FIC: The Halston Gown (NC-17)

[iulia_linnea]

Title: The Halston Gown
Type: Fic
Prompter: Anonymous
Creator: prolurk
Beta(s): canis domina
Rating: NC-17
(Highlight to View) Warning(s): For non-thematic sexually harassing and biphobic behavior/dialogue.
(Highlight to View) Prompt: One of them has finally decided to propose.
Summary: Ten years after the War, Hogwarts' new DADA Professor, who used to be

Comments

[q_drew]

I didn’t expect a response to this comment at all, so I appreciate that you took the time to write me one! Modding is serious business, and with a quick skim I see you’ve been busy below - I admit, I am too much of a scaredy cat to read through all the comments simply because I don’t like conflict.

I certainly didn’t mean to catapult this comment section into chaos by being the first domino. I most especially didn’t intend to take away the focus from the writer or the story. Being a creative this year has been very hard, and being able to participate in something like this might have been a bright spot for the MA (as it was for me).

I suppose, in regards to the sexual harassment piece and why I didn’t mention it, I came at it from the mindset of trauma doesn’t negate trauma. That’s a rather easy thing to debate, I realize, but that’s my personal history and biases coming with me while I read. It was quite obvious that Cormac was a lech, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I agree that so many other characters (not just Hermione) used his sexual orientation (rumored or not?) against him so ruthlessly. But that’s the wonderful thing about fanfic/fiction, I don’t have to agree with the characters - I can be surprised, disappointed, elated, or thrilled though. It is enormously fun to play with characters and twist them around a bit, focusing on strengths or weaknesses we haven’t done before. What’s especially wonderful about the HP universe is that the characters are versatile.

As I mentioned before, I am a Huffle (a painful stereotype at that) and I often chose to take the high road when confronted with the option. I emphasized greatly with Anthony’s character when he gently reminded Hermione how Cormac’s life was about to change after the rumors were published. Sometimes it is very hard to see how one’s actions ripple out into other people’s lives because tempers are high or we’re battling feelings of defensiveness or anger. Anthony played a big part of the overall feel of the story, even though his role was quite small, simply because he had a different set of morals than the others (or at least how they were portrayed).

I am quite interested in hearing about the MA’s motivation behind their character choices. Was Cormac an unknowing victim of the Press Game, making him a convenient target to give SSHG more breathing space? Is there more history with Cormac than just given to us in the fic that makes so many characters find him vile? While the fic definitely fit the parameters of the fest it’s not nearly enough of a universe to suss out and we’d all be making wild assumptions if we tried to answer these questions on our own.

Finally, I came into the story not expecting to see either the harassment/phobic bits so I think that’s why it was such a shock to me to see the different characterizations than I’m used to. I’m definitely of a mindset of “the more tags the better” as far as knowing what I’m getting into (there isn’t much I won’t read, as long as I know in advance what type of brain space to be in). That’s probably how I’ve been spoiled at AO3, as their tag system is a hot mess but also allows readers a lot of flexibility to know what they’re clicking on. That’s not a criticism but rather an observation that I may need to be more careful in my future reading in places where tags are not in such ready employ.

[iulia_linnea]

I really appreciate your taking the time to respond so thoughtfully, and your contribution is part of why I've added, in consultation with M.A., a warning to this story. Thank you for participating in the discussion, and forgive me for not taking you point for point in my reply, but I haven't actually slept and must finish up some modding duties and go do that before I fall down.