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

[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.

[alexis-sd.livejournal.com]

I think I see what you mean, but still, trust me that on point 1) there's a problem. First of all in real life no sickness ever bothers to read the textbook and develop according its description. It always has a quirk typical for one patient only and that's it. Now considering that Harry has a long streak of history defying magical laws it would be strange how a a curse centered on him and not only that but on many others would evolve by the book. ANnd the longer the time since the onset the harder to determine the initial time-frame, so this sounds a bit too comfortable to be realistic.

On point 2) I think so far it sounds unconvincing that a spell that binds two people to such an extend is legal and not restricted on some level. I realise that Harry chose to stay at the Ministry to use the sources, but still I am not sold on the idea that weighing someone with not only his unsolved emotional baggage but someone else's will in any way help in the described situation. It sounds like too weak an excuse to me.

3) OK, I guess this way it'll work, especially if you go the way with a kidnapped grandchild of a Wizengamot member (and the member doesn't even need to be Umbridge-type, their desperation to get their grandchild back would be enough of a urge and motive).

In the end the Head Auror will end up seeming like a very unbalanced character either too easily swayed by the media/Wizengamot (when a person in such a position should be used to dealing and managing such intervention and leverage). I am starting to not like her as soon as right now.

I seriously don't mean to be rude, but I love your works and I'd hate to see you write anything less than the quality you normally deliver. I even try to not offer anything as a possible solution as I'd hate to interfere. Still I wanted to be honest and say what doesn't work for me.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

I do appreciate you being honest. However, I think there are some things we simply can't agree on re: 1. After all, in general the magic in the HP universe does not behave exactly like a disease; most people wouldn't use magic if it were that unpredictable. There are cases that do, but they're exceptional (Gilderoy Lockhart's brain is devastated by a misfired Memory Charm, but he apparently cast Memory Charms many times himself with effects that were more or less the same). Lycanthropy, which is treated a lot like a magical disease, is very regular in being tied to the full moon and affecting werewolves in a lot of the same ways. Maybe I won't set the curse five years back, only one or two, but I won't be treating it exactly like a disease in any case; the reason Ginny goes to the Healers is because, in canon, they're the ones who try to help with spell damage.

Perhaps it won't be the Head Auror who casts the spell after all, but a desperate Wizengamot member who doesn't really care about legalities (or sees himself as above the law, in the same way that a divorced parent kidnapping a child might). What I really, really don't want to do is have Ginny or one of Draco's family be the one casting the spell, as was suggested earlier. It would be too easy to demonize them.

And I do think that the Head Auror may come across as unlikeable. On the other hand, someone who's so arrogant he can't find someone to work with him in twenty years' time or someone who is ignoring all his responsibilities, including being a good father, in a desperate attempt to find one enemy isn't exactly the most likable person either.

[alexis-sd.livejournal.com]

I think I see why I didn't understand your point on 1. We were looking at it from different perspectives, It's your bunny/baby, you have infinitely more back story to work with and you don see it as I do. I only viewed it as a sickness and proceeded from there. Form your examples I see what you mean. I won't trouble you any longer and will just wait for the story which it seems is a long way coming.

After all, the evidence so far points to you being able to develop and back up your stories very well, so I will read it and not judge it prematurely.

And I agree that the Harry and Draco you describe seem to have a lot of problems and don't come across as excellent persons, but me being a bit prejudiced towards loving them I didn't really think about it.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

That's all right. Since I said "entropic curse" at first and said it inflicted decay and death, I can see how you might have thought it was a disease. But really, it's more like a bout of extreme bad luck, which is why they don't notice much at first.

And I do think I have another candidate for casting the bond spell that I probably wouldn't have if you hadn't asked questions. So thank you!