I am a serious Harry Potter fan who, according to one friend, "needs rehab." I like canon-compliant stories and pairings, especially Romione, which is probably evident from my stories.
You will notice I don't use British spellings. I strive to accurately portray British culture in my fics and have my characters (and JK's) behaving in culturally appropriate ways. But spelling and punctuation are tools of the writer, and I'm an American writer. I would feel incredibly pretentious using British spellings.
My fellow puffs are going to get me all into this James/Lily thing! I really enjoyed this... the fact that she might have said yes to so many of the "askings" was really nice.
I'm becoming a real fan of your stories, Carole, and am hoping to find some time soon to read Lions of Gryffindor.
Author's Response: Thank you, Lori. Awww, I'm glad that Nat and I are getting you into James/Lily and I hope you do get around to reading Lions. It's very ... um ... Maraudery. *hugs her Marauders tightly* ~Carole~
This was really an enjoyable read. I think Ginny must be so hard to write: this character study should be required reading for those trying to write her! :) I loved it all, especially Arthur and Albus. Your Albus sort of reminded me of his Uncle Ron, struggling to live up to the success of those around him.
I am a huge Hermione fan, and I assure you the other piece was in NO way disappointing... I adored it.
Can't wait for whoever gets to be next.
Author's Response: Thanks so much! Ginny is hard to write, I agree -- it's so good to know you think I wrote her well! :) I think in writing about the "next generation" I tend to combine characteristics of the characters we know and love, so I'm not surprised you saw a little Ron peaking through Albus's scene.
Hats off to you, Neil. This one is just brilliant! You have captured their voices perfectly, and they are so difficult to write well. How did you do that? Another thing I want to commend you on: when push comes to evil, the twins stop laughing in the books. I really like Fred's words with Verity in the cell and her hugging him, and especially in Room 13, how he gets furious when Justin asks if Verity is Muggleborn... that is just right.
Really enjoying this, and anxious for the next chapter. Thanks too, for sticking with canon, and letting us know where we are exactly in relation to the timeline of DH.
Author's Response: Thank you. This story took me a while to get right. Whatever else it is, it isn’t humour (drama with a lot of bad jokes is the category I came up with – post-Hogwarts is where it ended up). I am so glad that you think that I got their voices right. The story grew from a couple of sentences in Grave Days when I suggested that the DA members too old (or too Muggle-born) to be at school would somehow organise themselves.
Sticking with canon the only thing I can do. This is a sgort prologue, Busy Day, epilogue, and that’s your lot. The story of Fred and George, resistance fighters and magical graffiti artists who are always ready to make pompous people look foolish is almost done. And no-one has spotted my Doctor Who in-joke!
I'm not sure what else to say except that I am still loving this piece. How awesome for them to be wandering around the busted up Gringotts after the trio's adventure there. I love how this feels just like canon, Neil.
I must say that Fred's enthusiasm is breaking my heart though... no doubt, as you intended. :) Really good.
Author's Response: Thanks
I tried very hard to tie in with the canon timeline. Harry, Ron and Hermione are, I reckon, setting off alarms in Hogsmeade and being rescued by Aberforth when my trio (Fred, George and Ginny) are misbehaving in Diagon Alley.
Fred's enthusiasm is (literally) no different to George's enthusiasm in the prologue, It is more heartbreaking though.
N
Well, you've done it again, to no one's surprise. I liked this one a lot, too. I think my favorite sections were McGonagal, Lily, and Mrs. Weasley.
About Cho, I admit that when I saw her name pop up, I was a bit disappointed, as I don't really think she was in love with Harry. But I'm so glad you included her... I believed it because of how well you wrote it, and then found my favorite lines of the whole piece in that section...
"Eventually, Cho met Stanley Collins. He was a Muggle. He fixed clocks. He was nothing like Michael, Harry, or Cedric. They lived happily ever after."
I think the short sentences there, and the fact that he's a clockmaker, were just perfect. Cho needed something simple; Harry is one complicated guy.
Really nicely done.
And can I get in line behind SiriusBlackHead to be one of Ron's girls? ;)
Author's Response: Thank you so much! I'm glad you like it and ended up enjoying Cho's secction. I think the kind of love teenagers feel is of a different variety, and while I've never been a big fan of Cho, it seemed wrong not to include her and whatever relationship she and Harry did have for however short a time. But she defnitely couldn't handle complicated Harry! Haha, Ron is going to be fun to write.
Lucia Zabini thought that her sixth husband would be her last, but events unfolded that sent her to the altar once more. She was weary of the old vicious matrimonial cycle, and she had fully intended for this to be the last.
Will her new husband find the out the truth of her past, and would he believe that she truly means him no harm?
