Chapter 7: From the New World
I still have yet to read the short story about Celestina Warbeck, since I'm not on Pottermore, but I did find it funny that when a news item about JK Rowling writing a story about a "new" character hit Facebook, the comments were full of, "She's not a new character! She's Molly Weasley's favorite singer! Read the damn books, don't just go by the movies!"
:pats fandom:
There, there. It'll be okay. WE know that Celestina isn't new. I expect the story will probably be available in an accessible place at some point, and I'll read it then. (Accessible to those who aren't on Pottermore, that is.) I'm also looking forward to going to Universal again, now that the Diagon Alley part is open, and seeing Celestina perform! What a neat idea that they did this. I know that it was Franz Ferdinand in the film of GoF, but I wonder if they'll also put together a group to be the Wyrd Sisters and perform at the park. (Hey, wizard wrock is hot!) You never know.
Anyway...
Chapter 7: From the New World
1. Harry wasn't completely convinced she was human; surely she was some mechanized creation that the British government had bought from Disney? She continued reading her book, while Harry stood shifting from foot to foot, uncertain of how to proceed. He felt so stupid; he'd thought the title "British Library" had meant that it was a public reference library.
Poor Harry. When I realized that the British Library was near Kings Cross, I felt it would be an obvious place for Harry to go, a place he'd have seen. Like Harry, I then learned that it was not a public library, but that they do hold concerts there. Given that I had decided to make Hermione a professional cellist, it seemed a good fit.
2. She reached across the desk and grabbed his shoulders, then turned him so he was facing a stiff sign sitting on an easel; he couldn't make out any of the words on the sign, which was about fifteen feet away, so he pulled his glasses out of his shirt pocket, giving up on the idea of disguising himself by not wearing them. The second his glasses were back on his face, the words came into focus for him.
Appearing Today, Tuesday, 29 October, 1996 At the British Library
HERMIONE GRANGER
Cellist
I do seem to make our Harry appear to the people around him to be a bit more dim that he really is. The things I've done to him!
3. Hermione Granger, a native of Greenwich, began studying cello at the age of five. She made her solo debut in 1989 at the Southwestern Youth Music Festival in the United States, and in 1992, at the age of twelve, she was accepted at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, which has produced, proportionately, the largest body of notable performing musicians of any conservatory.
Some of Hermione's credits are cribbed/adapted from the program of a concert I attended by a flute prodigy who is an adult now, but because she moved to Philadelphia at the age of 12 (her whole family actually moved with her from Boston), in her mid-twenties she already has quite an impressive curriculum vitae. That program is how I knew to include things like competitions, summer music festivals, etc. You see similar lists for singers, conductors and other types of musicians in concert programs.
4. Hermione seemed more like she was dressed for clubbing than giving a Tuesday-afternoon cello concert. She wore a tight black bustier that appeared to stop above her navel; black shorts that were very brief and tight, and sheer black tights with clunky black Doc Martens.
Once when I was at my voice teacher's house, waiting for my lesson to begin, I browsed through a classical music magazine on her coffee table which had a young violinist on the cover, dressed very similarly to Hermione. She was supposed to be in the vanguard of the new generation of classical musicians.
5. Harry could tell she was grasping at straws, wanting to avoid her old boyfriend. He stepped forward, trying to sound like someone about ten years older.
"She has to do an interview with me. Already agreed." He thrust his hand out toward the leather-jacketed young man. "Harry Potter. Daily Prophet."
I enjoyed the irony of having Harry pretend to be a reporter, considering that he isn't the biggest fan of Rita Skeeter's. And then JKR had him give her the interview in OotP! I enjoyed that, too. :D
6. He took his wand out of its pocket, and, glancing around to make certain that no one was in the room, he touched his glasses with the wand, speaking softly.
"Reparo."
The glasses were good as new.
Hermione screamed.
Well of COURSE she screamed. Clearly, Harry didn't attend Minerva McGonnagall's How to Tell a Muggle-Born They're Magical 101.
7. Harry frowned. "I suppose-they might not have known you'd left England. There is a labor shortage in the wizarding world since the purges and Hogwarts stopped taking Muggle-borns. And in America-well, they're probably still taking Muggle-born students at their wizarding schools. So no one was monitoring you."
"I didn't understand half of that, but I did understand monitoring. Monitoring me? Someone's spying on me all the time?"
Even in the seventh book, JKR wasn't terribly clear about how this works, and when we only had four books, I had to make up my own system, of necessity.
