Yet another novel-length story to ambush me

[lomonaaeren]

This one has no title, which makes it even more inconvenient. I suppose I can refer to it as "that clichéd thing" for a while, especially since it probably won't get written until after Secondhand Heroes, Written by the Losers, and Aurea Mediocritas.



This is Harry/Draco, and epilogue-compliant, though most of it takes place four years after the epilogue. Ginny finds out that someone's cast an entropic curse on her. The curse inflicts damage and eventually death on anyone in her family who she spends a lot of time around. She goes into St. Mungo's for as much treatment as the Healers can afford her, and then goes traveling. She and Harry- who's devastated- agree on a divorce; over the years they've achieved a companionate marriage rather than a passionate one, so this leaves them still as friends but free to pursue other sexual partners if they'd like. The Healers have been able to reassure Ginny that the curse wouldn't strike any second family she tried to raise, but was aimed directly at Harry and the Weasleys. They're also able to find out that it was cast five years ago, at the time when James first went to Hogwarts, and probably in King's Cross. The power driving it is malice against Harry. But given the number of people in King's Cross at any one time, there's no way to be sure who the culprit is from that scant evidence.

To say Harry is furious is an understatement. He throws himself into discovering who cursed Ginny, to the point that his job performance takes a dramatic nosedive. And that is a bad, bad thing when there's a murderer on the loose, a murderer who kidnaps children and then returns them piece by piece. The case is an absolute PR disaster for the Aurors, with a child taken every full moon and killed by every dark, seven times so far. Karen Whitcomb, the harassed Head of the Auror Department, does something she thinks will redirect Harry's attention to the case in front of him until it's solved: she orders a telepathic bond spell performed between him and Draco. Draco is also an Auror, very good at the parts of his job that can be performed individually, but so arrogant and prickly his partners won't stay with him for long. The bond spell, Whitcomb hopes, will not only distract Harry but center and ground Draco by giving him a partner who can't help but understand him.

Harry and Draco, of course, protest. Whitcomb overrules them. Draco wants to keep his job to maintain a good reputation for the Malfoys, and Harry needs the resources of the Aurors to hunt down his enemy, so they can't just quit. They find themselves sharing thoughts and emotions involuntarily until they learn to establish barriers. Then it's dreams. Then they know each other's general state of being- where the other man is and if he's hurt, for example. And then things start getting really weird. Whitcomb, in her desperation, neglected to read the fine print on the telepathic bond spell- including whether it can be reversed.

If it were only the central bond idea, this story wouldn't need to be novel-length- and that was the idea that first came to me. But I crossbred it with other ideas, as I like to do, and now there's a lot of bustle going on: the kidnapping case, the search for the person who cursed Ginny, Harry and Draco struggling to come to grips with their bond, Auror politics and PR (Whitcomb is probably going to be a viewpoint character, if only to show how the Auror Department's public reputation is decaying as they fail to find that kidnapper), Draco's tumultuous family life (he's also divorced, but that doesn't prevent problems with Astoria and Scorpius), Harry's relationships with his children and the other Weasleys (some of whom approve his search for the enemy who cursed Ginny, others of whom think Harry is entirely too obsessed), and Ginny's letters from abroad as she travels and finds love.

Finding a title that suits this whole thing is going to be a challenge. And I am distressed bewildered by how much seems to happen in the stories I come up with lately.

Comments

[ura-hd.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a cool story!

[carollinali.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm super curious now.

[melonbutterfly.livejournal.com]

I'm definetely looking forward to read that :)
Is that one of those stories where you want to display Ginny as a human being? (you said that somewhere once, among other of the many things you want to write.)

[star-faerie.livejournal.com]

An interesting concept, though it sounds like a VERY complicated plot.

I'm sure the title will come to you. Eventually. :)

[ura-hd.livejournal.com]

You are very prolific. Do you think about writing as a career choice or is it just a hobby? You can probably publish books.

[kansaslynn.livejournal.com]

I LOVE bond stories. LOVE THEM. And I just know you're going to be extrodinary at the telepathic thoughts and emotions that will spill into Harry and Draco as the bond takes hold. I cannot WAIT for you to begin this. Is there a waiting list for your fabulous inspiriations? If so, this one should get pushed to the top. Violently. ;)

[hpstrangelove.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to this one. Actually, I look forward to everything you write, but this one has some of my favorite HP/DM characteristics. I always love either, or both, of them as Aurors, and it's nice to not have Ginny be a bitch for a change. The bond is another characteristic I like, and the back story sounds intriguing.

