Subject: One more in this thread before it's consigned to page 2... chapter 9!
Author:
Posted on: 2023-08-25 15:11:06 UTC
BL9 warning at the start, where Draco accidentally gets attacked by a Skrewt.
Subject: One more in this thread before it's consigned to page 2... chapter 9!
Author:
Posted on: 2023-08-25 15:11:06 UTC
BL9 warning at the start, where Draco accidentally gets attacked by a Skrewt.
It's updated a fair couple times, but the post on it is off the front page, so:
and
Also Nesh has posted some Purityworld!Jenni backstory!
BL9 warning at the start, where Draco accidentally gets attacked by a Skrewt.
Dragons! I really enjoyed the conversation about dragon nomenclature. Liu has a good point, that the west’s entire perception of what “counts” as a dragon is being colored by Newt’s arbitrary labeling, which feels more descriptive than genetic. (And after all, even us Muggles call eastern dragons “dragons,” despite how westernized a lot of media and language has become in the real world!) Embarrassingly, on my first read-through of Goblet of Fire, I didn’t pick up on how awful it was for the dragons to have their eggs taken away for the sake of some stupid sports competition. Yeah, no wonder the dragons are upset, no wonder the movieverse Horntail broke out and chased Harry around the castle! They’re not dumb beasts, they’re parents! Frankly, Charlie should have just told Bagman “no” and made him come up with another idea for the first task.
Also, I like seeing this version of Madame Maxime not being in denial over her heritage, and instead pushing to support other mixed-heritage people!
—doctorlit hopes the move has gone well, and that Lily has settled in with minimal stress!
I'm glad you liked the nomenclature convo! As I put it to one of my beta readers: "it's a metaphorical takedown of JKR's ~what is a woman~ tweets". Not all people who menstruate are women, JoRo!
Actually, the play Puffs really highlighted that part of the First Task: "and that's the story of how four dragons were tricked into believing one of their kids got kidnapped". It's pretty horrifying if you think about it from their perspective!
~Lily will never get used to tropical humidity...
re: humidity: Just keep drinking water, throughout the day! Also, while I generally consider the electrolyte schtick that sports drinks advertise to be a bit on the scammy side (most foods also replace electrolytes), they can be a quick, condensed way to restore what we've lost to sweating, so use them when you feel like you need them!
—doctorlit, in the other end of the equatorial warmth spectrum, feeling rather dried out this work week
Harry meets with Mum and Uncles Sirius and Regulus to discuss the First Task.
Warning for depiction of a panic attack.
The best thing about this chapter was getting to see both Black brothers in the Three Broomsticks with Harry and Lily, supporting Harry and contributing to the discussion. Good for Sirius to be out of Azkaban, but even better that this time, he has his brother with him (and even Kreacher, really!). It’s a level of parental figure support that Harry deserves!
Ugh. I know Skeeter’s whole schtick is not adhering properly to facts, but you’d think she could at least spell words correctly. (Insert joke about wizards flubbing spells here.) If Krum has paid attention to U.S. pop culture at all, he may feel mildly insulted by that typo, and it’s going to get even worse in about twenty-one years . . .
“Balrogs have not got wings,” scoffed Harry.
Not yet, Harry, but pretty soon, you’ll be learning about something called a “fanfiction explosion” . . .
—doctorlit performs a weekly Wonky Faint, assuming that’s a euphemism for a taking a nap on cold concrete in between two work shifts
I'm happy about the fact that this Sirius gets to experience freedom and have a proper conversation with his loved ones! Though I can't say he's exactly pleased about Kreacher still being around...
It was actually in the books that she misspelt Fleur and Viktor's names, so that's where that came from. (Again, I only know this because I've been rereading along...)
Haha, I could've sworn the argument was much older than that...
~Lily thinks doc should have a decent bed to sleep on... or at least a nice futon...
The Quartet deal with the fallout from the Goblet of Fire, and prepare for the First Task.
Warning for creepy "only Pureblood fetuses matter" eugenicist rubbish, plus a BL11-esque comment about BL11 (the "exit clause" for the Triwizard Tournament). Also, there's a noted switch in Rita Skeeter's appearance to better reflect how she had once been a universally adored author but has now pivoted into hatemongering and spreading misinformation for clout, but I promise it's ;) purely coincidental ;)
I was getting ready to object that while “someone” could write Harry’s name on parchment to put it in the Goblet, they wouldn’t have access to his blood, which should have disqualified him from the start. But then Hermione pointed out his arm had gotten cut over the summer, and . . . that is an uncomfortably long period of time to hold on to someone else’s blood, but I guess an enchanted cup isn’t going to care if the blood is fresh or not!
(Also:
the Goblet of Fire: is enchanted to pick champions for a TRIwizard tournament
also the Goblet of Fire: Guess it’s a four-sided triangle this year. Okay, whatever!)
Man, you wrote Moody so perfectly during that interrogation scene! I love the entire conversation, how he singles out specific students to needle sometimes, how we swings back and forth between actually asking investigation questions and being an absolute dillweed, and how very little he cares what any of the students think of him for acting like a dillweed! I take it he interviewed Crouch Sr. before Junior pulled the kidnapping? All those interrogation techniques, I don’t think even a powerful wizard like Junior could resist all of that! It’s remarkable Senior didn’t let anything about the original switcheroo slip out! Also, from the twins wanting to speak to an Auror, I’m assuming Bagman pulled the leprechaun gold trick once again?
You taught me some new words!