8. It was Gilderoy Lockhart.
He was wearing a shiny bronze shirt open almost to his navel, and he had a lot of gold chains around his neck and medallions on his chest. He seemed like he spent all of his time in a tanning salon (or the wizarding equivalent); his skin was far too dark and orange for his long, wavy blond hair. Beside Angelina's natural warm medium-brown skin he appeared quite ludicrous. His dark trousers were also of some shiny material, and far too tight.
I couldn't resist using Lockhart as an Obliviator! And of course, he appears in this role again in The Lost Generation.
9. She was staring around the pub, moving forward slowly, stopping when she came to a wizarding photo of the 1978 Quidditch team for England. Her jaw dropped as the team members jostled each other good-naturedly. She reached out and touched the surface tentatively, her face full of wonder. Next to it was the 1979 team photo, which of course also had moving players. Harry came to stand next to her, watching her face.
Whereas if he'd looked at the photo itself, he'd have seen that his father had played Chaser for England.
10. She thanked the Goblin and she and Harry left. He was feeling just a little grumpy because he'd paid twenty percent to convert his money earlier in the day; he didn't know you could haggle with the Goblins to bring the rate down. He was also feeling a bit dim; just when he’d thought he was in a situation where he knew more about things than Hermione, she managed to make him feel less than completely competent.
And this is how he knows he's in the presence of Hermione Granger.
11. She took the parchment from him and stared at it in disbelief. "This looks like it was written several hundred years ago."
"Oh, we always use parchment, quills and ink bottles at Hogwarts."
"Really? Hmph. No wonder you don't know how to find people. For that you need computers. I'll start when I get home."
It never seemed to me that JKR really came up with magical answers to things like Google. And following post owls also doesn't seem terribly practical, or people like Sirius would have been relatively easy to find. All the Ministry would have needed to do was send a flock of owls after him when he escaped from Azkaban.
12. "Just be careful. Try to control your temper. You don't want anything to happen like--"
"Like the Carnegie Hall incident?"
He smiled. "I was bluffing. I have no idea what happened at Carnegie Hall."
She smiled back. "I know. Or at least, I worked it out. You're good."
"I don't suppose you want to tell me..."
"No, " she said firmly. "I don't."
Don't ask me what happened at Carnegie Hall. Not telling. :D
13. Draco rubbed her back gently. "It'll be fine. Harry'll come around. And if there's anyone who'll make sure we don't do anything before you're fifteen, it's him. "
Harry pushed the mirror open enough for him to walk through now and faced them. "I'm not so sure I'll be any happier about this after my sister is fifteen."
I enjoyed writing BigBrother!Harry. Honestly, I think he's far worse than BigBrother!Ron (in canon).
14. He hadn't attempted to spread his griffin wings yet, but he somehow wasn't surprised that the golden griffin was still his Animagus form, that he hadn't found it easier or more appropriate in this life to be something else. The form had come to him as naturally as flying on a broomstick, as logically as answering to his name or recognizing that he was still him, deep inside, no matter the other changes he had undergone in this life.
In his heart of hearts, he was still a Gryffindor.
This fic was the real reason I wanted to make Harry an Animagus in the first place--since JKR had helpfully told us how being an Animagus had helped Sirius to withstand Azkaban and then escape from it, I knew that if I was going to put Harry in prison (which I always was) he also had to be an Animagus. A lot of people really liked the "In his heart of hearts, he was still a Gryffindor" part. I have to admit--I liked it quite a lot myself.
15. "Oh, Harry, I'm sorry you couldn't tell, but everything I did-it was all for you! I wasn't trying-I mean I-" Her mouth worked but coherent words had ceased to come out of it. Harry saw that his dad had been telling the truth, that every day of his life she'd been going through the motions of disregarding her own son in order to protect him, to make him seem just as contemptible to the Dark Lord to whom he'd been promised as a baby.
He felt the rebellion drain out of him and he put his arms around her; she put her arms around him as well, her head on his shoulder. "I love you, Harry," she repeated.
This was one of the most difficult things I had to write--walking that line between Lily being horrible to Harry and still being a protective mother. But a lot of people also appreciated everything being out in the open and seeing that Lily had a reason for her actions.
16. "What if they want you to do something horrible?" she whispered.
"I won't do it. I'll work out a way to get around it."
His mother, of course, knew that it wouldn't be as simple as that. She remembered Sam going to prison for killing Katrina. She knew how complicated Voldemort could make people's lives in an effort to bend them to his will.
17. She abruptly slammed the door in his face. He heard her running back up the stairs to the flat. He pounded on the door, to no avail. Oh, boy, he thought.
Wait until I tell her she's a witch.
At the end of the chapter, Harry seeing Maggie on the Tube was something no one saw coming! But I really enjoyed throwing Harry for a loop this way--and my readers.
