she responded, mockery in her tone.  "It wouldn't be right."

Then Harry lists what power he can get potentially, everything from taking up a coin to becoming Mab's Winter Knight, this pisses Mavra off and Harry tells her to leave his town.  So what is the point of this? 

Well, Mavra knew at that point in time that Harry was a member of the White Council, that he was bound by the Laws of Magic.  So she was confident that he'd never be able to kill her because he was bound by doing the right thing, he wouldn't do what he'd need to do to kill her.  They were also standing by his grave that said, "He died doing the right thing.."  Well, Harry is no longer a member of the White Council, he isn't bound by those rules.  Could this be the real reason the Council voted him out?  Because they know from this time forward it will become necessary for Harry to break a lot of rules, so they are distancing themselves from him?  Harry can do what needs to be done, and because he is no longer a Council member their hands are clean.

Then on page 420 of Dead Beat, Malcolm says something that counters "Harry is now a monster,"  accusations that Carlos made at the end of Battle Ground..

I looked away from .  "I did things.  I made a deal I shouldn't have made.  I crossed a line."
"I Know," he said. "It only means what you think it means."
I looked up at him.  "What?"
"Harry, life isn't that simple.  There is such a thing as black and white.  Right and wrong.  But when you're in the thick of things, sometimes it is hard to tell.  You didn't do what you did for your own benefit.  You did it so that you could protect others.  That doesn't make it right---but it doesn't make you a monster,either. You still have free will.  You still get to choose what you will do and what you will become."

All of the above is spot on and why Harry is no monster.  Harry didn't do any of the stuff Carlos accused him of for his own benefit. Then we get to why Harry will never become a monster.  page 421 Dead Beat;

"As long as you believe you are responsible for your choices, you still are. You've got a good heart, son.  Listen to it."

The above is was the ingredient that made Margaret decide to conceive a star born with this man.. Malcolm's good heart, and Harry inherited it.  That is why Harry will never become a monster.
Margaret knew that, so do the Council, Harry will never become their monster to control, or anyone else's..


 

Nemesis?  I mean we know what happened to the mantle, it entered Molly.. Did Nemesis also enter Molly even though it isn't apparent right now?  Could this be the real reason why Mab ordered Harry to kill Molly if something happened to her?  Because of Mab dies, Nemesis would come forward and take full advantage.