-tripe: I had heard this used in the context of calling writing garbage, but not checks Wiktionary lichens and stomach linings! Gross, Bertie Bott, your product is bad!
-nightcap: Apparently, it’s not just a hat or a mushroom!
-derring-do: I had heard this auditorily before, but never saw it spelled. I had assumed it was “daring-do” . . .
—DOCTORLIT DID YA PUT YER NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIYAH
Stasis Charms do come in handy for holding onto the blood needed to enter someone into a binding magical contract against their will...
Moody really doesn't give a shit, yeah. I guess I was leaning a bit into the bastard cop vibe with him. Glad it comes across! As for who he interviewed before the kidnapping, ;)
re: tripe: well, Bertie Botts wouldn't be Bertie Botts with some rancid bean flavours like tripe...
It’s nice seeing more gender diversity among both Durmstrang and Beauxbatons than even the books provided, although it almost feels like a step down for Beauxbatons, with the girl students apparently too afraid to offer up their names in front of the boys? Like, as weird as it feels for Fleur to be ostracized while she was the golden student in canon, that at least makes sense with the weird Pureblood culture in this timeline. But the fact that the patriarchy is shutting down all the female students, despite witches having super magic hair, feels a little weird. (Unless all the female students are part Veela?)
I’ve been enjoying this year so much, Crouch Jr.’s presence in the fic completely slipped my mind, but having Crouch Sr. at the feast reminded me, and I had a little panic thinking that Jr. could be Professor Bonnefoy in disguise . . . But by the end of the chapter, I’m quite confident I know where Jr. really is. (Though I’ll admit you briefly had me thinking Jr. was actually Winky, until I saw her perform house-elf magic!)
“The champion for Dumstrang is Viktor Krum!”
Well, it does match the speaker’s name this way, but . . .
—doctorlit is grateful that ace people aren’t affected by Veela enchantment . . . but could their singing break through his hetero-ears?!
I'm not quite sure where you're getting that perception of Beauxbatons girls--it was the Durmstrang girls who weren't allowed to put their names into the Goblet. (It's a difference from the book, where the Beauxbatons students were the ones putting their names into the Goblet in front of Harry and friends!)
Yeah, Fleur is ostracised on account of being part-Veela, so her bitchiness and complaining is partly a defence mechanism. You'll get to see more of what she does at Hogwarts with the opportunity to get away from Antoine and the other bullies, though.
re. where Crouch Jr is: ;)
Thanks for pointing that out!!
Been slammed with chores all week, but I finally had time to read!
I’m so excited to see Jacques on page at last! I love his teaching and debating style, it’s like the perfect mix of providing guidance and letting the students work through things on their own. And it’s great seeing someone with such a playful and relaxed attitude still serving the role of a healthy authority figure! And speaking of authority figures, it’s fun seeing Millicent Bulstrode starting to step into the role of a leadership position among the Slytherins, without being biased towards extreme Slytherin/Pureblood supremacy. Things are looking up at Hogwarts, and I’m sure nothing bad will
Oh, gee. With witches storing magic in their hair, Chizpurfles are a little more threatening of bodily harm than they were in canon, huh? And I definitely remembered that Chizpurfles are canon, and didn’t have to look them up first. >_>
Dennis Creevey’s wide-eyed wonder is hilarious to read! He thinks he’s in some bright, shiny high fantasy setting where the good guys always win in the end, like Narnia. Poor kid!
What does “Yuanyuan” mean? Qiu and Sue seemed bothered when Jacques called Liu that.
—doctorlit, as a zookeeper, endorses Harry’s patient ferret retrieval strategy
No worries, I am literally in the process of moving to Taiwan (where Christianne's dad's family hails from, wink wonk) so I know how exhausting chores and stuff can be!
Jacques is a fun teacher! And it was fun figuring out how to get Draco to turn into a ferret in a non-traumatic way :P Things certainly seem nice so far, it'd be such a shame if something were to happen--
Yuanyuan is just a super duper informal nickname for Ryan. If you recall, his Chinese name is Siyuan, so Yuanyuan is a diminutive of the "yuan" part of that. The reduplication nickname in Chinese is also super cutesy/childish, so Qiu and Sue are shocked to hear Professor Liu's professional colleague call him something that only close friends and family members would call him.
Also, just want to say "yay" out loud for the sensible take on civil rights in this. Thank goodness for Ryan, keeping Hermione from going all "white mage savior" on us while also asking the other students to take a serious look at the issue.
~Neshomeh
I'm glad you liked this approach to the house-elf situation! I agree that the books did everyone a disservice trying to walk the situation back and making it seem like the elves all want to be enslaved (eyerolls for days). With Ryan as a moderating influence, the house-elf liberation storyline's going to go somewhere a little bit different than "everyone laughs at Hermione for wanting house-elves to have basic labour rights".
(Seriously, all she wanted was for them to have salaries and paid leave--things that people are going on strike to obtain right now! How is that unreasonable???)
Oooooooooh. I thought Molly was just wanting Fred and George to find a more “proper” job, but there’s a much more serious baseline to her fear . . . Yikes.
“Hermione’s jaw dropped, and—before anyone could stop her—she pushed Ron into the stream.”
Why would anyone stop her? It was an objectively correct action. (Like seriously Ron, dude, that’s your friend!)
I totally did not remember that Plimpies were a canon animal, so when Luna first mentioned them, I was like, “Oh, she’s talking about her imaginary non-things again.” When Ginny actually managed to catch some, I literally started out of my chair, because I thought something crazy had just happened! But no, they’re just normal fish . . .
