#i. interactions –– lisa turpin.

[saintsenara]

the scrunchie minor characters general | 4.5k words

the scrunchie was in padma patil’s hair the day the second war began. the ravenclaw girls were watching the third task from the back row of the stands, sipping surreptitiously from a flask of toffee-flavoured vodka morag had procured from somewhere.

they were cackling when there was a flash of blue light, and a portkey deposited two twisted figures on the ground.

that was the last moment they had before the world changed, padma realised later.

nobody would have let hermione granger borrow the scrunchie. but that's fine, because this story isn't about her at all.

this piece was written for week four of @ladiesofhpfest, which focuses on background beauties [you can find the masterlist of the week's fics here].

the theme this week allowed me to think about one of my favourite topics: what must it have been like to be peripheral to the drama which surrounded harry, but without ever knowing for certain what was going on?

author's notes under the cut

the genre conventions of the harry potter series - whether the children’s literature of the early books or the folkloric pastiche of the later ones - requires harry to, essentially, act alone. he has a few loyal retainers, but his character archetype requires him to take huge burdens onto his shoulders. when you add in the fact that he’s not a particularly sociable teenage boy, that he’s not hugely observant of incidental detail, that he’s considered to be a celebrity, and that a huge amount of his social interaction outside of ron and hermione is with adults whose relationship with their other charges has to be more hands-off, you realise that the rest of his year must have spent their schooldays trying to work out what was happening from a whirl of gossip and rumour [and, above all, from a whirl of gossip and rumour the slytherins have a vested interest in providing].

here, we have five minor characters - lisa turpin, padma patil, parvati patil, hannah abbott, and sally-anne perks - attempting to do just that.

their perspective on harry and his exploits ended up being slightly more critical than i had initially expected. padma, for example, thinks that he’s a dick, and the ravenclaws [who do seem to be more slytherin-aligned in canon, even if this is unintentional on jkr’s part] all take a line canonically only permitted to snape: that harry likes being famous; that he is allowed to get away with breaking school rules; and that his participation in the triwizard tournament is favouritism on dumbledore’s part and completely unfair.

furthermore, from this outside perspective, i realised how sincerely unbelievable harry’s story about what happened in the triwizard maze must have sounded. padma thinks that harry killed cedric diggory - although whether by accident or not she can’t say - and even parvati is wavering.

this led to something i don’t think is appreciated enough within the canon text, owing - again - to the genre confines of the series: how many people contribute to harry’s victory, and how brave characters other than the trio-plus-neville-luna-and-ginny end up being. i liked writing padma coming to her own decision about whether to believe him or the ministry; parvati being so bolshy; susan bones fucking loathing alecto carrow; and the hufflepuff girls [who, like everyone in that house, don’t get described in exciting ways very often] being phenomenally brave as battle begins.

but, of course, these girls’ lives exist independently from harry’s. i liked looking at their concerns, from the trivial - who fancies whom [and parvati and padma’s dynamic on this topic is 100% how i was with my sisters - I'm parvati] - to the serious - how the war touches everyone’s family, how muggleborns have to lie to their parents and separate themselves from the world of their birth, how you cope with knowing everyone you love might die, and what on earth you do with your hair in a battle.

the scrunchie - a character in its own right, as is the woman who made it - has your back, babies.

[on the reference to hermione in the summary: i’m always struck in canon by the fact that hermione has no other friends besides harry and ron - even her relationship with ginny is quite tenuous, they don’t hang out in half-blood prince when hermione falls out with ron, for example. again, this is for genre reasons, but it’s also implied in the text to be because hermione - who is so extremely not-like-other-girls-coded it hurts - isn’t a particularly easy person to get along with. from the perspective of someone who was once a teen girl, i can only imagine that she was quite lonely, as the complex ecosystem of the other girls in the castle remained closed off to her.]

[faydunbarr]

general tag dump -- 

* ﹙aesthetic ﹚ ♦ ♦   it says I'm too far gone

* ﹙visage ﹚ ♦ ♦   ego shows up apropos though

* ﹙about ﹚ ♦ ♦   i say i can change

* ﹙interactions ﹚ ♦ ♦   have fun while I'm still young

* ﹙musings ﹚ ♦ ♦  this "i", this "self" will die

* ﹙playlist ﹚ ♦ ♦  i'm high filling my young lungs

* ﹙self-paras﹚ ♦ ♦   i'll go from bad to worse and later back to better

* ﹙ask meme﹚ ♦ ♦   but while i am man, i won't be wasting mine

* ﹙tasks﹚ ♦ ♦   making a point to waste my time

* ﹙diary﹚ ♦ ♦   can you help me unravel my latest mistake

* ﹙ooc ﹚ ♦ ♦   hubris loses me

interactions tag dump --

* ﹙hannah abbott ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙susan bones ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙terry boot ﹚ ♦ ♦  

* ﹙mandy brocklehurst ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙lavender brown﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙millicent bulstrode ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙michael corner ﹚ ♦ ♦  

* ﹙stephen cornfoot﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙tracey davis ﹚ ♦ ♦  

* ﹙seamus finnigan ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙anthony goldstein ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙daphne greengrass ﹚ ♦ ♦    

* ﹙wayne hopkins ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙megan jones ﹚ ♦ ♦  

* ﹙sue li ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙morag macdougal ﹚ ♦ ♦    

* ﹙ernie macmillan ﹚ ♦ ♦    

* ﹙lily moon ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙theodore nott ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙pansy parkinson ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙padma patil ﹚ ♦ ♦  

* ﹙parvati patil ﹚ ♦ ♦  

* ﹙sally-anne perks ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙sophie roper ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙noah runcorn ﹚ ♦ ♦  

* ﹙lisa turpin﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙blaise zabini ﹚ ♦ ♦   

* ﹙open starter ﹚ ♦ ♦  

relationships tag dump -- 

* ﹙fay x sophie ﹚ ♦ ♦    true love seeps through the cracks in the walls

* ﹙fay x millicent ﹚ ♦ ♦    you fight like stones and sticks

* ﹙fay x ernie ﹚ ♦ ♦     now you're playing catch with a loaded gun

* ﹙fay x seamus ﹚ ♦ ♦    driving away from the wreck of the day

* ﹙fay x  morag ﹚ ♦ ♦  brave angry sun, I know you've got it out for someone

* ﹙fay x  michael ﹚ ♦ ♦   consider this a warning, cause I'll start another fight

* ﹙fay x  noah ﹚ ♦ ♦   the first rule of fight club is...