Progress Report 5/28
Another one of these fairly soon after the last, but that’s partially because I want to nail down the novel idea I had last night before it could get away. (I lay awake for an hour constructing a plot and detailed outline, and then woke up four hours later with a title in mind. Ideas are seldom that determined).
Inter Vivos- Only the epilogue left, and that’s long and needs just the right tone, so it’ll probably be a few more days before I finish it.
Viper- One chapter left. I’m kind of surprised that I have two of these works ending at the same time.
Their Phoenix- The next chapter of this should be posted tomorrow, and has more Harry-angst in it.
“Of Dubious Value”- A completed one-shot of 16,000 words, which will be posted tomorrow. In which Ron and Hermione are both slightly crazy, and Harry may be going crazy.
A one-shot with no title yet (well, technically it has a title, but I want a less generic one), 5000 words now out of possibly 8000: posted fairly soon. About Harry and Draco dealing with Fiendfyre problems.
“With Your Green Mantle”: This is based on the legend of Tam Lin; the title is a quote from this variation of the ballad. Harry is captured by a powerful supernatural force after the war. Draco has to be a hero and rescue him, in a way that’ll take all his courage. I’ve wanted to use this particular fairy tale in some way for a while, and I have a sudden craving for Hero!Draco.
“Shadows of a Future Passed”: (The spelling of the last word in the title is deliberate). Set in an AU where Harry killed Voldemort in the Battle of Hogwarts, but also died himself. Draco returns to Hogwarts after he attains the Potions mastery, and finds Harry still there, to his shock-but as a Shade, rather than a ghost, meaning that he mindlessly repeats the events of his life instead of interacting with living people. McGonagall and the other professors assume Harry will eventually fade and that there’s nothing to be done about it in the meanwhile. After investigating the events of the Battle of Hogwarts more closely, Draco’s not so sure.
Universal Chaos: This is the novel-length story, which will be thirteen rather tightly-packed chapters. (Seriously, it has an outline. My stories never have an outline. What the fuck).
It’s taken Harry two years after the war, but he’s managed to get his life together. He got some therapy for his lingering trauma, sorted out his grief for the dead, and finally decided that he didn’t want to date Ginny. He’s trying to decide whether he wants to enter Auror training at all, because his goals and desires have changed. He’s wandering home from a pub one night when he sees the most intricate and fantastic vision of springs or tubes spiraling through space, and then falls unconscious. When he wakes up, he’s looking at himself.
Harry 2-as we will call him for the purposes of this outline-explains that the springs or tubes Harry saw are alternate universes. The universes fracture off one another whenever a certain series of events builds up to a “cascade” and separates one version of Harry decisively from another. Not all possible versions of Harry exist, just the most plausible ones. But universes can be almost identical to one another or very different, since the alternatives fracture into alternatives, not only from one original parent. So two universes where Harry defeated Voldemort the way he did in canon might lie close in the continuum, while two universes where his parents are still alive would be far away from them, but close to one another. Harry 2 performed a universe-seeking spell that would find an alternative variety of him fairly close to his own circumstances and bring him here. Harry 2 wants advice on how to patch up the devastating row he had a year ago with Draco Malfoy, who he has a big crush on. He assumed he would find a universe where the fracturing event was that Harry made up the row or avoided having it, and now lives happily ever after with Draco.
Harry hasn’t had any contact with Draco since the war, though, and can’t help him. Harry 2 is devastated, since he’ll have to wait a year to perform the spell again and reach out to a different universe (though he can easily reverse it to send Harry back to his own). Feeling sorry for him, Harry offers to pose as Harry 2 and repair the row-something his other self apparently doesn’t have the courage to do. Then Harry 2 can start trying to win Draco’s affections. Harry 2 cheerfully accepts.
This version of Draco, meanwhile, has become a star Quidditch player, but he’s crushingly lonely. Both his parents are dead, and they’ve never taught him to look outside the family for companionship. His closest friends were Crabbe and Goyle; Crabbe died in the Fiendfyre, and Goyle blames Draco for this and won’t come near him. Draco became a celebrity Seeker in part to have people who’d want to be around him, but he can’t make any deep emotional connections with them. Imagine his shock when Harry Potter comes to one of his games, starts trying to apologize, and won’t take no for an answer. Imagine what he may do when he discovers that there’s two of them, and that the one who had the courage to apologize to him and offer him sympathy and affection is the one who’s from another universe…
I really like this idea, because it brings up all sorts of interesting philosophical ideas, while also taking an idea I’ve been interested in long before this-identity, which is central to both Changing of the Guard and Providence-and coming at it from another angle.
