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DISASTER
Guys it’s been a week and I think it’s going to stick. Horrifyingly.
Of course there’ll always be AUs. And on an intellectual level I think changing mediums and introducing a bunch more creative voices means that the play can’t be part of the text of the novels, so it’s not really ‘canon’ in that sense - but it does FEEL like part of the whole to me. I just…
I can’t ship Harry/Draco in a CC-compliant world.
I’m thrilled with their characterisation and evolving relationship in the play but… well:
I always said Harry/Ginny didn’t work for me because we barely see them interact as a couple, in either HBP or DH. But now I HAVE and it DID really work for me. They love each other, they understand each other (and I think that’s something that’s evolved rather than all being there at the close of DH) and they’re good for each other. And it’s the foundation of their lives, and their kids… I can’t break them up, that would be awful.
But I can’t kill her off either. That would be terrible and I like her and I don’t want to kill off another female character for the sake of male characters’ arcs. And besides, breaking Harry and his kids into tiny bits does not seem conducive to H/D-ever-after even if I wanted to do it that way.
So, Harry/Ginny/Draco? NOPE. Ginny and Draco have some personality traits in common but I can’t imagine them going for each other, not least because the spiky relationship between them and the fact that they don’t really know each other was especially evident in CC compared to Harry and Draco.
Harry/Ginny, but also Harry/Draco as a separate but known poly thing? NOPE NOPE NOPE A THOUSAND TIMES NOPE. Ginny’s kinda possessive, and I suppose you could write her as knowing because of her upbringing that shared love doesn’t mean less love for you, I think she’s actually had almost the opposite reaction to being one of seven. And Draco would be utterly miserable, to have something with Harry but still not be part of his family; it’s already “exceptionally lonely being Draco Malfoy” and Draco is not the sharing type. It would kill him. And that’s not even getting into the Harry of it all.
So… yeah. *sniffles, weeps* I mean CC is a gift and I love it, and none of this means I’ll stop reading or loving or writing Harry/Draco. But it is definitely different for me. Because the epilogue is something that I do definitely think intellectually is part of canon but it never felt that way to me - exactly the opposite of CC. And there’s something about post-canon that is viscerally satisfying in a way AUs can’t be. Taking the story of Harry Potter and having its ending/continuation/evolution be one where Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, damaged schoolboy nemeses who find a way to understand each other and fall in love past the hate and the past and the misunderstandings, to know each other through the ways that they are deeply similar and to get past the tribalism that we see damage the wizarding world in a hundred different ways? There’s something really special about that.
And even though I think it’s worth it, and I still have… oh, 80% of what I love about them intact? It feels like 40%. It is definitely a loss.
I’m writing some Ron/Draco/Hermione CC-compliant hurt/comfort in order to cope.
Of course there’ll always be AUs. And on an intellectual level I think changing mediums and introducing a bunch more creative voices means that the play can’t be part of the text of the novels, so it’s not really ‘canon’ in that sense - but it does FEEL like part of the whole to me. I just…
I can’t ship Harry/Draco in a CC-compliant world.
I’m thrilled with their characterisation and evolving relationship in the play but… well:
I always said Harry/Ginny didn’t work for me because we barely see them interact as a couple, in either HBP or DH. But now I HAVE and it DID really work for me. They love each other, they understand each other (and I think that’s something that’s evolved rather than all being there at the close of DH) and they’re good for each other. And it’s the foundation of their lives, and their kids… I can’t break them up, that would be awful.
But I can’t kill her off either. That would be terrible and I like her and I don’t want to kill off another female character for the sake of male characters’ arcs. And besides, breaking Harry and his kids into tiny bits does not seem conducive to H/D-ever-after even if I wanted to do it that way.
So, Harry/Ginny/Draco? NOPE. Ginny and Draco have some personality traits in common but I can’t imagine them going for each other, not least because the spiky relationship between them and the fact that they don’t really know each other was especially evident in CC compared to Harry and Draco.
Harry/Ginny, but also Harry/Draco as a separate but known poly thing? NOPE NOPE NOPE A THOUSAND TIMES NOPE. Ginny’s kinda possessive, and I suppose you could write her as knowing because of her upbringing that shared love doesn’t mean less love for you, I think she’s actually had almost the opposite reaction to being one of seven. And Draco would be utterly miserable, to have something with Harry but still not be part of his family; it’s already “exceptionally lonely being Draco Malfoy” and Draco is not the sharing type. It would kill him. And that’s not even getting into the Harry of it all.
So… yeah. *sniffles, weeps* I mean CC is a gift and I love it, and none of this means I’ll stop reading or loving or writing Harry/Draco. But it is definitely different for me. Because the epilogue is something that I do definitely think intellectually is part of canon but it never felt that way to me - exactly the opposite of CC. And there’s something about post-canon that is viscerally satisfying in a way AUs can’t be. Taking the story of Harry Potter and having its ending/continuation/evolution be one where Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, damaged schoolboy nemeses who find a way to understand each other and fall in love past the hate and the past and the misunderstandings, to know each other through the ways that they are deeply similar and to get past the tribalism that we see damage the wizarding world in a hundred different ways? There’s something really special about that.
And even though I think it’s worth it, and I still have… oh, 80% of what I love about them intact? It feels like 40%. It is definitely a loss.
I’m writing some Ron/Draco/Hermione CC-compliant hurt/comfort in order to cope.