Hi. I've been gone for a while… Really would like to come back… Hope you'll welcome me when I do, I do want to update some of my stories and write some new ones.
Some info about me... My name is Maia, I'm 21 years old, I'm a human female and I love to write, especially HP fanfiction, and especially slash. Not all of my stories are SSPs, but a lot of them are.
I love writing, so it goes without saying that I also love reading. My favourite works of fiction apart from Harry Potter include The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell by Susanna Clark, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and The Temeraire Series by Naomi Novik.
My second love is music, and I don’t think I could live without it. As you will see, pretty much all my one shots are song-fics. Music inspires me in every way. My favourite bands include Tool, Sonata Arctica, Pink Floyd, Blind Guardian, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Nighwish, Placebo, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Led Zeppelin, Them Crooked Vultures, the occasional moment of Deerhoof and a whole bunch of others, mostly within the rock genre in one way or another. I am also a music student, and a singer. On my website, you can listen to some do my tunes, though most of them are bad live recordings, so don't give them too much weight.
I also love comic books, movies, TV shows, anime, pen & paper RPGs and all other manner of geekery. I am a dedicated Mac user (or iWhore, as we like to call ourselves) and I love all kinds of tiny gadgets and electronics that I gladly screw apart but can never put back together again. :)
I am a
:: PI Beta :: Duellist :: Drabbler :: Artist ::
What you will find here:
WIPs:
Maia in the Mirror:
This story is most likely discontinued. I haven’t really felt inspired to write it for some time, but I might pick it up again eventually. It started out as one of those “put myself in the Potterverse”-things, the main character is based on me and a lot of the other characters are based on my friends. In the end, however, it became too much work and I just don’t enjoy writing it as much as I enjoy writing other things.
Too Much Love Will Kill You:
This was meant as an alternate ending to my one shot Bohemian Rhapsody, and was supposed to be about ten chapters long. The bunny ran away from me, and I had to follow, and now this story is halfway along and already nine chapters. It never turns out the way you meant it to… But I’m sticking with this one until the end. Harry/Draco is my OTP! ;)
And I know the title is a mouthful… I’m considering shortening it to just Too Much Love, but I’m thinking it might be a little late for that now.
Severely Moonstruck:
Severely Moonstruck is my first attempt at writing a particular pairing I’ve grown quite fond of lately. The whole story started with a tiny conversation in TMLWKY and grew from there. For those who were wondering whom Remus’ secret lover was, this is the story where you find out. Actually it’s not much of a secret… I think everyone has figured out what ship this really is by now, anyway…
Short Stories:
A Night at the Opera Series
This is a series of one-shots all based on songs from Queen’s album A Night at the Opera. I wrote them as a personal challenge, to see if I could find a Potterverse plot to every song on the album. I almost got there. I have bunnies for all of them except Good Company. We’ll see if I ever bother to write them all down… A Night at the Opera consists of the following stories:
Death on Two Legs (slash)
This is the second Snape-centred story I ever wrote. The first one I’m afraid was taken down from this site (it was a one-shot with rape in it, and it was decided that these were not allowed by our lovely modlies), however this one remains.
Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon
This story has a very rare main character: Fudge. It’s actually more like a monologue than a story… I might be entirely alone, but I actually felt a little bit sorry for Fudge in HBP. Yes he was arrogant and foolish, but to err is human, as they say, and in the first chapter of HBP, Fudge admits his mistakes.
I'm In Love With My Car
You know, I always wondered what the back story was with the Ford Anglia… Since we get no real explanation, I decided to write my own version. Only piece of humour I’ve ever written, apart from a few drabbles. It really isn’t my forte…
You're My Best Friend
I swear to Godric, I really meant to write a Ron/Harry, for a lark. I just couldn’t do it! So I wrote a fluffy little friendship fic instead. :)
Thirty-Nine (slash)
Here’s the only Sirius/Remus I’ve ever written, at least the only one purely so. I used to fancy myself a Wolfstar shipper, but lately I’ve decided that what Remus truly needs is someone more sensitive. Sirius is too brash and blunt for Remus. Anyway, this is a grief fic, which is one of my other favourite genres.
