crestwood

[crestwood]

Hi, I’m Joey! My username is crestwood on the archives and I’ve only recently started writing fanfic again after around three years of inactivity. Since I’m back to writing in full force I thought I’d start up one of these. 

I mostly write Harry Potter fic, but I’ve begun planning an Animorphs based novel and now an Original fiction short story collection. 

In HP fic, I’ve been known to work with strange premises that typically start as jokes or challenges I give myself. I make a large number of characters lgbtq+ and try to be otherwise inclusive because, well, I like to read characters like myself and many of my friends. (be the change you want to see etc etc.)

My list of favorite ships includes such gems as Scorbus, Scorpius/Rose, WolfStar, Theodore Nott/Harry Potter, Scorpius/Lucy, Regulus/Lupin, Scorpius/Lysander, and Anthony Goldstein/Ernie MacMillan. I think I may be the only person to ever write that last one. 

If it wasn’t obvious, my favorite character to read and write is Scorpius, and my favorite era is Next Gen. 

Currently on my Author’s Page -

Things Change, my ongoing novel. It’s a Next Gen coming of age featuring Scorpius as juvenile delinquent who gets into trouble with his friends and learns a thing or two along the way. 

This Bird has Flown, one shot. It’s the story of how Scorpius and Lucy met and became friends on a whim. They’re set to appear again in a follow-up short story soon. 

for those who believe in most things, short story collection. This is my original fiction project of the moment. It’s a collection of surrealist stories about a world in which, one day - without warning - everything is slightly different.

There is also the YLYL universe, a collection of stories that exist in the same timeline that I’m in the midst of transferring here and plan to continue. 

It includes - 

The Art of Small Talk, one shot. A Scorpius/Lysander romance story. 

Your Life, Your Love, one shot. An Albus Potter/OC prose poetry story. 

12 Hours, one shot. A non-chronological ensemble story that starts from the beginning and end and works its way to the middle. 

goodbye good friend, one shot. An ensemble story about death and depression. Not exactly lighthearted. 

misguided ghosts, short story.  An ensemble story that focuses on Rose Weasley’s efforts to bring St. Mungo’s up to date on mental health issues. 

That’s about all I’ve got for now! Ask anything you’d like

[Enora Gray]

@crestwood, I am a new writer here on HPFT and have a few questions for you!

 

1. Why do you write? Is it your passion, dream or just a hobby? How did it start?

2. So Scorpius is your favorite character clearly. Do you have any other favorites from any different fandoms?

3. Who are your favorite authors and why? Do they influence your writing at all? 

[crestwood]

@Enora Gray 

Hey Enora, nice to meet you! 

1. This is a great question. I stumbled upon harry potter fan fiction when I was 13, because the book series had been over for a little while and I had reread it enough times that I was just looking for more. I think I googled something like ‘harry potter fan stories’ to see if anyone had written anything about it and I was pretty shocked to realize that fanfic was pretty popular. I didn’t plan on writing at that time, but soon I was swept up in the atmosphere and wanted to be one of the cool authors on the site. 

Since then I’ve dabbled in nearly every form of writing and have written professionally on and off since I was around 15. Still no published novel, but I’ve released several poetry collections out into the world. So, it’s a bit of all of the above. Passion, dream and hobby!

2. I get very attached to certain characters and have so many favorites! Arya Stark of Game of Thrones, T’Challa the Black Panther of both the mcu and all of Marvel comics, Mike from Stranger Things, Count Dooku of Star Wars, Ian Gallagher of Shameless, and Bill Cipher of Gravity Falls off the top of my head.  

3. My favorite author’s are Donna Tartt, Kurt Vonnegut, Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, Terry Pratchett, Osamu Dazai, and Yukio Mishima. They’ve influenced my writing SO much. I’ve learned so much from each of them in all sorts of different ways. 

Besides published author’s, I’ve been SUPER influenced by so many amazing fic writers over the years. Namely, peppersweet, sapphicsunrise/ad astra, and Roisin. peppersweet’s Starving Artists basically taught me half of the things I know about writing compelling characters, Sapphicsunrise’s The Fred Weasley Memorial Scholarship rewrote all the ideas I had in my head about dialogue, and Roisin’s Year Five gave me the BLUEPRINT for effective worldbuilding. In many ways, they facilitated my growth as a writer even more, especially because two of them gave me all sorts of personal help with my stories. 

Thank you so much for the questions! 
 

[crestwood]

- New WIP brain emptying - 

 

If you’ve followed my work at all over the years, you probably know that I mostly stick to the Next Gen era. When I first got into HP fic, it was pretty much brand new - we had all these new characters but who were they - and I haven’t even recovered from that initial obsession. I love writing them and writing them all over again, completely different. But one thing I don’t feel I’ve truly mastered is writing, um, anyone we know from the series. 

In comes an aggressive idea for a Neville novel that won’t go away. 