Flirting with goblins, eh? I see this version of Jacques hasn’t quite lost his Harkness, either!
Man, I’m a little torn on Ginny at the end there. On the one hand, I understand why she’s feeling hurt about the situation with Rose, but she’s also being very rude about it, sneaking in on Harry while he’s writing, and especially getting weird about the Maiden’s Kiss concept. But Harry’s being a little overly defensive too, and snapping instead of explaining himself . . . hheergrgkk tEeNaGeRs
—doctorlit pushes Ron back into the stream
Yeah, the consequences of being a blood traitor are a little bit more serious here!
I mean, in canon Ron and Harry did sorta go all "wait, Hermione's a girl" in the 4th book, so this wasn't too far out of left field for Ron! But yes, it was a bit of a dickish thing to say and Hermione was completely justified in shoving him into the stream!
The imaginary Plimpy is the Gulping Plimpy, I think. Those are smaller with bigger mouths, like Luna said. But normal plimpies do exist and have a Ministry classification.
Jacques will be Jacques! Rita Skeeter's interview with him is referencing the one Zing wrote a while back.
Teenagers will be teenagers :P And it's only going to get more teenage wasteland from here on out...
Depending on what corner of the canon you're looking from, they are either:
-a curse of bad luck
-the series of answers to a fancy equation that predicts the apocalypse, which could be prevented entirely by tweaking the variables and changing one of the numbers
or
-arbitrary numeral designations for everyone who ever reaches the island, used as a sorting method to determine who's "truly welcome" there
Lost is a very normal and reasonable setting!
—doctorlit the Lostie
Everything's fun and games until it isn't.
BL9 warning for arson (fiendfyre), plus terrorism, sexual harassment (keep an eye out for two annoying Beauxbatons boys), police brutality (Mad-Eye Moody versus an American tourist, Lord Crouch verbally and physically abusing Harry in the woods during an “interrogation”), and blood/injuries.
“They can suck my wand, I’ll do what I like!”
“Blow me,” she taunted, before sending him a very rude hand gesture.
Ah, yes, music to my ears! Well, to my eyes . . . To my mind’s ear. It feels so good hearing all these visitors from other countries dunking on the “modesty rules,” as Moody puts it so vomitoriously. It’s extremely gross that Moody and the other aurors are being used to try to force non-British citizens to conform to these meaningless social practices . . . Cripes, the audacity of telling a stranger how they’re allowed to wear their own hair! And equally audacious is arresting someone for “insubordination and general antisocial behaviour.” Dang people, just criminalize having a personality, why don’t you? I am absolutely livid on Miss Fischer’s behalf. She is absolute peak wholesome valley girl, and I love her. I hope she goes back to the States and beats up some skinheads or something, that should take her mind off the British suck. But yeah, you made Moody gross now, and you also made Amos Diggory gross, and this whole timeline just contains so much gross!
Man, I totally forgot Hermione is uncurling her hair to create her updo . . . I hope she gets to return to her natural hair by adulthood! Either way, rude of those other witches to get all judgmental over it . . . there is far too much hair policing in this chapter!
Okay, wow. Everyone is literally camping in a field together, like, on dirt, natural dirt, public British land that no one owns, but the Pureblood community still thinks they have the right to exclude Muggleborns!?!? Like, “Oh, the dirt our tents are sitting in is so very special and clean, we can’t have the wRoNg KiNd Of FeEt In OuR dIrT.” I can’t stand it, aaaaaargh! Oh, and what a funny coincidence that section of the campground was charmed against both panicked mobs and Fiendfyre, how lucky that the Purebloods have such incredible foresight. :|
Man, I would not have risked bringing any number of peafowl to an outdoor location they weren’t already familiar with. I am 100% certain that every single peafowl in my zoo would get lost and disappear forever in this scenario, down to the last bird, especially with all the human foot traffic. But maybe the Malfoys charmed them not to wander far or something?
Oooooh yeah Lady Crouch is definitely Barty Jr., not much change there! Funny, didn’t the original canon have him hiding under an invisibility cloak or something? Your way is a bit more realistic, and better foreshadowing. Looks like Regulus recognizes Barty Jr.’s speech pattern, but can’t quite place it with the face!
The idea that house-elves see the families they serve as guests is interesting, and goes a long way towards explaining their mindset. Doesn’t justify the situation any further, but it’s honestly the best explanation I’ve heard for the self-imposed servility, and why receiving clothing from the family breaks the relationship the way it does.
Draco’s scowl shone seven times as big within the scope of the Ominoculars.
Oh my, this little mini-Aragog has so very many eyes!
—doctorlit hasn’t thought about hoopoes in years, and thanks you for reminding him they exist! hoo-hoo-hoo
The QWC really was a great place to remind people that this is not normal--that is, the Purityworld extremism isn't standard amongst mages. And the Aurors are, after all, a police force, which means they must uphold the state regardless of their personal feelings on the matter. I don't think Moody gives a rat's ass (lol) about the rules himself, but he (and Tonks) have to enforce the Ministry's policies.
I was inspired by the recent Qatar World Cup, too, in terms of modesty rules being enforced on people coming into the country. So once again, the Purityworld bullshit has a real-world parallel.
Amos Diggory was honestly already a bit gross in the books, given the way he treated Winky. So there wasn't much to change there for him!
