Short Fic: At Quite a Risk

[lar_laughs]

TITLE: At Quite a Risk
AUTHOR: lar_laughs
FANDOM: Harry Potter
CHARACTERS: Padma Patil (Ravenclaw), Morag MacDougal(Ravenclaw)/Megan Jones(Hufflepuff)
PROMPT: 87 - Goldenrod at 100_colours, 81 - Risk at 100_tales and 4. Practice makes perfect at 15pairings
RATING: PG-13
WORD COUNT: 1141
SUMMARY: Morag can't seem to work up the nerve to talk to the girl she's had her eye on for the last

Comments

[cranky__crocus]

Laughter, I totally agree! I think Greenhouses are mentioned in most of my fics. :P I even wrote a Sprout/McGonagall friendship!fic in there. :D

I totally agree on Susan! And I'll admit I usually take characters like her up (in all works of fiction) because I get the most freedom, but at least people recognise the name.

And yes times ten on the Huff and Claw! I had a whole idea to write some of the books through some lesbian Huff/Claw eyes (Morag and Susan). I had the idea that Hufflepuff and Ravenclaws had the same sort of feud that Slytherin and Gryffindor had.

To me:

Gryffindor = courage, so they'll hate mere cunning (against Slytherin), but approve of acceptance and hard-working, down-to-earth people (so yay for Hufflepuff).
Slytherin = cunning, so they'll hate blind courage without ambition (against Gryffindor), but approve of using brilliance and intelligence to get ahead (so yay Ravenclaw).
Ravenclaw = intelligent and witty, so they'll hate thoughtless acceptance and heart over mind (against Hufflepuff), but approve the use of cool intellect in the name of ambition (so yay Slytherin).
Hufflepuff = happy, centred, loving people, so not big on judgement and the use of mind-judgements over emotional attachment (against Ravenclaw), but approve of bringing people into 'the Gang' and working as a team to 'do right' (so yay Gryffindor).

With mini!feuds of Ravenclaw against Gryffindor (for the blindly brave) and vice versa for thought-over-action and Hufflepuff against Slytherin (for so little acceptance and the desire for self above all else) and vice versa for not caring enough about ambition.

I've used all the wrong words 'cause I'm dead tired, but that's pretty much how I looked at it ('cause I saw the Gryffindor-Slytherin and Gryffindor-Hufflepuff interactions in the book and thought there must be more house rivalry than that). Obviously I think way too much about Harry Potter in my free time. :P

[lar_laughs]

Get out! I had those same thoughts about the feud! It stands to reason that Slyth vs Gryff wouldn't be the only rivalry in the school... just the one that Harry concentrated on. The whole book is centered around one person - there's another side to every story that we read about!

I've never gone so far as to graph it out like that (which is very pretty, BTW. I do love graphs!) but those are some of the same thoughts I've had.

Back in the day... when I first started writing fanfic... I wrote a lot of Megan Jones and was continually told I was writing an OC because she wasn't in the book. That sort of burned me from writing some of the lesser characters for awhile. Eventually, after having my writing fall between the cracks because everyone else was writing Hermione and Ron and Ginny (I don't like writing Harry... never have), I decided that I didn't care what people thought anymore. All of a sudden I look around and people are writing Megan Jones like she took part in the Battle at Hogwarts! It gave me joy to see her and to start writing these minor characters again!

So while I have no big plans for them, I just want to enjoy them again! *grins*

[cranky__crocus]

We are so the coolest people ever! :P And yeah, I spent a lot of time graphing it out in my head. At one point I made a diagram of where the houses would be (the two towers vs. the two underground--den and dungeon) and who feuded with who. I was seriously into this shite. I have all the notes somewhere from when I was reading through the books and taking notes, jotting down story prompts and figuring out how to get the characters in the stories. (After all, if everyone really does hear everything in Hogwarts, there would totally be opinions and reactions from the other characters!)

I've never had many people interested in my Morag stories, but thankfully I've always loved writing and reading the minor-character writing--even my own, laughter. They make me happy. I thinking I've written Harry ONCE and it was a gen just to get Poppy in a piece, being all maternal and nursey. I've never written from Ron and Ginny, and Hermione probably just once. I'm not very interested in main character POVs!

I looked at your profile and squeed over the additional shared fandoms (Firefly, Doctor Who, Buffy) so I've decided you're a fantabulous person. Mind if I friend you?

[lar_laughs]

Yes, please! I went looking on yours, too!

You know... you should come play at whedonland! I'm on Team Firefly and there's ton of fun to be had. Not just writing challenges! It's just a place for people who think Joss Whedon is cool to hang out. A lot of them also like Doctor Who and I think there are a fair number of HP fans, too.

*grins* Poppy! Okay, so I must know... who do you ship Madam Hooch with? Cause I go back and forth between Poppy or Minerva. It depends on the story and the situation.

And I must admit that I am a Hermione fan. Mostly because while we see her in the books, I don't think Harry really "gets" her so there is still untapped potential there. Only thing I don't like is having to keep to the canon storyline. Not many shadows to play with. Hermione and Ron are the only canon pairing that I hold to. I guess everyone should pick at least one canon character to be fond of.