I had no intentions of starting a brand new novel anytime soon, but now I’m a thousand or so words into one and I can’t run away from it so I’m just going to talk in here until I’ve figured out what I have on my hands. 

For starters, it’s set in Neville’s seventh year. Now, I was under the impression that I knew a good bit of details about what went down at Hogwarts during this time period. You know, a bit of an distant outline of some sort. Turns out, almost all of that was stuff I’d read in fics and canon gave us next to nothing.

This is probably the darkest thing I’ve ever written. Neville makes my Teddy from Morbid (Oh my, this fic is old now) look downright happy-go-lucky. It’s difficult not to stray from his character too much, while trying to make it clear that this war has affected and changed him. 

I literally can’t help but draw parallels between him and Harry. I’m not going to write an AU where Neville was the chosen one instead, but I do want to imply that it wouldn’t have been a disaster if he was. 

Also, I’ve turned this thing into a spy novel and I’m loving it. There’s so much potential for intriguing decisions, close calls, double agents--it’s just too much fun. 

This takes place in the same universe as Things Change, I’ve decided. They’re only tangentially related but there’s a few reasons why I wanted to do this - 

Neville was already a pretty important player in the Things Change world, so it was just begging to be connected. 

We get to see Liam’s dad (Cormac McLaggen) do his thing during the war. You start to see how Liam might have turned out how he did. 

We get to see Ginny way before she becomes Al’s mom and, honestly, it isn’t important to TC, but it is fun. 

Astoria is a very complicated character and mother in Things Change, and we see some of that..difficult personality during the war. 

Anyway, I’m extremely excited to post this and get things rolling. Thanks for reading my ramblings. 
 

[Guest Rumpelstiltskin]

Heya, Joey -- I'm here to question everything you know. <.< I mean, ask you some questions about writing. 

 

1. What is it about the Next Gen era that appeals most to you/draws you to it? 
2. In your short story collection of OFs, what was your inspiration into the idea that the world has suddenly changed one day? Are you planning on exploring the details of what happened, or will you mostly be focusing on the effects that the change has had on the world and the people therein?
3. You chose to explore dystopia in that OF -- what has been your favorite part of writing dystopia so far? What's your least favorite? 
4. What sorts of strange occurrences in your world are you most looking forward to exploring? 
5. If you were to write in a fandom that is not Harry Potter nor Original Fiction, which would it be and why? What would you most like to explore about that fandom?

[crestwood]

@Rumpelstiltskin

Hi Rumpels!  These are some great questions so I feel like I’m gonna go way off book here. 

1. So, the Next Gen era appeals to me for a couple of reasons. The first being that so much of my interest in HP fic stems from my extreme love of the ‘world’ as it is. I’m extremely comfortable with the facts of the Wizarding World and how it functions and I love playing around in it - Next Gen just gives me this extra bit of freedom that I love. I can take the world as we know it from the series and make WHATEVER changes I want because we’re veering into the future. Adjusting small things to what people are used to and observing what happens is so intriguing to me for the same reason I find time travel stuff where everything goes wrong based on one little thing so fun to get into. I think ripple effects are just my thing. Also: I love Scorpius. Cause he’s raised by Draco. And Draco being a dad makes literally no sense to me and I’m obsessed with it. 

2. Okay, so like I said in response to the last question I love adjusting things just to see what happens! My inspiration for the style was, on a general level, slipstream author Kelly Link. I found her online sometime in the past few years, but was reintroduced to her when she was one of the few selected for the MacArthur Genius Grant. The level of weirdness she’s committed to is shocking in a very visceral way and I came away thinking ‘Maybe I could do that.’

 My nature is always to be slightly more interested in the ‘How are we gonna deal with this’ than the ‘How’d this happen’ - that’s why I love movies like Get Out and The Lobster that ask you to buy into completely ridiculous premises without very much of a look under the proverbial hood. I’m down to suspend belief, just drop me into the story, I don’t care how it works. 

That said, I will explore the details of some of the changes because I just love some of the ones I’ve come up with! But yeah, generally, I’m focusing more on the way people have changed along with the world. 

3. My favorite novel - Brave New World - is dytopian fiction and it’s shaped a lot of my tastes. So this is far from my first dystopian work, but it is probably my most unique. I think my favorite part of writing it so far has got to be coming up with more and more odd things I could have happen and realizing this thing was not going to be a small project as I first planned. (bit of a theme for me) - My least favorite is certainly trying to keep track of all of my changes and making sure none of them overlap in ways that break the internal logic of the new world!

4. I’ve got to say that the most fun kind of change to write has to be anything related to time! It’s incredibly difficult to deal with, but it’s so rewarding because so many base human desires are wrapped up in time. It feels like we all either want more of it, wish we could skip ahead, or want to go back in it and pull something forward with us. Messing with that has been a fun ride. 

