The Changeling - Tumblr Posts
How did the parlor come to exist? Who would Ginny be by the end of the changeling if it didn’t??
I imagine The Parlor was born out of information, practices, and people being slowly marginalized, maligned, and outlawed. In ancient cultures women’s knowledge might have been valued, but it was also probably also always secret or protected or at least ‘kept to the women’s quarters’ so to speak. But as male knowledge, power, and systems evolved and grew more powerful, women’s knowledge had to go underground--back to the earth from which it came, one might say. Both to protect itself, but also to ensure that it was never lost.
The Parlor is an extension of this vast network, this vestige of beliefs, practices, and knowledges patriarchy says is all better forgotten. And it far predates Hogwarts.
It’s hard to say who Ginny would be by the end of The Changeling without it. She would still be Ginny, she would still be tested, still find strength. I keep thinking of what Antonia said to her in in my head we do everything right when Ginny say she didn’t know who she would be without Antonia and she answers, “You’d be you. Only less interesting.” But something else Ginny might have been, was far more like Snape. Though what kept Ginny from that fate was a combination of The Parlor and the DA. So it’s hard to know. It’s all so thoroughly entwined.
i was really surprised that ginny and smita’s friendship faded bc i’m so used to characters becoming best/forever friends with the first person they become attached to. why did you decide to have smita exit ginny’s life? and do you think tobias and ginny would still have the same friendship they do now if smita was still friends with them?
I think that was the reason why? In fic things are always so ‘forever’ in ways that are not always true in real life. Considering we have Harry, Ron, and Hermione who have a rough start but are then besties for life, I wanted to show that not all friendships go that way. It’s actually much more common to have people in our lives who are so important for a period of time, but then not anymore. Whether that is moving away, growing apart, having a nasty fall out, or what, it does happen. And it’s natural and doesn’t have to be dramatic, and you can still love people deeply and have them just have a different place in your life than they used to.
I think Tobias and Ginny would have still been friends, but it would have been different. They went through the gauntlet together, so to speak. But with Smita still in the picture, I don’t think Tobias would have pulled the double agent thing. And he wouldn’t have been forced to open up to Ginny in ways he normally wouldn’t have. And the same goes for Ginny.
Hinny Alt files? Im going through withdrawals until you post the next chapter and will take any Hinny you can give
Ah ha! Oh, this file. Honestly, you know that this one is? This is the indulgent file where I wrote a ton of alternate scenes for The Changeling and Armistice. Like a bunch of, ‘well, what if Harry and Ginny had gotten together at this point in the story? what would that have looked like?’ What if in the middle of their huge row in the cloister, Harry had given into that urge to just lean over and kiss her? Or, what if in that final scene the night before the trio left for Australia, Harry had just leaned in a little closer and Ginny had thrown all fear aside and kissed him? You know, those kind of things. Here, have one in all it’s half-completed glory. I doubt I’ll ever do anything with these anyway.
To be honest, Ginny still isn’t sure herself why Harry agreed to do this. But watching him with Reiko, the way he looks so comfortable talking about something he clearly loves, it reminds her of the DA. She wonders if maybe Harry is missing it too.
He really is a great teacher. He’s patient and never condescending, and even Reiko seems grudgingly willing to admit that she learned a lot in the short half hour they spend together.
“Thanks, Harry,” Reiko says when they’re done, shaking his hand.
“Sure,” Harry says, smiling at her.
Reiko heads up towards the castle, pausing when Ginny doesn’t immediately follow.
“I’ll catch up with you,” Ginny says, waving her on.
“Sure,” Reiko says, looking between the two of them. “See you later.”
Once Reiko is gone, Ginny turns and smiles at Harry. “That was…really great. Thanks so much for doing this.”
Harry’s staring down at his feet, suddenly looking awkward. “No problem,” he says.
She touches his arm. “Seriously. It means a lot.” On impulse, she leans in and gives him a quick kiss on the cheek. She pulls back, giving him an embarrassed smile. “See you later.”
She moves as if to go back up the castle, but his hand on her arm stops her. “Ginny.”
“Yeah?” she asks, turning back to look at him. There’s an expression on his face that inexplicably makes her want to squirm. She forces herself to stand still and wait.
“Hogsmeade,” he blurts.
“What about it?” The first trip is coming up in a few days.
“I thought maybe…”
Ginny leans forward, completely thrown to see Harry quite this flustered. “You thought?”
“You would like to go there. With me.” The words are kind of tumbled together, but she hears them distinctly all the same.
“With you,” she repeats.
He rubs at the back of his head. “Well, uh, yeah.”
“Like…a date?” she asks, just needing to be really clear on exactly what is happening, because her body feels a little funny.
His chin comes up, his shoulders squaring like he’s committing the idea. “Yeah.”
Ginny is so completely thrown by this that she does nothing more than stare at him for a long moment. She can feel her brain stuttering helplessly under the basic thought Harry wants to date me? Harry…likes me?
How has she missed this? How could she possibly have not noticed?
She doesn’t even get to consider her own feelings, because Harry pulls back away from her.
“It’s fine,” he says, giving her a brittle smile. “Forget I asked.”
