Countdown to Small Gifts 1/3: Introductions

[smallgiftsmods]

Welcome, folks! Every year at small gifts, we start off the holiday season with a series of discussion posts. It's a chance to get to know other participants (or say hi to old friends), meet our readers (hi, readers! we love you!), and while away the hours before the fest begins. We'll have three topics this week, posted Monday, November 25; Wednesday, November 27; and Friday, November 29. Posting begins Sunday, December 1.

Discussion is not limited to participants! Please introduce yourself if you're a reader, too.

Today: introductions.

1) Leave a comment letting us know who you are as a fan. (Leave your Tumblr name/AO3 name as well as your DW name, if they're different.) How long have been in HP fandom? How long have you shipped R/S? Are you a reader? Writer? Artist? Crafter? Do you participate in any other parts of HP fandom? Are you active in any other fandoms right now?

2) Say hi to someone else! We're friendly around here like that.

Comments

[coriaria]

I'm Coriaria on all platforms. I've never done R/S small gifts before and had been taking a break from fests as I was struggling with deadlines but I got grabbed by a prompt and even ended up submitting early. It's exciting to be part of a larger fest too, because I've only been reading HP fanfic for about 5 years and writing for 4, and by the time I started writing all the characters I liked had been killed off and weren't so popular. I haven't read any other fandoms, this one's kept me happy.

I write non-fiction as a hobby, but it takes quite a bit of research to write the stuff I like to do and it can be too much effort when my life is spiralling out of control. So I write fanfic to relax, because I can do 90% of my research on the Harry Potter wiki etc (except when I end up requiring something obscure like a couple of phrases in the Kurdish language...). I also write HP fanfic for the discipline of writing every day.

Currently I'm mainly reading and writing Remus/ Sirius. I also write Remus/ Severus and the odd rarepair like Snape/ Moody and even a bit of the canon but rare Andromeda/ Ted. I like the older characters in the HP books because as someone who read HP as an adult, I identified more with the adults. I love to work with their character flaws as well as good points. I also enjoy writing these characters as friends (e.g. Sirius & Severus as enemies to friends) in fics where one or both is a part of a main pairing.

[starfishstar]

Andromeda!! Sorry, my ears perked up at that... She's my second favorite character (and probably the one I've written the second most about) after Remus. Yes, even though in canon she appears on only one single page out of all those thousands. :D

And same, by the time the last book of the Harry Potter series was published, I was an adult (more or less) so the fic I was drawn to write was mostly about the adults – what were they doing while the narrative was off at Hogwarts with Harry? What was the war like for them?

But even with that being said, it's been interesting to me to watch how my attachment to the series has changed over these couple of decades(!) since its start – how at first I identified with Harry and his cohort, and had kind of a teacher-crush on Remus, but now I'm Remus' age and identify so much more with him. I wonder where a couple more decades will take us!

[coriaria]

Good point - I wonder if I'll still be writing HP fanfic in 20 years?

Andromeda ended up being a pretty significant character in my last fic, I hadn't planned on it, but then it happenned, as characters often do. (But if you are curious, I have to warn you that it's a pretty dark, triggery, warnings all over it kind of fic, as well as being tough on Sirius fans as he spends the entire first half of the fic being a total git. It does end up ok though).

I like seeing how other people take characters who have limited canon to work with so I've bookmarked a couple of yours.

I've bookmarked a couple

[starfishstar]

Oh neat, would you link to your fic? It does sound like it may be a bit dark for me, but I'd certainly like to take a look.

I think that's part of why I've enjoyed writing about Andromeda so much - in canon we get *just* enough of a sketch of her (with few details but intriguing ones) to imagine what she might be like, but so much is left wide open that a fic writer can really make her their own; she's nearly an original character. But an original character with an existing intriguing backstory. :-)

[coriaria]

Here's a link but do look at the warnings and tags. There isn't anything too graphic in the story, but it explores some painful themes related to trauma and PTSD. Ted doesn't appear until chapter 9 and Andromeda not until chapter 10. Andromeda is very linked into those dark themes though. She does get a happy ending, if that helps (I can take my fic dark as long as I get a happy ending, but absolutely can't cope with unhappy endings).Shattered sanctuary

[starfishstar]

Thank you! I feel like I have to add the caveat that right now my bookmarks list is out of control, because I bookmark everything I don't want to forget, but currently don't have any time to come back and actually read any of them. But I *will* bookmark, which means I can't forget to come back and look at this eventually. :-)

[coriaria]

I meant to ask - do you have a head canon for why Andromeda chose the name Nymphadora? It's such an awkward name, it always struck me that there must have been a reason and it probably wasn't from Ted given his muggle background.

[starfishstar]

Ah, what a cool question! I know, it's such a strange name, right? And Tonks herself clearly doesn't feel it fits her, given that she goes by Tonks instead.