Yeah, Hermione is relaxing her hair for the hair rules! You'll see more about that later in the year ;)
Gosh, yes, what a coincidence that the Pureblood section was unharmed. How convenient. And actually, I think the campsites are owned by the Muggles here--so Mr Roberts really went to all the trouble to let a bunch of people camp on his land and then he and his family get assaulted for just being Muggles. How convenient that they can then be magicked into forgetting that this shit happened to them! It boils my blood just thinking about how the books happily play off Obliviation as a perfectly acceptable, lighthearted solution to experiencing a hate crime!
The Malfoys probably have some sort of charm/ward set up to prevent the peacocks from wandering far, yeah. But this tent with the peacocks was already in the books, so...
Re: Lady Crouch... ;)
It's similar to the actual lore surrounding brownies, where they do household chores for milk and honey, but if you give them clothes it looks like you're making the relationship transactional so they take offence and leave. JKR's the one who messed things up by having Dobby set it up as slavery and then walking it back into "the house-elves like being slaves", so I'm leaning more into a parallel with irl labour exploitation (I mean, like... "the families are our guests" have serious "the customer is always right" vibes, right?).
Thanks for catching that! And yes, hoopoes (as the hudhud) are in the Quran as messenger birds, hence using hoopoes instead of owls in the Middle East.
It's just been so long since I read the books, I don't remember details like the Malfoys bringing their peafowl to the QWC! Sorry . . .
—doctorlit
—At least, not stated. There was a tent at the QWC with peacocks tied outside, and separately in the 7th book Yaxley and Snape saw peacocks at Malfoy Manor. It was just a bit of occam’s razor here.
Oh man, you get across so much of the timeline and the emotions of this summer, just through these letters! I especially enjoyed the roller coaster of Harry "discovering" Rose is pretty, and then researching whether it would be safe to even kiss her without inflicting mind control upon them both, to Rose's understandable decision that Harry's just not around enough to be a steady romantic partner. Poor kids! (Also, YES ROSE get that short haircut! Low maintenance is best maintenance!)
I assume, with Rose "hitting her head" being a metaphor for the cursed traps in Godric's Hollow, removing the "rotten beams" is a metaphor for dispelling them? The Hollow must be getting close to a safe/cleared out state then?
Ha ha ha ha, I love your retcon of the "prototype PlayStation" making much better sense, chronologically speaking! I still feel like it's a stretch of character for Petunia and Vernon to accept video games into their home and allow their Duddiekins to be [metaphor for contaminated] by them, but that's on JKR, not you.
—doctorlit maybe had to look up what "pixie cut" meant
Also let the record show that Rose Williams is blonde and Harry only noticed that she was good-looking after she got a haircut.
Yes, the "hitting her head" thing is the memory modification thing speaking from year 3. So as far as Gary and Rose are aware, they hit their head on rotten beams in the East Wing and hallucinated an evil dungeon and whatever else Charlus did to them. Harry and Regulus managed to get rid of the wards this summer, so the Hollow is completely safe now.
Haha, yes, the PlayStation thing was a bit of a minor anachronism! I reckon Petunia and Vernon just want to appease Dudley or something. But it seems like Dudley just didn't want to lose, ever, hence throwing his PlayStation out the window.
But one that you definitely got to work well. A nice introspection on the characters, and you really managed to get me to image what was goign on during the early part of the summer just by having the characters discuss it in letters!
I'm glad the epistolary worked! I love writing multimedia fics because they convey a wider world than just the POV character's narration. I reckoned there were so many chapters worth of adventures in there that I wanted to condense for narrative space and thematic reasons, so letters made a lot of sense here. Thanks for reading!
Year Four, Chapter One is up, too :P
Pay attention to the warnings in this year, because things are getting dark. I think this chapter there's BL2 and 11, owing to the disappearance/murder mystery elements. Take care!
Okay, Lily? This chapter is amazing. You squeezed a whole entire murder mystery into your opening chapter! When Ali first mentioned something was slithering through the garden, my mind immediately went to Nagini. But then, a few lines later, the killed roosters get mentioned, and then I realized: NO. It’s the BIG BOY. The BASILISK. Makes perfect sense; it clearly hasn’t been hanging out in the Chamber, and nothing about this AU would have stopped Salazar from having one. And of course, with Gaunt being a known direct descendant, he would inherit the thing! (Haven’t seen the Fantastic Beasts films, so I can’t really speculate enough on how Nagini’s human life would be different to guess where she’s at now.)
So, Gaunt sends the house-elves out on the regular to cull the roosters, so their crowing can’t kill the basilisk, yeah? And of course, elf apparition is the best, so they can get through any barriers the Muggles put up. And the elves are also watching the garden constantly for intruders, which is why most of the disappearances have been people wandering through town: they tried to stop in the garden to spend the night in a semi-sheltered place, only to be discovered and fed to the basilisk. (Although it seems the basilisk can leave the garden, at least sometimes? Those “poisoned” cattle actually died from its venom, huh?) . . . You just couldn’t help yourself, could you? “Gregson,” and her father’s first initial is “T”? Getting a bit burnt out on the Potterverse, needed to inject a bit of something classy in? : ) And after Dot listened in on the terrace conversations, I love her twist on the Holmes line: “And when the impossible could not be eliminated…”
You built so much suspense in this chapter. I was filled with dread as Dot started planning to enter the garden, knowing the basilisk was in there somewhere . . . and then you pulled the rug out from under me! I was not expecting her to find a dinner party, of all things! I see Draco is getting very close to a point of no return, which is going to make future summer vacations quite awkward . . . I was also a bit tickled at how nonsensical the conversation must have sounded to Dot, but then we made a pretty hard turn back into suspense. I admit I started gaining hope at the end, as they got closer and closer to the gate . . . Foolish of me. I suppose it’s too much to hope for the basilisk to die of sepsis from its musty old bullet wound . . . but I am looking forward to see if Ali is going to set enough dominos in motion to at least get Gaunt in trouble over the Statute of Secrecy? Making enough Muggles disappear to make Muggle law enforcement notice has to have some consequences, even for High Lord Slytherin! (in before, “Fake news! Fake news! There was no disappearances, I never met them before in my life! I like cattle that don’t get envenomated. When you’re in the Wizengamot, roosters let you do it, you can do whatever you want: grab them by the throat.”
