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lomonaaerenThis 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 amdistressed bewildered by how much seems to happen in the stories I come up with lately.
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
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Date: 2008-06-19 01:51 pm (UTC)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.