And then he’s walking away from her.
She considers calling out after him, but honestly has no idea what she would say.
* * *
She doesn’t see Harry anywhere the next few days, like he has some secret way of knowing where she is at all times so he can avoid her. It’s disconcerting.
She uses the time to think it all through though, to consider the offer from all angles. To figure out what she would have said if he hadn’t walked off so quickly. It doesn’t take her that long, considering.
And Harry is still nowhere to be found.
Still, strategy has always been one of her strengths, so she settles in to wait.
On Saturday morning, she waits by the gates, stepping out on the path next to Harry as he passes. He nearly stumbles over his feet as he shoots her a comical look of surprise, and she really shouldn’t find that attractive, yet here she is.
“You never let me answer,” she says, as if their conversation has just been picked up after moments rather than days.
“I, uh,” he mumbles, giving Ron and Hermione panicked looks.
Ginny looks at her brother. “Do you think we could have a minute?”
They look at Harry and after a moment, he nods.
They walk off, Ron looking back at the multiple times. Ginny waits until they disappear around the corner.
“Like I said, you never let me answer.”
Harry has recovered himself, looking straight ahead with his hands shoved deep in his pockets. “I think your expression spoke for itself,” he says.
“Did it? What exactly did I look like?”
“Appalled.”
“Probably more like…shocked.”
He glances over at her. “Is that better?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t do well with surprises. It takes me a while to,” she gestures at her head, “work things out.”
He frowns.
“I honestly had no idea you thought about me…that way. I’m just Ron’s annoying little sister.”
“You aren’t annoying,” he says.
She looks at him, amused by his automatic defense of her. “Really?”
He sighs, starting back down the path. “Well, I’m finding you annoying right now, that’s for sure.”
She jogs to catch up, stepping across him, and he has to stumble to a stop to narrowly avoid running into her.
She smiles at him. “You really are just…” She shakes her head, not really able to put this feeling in her chest into words. She thinks she may want to say adorable, but isn’t sure how he’d take that in his current mood.
He blows out a breath. “I guess it’s too much to hope you’d be kind enough to just forget I ever asked.”
“Don’t be stupid, Harry,” she says. “I’m rarely kind.”
With that, she starts down the path, looking back at him and waiting for him to follow.
They walk the rest of the way to the village in silence.
…
She basically spends the rest of the day near him, talking with Neville and Luna, submitting herself to confused glances from Ron and something almost a little smug from Hermione.
At the end of the day, he walks her back up to the castle. When they near the gates, she turns to him. “This was fun.”
He still looks like has no idea what the hell just happened.
She thinks Harry is maybe one of those people who only gets it when he’s hit over the head with something. So she decides to kiss him. It’s little more than a brush of her lips against the corner of his mouth because he’s kind of tall and hard to reach.
He lets out a small sound of surprise, but she’s pulling back before he can react. He looks stunned, but also pleased, his hand lifting to touch where she kissed him.
“Yes, by the way,” she says back over her shoulder as she walks away.
“What?” he calls after her.
“My answer. It was yes.”
Smiling to herself, she heads back into the castle.
Why did Ginny kiss Harry back in her sixth year in The Changeling? Did she finally realize she liked him ? Or she did it because it felt good?
Ginny kissed Thompson back because it felt nice and she figured ‘why not, he’s a nice guy’ and she was kind of curious to see what it would be like.
Ginny kissed Harry back despite their fights and misunderstandings and being in different houses and everything in her brain telling her it’s a terrible idea. Not because it felt good or she was curious, but because she wanted to do that for a very long time, because of how she feels around him, and because, in that moment, she realized she wasn’t going to be able to get away with pretending otherwise anymore. But maybe that’s okay. Harry, as always, somehow makes everything feel a little less scary.
Hi Annerb! Thanks for the Lucky series, and all your other Slytherin!Ginny work, which has been a delight and also helped me understand some things about myself. You mentioned using D/D alignment charts for Hogwarts houses. Could you please expand a bit on that, if that's alright?
Okay, so the D&D alignment charts have two main axes: lawful/neutral/chaotic and good/neutral/evil. (And full disclosure up front that I am not an expert at this at all. I just used it as guidelines and a starting point to help me think about the houses and formulate my general approach for writing The Changeling.)
Let’s look at the first. We can break it down very simplistically to these two ideas:
Lawful – creatures of habit Chaotic – unpredictable
Hufflepuffs and Slytherin are both creatures of habit, more tied to convention, tradition, and law. Gryffindors and Ravenclaw are not bound by tradition, and can be unpredictable, they are more likely to follow their whims.
Now, the second set is where things got a bit more sticky: good versus evil. Which I will admit, I refused to put any house in evil. That was kind of the whole point of The Changeling. I guess for me, individual action will be what puts someone in the evil category. But I still looked at Good versus Neutral.