—doctorlit is totally going to get around to the Fantastic Beasts films any decade now. Aaaaaaaaaany decaaaaaaaaade . . .
And since the original book was already mostly Frank's POV and about the weirdness of the Riddle House, an homage to Agatha Christie felt fitting anyway (and also totally not a dig at Robert Galbraith, wink wonk).
Yes, the Big Boy is hanging out with Gaunt! This is sort of based off of how one Purityworld Voldy was just straight up keeping a Basilisk on his manor grounds. I mean, a Big Boy slithering around like that requires a lot more than just stuff from the local butcher's, hence all the poisoned cattle and missing hikers...
Also, I think in this verse the Gaunts used to live up at the Riddle House before they squandered enough of their wealth to necessitate moving into a shack cottage in the woods nearby. So that's also part of the reason why there's a Basilisk just hanging out in Lancashire, haha. As for Nagini... honestly, I figured that Gaunt would've just named the Basilisk Nagini, which is separate from the cursed Asian snake-lady (which is also just several different levels of yikes in my book).
I'm glad the suspense was palpable, with Draco as a little bit of a breather there :D And, of course the Holmes allusions are intentional, so yay, you caught them!
And re: Ali... well, you'll just have to wait and see! Thank you for reading!
You nailed it square. Siccing a frigging Basilisk over the resident equivalent of Miss Marple after pretending to let her go? Guy needs to die painfully.
After witnessing his manor get leveled by bombs and his precious Basilisk ripped apart by an A-10's gun run, that is, just to drive it home why they are in hiding from Muggles.
Sort.of-related question: how would a Basilisk's stare affect someone who looked at it through a digital device? A camera's lens and reflections were shown to be already enough to damper the lethality into paralizing only ("petrifying"). Snce a camera-and-screen combination would have the footage recorded as raw digital daya, processered by a computer, and then displayed again, I believe it would actually lose all of its power because it's even less of an indirect view - it's more akin of a drawing of a basilisk at that point.
(That is, excluding the sillyness of having electic devices fizzle out when it is convenient. My persona view is that electonic devices relying on electic signals fizzle out in Hogwarts and the like, but basic objects like electrical torches shouldn't really be affected at all)
She solved the case... but at what cost?
I think I will be touching on it briefly later on, but I do view magic as its own power source separate from electricity, so when electric devices short out in magical areas, it's similar to going to a country with a different voltage without power converters. Hence electric torches not working in the Riddle House grounds. Electronics can be adapted to work with magic, though, like Colin Creevey's camera and wireless radios. We'll get more into the intersection of magic and tech with Harry's Muggle friends in fifth year!
Thanks for reading! I'm glad Gaunt is making you feel murderous, that's definitely the intent :P
Another year ends at Hogwarts.
Stay tuned for year four: Lord Harry Potter and the Cursed Cup!
Seeing Sirious having his name de-facto cleared already feels good. But my favourite line was this:
“Slytherins are fond of… slithering through loopholes,”
Draco, using Slythering cunning for good. There's something about this that I really like - showing that you can be a "true" Slytherin without being a Designated Villain. That's something I always found clashing with one of the ideals of the series - that your choices make what you are, not your origins or anything else - and yet most Slytherins were irremediably bad because Slytherin. That's what I plan to play with myself in future chapters of that reboot origin story of Sergio, Nikki & Co. as well, since it will have an arc set in Hogwarts (gotta fill those years somehow), because I have a character that will be able to appear early that way, and would definitely sorted into Slytherin despite being very definitely good.
You managed to make me feel happy that Slytherin won the House cup this year. Good on you!
I sometimes get the feeling that JKR intended the whole "sorting Slytherin" thing as a choice. I mean, Harry did choose not to go to Slytherin, but it's not like everyone else gets a choice in the matter! And then coupled with 3/4ths of the school deciding to isolate the Slytherins as the "evil" house... Slytherins really don't get a chance to be exposed to other ideas and people outside their cloistered Pureblood-supremacist bubble, leading to easy radicalisation and essentially self-fulfilling prophecies.
A lot of fics try to write Good Slytherins, but it often comes with a side of justifying Pureblood supremacy, and that's part of the critique of this deconstruction, too. Slytherins are just as capable of good as the other Houses are capable of evil, but there's no denying that they are very insular and prone to radicalisation because of the Pureblood ideology they're raised with, plus the comparative lack of Muggleborn Slytherins out there. So it's a delicate balancing act, writing a good Slytherin without trying to justify or excuse the ideologies they were raised with!
