[Fic] "Secrets" chapter 10 -- Harry Potter

[edenfalling]

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Summary: "Chamber of Secrets" from Ginny's point of view. Ginny tries to convince herself that she isn't guilty of Tom's crimes, with rather limited success. A Valentine's Day catastrophe does not help anything.

Author's Note: Once again, I apologize for the ridiculous length of time it takes me to write each chapter of "Secrets" these days. There are only 5 chapters left. I'd like to have them done before I turn 25, but the way things are going, I really don't know how likely that is. Sorry.

The singing Valentine, in canon, is open to a fair bit of interpretation. Did Ginny actually write it? If so, did she mean to send it? Were her brothers playing a trick on her? Was Draco just trying to embarrass Harry and bringing Ginny into the trick as icing on the cake? It's never explained, so I think my version works as well as any other. I'm also trying to account for the ridiculously long period of time when Ginny knows that Harry has the diary, but she doesn't do anything to take the book back. Again, I think my explanation works within canon.

Thanks to Lasair (lasultrix) and Quetzle (aichmetes, aka Cat), my betas, for cleaning up this chapter -- Lasair told me what to take out, and Cat told me how to rearrange the remaining stuff so it works better. Special thanks to Lasair for Ginny's first and third poetry attempts. Any remaining canon goofs, grammar mistakes, continuity errors, bad dialogue, implausible characterizations, boring passages, and Americanisms are my fault, not theirs.

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( Chapter 10 - Slings and Arrows )

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Special Bonus! More Bad Poetry!

1. Initial limerick attempt by Liz, rejected because of Americanisms, i.e. "guy"

There once was a boy with green eyes
Who miraculously didn't die;
He beat You-Know-Who,
And mean Quirrell too,
And I'm sure he's still a good guy!

2. Courtesy of Lasair's flatmate; arrangement, punctuations, and slight alterations by Liz

I dream of him in deepest night,
Elusive as a Snitch in flight;
I would surrender to his might!

A scar upon a noble brow:
I long to tell him -- oh, but how?
"I would be yours, please take me now!"

I'd battle with the Giant Squid,
I'd do what no-one ever did,
But he still thinks that I'm a kid!

Alas.

3. Also courtesy of Lasair and her flatmate; arrangement and slight alterations by Liz

When sitting in the common room
I watch him polishing his broom;
Were I the bride and he the groom,
No fears would loom.

I watch him flying, and the crowd
Is thunderous; it's very loud.
But when he wins, I feel so proud.
Still I am cowed.

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...I join Lasair in being slightly worried about her flatmate's sanity.

Also, I think I shall go and make backdated entries for my other Secrets chapters, or at least a master page with links to both the (mostly up-to-date) FF.net version and the (sadly out-of-date and badly formatted) FictionAlley version. Then I can put that in my lj memories and finally have all my fic listed in one central location! Mwahahahaha!!!

World domination will be attempted next Thursday. Donations accepted. *holds out hat*

Comments

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

Ooh, she'll be so proud! Ginny's third poetry attempt was hers. Now she's Officially Published. *g*

[edenfalling]

Hee! *grins back*

[snaegl.livejournal.com]

Good rewrite, although I do miss the prophetic migraine bit. ;-)

[edenfalling]

I was never happy with that bit in the first place -- the characters just up and ran away from me, and no amount of yelling would convince them to do something different after I'd (reluctantly) written what they wanted. It was interesting, but it was just too much, you know? It was clutter, and while I do want to bring back the dragon/princess image at some point, that wasn't the way to do it.

Besides, I loathe prophecy and "true" foreseeing with the burning passion of a thousand fiery suns.* Unless it's Andre Norton, because she does it properly. She makes it chancy, difficult, and hard to make work in any predictable fashion. She also says, explicitly, that any foreseeing is only ONE of MANY possible paths, and even the very act of looking can change the future, because now that you've seen it you may very well make different choices. She also gets the atmosphere right.

JKR gets the unpredictable and difficult parts right, but she follows a more deterministic interpretation, where the foreseen future will come to pass, no matter what. I hate that. There are not words for how much I hate that conception of time and the negation of both chance and free will.

I jumbled Apple's 'prediction' as much as possible, but really, cutting that plot thread entirely and doing a bit of splice work around the edges works much better.

*Exceptions are made for light fantasy. I make a lot of exceptions for things where I don't have to take the concepts seriously because I don't take the story or the world seriously... though if you want me to take the characters seriously, you'd better start thinking everything through to its logical conclusion and all the implications thereof. You can still be funny, of course, but 'funny' and 'light' are not really the same thing.