Inter Vivos- Only the epilogue left, and that’s long and needs just the right tone, so it’ll probably be a few more days before I finish it.
Viper- One chapter left. I’m kind of surprised that I have two of these works ending at the same time.
Their Phoenix- The next chapter of this should be posted tomorrow, and has more Harry-angst in it.
“Of Dubious Value”- A completed one-shot of 16,000 words, which will be posted tomorrow. In which Ron and Hermione are both slightly crazy, and Harry may be going crazy.
A one-shot with no title yet (well, technically it has a title, but I want a less generic one), 5000 words now out of possibly 8000: posted fairly soon. About Harry and Draco dealing with Fiendfyre problems.
“With Your Green Mantle”: This is based on the legend of Tam Lin; the title is a quote from this variation of the ballad. Harry is captured by a powerful supernatural force after the war. Draco has to be a hero and rescue him, in a way that’ll take all his courage. I’ve wanted to use this particular fairy tale in some way for a while, and I have a sudden craving for Hero!Draco.
“Shadows of a Future Passed”: (The spelling of the last word in the title is deliberate). Set in an AU where Harry killed Voldemort in the Battle of Hogwarts, but also died himself. Draco returns to Hogwarts after he attains the Potions mastery, and finds Harry still there, to his shock-but as a Shade, rather than a ghost, meaning that he mindlessly repeats the events of his life instead of interacting with living people. McGonagall and the other professors assume Harry will eventually fade and that there’s nothing to be done about it in the meanwhile. After investigating the events of the Battle of Hogwarts more closely, Draco’s not so sure.
Universal Chaos: This is the novel-length story, which will be thirteen rather tightly-packed chapters. (Seriously, it has an outline. My stories never have an outline. What the fuck).
It’s taken Harry two years after the war, but he’s managed to get his life together. He got some therapy for his lingering trauma, sorted out his grief for the dead, and finally decided that he didn’t want to date Ginny. He’s trying to decide whether he wants to enter Auror training at all, because his goals and desires have changed. He’s wandering home from a pub one night when he sees the most intricate and fantastic vision of springs or tubes spiraling through space, and then falls unconscious. When he wakes up, he’s looking at himself.
Harry 2-as we will call him for the purposes of this outline-explains that the springs or tubes Harry saw are alternate universes. The universes fracture off one another whenever a certain series of events builds up to a “cascade” and separates one version of Harry decisively from another. Not all possible versions of Harry exist, just the most plausible ones. But universes can be almost identical to one another or very different, since the alternatives fracture into alternatives, not only from one original parent. So two universes where Harry defeated Voldemort the way he did in canon might lie close in the continuum, while two universes where his parents are still alive would be far away from them, but close to one another. Harry 2 performed a universe-seeking spell that would find an alternative variety of him fairly close to his own circumstances and bring him here. Harry 2 wants advice on how to patch up the devastating row he had a year ago with Draco Malfoy, who he has a big crush on. He assumed he would find a universe where the fracturing event was that Harry made up the row or avoided having it, and now lives happily ever after with Draco.
Harry hasn’t had any contact with Draco since the war, though, and can’t help him. Harry 2 is devastated, since he’ll have to wait a year to perform the spell again and reach out to a different universe (though he can easily reverse it to send Harry back to his own). Feeling sorry for him, Harry offers to pose as Harry 2 and repair the row-something his other self apparently doesn’t have the courage to do. Then Harry 2 can start trying to win Draco’s affections. Harry 2 cheerfully accepts.
This version of Draco, meanwhile, has become a star Quidditch player, but he’s crushingly lonely. Both his parents are dead, and they’ve never taught him to look outside the family for companionship. His closest friends were Crabbe and Goyle; Crabbe died in the Fiendfyre, and Goyle blames Draco for this and won’t come near him. Draco became a celebrity Seeker in part to have people who’d want to be around him, but he can’t make any deep emotional connections with them. Imagine his shock when Harry Potter comes to one of his games, starts trying to apologize, and won’t take no for an answer. Imagine what he may do when he discovers that there’s two of them, and that the one who had the courage to apologize to him and offer him sympathy and affection is the one who’s from another universe…
I really like this idea, because it brings up all sorts of interesting philosophical ideas, while also taking an idea I’ve been interested in long before this-identity, which is central to both Changing of the Guard and Providence-and coming at it from another angle.