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!

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[carollinali.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm super curious now.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

So am I. I haven't really written a story with multiple mystery plots going at once (there's one with an intrigue plot and then a mystery centered on Harry and Draco's relationship, but not multiple criminals). I have a good candidate for the person who cursed Ginny, but haven't decided on the kidnapper's identity yet.

[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.)

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

And oh, yes. In this case, what with the cause for her separation from Harry not her fault and her being off-stage but writing letters to Harry and her family, I think it would be very easy to portray her as sympathetic.

[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. :)

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you. And it does, which is one reason I had to upgrade it in my mind from medium-length to novel-length.

I thought of a potential title earlier today, but it doesn't make enough sense for the whole story, and I refuse to name a story after a Sonata Arctica song, no matter how much I like it.

[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.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

I would love to be a writer, but that's as often a matter of chance and luck as anything else. It's the sort of thing I can see myself trying but not making a living at (only about 5% of writers in the US make a living from their work). Also, I don't think my writing is good enough for publication yet.

[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. ;)

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Bonds are one of those concepts I like in theory, but a lot of the stories I've read using it go too fast or ignore certain consequences of the bond- like what it would really be like to hear every thought, if that's what it's being portrayed as, instead of only the profound or arousing ones. I have written one story before that used a bond as a small part of the plot, and had fun.

And there is a waiting list! Maybe this one could be 3 instead of 5, though. :)

[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?)

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I really have tried to write Ginny as less of a bitch lately, but here it'll be easier than usual, since she's a victim of the spell that forces her and Harry apart, too.

I wanted to set the bond from the beginning against a background that would deepen it and give it something else than just the romantic relationship to work on; I just didn't expect it to be this busy.

I'm hoping I may have a suitable title soon. Maybe a line of poetry will do the trick, as it has for several others.

The most I've had going is three- that was back in March, when I was writing two novel-length stories and a shorter story, eight chapters, at the same time.

[ravenqueen55.livejournal.com]

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

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you! At the moment, I seem to have enough ideas to keep me occupied for another year at least.

[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.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

The characterizations are what would make the story for me. Harry is strongest in my mind at the moment, but Draco, Whitcomb, and Ginny will get their chances.

[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!

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

It's true I'd rather have a story that's too ambitious than one that doesn't do enough. But I have lost control of stories before because too much was going on in them (too many different plot aspects or too many different emotional relationships). That's one reason I try to be cautious about how much I put into any one 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 ^^

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

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!

Re: Without Recourse

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I can't imagine that either Harry or Draco's children will be pleased by this. Harry's children will still be suffering from the loss of Ginny. Scorpius, in this story, is secretly frantic that his family is drifting apart from him, and wants them back; his father having such a permanent and deep bond to a person who's not him is going to drive him crazy.

[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

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Not fully formed, no! The usual process is that I come up with a lot of little individual plot strands (for example, "I want to write a novel-length story where Harry and Draco solve a mystery together") and then I add them to each other. Unless the story is very short and focused around a single concise idea, I find it difficult to get enough substance otherwise. Nearly all my stories are hybrids.

Ah, I understand a problem with beginnings! I find the planning process easy and enjoyable, and then I can keep going once I'm into it, but writing that first chapter is often hard.

And it's not a problem. :) I think a lot of it is just that I do have an environment conducive to story-munching (academic work) and for a very long time I was writing original work in a single fantasy setting that built on itself and easily added new ideas. When I left that setting behind, I took the ability with me.

[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.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Not a problem! You've given me some things to think about. And while I don't really mind having a plot that uses some plot devices transparently (hey, I've written Veela fic and divorce lawyer fic!), I like to make the plot more organic to the characters' psychology when I can. In this case, that's even more necessary than usual. It's already busy; I can't afford unnecessary plot strands.

I don't think the Head Auror can be evil; I'll be writing a few scenes from her viewpoint, and that would kind of show up. :) But desperate, yes. She's going to be hounded by a public certain that the Aurors- who've worked very well in the past few years, partially thanks to people like Harry and Draco- should be able to solve the kidnapping case now, plus some individuals who are specifically fixated on Harry himself being able to solve the case. (Nothing about the way the wizarding public treat Harry has ever been sane). Plus she'll have pressure from her superiors, her own sense of duty wearing her down, and her frustration that Harry is focusing on his own personal problems rather than the case at exactly the wrong moment damnit. The mistake with the bond spell and her insistence on it over all Harry and Draco's protests will speak well to her being at her utter wits' end; it's the kind of thing she'll be horrified about later but thinks is a good idea at the time, in the way you do when you're sleep-deprived.

Thanks for the critique!

[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).

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

1) How the Healers figure it out has to do with the nature of the curse. It builds from a small point and starts slow, then gathers speed. They're able to figure out it's five years advanced. I probably won't have them pin it down to the exact date after all, but they can tell how long since it was cast simply by the effects it's manifesting.

2) The Head Auror makes an initial promise that as soon as Harry solves the kidnapping case, the bond will be reversed. The bond is more like something to keep him as focused on the case as possible. She fully expects that he'll hate the emotions he feels so much he'll work to get rid of it. She does this because she's at her wits' end as to how to make Harry concentrate on the case otherwise; she offered him personal time so he could pursue the curse-caster and come back to work when he'd found him or her, but Harry refused because he wants to use the Ministry's resources.

3) The Head Auror does it suddenly, without warning. And if she has Wizengamot pressure from above, both Harry and Draco wouldn't find it easy to simply hire lawyers and be done with it; a lot of very powerful people want this case solved and now.

I do see what you mean about concerns, but the Head Auror isn't going to consider the consequences fully, and the section where she decides on and casts the spell will be from her POV. On the other hand, neither does she warn them ahead of time. A lot of the mess in the story comes from people acting without considering the consequences, including Harry, who somehow thought he could remain an Auror but devote all his time to searching for his personal enemy only.

[damedbx.livejournal.com]

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

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I think I've decided on Their Road to Infinity as the title, but thanks for the suggestion.

[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.