Good – altruism, respect for all life, personal sacrifice for greater good Neutral – “have compunctions against killing the innocent but lack the commitment to make sacrifices to protect or help others. Neutral people are committed to others by personal relationships.” (from this wiki)
To me, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindor both fall into ‘good.’ They put altruism above all things and support of ‘the good’ as a broad concept. Ravenclaw and Slytherin, while not being evil or against ‘good,’ do not necessarily see the same ‘greater good’ that the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff might. Their commitment is shaped by something else, in this case, personal relationships or webs of exchange. (Though I might argue that Ravenclaw are shaped by pursuit of knowledge/understanding above all else.) They are both more driven by ambition than altruism.
So we end up with:
Hufflepuff – lawful good (though you might be able to argue neutral good, altruism above law)
Gryffindor – chaotic good
Ravenclaw – chaotic neutral
Slytherin – lawful neutral
What I love with this, ultimately, is that some of the houses share an element in common, they are just shaped slightly different by their other alignment. Such as, Hufflepuff and Gryffindors both focus on the greater good, but Hufflepuffs do it through the lens of law and tradition and stability, while Gryffindors approach it through chaotic disregard for any tradition or law that gets in their way. Similarly, Hufflepuff and Slytherin are both bound by tradition and law, but Hufflepuff focuses on the greater good, while Slytherin focuses on the relationships that bind people together (whether blood or other connection).
But then you have the houses aligned to opposite corners from each other. Like with Slytherin and Gryffindor, and you can almost see how they speak a different language entirely. To the Slytherin, the Gryffindor are chaotic and have no respect for tradition and convention and are completely out of control, and to the Gryffindor, Slytherin are staid and boring and have giant sticks up their arses. To a Gryffindor, they only see Slytherin not supporting their vision of the greater good, and miss the web of relationships that ground their morality, which might lend itself towards a view of them as ‘evil’. And for a Slytherin, this Gryffindor ‘friend to all’ might seem like a lack of conviction, a caprice that shows no true deep forging of any kind of true relationship ties. They seem like giant faking hypocrites.
You also have Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw similarly oriented. To a Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff seems to lack imagination, interests, or deep commitments. To Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw are unpredictable and cold, and frankly frightening.
Ultimately when writing these houses, it’s realizing that none of them are wrong, they just view the world through different lenses. But also understanding how much perception plays into the ways these houses interact. How much they are all primed to misunderstand each other. But also how much they are set up to help each other. This really is where my understanding of what a unified DA could be in the final year of the war. And helped guide me for all the interactions between the houses.
(As a side note for the Armistice Series, I think a great example of perceptions being shaped by alignments is from in my head we do everything right, specifically how Harry perceived Ginny’s actions during her inquiry. He saw them as self-sacrifice for the greater good (his own alignment), whereas having been in Ginny’s head during the events, we know she wasn’t thinking about the greater good or noble self-sacrifice. She wasn’t thinking about what was right and good, she was thinking about the DA/her friends (her in-group), and what she was not willing to let them be subjected to. How she would use law and convention to protect herself and them as well. She never once was like “Oh, I’ll just let myself get chucked in jail to prove a point.” But that is exactly what Harry sees (and what he would probably do). It’s a fun little look into the different ways they approach things, and how it can lead to misunderstandings sometimes, but also most importantly that their outcomes are aligned, even if their approaches are not.)
Do you remember how you came up with the scene of Ginny being forced to get a tatto? Was that something you had in mind pretty early on? I think it had such a huge impact on a loooot of things after the years, in different ways
Well, at first it just seemed like kind of a vile, shitty thing someone like Draco Malfoy might do to someone he secretly hated, but was having fun stringing along. I knew from the start that Ginny’s dismay at being in Slytherin was not missed by her housemates. She hasn’t really endeared herself, acting like she’s morally superior or something, too good for Slytherin. And Draco is just being a petty shit, showing off for his friends. It was after I first thought of it though, that the long-term implications started to occur to me, and I realized what a long term reminder and symbol that could be, about surfaces and assumptions and control of one’s own destiny--about the ways it might make people assume things about her and how hard that would be, and how powerful it would be for her to turn that to her benefit. So it was an idea bouncing around from the beginning, but one that the symbolism and repercussions took a while to develop.
This was idly bouncing around my head after finishing your armistice series (love it, LOVE your women). A lot of the conflict revolves around Ginny's and the extent that other characters know about it. For clarity, I was curious about what Ginny knows of Harry, seeing as she interacted less with him in her Hogwarts years than in canon and you've alluded to some offscreen convos between the two (like Snape and the contents of the prophecy) and Harry's life has always been more public than others
If I am reading this right, you’re wondering how much Ginny knows about Harry’s experiences and conflicts during the war, since Harry’s lack of knowledge about Ginny’s often drove the conflict in the stories? His life has always been more public in some ways, yes, but he’s also been talking to Ginny about stuff pretty much since his fifth year (his fear of being possessed by Voldemort). And the conversations about the prophecy and Snape weren’t off-screen. (He tells her about the prophecy at the beginning of chapter 6 in The Changeling, and he tells her about Snape at the very end of chapter 10 of The Changeling.) Just in general he’s told her more about his experiences--she knows about him going into the forest, she knows about him being a horcrux, the prophecy, the role Snape played, Harry’s fears of having to be a killer, how horrid being on the run was, his fight with Ron and Ron leaving, etc, etc. I think the only big things Ginny doesn’t know about by the end of in my head we do everything right is the Deathly Hallows and his investigation into Rowle and the lantern.