Thank you for your comment; give me a heads-up when Sergio and co. get to Hogwarts :D
Oh my gosh, this is a much nicer wrap-up than we got in canon! Sirius won’t have to hide for as long, and he’s got his brother still alive! Pettigrew is in custody! Draco is friend, and getting closer to openly rebelling against his parents! Voldemort won’t get resurrected . . . because he’s already been alive for the past decade+ . . . okay, maybe that part isn’t an improvement, but uh . . . Anyway, sad to see Lupin still leaving, but I understand his reasoning that a botched/contaminated potion shouldn’t be all it takes to endanger the lives of schoolchildren. At least he, too, can openly interact with Sirius, once the charges get dropped, so that’s a silver lining, too!
Back when I first read the books, I never could have imagined feeling happy at Slytherin winning the house cup for the year, but here I am! I loved seeing Dumbledore reward Draco for his good deed, especially while complimenting him on demonstrating “the very best qualities of Slytherin House.” It felt properly triumphant, like the banner switch at the end of year one, and perhaps it will set a good example for other Slytherin students, that the qualities their house is reinforcing don’t always have to be turned towards ambitious self-gain?
Gaunt: It is through Her work that his crimes have been brought to light . . .
me: No, it was actually through the work of roughly three and a half thirteen-year-olds. Thirteen-year-olds are the ones who brought Peter’s crimes to light, after your Department of Magical Law Enforcement failed to do so for over a decade. So don’t @ me with that “thank Mother Magic” crap!
One question occurred to me while mulling over Prince obliviating Pettigrew: Gaunt sent both Prince and Pettigrew to attack the Potters separately, and you said when Pettigrew returned to Gaunt and took all the credit for the real and apparent deaths, that Gaunt just assumed Pettigrew had gotten overzealous, and didn’t include Prince like he was supposed to. So, does Gaunt think Prince is still on his side? Or did she publicly renounce him at some point between James’s death and “Secret Potion?”
—doctorlit awards 70 points to Winterwood House
Yes, things are looking up for Sirius! Benefits of having his brother and Lily both in his corner :D And now Lupin gets to visit him whenever he wants ;P
I'm so glad you caught Dumbledore's motivations there :D He's definitely rewarding Draco for his good deed while making a point about House unity and doing the right thing instead of sticking with Pureblood dogma. A little bit of manipulation for a ~greater good...
Gaunt and his fake news, as always!
Prince has not publicly renounced him, but since Lily and Harry are not as dead as Peter might've made it seem, Gaunt definitely suspects betrayal in the ranks. Prince and Pettigrew are definitely the ones to scrutinise there, especially since Prince's connection with Lily is not exactly a secret anymore, either...
Thank you so much for your comments! Hope you're ready to dive into year four in a couple of days!
Poor Sylvia! I’m glad Jenni was around to help her. Funny how an act of rebellion can so resemble giving someone help—or is it the other way around? And this story makes for a great “inciting incident” to start Jenni on her journey of rebellion. I was pleasantly surprised to see Madam Pomfrey encouraging Jenni, as well, even if her hands are a bit more tied on the matter.
Nilly is the character who really stole this show for me, though. I know house-elves feel obligated to help, but Nilly just feels like a lovely person. Funny how literal non-humans can be more empathetic about human anatomical pain than most of Sylvie’s culture! House-elves are better people than humans confirmed, house elf for Minister when? (Oh, and “Caper” has an excellent vibe for a house-elf name, especially one living with such a progressive family as the Robinsons!)
I’ll spare us all the tirade about how applicable this scenario is to real life, and how frustrating it is to observe people giving lip service to arbitrary social mores instead of just doing good things.
—doctorlit doesn’t bow and pray to neon gods
All I'll say on the matter of real life is: I wanted to write this for a reason. {= |
Re. Madam Pomfrey: Her character in the books seems to me that she's constantly frustrated by all the ways Hogwarts students find to hurt themselves. She can't control what happens outside the Hospital Wing, and she doesn't try—maybe she did at one point, but kids will be kids no matter what. So, she keeps to her own domain and rules it with an iron fist, exercising control where she can.
Here, in addition to kids being kids, she sees all the consequences of kids being deliberately kept in ignorance and is deliberately prevented from doing anything about it besides damage control. She can't be seen trying to interfere, or even expressing an opinion about it, because saying the wrong thing to the wrong person could cost her her job. Sure, she could make a stand on principle because it's the Right Thing To Do, but then she'd be sacked, and she might be replaced with someone who's actually drunk the Koolaid and would shame the kids on top of everything. How would that help?
Jenni is potentially dangerous to her because she's passionate, and passion at that age doesn't always stop to consider the repercussions of Doing The Right Thing. But Jenni has also managed to become a Prefect despite not having the full approval of her society, and while that's partly thanks to Dumbledore's progressive agenda, it's also thanks to Jenni knowing how to toe the line without quite crossing it. Encouraging her is still risky, but the odds of it paying off are pretty good.
Re. Nilly: I'm rather fond of her myself. {= ) I imagine her as the sort of "downstairs person" who is good enough at her job that she gets away with stepping out of "her place" on occasion. If she can best serve Hogwarts and Dumbledore by bending the rules (e.g., making herself seen to students, speaking her mind now and then), then that's what she'll do, and she won't feel bad about it!
