It greatly depends on what the DOM to do and how it impacts my plot. In Harry Potter & the Soulmate Bond it served my purposes/plot if the DOM was part of the ministry because of my favorite protags is Tobias Savage -- it was a good place to use him.

I do prefer that the body answer to the Queen -- and be part of the Her Secret Service so to speak.

I favor writing from Harry's POV -- that could be a bleed off from the books, honestly. I identify closely with Hermione since I was bullied as a child and I connected with her deeply in the first book.

I don't have a problem getting into any character's headspace because I build character profiles (even for canon characters) but I do find Luna difficult to write-- I don't think i hit her mystical edge well.

Original Characters fill gaps in the HP canon for me so I like to move them around a bit in various works. While I often keep their basic background the same -- sometimes you'll see them in different professions or in places that might surprise you because I see no need to not to use that work i've already done.

Also, an alternate universe means that all of my characters are impacted--not just the canon ones. So if I set Harry Potter down in a world where Sentinels & Guides are known than I can anticipate that every single character in that 'verse will be slightly different and might have chosen a different path due to that fundamental change in the world building.

I wish Neville had been more present in the books. There's this thread of potential (due to the prophecy) that never gets pulled in the series. We see glimpses of it throughout but it's never been enough. I honestly wish he'd been the 3rd in the Golden Trinity to so speak. I think he would've been a more interesting character than Ron and Ron might have been better served in the role that Neville filled in the last book.

It would've allowed Ron to come into his own.

LOL. No. I mean, wow. He'd be awful at it.

I'd like to fix it so Sirius Black doesn't die -- so I can do that at various points in canon. I just think Harry's lost enough by the 5th book and shouldn't have to suffer that loss.

It would have to be a fantasy fandom because I don't like crossing the streams. Maybe one of my own making. I have a little idea tumbling around in my head about a steam punk world that Hermione gets thrown in (the first chapter is written).

The Hobbit/LOTR was a very natural merger --- I can't see it being that easy with any other fandom.

I zero draft and plot all the events. I decide the goals, motivations, and conflicts (GMC) of my characters before I start writing so my characters do nothing without my explicit permission (cause I've got control issues like whoa).

There have been times when my work has inspired me to sort of write fan fic of my own stuff but that hasn't happened in HP much.

I'm thinking about it -- and I can't think if of anything I would toss right out the window (except magic of course) if it didn't suit my purposes. I don't get bogged down in canon.

Amelia Bones, Minerva McGonagall -- Of my ocs: Armand Deering or Louis Bertrand I'd never have Hiro do it cause he hates kids.

The role of Star in HP & the Soulmate Bond was done for a world building purpose regarding the rights of house elves and the history of house elf houses beyond the magical canon. I needed a house elf that wasn't bogged down in events in the books -- a clean slate of a sorts.

I often pick Dobby out of nostalgia and Winky for the same reason when it's reasonable within my plot do to do so. Star's my favorite though.

Canon is always best -- less reader confusion BUT there are some circumstances where there is no canon character to fill a spot (due to Harry's epic lack of curiosity) and an OC is the only option.

I can't put a canon character as the owner of Flourish & Blotts - we never met them, etc.

Not any more, but Stargate kind of broke me of that surprise when I accidently created a character that my fans love more than me.

I work hard to create characters -- with profiles, and the like so i hope they connect with a reader. I know how an OC sounds, speaks, smells, and even moves through a scene -- I want my readers to feel that with me.

I'd be happy if Voldemort went to prison for life.

Umbridge needed to be thrown through the Veil.

The Lux Ordinis in Darkly Loyal.

I love love love time travel. It's my favorite though I'm super enamored with the concept I explored in All the World where Arda and Earth are basically sister dimensions and are sort of connected.

I have a project where Harry's father is actually a High Elf -- and they live in a pocket dimension due to mistreatment by other magicals -- they basically told the magical world to kiss their ass.