Actual question now. I saw on some answer post, you seemed to be implying that The Parlor was the Room of Requirement the entire time? Am I wrong on this? I think my impression, I guess, in both canon and in the fic, is that the Room of Requirement is solidly located in a specific area of the school, on the seventh floor in Rowling-canon iirc. And I kept imagining The Parlor as being part of the dungeons. Have I missed or misinterpreted something?
Nope. These are two completely different spaces and entities. The seventh floor sounds about right. And The Parlor is pretty much deep down almost under the Black Lake. Are you maybe thinking about the fact that when needed, the two of them created a passageway between them, despite how distant they are from each other? (Also, The Parlor still exists in perfect working order, where I headcanon that the fiendfyre attack in Deathly Hallows pretty much did in the Room of Requirement. And yes, I think of these spaces as somewhat sentient, like Hogwarts itself, and The Parlor absolutely would have cut and run on the Room of Requirement to save itself.)
Hi love your story but magic is forbidden in islam could give some insight on how Muslim wizards and witches deal with that. I'm Muslim and I really enjoyed how you wrote nadra.
Thanks so much for this question! The first thing to be said it that I am not Muslim. Anything I say is obviously an outsider’s interpretation. So I apologize if I inadvertently say something that lands on anyone in a harmful way. (If you feel comfortable enough to tell me that something has landed on you with harm, I am honored to hear it and will listen and reflect to do better in the future.) I have studied Islam, though I am no where near an expert, let alone even someone who is properly knowledgeable. Okay. So all of that said, I think there are a couple ways I could go with this.
1. Magic is also technically forbidden in Christianity. (Behold all the people who banned the HP books and still forbid their children from reading it today.) And yet, Harry Potter clearly lives in a Christian world. (Easter, Christmas, etc). So there is precedent for something being forbidden, but still being practiced within the confines of that culture/religion. Is it even possible to make a (fictional) inference that perhaps the splitting of wizards from muggles lead to a demonization of magic in response? An interesting thought.
2. It is my (very limited) understanding that the Qur’an forbids the use of magic to impersonate a prophet. That no one may use magic or illusions to claim to be speaking for God. While this could be extrapolated to ban all use of magic, it could also be interpreted that the use to which the magic is put is the forbidden element. The hadith may have more specific things to say against magic, I am sure. Though, the prohibitions also seem to build from an understanding that magic comes from djinn and other beings considered demonic. Which does not deny that magics exist, only that they are evil.
In the context of all of this, if one were comfortable with the idea, it would be extremely interesting to explore what it means to be a Muslim and to be born magical. How would one deal with that? I tried to show that Shafiqs clearly chose to isolate themselves from Hogwarts and have their own approaches and understandings of magic. I think it would be really interesting to explore that. Obviously this is not my story to write, as I would be trying to speak to an experience that is not my own and undoubtedly failing and causing harm as I did. But I would LOVE to read it.
I reached out to my friend @ekjohnston, author extraordinaire and generally super supportive YA queen, and she sent me a list of Muslim YA authors who write in the fantasy/magic genre of books. So maybe you could check out their work! Somaiya Daud, Sabaa Tahir, Karuna Riazi, London Shah, Nafiza Azad, Taherah Mafi, Hafsah Faizel, Hanna Alkaf, Melissa Bashardoust, and I am sure many others.
Personally, I chose to include the Shafiqs as characters, both because it is canon that the Shafiqs are part of the Noble 28, and it helped answer the question I had about what kind of wizards might chose not to go to Hogwarts but might get forced back due to the new laws that last year. I also wanted to make sure it was acknowledged openly in the text that there is far more diversity in the wizarding world than Harry or even Ginny’s POV might have led us to believe. And Ginny as a Christian-coded, white person making mistakes and miss-stepping and realizing some of the prejudices she carries around and not demanding others explain things to her or do the work for her, but learning herself, and realizing she will never know everything but that listening to people tell their own stories is the most important…that is my experience and story to tell.
Who were Tobias’s friends before he got to know Ginny and Smita?
Oh, he had a pretty good casual rapport with the boys of his year. Chatting with them and complaining about homework and such. As we’ve seen, Tobias is really great at being all surface and charming ease. He never deeply bonded with any of them. Not helped by his general disregard of sport and disinterest in competition of any kind. He’s that kid who is popular just by merit of seeming to not give a shit if he’s popular. It left a lot of people unsure if he’s really just a waste of space or if he is someone who is really going to go places–a prime confidence man. And the possibility of the latter would keep most Slytherin on his good side.
(I did create a list of all the students by year at some point while I was working on The Changeling, but canonically, the people Ginny’s year aren’t mentioned much in the books. So I have on my list Ginny, Smita, Bridget, Helena, Tobias, Kieran Harper, and someone named Gilbert. Some of these I made up and others I grabbed from HP wikis or something.)
