lomonaaeren | Quick notes on a few fics

“Bastardy/Opportunity”: This is definitely going to be my next one-shot, with the summary, “The story of how Malfoy poisoned Harry against the people who loved him./ The story of how Draco rescued Potter from the clutches of those who didn’t deserve him.”

I had planned to start work on it today, but I’m running into trouble coming up with scenes that will play convincingly from both Draco and Ginny’s POV. The whole point of this story is to have both characters absolutely convinced that their version of events is correct, and make both plausible and not over-the-top. Not every scene will be covered from both perspectives, but I need to choose both good candidates for the ones that are and good candidates for the separate scenes, so that they can be the rational thing to do for the character who participates in them and obviously villainous for the character who hears about them.

It’s giving me fits.

“A Black Stone in a Glass Box”: This is a story idea that’s been developing for a few days, and has finally reached the point where I feel comfortable writing it down.

At the moment, I’m really not sure about that. It might be a long one-shot. It wouldn’t be a novel, though, because it doesn’t have enough plot for that. It’s also shameless self-indulgence, the kind of story that I most like to read.

The basic concept comes from the story of Koschei the Deathless, except instead of hiding his soul to become immortal, Harry hides his heart to keep another Dark Lord from ever emerging.

In more detail:

Harry is an Auror after the war. He’s forced to kill one Dark wizard who won’t surrender, and among his artifacts is a book that calls to him in a strange way. In the book, Harry finds a spell that would keep anyone else from ever ascending to Voldemort’s level of power and causing the destruction he did—if someone who has already defeated a Dark Lord makes a great sacrifice. There are three variants of the spell, one calling for the sacrifice of a soul, one for a life, one for a heart.

Harry chooses the heart one because he doesn’t want to die and he thinks giving up his soul would be worse, since he knows about Dementors. When he performs the spell, all the passion he feels condenses into a black stone, which Harry puts in a glass box, as per the requirements of the magic, and hides in a secret place. As long as no one finds the stone and breaks it open against his heart, nothing emotional can touch him. He can’t suffer from his grief over the war anymore, from his horrific nightmares, from his breakup with anyone he dates. He also can’t feel joy. What’s left to him is sublime indifference. He’s content with the knowledge that at least no one else will ever have to make the sacrifices he did.

Draco enters the picture about a year later, having come back to Britain because the Ministry, which sent him into exile, has rescinded his sentence. He finds most of his friends married and obsessed with their families, or in the Ministry and obsessed with politics. Thoroughly bored, he hears the stories about Potter never reacting to anything anymore and sets out to make him react. When he finds that he can’t, he resolves to find out what is wrong and set it right—not because of sympathy for Harry, at least at first, but because otherwise he will die of ennui ohmygod he is so bored.

I like this idea because it would let me write about magic, adventure, emotionally withdrawn Harry, a Draco who does things because he feels like doing them and has them accidentally benefit someone else, and a kind of hurt-comfort with Harry as the focus. I like all these things. So sue me.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From: (Anonymous)

I think, after reading all of your posted works that I can find, anyway, that I've come to the conclusion you don't just LIKE Emotionally-Withdrawn-and/or-Distraught!Harry. You LOVE him. But, it's your stories. You should always write them, on some level, for you, I think. Hey, I'm not complaining. I like Saves-Harry!Draco, acidental or otherwise.

Anyway, "A Black Stone in a Glass Box" sounds fascinating. Maybe a three-shot or something of that nature? Seems a little much to be a one-shot, even a really long one. And I am dying to read Bastardy/Opportunity, but I can completely understanding why the timing/blocking of the scenes is so problematic. I think it's going to read like a good bit of literary theatre, with the characters seeing their own perspective; the audience has the only clear view.

Can't wait for the next update, whatever it may be.
-Jolene

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Quick notes on a few fics

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