FIC: Ginny Weasley: Dragon Slayer

[lettered]

Title: Ginny Weasley: Dragon Slayer
Rating: PG-13 for dragon slaying
Warning: meta, first person, some dragons were harmed
Disclaimer: HP belongs to Rowling, dragons belong to everybody, and the song used toward the end isn’t mine. It’s from Merrie England, by Basil Hood and Edward German. I have no idea how appropriate it is to use it as a quote

Comments

[seraphcelene]

Well, damn.

This is beautifully complex. I love the interlacing of realities and the conflation of the external and internal experience of reading, writing, creating, and enacting stories. I don't know if I have the right words to describe what works so well for me with this fic. There is a tension between the perception of self and other that's tied into the idea of fictions and truths that is so very provocative. I mean ... how do we understand and express our lives and the events of life that we participate in except through storytelling, even if we don't recognize it or articulate it in quite that way. (Gods that was a garbled thought!) I also loved the dragon conceit because I love that Ginny is a damsel in distress in Chamber of Secrets, but later, and here, she is a knight. I love the damaged, self aware, self-realizing Ginny Weasley who is both individual and function. In a way it reminds me of the dichotomy of Harry Potter as you've outlined here: he is a person (truth) but he is also the The Boy Who Lived/The Chosen One (a fantasy, a story). Ginny as Ginny Weasley, as Ginny Potter, as The Dragon Slayer is aligned in a similar way, and I like the depth and complexity -- all the ways and reasons that she is hunting dragons.

And of course, as usual, the language is rich and gorgeous:

we were the figures ranged around the fire, and he was the legend passed around the flames.

Instead I feel such rage, such an incandescent ire that it almost feels like fire coursing through me, burning out doubt and fear, leaving only me.

Some things he never understood, because he was the main character, and it always was his own story.

The dragons are gorgeous! Draco was such a surprise, but so perfect. So many parts of the fic just sing!

Brava!

[lettered]

Thanks for reading this! I thought of you when writing this!

how do we understand and express our lives and the events of life that we participate in except through storytelling

This. I always think about this. I think about it a lot online because it's so easy to control the way you present online--or anyway, it's easy for me, because I'm very controlled in deciding what to say when I can write it. Not so much irl.

I love that Ginny is a damsel in distress in Chamber of Secrets

She's quite cool later on, but she never gets a Big Moment where she gets to turn CoS around. That really disappoints me.

he is a person (truth) but he is also the The Boy Who Lived/The Chosen One (a fantasy, a story).

I actually had a line exactly like that in there, but took it out. It's hard when writing something like this not to be too explicit about what I want the theme to be. I ended up limiting my word count, which always helps, and then told myself "don't think too much!" a lot. I'm really glad you took this from it, because it was one thing I was really going for.

I'm really glad you liked this, hon. It always means so much to me <3