Subject: Thank you!
Author:
Posted on: 2023-06-14 00:12:05 UTC
I think the Ghostbusters ref was in the previous chapter. But thank you all the same, I'm glad you liked that!
Subject: Thank you!
Author:
Posted on: 2023-06-14 00:12:05 UTC
I think the Ghostbusters ref was in the previous chapter. But thank you all the same, I'm glad you liked that!
Since it fell off the front page, etc.
Chapter Seven: Harry battles Dementors, Agent Professor Liu battles discusses his backstory.
The Trio prepare for exams and Buckbeak's appeal.
Warning for a terrorist attack and usage of blood in blood magic.
Man, this is a hella rough exam period. Hermione’s not sleeping enough, she’s bad with Boggarts, Harry’s surrounded by Dementors, fighting with a friend, Ron thinks his pet has been killed while dealing with Buckbeak’s trial, plus someone keeps trying to blow up one of their professors . . . and they’re expected to STUDY? This is outrageous, those poor kids. I am impressed by Ron stepping out of his comfort zone and taking some of the weight off Hermione. Then again, he seems to be going at it more from a strategic point of view than an academic one, so maybe not so far out of his wheelhouse after all? Poor Hermione; that Boggart is nasty, and I’m glad we’re hitting the end of the time-turner arc. Figures it would take her messing up some exams to finally realize her schedule was unhealthy . . . And kudos to Harry for quick thinking during that exam, but uh. Wow, an exam that potentially requires a student to bite themselves bloody to complete is. Something.
Hey, nice save on Crookshanks’s part! Ten points to Kneazlecat House! Incidentally, do Prince and Lily know Crookshanks is part Kneazle in this timeline?
—doctorlit is certain Hermione’s anti-Animagus runes won’t have any impact on the rest of the year’s story
I mean, when your Boggart is your friends turning on you and calling you racial epithets, it's... not exactly as easy to turn that into something funny as, say, a giant spider!
Ron in the books actually did take over the appeals process! But I did want to lean into the strategy smarts he's got, and maybe start laying groundwork for Ron/Hermione, so that's why he's so gung-ho about it in my rewrite. He's also got a keen sense of justice; he's just much slower to get there than Hermione!
Lily is aware that Crookshanks has Kneazle ancestry; she bought him off his breeder, Mrs Figg, directly!
Yes, pay no attention to the gun on the mantelpiece...
I did appreciate how you've played Harmione's abuse of the Time-Turner more realistically - with the fatigue kicking in and causing her to have underwhelming results. And the IronChocolate Curtain between Draco and Harry was fun.
Yeah, that bit's based off the semester in uni where I took 5 classes instead of the recommended 4 because i wanted to do both playwriting and screenwriting, and ended up so burned out that I could only submit mediocre final projects :P
Nothing like some chocolate truffles for a good detente!
I love, love, love, that whole opening scene! I love the mention of non-European teams at the World Cup, I love Cedric trying to make things up to Colin, I love Colin worrying about his brother not having a way to quickly get acquainted with Wizarding World structures without taking an entire semester in Customs and Etiquette, I love Harry being confronted with the drawback to getting the New Blood program closed down (of course the solution isn’t “better indoctrination,” but “have fewer strictures), I love Liu obliterating the assumptions the British kids have about hair and gender, I love how much Liu and Jenni love each other, I love their shared speech about honoring oneself in addition to one’s family . . . It’s all just great!
I do not love seeing Hermione self-destructing over her studies. : ( GET SOME SLEEP GIRL And this definitely isn’t projection, because I definitely wasn’t accused of work addiction just yesterday by a coworker, while I definitely wasn’t visiting work on an off day. This is ALL about Hermione.
Oh, and we’re finally at the best part of any Harry Potter novel: the sports are done for the year! Yaaaaaaaaaay!
—doctorlit really thinks that Runes class is super-fun . . .
Yeah, that was a very warm and fuzzy Order meeting, all things considered :D And yeah, Colin is... different from his canon self, because this world has forced him to lose his wide-eyed wonder about magic a lot faster. It was really bittersweet to write his lines about being scared for Dennis to come to Hogwarts, because in the books he and Dennis were so happy about Hogwarts...
