The parlor. Okay, that came from a couple things. First, when I thought about Slytherin, it seemed like there weren't many women around. And I thought about the women we did see, and I just thought about what it would be like to be a Slytherin woman. A house dedicated to ambition and cunning, but that also appears to be really traditional and conservative. So I thought about how women often have to wield power from behind the scenes, or in ways where it doesn't seem like they are wielding power. So a place where women could be ambitious on their own, separate from the men, seemed a likely thing. Plus, on the surface, just a social club or something, but really about something else entirely. And then I took some inspiration from that film St. Trinians.

OCs, that is a whole other thing. I guess I just remember that all the OCs are their own protagonist, and that people have perceptions of people that are only parts of them? So Ginny just sees some parts of these characters, but they all have their own lives and interests that don't necessarily focus on Ginny and/or Harry's needs/drama. Lol.

I think the most important thing about OCs is to remember that they probably don't think about or care all that much about your main characters. Lol. That keeps them from being too flat, I think.

ah, well. Who remembers good old livejournal? And the awesome various prompt fests they used to have?

They had this pornbattle on that was just page after page after page of prompts that were just like (CharacterA/Character B, one sentence prompt) and people could randomly answer them with comment fic. So I used to scroll through those all the time, just curious and wanting to read what was there.

And one I came across was Ginny/Draco, Ginny is sorted into Slytherin. And I just saw it, skimmed past it, but it kinda snagged on my brain. Ginny in Slytherin? That wouldn't work. And my brain was like...unless. And then I just kind of thought about it. and couldn't stop. And here we are.

It may have started with me making a D&D style alignment chart for the four houses

Oh, boy. So, I kind of quidditch torturous to write (so thank you, that is a giant relief to hear!
But, and I know this sounds weird, but I approach Quidditch scenes the same way I would approach any action-based scene, like a fight scene or smut scene to be honest. So like, start with a rough draft that is just nothing but a list of actions. And then going back and filling in with how these actions are perceived by your narrator, and then going back and adding how your character feels about these actions. And then basically erase all the initial 'this happens, this happens' stuff. So you are left with perceptions and feelings and reactions rather than dictation of what happened. Also, pacing stuff. Making sure fast paced is balanced with slower moments, deeply serious has moments of levity, that sort of stuff.

I'm not a huge sport person. I played sports and such, but, yeah, I mostly tried to apply logic to the sport, even though there isn't much to start with. (Sorry!!!)

(come on, catching the snitch should only end the game, think how much more strategy would be involved. Don't get me started.

I should have mentioned I have endless opinions about everything.

I've been trying to think about this, because I've had similar asks on tumblr that I haven't managed to ask yet. I think it's a combination of both perhaps? Like, I can't even contemplate writing a character unless I have a solid feel for who I think they are. Like, their core characteristics, how they tend to react in situations, what a few of their strengths and a few of their weaknesses are. But after that, it's kind of just instinct? It either feels in character or it doesn't? I do a lot of revisions and rewriting and I'm sort of notorious for having a lot of betas. And I've found that when something doesn't seem to be working, we might tend to focus on the plot or pacing, but it's almost ALWAYS that a characterization isn't quite right. I've had someone do something that doesn't make sense. And I get totally stuck on the fic until I force myself to find whatever it is that is mucking up the works.

I suppose the only other thing is that I really try to let stories and scenes go where they want. I try to let characters do what they want, which sounds so weird, I know, but I don't try to control it too much.

I did go back to canon, but with all the characters that aren't Harry, we are only seeing Harry's perception of them, so it leaves a lot of room to decide the 'why' of those characters. Which is my favorite part of writing fanfiction!

Long before I started participating in the HP fandom, I was already really into the books. I used to to a yearly re-read of all of them. I feel like I had them memorized at one point. So I mostly went off that, but I would go back and read specific scenes now and again, to get the particulars right. (I still messed a few things up, like forgetting that Ron would have missed Ginny's sorting, yet I included him.) I think it's helped that Ginny really didn't interact with Harry's story much, and having her in a different house meant she wouldn't be privy to the large majority of the stuff going on. So I could touch on the canon moments, but only as they might or might not intersect in her life.

I mean, there was an early moment where the temptation was to involve Ginny in the trios adventures somehow, but I sat on that, and early on decided to keep Harry's story on his path, and let Ginny's live in parallel to that.