5. I’m actually going to be dipping my foot in a non-HP fandom pretty soon here. Animorphs. My reasoning for finally trying something else is pretty simple. I think the premise and so many of the questions raised by the series were extremely thought provoking and maybe even a good bit ahead of their time. BUT, I don’t always agree with the execution. There’s so much I want to change and so much I think could have been refined and I complained about it so much before one day being like - wait, I write fanfiction. What am I doing? The answer is obviously to simply rewrite this 54 book series. 

I most want to explore how normal people (normal kids, specifically) would react to being thrust into a situation that’s bigger than them or, really, anyone. It has a real superhero origin story feel to it that appeals to me as a comic reader and the length of the series gives me a good bit of room to venture off into all sorts of fun psychological questions that the original books might not have thought of. There’s all sorts of seriously messed up stuff I’m gonna get to depict from new angles as well as those fun group dynamics (and super sad romantic stuff) that I’m always super down for. 

Thank you for these awesome questions, I had so much fun answering them
 

[facingthenorthwind]

Hi Joey!!! Here to ask you some questions.  

1. What aspect of Animorphs are you changing that will make the biggest impact on the world in your upcoming fic? Are there still going to be Helmacrons?  The Buffahuman? 
2. The YLYL universe seems to be largely very short, poetic oneshots. What drew you to this format? I know there's a short story in there but I uhhh haven't read it yet, tbh. Did the short story come first, or the other way around?
3. Is there a reason that all the HP fic you've got up so far is next gen? I know Rumpels has already asked what appeals to you about Next Gen, so I guess I will ask: have you written in other eras? Do you plan to in the future? If so, which ones and why?

Byeeee, talk soon!!  

[crestwood]

@facingthenorthwind

 

Hey Emma!! 

 1. I am cutting out a lot of filler books/storylines out the novels, but honestly I don’t know if I can get rid of the Helmacrons because they’re actually pretty funny to me and I can’t bring myself to cut them. But oh god, the Buffahuman is too ridiculous for even I to attempt to make something out of. I think the biggest change is I’m gonna stress and try to extend what I see as some of the stronger points of the series. Like, I want a whole lot more David and everything related to him. Also, I really want to explore the Auxiliary Animorphs more because they totally drew the short stick in the series. 

Probably the thing that’ll make the biggest actual impact in terms of effects on the entire series though is my need to expand the relevance of the Ellimist and Crayak, especially towards the end. I feel like their influence just kind of got dropped at a certain point and I certainly will not be making the same mistake. 

2. Well, the YLYL universe was not exactly planned at all actually! I wrote the original story (Your Life, Your Love) as a gift for a friend in 2014, with a title based on a song I really like called ‘Your Drums, Your Love’ and then about two months later I was writing another on-shot for a challenge and I was having trouble grounding the characters. I knew I wanted the concept to be kind of small talking around the conflict at the heart of the story - but I had no idea who these characters were. 

And then I was like, look, I’m just gonna write until something makes sense. And I ended up writing down a stray comment about Albus doing a poetry reading and everything clicked for me and suddenly I wasn’t writing the story - I was writing a huge character sheet connecting the characters I wanted to dump in this shared continuity. It was a huge plus that it was based on a story with a title with such a nice memorable acronym. (I played around with the ‘Your’ universe, but I thought that made it seem too much like every title should start with Your so I decided against it) 

So, basically - It just so happened to feel like the right thing for those two stories and then once I got started it felt like the right tone for a good bit of the stories. The short story came a good bit afterwards because I kind of wanted to wrap up these characters into one big thing that’d send them off well, since I thought I was done with them. Of course, then I proceeded to start a novel called ‘Faith’ that I haven’t posted here yet about Albus and Destiny’s daughter and her budding career as a musician. And now I’ve got this Willow Nott story to make use of all the headcanon I’ve held regarding her past for a few years.

I went way off topic, but the point is poetry one-shots were the initial calling card of the universe, but then I got very enamored with it and couldn’t help giving some characters some more room to breathe and live

3. Despite my intense love of Next Gen, I have in fact written a few things outside of the era! I have an Anthony Goldstein/Ernie MacMillan one-shot that I haven’t transferred over here because I don’t think the writing is up to par and I will have to edit pretty heavily. That takes place during Order of the Phoenix. 

There’s also my Theodore Nott/Harry Potter story that takes place during Half-Blood Prince that I just love. Also, I did a Wolfstar spin the bottle story for a House Cup collab in 2015 which I literally only just remembered about. Easily the biggest departure from Next Gen I’ve ever even thought about writing is the Neville novel I’m currently writing though! It takes place throughout Deathly Hallows and I’m starting to get pretty comfortable outside of my little comfort zone. 

So, it seems like my secondary era I’m okay with is Hogwarts Era in general. (and I suppose Post-Next Gen in the case of Faith, but I’m not sure how much that really counts as a different era altogether.) I’m kind of considering either a Wolfstar or a Regulus story though, because I really love reading those stories, but it’s so daunting for me to try to get their characters right. So, maybe some Mauraders Era could be down the pipeline as well!