This is ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor of Ravenclaw, and this is my submission for the Madame Pomfrey's Character Clinic Triathlon's Minor Character Challenge. The Prompt selected was the wedding day prompt. This story was selected as the Overall Winner.
This story was nominated for a 2010 Quicksilver Quill Award - Best Dark/Angsty Story.
Heck yeah, I'll leave you a review: this was fantastic! I think you've drawn a marvelous character out of a few random facts from canon and a curious rumor regarding the husbands. I love the detail, and the consistency of her voice... by midway through, I felt like I really knew her, and knowing her feels more than a little scary. (shudder)
Really good job, Jess... good luck with the challenge (not that you need it)! :)
Author's Response:
Oh, thank you so much, Lori!
Oddly enough, this started out as a drabble, but when I did my word count, it was 400 words over. It was too late to go back and cut, but it wasn't too late to fit it into the challenge. I'm really pleased with this, and I'm so glad you liked it. I wanted the reader to like her, but not like her too much, because she is a bit of a succubus. She's so cold and detached when she kills, it was almost chilling to write about it.
Thank you for reading, and I'm glad you stopped by!
~Jess
Carole, would you believe I went to a training yesterday for preschool teachers and there learned the sign language for Dancing Queen? I cracked up when I saw this... it must be a Dancing Queen weekend for me!
I really enjoyed this. I think the only other Marauder era or L/J thing I have read is the one you recently did for the char challenge... you are getting me hooked! :) I loved that the girls just went for it, even though they didn't expect them, too. The characters were just right, and I was hoping that someone would wake up and notice that something was really wrong with Lily... of course, it would be James. :)
One thing I always appreciate is a detail like this one: "Outside, the air was cold and James could see frost beginning to form in feather-like patterns on car windowpanes." These details make me feel like I could be right there with them, walking behind (in a completely non-stalkerish way, of course). ;)
This is wholly an unhelpful review, but I just really liked it. I'm making a note to sniff out more quality L/J fics.
Author's Response: Lori, thanks so much for the review. Ha ha - I hope you knew all the words to the song and were singing along. OOOh, am I converting you to Marauder J/L - hee hee. I'm always on the lookout for converts. Glad you liked the little details; I don't put many in as I'm spectacularly bad at description, but I had this imageof our car frosting up as I wrote it. Thanks again ~Carole~
This made me all swoony inside... Bill is almost as crush-worthy as his youngest brother. :) I won't rehash what's already been said, but the characterization is great all around. Nice choice having him talk with Molly. I actually think you could have gone a lot of different directions with that, but this was the best fit.
Lovely read, Carole, as always.
Author's Response: Ah, well if I tell you that I actually went all the way through the Weasley family (starting with Ron) and that until I sent it to the beta it was actually Ginny, you'll appreciate how pleased I am that you thought Molly was the best fit. Angelina was even in the frameat one point. Thanks for the review and I'm pleased you liked it. ~Carole~
I really enjoyed this, Natalie. I haven't read much at all featuring Seamus, so that was fun in and of itself... and Carole hit it on the head: it felt like an old legend come to life.
Good job!
Author's Response: Lori!
Thanks for reviewing! I am glad you had fun reading it. It was meant to be a light and fun read. ;)
Natalie.
Thanks as always for keeping Ron intelligent and full of good ideas to benefit both of his professions. No sign of caveman Ron in your stories, Neil. ;) Unless you count his horse-like eating habits. LOL.
Author's Response: Lori, thanks! Ron has been coming up with good ideas since the Philosophers Stone, there is no reason for him to stop. Personally, I think he’ll eventually grow out of his unpleasant eating habits (and Hermione wasn’t much better when she was using the Timeturner). I believe that at the Weasley dinner table, the first one finished got the seconds, and the brothers (even Percy) are probably all the same.
-N-
Growing up as Albus Potter was not an easy task, and being the son of the Chosen One wasn't a piece of cake, either. Expectations of greatness have the startling ability to crush someone, especially an eleven-year-old boy.
Join Albus Potter in his rocky journey to adulthood and what it's like to live, to learn, to love, to lose, and to be the middle child.
This story is going to be epically long, and yes, I will update. It may not come as fast as the updates to The Vindication of James Potter did, as I'm posting this as I write it, but I do promise that this story will not fall victim to apathy. Hopefully, you enjoy this story if you decide to read it. :)
Hey Jess, this is a nice little start. It doesn't bother me a bit that you don't use all the dialogue from the epilogue... how boring would that be? We've already read it, right? This was just right to keep canon-compliant and still open the window of Albus' head to us.
I like the metaphor of the aquarium--Harry looking right into his son's mind. Really nice.
I was sad when the chapter was over... now we have to wait to see where the anxious lad will end up. ;) Really nice.