Ryan Liu is here to say anyone can keep magic in their hair and Avalonian gender essentialism can go kick rocks!
Haha, sounds like you don't need a Time Turner, then! Yeah, poor Hermione and her overextending herself... I knew a lot of kids in uni who were much the same. Talking about all their projects like it was a badge of pride to be overworked...
The sports are done, and it's time for the big reveal!!!
But it was worth it. Fine work weaving the important plot points of the original with the new world as usual, Lily! I loved the Ghostbusters reference in one of the ltest chapters (sorry, can't remember if it was on this one or the previous - I read them together)
I think the Ghostbusters ref was in the previous chapter. But thank you all the same, I'm glad you liked that!
I know I’ve mentioned this before on other chapters, but I still love how much more willing you are to let characters interact than Rowling was. Seeing Pansy attend Lupin’s Dementor class with Harry, and Luna and Draco just hanging out making snowmen together (which leads into them being part of a big plot discovery!) goes so far to making it feel less like Harry is the only character who matters, even as the focal character. And it makes Hogwarts’s student body feel much more alive, as well; yeah, there are cliques, but no kid observes that kind of social more 100% of their life. (Further reinforcing why the school houses would be super unhealthy for growing kids’ psychology . . .)
Man, Hermione is such a boss. Like, I know the time turner situation is way unhealthy in the long term, but I have to respect the “okay, Harry, I’ll take a nap,” and then waking up and immediately rewinding time to participate in the group work project anyway. Like, instruction fulfilled, but now we’re back to work . . . (Ever since I finished the original Prisoner, I’ve been trying not to think about the extra hours Hermione is aging compared to the rest of the student body, but now I’m going to look it up. Let’s see, third-year students take nine classes normally, and there are four class periods in a day . . . does that even work? Seems like all nine classes couldn’t get enough hours that way. Astronomy is only held after hours on Wednesdays, but that still leaves eight classes. Do they each only meet five times every two weeks? Anyway, putting that aside, if Hermione is using the time turner for every non-Astronomy class period, she’s doing eight classes a day, and therefore aging an additional four hours a day, 20 hours a week. That’s nearly a day per week! Assuming Hogwarts has 39 school weeks, like Muggle/real UK schools do, that’s 780 hours a week! Hermione aged 32.5 additional days this school year, not including any additional uses of the turner for naps or, you know, possible hippogriff rescues! And if she had continued that through to her seventh year, 162.5 days from the end of her natural lifespan would have been sunk into taking extra classes. Why would any version of the Ministry allow teenagers to make this choice?!)
Oh, my gosh. The local Jenni just can’t keep her mind off the local “Snape,” can she? (Or is Severina the local Supernumerary, rather?) Either way, “Some things truly never change” indeed!
Ooooof, I know it’s lame to dunk on Peter when he was still a teenager, but “ . . . would like to remind her that she would be a lot prettier if she smiled.” Nah, Peter. That’s not cool, Peter. We don’t say that to people, Peter. No.
—doctorlit looks a lot weirder when he fake-smiles
(It's actually a tossup between Much Ado and Julius Caesar, but, you know. It is really high on my list, though! Love the Gender Is A Performance vibes.)
Part of the intermingling is because, theoretically, House rivalry comes second to ~wizard pride~, plus Slytherin doesn't really have the evil reputation it has in canon because Salazar Slytherin's kinda a key religious figure in this world. Since he, uh, wrote the Tome of Avalon. But yeah, it does let Slytherin students hang out with other students without the same baggage they've got in canon. And also, I just think writing about people adhering 100% to school cliques is boring :P
Hermione is really just in perpetual girlboss mode, honestly.
Yeah, Peter talking like a creepo misogynist is on purpose, actually :P
. . . but Much Ado is on my PPC reading list, at least! And hopefully I can get to Twelfth Night eventually, too!
—doctorlit might read things online more frequently than actual books nowadays . . .
Alternate title for the year: “Peter Pettigrew and the Non-Stop Series of Heart Attacks”
Ooooooh yes, Neville is leveling up fast in this timeline! I love how confident and outspoken he is already. And he fundamentally understands what too many folks today don’t: the only correct way to engage with supremacists is to NOT ENGAGE. I know that’s putting Harry and co. in a tough spot, almost having to choose between friendships, but Neville is still correct in general, and his sense of betrayal is completely understandable, in-universe.
