July Activities 2010

[ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor]

Yay, questions! I'm excited. (Ask more, I command it!)

Jess, you are such a prolific author! Where do you get your inspiration for all those plots from?

To be honest, I have more plot bunnies than I could ever write. I have a ton of full-length stories that have stewed in my head since I started writing fan fiction, and I've only scratched the surface of them. The Vindication of James Potter ended up being a culmination of two different ones that I melded together, since the events fell relatively along the same timeline. Also, every challenge, whether from Poetry, Anyone? (which bred The March), The Three Broomsticks, or The Great Hall, has sparked yet more stories that simply beg to be written. I just wish I had enough time in the day to write them.

Most of my inspiration, however, comes with my inability to let things go. I know it sounds awful, but most of the time, when I wonder about something, I don't stop until I get an answer. Sure, most of the time, it's not what I expect, but I am satisfied with some sort of answer. The beauty of fan fiction is that I can make up my own answers. I could haphazardly wonder about what would happen if, say, Harry was in such-and-such situation, but that would rapidly evolve into a drabble, a one-shot, or even a chaptered story.

Aaannndd, have you got any tips for writing chaptered fics, I wondereth? Since, you know, I'm yet to finish one of them really, LOL.

Seriously, I think about this a lot. For me, it isn't hard. I like to write about details and feelings when I sit down to Word, and chaptered fics are very conducive to that. I get the chance to talk about my characters, their fears, their wants, their desires, their dreams, and it's all okay. Writing one-shots are like snapshots into characters and events, veritable wallet-sized photos or polaroids, but sometimes, you want that giant portrait - that mammoth picture, that masterpiece painting, which shows every shadow, every line, every contour, just everything about the subject.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, in order to write a chaptered story, one probably needs to have a deep, deep understanding of not only the major characters and the story one wants to outline, but of the details. Those types of things, at least according to the reviews I've received for my chaptered fics, engross readers and make them want more. Passionate readers make for passionate writers. The hard thing is getting started, I think.

[TheCursedQuill]

Name of the Story: Waking
Author: the opaleye
Rating: 3rd-5th years
Word Count: 2380
Warnings: AU, Character Death, What Epilogue?, Sexual Situations
Summary: He cannot bring himself to think the name. There is a glimpse of red. A laugh. A fumbled apology. A friendship.


How a death may change a life or two.


Name of the Story: Offerings in the Darkness
Author: h_vic
Rating: 3rd-5th year
Word Count: 2559
Warnings: Character Death, Self Injury, Substance Abuse
Summary: Christmas Eve brings candles, guilt and memories for Severus Snape.

He had been little more than a boy when his mother had died. At a loss for how to comfort the grieving child he barely knew, and seeking perhaps the familiar routines of his own childhood in solace, his father had taken him to church. Severus, however, had found no comfort in the austere, hallowed stone of the chapel, but he found something in the warm candlelight of the offerings to the souls of the departed. If it was not exactly comfort, at least it was more than emptiness. Religion had never permeated his soul, but the candlelight had.


Name of the Story: The Youngest Death Eaters: Year One
Author: DestinyMoonStar
Rating: 6th-7th years
Word Count: 83267
Warnings: AU, Abuse, Sexual Situations, Violence
Number of chapters: 19
Summary: Twins spawn from the Dark Lord himself and a daughter of an ex-Death Eater. Together they are the Youngest Death Eaters. Forced into a life because of their heritage but who are they truly? Who are they faithful to, light or dark?

Name of the Story: Fever Dreams
Author: h_vic
Rating: 6th-7th Years
Word Count: 859
Summary: Severus makes his choice.

Searing darkness.

Falling.

Echoing pain.


Name of the Story: Shattered Universe
Author: msk8
Rating: 1st-2nd Years
Word Count: 850
Warnings(if any): Character Death
Summary: You spent your life preparing for the worst, and you thought you were ready.

But the worst has come. The worst is here. You know you aren’t ready. You aren’t even close to ready.

A one-shot about Rufus Scrimgeor.

[Russia Snow]

YAY me for being the only entrant!

Title: All the Lonely People
Song used: Elenor Rigby-The Beatles
Ratings: 3rd-4th Years
Word Count: 315

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?

Narcissa stood by the window of Malfoy manor and looked out at the once beautiful garden. She had never felt so alone. She was old now, nearly ninety, and a woman who had outlived her son could surely not live for much longer.

The once great Malfoy estate was crumbling around her. Lucius had been sent to Azkaban at the end of the war, and he had died there barely four years later. Widowed and with nothing but an empty family home and a disgraced family name, Narcissa had turned to religion. Reverend McKenzie called over to see her nearly every day now; they could both sense her end was coming.