Do you think Ginny’s need for everything to be under her control (which we still have to discuss how different it is from Hermione’s), besides the emotional and traumatic aspects, may also come from her fear of being powerless? Better put, of not having power? And that makes her strive for it more? If it is, it’s a very Slytherin trait for sure
Oh, yes. She would much rather be in a position to have power that she chooses not to use, than to not have power at all. I think it is definitely a Slytherin trait. But also definitely out of her trauma from Tom, from being completely powerless and swearing to herself that she would never find herself in that position of weakness again. I think this is something both Ginnys have in common, and was honestly one of the reasons I thought she could actually work in Slytherin. She isn’t interested in controlling others, only interested in controlling her own destiny and path, and anyone who would try to take that away from her.
And, yes, I think Hermione’s need to control comes from a different place. Primarily the belief that she knows better than everyone else. It probably sounds egotistical, and it is a bit, but it also comes from what I imagine is Hermione’s feeling that she is Very Smart, that this smartness has been ingrained in her as being her core characteristics, her one valuable trait. (She’s bad with people and emotions and does not easily make friends, and maybe panics under stressful situations and doesn’t make the best leader or dueler, but she can always count on being smart, on Knowing Useful Things, and it’s the one thing that if she puts her effort into it, it always pays off, whereas other areas it never seems to matter how hard she tries, it always goes wrong.) Hermione isn’t interested so much in power in and of itself, as in Doing What’s Right, and Knowing More Than Everyone Else What’s Best.
Woah, Ginny used magic to split herself? Is there something that I missed that suggested that? Can you expand on that?
“What troubles you, Mistress?”
Ginny looks up at Nymue, shaking her head. “It’s nothing, I just…” She glances helplessly around at the stacks and stacks of books. “Are there any texts on Occlumency in here?”
“No,” she says. “You won’t find any conventional magics in these books.”
“Conventional?” Ginny echoes.
“Wand magic,” Nymue clarifies.
Ginny frowns. “What other kind of magic is there?”
Nymue gives her a slow smile. “My dear, there are limitless other kinds.”
Ginny’s cheeks flush, Nadira’s scathing voice echoing in her mind. It’s never even occurred to you that it could be your world that is limited, not mine.
Nymue flicks a finger and a text slides out of one of the shelves. “If you have interest in the keeping of secrets, of mind protections, perhaps this book could be of use.”
The book floats over and lands on the pedestal.
Ginny crosses over to look down at the rich blood red leather cover of the text, the title embossed in gold in a language she is unfamiliar with. She reaches for it.
“Fair warning that the magics contained in these texts have been banned by many of the modern governments.”
Ginny pulls her hand back. “Why? Are they dangerous?”
“Dangerous to whom?” Nymue counters with. “To the casters? Or to the wand masters?”
“Wand masters,” Ginny repeats, brow furrowed. It’s a strange phrase.
Nymue gives her a smile that is a little hard, a little predatory. “Is anything truly without risk?”
Ginny picks up the book.
and a bit later after she reads the book:
She feels like that a lot these days, like two people existing inside the same body.
She stills as it occurs to her that being two people could be useful. One of her would never think of the dangerous things at all.
Snape watches her calmly, as if waiting to see which side will win.
But maybe neither side has to win, Ginny thinks.
“I believe I understand, sir,” she says.
Ginny uses the book from Nymue, and the forbidden magics within, to make herself into a perfect, compartmentalized Occlumens. Even as she worries what that makes of her, and knows she won’t really probably be ‘whole’ again.
She lets herself be an open book, or at least one of her selves. The least dangerous but no less authentic one, the Slytherin with Muggle-loving parents and ruthlessness in her heart. The one who understands the importance of lowering her head and going along with whatever will keep her life preserved. Who misses Quidditch and hates History of Magic and is scared of what happens down in the dungeons. The girl who misses her best friends and is swamped by loneliness sometimes.
This Ginny has no doubts except about herself, no reservations about the lies she is being fed, no training in Occlumency. She’s never kissed Harry or mourned Burbage.
There are no edges to be found, no trap doors or defenses. Just endless depths for him to probe and dig through and feel he knows her, all of her.
She is an ocean—fathomless and swelling.
It’s what Snape suspects later, but has no way to know for certain.
Snape remains sitting. “Your progress as an Occlumens has…exceeded my expectations. You show a rare gift.”
She knows this is meant to be a compliment, but instead it seems to settle deep in her stomach like a stone. We aren’t monsters.
“Some of that is talent,” he says, “and some work ethic. But also, I suspect, something more.”
Her chin lifts. She reminds herself that there is no way for him to know.
“Perhaps something a bit more unorthodox?” he presses, like she might be pushed into bragging.
She has learned far too well not to let her surprise show, simply mirroring back his own calm expression.
His lips twitch. “I could ask you about that, but I realize far too well I am doubtful to get an answer, even if I tried to take it.”
He definitely suspects she’s been dabbling in something beyond curriculum, but then he’s never been bothered by stepping outside the rules when required. He’s also the only one to suspect that she does this again with Crabbe and Goyle in later chapters.
Sometimes I think about your Ginny and Harry and that scene at Slughorn’s dinner and how Parlor Ginny saves Harry (and probably Neville) from doing saying and doing something he’d regret. But how different that is from how she usually saves him by being Cloister Ginny. Does it make any sense? Maybe not.