I'd love to go back to that eventually and really delve into that world and what it would mean to Harry to be half-human and half-High Elf.

Ha. The sex scene with Harry and Hermione in HP & the Soulmate bond with the elemental fire that breaks the wards in his house. The aftermath is glorious.

I mean -- the role of Ginny Weasley in book 2 could've been taken on by a character that was already introduced.

I felt like we didn't get the full monty on that front actually -- the seventh child and the first daughter born in generations and .... all we get is she marries Harry Potter?? That's it?

Favorite - Hermione Granger
Least - Umbridge

The murders of Sirius Black & Hedwig -- frankly it looked like author sadism.

With Sirius -- no support for Harry.

Hedwig -- she didn't want to deal with the owl on the Horcrux Hunt so she killed the poor thing and told us that it symbolized the death of Harry's childhood and I'm like, sorry, Joanne, pretty sure Pettigrew murdered Harry's childhood when he killed Cedric in front of him.

It's not really supported by canon -- it's a fun plot hole to play with (and I have) but his canon actions are enough to make him a villain.

I have a project called Phoenix that isn't online and isn't finished that is set during the GoF -- it's my least my favorite place to write in canon. I just find the tasks tedious and I don't want to invent my own.

Winky & the Nundu preserve in Darkly Loyal.

Yes-- especially when it comes to the snakes since they speak to Harry. I have an idea about having the Fates (the runespoor from Soulmate Bond) bond to Harry when he's little on Privet Drive (lol) so when he arrives at Hogwarts he's like -- he just comes swinging out of that parselmouth closet.

I'm eventually going to go through all of my HP work and edit the G word out of it in some fashion or another.

He has untreated clinical depression and was never taught a single coping mechanism to deal with that or his cursed condition.

Nah, I don't do that. But I have a page on my site dedicated to permissions if you have questions about that: https://keiramarcos.com/permissions/

Therein lies the problem -- they have zero skills for the Muggle world once they leave Hogwarts so Hermione would probably be the best situated and Draco the worst. They'd end up in low wage, thankless jobs due to lack of A Levels or any other Muggle academic records unless they could fake them and I'm unsure if they could.

They'd have to resort to some pretty ugly magic to get ahead and I wouldn't do that.

Draco is gonna end up serving coffee in a cafe and being a real bitch about it.

I'd have done Runes & Arithmancy for my own curiosity. Or maybe Magical Theory would be cool.

Well, yes, because I already have the outlines of those works done. It boils down to interest versus ease of writing.

Ritual magic -- the structure, the ramifications, the way it ripples out magically depending on what's being done. One of my favorite rituals to create was the one where Harry gave parselmagic to Hermione in Stand by You.

I'd like to apparate. Portkeys look scary and I hate to get dirty so no floo for this girl. Maybe a magic carpet would be cool but we never see those in canon.

I'm fond of all the court scenes in Courting Hermione Granger -- I think Hermione shines in those scenes.

The snakes on the the caduceus.

I have this idea that parselmagic was the foundation for all healing magic and it spread out into the muggle world thus the symbol.

Honestly? I think the author basically forgot about it until she needed to add some drama to the final book.

The fact that Harry never considered using it to hide from Umbridge is straight up appalling. I MEAN. Honestly, this boy had a secret hide out that only he could get into -- and he never went back???

I'd put Hermione in Hufflepuff because she's loyal.

Neville would stay in Gryffindor
Harry would go to Slytherin
I'd leave Ron where he is -- sigh
Ginny would go to Slytherin (And so would Percy)
I'd put the twins in Hufflepuff because they are first and foremost loyal to each other.

Luna would go to Gryffindor because while she's smart she's also brave enough to be exactly who she is no matter the consequences.

hot take: i think the sorting is low-key abusive.

I'd house them by year until after Owls then house them by discipline in a more of an pseudo apprentice situation.