Rather fond of the name Caper, too. Thanks! ^_^
~Neshomeh
Oh my gosh, what a difference one Draco can make! I love the symbolism behind him using a traditionally Pureblood spell to contribute to Pettigrew’s capture, but setting it to a Muggleborn person’s bloodline for increased safety! (And I love that Buckbeak’s predatory instincts played a role as well!) And uh, WE CAUGHT HIM!? THE MAN IS CAPTURE?! I had given up hope, when Pettigrew got away the first time, that he was going to rejoin Gaunt, like in canon. But we have had a very productive time travel sequence, haven’t we? Buckbeak and presumably Sirius rescued, Pettigrew captured, Draco redeemed to his friends . . . Good stuff! THE RAT IS CAPCHORE!
I definitely recognized the Back to the Future reference the second I read it! (It helps that I just watched that trilogy for the first time about two months ago . . .)
—doctorlit would like to reiterate that THE MAN IS CAPUUTER
…in order to get Peter, so that’s why they were able to get Peter! Really getting the most out of the time travel :D
The rat has been captured!
Harry and Hermione go on a hippogriff time heist. Slight BL10 warning for the conversation where Dumbledore calls out Lord Avery for his gross behaviour around debutantes.
(ETA: And BL7, maybe, for an offhanded reference to some drunken antics with the 7th year leavers...)
17
Noooooooooo. No. We were so close, we were doing so well. Sugar, man? Frigging sugar? I don’t like this Pettigrew, he is too smart. My only consolation is that Gaunt is already alive, so Pettigrew can’t do anything as drastic as resurrecting Voldemort. Dirty little . . . rat.
18
Sev modified Pettigrew’s memories . . . meaning to convince him that Lily and Harry were really dead, I imagine? It’s almost nice to know Pettigrew was targeting her for specific revenge, and not just carrying on his schoolyard bullying as an adult . . .
Okay, Madam Pomfrey keeping absolute concrete slabs of chocolate in the Hospital Wing, and having to hardcore chisel edible pieces out of it to use as medicine, is the most amazing mental image. It makes sense Hogwarts would have loaded up on chocolate this year because of the Dementors, but wow. Good thing Scotland has a fairly cool climate!
19
(I think maybe you meant bl10 on this chapter’s warning?)
Heh. I love the scene in the common room, purely because it displays the disconnect between the experiences of the main characters and everybody else’s. This night, the golden trio experienced a bitten hand, a broken leg, numerous wooden fisticuffs, a showdown with a dark wizard, and a very unusual way of losing a pet. The other Gryffindor students? Partying. Partying in the dorm room. Life goes on, even when the protagonists are facing life and death situations!
Wow, so Draco really was there to help. Sounds like he convinced Lucius to get the Wizengamot to commute Buckbeak’s sentence, to release? Nice! And now he’s gotten wrapped up with the time travelers. That explains why he was still outside when Pettigrew escaped! I’m curious to see how this plays out now . . .
—doctorlit, transforming under the light of a full bookshelf
Sugar, man? Frigging sugar?
Yeah, it was an offhand mention in the books that the potion tastes horrible but couldn't be adjusted for taste as sugar would render the whole potion ineffective. So sabotaging the potion instead of just having Lupin miss a dose felt like less people holding the idiot ball where the potion was concerned. I mean, it's not as if Sev was drinking the potion herself...
Sev modified Pettigrew’s memories . . . meaning to convince him that Lily and Harry were really dead, I imagine?
So Peter was originally the one to kill Harry and Lily, since Gaunt assumed Sev would jump at the chance to kill James. Sev finds out Lily (and Harry) were also marked for death, and she forces Peter to switch assignments with her. Peter kills James, and then tells Sirius that Sev was the one who killed all of the Potters. Sev finds Peter and modifies his memories to believe he was actually the one who killed all of the Potters. Gaunt basically gets the report, then, that Peter had gone a bit zealous and wiped out the Potters entirely, and so he has further use for Peter by asking him to spy on the Weasleys.
So then Peter fakes his death (which is how Lupin finds his clothes and finger at the Point of Despair) and goes off to hide as a rat with the Weasleys. Roll ahead to 1991 and suddenly Lily and Harry are alive again, so Peter figures out that Sev modified his memories to make him think he killed all of the Potters. Hence his revenge plot. He's definitely got... more initiative... than the canon version! But then again, this variation of Peter is basically a blackpilled incel, so...
The concrete slab of chocolate in the Hospital Wing is actually a detail from the books, iirc...
(I think maybe you meant bl10 on this chapter’s warning?)
I did, womp womp.
Sounds like he convinced Lucius to get the Wizengamot to commute Buckbeak’s sentence, to release?
Yeah, he had a fight with Lucius over the spring holidays over Buckbeak, using Harry's rationale that killing Buckbeak wouldn't make Hagrid's class any safer, therefore their beef is with Hagrid, not Buckbeak. Which, I mean, given how Hagrid's classes turned out in the books... dude's a nice guy, but his pedagogical skills need work. It's clear he misjudges how dangerous certain creatures are, because his bigger size and strength gives him extra hardiness against dangerous creatures--tiny frail kids and teenagers can't handle these monsters in the same way, and his inability to see that hampers his judgement on what's appropriate in class. An entire year of Flobberworms is way too much; followed by a year of an experimental monstrosity like the Blast-Ended Skrewts, and it's a miracle Harry got Exceeds Expectations on his Care of Magical Creatures O.W.L.
In any case, I think Hagrid's strengths (pun intended?) lie more in diplomacy with the creatures of the Forbidden Forest. He's best friends with the leader of the Acromantula colony, and at least in this verse he's Dumbledore's envoy with the Centaur herd, too. So I want to strengthen that side of him, rather than insist he's a good teacher when he objectively, even by the book characters' admissions, isn't.