This one got me thinking. I think you definitely makes sense, though I may be interpreting your ask incorrectly. The way Ginny protects Harry (and others) in public is very much about weaponizing her carefully collected information and her persona, like at that Slughorn dinner. (Though I am honestly not sure that she did that just to keep him from doing something he’d regret as much as refusing to let him feel like no one at that table has his back. She stops EVERYONE at the table from coming after him or making him uncomfortable for the rest of the evening, mostly because it pissed her off and she’s always had way low impulse control when it comes to Harry.)
Harry defends Ginny in public very similarly, only instead of those much more ‘Slytherin’ tactics, he physically puts himself between Ginny and any danger or attack, like during the DADA NEWT exam where he uses magic to protect her, throwing up an enormous protective shield in reaction to her getting hurt, and then physically putting himself between Robards and Ginny when he seems to be angrily advancing on her. He’s ready to take the hits for her if he has to (as Harry is very willing to do for almost anyone he considers an innocent or in his in-group).
Now who they are in spaces like the cloister is incredibly different because that isn’t public. In these private spaces, they ‘save’ each other in very different ways, and I think that is a fundamental part of who they are to each other. In private, they don’t have to fall back on those other thing–which for both of them is a rare thing, not to mention that those parts of themselves, while fundamental to their character, are also not things they necessarily are comfortable with. In spaces like the cloister, Harry doesn’t feel like he is only good for throwing spells and taking hits, and Ginny doesn’t feel like she is only good for manipulating people and making the hard decisions. They are each most helpful to the other in simply giving space and having enough trust built between them to allow them to be themselves. They ‘save’ each other just through being there, by having space to talk and wonder and be wrong, and through physical comfort. Just like Ginny allowing Harry to talk through his thoughts about his confliction over his father and Snape or what he did to Malfoy. Or Harry holding Ginny and letting her cry over George. These things are not about what they can do for the other person, but how they provide space for them to just be themselves.
Hello! I’m rereading The Changeling and I can’t remember for the life of me what Ginny meant by ‘more like power is the weakling’s ambition’, Antonia’s pride and her own conclusions after that. Could you elaborate please?
She forces herself to tune back in to what Antonia is saying about a letter she just received from her parents. Apparently some wizards came by their bookshop to get her family to pay a “protection fee” in these unsettled times. Common enough in Diagon and Knockturn Alleys these days apparently.
Antonia scoffs. “They didn’t count on my Auntie Victoria.”
Ginny huffs. “Probably were just hoping your family would be too scared to do anything,” she says scathingly.
“Fear is the weakling’s power,” Antonia says, sash drawn dramatically across her chest.
“More like power is the weakling’s ambition,” she counters.
Antonia looks at her in surprise, delicately penciled eyebrow crawling up under her fringe.
“What?” Ginny demands, shifting uncomfortably under her gaze.
Antonia smiles then, a dazzling spread of red lips over perfectly white teeth. “So you’re learning at last.”
Ginny scowls at her, not liking to be spoken to as if an unruly child, even as she knows Antonia has a valid point. Ginny hadn’t understood when she first met Antonia, mistaking ambition for maliciousness, unconventional thought for something as simple as evil. There is no easy corollary to be found between ordinary –normal?—and good. An entire world of nuance and subtlety and extraordinary exists in the spaces between.
She can see that. She just wishes other people could too.
I assume this scene from chapter five is what you are referencing.
Ah, the great foible of Slytherin. Assuming that to be ambitious means to lusting after power. Ginny is at once acknowledging that ambition is much more complex than merely wanting to have power over other people, and also beginning to see how that thirst for power more than anything else is perhaps a sign, ultimately, of weakness. The weak hoping to not be weak, but also a weakness of ambition to see so narrowly.
Remember, this conversation around power started in the previous year in the context of Umbridge and her actions, as ultimately being about trying to have power over all decisions, over Dumbledore and his supposed 'army', and over the whole school--and what that mean and how it landed on the students in really disturbing ways. And in the scene you are talking about above, it's in the context of Harry and his narrow of view of Slytherin and her, and her anger over it. They've just had their big fight over Draco Malfoy that is really more about Ginny thinking Harry isn't capable of seeing nuance when it comes to Slytherin. That maybe all he can see is that they are all after power and therefore are all evil. That there is no difference between ambition and evil. When she knows very well that there is far more grey than that, that the grey is the entire point. Ginny, at this point, does not crave power over people. She never really does. When she does wield power over people, it is merely as a tool, not an end in and of itself. Controlling people itself is never the point. Her ambition is ultimately about being true to herself, to the knowing and accepting of her own strengths and weaknesses both. She just wishes she could be seen for them by others (Harry) too.
Craving power as an end in and of itself is both a weakness in understanding and in a weakness in ambition. True ambition would reach far beyond it.
Maybe this is dumb, sorry, but I just wasn't sure. Ginny became member of the Parlor the second she was invited, right? And she could go back any time she wanted? So when Antonia 'asked her again' when she was going do a reading, it wasn't actually Ginny's second chance?
