FANFICTION: Oddly Interesting
Jul. 12th, 2003 02:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockAfter much computer trouble, I bring you...
My first Harry Potter fic. It's set after Order of the Phoenix, the near the beginning of 6th year. Character piece. A short interaction between Harry and Luna in Potions class. Yeah, so they've had Potions with Slytherin every year before. And so Luna's technically a year below Harry. Blah blah. Valdemort's back from the dead, people, try to focus on the important things!
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Oddly Interesting
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Potter’s stare was prickling the side of her head yet again. In Luna Lovegood's informed opinion, the boy had the attention span of an infantile dragon. Every 27 seconds he would repeat the process: table, Snape, potion assignment, her.
Table, Snape, potion, her.
TableSnapepotionher.
All in all, Luna considered it rude; what was the point of making like you wanted to talk and not doing it? Glancing was fine, but a stare without follow-up was nobody's friend. On his next go-around she deliberately turned and caught him at it.
She smiled--because that was the nice thing to do even to rude boys--and asked him what he wanted. He faltered, muttered a few words about the Professor and points, then refocused entirely on his potion. Luna found this act unimpressive, being already aware--along with most of the student body--that Snape was as likely to take points from Harry for staring silently at the person next to him as for disrupting the class with dialogue. She inhaled slowly, rolling her eyes. Not good with girls, this one. That was fine, she was used to boys behaving rudely. Although she thought he'd be a little more polite since they'd gone into high battle together and whatnot. Teenage boys had no appreciation, even older ones.
She elbowed him hard. Partly for being a rude teenage boy and partly for altruistic reasons.
"You're doing that wrong, you know. It says 'essence of barley' not 'essence of broccoli.' It might turn you into something green."
Her expression was neutral as he stomped to the supply table set up in the front of the room. She smirked faintly when he returned, bent back down to her own work, and whispered without looking at him, "My father's best journalist wrote a story last month about a girl who was born green as grass. Would you like to see her picture?"
"No," he said.
"She's very nice looking, if you believe it. If you turned green you could go out, and have grass-green children."
"No; thanks. That won't be necessary."
"Probably for the best," she said. "You don't seem to do well with girls anyway."
There was a prolonged silence, filled with the clinking of tools against vials, the rustling of Professor Snape's robes as he stalked about the classroom, and the red cloud of The Boy Who Lived’s Misunderstood Teen Angst hanging in the atmosphere above them like a cartoon piano. Luna knew about cartoon pianos because The Quibbler had once ran an enlightening investigative report on Muggle children's television programming.
"I do fine with girls."
"Yes. Uh-huh." She carefully sprinkled dried mandrake root into her bowl of saffron wine, and didn't need to look up to feel his glare.
"What would you know about it?"
"I am a girl. You're being unnecessarily snappish. Case in point."
Harry turned back to his assignment with a pronounced sulk, and Luna smiled gently to herself as she stirred her mixture. "It's all right, Harry. This is a fairly stressful way to start a school term, I admit. New multi-year class scheduling. New DADA teacher. Everything is quite mysterious and threatening. We could all die in the next ten minutes if You Know Who should trigger a volcano to rise up right here on the Hogwarts grounds, or make it rain lung-eating squirrels, or sneak a poisoned baby storm cloud into the dorms. Yes, quite mysterious."
She finally raised her eyes, and found the glare in his had disappeared.
"You're a very odd person."
She smiled, and this time imagined as hard as she could that it made the entire room glow, and maybe helped a little with the general morale. "Thank you, Harry Potter."
From the way he looked back, she wondered if perhaps it did.
-
There. I can't believe it. Harry Potter fic. From me. I knew there was something funny in those chocolate chip cookies I ate a few hours ago.
*rereads again*
Hmm... The style's a bit jumpy and uneven, but not too bad I hope. I tried to make Harry come off with the same sometimes-surly-bitchy/sometimes-nice attitude he had through the book, and stick with what little characterization we had for Luna. I strayed away from extreme technical details, cause I'm not that familiar with canon trivia.