Astute observation from Harry, that his largely calm and peaceful childhood leave it hard to distinguish what his nicest memories are. He obviously doesn’t have the benefit of knowledge of the original canon, like we do, to compare with the abused Harry, but it makes an interesting comparison all the same.
Oh no, it's the sex ed at Hogwarts! I love that Liu is using loopholes to educate the kids on important things, right under the Board’s noses. And I know observing that Hogwarts is missing a bunch of important classes is a cliché at this point, but yeah, anatomy! That’s not one I had thought about before! Wizards and witches don’t know how their own lungs work! They don’t know how blood circulates! Everything is fine and normal! Oh, but then we get to that bond-enhancing potion . . . “. . . it helps you create Matrimonial Bonds after you are fully grown.” “. . . when a mage has been dosed with a bond-enhancing potion, they’re capable of initiating Matrimonial Bonds through a kiss . . .” This is DRUGS. They are DRUGGING THSES CHILDREN in a way that manipulates their emotions when they get older! Forces them to pair up, and want to reproduce! I hate this! I am so angry now! How many poor ace/aro folks got forced into unwanted bonds when they grew up?!? Aaaaaargh!
Anyway, haha, Pettigrew got catted. Bold choice to kill him offscreen with no explanation; I’m sure the rest of the year will be nice and calm. >.>
—doctorlit finally gets a weekend with no social obligations
I suppose there's a wry observation about kids being forced to grow up fast in these sorts of climates re: Neville levelling up fast...
Yeah, it did make me happy and sad at the same time to write about this Harry having so many more happy memories, because canon Harry specifically mentioned having trouble finding a happy memory at all.
This is DRUGS. They are DRUGGING THSES CHILDREN in a way that manipulates their emotions when they get older! Forces them to pair up, and want to reproduce! I hate this! I am so angry now! How many poor ace/aro folks got forced into unwanted bonds when they grew up?!? Aaaaaargh!
So, not-so-funny-story, I just finished watching the new documentary about the Duggars on Amazon Prime, and, I'm just gonna quote one of the ex-IBLP folks in there: "In this culture, you are not really allowed to say no to who shows up and says they want you. If a man says he wants you, then he's God's man for you, and you have to learn how to adjust your feelings and thoughts around that."
Very Maiden's Kiss vibes, I'm afraid! Coupled with how the Duggars themselves were all about ~saving the first kiss for marriage~... really, I'm not writing about anything that hasn't already been done out there to real people.
Well. I have learned things tonight. Painful things.
—doctorlit has learned things
I loved the little detail about healers' manuals being actually anatomically inaccurate. That fits oh so well with this particular version of the Potterverse... and I suspect there would be quite a bit of mistakes in canon, as well, though I hope less glaring. I'm not sure I even want to know what a "wandering womb" is supposed to be...
As usual, excellent worldbuilding and flaweless execution of how the characters would act in this universe! If feels paining to see Neville act like this, but I can't help but feel this is how it would go down indeed.
...a very ancient belief that all the ~weird womanly stuff~ happened because of displaced uteri wandering around the body. It started with the Ancient Greeks and persisted in European Medicine for a while, even being recorded in a book called The Suffering of the Mother in 1603. It's before the Statute, so wizard Healers would've ascribed to this, and, well, it's not that far-fetched to them that some mage's womb might wander around their body, so they never really stopped believing in it.
Thank you! Poor Neville, honestly...
Draco spends Christmas at Godric's Hollow.
Warning: blood magic, muggle-baiting, and Draco's continuing adventures with PTSD.
Hey, there! I'm sorry I've delayed commenting so long. I'm still working on putting everything back where it belongs in my condo, and I've been reading this chapter during lunch breaks. As such, my notes and thoughts may be a bit more disorganized than usual, but I promise that's not a reflection on the chapter; it was an extremely good and engaging chapter, and I wish I wasn't forced to read it in pieces!
I was struck by how huge and fancy Godric's Hollow is! Partly because my brain keeps trying to convince me that the Hollow is actually Grimmauld Place, since that's usually the ancestral home full of magic traps and overly critical wall hangings that this canon winds up in. But yeah, it makes sense, with the Potters being a Most Ancient House, and Lily's potion-making, that G's H would be quite a mansion in this timeline!