Narcissa, still liking to keep up appearances, put on a falsely happy face whenever Reverend McKenzie was with her. But both of them knew that just below the surface of her made-up smile lay a dead and desperate woman.

Narcissa Malfoy had seen her own son murdered. Killed by the Dark lord for turning traitor and she had never been the same. Something inside of her had died along with Draco; he had been her only son, her only cause for hope in this world. She had dreamed of seeing him grow up, dreamed of throwing rice at his wedding, of holding her first grandchild, but it was not to be.

The rest of her family had been punished; she couldn’t help but think that her punishment was being forced to stay alive. To re-live her son’s death every night in her dreams.

That night, Narcissa bid goodbye to Reverend McKenzie, and settled down into bed. She prepared to re-live the horrors of her son’s final moments, but when she closed her eyes and fell asleep, all that greeted her was peaceful white.

The next day, Narcissa Malfoy was buried along with her name.

[ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor]

Title: Back to Your Door
Word Count: 795 (and I didn't even have to cut!!!!)
Rating/Warnings: 1st/2nd Years - Very Mild Profanity
Author's Note: This is sort of like an epilogue/wrap-up to the three drabbles I did for the latter half of SPEW 007. The song that inspired it was 'The Long and Winding Road'.

James stared at the door in front of him. He had not seen Augusta since he had hashed things out with Albus, but he wasn’t sure that she would be glad to see him. He had taken her for granted, and he should have been horsewhipped for that. She deserved far better than that—better than him—but he was selfish enough to grovel at her feet for her to forgive him.

Finally, he found the courage to knock on the door. He had no idea why he was knocking, considering he lived there with her, but he thought that he should give her the option of tossing him out on his arse like a sane person would.

Augusta knocked on the door and started when she saw that it was James. “Where were you last night, and why in the name of Merlin are you knocking?”

Where to start? “Listen, I’ve been thinking…” He rubbed the bruise on his chest where the tip of Albus’s elbow had made contact, “…Amongst other things. These past few months have been really hard on you, and I’ve been a complete prat the whole time. I just want…I want to know where we stand, I suppose.”

“I…” Augusta seemed to struggle finding words for what she felt. “You hurt me, James. All I wanted was to help you get better, but you threw it in my face.”

“And I can’t even begin to tell you how much I hate myself for that,” James said truthfully. “Albus and I did some, er, talking, and he’s made me see some things that I couldn’t see for myself.”

Augusta held her breath. “Like?”

James shot her a half-grin. “Like how lucky I am that you didn’t give me the boot months ago, and how I need to move on with my life. I can’t get on with things until I stop looking backwards.”

“Then what are you saying?” Augusta looked up at him curiously, obviously having no idea what he was talking about.

Taking her hand, James knelt at her feet, gazing up into her eyes with complete adoration. “I want to start over again, a new life, and I want you to be a part of that.”

“James, are you—“

Digging into his pocket for the little velvet box that he had stashed in there earlier for just this occasion, James said, “I love you more than anything in this world. When I think about what is to come, I can’t imagine it without you there. I want to look into your eyes when we’re both too old for loud music and we drink nothing but tea with every meal. I want to be able to look back at things like this and ice cream bowls broken over my head and laugh.” They both chuckled at the reminder of the morning of their first kiss.

“I want to wake up every morning and smell the coffee that you’d already made because I’m too lazy to get up and make it myself. I want a batch of adorable little Hufflepuffs of our own, and I want them to all look like you, since you’re more beautiful than any other woman on the planet.

“Augusta Alice Longbottom, will you marry me?” There. He finally said it. Now James just hoped that she didn’t bash him over the head as a reply.

For over a minute, Augusta said nothing. Her mouth opened and closed several times, as if she was starting to say something but couldn’t finish. James was starting to feel dread set in that she was going to refuse.

At last, she reacted, but it wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind. She nodded. Yes, she nodded. “Right then, it’s your turn to clean the loo, and no shortcuts!”

James was confused. “Is that a ‘yes’, or should I just start packing my stuff now? You can keep the flat, if that’s the case, but I—“ He didn’t get a chance to finish his statement, because she cut him off with a searing kiss, banishing all thoughts of words from his mind.

When she pulled away, both of them were breathless, but Augusta wore a look of smug satisfaction. “I’ve always wanted to do that. And, no, you don’t have to pack anything. In fact, if you do, I might hex you.”