Bohemian Rhapsody
And this is the story that started it all. Two “alls”, actually. It was the first fic I wrote for A Night at the Opera, and it’s what started TMLWKY. This one is much sadder, but in a way I prefer this ending, because I like tragedy, and I like relationships that don’t work out. I like to see them fail, especially with Harry/Draco. When I say it’s my OTP, I’m really lying a little, because I have no delusions of it ever working out… I just find the dynamics interesting, the idea of it all. That’s why I write it.
The Tool Song Fics:
For those who know me, I don’t think I need to say that I love Tool. This band has given me so much. Their music has given me whole new thoughts and ideas and literally changed changed my life, I recommend everyone who is into any sort of more complex and progessive music to give them a listen. There’s nothing else quite like them in the world.
Wings
This story is based on the song 10,000 Days from Tool’s album by the same name. Maynard wrote it for his mother, Judith Marie, after she finally died after years of pain caused by a stroke. She was a Methodist (if I remember correctly), a good Christian and a remarkably selfless and good person. The songs Wings for Marie and 10,000 Days are Maynard’s thoughts after this loss, and the hope that if there is a God, Judith Marie has indeed got her wings, because no one deserves them more than she. I wanted to write a fic based on it, because death and grief are subjects close to my heart. My father died when I was eleven, and I too desperately cling to the hope that he is in a better place, and that he’s looking down on me and watching me.
Vicarious
Vicarious is a song which represents what I really like best about Tool; the cynicism, the idea that there is no hope for mankind. It’s not that I necessarily believe this myself, but sometimes I wonder. With all the bad things that go on in this world, can people really be inherently good? It also focuses on the hypocrisy of that which is politically correct, as they say. Because there is a certain fascination to the macabre, to death and war and suffering. That’s why we watch horror movies. But it’s not politically correct to admit it. That’s what it’s all about.
Schism
I love this song. Schism gives me thing special feeling; the instrumentation is amazing, the lyrics are absolutely fantastic… It’s so special to me that I felt it was the perfect song to use to illustrate poor Dumbledore’s relationship with Gellert Gridelwald and with Aberforth. Schism is about lost love, lost feelings, pieces fallen way… I don’t think I can explain it in any other way.
Borderline
This story is based on the song Stinkfist, from Tool’s album Ænima (1996). There should be no surprise as to why I chose to change the title. Stinkfist is an amazing song. I think that if you want to know what a person is really like, look at what kind of music can move them. Surprisingly enough, this song moves me deeply. If you read the lyrics, this information will probably creep you out a little… Anyway, the story is about dear old Remus, and his problems coping after the deaths of Lily, James and Peter, and the revelation that it was Sirius who murdered them. It is a story about what that kind of pain can do to a person’s soul, how it can take away all feeling, and how that damage can be lessened by connecting with another human being, in the right way, if only for a moment.
The Patient
The Patient is another of my favourite songs. Quite apart from the beautiful music (I just love 5/4, don’t you?), the lyrics take my breath away. It occurred to me a while ago that this song really applies to Neville’s situation in a unique way. In the books we see the really brave side, the loyal side of him; how he loves them so much even though they barely know who he is. But even heroes feel discouraged at times. I guess I just thought that Neville must at some point grow weary of it all, and that’s when this idea popped into my head. Hope people like it; I appear to be writing a lot of grief fics lately… I’m the queen of angst! Yes! :P
What you can expect in the future:
I have a few more Tool fics in mind that I will write and post. I might get back to A Night at the Opera and Maia in the Mirror eventually, but for the time being I will focus on TMLWKY and SM, and on my original fiction.
Thanks to all my betas, who have helped make these stories possible! Thanks also to all the banner makers who have made me beautiful banners for my stories!
Extra special thanks to Bridget for being a nazi when it’s needed, Kelsey for being ever supportive, all the wonderful and brilliant moderators of MNFF and last but not least, my better half for allowing my obsession.