I also found a messageboard for H/L fans, and put it up there.
My first Harry Potter fic. It's set after Order of the Phoenix, the near the beginning of 6th year. Character piece. A short interaction between Harry and Luna in Potions class. Yeah, so they've had Potions with Slytherin every year before. And so Luna's technically a year below Harry. Blah blah. Valdemort's back from the dead, people, try to focus on the important things!
-
Oddly Interesting
-
Potter’s stare was prickling the side of her head yet again. In Luna Lovegood's informed opinion, the boy had the attention span of an infantile dragon. Every 27 seconds he would repeat the process: table, Snape, potion assignment, her.
Table, Snape, potion, her.
TableSnapepotionher.
All in all, Luna considered it rude; what was the point of making like you wanted to talk and not doing it? Glancing was fine, but a stare without follow-up was nobody's friend. On his next go-around she deliberately turned and caught him at it.
She smiled--because that was the nice thing to do even to rude boys--and asked him what he wanted. He faltered, muttered a few words about the Professor and points, then refocused entirely on his potion. Luna found this act unimpressive, being already aware--along with most of the student body--that Snape was as likely to take points from Harry for staring silently at the person next to him as for disrupting the class with dialogue. She inhaled slowly, rolling her eyes. Not good with girls, this one. That was fine, she was used to boys behaving rudely. Although she thought he'd be a little more polite since they'd gone into high battle together and whatnot. Teenage boys had no appreciation, even older ones.
She elbowed him hard. Partly for being a rude teenage boy and partly for altruistic reasons.
"You're doing that wrong, you know. It says 'essence of barley' not 'essence of broccoli.' It might turn you into something green."
Her expression was neutral as he stomped to the supply table set up in the front of the room. She smirked faintly when he returned, bent back down to her own work, and whispered without looking at him, "My father's best journalist wrote a story last month about a girl who was born green as grass. Would you like to see her picture?"
"No," he said.
"She's very nice looking, if you believe it. If you turned green you could go out, and have grass-green children."
"No; thanks. That won't be necessary."
"Probably for the best," she said. "You don't seem to do well with girls anyway."
There was a prolonged silence, filled with the clinking of tools against vials, the rustling of Professor Snape's robes as he stalked about the classroom, and the red cloud of The Boy Who Lived’s Misunderstood Teen Angst hanging in the atmosphere above them like a cartoon piano. Luna knew about cartoon pianos because The Quibbler had once ran an enlightening investigative report on Muggle children's television programming.
"I do fine with girls."
"Yes. Uh-huh." She carefully sprinkled dried mandrake root into her bowl of saffron wine, and didn't need to look up to feel his glare.
"What would you know about it?"
"I am a girl. You're being unnecessarily snappish. Case in point."
Harry turned back to his assignment with a pronounced sulk, and Luna smiled gently to herself as she stirred her mixture. "It's all right, Harry. This is a fairly stressful way to start a school term, I admit. New multi-year class scheduling. New DADA teacher. Everything is quite mysterious and threatening. We could all die in the next ten minutes if You Know Who should trigger a volcano to rise up right here on the Hogwarts grounds, or make it rain lung-eating squirrels, or sneak a poisoned baby storm cloud into the dorms. Yes, quite mysterious."
She finally raised her eyes, and found the glare in his had disappeared.
"You're a very odd person."
She smiled, and this time imagined as hard as she could that it made the entire room glow, and maybe helped a little with the general morale. "Thank you, Harry Potter."
From the way he looked back, she wondered if perhaps it did.
-
There. I can't believe it. Harry Potter fic. From me. I knew there was something funny in those chocolate chip cookies I ate a few hours ago.
*rereads again*
Hmm... The style's a bit jumpy and uneven, but not too bad I hope. I tried to make Harry come off with the same sometimes-surly-bitchy/sometimes-nice attitude he had through the book, and stick with what little characterization we had for Luna. I strayed away from extreme technical details, cause I'm not that familiar with canon trivia.
I also found a messageboard for H/L fans, and put it up there.