Of course, if anyone has the text for the Celestina Warbeck story, I wouldn't turn that down...
:pats fandom:
There, there. It'll be okay. WE know that Celestina isn't new. I expect the story will probably be available in an accessible place at some point, and I'll read it then. (Accessible to those who aren't on Pottermore, that is.) I'm also looking forward to going to Universal again, now that the Diagon Alley part is open, and seeing Celestina perform! What a neat idea that they did this. I know that it was Franz Ferdinand in the film of GoF, but I wonder if they'll also put together a group to be the Wyrd Sisters and perform at the park. (Hey, wizard wrock is hot!) You never know.
Anyway...
Chapter 7: From the New World
1. Harry wasn't completely convinced she was human; surely she was some mechanized creation that the British government had bought from Disney? She continued reading her book, while Harry stood shifting from foot to foot, uncertain of how to proceed. He felt so stupid; he'd thought the title "British Library" had meant that it was a public reference library.
Poor Harry. When I realized that the British Library was near Kings Cross, I felt it would be an obvious place for Harry to go, a place he'd have seen. Like Harry, I then learned that it was not a public library, but that they do hold concerts there. Given that I had decided to make Hermione a professional cellist, it seemed a good fit.
2. She reached across the desk and grabbed his shoulders, then turned him so he was facing a stiff sign sitting on an easel; he couldn't make out any of the words on the sign, which was about fifteen feet away, so he pulled his glasses out of his shirt pocket, giving up on the idea of disguising himself by not wearing them. The second his glasses were back on his face, the words came into focus for him.
Appearing Today, Tuesday, 29 October, 1996 At the British Library
HERMIONE GRANGER
Cellist
I do seem to make our Harry appear to the people around him to be a bit more dim that he really is. The things I've done to him!
3. Hermione Granger, a native of Greenwich, began studying cello at the age of five. She made her solo debut in 1989 at the Southwestern Youth Music Festival in the United States, and in 1992, at the age of twelve, she was accepted at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, which has produced, proportionately, the largest body of notable performing musicians of any conservatory.
Some of Hermione's credits are cribbed/adapted from the program of a concert I attended by a flute prodigy who is an adult now, but because she moved to Philadelphia at the age of 12 (her whole family actually moved with her from Boston), in her mid-twenties she already has quite an impressive curriculum vitae. That program is how I knew to include things like competitions, summer music festivals, etc. You see similar lists for singers, conductors and other types of musicians in concert programs.
4. Hermione seemed more like she was dressed for clubbing than giving a Tuesday-afternoon cello concert. She wore a tight black bustier that appeared to stop above her navel; black shorts that were very brief and tight, and sheer black tights with clunky black Doc Martens.
Once when I was at my voice teacher's house, waiting for my lesson to begin, I browsed through a classical music magazine on her coffee table which had a young violinist on the cover, dressed very similarly to Hermione. She was supposed to be in the vanguard of the new generation of classical musicians.
5. Harry could tell she was grasping at straws, wanting to avoid her old boyfriend. He stepped forward, trying to sound like someone about ten years older.
"She has to do an interview with me. Already agreed." He thrust his hand out toward the leather-jacketed young man. "Harry Potter. Daily Prophet."
I enjoyed the irony of having Harry pretend to be a reporter, considering that he isn't the biggest fan of Rita Skeeter's. And then JKR had him give her the interview in OotP! I enjoyed that, too. :D
6. He took his wand out of its pocket, and, glancing around to make certain that no one was in the room, he touched his glasses with the wand, speaking softly.
"Reparo."
The glasses were good as new.
Hermione screamed.
Well of COURSE she screamed. Clearly, Harry didn't attend Minerva McGonnagall's How to Tell a Muggle-Born They're Magical 101.
7. Harry frowned. "I suppose-they might not have known you'd left England. There is a labor shortage in the wizarding world since the purges and Hogwarts stopped taking Muggle-borns. And in America-well, they're probably still taking Muggle-born students at their wizarding schools. So no one was monitoring you."
"I didn't understand half of that, but I did understand monitoring. Monitoring me? Someone's spying on me all the time?"
Even in the seventh book, JKR wasn't terribly clear about how this works, and when we only had four books, I had to make up my own system, of necessity.
8. It was Gilderoy Lockhart.
He was wearing a shiny bronze shirt open almost to his navel, and he had a lot of gold chains around his neck and medallions on his chest. He seemed like he spent all of his time in a tanning salon (or the wizarding equivalent); his skin was far too dark and orange for his long, wavy blond hair. Beside Angelina's natural warm medium-brown skin he appeared quite ludicrous. His dark trousers were also of some shiny material, and far too tight.