Thank you all!
I'm working my way through this now. It's been a while since I've even read your stories... I suppose they're too heavy and I've been to busy and too tired to be able to do it properly.
I keep getting struck by this strange feeling, though, whenever I read your work. I'm still not entirely certain that you are not JK Rowling's alias, so that she can post angst and slash and whatever else she can't admit to loving in real life. Perhaps the faults in the timelines and slightly misspelled names I find once in a while are simply cleverly devised plans of hiding your true identity from us. Either way it is hard to believe that someone can write these characters this well. :P
I'll read on now, I just wanted to share those particular musings.
Maia
Author's Response: Oooh, you\'re back! And I\'m terribly flattered, as always. My hubby probably wishes I was JKR, or at least that I had access to her bank account. Misspelled names as a device of cleverness -- *bonks dear unspellable Ernie* -- I like that theory. Sadly, though, it\'s just that I don\'t always catch me.
Wonderful story! Highly amusing! I do like the way you write Peter. You don't make him this stupid little kid with no brains and even less balls. You show us the Peter whom the Marauders might in fact have had a lot of fun with rather than at the expense of. And your Peter is both brave and smart. Good job! :)
Author's Response: Hi!!!!!!!!!!! It\'s been a while. Peter had to have something going for him, didn\'t he? (Aside from the Little Ratty Paws?) Thanks!
This was an excellent story. I too have wondered what the series would have looked like if it was Neville rather than Harry who became the Boy-Who-Lived. I very much enjoyed this. I love how Neville is so much his own person at the same time as he follows Harry's original timeline. And I love how Harry is so much like James. Very confident, bordering on arrogant, but a good person all the same.
This was a very good read, and I'll be keeping up with this series to see what happens next. I'm very curious about how you'll solve PoA. :)
Maia
Author's Response: Thank you for your kind comments and I\'m glad you enjoyed this. PoA was the first problem I set out to solve when I came up with this idea and I didn\'t start writing until I had it planned out. It\'s more GoF (especially the Tournament) and HBP that worry me now!
That was brilliant! I sat singing all the way through it. Doesn't help that I've actually sung most of these songs... Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again is, like, my best number. I really loved the Think of Me thing. Excellent work!
As a small piece of criticism, so as to make this review something but just praise, when writing song lyrics, it's important to think of the flow of the melody, or the phrasing, as one calls it in music lingo. Basically, it means that one has to make sure all the syllables fall in the right place. Voldemort is pronounced VOL-de-MORT, with equal pressure on the first and last syllable, so if you place the pressure on the first and second, but not the third, or on all three, it sounds a little weird. VOL-DE-mort. Especially in musicals and opera is this particularly important, because the song is supposed to be very close to how you'd speak it. Something to remember for the next project like this one. :)
Once again, great work!
Maia
Author's Response: Maia! Thank you!
Hmmm, I tried to pay close attention to the phrasing, but I think I changed the rhythm of some of the lines, and it\'s not as obvious when you\'re reading it as it is when you\'re singing/writing it. ^_^ Like, for example, I might skip the first beat of a line or add an extra beat while still preserving the same basic tune. But I see what you mean. (This was also my first spoof!)
Are you really 13? This is absolutely brilliant. I very much enjoyed this story, despite it now being AU.
You have Owen Cauldwell's name wrong in one place; you call him Alberich instead.
I do find it a little bit implausible that he'd remember everything Ron and Ginny and Neville said to such detail, but that's a minor thing.
Apart from that, your language is excellent, and your characters function very well. I like Merlyn. Especially her name, it's a nice play on Merlin, which is obvious but still good.
Well done! I really enjoyed this fic. :) Cookie and a gold star for you!
Maia
Author's Response: Wow, Maia, thankyou so much! Yes, I am thirteen, but not for much longer =)
*headdesk* I originally had Owen\'s character played by a boy named Alberich, so I\'m not surprised that happened. Will fix.
