Remix Wrapup

[lls_mutant]

I've been dying to say this for AGES. I have a rec!

The rec is midnitemaraud_r's Rise From the Ashes, which was written for the 2007 merry_smutmas. I could tell you that the reason I didn't read-n-rec when it was posted is because I was in the hospital with Trevor when it went up (which the hospital part IS actually true), but the truth is I'm not much into what seem like they should be crack-pairs normally, and I didn't follow merry_smutmas at all. So, even if I noticed it on my f-list, I just assumed it wasn't my cup of tea. After all, Teddy Lupin/Cedric Diggory? Um, yeah.

Well, it's not crack and it's not squicky adult/underage stuff- it's very, very, very, very well-written time travel, taking into account the effects of the stuff and sending Teddy back in time because he wants to meet his father. It's poignant and funny and well plotted and exciting and interesting, and the main characters are just fantastic and sympathetic and I just wanted to hug Teddy. (The fic is almost entirely from his POV.) So go read- you really won't be disappointed.

Why couldn't I rec it when I read it, and why did ? Because I had midnitemaraud_r for Remix, and (obviously), I'm the one that wrote Butterfly Casualties (The Time Traveler's Boyfriend Remix). If you didn't read it, that might come as a shock to you because, like I said, Teddy Lupin/Cedric Diggory isn't exactly my normal pairing here, or even one of my others. If you did read it, you're saying, "I know, already, all right? Thanks to the abuse of the word "some", the fact it was three posts long, and, oh, I don't know, the reference to your own fic, you weren't very anonymous!" Yeah, I'm not much on the anonymity thing. Sorry bout that.

So, to save you, much navel gazing about writing this remix

I was really excited to get midnitemaraud_r, because I've always loved her work. I want to say I even read her first piece, back when she was writing a bit based on the picture seviet did of Sirius about to kiss Remus in the snow. I THINK that was her. (Was it, Lisa?) Anyway, I was automatically drawn to the R/S stuff, just cause that's my comfort zone. But as I read through... it didn't work.

One of the things I said at one point is writing Remix is like singing on American Idol. A common AI mistake is that contestants pick songs they love, not necessarily songs that suit them. And while I love Lisa's work, there were things that I just couldn't get into remixing. They didn't fit my style or I couldn't think of another way I'd retell the story... a lot of them I just liked the way they were and my brain shut off. That was what made me read Rise From the Ashes in the first place. And that... well, that was prime for remixing! I'm a fan of the POV switch approach, but in order for that to work well, you really need a fic that truly has another side of the story. With the huge gaps that are left in Rise from the Ashes, particularly when Teddy leaves PoA and returns a day later at the end of GoF and Cedric's lived a whole YEAR, I couldn't resist.

So, it was an amazing, wonderful story to start with. But I really had fun writing this one. Partly because ever since canon closed, I'm finding AUs more fun to write. Not because I'm unhappy with canon, but I feel like I've explored a lot of what I want to explore within canon- now what would happen if you did the "what if"s? (It's another reason I didn't write R/S- I've written SO MUCH for them with AIL that I just don't have the drive to write much more, unless it's AU.) So, that aspect was fun. But I also just completely fell in love with Teddy and Cedric.

You know, I've been writing R/S for so long, I've forgotten how fun it can be to write normal people. Once I got going, I LOVED writing Cedric. Don't get me wrong, I love writing boys with issues. But it reminds me of the first fanfic novel I wrote, over in Pern. It was long and complicated and made readers cry in a lot of spots, and I LOVED the character. But one day I took a break and wrote a fun story for one of my other characters, who was just a normal kid, and it was like this huge load off. Cedric was just so much fun to write, because I didn't have all these ponderous issues hanging over his head.

The original (aka Lisa's) Teddy was a blast as well. He has a bit more baggage, what with being an orphan, but he'd also adjusted. They fit together, they weren't meant to have all these trust dramas, and the original sure strongly implied a happy ending for them. Contrary to popular belief, I do like happy endings :)

The other thing I've been dying to talk about was Cho Chang. I've never written her because of the era I do write, but I really enjoyed writing her. I've always liked her, and thought that JKR did a BRILLIANT job with Harry/Cho. Actually, to be truthful, Harry/Cho rang very true with me. When I was in high school, I started dating this guy RIGHT after my dad was diagnosed with cancer. We dated for three months, and then he just broke up with me, with very little warning. (There may have been warning signs there that I was too naive to notice.) Anyway, I've always assumed that part of what contributed to that was that it was a very, very high pressure gig, dating me at that time. I don't think he consciously thought that, and I think there were other reasons for our breakup, like he wasn't in love with me and it was just a high school romance, but I think that was part of it. (Incidentally, he still was there for me as a friend. He really was a great guy.)

One of my beefs about fiction in general is I rarely seem to run across this sort of thing- where there's a failed relationship that isn't bitter. And I liked that about breaking up Cho and Cedric, too. In my head, they stayed in touch through Christmas cards and whatever, and Cedric went to her wedding when she married Harry.