Oh! Seeing Dobby in clothes, and willingly employed! It feels great to read! And I'm glad Draco gets to spend time with him again.
I love how you've characterized the town as a mix of Muggle and magical culture, something we never tended to see much in canon. And I like that it's a bit ambiguous whether there are charms blocking some things from Muggle view, or if the Muggles just don't care there's a different culture living alongside them. Almost as though cohabitation encourages tolerance or something! That said, even I was a little shocked at how brazenly Harry was allowing Rose and Gary to see things in the Hollow later on. As bad as things got, it could have been a lot worse, and I'm surprised Draco didn't protest more than he did. Talking openly about "the secret context" feels like it's asking for trouble, too . . . (To be clear, I'm more concerned about the Ministry coming down on Harry than about Gary and Rose.) That said, I did enjoy the conversations where the kids were all talking at odds around each other, especially the dragon discussion. On the other end of the spectrum, it's wild to read how naturally Draco expects his fellow thirteen-year-olds to physically attack him once things go sour, just because of all the propaganda he's been raised with . . .
Okay. Um. I probably don't need that enchanted bookmark. I mean, how often do I need to mark multiple points in a novel? That's silly
. . . But we wants it, yesss, Precioussss, we needs it, we—
Oh hey, a reference to the Fawley family! Nice for Wizards Unite to get a nod.
Draco isn't a character I tend to sympathize with often, but in anti-denim solidarity, we are in accord: jeans suck, they're too tight and restrictive of movement. Draco is objectively in the right here.
I'm liking Regulus quite a bit more after this chapter. Previously, I disliked how attached he is to social expectations, but I really enjoyed seeing him loosen his standards and party with some "disgraced" families, freely and easily. He's certainly a much better role model for Draco than the boy has had previously, and I'm glad to see Regulus displaying an element of humility to go along with his social status. Plus, even removed from the Pureblood society weirdness of this setting, it's impressive to see a grown man lose graciously to a thirteen-year-old!
My favorite thing out of this whole chapter is the contrast between Charlus's warning that "enjoying yourself here" is dangerous, and all the fun Draco experienced throughout the holiday. Doesn't get much more explicit that you're in a cult that wants to control your behavior than that!
Oh my gosh, peafowl HATE rain, they always duck into the hay barn about 20 minutes before it starts coming down. I can't imagine how they would react to snow! Poor peafowl . . .
Draco: suggests a veterinarian for Scabbers
Ron: says he can't afford it
Pettigrew: bites Ron
logical conclusion: Pettigrew wants health care, based Pettigrew
Heh, my last note is "kill Pettigrew," which I wrote in between the penultimate and final scenes, on the assumption that the one painting lady saw Pettigrew's human form, and assumed it was a still-living Charlus. But I guess it really was Charlus in the painting who tricked Gary and Rose, so "kill Charlus" I guess. woodchipper intensifies (Except I suppose the painting people are pretty hard to kill, since they can just step into another one, huh?)
—doctorlit is about to refresh the Board for the first time in over a week, and learn just how far behind he is at reading and reviewing . . .
No worries on having to read it in pieces. You gotta do what you gotta do.
In the books, Godric's Hollow is the name for the village and the Potters simply had a cottage there, but ofc in this verse the Potters' status as a Most Ancient House is reflected in their ancestral home. I was inspired by Kentwell Hall for the general look and... Gryffindor vibe. And also because the film location for Godric's Hollow was the Guildhall in Lavenham, which is nearby.
Dobby is having the time of his life!
I think Harry was doing a sort of "plausible deniability" thing. Since he wasn't the one who made the Hollow visible to Muggles, he could just invite them over and see what they make of the weirdness--which in Gary and Rose's case, was a lot of "oh, special effects!" rather than "oh, magic is real". I imagine the "secret context" is basically saying "as long as I don't specifically say 'magic is real and I'm a wizard', the Ministry won't come after me because I could also literally just be discussing Muggle fantasy books like The Hobbit". It's a bit rules-lawyering!