Yes. Though Antonia is the queen of second chances, this was more about Ginny thinking she deserved a second chance. Also a way to highlight that for Ginny, she is in foreign territory with rules and rituals and practices that she does not understand (and for a while doesn’t want to understand). All of which contributes to her feeling of not belonging. But it is not that the others don’t think she belongs, or even that she doesn’t, rather that Ginny’s perspective and understanding is the thing that needs to grow. Both of herself and of the space she inhabits.
I'm so grateful to you for creating all these truly marvellous characters. Especially the parlour girls who own my heart. I adore Theodora and Antonia, the temper and fierceness beneath all that iron control. And I would read all seven books from their perspective and more. Thank you for giving us these stories.
Thank you so much!
What an interesting series of books those would be. They would be so far removed from Harry’s adventures and experiences as to be hardly recognizable, I think. It was fun enough to imagine what all the trio’s shenanigans would look like to Ginny who is only peripherally involved, but still is. Imagine what all of that looked like from older students who are wholly unconnected to the Weasleys and not privy to the actions of the Order. I’m sure someone has to have written that fic–the war through the eyes of a background character.
Of course with Theodora and Antonia, we would get a glimpse into two very different family dynamics–Theodora from an elite, upper class Pureblood family, trying to work within the constraints of tradition and yet achieve every single one of her ambitions without apology or compromise, and Antonia from her rather unique family of heterodox women who society is often too scared to look down on (hags, some might call them with a sneer, but only once).
I would quite like to read that myself. Someone else please magically remove this vague image I have of them from my head and flesh it out. Thanks, I appreciate it.
Hi, I'm sorry I don't know if you've already answered this, but I was wondering why you made Bletchley the Slytherin captain instead of Montague? Also, was Millicent in the Inquisitorial Squad like she was in the books? I don't think so because she's in the Parlor, but I wanted to ask you anyway. I love your writing, but please don't feel pressured and take your time. Have a good day :)
The short answer is that Montague was the Chaser whose spot Ginny took. So he was no longer on the team, meaning Bletchley got the badge instead. (Which also allowed me to sidestep Montague, who JKR clearly made a kind of nasty dude. It was my way of trying to humanize the Slytherin I could while working around the already-established-as-horrid Slytherin.) Of course, in the process of answering this I am realizing a mistake I made in chapter 2 of The Changeling. I specifically mentioned Terrance Higgs as a kind of mean Chaser, which should have been Montague, seeing as how Higgs was the Seeker that Draco replaced. So whoops, my bad.
Millicent in the Inquisitorial Squad is another one of those moments. It was a matter of giving greater depth to Slytherin characters. Where I could, I just tried to explain why Harry’s perception was what it was. I couldn’t work around Crabbe and Goyle and Draco being nasty. And I left Pansy as the sort of coldly nasty character too. But I felt Millicent, of all of them, even though she had very specific, nasty run ins with Hermione, might have been really misunderstood. I also don’t like the way she is specifically pointed out in the text as being unattractive and more than likely fat and a physically mean and nasty bully. (Which boy, the ink I could spill on JKRs depiction of fatness as a negative trait, even Molly is just ‘plump’ like there has to be some distinction to tie to moral lines–like looking down on someone who is frumpy is classist, but being wary of fat people is just good sense. Come on, JKR, you’re better than this.) So I decided that of all the Slytherin that were established in the narrative that I could give an alternate approach to, I wanted it to be her. So I thought about who she could be, not to completely change her. I was happy to leave her aloofness, her prickly approach (which, if the text is any indication, she probably herself was probably the recipient of some nasty treatment due to her looks). She doesn’t owe anyone smiles and pleasantness. She can be exactly who she is and still be three-dimensional and pivotal and important. So was she still an Inquisitorial Squad member? No, I don’t think so. I could maybe buy her working for Umbridge, but definitely not the Carrows. I’m not sure if we read that as a change I made to her character or a change that came about because of Ginny’s leadership in The Parlor. I like to think it’s the latter. As much as The Parlor girls expanded Ginny’s idea of who people can be, she also impacted her sisters’ understanding and approach to class lines and pureblood culture and the war in general.
Thanks for the ask!
Two questions on the girls and women of the Parlor: First, how much do they know about what happened during the early books of Harry Potter? What does Theodora think happened to Quirrell, and just what was he trying to steal, for example. Second, will we ever see Harry interact with them after the relationship goes public?
That’s an interesting question. Because I seem to recall Dumbledore saying something to Harry like, what happened with Quirrell is a complete secret, so naturally everyone knows. So my take from that is that everyone knows about Voldemort being in the back of Quirrell’s head? I doubt anyone knew about the philosopher’s stone, really. And to judge from everyone’s reactions in the fifth book when Harry starts smart-mouthing Umbridge over Quirrell being an alright teacher except for having VOLDEMORT in the back of his head, I wonder if people ever really believed it? Or if they just kind of wrote it off? I think even the idea of Voldemort was so scary and the idea of war so foreign to most of these kids, it was easier to try to forget. Or assume it was an exaggeration.