Yes, I made Cho marry Harry. Not because I hate Harry/Ginny. I like Harry/Ginny in principle and was flat-out indifferent to it in execution. But because with the way Lisa set up the rules of the fic, it wasn't going to be the same future, just with Cedric alive. And I wanted to show in my little mock-epilogue that the future did end up very different in my head. Since Sirius was still free and both Lisa and I are R/S shippers, Remus and Tonks never got together. Because I LIKED OotP Tonks, she ended up kicking ass with Harry, and probably stayed gleefully single and got a cat. The whole DA thing never happened because Cedric was able to help back up Harry's story, and Cedric's parents (with lots of authority) believed him and helped champion the cause. So Harry and Cho (who also didn't have to deal with the whole dead-boyfriend thing) actually made a go of it. Ron and Hermione still got married, though :) Sadly, one of the casualties did end up being Cedric's mother, but I think that's far less sad than cold-bloodedly murdering a seventeen year old boy. (I always really respected JKR for that one!)

Like I said, I also referenced my own fic, Mentors. I didn't mean to at first, and then I realized it fit. And then, as I was typing Remus's lines about Alphard, I literally remembered then that I really did have Alphard hooked up with Cedric's uncle for a long time. I was cracking up at the same time Remus was. I don't know- I thought it was funny :)



Anyway, if you made it through all that, thanks :) I really had fun remixing that fic, and I think it showed, in a good way. And it's nice that for once I wrote an AU where everyone doesn't DIE in the end, which is usually what happens in my AUs. (In Let the Water Hold You Down I killed everyone but Peter and Harry, and in Just Forget the World I killed everyone but James and Neville. I'm mean.)

In other news, rynne wrote Lucky Number Seven (The By the Numbers Remix), which I "guessed" but only because I was looking for the HP pinch hit writers on the list. And entrenous88 wrote Where Boys Fear to Tread (Waiting on a Friend Remix), which I definitely didn't guess because she's a new author to me. (Must go check her out.) I waxed poetical about those a few entries ago, and they were both awesome and I was very, very lucky to get two excellent fics this year.

I also must rec The Repercussions of Having Bad Hygiene (Go Further Than You Think Remix), which was written by snorkackcatcher for rynne, and I got to beta. It's a Snape gen fic. I don't usually bother reading Snape fic, and I know [Unknown site tag] doesn't usually write it, so maybe we're both tickled by something the Snapefen have read dozens of times, but I still really enjoyed this look at Snape meeting the Black brothers. It took a short post-OotP fic and expanded it with knowledge from HBP and DH. Worth the read.

Now I should either take a bath or write something else, or actually do some housework. Somehow, given how rough a morning it was, I suspect one of the first two will win!

Comments

[midnitemaraud-r.livejournal.com]

Hee! I totally knew it was you, of course! And again, I was thrilled when I saw you'd added Mentors canon into it, because I love that fic so much! I totally laughed at the references! :)

Teddy/Cedric is total crack! I mean, seriously! Even before I was assigned to her, I saw Tarie's sign-up comment for Smutmas because it was right above mine, and I saw she'd listed that as a pairing, and my reaction was totally, "holy shit, what crack has SHE been smoking?!" And then when I got the assignment, I swear, I couldn't get it out of my mind. I just demanded to be written. The only plausible way I could think of was time travel, and once I came up with using the Room of Requirement (because I loathe long period time travel with Time Turners!) well, a fic was born. :-P

I loved seeing how you envisioned the future beyond the fic, and how you figured OotP would have changed - with no DA, for example - because that's very different from how I picture it. I haven't written it yet, obviously, but in my preliminary plans toward a sequel, I envisioned a bit of a rift between Cedric and Amos, part of which stems from the way Harry once again steals the spotlight from Cedric - because even though they both won the tournament for what that's worth, I could totally see Rita's article (before Hermione catches her of course :-P) being all about Harry with the last line saying something about "oh yeah, that Sedgewick Hillary fellow". :-P Cedric never really actually saw "Voldemort" - and what he saw, Fudge, Umbridge and Co. could easily ascribe (and spin) to the pressure he was under, the dangers of the maze, hallucinations, wanting to stick up for Harry because he feels sorry for him - or even twist it into how he abandoned Harry, etc.

Plus Amos works for the Ministry, and Umbridge is no stranger to using her position to make threats. I could easily see Amos torn between his own pride, wanting to believe his son, and pressure from the Ministry, and how that would strain their relationship. If Amos discovered Cedric was having a relationship with a boy, too, well then. Um, yay strife? :-P

But that's what I love about AU's and what-ifs! There are SO many possibilities and nothing is ever "wrong".

Anyway, thank you! I know remix fics aren't technically "for" the original author, but I'm just so thrilled with the story you wrote! And I'm really glad you enjoyed writing it! Oh - yes, I wrote that R/S fic - The Snowy Day (and I'd named it that because I'd recently bought the Ezra Jack Keats book for my niece! :-P) That was actually my 3rd or 4th fic, I think, but I wrote like 5 or 6 within a 5 week period back then! A small (fleeting!) taste of what it means to be prolific! *g*

I will also give you a proper pimp in my LJ. I'm working on my Games fic, and I'm so far behind on everything!

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Your plans are definitely interesting- I can't wait to read the sequel! And it's funny, because I'm usually totally into father-son strife (Damien-Remus, anyone?), and I came up with a much nicer ending for them. Something about this fic turned off my mean streak :) But I'm really glad I ended the fic where I did, because I definitely want to read your sequel. I admit, I added the epilogue as much to make a potshot at JKR as anything else :)

And I so know the behind feeling :P I'm frantically working on my Games fic, too, and I'm reveling in being mean again >:)