And also, I don't think the Ministry put a Taboo on wizards talking about magic--they only seem to show up if you do magic in front of a Muggle, or if a Muggle got sent to the hospital because of magic. Though the latter sort of Muggle-baiting seems to be regarded as largely a joke in the books, because only Arthur Weasley seems to take it seriously at all. I imagine in Purityworld, where Muggles are more or less considered subhuman by the people in power, Muggle-baiting is only illegal in writing, but rarely ever prosecuted. Harry thought if he could keep Gary and Rose out of the really dangerous stuff, then they could have a laugh at the talking mirrors and what not and maybe Gary and Rose would think, oh, maybe the secret context is 'magic' all on their own without Harry mentioning it outright. That... did not go as planned.
I'm sure it comes in handy if you're referencing a book for an essay and need to flip back and forth! More eco-friendly than multiple post-its, for sure.
The Fawleys are in Cantankerous Nott's "Sacred 28" list, which forms the basis of the Most Ancient Houses. They're largely considered a "good Pureblood family" in fanon.
Draco is literally wearing leather pants though ;) Buckskin breeches are skin-tight as well!
Regulus had always been committed to social expectations in the books, given that he was the favourite between him and Sirius. But it's clear he also feels compassion and loyalty towards characters that don't share the same social strata as him, as we see with him and Kreacher, so it makes sense that once disillusioned from the Death Eaters/Knights of Camelot, he would seek to associate with people similarly at odds with Voldemort/Gaunt's ideology in order to deradicalise himself. So yeah, that makes him a perfect role model for Draco!
And, to be fair, the comments he makes about gentlemen not flaunting their wealth is... sort of common sense with the truly wealthy/old money folks. The nouveau riche flaunt their wealth; old money maintain things to be passed down to descendants. And you dress according to what the host sets, so if Lily specifically wanted a casual Christmas, then it would be gauche to wear dress robes. Draco is operating off of what he knows, which is that you wear dress robes to evening social events, and therefore ends up a bit of an odd duck!
The orangery is most definitely warm, since oranges need that sort of temperature to grow, so the peacocks will be fine. :D
They chased Scabbers into the east wing, where Charlus' wards did a lot of the rest of the work. I imagine a lot of the standard horror movie haunted house tropes came into play to get Gary and Rose into the dungeons. It is a magical house...
Thank you for reading!
I really like the way you've remixed canon so that the fic hits the main plotbeats but with new causes and outcomes. Things feel familiar in a way that lets the main point (that is to say the new and improved worldbuilding) to shine. You're also doing a good job with explaining the AU. I mostly know the fic genre you're referencing by reputation but I'm able to keep up with things without issue.
This chapter started very nice and fluffy which was a nice way to get our guards down before the second half hit. I hope Rose and Gary will be okay, I like them a lot and want to see more of them. I'm also very curious about the poisoning, that was unexpected considering how well things were going before then.
Yes, the point of the rewrite is to hit major beats of the story, but within the context of the new setting! It doesn't make sense for things to replicate exactly as they do in the books, given that the entire world is different. I'm glad the worldbuilding and exposition has been working for you so far.
Gary and Rose will be showing up more in 4th year, too! And you'll see more on the poisoner in subsequent chapters. Thank you for reading!
Started nice and fun, then it kicked into high gear. The plot thickened, and even more nastyness happened.
However, Draco seems to have made a decision! (Or, at least, he's further down the good path) And it is simply beautiful that it was sparked by him witnessing Pureblood abuse of Muggles in first person, which for the Circle of Gits is pretty much warranted. Well played, Lily!
All in all, an excellent chapter!
He's never had a front-row seat to seeing direct consequences of Pureblood supremacy in the books (since I would argue that all the Malfoy Manor takeover stuff is internal politics, not them actually suffering direct consequences of Pureblood supremacy), so giving him this chance to connect with Muggles his age and then watching them get hurt by someone who believes the same stuff as his parents... really makes a boy think... especially when he knows that being a bigot will cost him his new friendships with the trio!
Thanks for reading!
(Okay, I know, the coronation ended like an hour ago. I wasn't watching, haha)
Harry and friends go to Godric's Hollow.
Warnings: FAKE NEWS (seriously, take anything Rita Skeeter says in this time period with an enormous block of salt), references to torture, references to Pureblood supremacist hate crimes (specifically, BL 9), references to BL 10-11.
