Best-Laid Plans, by WanderWitch

[WanderWitch]

Hey, all 

Coming in last minute to try and get the hang of things again. It's been a really long time since I was here last, and since I wrote too, and I really miss both so I thought I'd give it this year's CampNaNo a shot and ease into being more active here again!

First of all, I'm hoping you're all safe and healthy. These are not easy times we're going through  

I'll admit I'm not the greatest at keeping up with a steady writing schedule, and I'm currently working full-time from home, but on the plus side, there's no commute for me now so I'll have some free time to give this a real shot.

I've been toying the idea of writing Jily and the Marauders for the first time, so I'll be taking a shot on Best-Laid Plans. It's a re-write of a different fic of mine for a pairing of another show, with added storyline and some big changes from the origin story.

Here are a couple of things I'm hoping I can tease you with 

• The story is set at Oxford, and the Marauders are adults and out of Hogwarts.
• Lily moves to Oxford with her daughter (a little readhead cutie) and her best friend Dorcas, where she not-so-accidentally meets James.
• The Marauders work for the Ministry to fight Voldemort and the Dark Forces, oftentimes undercover...
• ... all the while Lily has never learned about magic (her parents kept it from her), and Lily has grown to resent her family for not fitting in, which prompted her to move.
• She happens to learn about magic during a turbulent event and James takes on to protecting her and her daughter, while the rest of the Marauders (mostly Sirius) think she's a distraction to their mission. It only makes matters worse when James, who just can't seem to commit to a single thing, starts faling for Lily and getting attached to Diana (Lily's 4yo daughter).
• The storyline will focus on their everyday lives exactly while the Marauders are on an undercover mission at Oxford and get a little derailed after meeting Lily. Changes are bound to happen in everyone's lives and fighting evil will become as challenging as finding a future for themselves. They are adults, but in many ways they're still growing up, and haven't quite found their places in the world just yet, so it's a self-learning journey for them.
• Characters I'm thinking of writing into the story: Lily, James, Dorcas, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Mary, Marlene, and Diana (Lily's daughter). Possibly a couple others, not so sure yet.

You can take a look at my Pinterest board for this story here.

My goal is going to be only 500 words per day, but I'm really counting on getting more done. Hope I can work it out this year, and I'm glad to be back, I've missed you all!

Happy writing 

[Predictable Chaos]

First I love the title. My first fan fic was called Even the Best Laid Plans so it has a special place in my heart. I also love your Pinterest board. You've put some much effort into it.

What are the Marauders doing undercover? What's their "identity" while in Oxford?

 

[WanderWitch]

@potionspartner Hi Barbara, thank you for stopping by!

I'm actually a little proud of my Pinterest board. I found it easier to pull it together than with some of the boards for my other stories, and the aesthetic of it really makes me feel the story I have in mind.
 

The Marauder's mission is to gather as much intel as possible about a small (yet relevant for Voldy's cause) group of Dark Wizards that has been gathering in town, as it might be one of the most important cell's of Voldemort's offensive plan. The group is very secretive, so they have been at Oxford for quite some time, but Lily coming into town will trigger some changes. If the members of the group are found, the Marauders are NOT to engage, but rather to come up with the best plan to catch them and call for reinforcements from the Ministry. You can imagine how that can go wrong easily with these four 
 

I hadn't given much thought to everyone's identity yet, but I took a little time aside today and came up with this:

Remus is Robert Porter, undercover as a guest lecturer at the University of Oxford (for the influent connections he might find while at the University).
James is Josh Lancaster, undercover as a local news reporter (which gives him the perfect excuse to be as nosy as possible and in everyone's business, anywhere).
Petter is Parker Boman, undercover as a courier (like James, he'll have access to a lot of different places, and also the chance to gather intel from people in a more casual, less obvious way).
Sirius is Samuel Paine, undercover as a shady bartender (he turns a blind eye to suspicios deals at the bar, thus ensuring some trust from people that otherwise wouldn't give him any info).

