HP FICTION: New Glasses

By Aelthwyn

Author's Note: This is my first ever fan-fiction. It's based on JK Rowling's characters James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Lily from the Harry Potter universe. Just a little scene I imagined of a fun day in the life of the Marauders :) I hope I have done them justice.

. . . . . . . .

James squinted at The Daily Prophet over his morning toast.

"Anything interesting?" Sirius asked squishing onto the bench next to him.

"If someone would care to hand over my glasses maybe I could tell." James's tone sounded distracted as if engrossed in one of the columns.

Sirius snatched it from his hands, trailing it in the butter. "Well maybe I'd better read it to you then." He said genially, clearing his throat in preparation and perusing for a choice headline. James glared at him.

"What!" Sirius did his best 'I'm innocent' expression. "You must admit my version of Hogwarts a History last night was much more entertaining anyways."

Remus smirked. Peter grinned. James glared on icily.

Sirius' smile fell and he went on in earnest. "James I swear I didn't hide them! I told you last night!"

"After leading me to believe you had turned them into a glass and I'd spent hours when I could have been writing that essay helping the house elves wash up and attempting to un-transfigure all those glasses!"

"It's not my fault if you're gullible and paranoid of your own friends."

Peter snorted at this suggestion.

Meanwhile Remus had rescued the newspaper from Sirius' wrinkling grasp, smoothed it out, and wiped the butter off the Minister for Magic's nose on the back of the front page. He regarded Sirius with a rather sinister proffessorly look over his cup of tea.

Sirius let out an exasperated sigh and magicked a quill to write something on his napkin. "I say, you're rather perfecting that Moony, someday they might just have to make you a Prof." He tossed the napkin across at him. Remus glanced down.

I will not hide James' glasses.

I will not hide James' glasses.

I will not hide James' glasses.

He tossed it back at him with a laugh.

Just then a late owl swooped in from above and dropped something in James' lap. "Anyway, I won't be needing anyone to read to me today, no thanks to you lot." He unwrapped the little package. "I ordered a new pair." He explained pulling out a shiny pair of spectacles. They were sort of… rectangular this time, and they all stared at him awkwardly for a moment taking in his new look.

"Well I can see what you think." James sniffed. "So spare me your remarks. I just thought I'd try something different." He finished loftily. Remus handed back his paper to which he pointedly turned his attention.

Remus glanced at Sirius. Sirius glanced at Peter. Peter glanced at James and then back at Sirius who muttered something (James was ignoring them), while surreptitiously flicking his wand behind the convenient screen of the Prophet. A moment later they were all choking down laughter.

James stood with a feigned expression of indignation. "Fine friends you are." He declared turning to go, but ran into Lily just coming to join them.

"Oh! James, they came!" She smiled a little too brightly as Peter shook his head vigorously behind James' back.

"Good morning Lily. What do you think?" He asked.

"Well…," she turn his head from side to side as if inspecting them. "They'll take some getting used to, but….. I think they really suit you." She replied ducking behind him to slide into the spot he had just vacated.

"Well at least someone likes them." James said to his three friends. "And if you think they're so awful, perhaps you'll consider giving back my old ones. Anyway, I'm going to go finish that essay somewhere without you three sniggering at me." He fixed them with a stare over his new glasses, not quite as successful as Remus' and strode away to a splutter of laughter.

"Hey James! Nice glasses." They heard someone call from further down the table as he passed.

"You know I think he might have got those ones just to annoy us," said Remus.

"Or else he intends to impersonate McGonnegal." Peter giggled.

"Not in those!" Sirius grinned madly.

"Those can't be the ones he ordered." Lily cut in.

"No no." Sirius assured her. "They were rectangular." Another bout of sniggers possessed Peter.

"He did tell us he wanted to try something different." Remus' eyes glittered in amusement. "Thanks for playing along, you were perfect."

"Honestly, the four of you!" Lily exclaimed, though she couldn't help giggling herself. "You know he'll get you all back for this, and I'd rather not be included."

"Oh don't go fix them yet!" Peter begged as she looked about to go after James, but he was already out the door, so she gave up and took the plate Sirius had just served up for her.

"We really are going to have to get the old ones back now though." Said Sirius, "And I Didn't take them!"

"I suppose it must have been….." Peter stopped. "Well, he lost them sometime on Friday right?"

Remus shot him a knowing glance. "Yes, we'll have to do a thorough search, later."