Again, thankyou so very much, this is probably my nicest review (excluding ones from my amazing beta) that I\'ve ever had! Thankyou!
Phia
Yay! I finally finished! I would have finished this one a month ago if I hadn't been lazy, though...
Anyway, another excellent installation! I really loved the twist with it being Ron and not Ginny, and with Ginny's bravery down in the chamber. That was really great! And Scabbers disappeared? Hmm, I wonder......
Reading the last two chapters today was even more fun, because CoS was on TV earlier today, so I had the original story very fresh in my mind.
This was absolutely fantastic, and now I'm going to go throw myself at Neville Longbottom and the Prisoner of Azkaban!
Maia
Author's Response: Better late than never! Glad you enjoyed it. I liked building up Ginny\'s role at the end of this story. She doesn\'t have much to do in PoA but she\'s more important in GoF and OotP so it was important to develop her character here. Scabbers\' disappearance sets up all that happens in PoA, though in a way that won\'t be immediately apparent.
This is excellent! I really enjoyed this story.
You could almost make this canon compliant, though. It amazes me sometimes how people's theorising ends up so close to the truth.
There isn't really anything I can say. Your characterisation of Severus was excellent. He's just the way I imagine him. I have nothing really constructive to say, so I'll leave it at that.
Wonderful story, Phia! :)
Author's Response: Thankyou Maia! I was actually a bit concerned about his characterisation, I thought it was a bit ordinary, so I\'m really glad you liked it! Thanks for your review!
This was an excellent chapter! I love how Dudley gets along so well with Dedalus. And Hestia's such a laugh! I'm not sure I ever imagined her as being so sarcastic, but it definitely works. Let's face it, she's a character we know next to nothing about, so one does have complete freedome in how to describe her.
Great work, I'm definitely looking forward to the next chapter!
Maia
Author's Response: Hestia\'s a fun character! She\'s kind of on \"Mr. Dursley control\" for now, because who else could do it quite like she does?
Great start! A lot of us have probably been wondering whatever happened to the Dursleys. I think I’m going to like this story a lot.
I found a few things to pick on along the way, though.
A bit of grammar:
Hestia drew her wand, intending on putting a silencing charm on him, so he wouldn’t wake up the entire street.
This should be
Hestia drew her wand, intent on putting a silencing charm on him, so he wouldn’t wake up the entire street.
Dudley followed, and, for the first time since Dudley can remember, his father sat down to watch Sunday cartoons before he got breakfast.
This should be
Dudley followed, and, for the first time since he could remember, his father sat down to watch Sunday cartoons before he got breakfast.
And something general:
the large, blonde man on her left
In England they drive on the other side of the road, and therefore the cars are also different, so Vernon would not have been sitting on Hestia’s left, but on her right.
Also, in British English an elevator is commonly known as a lift. Not necessarily necessary to change, but I just thought I’d mention it, as I was already brit-picking.
Like I said, great story! I’m faving this, and I’m looking forward to finding out what happens next!
Maia
Author's Response: Wow! Thank You! *runs off to make changes*
Absolutely beautiful. I love free verse... Anyway, I'm no poet, so I won't comment on the techinicalities, but once I realised what it was about (I'm dense; didn't remember Hermione's mum's "Ausrealian" name :P ) I almost cried. So sad!
Great poem!
Maia
Author's Response: Aw, thank you! Reviews like this always brighten my day....
-Stubby
I really love this story so far. Your descriptions as nine-year-old Harry are truly excellent and very real. It also gives a very real idea of all the horrors Harry must have faced simply living with the Dursleys. Great work! I'm eagerly awaiting more.
Maia
I've been very bad at leaving reviews...
The last few chapters have been really exciting. I love seeing the familiar plotline in a different way. I particularly enjoyed the retelling of what happened the night the Longbottoms died. You make it all fit so very well together. It's really the same story, but so different all the same. Great job!
One piece of concrit. This sentence:
it would neither be safe or wise to let him to so
When you use "neither" it should be followed by "nor". Either, or and neither, nor. The N signifies a negative. So it should be "neither safe NOR wise". :)
Thanks for writing an excellent story! I'm looking forward to reading more once the queue opens again!