And never have her know more that she should. she's on the outside, and that's okay. makes it interesting

hi, naru! (where's the fic. I'm waiting.)

So....yes. Well, I think part of that was the product of Harry and Ginny having pretty much zero common ground outside the burrow, with Ginny in Slytherin. I mean, different years means they wouldn't even have classes together. And when I first thought about Ginny being in Slytherin, as a shipper, as I am, I was like...but would she even end up with Harry? Like, would his prejudice get in the way? And that honestly was one of the big draws for me with the idea, how Harry really could have benefited from someone shaking him out of his black and white thinking, and who better than Ginny. But I like that there is always this tension of...not so much distrust, but maybe confusion, like they are never quite sure where they stand with each other. And that kind of keeps them in this 'okay, when it's just us, it works, but add in any of that outside stuff and it's just too complicated to even contemplate' and even more so with Ginny, who unknowingly is carrying around the idea that harry could never see her as worthy of much of anything.

But I also knew fairly early on that I was going to write the Armistice series? And I knew the full arc of that series, even if I wasn't sure how I would get from point A to point B. Part of that is because The Changeling is nearly a gen story, and I tend to be a ship writer, so somewhere in the fourth year, I knew they wouldn't be getting together in The Changeling, so I was already writing a bunch of future scenes from when they would be together.

So...both, I guess? It made sense for the seclusive nature of their relationship in the story, but out of that grew an idea of where it would go, that it would become a secret that would really undermine them in the long run.

No, I didn't really do any research? I think it's like lots of other things? That feelings and experiences just fall on people differently. That there is no one textbook way of feeling or experiencing anything. And how they do react comes out of who they are as people, what their default mode is, what their bad habits are...all of that. Though I did want to show as many different ways as possible, it wasn't quite as calculated as that. because each character, by definition of who they are would react differently. I think Ron panics and tries to make people tea or distract them, he's always done that. I think Hermione plans, she needs a thing to focus on and hard facts because they feel reliable. Harry just needs to do crap, so he can't slow down enough to actually have to have a feeling. And Ginny, after burning at both ends and making hard choices day after day, she slides back into wanting to do nothing ever again, because she wants to avoid consequences, wants to avoid dealing with things.

I think that was the thing with the post-war grief. It wasn't just the loss of individuals, it was also the end of a long, heightened period of fear and survival. So that is all falling on them all at once.

Which, not to be a downer, is probably quite like what a lot of us will be going through during the next couple of years

ah, yes. Snape. That was a lot of fun. Just getting to play with how different he would probably appear to people in his own house. and people he doesn't have a painful past/petty grudge against. I think Snape was an ambitious guy, he knew he was bright and talented and probably thought he was an amazing teacher too. Not to say he didn't also have a lot of self-loathing. These can all co-exist. I think he found Ginny interesting. She's an outlier. And those aren't all that common, life generally being pretty darn predictable. It probably amused him at first, that the self-righteous Weasleys would have a Slytherin child, that it probably killed them. So it was probably first amusement, but Ginny's interesting. And Snape does take his head of house serious, he pays attention. But it really wasn't until she showed a proclivity for the skills the year he's her DADA teacher that she catches his eye. I think he starts to be a little protective, even if he just tells himself that she could excel which would reflect well on him and their house.

As for the actual training in that last year as a punishment, I do think he was trying to teach her how to survive. Because he knows what is lined up against her--her family, her political views. And maybe teach her a painful lesson. But I think he enjoys the challenge of teaching her. He enjoys her mind and the way she thinks about things.

So it started off as a smack upside the head to get her to take her self-preservation serious, but it slowly evolved into more. And I think he genuinely cared about her by the end, as much as he would ever allow himself to care.

he also probably wanted to see if he could do it, teach a young student those really hard skills in such a short period of time. he was an ambitious SOB after all.

I wonder too if he felt helpless in a lot of other areas that year. that he couldn't really protect students much. and this was one thing he could risk. I dunno. he's still a mystery to me too.

But be sure to tell me your theories too.

I'm giddy with laughter because this is a plot point I have been yelling with a friend about for years at this point. and I can say I had vaguely though of it going one direction but I have decided on a completely different direction and I love it.

I will say this. Tilly and Bassenthwaite do very much care about each other. They weren't really into each other before the thing, but they could have been good friends. Tilly was just too pissed about it all to give him much benefit of the doubt. But it is all still very complicated, but at the point the last story ended, they are very good friends. And now business partners!