[cranky__crocus]

I'll have to check out whedonland! I plan to catch myself up on all his series (I just watched through Firefly and saw Serenity). I've missed a lot of the other ones.

Ahhh Hooch! You're my hero. :P Hokay, well, Hooch is totally a favourite of mine--but as of yet I don't think I've shipped her with anyone but McGonagall. I actually treat McGonagall as a bit of a shipwench in my world! She's been with Trelawny, Sprout (long time ago), Poppy and Pince (librarian, I think that's her name). Although in my head Hooch has been around a fair bit too. In a small school with fewer queer women I would imagine everyone hooks up at least once.

I think I would do Hooch/Poppy 'cause Poppy seems to have a great sense of humour, like Hooch. But I'd try it with Pince too, probably. Oh and I may give it a shot with Rosemerta! I always love her in fic and I think she'd be about as evenly bisexual as anyone could be.

Laughter. I'm a Hermione fan too, I just get fed up with the lack of shadows. I started writing a McGonagall/Hooch piece about Hermione trying to become an animagus. I want to go find it again. That was some quality crack!fic. :P I ship Hermione/Ron. Even Harry/Ginny I don't mind so much, although I admit I'm juuuust dandy when people use Ginny for femmeslash, especially with Luna. :P I tend to like Luna in femmeslash (and I disregard the character sheet ending of her with a male naturalist), although I will also ship her with Neville when I'm not treating him like a shy gayboy.

This conversation has reminded me just how much I miss the Harry Potter fandom. :P There's so much more thought in it than the Grey's Anatomy fandom (duh, it's Grey's Anatomy :P).

[lar_laughs]

Marti Noxon (I think it was Marti... it might have been Jane Espenson) once said on a Buffy commentary that she loved the fandom because they always explained away any mistakes they made with the plot with something better than the writers could ever come up with. Like Angel eating but then mentioning later that he'd never tasted anything so good since he was human. Or something like that.

I think that all good fandoms are made up of people who think through their story lines and make them better. Grey's Anatomy... there's not a lot of places to take other stories. Well, that's not completely true. But there's not a lot of gray areas in the canon. If you go gray, you might as well be writing an original story. You know?

Good fandoms have shadows. Harry Potter. Any Joss Whedon show. Smallville. Supernatural. Heroes (although that one isn't as shadowed as I wish it was). Any comic book.

Yeah, Rosmerta gets around quite a bit! I've seen her with nearly everyone... nearly. Hmmm... Hooch/Pince. I always forget about Pince. Why? I love libraries and put stories in the Hogwarts library all the time. Why no Pince? Interesting... some food for thought! *grins*

[cranky__crocus]

That's such an excellent quote about fandom! I think Tamora Pierce (YA writer) mentioned something similar. And sometimes when she couldn't remember something about previous books she had written, she'd come to her fandom and ask the question--and nearly 100% of the time we knew and could help her out! That just made me laugh endlessly.

Grey's has its fair share of thought, but unfortunately the canon itself tends to ruin anything. :P We tend to enjoy writing out the scenes that are hinted at but not shown (the dates and the evenings, the wakeups, etc.). Some of us have complained about not being a 'main couple,' but I tend to prefer my ships not being main material--they're far less likely to be screwed around with!

I haven't touched Smallville or Heroes--my brother was always more into those. My good friend is obsessed with Sueprnatural but I never got into it. I'm not very picky about my shows (as far as just watching) but I'm incredibly picky about fandoms I join, because there's such a big investment into each one. I tend to stick around lurking for months reading fanfic and picking up on the fanon facts (inside jokes and whatever else) so that when I fully join I know what's going on.

Most people somehow seem to forget Pince, despite that they always tend to say they loved her in the books! And there's DEFINITELY ample shadow around her, which I'm drawn to! I love libraries, librarians, snark and a disciplinarian nature--all of which she is associated with! Makes me a very happy camper. Go for it! I dare you to write a Pince fic! :D Pince/Hooch if you'd like! I could even give you a prompt, provided I come up with one if you want it. :B

[lar_laughs]

Give me a prompt and I'll give you a story! If you don't feel comfortable with one prompt (as it's always hard to find the perfect one), give me a selection.

[cranky__crocus]

- A new order of books arrives, and some of them are a little naughty (possible Muggle history studies, laughter).
- Hooch thinks it's about time to get Pince out on a broom again, which she hasn't done since her school days.
- Firewhiskey drunken evening with the professors and many femmeslash hookups.

There are three. Grins. I love how I can think them up for other people but not for myself!

[lar_laughs]

I know! I'm so much better at giving prompts out to other people! Sometimes I can get away with doing my own prompts like at first_order when they're technically for "others" but most of the time, I just can't do it.

But Thank You! I like those! Will have to start giving them some thought.

[cranky__crocus]

I hope I get to see a story at some point. :) But take your time. I know we have due dates coming up and a slew of other stuff. Perhaps some day in the future. :D

[lar_laughs]

You will! I have the beginnings of one but it did get moved to the back of the writing queue for a while. Soon!