Lyras

Couple of recs from the always wonderful hp_beholder fest:

The Chelmsford List - Stan Shunpike/Mundungus Fletcher, R, 5,860 words. Author's summary: "Baffling Prison Escape + Wizards = Not Really All That Baffling. That's why this isn't an escape story. But it does involve wizards and prisons."

I'm nicking magnetic_pole's word for this: it's a brilliantly stylish fic about two dodgy wizards and what happens when they end up doing time together in a Muggle prison. It's appropriately gruff, hilarious and a little sweet. If you read, you will enjoy.

Adamantine - Millicent/Hooch, PG-13, 7,600 words. Author's summary: "St Mungos is turning people away and there are dozens of bodies heaped in the Hogsmeade cemetery, but it's not until Harry Potter dies that people start panicking."

If you enjoy a good dystopia (and I do), then this is for you. We know from the opening line that 1) this is not going to be a happy story and 2) we are in good hands. Millicent and Madam Hooch are the only two people left at Hogwarts with immunity to a disease that's sweeping wizarding Britain. With students and staff falling ill every day, Hogwarts is hanging by a thread, and various characters have to make some gut-wrenching choices. The supporting cast (particularly Pansy) is well-drawn, and the story is very well executed.

There are lots of other stories that I have my eye on over there, too, whenever I have a moment.

Secondly, a couple of my stories have been nominated for an award at hpfanficfanpoll (in the drama/angst category - LOL @ self for being so predictable). Because I fail at life at the moment, I haven't posted either story here yet, but you can read them at these links if you're interested:

Into the Silence, Snape, gen, PG-13, 5,500 words. Summary: Severus's year as headmaster of Hogwarts presents many challenges. Acceptance is the greatest of them all.

The Survivors, Petunia/Severus, NC-17, 3,900 words, WARNING for coercion and non-con. Summary: In the aftermath of Lily's death, Petunia's life is falling apart -- until Severus Snape turns up offering help. But Severus has his own reasons, and Petunia has never understood magic.

Thank you so much to whoever nominated these stories! I see I'm in good company in that category, too. *eyes xylodemon and pale_moonlite*

This entry was originally posted at http://lyras.dreamwidth.org/67906.html. You can comment there using Open ID.

1. Remix has gone live, and as usual it's fascinating to see what someone has done with my stories! In this case, the writer picked up on a section in my Harry/Ginny story, Pilgrimage, which dealt with Harry encountering Petunia again, and expanded it to give us Petunia's viewpoint. Most of you know that I am fascinated by Petunia, and I really enjoyed my remixer's take on her. You can read it here - it's short, and all the HP story hit numbers are looking very forlorn, so do give it a try if it sounds interesting to you!

*In a huge coincidence, I was thinking about this very story the day before Remix, deciding that it's probably my favourite of my own H/G stories. Was I picking up some vibes from my remixer, perhaps? *g*

2. If anyone correctly identifies the story I wrote I will eat my hat (or at least, write you a drabble). Feel free to guess in the comments.

3. Does anyone feel like beta-reading a 7000-wordish gen story?

4. Comments screened for the purposes of items 2 and 3.

5. I am kind of failing at life at the moment. Sorry. :-/ Should be back soonish.

This entry was originally posted at http://lyras.dreamwidth.org/67641.html. You can comment there using Open ID.

I am in the UK, and I don't want to go home. That is all.

PS: Hope those of you in this part of the world are enjoying the sunshine!

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I ended up making a timeline for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in order to get events straight for some of the stories I wrote last November and December. (I know there are other timelines out there. I'm just anal-retentive.) Writing it up for my own reference, and in the hope that it may be of use to others.

There isn't a lot to go on in several places, but some dates are pleasingly specific.

( July )

( August )

( September, October, November )

( December )

( January, February )

( March, April )

( May )

Harry/Ginny: One of my favourite fests, takingitinturns, is returning for a fifth year very shortly! It's under new management, and this year's theme is "mirrors and reflections". As the new mods, snuggle_muggle and carrickorourke, say:

"The world of Harry Potter is full of mirrors and reflections: Literal mirrors like the Mirror of Erised and the two-way communication mirrors Sirius gave to Harry, or figurative reflections like James and Lily appearing again in the form of Harry and Ginny. Mirrors in the wizarding world are so much more than just a looking glass, they can show Harry and Ginny what was, what will be, or what they desire to bring into being. And figurative reflections can be beautiful and perfect like the identical images of Fred and George or dark and twisted like the similarities between Tom Riddle and Harry Potter."