As for the rest of the characters:

Dorcas will be a barmaid and work with Sirius (which allows him to gather intel on Lily withouth knowing that Dorcas is a witch too, all the while Dorcas has no idea that the Marauders are magical, as she was homeschooled and has concealed her magic from Lily ever since she's known her).
Lily is a translator of several languages and works for a publishing company (her knowledge of old, dead languages might come in handy for the mission at some point in the future maybe, idk yet).
Marlene works as one of the best, most well-known tourist guides in the city.
And last but not leat Mary, who is a simple school secretary at Diana's pre-school.

There'll be a spin about whom Marlene and Mary really are, and Peter will struggle with his alliances just like in canon so I'm curious to explore that.
 

Sorry this ran a little long, but I had to get my ideas down. Thank you so much for stopping by 

[firewhiskey_ginger]

First of all, I love that Sirius is undercover as a shady bartender.  How perfect!  It's interesting that he's the one to take a disliking to Lily, too, since so many fics set them up as very close, so that's a unique idea. 

I'm curious about how closely you will stick to the canon timeline and how much will be AU?  Obviously you can't give spoilers, but my mind immediately went to the fact that Lily and James die shortly around this time.

Best of luck writing!

[Guest Noelle Zingarella]

Hi! How's your NaNo going so far? I love that your fic has such a creative setting and set-up. 

Which Marauder are you most looking forward to writing? Who's giving you a headache?

Little Diana sounds soooo cute! Can you tell us a few of her favorite (and least favorite) things?

[WanderWitch]

On 4/2/2020 at 9:28 PM, firewhiskey said:

First of all, I love that Sirius is undercover as a shady bartender.  How perfect!  It's interesting that he's the one to take a disliking to Lily, too, since so many fics set them up as very close, so that's a unique idea. 

I'm curious about how closely you will stick to the canon timeline and how much will be AU?  Obviously you can't give spoilers, but my mind immediately went to the fact that Lily and James die shortly around this time.

Best of luck writing!

@firewhiskey Hi Sarah 

Well, there’s a lot to Sirius. To start with, he’s dealing with plenty of hurt because of his family, but more specifically Regulus, who he still believes betrayed them. Then, the lack of results on the Marauders’ plan to gather information is stressing him out big time, especially because most of their plans come from him and they are not turning into any positive results. The pressure from the Ministry isn't helping either. There’s also his feelings for Marlene, for whom he nurtures love/hate feelings, and that don’t help with his suspicions of the newcomers Lily and Dorcas (Marlene will be particularly jealous of Dor). So there are a lot of repressed feelings he isn’t keen to deal with, and so working at the bar turns a bit of an escape for him, and gives him this grumpy vibe without Sirius really meaning for it to be that way.

And Sirius will be suspicious of Lily for quite some time in the beginning. He doesn’t like that James is so awestruck about a stranger, and that they seem to bond so quickly. He’ll suspect Lily and Dorcas are not who they say they are and have arrived to town to mess with their plans, or that they maybe even work for the Dark Lord, and so there will be some animosity at first. At some point he’ll learn to trust them though, and then things will go smoother between everyone.

This fic is canon-divergent from a very early moment, so I won’t be following the timeline at all, I guess. For the premise to work, Lily never learned about magic, which means she never met the Marauders and thus the Prophecy couldn’t apply to Harry. Besides, because if there’s no Jily at that point, Peter couldn’t have turned them in to Voldemort, and the Dark Lord still roams free. The years have been dragging and neither the good or the bad force is winning. As for the Prophecy itself, I haven’t figured out the specifics yet but either Trelawney professed a different one (and/or it wasn’t witnessed by anyone, and sits in the Hall of Prophecies undiscovered/still riddled), or she hasn’t said it at all. I’m still figuring that out.

I’m setting the story in the mid 1980s so they are adults, but still young and figuring out who they want to become after they win the damn war. I can’t promise there won’t be any deaths in the story, but there will be plenty of dangers ahead for them to make things interesting 

Thank you for stopping by!

[WanderWitch]

Best-Laid Plans is mostly plotted out, so here's a Jily picspam for this story. More picspams to come, both for the other ships, as well as the characters individually