Thank you for the questions, I love talking about these things - it almost always inspires some sort of new idea for me 

[crestwood]

Hello, back to ramble in my writer’s journal instead of writing once again. 

I entered myself in Rhiannon’s Slytherin-Centric Challenge so I’m back to writing my favorite pairing of all time - Scorbus. It’s a songfic set to Joanna Newsom’s genuine epic of a song ‘Emily.’ 

I won’t even share any of the lyrics I’m actually using for the story I’ll just give random ones that have been inspiring me as I trudge my way through this thing. 

Little while later the Pharisees dragged a comb through the meadow
Do you remember what they called up to you and me, in our window?

 

The yoke, and the axe, and the old smokestacks and the bale and the barrow
And everything sloped like it was dragged from a rope
In the mouth of the south below

The lines are fading in my kingdom
(Though I have never known the way to border them in)

And everything with wings is restless, aimless, drunk and dour
The butterflies and birds collide at hot, ungodly hours

So, I was listening to this song trying to figure out how in the world I’m going to make a story out of this beauty and I came up with some stuff. 

- Scorpius is an astronomer. It’ll make sense in context. 

- Albus is a writer. Mostly of songs, but also of poetry. He’s got a great voice. 

- They were both in Slytherin and that informs a good bit of the story. It certainly fits into the challenge. 

- It’s split into nine parts, which each part switching between prose and free verse. My verse often tends toward prose and my prose occasionally tends toward verse, so this is an interesting experiment for me. 

That’s all for now, but I’ll be back after the story is up because I’ve got SO much supplementary stuff for this one. 

[crestwood]

Back again with a post about astronomical bodies, rhyme schemes, and characters having a mind of their own. 

Basically none of this will make as much sense if you haven’t read my new one-shot ‘how long?’ (link - shameless plug) , but you are welcome to read along anyway if you'd like. 

There’s a bunch of stuff that was way too big to put into an author’s note, but that I want to get out somewhere because I love this story a lot and just want to express how much ridiculous thought went into it.

 

So, as I said before, I used Joanna Newsom’s song ‘Emily’ for this songfic, but I kind of went in a totally different direction than the actual song did. Most importantly, Joanna’s song is largely about her and her sister’s relationship while my story is about Albus and Scorpius’ extremely not brotherly love. 

So, while I was looking through the lyrics for ones that I could completely change the context of, I come across these lines - 

anyhow - i sat by your side, by the water
you taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger

And it CLICKED for me. Scorpius with his long line of star-based names in his family could very well have picked up a particular interest in astronomy. And then she follows it up with - 

though all i knew of the rote universe were those pleiades loosed in december
i promised you I'd set them to verse so i'd always remember

So I’m giddy at this point because if you know my stuff, you know that I love to portray my characters, and Albus in particular, as writers. So I’m like oh perfect Albus sets things to verse and he’s the protagonist? Let’s just randomly write sections of the story in verse then. 

And even though most of the piece is meant to be free verse without the constraint of rhyme, I will find a way to sneak in slant rhymes left and right because I cannot chill and let things be easy. So I’m all like - 

 

"I recounted the shimmer of the lake, rippling under the weight of the flattest pebbles he could sift out of the soil. Scorpius showed me how to best skip them along the surface--five, six, seven times. He counted each successive attempt, in competition with himself, always."

 

And then I was like, I don’t know, Albus is a songwriter. Would he not write a song? So I wrote a song. 

 

“the sky it is full of the stars that assume their place in our universe 
i see them as part of a god awful plot, the narrative twists and it turns 
if words they are meant to help circumvent confusion then how does it fit 
that i cannot find in the eye of my mind, the spaces in which they should sit 

draconis is near in the damn atmosphere to leonis to which it relates 
the river it ends with acamar and then, its twin achernar remains
and all the while, izar runs wild, not meeting a soul like itself 
‘til a binary star by the surname menkar reveals that it’s out there as well”

 

And yes, Draconis is predictably a star system in the constellation Draco, but also Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius gets a shout out earlier in the fic. 

Albus totally misinterprets what binary star means and misremembers draconis as being near leonis, when isn't necessarily close. In the original song Joanna misremembers and incorrectly sets to verse - 

The meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee

When in reality, the meteoroid would be the source of the light, as it flies through space, while the meteorite is the rock after it’s landed on Earth. While she and Albus try their best, they are ultimately not experts and mess up quite a bit. 

Anyway, yeah! Just some nerdy supplementary material. This is literally what I’m like. I’m sorry. 

[Guest Rumpelstiltskin]

\O/ Special Delivery! 

Your Secret Snake, lovecat, has left you some WJ questions! 

Quote

 

1. You have so many stories and story ideas! How do you keep all of them organised and how do you manage to work on so many things all at once? Do you have any handy tactics/tips&tricks for those of us who have a single track mind  ?

2. I recently read your story How Long? where you made up your own song! Was that difficult (more or less than writing stories)? Do you usually write poetry and songs?