"I suppose I could go sniff around….." Sirius began.

"No I will." Peter cut in. "We've got potions with Slytherin today and I'd rather miss it."

Lily gave him reproving glance, mixed with sympathy.

"All right, if you can't root them out we'll put our heads together again before dinner." Remus nodded to them.

"Well I don't know what you two are still sitting around here for, but I'm not going to miss the fun!" Sirius said getting up to head after James with a pile of toast in his hand. "Pardon us Lily." He bowed gallantly at her with a wicked grin on his face and the other two rose to follow him with nods and smiles wishing her a good morning.

. . . . . . . .

"We should make the map show things as well as people." Peter whispered to Remus as they exited the great hall.

"Yes but which things?" Remus replied, "There'd be too many among all the quills and fizzing whizbees in people's pockets."

"Oh."

Sirius was munching distractedly at his toast and craning his neck for their quarry. He tapped their shoulders before pointing at the door to the library.

James was just emerging, still apparently oblivious to the Hot Pink-Rhinestoned-Cats-Eye glasses perched upon his nose. All three nearly doubled over laughing and ducked behind a pillar as James turned their direction. The hall was starting to get thick with people heading toward their first classes and they watched as people gaped and prodded each other as James passed. Several more people 'complimented' James on his glasses with dubious expressions before he began glancing around suspiciously. Then a group of Slytherins suddenly barred his way, and Sirius nudged the others to sneak 'round and back him up.

"Nice specs, Potter!" one of them sneered.

"Why thank you." He replied with sarcastically sunny politeness, just to spite them.

"Going to start a girl's band?" another laughed.

His smile froze and he reached up suspiciously. Just then plastic flowers sprouted from the corners of his glasses and squirted the lot of them as Sirius and Remus appeared at each of his shoulders for the face off. In the cries and commotion that followed there was a sudden flash and several people tripped over someone who must have slipped in the puddle.

"Great look, Flower Pot!" one who hadn't gotten wet called as the Slytherins broke up in a mixture of curses and hysterics.

"Thanks, Pal." James said through gritted teeth shoving the ridiculous glasses at Sirius as he watched them depart. Sirius put them on and beamed 'round at them. They all burst into laughter clutching each other as they staggered down the hall.

Sirius reached for the classroom door, apparently with every intention of wearing them inside.

"Wait! Give them here!" James grabbed them. On the backside they did look vaguely rectangular and innocently black, so he didn't feel too bad about not realizing sooner. "All right change them back" he prodded Sirius.

"You wanted something different!" he insisted still laughing. "Anyway, serves you right for not believing your best friend!"

"All right, all right, I'm sorry." James said grinning and shaking his head.

"Serves him right for intending to annoy us with them too." Remus put in.

Sirius made an exaggerated mournful sigh as he halfheartedly raised his wand at the glasses.

"Don't worry Sirius" Peter whispered loud enough for James to hear "I got a picture."

James made a pretend clout at Peter's head and fixed the glasses himself. "Come on!" he said grabbing Peter and Sirius by the sleeves as Remus opened the door. He shot a wink at Remus, as he pushed Sirius in before him and muttered something behind his back. Sirius' eyebrows sprouted into one thick bushy mass as he slipped into his customary seat at the back of class. "How long till someone notices?" James whispered, grinning at Remus who slipped in quietly after them.

"Well Binns certainly won't" Remus muttered, with a light in his eye that bet James it would last till next class.

. . . . . . . .

"I don't know. I think I rather like them." James said looking at himself in the bathroom mirror later that afternoon.

Sirius snorted catching sight of his enormous unibrow which he'd been pretending not to notice all day, forcing the others to keep having to stifle fits of laughter during class.

"You can't be serious James. It's like, changing your nose or something!" he exclaimed indignantly.

"You just don't look like you." Peter said.

"People change their glasses all the time. You just have to get used to it." James replied. "I think they make me look more calculating, don't you think?" he tried out a glare over the top of the narrow flat rims.

"I don't know. I think I rather like this." Sirius threatened, mimicking James' inspection of himself.

"You wouldn't!" James and Peter both cried.

"Oh I'm sure he would." Said Remus dryly. He leaned on James' shoulder to get into the mirror frame along with them so he could stare at James pointedly in it "But if you insist on keeping these, I think one of us will have to actually confiscate them."

