Madam Pomfrey’s One-Shot Triathlon 2012-Original Characters-RESULTS and BANNERS

[welshdevondragon]

ORIGINAL CHARACTERS!!!

Original characters are difficult. Some people like them, but others view them with dread, both as writers and readers. However, they are often necessary prior to Trio Era, because we just don’t have enough canon names or characters to flesh out narratives with.

Here are a few important things to remember about original characters:

The first challenge is to make the character fit into the Potter Universe. There has to be a reason why this character is there, and not in our world.

The second worry is self-insertion, as placing yourself in a story is usually of more interest to yourself then the reader, and you need to be wary of this.

Thirdly, there is interaction with canon characters. In interacting with canon characters, you need to make sure you don’t change them to suit the original character you have created, but instead to follow in their own characterisation and complement your original characterisation.

The final one, and perhaps most important, is to avoid writing Mary-Sues and Gary Stus. Perfect people are dull to read about. Likewise, an Anti-Mary-Sue given a tragic backstory merely to shock, is dull to read about. Imperfections are realistic, and flesh out characterisation. Do not be afraid of them.

I am away until the 28th of August. I did not realise this when I started the challenge, and so am very sorry. But as before, anything Jess/ToBeOrNotToBeAmazingAndWise says, goes.

And now for prompts....

1)

The Lyric Prompt

Break some bread
The nights been blessed
With an never-endingness
But nonetheless
End come too soon

End Come Too Soon, Wild Beasts.


This is a song about endings, which usually mean the beginning of something new, as well as the end. Your original character has to be undergoing an ending of some sort, and your characterisation should be about what they are experiencing and how the ending unfolds.

This one-shot has to be set at Hogwarts. While your character does not have to be a student, there has to be a logical reason for why they are at Hogwarts if they are not, either as a teacher, the parent of a student, a governor, or some other role. This should be clear within your story.



2)

The Holiday Gone Wrong Prompt:

Your story has to be set in August and the weather has to be abnormal (whether abnormally hot or abnormally cold or some other way, it’s up to you). Bear in mind that this is abnormal in relation to the norm for the place where your story is set i.e if you set it on an Antipodean Opaleye Reserve in New Zealand, you will have to know what the normal weather is there in August.

For this story, your OC will be on holiday with at least one canon character and something has to go wrong. This can be as simple as arriving at the hotel and finding the room has been double booked, or far more complicated. What is important, is that your OC is characterised by the way they react (or do not react) to the situation they are confronted with, and the way they react with any other canon or original characters they might be with.

3)

Fairy Tale Prompt:

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.
Tremendous Trifles, GK Chesterton

For this prompt you can either use Muggle fairytales, folktales of any culture, or one from The Tales of Beedle the Bard. These stories are important parts of the childhood of people all over the world. They have a moralistic aspect, which can be your starting point, or you can use a motif from the fairy tale within your story. However, it should be clear which fairy tale you have used and how it relates to your story. If it is an obscurer tale, then I love fairy tales and so would be happy to read the original as long as you mention it in the summary, in order to see how it relates to your one-shot. If you want a more obscure fairy tale, then the surlalune website is very helpful archive.

4)

The Shipping Prompt:

This is both the simplest and the hardest prompt. Your Original Character must have a relationship with a minor or major canon character. By relationship, I mean they must at least kiss. Whether this comes from friendship, hatred, is aborted after they touch lips, carries on into friendship, hatred or a loving and fulfilling relationship on both sides is entirely up to you. The two characters must start the story not in a relationship, however they can end it in whichever way you choose.

By ‘start’ I mean start of the chronology of your story i.e you can flashback to them not being in a relationship while they are in it/ out of it.

Be very careful with this one. An OC designed to be ‘the perfect partner’ to a canon character is almost doomed to fail. No one’s perfect. Further, your OC must exist as a character is his/her own right, and not merely as a foil to the canon character.

To help with this, the story must be told from the Original Character’s point of view (but in first, second or third person is your choice).

Please bear in mind that this prompt is not the only one where your character can be shipped with a canon character i.e if you choose prompt 1, 2 or 3 there is nothing stopping you from shipping your OC with a canon character. However if you choose prompt 4, then this has to be the focal point of the story.





And with that, go forth and write! I look forward to reading your entries and hope this is an enjoyable end to what has been for me a very interesting and enjoyable challenge.

As said before, I am away most of August. Jess/ ToBeOrNotToBeExcellent will answer any questions you might have, and what she says, goes. I will be here to lock it come the end of August, however.

Alex

[iMusic17]

Username:* iLuna17
House:* Slytherin
Prompt:* Fairytale
Title (and story link):* Awaken
Summary:**

Once Upon a Time ...

Nora has heard tales of beasts and warlocks hidden in the woods by her village. This is rubbish. She has never seen either of them, even in her secret visits into the forest. One night, however, Nora stumbles into a world not quite her own. Where those tales are real.