3. I see you love Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett! Have you read Good Omens? (I assume you did  ) - it's one of my favourite books. What are some of your favourites by the two of them (and in general, favourite books besides Brave New World)?

4. Is there an era that you've never written before but would like to try it?

5. How did you come up with the concept of How Long? in terms of the way you wrote it? It's quite a unique story, I don't think I've ever read something like it!

 

 

[crestwood]

lovecat, you are continuously making my days. I live for writer’s journal questions. 

1. You have so many stories and story ideas! How do you keep all of them organised and how do you manage to work on so many things all at once? Do you have any handy tactics/tips&tricks for those of us who have a single track mind?

Honestly, I’m a general multitasker. My brain just loves focusing on ten different things at once, which explains why it took me so long to decide which form of art I would pursue primarily, (I chose writing) and then which sub-form of writing I would pursue primarily (I chose poetry.) But, having said that, I write thousands of words of fanfic a week too, and it’s almost never on one story. So, I’ve learned to compartmentalize things pretty well. 

My method consists of extremely thorough plotting so that it’s never difficult to pick up from where I left off/I never forget my ideas after a while in which I don’t touch a certain story. I tend to have an ‘order of operations’ where I’ll decide what to write and when. For example, this week it was - Things Change ch. 3 - To Lead an Army ch. 3 - ‘how long? prequel - and I wanted to get those all into the editing stage.

For the first day of the week, I made sure that I had all of the stories plotted through the foreseeable future, which involved quite a lot of searching through songs that’d be perfect song titles for the how long tie-in. And now I’m about halfway through my goal and about halfway through the week I gave myself. So, I suppose the answer is, I know exactly how much I can chew, so I don’t bite off too much and plan my portions correctly. 

 2. I recently read your story How Long? where you made up your own song! Was that difficult (more or less than writing stories)? Do you usually write poetry and songs?

I was writing songs a good bit before I was writing stories of any kind, actually . It comes very naturally to me to rhyme things and be a bit theatrical, so much so that I accidentally slip a ridiculous amount of rhyme into my regular stories all the time. If you keep your eyes peeled for it, you’d find a huge number of examples through all of the stuff I post. 

This song in particular was a little difficult though, because I had to incorporate the idea that Albus was writing it as a sort of memory game - almost an educational song, which is super far out of my wheelhouse. And I wanted to add in a good amount of subtext that could be enjoyed by people who know a bit about the stars, if anyone around here is into that

As for poetry, yeah, I write mostly that! I’m a big fan of free form, but I’ve written nearly every kind, including epic poetry which is possibly the most fun of all. 

 3. I see you love Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett! Have you read Good Omens? (I assume you did  ) - it's one of my favourite books. What are some of your favourites by the two of them (and in general, favourite books besides Brave New World)?

I have read Good Omens! One of my favorites as well! I’m not the most well read person in the entire world due to my laziness and how distracted I get by film on occasion, but my favorite Gaiman works are Interworld, The Sandman Vol. 1, and Coraline. As for Pratchett I read the Discworld books out of order and loved each one of them, and currently am planning a full read-through. So, I can’t say for sure which of them will turn into my new favorites. 

Otherwise, I love The Secret History by Donna Tartt, Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link, No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima, and Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut off the top of my head. As soon as I press send on this I will regret not including something. 

4. Is there an era that you've never written before but would like to try it?

Not counting my short Wolfstar for a HC collab way back, I’m going to have to say Maurader’s era for sure. I just think that it could be fun to play around in since we don’t have a huge amount of info on what goes down back then. That said, I think I’d fumble the personalities of some of those characters, which is why I haven’t gone for it. I could see a Regulus/Remus story in my future, though. 

 5. How did you come up with the concept of How Long? in terms of the way you wrote it? It's quite a unique story, I don't think I've ever read something like it!

It’s sort of written in a style that’s heavily reminiscent of my poetry. I actually did the switching between poetry and prose thing once before on a epic poem called ‘passing time.’ (I also wrote a short song for that one, I actually forgot about that.) That one had three sections--the first in free verse, the second in prose, and the third in very dense rhyme. So, in many ways that was the spiritual successor to ‘how long?’ 

I hate to feel trapped in one stylistic house, so to speak and if I think certain parts of a story are better served in a different format, I will write it that way. I don’t like to be stuck in a box of any kind and will do anything to get my story across how I picture it. There’s always a good reason for it too! - The sections of how long? that are written in prose are sections I wanted to ground or make a bit clearer the specifics of. They’re the sort of memories that reside in your mind crystal clear. The sections written in prose are those memories that you idealize and fantasize about so much that you nearly lose the original happenings as they were--they’re a bit hazy, only the wisps of the days, skipping around in time. None of the lowercase passages describe a single moment if you read them carefully, there’s almost always multiple things going on
 

Thank you so much for these questions!! I got a great deal of fun out of answering these 

[crestwood]

Thanks to @faeruhs I’ve decided to draw up a character list for my biggest fic universe (to date.) At first I thought it’d be easy enough to pull together every named character across the entire thing, but it soon became unwieldy, so I’ve decided it’s probably best I stick to those characters with planned arcs to come in a reasonable amount of time. 