They stared at themselves, the four of them, for a moment and then broke into laughter again as Sirius made faces in the mirror, doing his best to imitate gorillas and trolls.

. . . . . . . .

"Why don't you just enchant them to look like your old ones?" Lily suggested over dinner that evening. "Not that these are bad, but, you know…"

"Oh, now it's a matter of principle." Remus explained, talking as if James wasn't there. "I'm sure he will eventually if we stop bugging him about it."

James gave a sort of noncommittal nod.

"Anyway, sorry about this morning, James." She said as she got up to leave, her eyes lit with the amusing memory.

"Don't apologize!" Sirius cried, "Old 'Flower Pot' here deserved every minute of that and you know it."

James laughed along with them, "That really was a brilliant touch. Totally caught me off guard when I started squirting them!" He grinned broadly.

"I wish you'd gotten a picture of their faces!" Sirius laughed.

"Well I would have if I hadn't been trodden on." Peter grumbled good-naturedly.

"I think Peter deserves a reward for braving the enemy ranks in this escapade" Remus clapped his arm round Peter's shoulder. "How about repaying him those sugar quills you owe him James?"

"What! Reward him for taking that picture!"

"It has been over a month you've owed me!" Peter piped up on cue.

"Oh….well all right." James relented as they all got up from the table.

"Meet you back in Gryffindor Tower." He waved them on as he turned to head toward the one-eyed-witch.

"Where are you going?" Lily asked confused.

"Uh…..Secret stash." James glanced furtively at the others.

"Top secret" Sirius added darkly, steering Lily back to the tower with them.

Five minutes later James dropped carefully to the ground of the passage to Honeydukes and saw glowing in the darkness his old round-rimed glasses, now enchanted to shine in rainbow color sitting atop a large bag of sweets. So that's where Peter was during Potions today! He must have scoured the grounds for them that afternoon. James inspected the bag. By the number of pepper-imps he figured Sirius must have sent him with a special order, and a donation, probably from James' wallet, for the sugar quills while he was at it. He grinned, pocketed the bag and switched his glasses before hurrying back after his friends.

Dumbledore's Orders

“Now I have work for each of you. Fudge’s attitude, thought not unexpected, changes everything. Sirius, I need you to set off at once. You are to alert Remus Lupin, Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher - the old crowd. Lie low at Lupin’s for a while; I will contact you there.”
— Dumbledore, end up book 4.

I’m going to take a leap and suggest that Dumbledore was so flustered by his encounter with Fudge that he wasn’t thinking straight. That can be the only explanation behind the orders he gave Sirius. Sirius, who was a member of the ‘old crowd’, who was thought to have vilely betrayed them and the Potters, and who was considered a murder, now on the run from the Ministry after breaking out of prison. Yes, Sirius is the perfect person to regather the Order of the Phoenix. What was Dumbledore thinking?!?!?!

A much more rational take on the orders would be for Sirius to alert Remus and have Remus gather the others. Sirius should probably not be approaching former enemies of Voldemort until such a time as Dumbledore can confirm his trustworthiness.

To Be Continued…

Sirius Black's Character

Author's comments:

J. K. Rowling has said that she likes Sirius as a character, but she does not think he is "wholly wonderful":

"Sirius is very good at spouting bits of excellent personal philosophy, but he does not always live up to them. For instance, he says in "Goblet of Fire" that if you want to know what a man is really like, 'look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.' But Sirius loathes Kreacher, the house-elf he has inherited, and treats him with nothing but contempt. Similarly, Sirius claims that nobody is wholly good or wholly evil, and yet the way he acts towards Snape suggests that he cannot conceive of any latent good qualities there...Sirius' great redeeming quality is how much affection he is capable of feeling. He loved James like a brother and he went on to transfer that attachment to Harry."

Rowling also described Sirius as a "bit of a loose cannon" and a "case of arrested development" and once described Sirius as "brave, loyal, reckless, embittered and slightly unbalanced by his long stay in Azkaban."

Reaction:

There are several points about her assessment that don’t add up for me, based on what I know of Sirius from Books 3 and 4.

The first point is that he “doesn’t always live up to” his “bits of excellent personal philosophy”. Her two examples of this are Kreacher and Snape… lets think about this for a min… Kreacher was utterly vile and I wanted to strangle him most of the time and Snape was heavily into the dark arts, even if he was against Voldemort. Not the best examples in the world, considering it would take a saint to get along with those two. Considering Sirius’ long history with both of them, it is only natural he doesn’t get along with them. They are not exactly innocent victims when it comes to their bad relationship (though that is a different subject).