This is iMusic17 from the house of future Dark Lords (no, not Hufflepuff) writing for the last round of Madame Alex's Triathalon.

[acaciacarter]

Username: Acacia Carter
House: Hufflepuff
Prompt: Shipping (with a side of Fairy Tale, but Shipping is the main prompt)
Title (and story link): Wind's Nocturne
Summary: There is magic the likes of which humans can barely remember and seldom experience. There is, however, a handful of men privileged enough to experience a part of it: the Dryad's Consorts.

[Equinox Chick]

Name: Equinox Chick
House: Hufflepuff
Title: Diffraction
Prompt: The Lyric Prompt
Summary:

Summary: Diffraction - the phenomenon where light encounters an obstacle.

It is September the first, and a sixth-year boy takes photographs of excited children on platform nine-and-three-quarters. Everyone looks happy, but Aaron Harper's heart is leaden. He can deal with the girl he fancies going out with the obnoxious Hugo Weasley, but coping at Hogwarts with no support from his father could be one obstacle too many.

A/N: Aaron Harper previously appeared in High and later in Swans. This story is under the 10k word limit, but the archives have added nearly 400 words and thus I have had to split into two chapters. Thank you, Alex and Jess, for letting me do this.


Aaaaand, one more - sneaks in just before the deadline


Title: Footprints in the Sand
Prompt: Shipping
Summary:

It was a summer like any other for Danny. He worked at his parents' Bed and Breakfast during the day and partied hard on the beach at night. He played the game, and played it well. But then he met Oliver Wood, and his life was irrevocably changed.

~Carole

[Northumbrian]

Username: Northumbrian
House: Ravenclaw
Prompt: The Shipping Prompt
Title (and story link): Killers
Summary: Tom and Camelia are two people in search of something unobtainable, and each is prepared to kill to achieve their goal. For both, murder is simply the means to an end. For both, their victims are unimportant; they are merely collateral damage in the quest to live forever. What happens when two very different killers meet?

Author’s Note: Camelia has made a brief appearance in “The Hufflepuff” and she’ll be back.

Neil

[Northumbrian]

Username: Northumbrian
House: Ravenclaw
Prompt: The Shipping Prompt
Title (and story link): James and Me
Summary: Annabel is having a bad day. Her sudden and unexpected meeting with a face from her past is unlikely to improve matters.

Neil

[welshdevondragon]

ANNOUNCEMENT

If your story is currently in the queue, then please post with all the details and a link to your author's page here. Then as of midnight tomorrow BST whether the stories are in the queue or not will be checked. As long as they are not rejected, then they will still be eligible for judging.

Thank you for your submissions!

[minnabird]

Username: minnabird
House: Hufflepuff
Prompt: Fairy Tale
Title (and story link): The Testing Point (in queue)
Summary:

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. -C.S. Lewis

June Bagnold comes from a family very focused on success at the Ministry, but she's not so sure she'll be able to fulfill her father's wishes for her, especially with her near-crippling shyness. But she's a seventh year now, and she must face NEWTs and the beginning of life after Hogwarts.

The fairy tale in question is Riquet-with-the-Tuft, by Charles Perrault, just for the record.

[Gmariam]

Username: Gmariam
House: Ravenclaw
Prompt: Endings
Link: Dutiful and Disowned
Summary:
Arlienne Lestrange never expected to fall for a Gryffindor, yet alone the one Gryffindor her family would never approve: Sirius Black, disowned and disgraced. After two months of sneaking around the castle, their secret is revealed, and Arlienne knows she must end their dangerous relationship before one--or both--of them is hurt.

[Ginny Weasley Potter]

Username: Ginny Weasley Potter
House: Hufflepuff
Prompt: Fairy tale
Link: Princess (in queue)
Summary:

In the Indian society, the arrival of a baby girl in the house is considered equivalent to the arrival of a goddess. Women are considered the glue holding a family together. They go on to become mothers and they’re the compassionate emotional support of a family unit.

Then why is it that baby girls are still frowned upon by so many families?

This is Ginny Weasley Potter of Hufflepuff house, writing for round three of the 2012 One-Shot Triathlon at the Character Clinic.

________

OMG, OMG, this is the craziest thing I've done buut----

Prompt: Fairy tale (Beauty and the Beast)
Link: Face Value (in queue)
Summary:
In life, we tend to look at things by face value. We always want the better looking things: the more decorative and shiny the objects have our undivided attention.

However, face value isn't everything. We must learn to look at inner beauty, as that is the most important thing in life.

This is Ginny Weasley Potter of Hufflepuff writing for the one shot triathlon at the character clinic.

This story is a sequel to 'Mum's the World' and I'd really suggest reading that first as it has the same OC.