But I have Plans.
I'm gonna have to write this fic even if just for this one scene.....
Plus, harry and ginny going to grand opening together has far too much potential for shenanigans and fun.

Ah, Percy. I know I stuck to canon pretty well through The Changeling, but everything's up for negotiation in Armistice. I wanted better representation, and I just wanted to indulge my headcanons.

Sorry, Audrey (?) nothing against you. I'm sure you're lovely.

I'm kinda, if it didn't happen in the books, it didn't happen. So... Plus, to be honest, I didn't really keep up with all the after the fact 'information' we were given. Including the play. The books kind of stop for me with Harry in his four-poster having a sandwich.

I still haven't answered have I. Wait and see, I suppose. though most people's guesses are correct

See: armistice #4 (the fic that still doesn't have a title, but it has a playlist!)

Hey, there's no "Series Complete" check on that series. I always intended to keep going. I just.... this last year has kicked my butt and I'm in survival mode, and it's left little space for creativity. Hard to believe I just finished posted in my head last january.

And i am old school, my playlist in is my itunes. but check out Betty Who's Better, Broods' Worth the Fight, Elley Duhe's Way Down Low, Jorja Smith's By Any Means, and Troye Sivan's Easy.

I'm sure there is a title in there somewhere. lol (oh, and marina's superstar)

Ah. Yes. We will see him again. He's delightful to hate in a sort of Umbridge way. Though...in his defense, he has a reason behind his (horrid) actions.

As unfounded and questionable as they are. does anyone else ever think how completely depleted the Auror ranks must be post-war? Like, who would be left? What kind of a guy must someone like Robards be?

To do that job in that moment with almost the entire order dead and Kingsley moved up? Fighting what is essentially a civil war. I just think about that. We're rarely at our best post-tragedy, and sometimes with best intentions we react in crappy ways that end up being worse.

Sorry. I just don't have many 100% villain people.

Thank you! for me that is really touching on the fact that institutions don't change, they are built to do what they do, and no one person can walk in and fix things on their own. It takes a movement. So someone like Kingsley would only be able to do so much. we can see jobs like that eat people alive. It's complicated. (Just like the idea.....like, how does the average ministry employee perceive Harry? Like, he's a literal child.)

Hahah. Macmillan. Just remember, like everyone, he is serving his agenda and doing what is Best in his head. He's also a jerk.

Nymue isn't a person. She's more and less than that. Think of her as the lingering presence of every mistress, or even before there were mistresses. She's institutional memory. She's forbidden things that people tried to bury. She's that thing that keeps girls getting back up and trying and going no matter how far down they get pushed.

She's older than Hogwarts. Pre-dates all of that. And she doesn't just live in Hogwarts. I kind of like to think of her as that thing that people really fear when they try to oppress women. But really, she's just knowledge, right? that's all she is

Ah, Harry in the DOM. Oh, boy. I went back and forth a lot. And I knew he wasn't going to go straight into being an auror. let's just say that the jury's still out if it's the right place for him. I guess another thing post-war that was important to me was to show that most people don't leave school, pick a career and then BAM, they have their life's work!!!!! People wander. People go places they didn't expect. they take circuitous routes. they make good decisions. they make bad decisions.

Harry is there because his gut brought him and for a few other reasons that will come up in the next story. and yes, it's not a great fit first glance. but there is also strength in diversity. there should be people with different approaches in all spaces. it makes everything stronger and better

Don't even get me started on the under-appreciation of people like Hannah.

That was a lot of fun. Now, I know this can be a touchy topic, and I'm not saying canon!Ginny didn't have the right to react to Fleur the way she did. It also just...didn't sit great with me. And I thought that for Slytherin Ginny, Fleur might feel more familiar and comfortable than Molly and Hermione actually. Because Fleur is smart as hell, glamorous, talented, and knows her shit. She goes after what she wants with little apology. Like...that is what Ginny is used to at this point. It feels like home. And just like with Millicent, Ginny has learned to see beyond first impressions. And she didn't start off being "I'm gonna love this woman!" but she did start off with, "Damn, she's really annoying and abrasive, I wonder what that's about." And when she took the time to know her, she saw something that reminded her of the parlor girls.

Probably. If she wanted to be. But I also feel like her cultural background was so different that the weird lines drawn at Hogwarts might have been just unfathomable to her.