The second point is her comment that he is a “case of arrested development” and “slightly unbalanced”. While I won’t argue that 11 years in the hell hole that is Azkaban wouldn’t leave someone unbalanced, I do argue that it left him immature. There is nothing about his actions in the 3rd and 4th books that even remotely imply this. In fact, he acted remarkable mature and sane considering what he had been through. As someone pointed out, after hunting Peter for nearly a year with murderous intent, he backed down easily at Harry’s request that Peter be turned over to the Dementors instead.

It is no secret that I think she butchered his character in the 5th book (along with several other characters). Not blatantly, but little things here and there that didn’t add up and ended up changing the feel of the character. I did not buy his family history, his relationship with his family, his relationship with Kreacher, his supposed bullying of Snape (implying Snape was a victim), nor how badly he handled being confined to his “old house”.

This is someone who befriended Remus and survived 11 years in what was effectively hell on earth, and it felt like she didn’t honor his character’s particular strengths and weaknesses. She used him to get across the points she wanted to and didn’t follow him where he would naturally go. The faults she gave him didn’t feel like the faults he would have. Not to say he didn’t have plenty of faults, but my impression of the character led me to expect different problems.

To summarize, I believe her comments that he is a “case of arrested development” and hypocritical to be inaccurate based on what I know of the character before book 5.

Now, to address the question of how I dare say something like this. Character often have a life of their own outside of the author’s mind. The author comes up with the concept but the characters are more than the author’s creation. In their own way, they are real people, though ultimately they aren’t of course. As such, it’s possible for an author to loose touch with their character, or misrepresent them, especially if the author is trying to accomplish something specific without regard of their character’s personality. This can include everything from unfitting character back story, family history, wrong personality, actions, attitudes and so forth. I have seen plenty of published authors admit this and have experienced it myself when developing my own characters. I can’t count the number of times I’ve tried to have a character be a certain way or do a certain thing because I wanted it, only to have them protest in their own way. It takes, as Moody would say, constant vigilance and an attitude of listening to the characters instead of dictating. I feel that JKR dictated (especially based on some comments of hers) and as a result, she lost touch with her characters and misrepresented them. It isn’t rare and it does happen. That is why I’m willing to say her characterization of Sirius in the 5th book felt wrong.

Seriousness of Story

Stories are a very serious thing. One shouldn't underestimate their ability to communicate ideas and shape thought, even those that aren't marketed as serious (especially those, actually).

Stories are the playground of ideas. They thrive off of the question "What if?". And even if they aren't specifically written to "teach", they are saturated in the worldview of their author. Beliefs about how the world works, people's relationships with each other, what is truth, morality, etc. is present in every character, scene, beginning, ending, and middle.

Stories also have the ability to cut through people's natural defenses, none better than those stories that are a delight to read.

Stories can give people, in a way, experiences that they wouldn't normally have. Lead them to ask questions they wouldn't normally ask. Force them to experience emotions that might not otherwise experience. Take them to places they can't go.

C.S. Lewis puts it this way when speaking of fantasy and science fiction: "The Fantastic or Mythical is a Mode available at all ages for some readers; for others, at none. At all ages, if it is well used by the author and meets the right reader, it has the same power: to generalize while remaining concrete, to present in palpable form not concepts or even experiences but whole classes of experience, and to throw off irrelevances. But at its best it can do more; it can give us experiences we have never had and thus, instead of 'commenting on life', can add to it."

Of course, I think, delight in the story, in and of itself without any of these considerations, is what gives the form its power in the first place. You must be able to engage with a story in order to get anything out of it. And that is something, I think, that not everyone can or wants to do. Stories shouldn't be read first and foremost as a way to learn ideas. That seems, to me, a more secondary thing, though inseparable.

So yes, I take even the light fiction seriously. I think over it. I consider it. I analyze it. That is, I give it more than a passing thought. And I love to discuss it :)

Post New Republic

As mentioned in the post "New Jedi Order and Legacy of the Force", the time when I would have enjoyed the Star Wars expanded universe books came to an end with the so-called "Post New Republic" era books. There is something about the situations and character developments (and deaths) in those series that just breaks my heart and sucks away everything about Star Wars that I loved. That may seem like an over-reaction, but to me it almost feels like an understatement. Not only do I dislike the Post New Republic books, but for me they taint everything that has come before. They leave a "bad taste in my mouth". 