(EDIT: Are the spoiler tags broken, Tomash?)
Wow, this news article! (“News”) There is a lot to take in here. I should have seen it coming, since I think Neville has mentioned living with his grandmother before, but with the Longbottoms being a Pureblood family, I totally assumed they were fine and normal. When will I learn that nothing in Purityworld is fine and normal? Of course they couldn’t escape their canon fate, of course Bellatrix and friends still got brutal on them. Poor Neville. Some of the metaphors in here are way painful, like Gaunt complaining about equalization schemes and defending tradition against an outgroup (not to mention “Lying Longbottom” being a very Trumpy style of nickname, to my ear (Ears: that thing we read words with)). I also can’t help but see the lines, “. . . and to work harder to secure a future for my Pureblood child and her peers. To safeguard the right for magical blood and culture to exist,” as basically being the “14 words” transplanted into a magical fantasy setting. I also find it interesting that this Rita, a middle class white woman, used to be in favor of championing progressive causes, but is now acting deferential to an authoritarian figure and acting as a mouthpiece for his restrictive views, and is finding an audience in otherwise perfectly nice and reasonable middle class white women, like Molly Weasley, as a result, helping to shift the views of the general public against an oppressed minority. Gosh, I . . . I feel like there’s . . . something there, tying this in with real world meta, surrounding the Harry Potter fandom? I just can’t think what that would be, exactly. Oh well!
Hermione is losing her books budget to a hair product? Truly the most degenerate timeline! And of course, when an arbitrary social stigma makes a product artificially valuable, the market is always there, ready and willing to generate a profit from it. Fun! But hey, the alternative would be forcing Draco to view scandalous ponytails against his consent, so. What choice is there?
Oh, wow, I keep forgetting the Knight Bus exists at all! Definitely one of the least fantastical and interesting elements of the canon, honestly.
—doctorlit is dismantling his desktop today in preparation for replacing his floors, but will try to continue reading and reviewing from his cell phone for the immediate future
Yeah, Bellatrix is still........deeply unwell. Apologies to the French for inflicting her on them instead of the Dementors :P
That was all 100% bonafide intentional. Gaunt's blowing all the dogwhistles in his arsenal! He's here to Make Avalon Great Again! Merlin and Morgana, what do you mean he's cribbing the 14 words and acting fashy? Don't the wizards deserve to have their own community free from those filthy Mudbloods and their degenerate Muggle culture? :/// You're being sucked in by Dumbledore's liberal agenda! You can't just call pureblood supremacists for what they are! So much for the tolerant-- ack, I can't :'D
Ah, yes, Rita Skeeter, who once wrote one (1) decently progressive thing that fuelled a movement for progressive change but couldn't recapture the attention and accolades for that one (1) thing and is now chasing clout by replatforming a wizard fascist. Gosh. I wonder who that's alluding to. :))))
Yes, of course the solution to slutty hairstyles like ponytails is to force women to tie their hair up even more rigidly and enforce sleek hairstyles on everyone regardless of their actual hair texture. That's the only way to avoid inflaming the lusts of proper, Pureblood gentlem-- hahahahaha I can't.
The Knight Bus honestly only had one glorious moment in the 3rd book and then it's just... casually never there when Harry and friends need it later. What a shame. It seems so convenient (and dangerously fun)!
And also show Mr. Gaunt why they stuck-up Purebloods still live in hiding from Muggles. Avada Kedavra? Please, we have "metal wands" that spew them at hundreds per minute.
That aside, there's no way the Christmas festivities at Godric Hollow's aren't going to end up in disaster.
Also, nice way to drop in the Knight Bus! With, of course, Draco being disgusted by it. I'm afraid his first impact with a Muggle vehicle won't make him like cars much, will he?
And she's only just getting started!
Don't worry, I do have plans for Gaunt to have some encounters with Muggles in the future. It will be fun for me and you, but not for him.
Godric's Hollow is going to be entertaining, yes! ;P But maybe not quite in the way you suspect!
To be fair the Knight Bus is an appropriation of Muggle culture ;P It's not how real buses work, Draco!
On the contrary, compared to the Knight Bus, a Muggle car will feel very calm and safe! Perhaps that was Lily's plan all along? Then again, I don't think she owns a car . . .