Neville should've gotten it over Ron and while I agree Hermione was responsible for it -- I don't know if it served her. So probably Fay Dunbar (which is certainly based more on my headcanon than actual canon except to say that Lavender would've been as bad as Ron).

Thanks! I wrote that fic shortly after I broke my foot and I was playing around with ways to make Lucius atone for what he'd done in the past and to make it a point of family honor for him.

It had to come in a moment when he had no choice but to act -- to do for Lily Potter what she'd done for his own wife. So that meant the cemetery.

It's clearly an AU so it was my assumption going into that he didn't almost use the AK on Harry after the events of the chamber and that he'd been avoiding Harry Potter as much as he could since the kid had entered the magical world.

I think it's a pivotal moment for them (and made more so in the movies since he did it in front of many). In the books, it happens on the train with just their personal friends as witnesses (which is bad enough).

It's a moment of genuine disdain between them so it's hard and you can work your way through it in fic in a variety of ways.

Yes. I mean -- why have both? It seemed a complete waste of lore and world building to give us the whole master of death theme then throw the pseudo horcrux at harry as the reason he survived.

Why wasn't the Deathly Hallows the thing Voldemort knew not?

It's a very deeply unsatisfying situation.

I zero draft -- the plot document is a mixture of plot points/events, characterization, GMC, and ripple management.

The plot for HP & the Soulmate Bond series 1 was 36k.

It's a big project so I had to make sure i was pulling all the threads throughout the whole series.

So Soulmate Bond was a rewrite -- I had to take it apart, plot, and draft the zero draft so I spent 2 months doing that before i wrote the first part.

I do write to music but my playlist for writing is varied these days unless I'm writing Stargate then it's Josh Groban all the way.

I think the song Gravity by Sara Bareilles speaks to me when it comes to Hermione and her journey in the magical world.

I can see cutting Pettigrew and Snape off at the pass -- before they ever get a chance to be Death Eaters. But neither are genuinely redeemable after the death of Lily Potter -- they can certainly atone but it will never be enough for what they did.

I couldn't redeem Umbridge -- she's too much like a real life monster.

No, I don't need it at all but my readers like it so I do it for them.

It depends on the AU but most of the time Armand Deering is living France and doesn't give a fuck what's happening in Britain unless someone gets in his business.

You'll see him in part 3 of Heart & Soul in November on RT -- working in Britain as Unspeakable.

I would yes -- but I'd probably start it much the same way I did HP & Soulmate Bond -- when harry is older or maybe even an adult.

It would be fun to bring him back to Britain as a grown ass man raised by Armand because Dumbledore can't handle his own dark lord problem.

I think we don't get enough about the discipline in canon to justify either position. And that a talented writer could twist it just enough to suit their purposes as long as they are internally consistent in the course of their own work.

I'd also like to know more about the dark mark and how it works. Is it a magical connection? A mental connection? Both?

oh you mean Ashley? from Soulmate Bond?

I wanted a bonding moment for Harry and Sirius -- something that Harry could learn to do for his dad after his time in Azkaban and that bonding moment eventually led him to connecting with Astoria -- which if you've finished series 1 you know she's Harry's reincarnated sister.

So definitely planned.

Zir came first -- i created the character without a name then went in search of mythological names/figures to attach the characterization to.

Hekate is the Greek goddess of magic.

I favor making the patronus match the animagus form -- it's my head canon that a patronus is basically an avatar of the animagus spirit which is a magical element within a magical person.

I think he's a foolish brainwashed boy who has no choices if he wants to keep his parents alive. I don't think any of those children had an real choices.

When you own parent, who is supposed to be a source of safety and love, is basically throwing you at the feet of a monster -- what do you have? Where do you go?

Draco and the other DE children weren't taught to have choices.

I think kids should be taught Magical Theory and Ethics from day one.

I mean they've got 11 year olds carrying around the equivalent of a bomb.