I was having trouble understanding this until discussing a popular fantasy series with a friend. Neither of us was very fond of the series and what it came down to was the pointlessness of everything that happened. What the characters did wasn't important because there was no hope; everyone would die, things wouldn't change, there was nothing to look forward to. That is exactly what I feel the Post New Republic books did to the Star Wars universe; they removed hope and caused too much destruction. I don't feel excited by the "drama" of it, but instead feel robbed of victory. 

They crossed the line and in their quest for more 'exciting' stories went too far.

Timeline Software

It is times like these where I wish I was an application developer. I have found a few “acceptable” programs for managing timelines, one even for writers.... and yes, none of them are completely what I want.... I want to be able to create the ultimate timeline program to help organize my story ideas :)

Anyway, some of the good Mac friendly programs I’ve found are:
(1) Aeon Timeline
(2) Timeline 3D

Author Responsibility

The dictionary defines an 'author' as 'a writer of a book, article, or report' or as 'the originator or creator of something'. On one hand, an author of fictional books is a combination of the two; someone who writes down their own ideas or worlds/situations they have created. On the other hand, they are only authors in the first sense; just a writer of things that exist outside of themselves.

To say that a fictional writer, creator of their worlds and characters, is somehow writing about things outside of and beyond themselves is a controversial idea. It implies that there is something objective about their stories and some standard for them that the author has no control over. It seems counter intuitive to say that the creator isn't the master, yet more often than not that seems to be the case.

An author isn't perfect. They may be unable to represent ideas accurately in their writings even if they understand them correctly. They may get pulled aside by other concerns and influences and bend their ideas to match their current circumstances. For whatever reason, an author can and often does move away from an accurate representation of what they have created, and in doing so, they forfeit their mastery over their creation. And the creation suffers because of it. What is represented by an author no longer matches what should be represented; they become out of sync and create inconsistencies that the readers must sort though.

It is because of this that authors have certain responsibilities to both their creation and to their readers. The chief among these is the responsibility to allow characters to grow and develop naturally, free of outside manipulation. Another way to say this might be "characters are people (um...or beings) too". The risk of having real characters that aren't flat and dull is that they have real personalities, dreams, ambitions, and so on, and they can't be naturally forced to do whatever the author wants them to do. They must be allowed to "live" and should never be forced to do things and have things done to them that aren't in accordance with their person.

The same responsibility can be repeated for situations and events. There are certain types of things that don't belong in a created world, be it an author's version of New York City or a completely new fictional world. Worlds have rules and all situations and events must conform to those rules.

In short, an author is responsible for conforming to the worlds they create. Politics and agendas need stay out. Any kind of messages conveyed should be a natural part of the created world; the best messages always are.

(This is only a short note on this topic. An entire book could be written.)

New Jedi Order and Legacy of the Force

For the longest time I have been a big fan of the Star Wars Expanded Universe and all of the books talented authors have written, but for the last few years I have been pushed away from all of that by the two newer series: The New Jedi Order series and the Legacy of the Force series.

The only way to describe my feelings toward these series is utter disgust. I hate the universe they created and I hate that it was a done from one of my favorites. And yet if feels so much more complicated than that. The things that disgust me are not simple or cut and dry. They are more complex and confusing than I am use to dealing with, and I don't quite know how to cope. Let me explain...

One of the things that was done that bothers me most is the death of Mara Jade Skywalker. She was killed before her time and it was wrong. This is all well and normal, but then it gets complicated. She wasn't killed off by the author who originally created her, Timothy Zahn, and who put a lot of effort into creating her. He wouldn't have killed her off at that particular point in time and in that particular way. This introduces an element of hope into something I would normally feel helpless rage over, and I don't know what to do with that. He can't change what happened in the story, but I find myself wishing I could get an alternate reality written by him. It will never happen, but I want it to happen. It is almost a feeling of helpless hope. Can I write and ask for him to fix everything?

Were that the only problem with the two series... There is so much more, from the death of Chewie and Anakin Solo, to the "destruction" of Coruscant and what happened to the New Republic, and to what happened to Jacen Solo... I hate it all, and I no longer feel like a member of the Star Wars fan community because of it. Is there a solution? I haven't found one yet.