(Also a lot of these characters cross-over between stories so I just stash them under the stories they’re most prominent in) 

 

The Characters of the Things Change Universe

To Lead an Army

 

Neville Longbottom - The most reluctant leader ever to live, given no choice but to step into a role he was born to fill. Grows up fast. 

Ginevra "Ginny" Weasley - Keeps her head under any circumstances. The working engine of the revived DA. 

Luna Lovegood - The one you go to for a different perspective. Much more resilient than given credit for, when all’s said and done.

Seamus Finnigan - Works hard to get the chip off his shoulder. Would follow anyone into battle so long as there’s evil in the world. 

Cormac McLaggen - Intermediately useful, but more often unreservedly annoying. 

Ernest "Ernie" Macmillan - As shrewd as he is pompous, finds a way to throw himself in front of a different helpless person seemingly every day. The kind of guy you want on your side. 

Anthony Goldstein - His go-get-em attitude will occasionally override his common sense, but you’ll never accuse him of a lack of passion. 

Hannah Abbott - A nurturing soul at heart, adapts quickly to the need to fight. Gives everything she has to the cause. 

Romilda Vane - Although accused of extreme self-absorption, there was little doubt that her obsessive personality could come in handy. 

Amanda "Mandy" Brocklehurst - One of the brightest witches of her age. Born into an esteemed family of potioneers, she pushes the boundaries of magic in her spare time. 

Demelza “Demi” Robins - Originally reluctant, she becomes a noted asset in the fight, if only for her dedication to doing the right thing. 

Cian Manning - Formerly homeschooled, quick to pick up on the nuances of life at Hogwarts under the Carrows’ rule. Constantly underestimated, just how he likes it.

Astoria Greengrass - Wily and underhanded. Works for her own purposes and gets what she wants. 

Draco Malfoy - Spends much of his time shrinking into the background for the first time in his life. Will do pretty much anything to save his neck. 

Theodore "Theo" Nott - Calculating and careful. Changes the tides of power with his every move. 

Things Change

Scorpius “Scor” Malfoy - A rebellious spirit at the stage of life where you’re willing to try anything out once. Trying to figure out who he is without much luck as of yet. 

Albus “Al” Potter - Hard to pin down. Reserved and assertive in equal measure. Finds himself shoehorned as the voice of reason and is not happy about it. 

Liam McLaggen - Trouble finds him. Tells the truth, whatever comes of it. Hogwart’s resident rogue. 

Alana Goldstein - The nicest girl in town. You’ve got to work hard to dislike her. Generally knows how to get ahead in life.

Ella Walker - Sarcastic and sharp, always has a comeback prepared. Will run circles around anyone in school when it comes to securing information. Seems to know everyone, one way or another. 

James Potter - The wiseguy of the Potter household. Always up for a bit of a laugh, rolls with the punches. The quintessential overachiever. 

Lead Existence

Regulus Black - The perfect pureblood son, from a distance. Willing to change his mind when presented with new information, will stand up for what he believes in. The Boy Who Sunk. 

Fabian Prewett - Flighty, brash, and nothing but heart. Would rather go down fighting than stand in the background. 

Professor Bathsheda Babbling - A courageous woman who never loses her dedication to providing her students with what they need in trying times, even as her own life is upended again and again. 

unnamed Tedromeda romance

Andromeda Black/Tonks - Cautious, measured, quietly intense. Feels out people within seconds, deciding whether or not she likes them before long. 

Edward “Ted” Tonks - Endlessly enthusiastic, can find the bright side of the darkest places. There aren’t enough hours in the day for him. 

Edward “Teddy” Lupin - Never loses his childlike optimism. Walks with a pep in his step. Seems to be nearly everyone’s mentor. 

 

unnamed Victorian Era fic

Dr. Andrew Brocklehurst - Studious to a fault. Hardly thinks of anything besides his beloved science. Called mad, but it is rarely denied that his methods get the job done.

Florence Moncrieff - Could make the greatest scientific discovery of her age on a whim. Does most things out of boredom. The wealthiest heiress for miles and miles and the most alluring as well. 

Henry Moncrieff - A small, vindictive man. Brilliant, among other things. 

[Oregonian]

Hi Joey.  I really like your listing of the characters and their salient personality features.  I approve of the implication that you are going to keep their personalities consistent throughout the span of your various stories.   It is rather jarring when a character is depicted so differently from story to story (usually between various authors, but occasionally within the bibliography of a single author).

What surprises me is how similar your conception of many of these characters is to my own.  Inspires me to get cracking on the revision of some of my earlier, imperfect stories about these characters to bring those stories up to my present standards. 