As for Theodora, who would have been a fourth year at the time, I think she would be less likely to brush off the information as rumor. Like most things, she quietly collected it, thought about what it might mean for her and her future, and then carried on, ears always open for more. The fight against Voldemort wasn’t hers, but a thing to be navigated. Men could carry on destroying each other to their heart’s content as far as she was concerned.
Harry will get a chance to interact with the former Parlor girls. Though more Antonia than Theodora. Though now that you’ve put it in my head the idea is tantalizing! Especially if she tried to give Ginny another little ‘test’ of hers and Harry lost his shite over someone talking to her that way. Ha. That would be fun. As for Astoria…yes. Meaning Draco will more than likely drift back into Harry’s sphere. That will be fun.
Ravenclaw: Are you two fighting ot flirting?
Slytherin and Gryffindor: Yes
Hi Annerb! Thanks for the Lucky series, and all your other Slytherin!Ginny work, which has been a delight and also helped me understand some things about myself. You mentioned using D/D alignment charts for Hogwarts houses. Could you please expand a bit on that, if that's alright?
Okay, so the D&D alignment charts have two main axes: lawful/neutral/chaotic and good/neutral/evil. (And full disclosure up front that I am not an expert at this at all. I just used it as guidelines and a starting point to help me think about the houses and formulate my general approach for writing The Changeling.)
Let’s look at the first. We can break it down very simplistically to these two ideas:
Lawful – creatures of habit Chaotic – unpredictable
Hufflepuffs and Slytherin are both creatures of habit, more tied to convention, tradition, and law. Gryffindors and Ravenclaw are not bound by tradition, and can be unpredictable, they are more likely to follow their whims.
Now, the second set is where things got a bit more sticky: good versus evil. Which I will admit, I refused to put any house in evil. That was kind of the whole point of The Changeling. I guess for me, individual action will be what puts someone in the evil category. But I still looked at Good versus Neutral.
Good – altruism, respect for all life, personal sacrifice for greater good Neutral – “have compunctions against killing the innocent but lack the commitment to make sacrifices to protect or help others. Neutral people are committed to others by personal relationships.” (from this wiki)
To me, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindor both fall into ‘good.’ They put altruism above all things and support of ‘the good’ as a broad concept. Ravenclaw and Slytherin, while not being evil or against ‘good,’ do not necessarily see the same ‘greater good’ that the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff might. Their commitment is shaped by something else, in this case, personal relationships or webs of exchange. (Though I might argue that Ravenclaw are shaped by pursuit of knowledge/understanding above all else.) They are both more driven by ambition than altruism.
So we end up with:
Hufflepuff – lawful good (though you might be able to argue neutral good, altruism above law)
Gryffindor – chaotic good
Ravenclaw – chaotic neutral
Slytherin – lawful neutral
What I love with this, ultimately, is that some of the houses share an element in common, they are just shaped slightly different by their other alignment. Such as, Hufflepuff and Gryffindors both focus on the greater good, but Hufflepuffs do it through the lens of law and tradition and stability, while Gryffindors approach it through chaotic disregard for any tradition or law that gets in their way. Similarly, Hufflepuff and Slytherin are both bound by tradition and law, but Hufflepuff focuses on the greater good, while Slytherin focuses on the relationships that bind people together (whether blood or other connection).
But then you have the houses aligned to opposite corners from each other. Like with Slytherin and Gryffindor, and you can almost see how they speak a different language entirely. To the Slytherin, the Gryffindor are chaotic and have no respect for tradition and convention and are completely out of control, and to the Gryffindor, Slytherin are staid and boring and have giant sticks up their arses. To a Gryffindor, they only see Slytherin not supporting their vision of the greater good, and miss the web of relationships that ground their morality, which might lend itself towards a view of them as ‘evil’. And for a Slytherin, this Gryffindor ‘friend to all’ might seem like a lack of conviction, a caprice that shows no true deep forging of any kind of true relationship ties. They seem like giant faking hypocrites.
You also have Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw similarly oriented. To a Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff seems to lack imagination, interests, or deep commitments. To Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw are unpredictable and cold, and frankly frightening.
Ultimately when writing these houses, it’s realizing that none of them are wrong, they just view the world through different lenses. But also understanding how much perception plays into the ways these houses interact. How much they are all primed to misunderstand each other. But also how much they are set up to help each other. This really is where my understanding of what a unified DA could be in the final year of the war. And helped guide me for all the interactions between the houses.
(As a side note for the Armistice Series, I think a great example of perceptions being shaped by alignments is from in my head we do everything right, specifically how Harry perceived Ginny’s actions during her inquiry. He saw them as self-sacrifice for the greater good (his own alignment), whereas having been in Ginny’s head during the events, we know she wasn’t thinking about the greater good or noble self-sacrifice. She wasn’t thinking about what was right and good, she was thinking about the DA/her friends (her in-group), and what she was not willing to let them be subjected to. How she would use law and convention to protect herself and them as well. She never once was like “Oh, I’ll just let myself get chucked in jail to prove a point.” But that is exactly what Harry sees (and what he would probably do). It’s a fun little look into the different ways they approach things, and how it can lead to misunderstandings sometimes, but also most importantly that their outcomes are aligned, even if their approaches are not.)