the deep moans round with many voices

Remix reveal day!

I wrote Cast a Long Shadow (We All Meet in the End): Lily left empty places behind her. A story about family, loss, memory, and the passage of time. Contains familial dysfunction, mention of war and related issues, and offscreen canon character deaths. [The final version is now posted here on AO3 and here on ff.net... but the livejournal version has better comments. *grin*]

(Now you know why I had Petunia and Lily [Rationalization], and adult!Dudley [Points of Division] on my mind this past month or so. *sigh* Obvious Liz is obvious.)

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Cast a Long Shadow (We All Meet in the End) is a remix of Points Where All Shadows Meet, by osmalic. The original story was written for snape_after_dh, which means it takes all DH canon about Snape's childhood acquaintance with Lily and Petunia into account... and then gives one other canon element the finger. In other words, Snape faked his death.

Aside from that element, "Cast a Long Shadow" meshes almost seamlessly with my previous stories about Petunia -- most specifically with Family and Falls the Shadow. I admit that this was semi-deliberate; I have a particular interpretation of Petunia and of the Evans family, and it's hard for me to hold another view in my mind strongly enough to write a story based on it. Using 'Maureen' as the name of Dudley's fiancée, on the other hand, was very deliberate, and was basically a sop to my compulsive need for tidy edges.

On a more random note, I have now created enough backstory for Petunia that I have a bizarre urge to write a semi-comedic romance wherein bank-teller!Petunia meets drill-salesman!Vernon, they flirt awkwardly, she introduces him to her disapproving parents, he introduces her to his unbearable sister, she wonders how to broach the topic of her little sister's magic, and everything is very cute and silly. Then Voldemort brutally murders Mr. and Mrs. Evans, Vernon is horrified by the revelation that magic is real, and Petunia thinks she's lost him... and then he comes back and they get engaged, the end. But I am not going to write that story.

Instead, I am going to talk about remixing. *grin*

You see, "Cast a Long Shadow" is not the story I meant to write. (Though I am quite fond of it nonetheless!) What I really, desperately wanted to do was a sort of backwards mirror version of osmalic's Sea Call Burn, which is a beautiful story about Ron Weasley visiting the Philippines for somber reasons that are only slowly revealed. That story is about grief and promises and letting go. It's also a love song to a particular place and culture, with a bonus theory about every region having its own system and 'flavor' of magic.

I wanted to write about Hermione searching the world for reasons that are revealed upfront (so as to connect the story back to osmalic's story); to have her come to Ithaca and visit Seneca Falls and talk to people and sit on on some classes at the Community School of Magic, Music, and Arts (CSMMA), and so on; to extend osmalic's idea of different magical systems (because America, I am convinced, has at least four or five all muddled together -- immigration and cultural erasure will do that to a country -- and she touched on American magic a little with her HP/Supernatural crossover Turning Pages for New Worlds); and to write a love song to America in general and the Finger Lakes region in particular.

But I was not sure if that idea would have enough connection to the original, and also I suck at real-world cultural intricacies, so I decided to remix "Points Where All Shadows Meet" instead, on the theory that that story, at least, I knew how to do justice. (I had hoped to then have time to attempt a remix of "Sea Call Burn" as well, but alas, it was not to be. Time management is not my friend.)

I think I did generally manage to do Petunia, Snape, and Lily justice. It just took me a lot more frustration and several more trashed outlines than I expected it to. Then I did not get the rough draft finished when I needed to, after which my computer crashed and I had a guest for the weekend, so I had to request an extension, write like a mad thing on Monday and Tuesday, edit on Wednesday (which, thank god, I had off from work), and make my sister do a thematic beta job over the telephone because she didn't have the password to get online from my parents' computer (she was in the NYC area for a work project while my parents were in France) -- but I got it done and I got it in. And while I think, in retrospect, I should have sharpened Petunia's edges more, I am fairly pleased with the final result.

(I am also so relieved I managed to think of a title other than "Four Weddings and a Funeral," because while that is probably the most literally accurate title I have ever thought of, it is so thematically distracting -- honestly, can you read "Four Weddings and a Funeral" without thinking of Hugh Grant and romantic comedy? -- that it would never have worked. "Cast a Long Shadow (We All Meet in the End)" refers to Lily's effect on Petunia and Snape and then to the way both Snape and Petunia end up in King's Cross watching Harry and his family... or at least this is how I handwave it to myself. *grin* It also keeps three words -- 'shadow,' 'meet,' and 'all' -- from osmalic's original title, which may be more immediately relevant.)

Dudley Dursley became a fairly decent person by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I always wondered what happened to him afterwards, and whether the potential for magic continued to run in his family.

[ETA: The AO3 crosspost is now up!]

( Points of Division )

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...You know, I thought I was done writing HP fanfiction, beyond finishing my outstanding WIPs. Apparently 15_minute_fic is determined to make a liar out of me. *wry face*

I have no attention span whatsoever. Also, Petunia Dursely seems to have set up housekeeping in a small corner of my mind. This is odd. Previously, Ginny Weasley was the only HP character with permanent residency; the others just wander in and out as necessary (though Hermione has been popping by more often lately, to deliver disapproving and occasionally sarcastic commentary).

Anyway, a Petunia!fic. Because I like her. Because I had T. S. Elliot on the brain. And because I always think JKR should do more with Petunia's relationship with Harry. (You can also read the story here on ff.net, or here on FA.)

( Falls the Shadow )

Work went well, and I think I will actually be able to make my December rent payment. It'll be tight, but I have the money. Go me!

Petunia Dursley character study. Because I know about sisters and jealousy, and I sympathize even if I don't agree. (Cross-posted here on ff.net, and here on FictionAlley.)

( Family )