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edenfallingSummary: "Chamber of Secrets" from Ginny's point of view. In this chapter, we arrive at Hogwarts, watch the Sorting, and finally reach the end of the day.
A description of Hagrid on the Hogsmeade platform: A small circle of first years huddled nervously around him, like scraggly ornamental shrubbery ringing a massive oak. That does not match the rest of Ginny's POV narration AT ALL, but damn, I love that line. :-)
I forgot to mention that chapter 1 introduces Apple and Daphne Rumluck -- though after that chapter, one probably thinks of them the other way around, since Daphne does most of the talking. Chapter 2 introduces Xanthe Delaflor, the third of my five important OCs. (The other two are Susan Ward and Sir Vladislav the enchanted armor. Why yes, this story is chock full of female characters! ...I should keep a Bechdel Test pass tally, come to think of it.)
We get the first mention of Ginny's thing for Muggle fairy tales, which is really MY thing for Muggle fairy tales doubling as a thematic through-line that ties into the whole distressed damsel "princess waiting for rescue" take on Ginny's character that CoS (unfortunately) lends itself to.
Ginny continues to feel socially awkward. Also, even though she likes Daphne and Apple, she keeps noticing things about them that she finds potentially offputting, almost as if she's looking for reasons to justify disliking them if they don't end up being her friends. I hadn't actually noticed that when I was writing, even though of course I'm the one who wrote all those passages. Funny how that works.
The girls discuss Houses, and we realize that Ginny is deeply and irrationally prejudiced against Slytherin. Daphne badmouths Hufflepuff, in a less overtly horrified way, but either she doesn't recognize that House's virtues or she's deliberately overlooking them as an act of rebellion against her family. (Probably a bit of both, speaking in my capacity as Word of God.)
I still like the Sorting Hat's sonnet. :-)
Hmm. It's not said outright, but Ginny nearly gets Sorted into Hufflepuff. That is partly because she has great loyalty toward her family and determination to work toward whatever goals she sets for herself -- you will see that later on in her approach to schoolwork -- but also because at this point she's a fairly passive character, and even when she takes action, it tends to be reactive rather than proactive. Both those traits will cause her significant trouble later on, as will her reluctance to let people in to her circle of trust and her quickness to write people off in fits of temper.
There is a HUGE difference between the way Ginny interacts with her brothers -- they have a casual familiarity, and she gives as good as she gets -- and the way she interacts with almost everyone else -- extremely tentative and awkward until she loses her temper, at which point she ends the relationship altogether if possible. She doesn't write off Hermione or Harry, but that's mostly because they're too intertwined with Ron (and also her crush on Harry, of course). And she's still very awkward around them.
Ginny does not help herself by deliberately avoiding chances for social interaction. It's a perfectly normal thing to do, if you're an introvert, but to then complain that you never get to know people is a bit disingenuous. To blame other people for not getting to know you is just stupid.
Aha! We meet Susan. Who... hmm... I seem to have lost her particular speaking patterns somewhere over the course of the story. Ah well.
Also Ginny is primed to dislike and distrust Daphne after Daphne gets sorted into Slytherin and is friendly to Draco Malfoy. Which, why shouldn't she be? They're housemates now, and she has no reason to know that Ginny is completely irrational about Malfoys in general and Draco in particular. Apple tries to defuse that a little, and Ginny has some second thoughts, but then she talks to Tom and he shoves her right back onto her anti-Slytherin kick. Ironically, he does this by revealing that HE was in Slytherin, taking advantage of Ginny's tentative attempt to be open-minded toward that House and casting himself as the "good" Slytherin and Daphne as the one who should be watched carefully for signs of evil. He also warns her against Apple, thus setting Ginny more firmly on a path toward social isolation.
There might be some Horcrux influence involved there. I started writing "Secrets" long before HBP was published, but I'd always been under the impression that there was some kind of spell on the diary that made people instinctively disposed to trust Tom.
