(no subject)

[heidi]

Randomly, someone on my flist started reading my perpetual WIP, Surfeit of Curses, today. And it's weird, because there was a time when I could spend a few hours on a Sunday writing it, back when I would flick between writing and HPfGU Chat and pings and YMs from Rhysenn and Alex and Cassie and John and Kelley and Simon. Back when I had only one child, and he tended to nap for 2-3 hours on a Sunday afternoon because he was a year old, or fifteen months old, or eighteen months old, or just two, and that's what they do at that age. And Catie is now older than Harry was when I started in the HP fandom, and only about a month younger than Harry was when I started writing SoC, and Harry's going to be seven and I should just deem it a never-to-be-finished thing, even though I so want to change a certain character into Regulus and be done with it.

I'll never have the time.

So, if you have any questions about it, or what was originally supposed to happen in the end, or how I'd end it now, or anything, ask away. Any of my other ficlets, too.

Comments

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

I'll never have the time.

Heck, I admire you liek woah for all the things you DO manage to do with three kids! (And I remember wooby little Harry napping on your lap at lunch... those were the days, huh?)

[likebunnies.livejournal.com]

You do so much already! Three kids. Community stuff. Stuff because of the husband. Stuff and more stuff. When I compare my life to yours, I want to cry because I'm such a lazy bum. :)

I have days when I just want to finally say I'm never going to finish a certain story but I'm having a hard time admitting defeat by life.

[megstuff.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Surfeit of Curses holds a very special place in my heart as one of the first HP stories I read, and as my introduction to the tragedy of the unfinished WIP. Some scars never heal. ;)

So, how were you going to finish it?

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

I *was* going to have Lucius try to "re-do" Draco the same way he'd done with Regulus Alexander, but Hermione and Snape would Save the Day and twist the thing so it rebounded on Lucius, resulting in Baby!Lucius, left to be raised by one of hte following:
Lush!Narcissa (no, not the bathstore Lush, the drinkie-lush)
Hermione, Draco and Snape, all together
Draco, as a "single father"
He wasn't going to kill Narcissa the way he did with Wife #1 - he was, instead, going to send her to a resort in the Wide Sargasso Sea, which was just me getting very, very indulgently meta.


Then, post OotP, I was going to have Draco Deliberate for a year about whether he would follow Lucius or not, and have him say ENough of the Right Things that Lucius would think he was going to but he'd really be Putting It On about feuding with Hermione, and taking advantage of being at Hogwarts to learn anything he could about Regulus Alexander from anyone who'd been there back in the 70s, and then, with Lucius in prison, he'd be upset that he couldn't Learn All The Real Truth but instead he'd actually have Control over the Secrets of the Manor and learn the real truths (that he was Regulus Alexander, de-aged and then grown to teenhood again.

You can, btw, imagine my Utter Glee when the death eater head became a baby head in the Dept of Mysteries, because *that* is what I had planned to have had happen to Regulus Alexander - Lucius did that de-ageing thing to him and he grew up a second time as Draco, while Lucius obtained Wife Number Two.

[jayabear.livejournal.com]

Such an awesome ending anyway. Nifty.

Btw. Have no idea what you're talking about with the death eater head. Have to reread OotP. Eventually.

~j

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Just reread the bit where they're all a-chasing through the Department of Mysteries.

[megstuff.livejournal.com]

Aaaahh, big sigh of relief. Very satisfying, both the original and the post-OotP take. I shall often think of Narcissa at her sea-side resort. :)

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

I'm generally content enough with the plotting (oh, and btw, don't know if you read the bit I posted in my LJ back in July of 03 from chapter 11 where Harry wasn't really dead but they killed Karkaroff polyjuiced into Harry.

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

OK, so what was up with that kiss in the first chapter? What did it do?

And what happens in the end? huh? What is up with Draco?

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Answer re the ending is more or less here, although if that leads to more questions, then please ask.

And the kiss was how she sealed the spell - I always thought there was a sort of binding spell one could do via physical contact, and Lily gave and secured Draco's conscience with the kiss. And, you know, babies are just *yummy* to kiss anyway.

[sarcasticpixie.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel -- I sometimes check FA for reviews of my old Coven trilogy (since I have kind of forgotten the password to my FAP account) and wonder if I should pick it up again. But I was 15 and didn't know where it was going and the writing is so unsalvageably bad that I run away screaming from that idea.

And I'm now glad that I know how Surfeit was going to end. :D

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

But you had Bath & Bodyworks promotionals going on!

These days, would it be Lush?

[sarcasticpixie.livejournal.com]

Probably still B&BW, but there would be some serious Stila plugging going on since I'm addicted to their eye mousse and gel eyeliner.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Speaking of ads in stories, did you ever read the "not sure it's real" one-star review of the Narnia books?


“I bought these books to have something nice to read to my grandkids. I had to stop, however, because the books are nothing more than advertisements for “Turkish Delight,” a candy popular in the U.K. The whole point of buying books for my grandkids was to give them a break from advertising, and here (throughout) are ads for this “Turkish Delight”! How much money is this Mr. Lewis getting from the Cadbury’s chocolate company anyway? This man must be laughing to the bank.”

[(Anonymous)]

SOC was one of the first fics I've read in fandom, and actually the fic that made me fall in love with Draco, but yeah, I figured you wouldn't finish it a while ago. :)

I think it's amazing you've been in fandom so long, that you can measure it with your kids being all grown up.

[ishtar79.livejournal.com]

...and I forgot to log in.

[marksykins.livejournal.com]

Hey, Heidi! Speaking of old fandom things, someone just tipped me off about this profile on Artistic Alley:

http://www.artisticalley.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=21465&cat=500&ppuser=87275

The Draco icon was made by me, and I didn't give any permission for it to be distributed there or anything. And I'm pretty sure the other two were made by people other than that person, too.

Can you help out here? No rush. :)

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

IO can't get it to pull up from your url - can you email me the username of the poster? I'm at heidi @ heidi 8 .com.

[snowe.livejournal.com]

I'm sad it will never be finished, but thank you for answering questions about it. I hope that two years after you posted this isn't too late to ask questions...

What was going to happen with Draco and Hermione?

Does being de-aged have any adverse affects?

Who was Draco's biological mother?