Those animals are a part of their culture, and learning about them, including safe practices, is part of the curriculum. So yeah, expose the kids early, let them learn to recognize what they can and can’t do around wild, magical animals, Malfoy. The idea that we can’t ever be out of our element, or in a situation we can’t fully control, is just some sheltered bourgeois nonsense.
But whatever, I guess thirteen-year-olds shouldn’t get mauled, or something, whatever.
—doctorlit, completely unbiased by his job
...it's the fact that Hagrid then backed down into flobberworms for months on end after and set the final exam on them. It's the fact that 4th year had been almost entirely on Blast-Ended Skrewts until Grubbly-Plank's classes introduced unicorns and other creatures, and then Grubbly-Plank was the one who taught them what they needed to know for the O.W.Ls in 5th year. It feels like Hagrid didn't look at previous COMC curriculum, or even just what creatures historically showed up on the O.W.Ls and planned accordingly to make sure, in spite of hippogriff mauling incidents, that the kids got through all the other creatures that they should be covering in 3rd year. Even Harry begrudgingly admits that Grubbly-Plank is a better teacher, and Hermione and the other Gryffindors think the same. Luna also says Hagrid's a bit of a joke when they first meet her, even though her entire shtick is weird magical creatures that either don't exist or that no one else likes. So the canon supports the argument that Hagrid is actually kind of a bad teacher even though he's nice.
(Like... Snape is also a bad teacher from what we see of him in class, compounded by his hatred of Harry, but you don't really have kids in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw calling him evil, and I also don't remember off the top of my head if people were saying Slughorn is better, outside of Harry's surprise at how easy Potions is in 6th year because he's using Snape's old textbook. So canon definitely treats Snape's bad pedagogy in a different way from Hagrid's bad pedagogy.)
In any case, Hagrid is clearly written to be some loveable dumb comic relief who causes more problems for Harry and friends to solve, starting with Norbert, then Aragog, then Buckbeak, then the Skrewts, then Grawp. His portrayal doesn't really give him much narrative dignity outside of that. I don't want to spoil what else I've got in store for him, but the goal is basically to get him away from dealing with students who clearly don't take him seriously as a teacher, and to give him ways to help the protagonists rather than cause more problems for them.
Basically it's not that kids shouldn't be challenged and put out of their comfort zones with magical creatures, it's that Hagrid as a teacher very notably lacks the flexibility to handle bad-outcome classes without having it derail his curriculum for the entire year, which means that any meaningful preparation for O.W.Ls ends up being done by his substitute anyway. And also, Hagrid's narrative purpose in the canon is to be nice but cause problems, with basically no sign of having learnt from his previous problems (I mean, come on, you're gonna give the class with Draco "Karen-in-training" Malfoy the responsibility of handling your dangerous experimental new creature?), and that's not what I want from him in my rewrite.
~Lily, also completely unbiased by her job
Another excellent way to "correct" canon while still having the necessary drama for a good story: have a "defeat" have actual realistic consequence, but use that to get a flimsy part of canon out of the way and get the character to focus on his actual strengths.
I suspect we're getting a differemt teacher for the subject next year, though?
So yeah, it's going to be Professor Grubbly-Plank taking over the class itself, while Hagrid goes back to gamekeeping with some... you'll see what else he gets to do ;)
I'm really, really interested on how this plays out.
And he'll definitely be in for some twists and turns now that he's not the main antagonist!
A lot of these chapters follow canon fairly closely, but the differences are really making it for me. Did Draco actually try to stop the execution? And I love seeing Harry run to hug Sirius at first sight. Sirius deserved a hug! And then, having Prince be forced to confront the truth, and end up walking out of the Shack essentially as an ally to Sirius and Remus, and Remus not getting fully mooned this time . . . this was a very feel-good pair of chapters! And Crookshanks even got to participate this time! It's a full-on party in the Shrieking Shack! And Crookshanks is a very good cat!
So, Greyback has his own designated colony in this timeline? While I suppose it's an improvement over the canon situation, it's also very . . . "U.S. government 'allowing' Native Americans to continue living on their own land" of the Ministry! Yuck! And I really didn't need to hear about werewolves breeding! Double yuck! Oh, and I very much agree with Harry's line: “Oh, now even the Werewolves have got stupid nobilities.” The classism drips out everywhere!
—doctorlit, Swiffering the classism off the floor now
Did Draco actually try to stop the execution?
You'll see in chapter 19!
And I love seeing Harry run to hug Sirius at first sight. Sirius deserved a hug!
Someone on AO3 said this was Sirius' first hug in 13 years and oooooof.
Remus not getting fully mooned this time
Are you so sure about that /gestures to chapter 17
So, Greyback has his own designated colony in this timeline?
Yeah, it's based off of how the Pureblood Culture fics sometimes have the werewolves have separate clans from the mages. There's... an inverse hierarchy in Pureblood Culture fics where magical creatures are more powerful and snobby about lowly humans, so some of the separation from mages thing was imposed by them. Clan Greyback is in Shetland and they sorta run a protection racket against the locals, extorting fish in return for not getting bitten :P There's a bit of a crime syndicate vibe with Clan Greyback because of the current Alpha, but historically it's not always been like that.
Too many stuff to descend into details, but all of this was beautifully done. Good on you both!
Glad to hear you enjoyed it!