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-12 08:48 am (UTC)Eat more cookies.
Re:
Date: 2003-07-12 10:12 am (UTC)Thank you, that really encourages me! I've never tried HP fic before. I'm glad Luna comes off well though, because I spent a while trying to figure her out. I wanted to have her intelligent, since she's a Ravenclaw, but not sound too much like Hermione. And I wanted her to be weird too, with obscure conversation topics and an on-another-planet-currently thought process. And I thought from the book she seemed like a very kind person, with good manners, so I wanted that to show too.
I don't think Gryffindor would have Potions with Ravenclaw, though.
Technicalities, technicalities! ::waves hands dramtatically through the air in sweeping motion:: So they'd had it with Slytherin every year before. Valdemort's back from the dead, woman, try to focus on the important things!
;)
Hmm.. maybe I should put that at the top like a disclaimer...
Too bad, because I'm now hungry to see more Harry/Luna interaction.
Fic, fic, fic is how it all starts! I've found about 4 other fics with Harry/Luna themes so far, and they sucked. Well, 3 sucked and the 4th was nicely enough written but too confusing to understand what was really going on. So I had to try and raise the grade a bit. At least in Luna characterization-- I'm sure there's been Harry fics out there better than mine for a long time now.
I like it.
Date: 2003-07-12 11:19 am (UTC)Though I don't expect him to.
Re: I like it.
Date: 2003-07-12 01:17 pm (UTC)Oh, cool! That's good.
it would make stunning sense if Dumbledore, realising that the constant G/S rivalry combined with Snape's issues isn't productive to either learning nor house unity, would have arranged this.
You know, that would make sense. All the houses seem to oppose Slytherine, but Gryffindor has the worst grudge. It would be more logical to adapt for that change. Of course, there's all that tradition against it.
Very good.
Date: 2003-07-12 01:07 pm (UTC)Even with the fact that Gryffindors and Ravenclaws don't have potions together, and the fact that Luna is in the year below Harry, I still enjoyed this fic. Just giving you this note so that when you write more Harry/Luna fics (which I hope you will) all is factually correct.
-Circe (http://lifesdrama.diaryland.com)
Re: Very good.
Date: 2003-07-12 01:15 pm (UTC)Thank you very much! :D
and the fact that Luna is in the year below Harry,
Oh. You know, that completely slipped my mind. Thanks for pointing it out.
Circe... like,
no subject
Date: 2003-07-13 12:15 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-07-13 12:37 am (UTC)You did? Yay! I'm glad I posted there, then.
I love the way you've captured Luna's character in this fic. The dialogue you write for her seems very realistic and I enjoyed the details you put in, like the reference to "the red cloud of The Boy Who Lived’s Misunderstood Teen Angst".
Thank you, that's very kind. I love specific feedback.
Plus, I really like the Harry/Luna pairing (thanks for the link to the messageboard) and I'd love for you to write more.
I love them too! We'll see, though. Unless I get a sudden inpiration, I expect it will be a while before I write anything else HP. I've got a Work In Progress fic going for Cowboy Bebop that I'm commited to, and for the most part that has precedence.
I found the messageboard, actually, from a link on the FictionAlley SCUSA forum, on the first page of the Harry/Luna thread.
Re:
Date: 2003-07-13 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-13 02:18 pm (UTC)Eat more of those cookies. okay? ;)
no subject
Date: 2003-07-13 10:31 pm (UTC)Thank you! I want to see more of it too. from others. :)
Eat more of those cookies. okay? ;)
:laugh: That's what
Nice
Date: 2003-07-15 11:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-26 02:00 am (UTC)Anyway, I love L/H quite a bit. It's one of my favorite ships, and I'm writing my own story about her. This was cool!! ;) :) :D
no subject
Date: 2006-09-04 02:44 am (UTC)This? Is perfect. And your fic is excellent. Now I'm wishing Harry and Luna DID share Potions because I imagine they might very well have conversations such as these.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-04 06:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 06:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 07:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 08:50 pm (UTC)