I think the best I can do is that I do tend to think of Andromeda as a bit traditional - not in a prejudiced pureblood way, but just, she grew up in this very traditional, formal family, and my take on Andromeda is that she still retains some of that in her personality - very upright posture, very erudite vocabulary, fiercely smart and with a lot of inner strength, maybe even comes across as a bit imposing to those who don't know her. (Seems like the impression we get of her in her one canon scene, that for a moment she seems a little "haughty" and almost looks like Bellatrix.) Opposite to Ted who I imagine being incredibly down to Earth and cuddly and warm, really close and easygoing with his daughter. (To be clear, I think of them both as amazing, supportive parents who do everything in their power to make sure their daughter grows up happy and well-adjusted, after the prejudice Andromeda and Ted had to live through to be together. Just, two amazing parents with two incredibly different personalities!)

So I can kind of imagine Andromeda choosing an ornate, old-fashioned name for her daughter, even though she's broken with tradition in so many other ways. I have Ted always calling Tonks by a nickname, and Andromeda always calling her by her full first name, and Tonks putting up with it only because it's her mum. :-)

(Another long answer to a short question, sorry!)

[coriaria]

I do think of Andromeda and Ted being rather like that. But my head canon for the name is that there was a witch called Nymphadora from an old pureblood family some time back in history who broke with her family and tradition and made a very important contribution to magic in some way, maybe in curse-breaking - something very anti-dark that the Black family would have disapproved of. Being a woman, she didn't get much mention in the history classes, but Andromeda found a book about her in the Hogwarts library and read it as a teenager. That witch became her hero and she therefore named her daughter after her. I've never used that head canon in a story, but it's there in my head when I write the character (a lot of stuff I work out for my characters never makes it to the page).

[starfishstar]

Oh oh oh I LOVE this! Seriously, that is fantastic! Yes, absolutely Andromeda named her after a badass witch from history, absolutely. (And I'd think Ted was either equally part of coming up with that idea, or fully onboard with this once Andromeda suggested it.)

It does seem like Tonks wouldn't hate/reject her name as much as she does in canon if that were the backstory of it (surely she would also appreciate being named after a brilliant and rebellious witch who made an important contribution to magical history). But then again, maybe it's kind of like "yes, okay, Mum, the historical Nymphadora was awesome, I get it, but I'm the one who has to actually live day to day with this ridiculous name!")

(ETA: Oh, and in case it wasn't clear, I too absolutely see Andromeda as a rebel, and a brilliant one, subverting pureblood prejudice in this type of subtler way; I'm endlessly interested in the contrast between her and Sirius, who took the more dramatic "blow up at your family and storm out of the house" approach to breaking ties with pureblood society. Whereas I imagine Andromeda quietly plotting and getting the pieces all in place – very Slytherin of her – and only once she knows she's got a life in place for herself does she cut ties. I think it's part of what drew me to her as a character in the first place, that on paper she's got basically the same background as Sirius, but she clearly went about things in such a different way.)

[coriaria]

Like you, I see Ted as the warm, easy-going one and Andromeda coming off as a bit cold. My version of her is quite a troubled person and, although she does her best, that does still affect the relationship she has with her daughter. So there is always an element of tension in every aspect of their relationship.

I also agree with you on Tonks having to live with the name - no matter what she thinks of the person she was named after, it can't have been an easy name to live with.

[paulamcg]

Hello, Coriaria, lovely to meet you! I, too, read HP as an adult, and soon after reading OotP I identified so much with a particular teacher and member of an oppressed minority that I started writing my story of Sirius-loving Remus’s life.

Somehow perhaps we could be happy that Rowling killed off our favourite characters without using all the potential in them, and left them for us to develop. Most of the extrapolation I did in my post-OotP novel is fantasy, but this year when I’m back writing pre-Azkaban short stories, I’ve enjoyed doing research on details of life in 1970’s Britain. I admire you for not being stuck in writing only fanfic.

Andromeda/Ted sounds like something I could enjoy reading, although I’ve preferred slash and gen.

[coriaria]

Finding details of 1970s and 1980s Britain is something I've enjoyed too. I needed a food that Remus absolutely hated recently and did a bit of reading on the subject and came up with canned peas.

[paulamcg]

Oh, wonderful, these details! My Remus, too, has encountered canned peas in a pre-Azkaban story – been served some by Peter, who asked him to come and help cook bangers and mash, and who didn’t care for the peas. But Remus didn’t let the peas go wasted. My Remus appreciates all food and often doesn’t have enough.

[coriaria]

Yes, that would be true. He did eat the peas in my fic...

[paulamcg]

That’s good:) Now I’m really tempted to read that fic. Would you like to share a link?

[coriaria]

Here's a link, but I have to warn you that the bit about the canned peas is near the end of 60,000K of angst and trauma. There are some dark themes, so take care of the warnings if you do decide to read it. (There is a happy ending though, I absolutely can't cope if there isn't a happy ending).

Shattered sanctuary

I'm now thinking that I might try and fit canned peas into my current fic. The Remus in that fic would definitely eat everything on his plate.

[paulamcg]

Oh, I didn’t expect the pea fic to be that long. But I do like the opening, and I can be tempted to devour it like a plateful of peas.

[coriaria]

Now I've firmly got "Remus hates canned peas but always eats them anyway" firmly in my head canon. They've turned up in my next fic now.

[paulamcg]

I expect you to let me know when the new fic is up.

[paulamcg]

I’ve written no actual Andromeda/Ted (no Ted at all), but Andromeda and six-year-old Nymphadora interact with my Remus and Sirius in one of my recent fics.