I am eager to read your story about Professor Bathsheba Babbling.  These named-but-otherwise-unknown professors are such gold mines for imaginative treatment and for enriching the vision of Hogwarts as a school.  Good for you.

Vicki

[crestwood]

@Oregonian Hey Vicki! 

 

I'm glad you found this little exercise interesting. I have a couple different continuities on my Author's page, but even when I do write different versions of the same characters, I do tend to write them relatively similar in many of the ways that matter, just as a matter of pressing headcanon. As far as these stories go, the characters are quite consistent across eras, as they get older, have children, begin careers, or otherwise grow up. 

As I read your stories, I'm also shocked to see those similarities from things I've written before. It's interesting that we'd come to a lot of similar conclusions completely separately. 

I am excited to see you transfer more of your stories - I find revising stories to be very challenging in ways different than writing a brand new story. 

Professor Babbling is a bit of a one-scene wonder in my current story featuring her, but I've so much enjoyed writing her that I have tossed around a few ideas for a story from her point of view. I especially enjoy that she gives me a reason to write a bit about runes. 

Thank you for stopping by!

Joey

[grandchild]

me, knowing full well i am at least partly responsible for this:

[crestwood]

Since the second of my companion pieces is up, I can finally post the playlists I've written for the stories! 

 

story: reasons to want you 

playlist title: peace lily

summary: 

It was difficult for Andromeda Black to picture a life without the constant fear that she’d always carried with her. When she was young, she feared her parents, and then came the war--things had always been complicated. Ted made it all feel simple. 

Never had anyone been so glad to be on the losing side. 
 

story: Lead Existence

playlist title: The Boy Who Sunk

summary: Love heals all, until the end

 

peace lily

Fade Into You - Mazzy Star

I'd Like To Walk Around In Your Mind - Vashti Bunyan

Easily - Bruno Major

Moon River - Frank Ocean

Nothing - Rex Orange County, Marco McKinnis

She Can't Leave Me Here Alone Tonight - HOMESHAKE

ocean eyes - Billie Eilish

Green Twins - Nick Hakim

Just Like Heaven - The Cure

You Might Be Sleeping - Jakob Ogawa, Clairo

Laying in the Sun - Anemone

I Found A Reason - The Velvet Underground

Peace Lily - Campbell

 

-

 

The Boy Who Sunk

On The Bound - Fiona Apple

hostage - Billie Eilish

Sea of Love - Cat Power

Lay It Down Slow - Spiritualized

I Don't Believe in the Sun - The Magnetic Fields

Love Me Like I'm Not Made Of Stone - Lykke Li

Decks Dark - Radiohead

Forgive Me For Giving Up - Hundred Waters

Stop Breathin - Pavement

Death with Dignity - Sufjan Stevens

Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Meshell Ndegeocello

Lead Existence - King Krule

It Just Is - Rilo Kiley

The Start of Something Beautiful - Gold Celeste

[crestwood]

The Things Change Universe Guide 

 

Welcome to the first draft of the TC universe Guide. As this series begins to grow in size I think it’s probably a good thing to have something published that will walk new readers through these increasingly interconnected stories. I plan to update this guide every three new fics uploaded to the ‘verse, or once a month, whichever comes first. 

First, an overview of the characters with connections to other stories in the ‘verse, to give you an idea of who is liable to crossover to other fics.

 

Characters: 

To Lead an Army

Neville: One of the heads of the DA. Eventually one of Scorpius, Liam, and Al’s Professors. Acquainted with Andromeda Tonks.

Ginny: One of the heads of the DA. Of course, Albus’ mother. Liam’s guardian, if not legally.

Cormac McLaggen: A member of the DA. Scorpius’ father and husband of Romilda Vane.

Romilda Vane: A member of the DA. Scorpius’ mother and wife of Cormac McLaggen.

Amanda "Mandy" Brocklehurst: A member of the DA. The descendant of Dr. Andrew Brocklehurst.

Astoria Greengrass: Of uncertain allegiances. Eventually Scorpius’ mother.

Draco Malfoy: Head Boy. Eventually Scorpius’ father.

Anthony Goldstein: The father of Alana Goldstein.

Things Change

Scorpius “Scor” Malfoy: The son of Draco and Astoria. 

Albus “Al” Potter: Ginny’s son. 

Liam McLaggen: Cormac and Romilda’s son. 

Alana Goldstein: Anthony’s daughter. 

Lead Existence

Regulus Black: Andromeda’s cousin. 

reasons to want you

Andromeda Tonks: Regulus’ cousin. Scorpius’ godmother. Acquainted with Neville.

Edward “Teddy” Lupin: Close with Scorpius, Albus and Liam. 

Sea Change

Dr. Andrew Brocklehurst: Ancestor of Mandy Brocklehurst.

The chronological storyline. 

While the story does not move immediately from one event to the other and there remains plenty of gaps that I plan to fill, there is a bit of a storyline forming across all of these fics. 