Bechdel Test = PASS, a dozen times over
(Chapter one also passes, incidentally.)
A description of Hagrid on the Hogsmeade platform: A small circle of first years huddled nervously around him, like scraggly ornamental shrubbery ringing a massive oak. That does not match the rest of Ginny's POV narration AT ALL, but damn, I love that line. :-)
I forgot to mention that chapter 1 introduces Apple and Daphne Rumluck -- though after that chapter, one probably thinks of them the other way around, since Daphne does most of the talking. Chapter 2 introduces Xanthe Delaflor, the third of my five important OCs. (The other two are Susan Ward and Sir Vladislav the enchanted armor. Why yes, this story is chock full of female characters! ...I should keep a Bechdel Test pass tally, come to think of it.)
We get the first mention of Ginny's thing for Muggle fairy tales, which is really MY thing for Muggle fairy tales doubling as a thematic through-line that ties into the whole distressed damsel "princess waiting for rescue" take on Ginny's character that CoS (unfortunately) lends itself to.
Ginny continues to feel socially awkward. Also, even though she likes Daphne and Apple, she keeps noticing things about them that she finds potentially offputting, almost as if she's looking for reasons to justify disliking them if they don't end up being her friends. I hadn't actually noticed that when I was writing, even though of course I'm the one who wrote all those passages. Funny how that works.
The girls discuss Houses, and we realize that Ginny is deeply and irrationally prejudiced against Slytherin. Daphne badmouths Hufflepuff, in a less overtly horrified way, but either she doesn't recognize that House's virtues or she's deliberately overlooking them as an act of rebellion against her family. (Probably a bit of both, speaking in my capacity as Word of God.)
I still like the Sorting Hat's sonnet. :-)
Hmm. It's not said outright, but Ginny nearly gets Sorted into Hufflepuff. That is partly because she has great loyalty toward her family and determination to work toward whatever goals she sets for herself -- you will see that later on in her approach to schoolwork -- but also because at this point she's a fairly passive character, and even when she takes action, it tends to be reactive rather than proactive. Both those traits will cause her significant trouble later on, as will her reluctance to let people in to her circle of trust and her quickness to write people off in fits of temper.
There is a HUGE difference between the way Ginny interacts with her brothers -- they have a casual familiarity, and she gives as good as she gets -- and the way she interacts with almost everyone else -- extremely tentative and awkward until she loses her temper, at which point she ends the relationship altogether if possible. She doesn't write off Hermione or Harry, but that's mostly because they're too intertwined with Ron (and also her crush on Harry, of course). And she's still very awkward around them.
Ginny does not help herself by deliberately avoiding chances for social interaction. It's a perfectly normal thing to do, if you're an introvert, but to then complain that you never get to know people is a bit disingenuous. To blame other people for not getting to know you is just stupid.
Aha! We meet Susan. Who... hmm... I seem to have lost her particular speaking patterns somewhere over the course of the story. Ah well.
Also Ginny is primed to dislike and distrust Daphne after Daphne gets sorted into Slytherin and is friendly to Draco Malfoy. Which, why shouldn't she be? They're housemates now, and she has no reason to know that Ginny is completely irrational about Malfoys in general and Draco in particular. Apple tries to defuse that a little, and Ginny has some second thoughts, but then she talks to Tom and he shoves her right back onto her anti-Slytherin kick. Ironically, he does this by revealing that HE was in Slytherin, taking advantage of Ginny's tentative attempt to be open-minded toward that House and casting himself as the "good" Slytherin and Daphne as the one who should be watched carefully for signs of evil. He also warns her against Apple, thus setting Ginny more firmly on a path toward social isolation.
There might be some Horcrux influence involved there. I started writing "Secrets" long before HBP was published, but I'd always been under the impression that there was some kind of spell on the diary that made people instinctively disposed to trust Tom.
Bechdel Test = PASS, a dozen times over
(Chapter one also passes, incidentally.)