OOTP has always been my favorite book, so finally getting to the DA and some real interactions between Harry and Ginny, that was really something I loved writing. I feel like I've suppressed the really hard stuff. Lol. Um...HBP was just challenging since it's not really my favorite book, and so much of that happened way behind the scenes, so I had to come up with Ginny's own journey. But that gave me room for her relationship with Smita, so that was good. I don't know. I think the most painful thing ever was the completely rewrite I had to do of large swaths of in my head, primarily the scenes after harry's injury and before Ginny leaves for Ireland. I had to delete so much. It was really painful. but better in the end.

Hmm. that's an interesting question. it certainly is more of opposites attract (from the outside at least). And Ginny certainly serves a very different purpose for Harry. Like, in canon, she's sunshine and light and fun and a distraction from everything. Here she almost requires him to be slightly more introspective. Which is that a product of her character change? Or me being interested in a slow burn where a lot of that deep emotional work is central? Not sure. It could just be a style thing.

I mean, like most fic, this is just a story I wanted to read. so it's tailored to all my interests. lol

Well, again, and interesting thing, because all we have of Ginny as far as "canon" is harry's perception of her from the books. We've never heard her voice, never been inside her head. We just get these glimpses. So it's hard to say who she is. We all just have to come up with a version of her in our heads that makes sense to us. And when we read, we with vibe with that version or we don't. But I think we can agree that outwardly, Ginny is either unafraid, or really intent on looking like things don't scare her. She's independent. She's willing to do things for herself. She probably hates being babied. She does have a strong sense of personal honor, but she also has a wicked temper that can get her into trouble and tongue that can be really sharp. I don't know. we have to think about the things that form her, her family, her experience as the youngest, but also tom, of course.

Definitely groundwork for that pairing. I always think of Draco as someone who needs a strong woman to kind of boss him around, otherwise, he's a mess. I kind of just have a headcanon for them, but I'm not sure how much I'll delve into it. I kinda feel like Draco is persona non grata in the wizarding world. and that might be a great thing for him for a while. I like the idea that Astoria eventually works in a muggle symphony. some time away from the world they grew up in might be nice. Let them travel the world through her work. I dunno. that's just where my head goes.

Plus, Draco trying to navigate the muggle world and being grumpy as hell about it. why not. (at least I don't have to read about bloody potter anymore!). Just wish I'd remembered Astoria before I named Antonia. I did not mean to be that confusing.

I wouldn't say they were planned from the beginning. I think I kind of...got more comfortable including things as the story went on. I just wanted to reflect the world I saw around me. I do think from the moment I created the parlor, there was always a question about who would be included. But I think the thing that was most important for me was showing Ginny learning things. I wanted to see my own journey in the ways that I am always learning to see my privilege, and that I get it wrong, and what do we do when we get it wrong? Like, Ginny isn't comfortable with it at first because she just doesn't know. but she's also already had many moments of realizing there is so much going on that she doesn't know, that people have these rich lives...especially after her experience with Nadira, but also Fleur, with Millicent. She's learned not to jump on her first gut reaction, but to sit with it and ask questions and be okay with being uncomfortable, but also the importance of letting people speak for who they are and what their experiences are.

I know people talk about the feminist themes in the story, and yes, it is definitely a feminist take, and even the conversation about all the different ways women are women is a core aspect of that.

And allowing and validating and celebrating all the different ways there are to be a woman is at the very core of the entire story.(изменено)

As someone who isn't trans, I couldn't write the story of a trans character's experiences, but I could write about a CIS woman learning and grappling with it. It feels honest and necessary.

*evil Grinch smile gif*

Antonia has a much bigger backstory than has made it into the stories. i hope i can work it in, but let's say that Antonia is someone who grew up feeling like she was being given a calling she didn't want, just to grow up and realize it's exactly where she wants to be. if that makes any sense at all.

Sometimes rebelling just for the sake of rebelling isn't all it's cut out to be. So.....how about one more question and then I think I need to get going. didn't mean to take up everyone's time!

STAY TUNED.

But also, i hope it's already clear that there are rarely perfectly clear answers. the world works the way it works. and we are mere mortals.

But it will at least lead to some fun conversations! Also, yall won't BELIEVE how far behind harry is on his homework.

Continue to spoiler with caution below

And with that, I will take off. And hopefully ride this lovely talk into writing actual words on the next part. thank you all for being so lovely!