Author's Response: I\'m glad you\'re enjoying it. This story did take a fair bit of work to have it all make sense and fit together, far more than either of the others. On the other hand, having it all planned out meant that when I came to write it, it was a lot easier and quicker. Good catch on the \'neither...nor\' thing. I know about it, but it\'s the sort of thing that does slip by occasionally and I don\'t catch. I\'ll hold off fixing it until the site\'s sorted, in case it messes something up!
Author's Response: I\'ve also just noticed there\'s a typo in that sentence: it should be \'do so\', not \'to so\'! I obviously wasn\'t concentrating much when I wrote that sentence.
Just a quick note before I read on. The following sentence:
He spent most of his time in the common or at meals simply sitting and watching other people, wishing his life was as simple as theirs seemed to be.
Firstly, I assume that was supposed to be common room? Secondly, I think it reads a little awkward. He can't really be spending most of his time in the common room and at meals, which is what this sounds like, and the structure also feels a little off. How about:
He spent most of his time in the common, and at meals he simply sat and watched other people, wishing his life was as simple as theirs seemed to be.
Just a suggestion. :)
Right, I'll move on to the next chapter now!
Author's Response: Whoops, another missing word. My proof reading needs work. Yes, \'room\' should be in there. As for the structure, I see what you mean. I think I was trying to get two ideas across, and they sort ran together in that sentence. First, that Neville wasn\'t doing anything with his time or going anywhere, and simply sitting around in the common room when not at meals (or at classes as I should have mentioned of course), and secondly what he was doing, namely watching other people. If I had to revise that sentence now, I\'d probably say something like: \"He spent most of his free time sitting alone in the common room, and when there or at meals he would silently watch other people, wishing his life was as simple as theirs seemed to be.\" I don\'t know if it\'s any better, but it would separate the two concepts a little more clearly.
Dun, dun, daaah!
Cliffhangers are evil. -.-
These were a very interesting couple of chapters. Before I go on to review the content, I thought I'd just mention that you're lacking a few prepositions here and there. "Myriad problems" comes to mind; that should be "myriad of problems", shouldn't it? And I spotted a few other missing "of"s along thw way.
We're getting to the big twist now, I see! Finally Neville stands face to face with Remus Lupin, his parents' supposed killer (in an indirect sense)! Whatever will happen next?
I suppose we have a good idea of the big picture, but I wonder at what twists and turns you'll bring us in terms of dialogue and variation from the original plot. Poor Remus... I always liked Remus much better than Serius. Remus is just far more my sort of character; sensitive, introvert and intellectual. He understands people, yet hides from them. I was surprised at his actions in DH.
I really enjoy the exchanges between Harry and Ron. Their relationship is very much the same as in the originals, but Harry's slight tint of arrogance and his more mischievous streak adds an interesting, new nuance to it. He is a lot more like Sirius, and a lot more like James, too, then he is in the books, which, all things considered, is not at all surprising.
And poor Neville! Will he ever get his Patronus right? In the books he gets it in fifth year, but perhaps there will come a twist that forces him to learn it ealier? Perhaps he'll be driven to it?
But, then again, maybe not. One thing I really like about this series is that you're not turning Neville into Harry. Harry is still more skilled than him, even without the things he "inherited" from Voldemort, and I really love seeing how Neville struggles with that. Or, I don't love seeing it, but you get what I mean. I just feel so incredibly sorry for Neville. In a way, he's just so pathetic. That sounds mean, but he is. I can't wait for him to start to grow into the wizard we all know he can be. Seeing the happier, more confident Neville, the one who doesn't give up and pulls through in the end, emerge from this sad little boy will be a fantastic journey.
Author's Response:
Great review! I have to say, I love cliffhangers...
\r\n\r\nActually \'myriad\' can be used as an adjective as well as a noun and the construction \'myriad somethings\' is fairly common usage (and is a phrase I quite like). I\'ll check to see if I have missed any \'of\'s elsewhere.
