So, it's been a little while since I posted on here again, because of the approaching end to my semester, and because lately I've been focusing my efforts into the stuff I want to put into The Pit. As the title of this post indicates, I would like to ask for some advice, after I give a setup to what I have planned. (I will try to avoid spoilers for my own stuff, though.)

Everyone remember the Legendary Badfic series "The Girl Who Lived"? Well, I remember reading it back in (I think) late 2013- early 2014, and being distinctly disappointed. Obviously, as it's classified as a Legendary Badfic, it was not very good. The titular Rose Potter was at times an over-the-top and irrationally stupid and angry Mary Sue. The other characters didn't react to Rose Potter in a way that made any sense, and sometimes, like in the case of Hermione, were portrayed as being ignorant and backwards for disagreeing with the Druid lifestyle, and with Rose being an aggressive numbskull.

But what really rubbed me the wrong way was the way in which the author did not use the story elements that they introduced in a satisfactory way. For example, the series introduces the idea that Dementors are actually the remains of Necromancers who had used some kind of ritual to try and achieve immortality, or something. This part of the story was retold during the court scene in Order of the Phoenix, and then was never even mentioned again. The Druids, meanwhile, were deliberately hidden from the rest of the world, but being exposed to the outside world through their interactions with Rose Potter didn't cause any narrative conflict.

This caused me to want to write my own version of The Girl Who Lived, but I obviously had a lot of changes that I wanted to make. For instance, I decided to use the original Rose Potter's bad temper as a character flaw, that had consequences and that she has to work to overcome. I also decided to use the ability that the source material calls Void as a plot device.

The Druids will have a lot of changes made to them, though. Unlike in the source material, the Druids' existence is not a secret to the rest of the world. They do, however, have a complicated history with the rest of the Wizarding World, mostly because of a Druid faction I called the Puritan Movement. The Puritan Movement worships the earth as manifested by the goddess Gaia, like the rest of the Druids, but they're different in one important way. They believe that humanity is causing harm to the planet, by way of existing. There are further factions in the Puritan Movement, but the one that is the most troublesome is the one that secretly wants to "purge Gaia of the scourge of humanity". Sounds cartoonish, I know, but I will work hard to try and make their viewpoint at least seem logical and (maybe) sympathetic. When Rose Potter joins their ranks, the Druids are not exactly welcoming to her at first, because of the complicated history that they have with the outside world.

The Necromancers, meanwhile, are thought to have been almost completely wiped out. However, there is secretly a Necromancer among the cast of OC's I have created for the series. His goal is to continue his cycle of immortality. Simple on paper, but more complicated on closer inspection because of the nature of the ritual that he needs to use. He has a personal history with the Druids, but is simultaneously exploiting the events of the Harry/Rose Potter wizard side of the story.

Apart from the main cast of the Rose Potter original source material, I have created a cast of original characters (as I have said in the previous paragraph; isn't redundancy fun?). The Russo siblings- a brother and sister (whose names I have yet to come up with)- will be working in the background of the Harry/Rose Potter storyline toward their own goals, having to do with the Druids and the Necromancer, with whom they unknowingly have a personal history. The sister is Sorted into Gryffindore, while the brother is Sorted into Slytherin. This will obviously cause a little bit of tension, but I wanted to do it this way because it has the potential to open up a wide array of different perspectives and characters.

Apart from the main seven stories, I am also planning to write stories on aspects of life in the Wizarding World of Harry/Rose Potter that I don't think have been explored yet. For example, I have a horror story in the works that focuses on the troubled members of a heavy metal band who have hit a patch of abysmal reviews for their previous work. I chose to do this because it focuses on an area of wizarding subculture that has only been touched upon in the original work. (Harry Potter has a band called The Weird Sisters, which I've been unable to find much about, but it seems that they're in the same rock genre as Alice Cooper, minus the corpse paint.)

Also in further, more original stories based in my prospective Rose Potter Universe, I focus on some aspects of wizarding society that I personally would be interested in knowing about. For example, from Philosopher's Stone to Deathly Hallows and beyond, I will begin focusing on more partisan politics in the Ministry of Magic, with a set of political parties called the Conservative Party (or Tories), the Progressive Party (which will eventually include Hermione Granger in their ranks), and the Centrist Party (which is more of an umbrella term that refers to Ministry members that simply don't fit into the two-party system). Meanwhile, the International Confederation of Wizards is negotiating the implementation of an internationally accepted currency, and they're trying to maintain relations with both the Druids and the Volturi Coven of vampires in Italy.

That's right, the Rose Potter Universe is eventually going to cross over into the Twilight-verse, which will also be changed up a bit. The biggest, most significant change that I should mention that doesn't spoil anything is that the Volturi, originally the undisputed international authority in the Twilight source material, is fighting for control with the Alucard Coven. The Alucard Coven claims to be a group of direct descendants from the original Vlad Dracula, and they're quickly gaining support among the vampire community. The big issue in the Rose Potter Universe of my own creation in regard to the vampires is who the wizards should back for supremacy.

However, there are some things I may need some help with (hence the title of this post).

1. Something that I found interesting when I looked into fanon tropes was the Dumbledore-is-a-manipulative-old-man trope. Obviously, upon closer inspection, Dumbledore inhabits a sort of moral gray area, since he knew about the Horcrux being inside Harry Potter (since the original Rose Potter never got that far) and he didn't tell him about it. But my big question is, what are the other details of the trope? How can I use this trope to make Dumbledore a more complicated character without making him an outright antagonist?

2. As I have explained above, I intend to take the Rose Potter Universe beyond the seven stories from the original Harry Potter source material, and explore some untouched areas of wizarding world society. Can anybody think of some areas that haven't been explored yet? What *controversial* area of wizarding life would you be interested in?

3. A certain member of my series' original characters list (no spoilers, so I'm not saying who it is) is destined to take the title of "Most Dangerous Dark Wizard of all time". However, I'm going down a much less conventional route to accomplish this. For example, the character is genuinely interested in improving life for the wizarding world (even if it's at the expense of other communities, especially the vampires). And they never seek out the title, but the title is bestowed upon them by The Daily Prophet during a time of hyper-partisanship in the post-Deathly Hallows Ministry. On top of that, a lot of "ordinary witches and wizards" (meaning the citizenry) are going to support their efforts, and the biggest problem with the character is the company they keep. But what I wanted to ask in this area is how I can make this character even more complex, and possibly morally ambiguous. Any ideas, anyone?

4. I will admit, I have actually tried to read Twilight before, and I found it incredibly painful and boring to read. The main reason, I think, was the way in which it was written to sound like Bella didn't care too much about what was going on. But on top of that, I have heard that the Bella/Edward relationship has garnered a lot of criticism for its ostensibly abusive nature. This is a lot to work with, but can anyone help me find other major problems with the Twilight Saga (since I didn't read much past the halfway point in Chapter 2)?

Now I know that I have given myself a lot of work to do with this series, but I'm actually getting pretty close to the actual writing for some of the stories. That being said, I have some more planning that needs to be done, and I want to get it as close to right as I can. Any help that you can give me on the conceptual level is appreciated.

I'll be sure to let everyone know when I have them ready, and once I do, I'll obviously want some constructive criticism. That's looking into the future a bit, but it'll be fun! (It does mean, however, that I won't be able to post on here as much as I would like. Oh well.)

- WastedMoth