blamebrampton

Good news: Mr B and I are BOTH working for the first time since July last year (admittedly, I was coasting along on a mix of redundancy pay and freelance income until he lost his job in October, but then it was back to me being a sole breadwinner. Did I come home to a nice clean house and a hot dinner? NOT ONCE! He is a rubbish housewife. Good thing he's a lovely bloke.)

Bad news: Sydney is freaking ridiculous this summer. The best thing I can say for it is that we haven't had any 46°C days yet, but we have had weeks of scorching days and sweltering nights and the whole city just wants a good night's sleep.

Other news: I wrote a pinch hit for hd_erised. The mods gave me the wonderful oldenuf2nb as my pinchee and I was so pleased, as it all came together with some things that were pooling around in my head. There are politics, there are jokes, and there are Ron and Hermione, because I love them. I hasten to add that at no point is Harry actually dead, despite rumours to the contrary.

I want to talk about the writing process for this, but I wanted to do that last year, too, and haven't had time, so who knows? It was written, at any rate, and it wasn't the latest fic sumbitted!

Title: And, On The Other Side, A Welcoming Voice
Author: blamebrampton
Recipient: oldenuf2nb
Pairing(s): H/D, then canon pairings
Rating: PG
Word Count: 38,500
Warnings: Discussion of canon and post-canon deaths
Summary: For twenty years, the official history has told readers that Harry Potter died at the Battle of Hogwarts. The next edition is going to require some significant revisions.
Author's Notes: oldenuf2nb, you have been one of the most consistently wise and generous voices of fandom over the years and I have benefitted so much from knowing you, as well as loving your art and fic. I confess this story shook hands with your prompts and then went gallivanting off in its own direction, but, since it stayed in touch with the themes you said were important to you, I hope you will enjoy it regardless.

Thank you to the mods for your encouragement and hard work. You make our world a better place!

Many, many thanks to the team of brilliant betas whose eagle eyes and good sense have all added greatly to the final version. bk7brokemybrain, divertazsc illereyn and mamapyjama, I owe you all! You lifted my spirits and made me look far more competent at both writing and typing at a time of year when you would have been perfectly entitled to be selfish! I value your friendship as much as your fine brains!

And for those who don't know the phrase, 'bottled it' means roughly the same as 'chickened out'.
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.

Catch it here: ( And, On The Other Side, A Welcoming Voice )

And if you have any unwanted cool weather, please send it our way! More rain would be lovely, too.

Part one

Part two

( Part three )


End note:
The title is from a Pink Floyd song that started playing in my head early in the writing of this and then wouldn't go away. There is a good chord chart for it here if you have a guitar or ukulele handy, and a mammoth stadium version of it by the band here if you don't.

So, last year, in spite of still being worked off my feet and not having finished unpacking and still feeling a bit poorly after Moving Death Plague, I thought it would be a good idea to sign up for not one, but two fests. Because I am an idiot.

I flaked on one. I've never flaked before: in the past I've pulled out of one, been late with many, but never actually flaked. The fic is actually 4500-words written and will go up some time this year when finished, dedicated to the awesome mod who was all 'Meh, you know, it's just a fic, it's not brain surgery, no-one's going to die.' Still deeply ashamed.

However, because I had tried to keep going to the end with that one, I was late starting the second, for hd_erised. Which was going to be fine: it was due mid-Novemberish, I had started it, I had an idea and an outline for most of it, I had a good opening scene, I would just write like the wind for two and a half weeks and it would be FINE.

Which is about when I broke my wrist … Sadly, this was not the worst thing to happen in November and December. There were deaths of people I cared for, there was a close relative who was very ill (I try to be kind to him even though I don't like him), and others who needed to be supported or at least listened to (especially Mum, who I love even though she's a fruitloop). I got sick again, and I didn't have time to be sick. Work was mammoth and then I helped others on days when their work was far more mammoth and vital.

And throughout it all, this fic kept being written. Partly because of the marvellous astardanced77, who, at very short notice, said, 'Of course I can beta that for you!' and then not only did so splendidly (never has the phrase all remaining mistakes are my own been truer), but also bullied me in a loving and wise way to ignore the fact that I felt like physical and emotional drek and just focus on the story.