Isn't that a wonderful theme? I can't wait to see the fic and artwork it produces.

Sign-ups start on 10 March; for more information, see the mod post here.

hg_seasonsfest is also returning for another round in the near future - it's great to see Harry/Ginny fandom still going strong! I'm looking forward to this fest, as well, and will post more details as they are released.

Finally, I recced Harry/Ginny over at crack_broom in February, and here are my recs - ( four for fic, two for art )

Still catching up with reposting holiday fest fics. And DW crossposting is still buggy for me, so apologies if this turns up twice on LJ!

Title: Les Jours Tristes
Author: lyras
Rating: PG-13
Character(s): Luna, Narcissa, Mr Ollivander
Warnings: None
Word count: 6,800 words
Summary: After the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Luna deals with some Wrackspurts, developing an unlikely friendship in the process.
Author's Notes: Written for igrockspock as part of hp_holidaygen, and originally posted here. The title comes from the song of the same name by Yann Tiersen. Thank you to aggiebell90 for beta-reading; all remaining errors and infelicities are my own.

Les Jours Tristes

1. So, who is on Pinboard, and is it worth creating an account? What about other bookmarking sites - any preferred? Has Delicious rescued itself from last year's redesign fiasco?

This brought to you by my failure, yet again, to export, save or in any other way preserve my firefox and chrome bookmarks before reformatting my hard drive. *sigh*

2. Also, I am still looking for recs here if anyone's interested. :)

3. I've been mostly offline for a few days due to said reformatting of hard drive. At least I have a working laptop now! Anyway, there should be fic in a few days, now that my computer woes are sorted - but in the meantime, if you've posted fic or anything else you want me to know about, feel free to tell me.

4. Thank you for the dragons, lovely people! They're very cute.

(Apologies if this posts twice on LJ - the crossposting feature didn't work.)

I'm on the hunt for two different types of stories at the moment:

1. Harry/Ginny - I'm reccing this pairing at crack_broom this month, and feeling a little low on inspiration. I was super-busy toward the end of last year, so I know I must've missed lots of good stuff. I like plotty, adventure-type stories and/or good, solid writing, set at any time of their lives. Any suggestions?

2. I'd love some recs for long, plotty epics like fernwithy's excellent Teddy Lupin stories - the kind that feel like they might be an extension of the books. There must be more out there, surely! Romance is fine, too, if there's a good plot and good writing to go along with it - one of my favourite reads last year was A Time to Remember by stmargarets. I'll read most pairings, except please no Harry/Draco, Draco/Hermione or Draco/Ginny. If you have recs for long stories in other fandoms that you know I like, feel free to share those, too. If they're on AO3, so much the better (because then I can download them to my kindle).

All recommendations welcome, and thank you in advance!

This entry was originally posted at http://lyras.dreamwidth.org/65592.html. You can comment there using Open ID.

This is part one of a story inspired by a halfamoon prompt from magnetic_pole, who asked, "What if Alice Longbottom began to recover?"

I don't generally post unfinished fic, but I did want to post this, since halfamoon ends today. The next two parts will hopefully be up by the end of the month. Thanks for such an inspiring prompt, M, and I hope you enjoy the result!

Title: After the Dawn
Characters: Alice, Frank, Neville, Augusta
Warnings: PTSD
Wordcount (this part): 1,400 words
Summary: It's hard to remember yesterday, but it didn't feel like this. One morning, Alice Longbottom wakes up.

( Read more... )

This entry was originally posted at http://lyras.dreamwidth.org/65362.html. You can comment there using Open ID.

1. Anyone else getting loads of spam comments at the moment? I've been getting several a day at both my DW and LJ journals. Really bloody annoying.

2. I'm still taking halfamoon prompts for female-centric ficlets, if anyone's interested: drop me a prompt here (DW) or here (LJ).

This entry was originally posted at http://lyras.dreamwidth.org/65064.html. You can comment there using Open ID.