“So, does that mean—“

“Of course, I’ll marry you, you idiot!” With a smile, she added, “Now, get off the ground before you ruin your pants. I know how much you paid for those.”

Laughing, James followed her into the flat, thanking his lucky stars that he had found the one woman on Earth that could put up with his nonsense and love him for it.

[Hermoine Jean Granger]

Review for The Note He Left.

Questions!

What is it that you really like about Next Generation, which is the era in which you write most of your stories in?

Okay, this has more to do with the story I reviewed and the number of Harmony stories I saw in your author page: Could you tell me why you like Harmony better than Harry/Ginny?

[ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor]

What is it that you really like about Next Generation, which is the era in which you write most of your stories in?

I like Next-Generation because it's such a blank slate. When I first started reading stories on this site, I read about eras I knew about, such as Marauder and Trio Era. When I felt like I knew all I wanted to know about those normal genres, I moved on to Next-Gen. I was mildly interested in the school experience that Harry's kids would have in comparison to his own. Though the power of some quite fantastic stories, I became hooked. I realised that I had characters that were virtually boundless.

For instance, who is Dominique Weasley? I dunno...let me write something and find out. It really allows to tailor your characters to what you want, rather than what's already there. It also gives one a chance to put a major character from the series in a more minor role, but readers' foreknowledge of that character makes it work even better. That gives you all the more room to take your minor blip on the canon radar and make him or her into the star of a new show.

Another thing I like about Next-Gen is that the wizard society after Voldemort is a brave new world, complete with heroes and a renewed take on equality. It gives you a chance to focus on where they might all go from there, what sort of innovations could come from a more favourable opinion of Muggles/Muggle-borns, and what more unlikely suspects have to offer, such as elves and 'creatures of near-human intelligence'. Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?

Okay, this has more to do with the story I reviewed and the number of Harmony stories I saw in your author page: Could you tell me why you like Harmony better than Harry/Ginny?

Ah, this debate. If you're a canon shipper and don't like the other side of the coin, you should stop reading now.

Disclaimer aside, I think I don't like Harry/Ginny because I just don't like Ginny as a character. When she started out in the series, she was quiet, shy, and awkward around Harry. That lent her appeal and make me empathise with her as a person and her plight in CoS. After reading HBP, though, I find myself wishing that the basilisk would have just eaten her and put Harry out of his misery.

Why is it that, when Ginny was more quiet and liked Harry when she was younger, and even in OotP when she moved on from that as showed to have quite the brave streak in the DoM battle, Harry didn't notice her? But when she became popular, was considered one of the prettiest girls in school, and she was always off snogging boys, that that's when she became Harry's girlfriend. Seriousy, wtf. Not only is it rather disingenuous to the whole premise of 'soul mates' that JKR professes, but it makes Harry seem pretty damned shallow, as well. Harry is the anti-shallow as he's the anti-evil, but this little pocket of OOCness takes away from that special something that makes Harry my favourite character in any book ever just a bit.

That being said, just the idea of a group of friends all marrying their school sweethearts is unrealistic to me. Almost all the people I know that dated in school that ended up married are now, even at 25, divorced with children and in and out of alimony court ever six months. That, at least on this side of the world, is the rule rather than the exception. I just have a hard time knowing what I know about statistics surrounding marriages under those circumstances and suspending my disbelief of the whole thing. With that in mind, I do think that Ron and Hermione are more likely to get divorced than Harry and Ginny.

As for why I like Harmony, it's more the fact that I really don't like Ginny as a character and I don't like Ron much as a person. Ginny, as already outlined by me, is almost like a cardboard cut-out of a character, lacking in that extra dimension and truth that surrounds other minor-major characters (major characters, but less so) in the series. I don't like Ron as a person because he abandoned Harry before in some of the most crucial times in dangerous situations. That, in my opinion, makes him a jerkoff and someone I don't like off the bat. I liked Ron until I read Goblet of Fire. Now, I think of Hermione as Harry's best friend.

But when it comes down to it, somehow, I just always thought that Harry is so greatly changed by what happened during the war. It would take someone who was really there to know and understand what that means. Yeah, Ginny had a rough go, but to me, Hermione is better for Harry in the aspect of loyalty and just knowing what it means to be Harry. She knows him better than he knows himself, and I think she's brilliant for that. Not only that, but she has a knack for knocking him down a peg when he goes all angsty and CAPS!lock. No one in the series cared for Harry and his safety more than Hermione: not Dumbledore, not Sirius, not Ron, not Remus, and definitely not Snape. No one else came close for me, and that's why I wanted Harry to end up with her. He deserves someone like that after everything that happened.

/rambly soapbox