Which was always going to be about the ways in which we heal, and which ended up being about me remembering that pain goes away, love and kindness stay.

The other thing that kept it going were weird coincidences. melusinahp had a great note on her LJ about Hanukkah, I had a notebook that contained a scene where Draco thought about converting to Judaism, because he thought a ritual of contemplation would be better for him than one of consumerism. VERY HARD not to say 'OH, HEY!'

I had Harry breaking over a dozen bones some months before the story began, there was I with a fresh one. I'd written a long list of potions I wanted Draco to be inventing, they became wish fulfillment items for me as I sat there holding my cast above my head and waiting for my arm to stop throbbing. I had Draco being eye-rolly about Wiccans (sorry, Wiccans, you're lovely and I am a terrible person), JKR was eye-rolly about Hogwarts Wiccans on Twitter (pretty sure she just meant 'well, obviously that's not how Hogwarts Magic works', which Mel again was posting about. Spooky!)

But none of that would have mattered for anything had it not been for the wonderful mods, capitu, gracerene and sassy_cissa, who were understanding, funny and kind throughout. Thank you!

In theory I was going to have another go at this story this year with two hands and some sleep under my belt and time to expand everything. In actuality, I am going to finish other things instead!

Title: On the Turning Away
Author: blamebrampton
Recipient: Squeeka, keeper_of_stars
Rating: PG
Word Count: 25,500-ish
Summary: It's one thing to be good at not making a besotted fool of yourself over a man when he's busy being the most famous wizard in the world and you're tucked away quietly in Wiltshire. It's quite another when you have to see him every morning.
Author's Notes: Dear Squeeka, your prompts were delightful and inspiring, I wish I could have incorporated them all. I hope you like the ones that made it in. An enormous thank you to astardanced77, who beta-ed under the most trying circumstances imagineable – all remaining problems are entirely my own. And great gratitude also to the mods, who were kind, supportive and understanding. No thanks at all to the fates, who conspired cruelly.
Disclaimer:All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.

( Part one )

Nothing to see here if you read this in 2012's HD Holidays, just posting so that I have everything on my LJ.

And yes, I do still owe several 'extras' to people. You are not forgotten! You are behind nursedarry's second sock, though. Damn lace patterns! And taradiane, I await only a week when I have time to get to the post office and no heatwave to finally send you a box full of chocs. One of us has been living in melty weather for most of the last year!

Author: blamebrampton
Recipient: cassie_black12
Title: A Young Radical’s Guide to Love
Pairing(s): Harry/Draco, Ron/Hermione, Luna/Neville, Ginny/Dean, George/Angelina
Summary: Memories of the war are still fresh, which is all the excuse Decent People need to do appalling things. In this quietly waged conflict, Draco Malfoy is happy to be on the right side of things for once, and even happier to find he’s not alone.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.
Warning(s): None
Epilogue compliant? No. Set shortly after the end of the Second Voldemort War.
Word Count: about 66,000
Author's Notes: This was such a brilliantly modded fest, it was a joy to be involved. And I was so happy to receive cassie_black12 as my giftee, she is so lovely! jadzialove and raitala rescued me from the worst of my typos, though I am sure I managed to insert a few more, my brain and hands aren't talking to each other these days.

And for the trainspotters amongst us, this story is set in 2000, during the St Pancras Upgrade, while the Eurostar was still leaving from Waterloo International, which is nowhere near as sexy as the new station!


( In which things are not all well )

Part two

I know. Two fics in the one month. Madness! I might even finish some more WiPs this year if this keeps up!

This is the sequel to Tidings of Comfort, which was begun on raitala's sofa on a cold winter's evening in 2009 and was going to be a Christmas fic, except I finished it in March. This sequel was going to be a birthday fic for Rai, except, well, you get the picture.

Title: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Word count: 8400
Rating: So safe, the horses would be checking its pockets for sugar.
Summary: Draco hasn't been seeking refuge in religion, just in London's most famous church. The fact that it's on the daily route of Britain's most famous Auror is total coincidence, he's really there for the music.
Notes: Many thanks to jadzialove who is the kindest of betas, and to raitala and Catsson, whose hospitality and purring (respectively) were essential to the genesis of this story.


( December 23, St Pauls )