Author's Response:
Thank you. :)
I didn't want to use most of the dialogue in the epilogue, because, frankly, it's probably my least favourite part of all the books. It has the feel of fan fiction almost, and I was fairly certain that I could maintain its spirit without boring everyone to tears. I know, it seems wrong for Harry to use Legilimency on his children, but that's only because, down the road, he's going to teach them how to use it for themselves. He has a marked parenting style in my mind, and it has all to do with teaching them the things that he wished he'd known at their age.
I'm glad you like it, and it's probably going to be a really long story (maybe even up to 50 chapters), but it'll probably be at a once per two weeks pace. Thanks for reading.
Jess
What a likable character you've created in Albus. I just relate so much to his anxiety, his nerves... and I love the friendship we see between him and Rose. Scorpious is very interesting... exactly what we might imagine from him in the boats, but quite another story on the train.
I believe you have me hooked, Jess. :)
Author's Response:
And now you know why I love Albus as a character so much. This is the person that I know in my head, and I'm glad that I get a chance to share him with you. To me, he's a nice kid, but he's very insecure about who he is and who he wants to be, and I think I've got a good start in that area.
Rose and Albus, to me, have always been best friends as kids. I think all of us have that one relative (cousin, second cousin, or even neighbour kid) that we wish we could have as a brother/sister, more specifically instead of the sibling we already have. As much as James is the bane of Albus's life, Rose is the complete opposite. She's a little fiery (splish splash, anyone?), but she does have that sweet, understanding side from her mum that we know of Hermione (especially you, being the expert of Granger Danger :D ).
But Scorpius is a different animal altogether. You see on one hand him being the nice boy from most fanon, but then you see this evil little git that one would expect from being Draco's son. Yes, they're very contradictory, yet they're both a part of his personality. I look forward to moulding him to both enlighten you all and maybe even to baffle you further. Muahahahahahaha!
I'm glad you like the story. At the moment, I wish I had the time to crawl into a hole and do nothing but write it, but alas, my challenge spirit won't let me. I hope to start a new chapter soon. Thanks for reading.
Jess
I liked this Neil. I started to feel really connected to it during the scene between the two girlfriends... you wrote that really well, especially considering you are... well, not a girl. :D Hehe. I started to really feel for Lavender during that part, and began cheering for this relationship to work out.
I liked Mark, and even liked the play on words with his name and her condition... what a nice twist at the end with the family connections. He is a great OC, an easy guy to cheer for... I'm glad Lavender came around.
Good luck in the challenge!
Author's Response: Lori
I enjoyed writing the Lavender/Parvati section. It helps if you can sit quietly in the corner of the pub nursing your pint (and simply observing) while your girl and her friend discuss boys. (-:
Mark was originally called McTavish, but I found the name Moon on the class list and, given Lavenders "condition" and Lupin's name I simply could not resist.
Thanks
Neil
Hello, Carole. It's really getting mundane trying to think up creative ways to say how much I enjoyed yet another of your stories. :) This was really fun, though. I nearly laughed at loud at poor Draco's plight! I also loved the line about Romilda's boss and her lover being one and the same.
The end was the best though. I thought she was going to say Ginny's, but your way was that much better. Good luck with the challenge!
Author's Response: Lori, the line about the ferret was my favourite, too. It took me ages to think up the animal. I digress, thanks very much for the review. I know how fond you are of canon, so the fact that the 'golden couple' aren't quite as golden in this story - yet you still liked it - makes my day. Thanks again ~Carole~
I loved the OC's! I thought it really added depth to this. You say these are character studies, but when you get down to it, each one is really eight character studies, isn't it? Ginny, for example, I positively loved here! And I almost never like her anywhere outside of canon. But you captured her softer side, her vulnerability, in such a believable way. How like Lupin to notice what she was going through and try to give her some of her power back, or maybe give it to her for the first time. What a nice touch, including Ginny. I liked it all, but that was my favorite.
Well done. This is shaping up to be one of my favorite stories/series in the whole place.
Author's Response: Oh, good! I'm glad you liked the OCs! The part with Ginny seems to be surprising a lot of people, but I assumed it to be a kind of given that Remus would have helped Ginny that year. I'm glad you liked that part and liked Ginny it and thought her vulnerability well done! I really don't know if "character study" is the right word for these -- you're definitely right when you say they almost look at eight people instead of one, but I don't know what else to call them! Regardless of what they're titled, being called a favorite is high praise :) Thanks for the review!
What was it like to be thirteen? Oh, yes...hiding from mad females and complaining about class assignments with your best mate. It may not be what every boy dreams of, but there are worse things.
But for Nick Barnaby, the every day doldrums would become a distant memory as one of those scenarios becomes very real.
This is the story of Nicholas Barnaby, a minor character of mine from The Vindication of James Potter. If you've read that story, I believe that you'd enjoy this one. It gives a little bit of insight as to why he is the way he is.
