...Chapter 23
And... it is done.
"Lost: Young Man" can now be read, finished and complete, because chapter 23 is UP NOW.
www.fanfiction.net/s/2644896/1/
And dang, I feel like I've done something terrible.
"Lost: Young Man" can now be read, finished and complete, because chapter 23 is UP NOW.
www.fanfiction.net/s/2644896/1/
And dang, I feel like I've done something terrible.
Gah...just went to read your replies of your livejournal...so Anatares DID get the Voldemort's-brother-wand?! Now I just feel confused...but Neville got the Holly and Phoenix feather...isn't that Canon!Harry's wand...?
Not exactly, not exactly. Just because it's Holly and Phoenix feather doesn't mean it's Fawkes' feather inside the wand. I wanted the whole brother wand effect (crucial to the plot, as it is in canon), but with a different spin on it. As Antares is wholly different on the outside than Harry, so his wand wood, the covering, would be different. But, since he is still essentially that slightly blind, rather rebellious, good-hearted law-breaking teenager that is crafty when he wants to be (which Harry is), he gets the same core. He'll have some different issues than Harry, of course, as it wouldn't make sense if he didn't, but his destiny is essentially the same. So that's why they have the same wand core, but not the same wood.
Just to jabber on a bit, I picked birch because it symbolises new things and rebirth and hope, and Antares' situation is very much that, with all that's going on in his life right now. Instead of a life like Mundungus Fletcher's, he can aspire to much more because of his new circumstances. He's also more in concert or in agreement with his surroundings somehow - more at home in the world, unlike Harry, who's way more of a pure-hearted loner than anything. Holly is more 'life' and saviour-y than birch, I think, as birch is more of sort of an ordinary wood that keeps on renewing and bringing forth new things whatever the occasion. Holly's more 'save the world AND die trying' or 'sacrifice', I think, than birch - birch will always be there, sort of, whether it saves the world or not. And that's how Antares is going to be - surviving, renewing himself and his thinking, and doing great things and still living and enjoying life in a way Harry might not necessarily do. With Harry, when he's happy, it's like he's living someone else's life. Drastic, eh? When Antares is happy, its more of a "Hey! I'm happy! Look at me! I'm going to enjoy the hell out of this, whether it lasts or not!" thing, because he's had a more stable life than Harry in some ways. So he won't grasp at some stuff (like friends) as desperately, even though he really wants them. Because he already has friends, already has a life, already has vague dreams of what he wants to be.
The reason for that is probably the influence from his mum, and actually having someone to rely on even though he's poor and underfed and just as deprived as Harry. Antares is still a strong character like Harry, of course, because he hasn't had it easy, and Bellatrix Black is such a strong woman that she cannot help influencing her child in that way, and that's kinda how I wanted to write him. As a more hard-edged, less naive kind of character that is still very much a kid, instead of the oversexualised, overcharming, over-everything kind of Harry one meets in AUs. One thing about AUs is how sodding happy they make Harry sometimes (not that I like the ones at the extreme, which are even worse) - perfect family, lovely, heart-rending interactions everyday when he's the kind of kid destined to have a wierd-ass life. Antares has one, but doesn't necessarily think of it that way (just like Harry, even if he is bitter about it a lot), and his is wierd in different ways (being extremely light-fingered for mainly survival purposes, not being afraid of many things most kids are afraid of, having the social stigma of who his mother was hanging over him instead of the 'adoring public' deal). And that is precisely what I intended - a representation of who Harry could have been, with a lovely, slightly jarring shift to everything.
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I know what you mean about Harry living someone else's life when he's happy. I think back to Philosopher's Stone, when Harry leaves the Dursleys and defeats Quirrel and wins the house cup, and it's like, "What happened to those days?" In HBP especially, it feels as if, for Harry, the first three years of Hogwarts were just a wee break from the miserable life he was living, and now things are miserable all over again.
So, it's important Harry has Voldemort's wand's brother? Dammit, you're gonna use Priori Incantatem, right? Blast...
Anyway, I love how much thought you've put into the wands. It does seem important that the wand reflects the owner, and I wish in canon we could get more information about wands and the effects of using a wand that doesn't belong to you. (Like, does Ron's sub-par performances in class in PS have anything to do with the fact that he was using a hand-me-down wand from Charlie? Once he got his own wand in PoA, did his grades improve with the use of a wand customised to him?) And I also really want to know more about how wizards seem to be able to recognise their own wands. Is it some inner sense of a magical signature, or is it simply that they're used to noting the subtle differences in wand colour and length which muggles like us wouldn't distinguish?
Oh, I'm rambling again.
Cheers!
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Cheers yourself!
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