\r\n\r\nI agree with your assessment of Remus and I definitely tried to bring that off, particularly in chapter 12. We\'ll wait and see if it worked. Mine is a slghtly darker, more haunted Remus though, as you might suspect after twelve years in Azkaban.
\r\n\r\nThe way I\'d describe my Harry is a Harry liberated from Voldemort. He\'s free from the burden of being the Boy-Who-Lived and all the history that went with it and is happier and perhaps less mature for it. Plus as you rightly say the influence of Sirius is clear on him. But what I love about him is his fierce loyalty towards Ron. This is the second time (after the end of CoS) that I\'ve had him lead a reckless charge to save Ron, and he\'s quite ferocious about it. It is indeed very James-like
\r\n\r\nAs for Neville, that\'s definitely how I want you to feel about him going into the climax of this story. The next three chapters do start him on that fantastic journey, although there will be a lot of deep darkness for him to go through yet (like most of OOTP).
\r\n\r\nBTW, did anyone predict who the \'wolf\' Neville had been seeing actually was? I perhaps cheated a little by calling chapter 2 \'The Wolf at the Window\', when it was no such thing, but I thought I could get away with it and it would make a neat twist.
Oh, dear. So it's poor Remus this time! Or is this another twist on the twist? Perhaps Remus actually did it? That will make me very sad...
I'm going to read on now, just thought I'd mention a small mistake. You've written "the basilisk's layer" somewhere in there. That's supposed to be "the basilisk's lair". There's a rather significant difference between the two. ;)
Maia
Author's Response: Oh come on, you don\'t really think Remus could have done it, do you? :) Oops on the \"layer/lair\" thing, thanks for pointing it out. I\'ll get it fixed.
As per my guess. Sirius and Remus changed places.... Hm, this will be interesting, won't it?
Author's Response: The Sirius and Remus swap was something I planned from the very beginning, though it\'s not a direct swap, there are a few twists in their stories. I just hope I can pull off a whole year of Sirius as DADA teacher.
Well, this is a great start. I really can't wait to see where you're going with all this. I love the thought of Sirius as DADA teacher, as well as the idea of him fighting with Snape. And whatever will happen with Remus?
The thing that confuses me is Ron's sat escaping as early as the end of second year. In the original, Scabbers started trying to escape when he found out that Sirius was on the loose. But here he actually escaped before Remus escaped from Azkaban, so how does that add up? There are so many interesting twists to your stories, though, so there'a hardly any point in speculating.
I'm very excited about this story, and hope you'll get more chapters up really soon!
Merry Christmas!
Maia
Author's Response: I\'ll give you a heads-up on Scabbers escaping early, as it\'s not really a spoiler. Remember Ron was going to stay with Harry (and Sirius) over the summer. Scabbers overheard this and, knowing he would be recognised by Sirius when Ron turned up with him, did a runner. He\'ll turn up again later. I can\'t put the next chapter up until the queue reopens again, but I will as soon as it does. The next chapter is called \"The New Professors\", the professors in question being Trelawney, Burbage and Black.
Just have to say that it's almost as interesting reading you review rsponses as it is reading the story. It's lots of fun how you share your thoughts with us!
And I didn't even notice the to/do thing, not even when I pasted it into the review... lol!
Have an awesome day!
Author's Response: I do like writing review responses, it gives me a chance to get across my own ideas about the story in a different way, plus I get to give hints about what\'s upcoming! I\'m glad you appreciate them. We\'re back after the break now, so the story will now plough on!
I was waiting for you to write something like this. :) Glad you got around to it. I found myself wondering how you envision Albus and Gellert while I was writing my own spin on it. Mine's just a short story, though, which got hardly any notice at all.
You're off to an excellent start. You've pulled off the young Dumbledore very well; I can still tell it's him, but I can also tell that it's a different version, not an old man in a teenager's body, but a real teenage Dumbledore. I'm very interested to see how this continues, so this story will be placed into my favourites right away! :)