Titles are a funny thing - sometimes they seem to just jump out of the fic, and other times it takes forever to come up with the right one. Good luck. Don't keep us waiting too long! (What's the most WIPs you've had going at one time?)

[ravenqueen55.livejournal.com]

Sounds fabulous! You keep writing; I'll keep reading.

[nimue-8.livejournal.com]

I'm hooked! :-) The plot is captivating and the characterisation of Harry, Draco, Ginny and the others seems three-dimensionnal and fun.

[eavling.livejournal.com]

I really don't think you're at fault that you can't write a one-dimensional story...I mean, think of all the unfortunates out there who can do nothing but!

I'm lookin forward to this story!

[kelahnus-24.livejournal.com]

Sound like a really good plot idea. I like how your stories never go the way we expect them to. Can't wait to read it ^^

Without Recourse

[inviticus1.livejournal.com]

My only regret is that I'm not a publishing magnate with the ability to put you under long-term contract and commit you to writing for me (I mean us, of course) for the indefinite future. I think the premise is quite a unique take on the post-epilogue world and I welcome the opportunity to once again explore your prose, particularly the impact on the kids and the evolution of the bond!

[ms-mindfunk.livejournal.com]

Do these just spring fully formed into your head, or what? It's amazing how you continue to bring forth such intricate plots without ever "running dry", so to speak. How do you get inspired?

I do well once I have an initial idea and start rolling, but coming up with that start is agonizing. I think the mental (and physical, to be honest) exhaustion saps my creativity. Do you have a life that's conducive to thinking and writing, or are you just as crunched as the rest of us?

If you don't feel like having your brain picked, feel free to say piss off. :) I know the process can be personal for some folks. I'm just fascinated with how you manage to keep going constantly, particularly with the high quality of your writing.

Gawd, I sound like such a suckup. :P

[grey-hunter.livejournal.com]

Oh, at first I thought it was going to be Draco who cursed Ginny. ;)

I like the premises with this curse and Ginny but I don't see how it connects to the Head Auror's decision with this bond spell. After all, she could have just treatened Harry with losing his position or a disciplinary procedure - a bonding spell is really an over the top reaction, and it shows that you only created the premises for the sake of this spell. Btw, I think a Head Auror would be responsible enough to read the small print.

But, as an alternative, you could make it an accident: perhaps Ginny cast the spell because she and Harry agreed to remain in contact and this was the easiest way, and they never intended it as temporary, either, but it somehow went wrong. Perhaps she used the expression "partner" and the spell interpreted it not as ex-spouse but as work partner... something along those lines? Or the other alternative is that the Head Auror is the evil guy and she did it on purpose, but then you'll have to find a believable explanation for Harry and the readers to believe why she went for a so extreme solution. (Like being mentally addled after working too much, or perhaps after having just returned from a raid where a Dark wizard got her with an unknown curse, and she didn't know that her judgement was influenced by a spell.)

Er. Sorry for picking apart your bunnies.

[alexis-sd.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind my bucking into your bunny, but I have some questions. Maybe you are yet to figure it all out, but...

1) How did the Healers find out the exact date when the spell was cast. I realise magic has a lot of very useful quirks but this is a bit too specific. If you keep this up you'll have to come up with a good reason why the Healer could pin-point the date of the curse.

2) I don't see how a telepathic bond to Draco will make Harry more concentrated. More like having to deal not only with your own emotions but someone else's too would lead to the opposite effect.

3) The Head Auror does it over their heads. I see it more likely that if not Harry (though in the desperate state you describe him, I wouldn't discount it) then at least Draco would try to use any connection available to stop the spell from taking place, to the point to use lawyers claiming it harms his person and rights to his own thoughts and feelings that he shouldn't share.

4) I saw that it was mentioned that it's unlikely the Head Auror would be so air-headed as to not read all the fine print.

In the light of this all, maybe you should consider how exactly the spell comes to life.

This has potential, but I guess that the idea needs some polishing. It will be interesting with POV apart from Harry and Draco - the Head Auror and to a degree Ginny (via her letters).

[damedbx.livejournal.com]

oooh! That sounds like a good story. An Infliction of Time maybe??? just throwing it out there. :D

[coolblue67.livejournal.com]

I like the sound of this one a lot. Great plot!

[bobpotter.livejournal.com]

Very good ideas here. I admit I was expecting the bond to become sexual in nature for spice. Please keep up the good works in progress for we depend on you to brighten our routine real world lives.