MetaFic

I find that with many of the challenges - they are beyond the scope of 10K wds.

Regarding the leaving of an artefact like that - were the twins aware of what transpired? We never really find out of more than Ron, DD and her parents really get it ... hmmmm

I just don't see Ginny's recovery from the Chamber as a reason for a fluffy or shippy H/G story. Canon is Harry's story, not Ginny's. Hence the frustration by some fans as to what happened to her post-Chamber. I do agree with Jonathan that a significant amount of time passed before she was healed adequately to function day to day. I can imagine her dad and mom hovering constantly during the summer, and the trip to Egypt being a godsend for her because Bill didn't try to smother her. He probably had a bit of a talk with his parents and read the riot act to the other brothers.

My personal theory is the Chamber's aftermath hardened her. Ginny Weasley had a stubborn streak (I blame Prewett genes) but by the time Harry begins to notice her (OotP), there is a sense that she just plain gets mean if she feels she is pushed. The fact that her family has to go into hiding because of Tom's return pissed her off to no end. She slaps down Harry's pity party at Grimmauld Place. Her brothers on her case about dating two boys(!) led to her nasty fight with Ron in the school corridor. There is a deep well of anger there that I think is the remains of her struggle with coming to terms with her possession. Perhaps that is why, unlike Ron and Hermione, she can handle CAPLOCKS!Harry. "You had a tough time because of Tom? Wow. To effing bad, so did I."

Canon Ginny displayed a wariness with Harry's potions book in her 5th year, relaxing only when she understood Hermine was upset over gloss notes. I seriously doubt 2nd year Ginny would want to be anywhere near something that displays sentience. Which gets interesting... Perhaps the Twins had planned to give it to her, but based on the Chamber and Bill's dressing down the summer before they gave it to Harry instead.

You know, our challenges on this site are about the writing process and putting people in an uncomfortable spot for writing. An interesting challenge idea would be:

Take a decision Ginny made or a situation Ginny was in from books 3-7 and tell a short story about how her experience in the Chamber affected or brought her to that point in time.

Example: Ginny's decision to date Micheal. Did she do it because she found she did not trust any boys because of Tom and wanted to show that she could do something despite that? Or was it an act of rebellion because her brothers always hovered over her and second guessed all her decisions?

Remember the key to this is how the Chamber affected the decision. There may be other reasons for the situation or the decision, but this focuses only on he past experiences.

-Jonathan

- A good novel is an indivisible sum; every scene, sequence and passage of a good novel has to involve, contribute to and advance all three of its major attributes: theme, plot, characterization.
Ayn Rand - The Romantic Manifesto p. 74 (pb 93)

1. Jonathan, that's an interesting challenge idea. I'll add it to my file.

2. The general issue of Ginny 'recovering' from her experiences during first year is a complicated one. I tend to think that a lot of authors don't really think it through. First of all, what did Ginny actually experience? Clearly she exchanged messages with Tom, blacked out several times, and at one point became convinced that the diary was bad news (and subsequently acted to get it back). Then, of course, she woke up in the Chamber after the fight was over. Those are the canon facts. She was not awake at any time while Tom had a semi-corporeal form. Her only communication with him was in writing, unless he showed her some of his memories as he did with Harry.

Ginny doesn't remember attacking anyone. She never 'felt' anything of Tom's, though she probably got to know him through writing to him. It seems implausible to say that he was able to show her images of things that never actually happened . . . she blacks out when possessed, and there's no indication that Tom can control her in any other way (he surely would have tried with Harry, if he could). Tom may have some nasty memories in the diary that he could show people, but if he could fabricate a new memory to draw someone into, he surely would have done that with Harry. So Tom did not pull her into a 'waking dream' where he abused her, or anything of the sort.

So what's Ginny dealing with? She certainly feels stupid for being duped by the diary. She feels guilty about the attacks that occurred. She probably feels especially guilty that she almost got Harry killed. And, yes, she's suspicious of things that think for themselves, as demonstrated in HBP. What else? I think that might be about it, at least for the obvious/simple stuff.

3. In the particular case of the Marauders' Map, I can see it either way, really. Maybe she doesn't trust it because it seems to have some capacity to think for itself. Or maybe, because it comes from her brothers directly, they've used it extensively, and it's "information only" (no interaction from her), she's not bothered by it. It would depend on how you interpret the factors in #2.

The SIYE challenge is . . . m'eh. To me, it appears to be far too large in scale to cover in a challenge-sized story (even 20k). In response to that comment, the admin said that the length is part of the challenge. I can respect that in general, but I think that in this case the length is so restrictive that it will prevent quality writing, rather than just encouraging creative approaches. I can imagine how it could be done in 10-20k words. Ironically, the first thing that comes to mind is to write the story as a series of correspondences of some kind, as if Ginny were writing in a diary. But I don't see that happening. Making that sort of idea work would require a lot of characterization work for Ginny to show why she's willing to write in that way (and to whom). And then the story gets longer.

Kezza, it's no secret how I feel about the Twin Travel Challenge. The setup was poorly thought out, and most of the entries followed suit. The few that made it work, in my opinion, were not recognized for that achievement. To this day I think that your story should have won, because you did the best job of writing a good story, meeting the requirements, and not violating the spirit of the challenge (as I most blatantly did).

Dave

Sweet! I can't wait to read them.

On a side note to Dave. Do you take suggestions for challenges? I think I have a good one if you'd like to hear it.

Of course. Feel free to ignore or modify as you see fit.

Well here we go then. I've read stories where Harry or Ginny (or both) get sorted into Slytherin, but I've never seen any where Ron is sorted there (for simplicities sake leave everyone else's sorting canon). He's always a Gryffindor and tends to turn on a Slytherin Harry, Ginny, or Harry/Ginny. In the first book he rants how evil Slytherins are throughout the train ride, but in the confines of the book he yields up several traits of a Slytherin. Granted he's got courage in spades, however there are a few things that stand out to me on why Ron would make a good Slytherin. A lot is made out of his chess abilities, sometimes way more is read into it than should be (a good chess player does not a tactician make - sorry it is a small pet peeve of mine), but I do think it shows at least the ability to be cunning. Then there is his reflection in the Mirror of Erised. Now if that isn't ambition I don't know what is. Cunning and ambition I believe are the hallmarks of Slytherin, no?

So what I'd like to see as a challenge would be the reactions to Ron being sorted there (while Harry goes into Gryffindor). Particularly Ron's and Harry's POV are what I'd find most interesting, but other characters (or even just the Sorting Hat's thoughts) could be intriguing as well.

I would think that you could do a single or multi-POV well within 10k words or even use it as a base for a much larger story.

So what do you think?