—doctorlit, jealous of free public wizarding transport
But I do plan to get Draco into a car at some point.... not sure if it'll be on the page, but it will happen!
Harry and Aunt Sev go to lunch with Mum and Uncle Regulus.
BL1 warning! Only references and implications, but still.
I find kinda hard to believe that a version of Pettygrew would have the metaphorical balls to do that, but the rest of the chapter does kind of work well. I'm curious to see how you'll play out what you've set up with this chapter!
I imagine this world's Voldemort is very persuasive, considering his direct access to his followers' magic ;P
But yes, you'll see how it plays out...
Hm. “. . . she hasn’t had any further misadventures since Crooky started sleeping in her quarters . . .” A housecat/kneazle wouldn’t keep Sirius away . . . was it actually Pettigrew in Prince’s chamber that night?
Okay, wow, this chapter brings a lot of sad for me. Remus still trusting Pettigrew over Sirius feels so very yucky. And the abandonment he must have felt all those years, with Sirius in jail, Pettigrew and the Potters all appearing dead . . . I can’t imagine what this past decade has been like for him. BUT NOW he needs to mention that his school friends were unregistered animagi. I get wanting to protect the memories of the (allegedly) dead ones, but the adults are SO CLOSE to stringing the puzzle together we all solve puzzles using string right without needing Harry and friends to fall into danger. Come oooooon, adults, you can do it, just this once! I mean, frankly, Lupin should have informed the Ministry of Sirius’s dog form the second Sirius escaped, but now he should be informing the other people at the table to help them find Sirius, and the second Prince hears that Pettigrew had a rat form, she would be like, “Oh, how weird, the Weasley family’s extremely long-lived rat, which is missing a finger from a forelimb, blew up my cauldron earlier this year, and my cauldrons have stopped blowing up since my cat moved back in . . . HHHHMMMMMM.” Oh, well. I guess it wouldn’t be a Harry Potter story if the adults could figure things out on their own . . .
Pettigrew. Pettigrew? Peter Pettigrew? Killed? James? Pettigrew aimed his own damn wand at James in this timeline? Okay. Okay, Lily, I’m going to need to borrow your version of Pettigrew real quick. Just for the day! I need to punch him. I need to call in sick to work and spend the day punching him. Eight hours of punching. Hell, maybe it will even turn into one of those eleven-hour work days, if you know what I mean.
—doctorlit would think Aberforth would appreciate a goat-themed present, but maybe the twins did something weird to it
was it actually Pettigrew in Prince’s chamber that night? You'll just have to wait and see :3c
Remus still trusting Pettigrew over Sirius feels so very yucky. Sirius was a known radical protestor, and Peter was also their friend. Idk, I don't like it when the Marauders distrust Peter before his betrayal is proven--too many fics make it out to be like the other 3 keep picking on Peter because they ~sense him being untrustworthy~, to the point that I wouldn't blame Peter for trying to get them all killed. We know more than Remus does, so it makes sense that Remus would believe that Sirius was guilty/that Severina killed James.
I mean, frankly, Lupin should have informed the Ministry of Sirius’s dog form the second Sirius escaped Being an unregistered Animagus also carries an Azkaban sentence. So, like, unless Remus wants to go down as big snitch number two, I doubt he'd do that.
now he should be informing the other people at the table to help them find Sirius I think there's a lot of the adults assuming other adults already knew xyz thing going on? Basically Remus thinks both Lily and Regulus know about the Animagus thing (I mean, they are family of Sirius and James, after all), and he believes Sirius blew up the Atrium and Severina killed James. Regulus and Lily both believe Peter blew up the Atriurm and killed James. Severina believes Sirius blew up the Atrium and knows Peter killed James. They're all assuming they're all on the same page about things. Whether or not that's true is debatable :'D
(Granted, I think Lily and Regulus have their suspicions about Sirius being a dog, but they don't want to voice it in case they're wrong--hence Regulus looking at "The Grim" last chapter)
I need to call in sick to work and spend the day punching him. Eight hours of punching. Hell, maybe it will even turn into one of those eleven-hour work days, if you know what I mean. Haha, punch away!
Thanks for reading!
