I’ve always been a reader, but I wasn’t much of a writer until I became a Harry Potter fangirl and discovered Harry Potter fanfiction, which are stories written by fans utilizing the content and context of the Harry Potter book series by J. K. Rowling.
Between HP books, I, like so many other fans, longed for more HP content. I loved the characters, that whole magical world, so to satisfy the craving, I began to write down my own scenarios for them. There are websites devoted to fanfiction stories, some exclusively Harry Potter fanfiction, and after reading the work of some other authors, I decided my stories weren’t all that bad, so I created accounts and posted them for others to read. My stories were never super popular, but they’ve had their fans and positive reviews—which I wonder at now, because upon rereading them, I find my stories were awful.
Let me say, I can be beyond nitpicky when it comes to reviewing books, but that does not mean I think I could write any better than the authors I critique. Case in point, my fanfiction. In my defense, I wrote these stories between 2005 and 2009, when I was in high school and Harry Potter was at the focal point of pop culture. Years ago. I flatter myself to think that I’ve gotten quite a bit better in the ten years since, so don’t judge me too harshly based on them. They’re full of melodrama, clichés, grammar mistakes, ignorant naiveté… When I read them now, I just sit there with a bemused little smile on my face, half mortified and half proud.
As to what the stories are about: my favorite characters in all of Harry Potter-dom are Lily Evans and the Marauders, the latter of whom was a group of four best friends named Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and James Potter. My favorite part of all Harry Potter lore is the ill-fated romance of Lily and James (Harry’s parents) and the events of the Marauder Era at Hogwarts. It follows, then, that my stories focus on them and what happened to all of them. Unfortunately, we know something of the trials they faced and how their lives ended, because those events were important factors in the central plot of Harry Potter, and we also have ideas as to their behavior and personalities. But Ms. Rowling has never really told us much about their lives—understandably, since the books weren’t actually about them. (I’m still hoping for a long and thorough prequel series.) They’re my favorites, though, and I wanted to know more about them…so I made up my own stories.
To better understand who Lily and James were and how I feel about them, read my essay The Stories We Hate to Love.
FYI – Most of my stories were written before all of the Harry Potter books had been released, so they don’t always follow canon and sometimes blatantly disregard it. I’ve only posted the ones I completed. There were some stories, particularly ones with multiple chapters, that I started and was not able to finish.
BLANKET DISCLAIMER: Anything and everything regarding the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, including the characters and their backstories, belongs to the brilliant J. K. Rowling. (For more information, click here.) I am forever grateful that she allows her fans to play with her world and create stories of our own within that context.
From Abomination to Adoration (2005-2006) (22 chapters)
Worth It (2005) (One-shot)
Bicycle Built For Two (2006) (One-shot)
The Late-Night Alteration (2006) (One-shot)
Simply (2006) (One-shot)
Sheets of Wisdom (2006) (One-shot)
Forgetting to Lock Up (2006) (One-shot)
Waltzing Matilda (2007-2009) (author’s note + 9 chapters)