I'm far too enamored with Hermione to write her as a true villain. Maybe a bit misguided or bossy but not as a genuine protagonist.

And of course Luna is a cinnamon roll.

I have a very difficult time writing action/fight scenes. To me they always read awkwardly like -- i'm giving step by step instructions.

As to overcoming it, I consider that part of my craft a lifelong work in progress. I never want to stop learning as a writer so that's fine. I'll get there one day.

Well, at the heart of it -- The Absence of War is a gen fic - none of the romance elements in it are pivotal plot points and could be removed easily.

I really enjoyed the project and could see myself going there again.

I plotted 3 books then split the plot into 4 books.

So i have the ground work done but the lack of interest to currently write it. i have a plan for when it returns ????

I mean i have a WIP in progress where Harry and Hermione run around trollilng the whole school with cartoons and Dr. Who soo... no?? LOL

Hermione.

I'd need to have a deep understanding of the character to know here to turn them for such a thing.

No. We talk about Big Secret tropes on the podcast and how they're hard to keep -- mixing two Big Secrets (Magic and the Stargate) strains credulity for me and I would quickly get wrapped around the axle trying to make it work.

I mean the ripple management would take up the first 100k of the fic.

That's how I get a million word fic and that's never going to happen. I like to write novels or novellas with a manageable word count that won't reduce me to tears in editing.

My fandom home will always be Stargate: Atlantis because I'm a huge sci-fi fan and i really connected with the show and characters.

HP is definitely my second fandom of choice as i favor writing fantastical elements far removed from reality because the world sucks a lot.

Getting lost in a completely different world and circumstances in my own head has always been a special kind of gift to myself.

My head canon on the Statute of Secrecy -- enclaves/magical villages and schools are protected through a series of magical spells embedded in a lodestone of sorts in a hidden ley lake. And all warding charms are essentially also connected to ley lines all over the planet. These spells force anyone who doesn't know what magic is to ignore the existence of places on the map that should be visible via satellite but aren't. Even then it's sloppy. It's the biggest Author Hand wave of Destiny that JKR does in the series.

Y'all be careful not to step on my suspension of disbelief when you're picking up your own.

If I'd done the world building for HP, I would've put the magical world in a dimensional pocket accessible by highly defended magical portals.

The same way they're handled now -- they'd get a letter, an introduction to the magical world, and if they want to go to school to learn magic -- they're taught how to find a portal that best fits their needs for travel.

For instance the gateway into Diagon Alley could actually be a portal into the pocket dimension.

Like wholesale place the character fully into magical world with none of their own canon background?

Rodney McKay of course -- Harry would be a beast.

Yes. Because some people's children don't know how to act. I do hesitate when I write BDSM to include things that might make people do stupid shit.

I think she's 1 woman doing 3 full time jobs -- seriously. She's gotta be doing all of Dumbledore's work.

7th year was probably like a vacation for her -- even with the death eaters in her castle.

All was well, right?

LOL.

No, I don't think so. Voldemort leaves an ugly world behind and maybe that was always the goal. Ruin it for everyone because he didn't get what he wanted as a child.

I sort of explored that in Duality.

Snafu on my part, surely. I honestly don't remember.

Eh, no. I've not even watched the FB movies.

Well. I needed that laugh. Just imagine wee Snape running around and demanding some dunderhead change his nappy.

I mean. You could write it as crack, right? But surely there are adult to adult convos that take place outside of the castle that would lean toward something being wrong.

Especially when Fudge was still kissing Dumbledore's ass.

I like the magical snakes and the correlation with parselmagic - it's compelling.

Probably theater -- plays, opera -- it would fit well with the rest of the world building.

Niffler size hippogriff -- but i'm not much of a fighter.

I think the whole magical snake thing was sorely lacking in canon and she gave us this neat and interesting concept (parselmouths) then... nothing.

It was totally forgotten until he had to open the locket.

He flew off to Greece, found a flock of females with no stallion and is living his best life.