I couldn't resist using Lockhart as an Obliviator! And of course, he appears in this role again in The Lost Generation.
9. She was staring around the pub, moving forward slowly, stopping when she came to a wizarding photo of the 1978 Quidditch team for England. Her jaw dropped as the team members jostled each other good-naturedly. She reached out and touched the surface tentatively, her face full of wonder. Next to it was the 1979 team photo, which of course also had moving players. Harry came to stand next to her, watching her face.
Whereas if he'd looked at the photo itself, he'd have seen that his father had played Chaser for England.
10. She thanked the Goblin and she and Harry left. He was feeling just a little grumpy because he'd paid twenty percent to convert his money earlier in the day; he didn't know you could haggle with the Goblins to bring the rate down. He was also feeling a bit dim; just when he’d thought he was in a situation where he knew more about things than Hermione, she managed to make him feel less than completely competent.
And this is how he knows he's in the presence of Hermione Granger.
11. She took the parchment from him and stared at it in disbelief. "This looks like it was written several hundred years ago."
"Oh, we always use parchment, quills and ink bottles at Hogwarts."
"Really? Hmph. No wonder you don't know how to find people. For that you need computers. I'll start when I get home."
It never seemed to me that JKR really came up with magical answers to things like Google. And following post owls also doesn't seem terribly practical, or people like Sirius would have been relatively easy to find. All the Ministry would have needed to do was send a flock of owls after him when he escaped from Azkaban.
12. "Just be careful. Try to control your temper. You don't want anything to happen like--"
"Like the Carnegie Hall incident?"
He smiled. "I was bluffing. I have no idea what happened at Carnegie Hall."
She smiled back. "I know. Or at least, I worked it out. You're good."
"I don't suppose you want to tell me..."
"No, " she said firmly. "I don't."
Don't ask me what happened at Carnegie Hall. Not telling. :D
13. Draco rubbed her back gently. "It'll be fine. Harry'll come around. And if there's anyone who'll make sure we don't do anything before you're fifteen, it's him. "
Harry pushed the mirror open enough for him to walk through now and faced them. "I'm not so sure I'll be any happier about this after my sister is fifteen."
I enjoyed writing BigBrother!Harry. Honestly, I think he's far worse than BigBrother!Ron (in canon).
14. He hadn't attempted to spread his griffin wings yet, but he somehow wasn't surprised that the golden griffin was still his Animagus form, that he hadn't found it easier or more appropriate in this life to be something else. The form had come to him as naturally as flying on a broomstick, as logically as answering to his name or recognizing that he was still him, deep inside, no matter the other changes he had undergone in this life.
In his heart of hearts, he was still a Gryffindor.
This fic was the real reason I wanted to make Harry an Animagus in the first place--since JKR had helpfully told us how being an Animagus had helped Sirius to withstand Azkaban and then escape from it, I knew that if I was going to put Harry in prison (which I always was) he also had to be an Animagus. A lot of people really liked the "In his heart of hearts, he was still a Gryffindor" part. I have to admit--I liked it quite a lot myself.
15. "Oh, Harry, I'm sorry you couldn't tell, but everything I did-it was all for you! I wasn't trying-I mean I-" Her mouth worked but coherent words had ceased to come out of it. Harry saw that his dad had been telling the truth, that every day of his life she'd been going through the motions of disregarding her own son in order to protect him, to make him seem just as contemptible to the Dark Lord to whom he'd been promised as a baby.
He felt the rebellion drain out of him and he put his arms around her; she put her arms around him as well, her head on his shoulder. "I love you, Harry," she repeated.
This was one of the most difficult things I had to write--walking that line between Lily being horrible to Harry and still being a protective mother. But a lot of people also appreciated everything being out in the open and seeing that Lily had a reason for her actions.
16. "What if they want you to do something horrible?" she whispered.
"I won't do it. I'll work out a way to get around it."
His mother, of course, knew that it wouldn't be as simple as that. She remembered Sam going to prison for killing Katrina. She knew how complicated Voldemort could make people's lives in an effort to bend them to his will.
17. She abruptly slammed the door in his face. He heard her running back up the stairs to the flat. He pounded on the door, to no avail. Oh, boy, he thought.
Wait until I tell her she's a witch.
At the end of the chapter, Harry seeing Maggie on the Tube was something no one saw coming! But I really enjoyed throwing Harry for a loop this way--and my readers.
Of course, if anyone has the text for the Celestina Warbeck story, I wouldn't turn that down...