ok i've seen everything now

[slytherinspirit]

Nora
> 
> I've read a lot of fic.  A *lot*.  What can I say, I was stuck at 
> work and cataloging OCLC numbers is enough to drive you insane.  
That 
> said, I think I've read maybe one or two in all Severus/Hermione 
fics 
> that kept them in anything resembling character, and pretty much 
> nothing with Draco and Hermione.  That's not even venturing into 
the 
> pit of Draco/Harry.
> 
K

To be honest I think I've read more decent Draco/Harry than 
Draco/Hermione, but I wouldn't swear to it. It is actually easier to 
see Draco with a rival than with someone he calls mudblood and 
clearly considers beneath him. On the other hand I think right now I 
prefer fanon Draco to canon Draco anyway. He showed such potential in 
the earlier books but by OoP he was just laughable.

Nora
> > Part of the fun of writing (and reading) fanfic is exploring 
> > situations and relationships that would never happen in canon 
while 
> > keeping the characters in character.
> 
> The skeptic in me is wary of how things that would never, could 
never 
> happen in canon can still be kept 'in character': if Hermione would 
> never do that in canon, how is it in-character for her to do it in 
> fic? 

K

Beacause canon consists of (or will consist of eventaully) seven 
books about Harry, from Harry's pov that stop somewhere around his 
eighteenth birthday so many things can be in character without any 
chance of them being in the books. Plus of course the books are read 
by an awful lot of children and JKR is aware of it so, for example, 
after defeating Voldemort I could certaily see Harry and co (who are 
after all teenagers) throwing a wild drunken celebratory party. Is it 
in character - it certainly could be - will it happen in the books - 
highly unlikely. I suspect that Minerva has many adult and not 
unpleasent conversations with Severus (simply because of their jobs 
and roles as head of house) with no little brats listening in, but we 
won't see it in canon, because we rare;y see anything from anywhere 
other than a camera over Harry's left shoulder (so to speak).These 
are just really simple not very drastic examples but you can go 
further and have a situation where Ron betrays everyone and ends up 
working for Voldemort, I very much doubt that this will happen in 
canon although I have seen people arguing for it, but I could 
certainly see it happening without Ron being at all out of character. 

Given the right motivations and circumstances almost any action can 
be in character, the skill is in creating the right circumstances and 
showing the build up so that something like, for example, Neville 
standing up for himself in Potions and yelling at Snape makes sense. 
Usually it's the writing skill that makes actions ooc rather than 
anything else. The bad writer tells us Neville has gained confidence 
because of the fight at the Ministry and then has him yell at Snape 
to prove it or worse doesn't give us any reason, the good writer 
shows us the changes in Neville slowly through his every word and 
action so that when he yells at Snape we're not stunned into silence, 
or hitting the back button in disgust, but rather cheering him on. 
Heck that's half the problem people have with the changes to Ginny in 
OoP, the changes actually makes sense bearing in mind what Ron has 
told us about how she acts when Harry isn't around and bearing in 
mind what she has gone through up to this point, but we haven't seen 
any of it happening so when she acts the way she does in OoP people 
complain that it makes no sense and that she's out of character.


Then of course you have the world of the AU, which is something I 
personally love about fic. People asking what if. What if Voldemort 
wins? What if Harry had actually been sorted into Slytherin (I 
haven't seen this one done well yet, if anyone has any recs with this 
situation please tell me)? What if Ron and Harry *hadn't* rescued 
Hermione from the troll?  etc etc The possibilities are endless - 
thank goodness.

K