Jess, this was really an interesting look into a devastating background. I have only recently started Vindication, so I do not have that frame of reference coming into this piece, but I enjoyed this look into Nick's 13-yr-old existence, just the same.
I must say it struck a personal chord with me as I lost my dad at almost the same age... completely different, and yet this story had the ring of truth to me...
I especially liked the way you phrased this part...
had taken the death of his father, the most important person in his life, the man by which he judged all other men,
I've never thought about that before... that one's father is the standard by which all other men are judged, but I think you've hit on a profound truth there.
I enjoyed reading this. Nice writing! :)
Author's Response:
Aww, thank you, dear. Once you get to that point in VoJP, you'll be amazed that this is the same man. He was so...normal, but he lost his dad. He didn't care about who Harry Potter was - only that he was the man who was vicariously responsible for his dad's murder. He's a strong kid, but sometimes, something in your head just snaps loose.
I judge most of the guys I date against the kind of guy my dad is. It's just the way it happens, I suppose - using your primary example of how to be a decent human being.
Anyway, enough rambling from me. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the rest of VoJP. :D
Jess
I really liked this, Carole, and I haven't had a chance to read Lions yet (though it is definitely on my list). I actually felt a little stressed myself as I was reading it, and I have not had to study for exams for quite a long time. :)
I like that she caved and went with Sirius (who could think much of her if she had refused?), and that Sirius ended up understanding and helping her study.
I especially liked the ending... very Sirius. :) Good luck in the challenge! (Go Puffs!)
Author's Response: Thank you, Lori. I'm glad you enjoyed it and that it made sesne as you haven't read Lions. This is definitely my version of Sirius in a serious relationship, that you're seeing here, so I;m pleased you didn't perceive him as OOC. And now ... back to the Great Hall Challenges ... Thanks again. ~Carole~
I don’t want to be beaten into pulp, though, do I? But – darn it – my wand is not in my pocket!
I am Andrew Carlton, Ravenclaw student, and nephew of Florean Fortescue, the ice-cream man of Diagon Alley. And I’m about to get the beating of my life.
This is hestiajones of Hufflepuff writing for the Character Clinic Triathlon, Round 3: Original Character. My chosen prompt is 2: Adventure during the Summer Holidays.
Many thanks to the original Brit Carole (Equinox Chick) for beta-ing this for me, for Huntingdon Hall and Oakdene, and for pork scratchings. Thanks to Lori (WeasleyMom) as well for the prank. Yes, the best pranksters are in Hufflepuff.
DISCLAIMER: I am not JK Rowling. Premises for story belongs to her, though Andy and Rooney are mine. ;)
Aw, that was just great, Natalie. I enjoyed all the characters very much, and the play on names cracks me up.
I think my favorite thing about this is the way you wrote it in first person, with the conversational style toward the reader... really drew me in from the very first paragraphs. The tone of that kind of reminded me of The Olympians series.
I'll have to look up your other Andy story sometime soon. Good luck in the challenge!
Author's Response: By Olympian Series, do you, by any chance, mean PERCY JACKSON?!!!!
Because I've been reading it! And I may have been subconsciously inspired by it, though, to be fair to myself, I wrote the other story way before I read PJ. Hehe! With Andy, I like keeping the narrative in the first person - indulgent, personal, and with a dry sense of humour. ;)
I am so happy you enjoyed the story. :D So, liked the prank then? Hehe. Thanks for the review and good wishes.
~Natalie.
Remember ol’ Archie from GOF? Well, now you’ll know why he refused to give up his flowery gown for a pair of trousers.
Written for the April Fool Challenge at the beta boards. Nominated for a QSQ in the Best Humour category. :D Many thanks to Rachel (lily_evans34) for her help with Latin.
DISCLAIMER: This is not J.K.Rowling, though characters you recognize and story premises belong to her.
Hehe, Natalie... I enjoyed this when you posted it in the forums, and I enjoyed reading it again here. :) Very funny and a nice explanation!
Author's Response: HAHA! Thanks for reading again, and even taking the time to review. ;) I can't believe this story seems to be a hit. o.O
Natalie.
GAH! Carole, please stop making me have nice feelings for Draco... I'm laughing at his humor and wishing him well... it isn't right. ;)
I was so surprised that you had chosen Draco. The title made me suspect Remus/Tonks, but this makes perfect sense, too. I enjoyed it all, but my favorite was Hagrid witnessing it... too funny. I think you should follow this up with a scene showing us what happened the first time they met up with his parents. Now THAT would a confrontation. :)
Good luck with the challenge!
Author's Response: It probably would make more sense if it were Remus/Tonks, but I don't think I could have had as much fun. Actually i was quite surprised at how funny Draco could be. He's growing on me ... like a fungus. Thanks for the review ~Carole~