Dr. Andrew Brocklehurst invents Polyjuice Potion in 1896 with the help of the Moncrieff siblings. After a very long time skip that will soon be filled with more of their actions, we arrive at the beginning of Andromeda Black’s story. She becomes a spy for the Order in the summer of 1972. As Andromeda works against the Death Eaters, her cousin Regulus Black does the same, sacrificing his life in 1979 to hurt Voldemort’s cause. In 1997, the DA is reformed. Mandy Brocklehurst proves to be a valuable member of the group as the talented member of a storied family. Andromeda survives to see the birth of Teddy Lupin in April 1998. Scorpius befriends Albus Potter and Liam McLaggen, both born to parents who were members of the reformed DA. 

Suggested reading order

To Lead an Army - Lead Existence - reasons to want you - Things Change - Sea Change
 

[crestwood]

(It has been brought to my attention that Cormac McLaggen and Romilda Vane are, in fact, actually Liam's parents and not Scorpius'.  Let's pretend that's what I wrote the first time.) 

[Guest Noelle Zingarella]

Joey, this is so helpful! Thank you for posting this

 

[crestwood]

@Noelle Zingarella I'm glad you think so! I've got a lot more stories to come in this world, so I figured it might start to get a little intimidating. Also, the reading order is only what I personally find most satisfying - there's really no set order, as all of the stories are self contained. You just might appreciate, say, Neville's mentor-ship of Liam in Things Change (not that I've posted those chapters yet...) more if you've read his story, but nothing will be ruined if you chose not to. 

[crestwood]

I've started a new story, and it's proving to be more experimental than anything else I've done so far. 

First things first, it's a screenplay. The idea came to me that way and I cannot separate it from the form. It also, um, contains a large amount of footnotes that are basically inextricable from the narrative. 

Oh, and it's a sci-fi epic about a party at the end of the world. I'll be posting it scene by scene and I am downright obsessed with it at the moment, so expect a good portion of it done fairly quickly. 

Scene one is in the queue! here is a snippet - 

 

Spoiler

Maze
It didn’t feel strange to us. It was the way things were. People died and planets were nature’s gift. 

Kendra
Did you -?

Maze
Figure out immortality? No, I’ve never known much about all that, I admit. 

Kendra
But still, you’re the father of our star.

Maze
(staring down at the half-eaten food in his hands)
And finally it wanes.  

Kendra
Where will you go?

Maze
Aipra, I believe. I’ll finally live out my retirement - or as much of one as I can stomach. 

Kendra
You’ve earned one.

Maze
(laughing)
Over a long enough period of time, anyone will.
 

 

[Oregonian]

This will be fun to see.  A party at the end of the world.  Your characters seems to be taking it well.

Have you written in the screenplay format before?  A couple of years ago I turned a 700-word drabble into a short story and then into a longer story, and then my Screenwriting instructor suggested that I turn it into a screenplay for a 2-hour film.  It was strange to know that if it were ever made into a film (fat chance!) , so many other people would be making the artistic decisions -- casting, costume designers, set designers, directors -- that novel authors make for themselves.  I can see it in my head, but that's not how it would look on the screen. 

[crestwood]

A quick writing update -- 

 

I’ve been in a rut, obviously. I have hardly posted any stories this past month, which is pretty uncharacteristic of me. It seems that I am, however, becoming reacquainted with my muse just in time for June. I’ve been working on two very connected projects that have gone a long way toward getting me excited about writing again, so I’m just going to talk about them a little. 

 

Project one is - pageantry. 

Louis and Lysander are off on a summer road trip and Louis insists upon bringing almost nothing along with them. It isn’t immediately clear what he has planned, but he always has something up his sleeve. 

These two have become some of my favorite characters across the entirety of the TC universe in a very short amount of time. Which led to the second project mere minutes after I thought up the first...

Project two is - flower in its decay. 

This is a prequel to pageantry in which Louis and Lysander attend a Muggle university, which has become, not the norm, but not unheard of for witches and wizards to do in this time. They each make the cut for a particularly prestigious French literature course and their time there will be tumultuous at the least, as they make their share of friends and enemies. 

For this story, I’ve been reading quite a bit. I’ve dabbled in The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire, The Lover by Marguerite Duras, and Germinal by Émile Zola, among others. I’m still unsure of what will come of all this, but I do know that you can expect some very lengthy author’s notes as I sort all of this out. 
 

 

@Oregonian Somehow, I missed this. I have written in the screenplay format a good amount before now, but this is the first time I've ever allowed anyone to read one. I once wanted to be a screenwriter by profession, but I don't suppose I ever would have been able to write a film that I did not also direct. 

[Guest Noelle Zingarella]

Joey, I am very excited about both of these projects (along with TLA and End of the World...) and I am cheering for you while you work on all of these!

The concept of wizards going to Muggle University is wonderful and the French Literature course is a fascinating choice. Do you read and/or speak French? What drew you to these particular poets?