I'm letting my knowledge of his crimes, both canon and Avalonverse, color my view of him, and how the other characters view him. He's just such a yucky fella! But I suppose it would be hard for me to suddenly 180-degree on one of my friends, so yeah. Point taken.
—doctorlit, pointed
Oh, hey, nice to see family attending the school Quidditch matches! I can’t recall if that was allowed in canon, but I don’t remember parents ever attending . . . maybe it just never came up, since the narrative “followed” Harry, and he didn’t have anyone to attend. Then again, he probably would have noticed Molly and Arthur if they showed up, so . . . I’m rambling, but yeah, nice to see family show up for Hogwarts games!
Gosh, Prince still helped attack the Potters in this timeline? I was really starting to think she had been an ally to at least Lily all along . . . well, I’m glad she made the right decision in the end, and spared Harry . . .
Oh. Oh my, yes, I do think Scabbers needs to see a vet, yes. Better get a temperature on him. Shame about rats’ teeth, makes it so difficult to get that from the mouth end . . .
Oh, wow. The Chinese wizarding community certainly had an awful time there . . . poor Liu. I’m glad the PPC version lived in the wrong time period to go through that.
I love how you’re slowly building up the relationship between Harry and Draco, while still keeping them recognizably themselves. At a glance, it looks like they’re still antagonistic towards each other, but they’re definitely getting more comfortable with each other, and more willing to speak honestly when it matters. I do feel like Harry is being a bit too tolerant when Draco calls Ron “Weasel,” and some of his other occasional backsliding into bullying, though. I wouldn’t be able to overlook . . . ah, but then I just thought of real life examples of different friend groups I’m part of gossiping behind the other’s back, so . . . maybe it’s easier than I thought . . . It would still be nice for Draco to respect Harry’s other friends, though!
I think a word is missing from:
Mum, thought Harry desperately, as the ice crept into heart and swallowed him whole.
—doctorlit, cleaning his teeth before a dentist appointment
The films, at least, showed Lucius Malfoy at the match, so I thought it was only fair to let Lily go to a match or two as well. Lily was at the Gryffindor-Slytherin match last year, too, remember? She yelled at Lockhart for de-boning Harry.
(Really, I just think the students' families should have a little more involvement in things, which includes things like attending Quidditch matches!)
I've actually plotted out Sev's radicalisation and deradicalisation. Idk how much will end up on the page, but I know why she went full darkside and how she got out. So... yeah!
Actually, the PPC version also suffered an extinguishing of his cultivation sect. It's how he got to HQ, too--the "portal array" that sent him to HQ was meant to evacuate him. Something something there's a backstory interlude that I haven't finished yet...
Yeah, Draco's still a little shit and hasn't quite warmed up to respecting Ron just yet (lots of bad blood between their families, his snotty classism, etc). He will kick the "calling Ron Weasel" habit! But not this year :P I think Harry's doing what he does with Aunt Sev and just ignoring the insults to try and focus on other things, but the "why doesn't Draco accept Ron" thing will come up eventually, promise.
Gotcha! Thank you for catching that. And thanks for reading!
And I'm now amused by the mental image of Sirius Black breaking pickaxe after pickaxe in Minecraft trying to mine bedrock.
Excellent work as usual in weaving some of the unchangeable plot points of canon into a completely different plotline - Harry's problem with not getting a Firebolt isn't about how or cost, he's Lord Potter after all. The problem is the fact his mother isn't keen in getting a 13-years-old the broom equivalent of a supersports bike.. which I really understand, as o-150 mph in ten seconds is pretty much Suzuki Hayabusa territory.
...because he's out here undermining the status quo! Or something.
Just watched a video of someone doing 0-160mph on a Hayabusa and wow, my driving anxiety just kicked back into gear. Yeah, there's no way Lily's willingly buying Harry something like that. Luckily for Harry, Sirius is the ~fun~ godparent!
Thanks for reading!
From what I read, stock Hayabusas do the quarter mile in just under 10 seconds (9.9 or so) reaching exactly 150 MPH. That's insane, and I'm starting to suspect the Firebolt is pretty much the Wizarding World equivalent of that.
Except that instead of on a bike, which is scary enough, you're on a glorified wooden stick. Jeez.