For the Dresden Files novel:
- Mister and Mouse's reaction to Ghost Harry.
- Especially moving in Mouse's case, as he'd been left out of touch with Harry, Mister, Molly, and Thomas: all the characters he'd been used to sharing his home with, either full or part time, since puppyhood.
- "Paranoid? Probably. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't a wizard's ghost standing beside you with tears in his eyes."
- Sir Stuart's breakdown from being a mighty ghostly warrior to just another shade. Fortunately, by the end of the book he's recovered a measure of himself and agrees to join Uriel's organization.
- In a mix of both this and Nightmare Fuel, the point where Harry realizes just how far gone his apprentice is, and the scene in the restaurant where he witnesses her breakdown. Specifically, when Molly breaks down in tears before quietly talking about how easy it is to get people to tear each other to shreds through the lightest of illusions.
- Molly's just a walking Tear Jerker in this book. She's so much more broken than even she realizes, as evidenced by her Battle in the Center of the Mind.
- Harry finally realizing the depth of Molly's feelings for him and being guilt-ridden over that he can't reciprocate.
- Fitz's conversation with Nick Christian, the crusty old former cop-turned-private detective who taught Harry everything he knows in the detective business. Inside Christian's torn-up and crummy office, there are seven pictures of children on the wall. As both Fitz and the reader learn shortly, Nick's been at his job for thirty years, mostly spending it looking for lost kids. Those seven children on the wall? They're the only kids he's ever been able to find in one piece.Fitz: (stunned) In thirty years? You live like this and... Seven? That's it? That's all?
Nick Christian: (gives a sad smile) That's enough. - Harry looking at Father Forthill's room and the near absence of material possessions, and marveling at the magnitude of the sacrifice the man has made.
- Also, one of the few items Forthill does have in his room is a King James Bible. As Catholics don't use that version of the Good Book, it must have been a gift or bequest from a good Protestant friend, received in the spirit of their mutual Christian faith. Whom do we know of who was a Protestant (Baptist) and a very close associate of Forthill's for many years? Shiro.
- The flashback scenes showing how a teenage Harry came home from school and discovered how Justin DuMorne was Evil All Along, finding a dazed Elaine sitting on the couch next to a straitjacket and Justin lording over them both. What makes it especially sad is just how devastated Harry is about the first guardian who had ever showed him (seemingly) genuine care since his father died showing his true colors as an utter monster. Pretty much anyone who has ever had to deal with an abusive caretaker will feel Harry's pain here.Tears blurred my vision as I asked him, in a very quiet, very confused voice, "Why?"
Justin remained calm. "You don't have the knowledge you need to understand, boy. Not yet. But you will in time."
"Y-you can't do this," I whispered. "N-not you. You saved me. You saved us."- The next scene following Harry's escape is even worse - Now on the lam, Harry starts to viciously berate and victim-blame himself for not having "known better" about Justin and Elaine. He'd opened his heart up to someone for the first time since his father's death, and this is how he was repaid. In this scene, it becomes incredibly clear why Harry has such severe abandonment issues and distrust of authority figures.Mostly, I just kept thinking that I should have known. No one in my life had gone an inch out of their way to look out for me once my parents were gone. Justin's generosity, even seasoned with the demands of studying magic, had been too good to be true. I should have known it.
And Elaine. She'd just sat there while he'd been doing whatever he was going to do. She hadn't tried to warn me, hadn't tried to stop him. I had never known anyone in my life I had loved as much as Elaine.
I should have known she was too good to be true, too.
- The next scene following Harry's escape is even worse - Now on the lam, Harry starts to viciously berate and victim-blame himself for not having "known better" about Justin and Elaine. He'd opened his heart up to someone for the first time since his father's death, and this is how he was repaid. In this scene, it becomes incredibly clear why Harry has such severe abandonment issues and distrust of authority figures.
- The entire sequence where Harry finds out just who he's looking for. He was sent back to find his murderer, which it turns out was him. He arranged to have Kincaid shoot him and then had Molly wipe his memory.
- Ensign!Molly's line while watching Kirk!Molly and Spock!Molly fight: "I'm sorry. They've been like this ever since she killed you." Despite being little more than an accomplice to Dresden's suicide, Molly's been feeling as much guilt as if she pulled the trigger herself.
- Related to the above, when Harry has his memory restorednote , he remembers his conversation with Kincaid.Harry, on the phone: Hey, Kincaid.Kincaidnote : Hey, Harry!Harry: I... need a favor.Kincaid: ...Oh.Harry: There's going to be a new Winter Knight.Kincaid: (Beat) It's like that.[He's an assassin that always completes the job. There's only one reason for this type of call, and one reason Harry has "inside information" that a W.K. switch will occur....]
- The way Mort tries to both comfort Murph and spare her pride by simply blocking everyone else's view of her breakdown is deservedly on this book's Heartwarming page, but Harry's thoughts in response to seeing it belong here; "Damn. I wished I'd been bright enough to see what kind of guy Morty was while I was still alive." Harry's had plenty to regret over the course of this book, but while the others were major disasters that were the result of hasty decisions in impossible situations, this minor one is somehow much more personal. Unlike the other decisions, Harry's misjudgment and poor treatment of Mort was caused purely by his disdain for a practitioner who (in his judgement) wasn’t using his gifts properly, and now Harry, in what may be his last moments interacting with the mortal world, realizes he made yet another mistake which he'll never get a chance to set right. The fact that this is the sort of minor, everyday sort of mistake that could be fixed with something as simple as an apology, and now he can't even do that, makes that line all the more poignant.
- The goodbye sequence, when Harry asks Uriel to show everybody will be okay. Seeing Thomas, cope failing, and his Beauty Is Never Tarnished self all messed up and disheveled was one thing; but then seeing little Maggie sleeping peacefully in the home of the Carpenters guarded by Mouse was enough to turn on the waterworks.
