#ladies of hp fest

[ladiesofhpfest]

2024 Themes Announcement

They're here! Many of your guesses were good, and now it's time for the big reveal! The themes for 2024's fest can be found below. Based on feedback from the 2023 fest, most participants wanted fewer themes with more time to work on each theme. Each theme will run for two weeks. More information for the 2024 fest will be coming soon (some rule changes included) as well as fic recs!

LADIES OF HP FEST 2024 THEMES

Mothers and Daughters 👩‍👧

Senior Sweethearts 👵🏽

Out & Proud 🌈

Women of the House of Black 🖤

Character Chic 📝

Marauders Era Misses 🐾

Women of Color ✊🏿

Rebels and Renegades 💥

Next Gen Girlies 👧🏼

Reblog and spread the news as far and wide as you can! To look at our amazing works for 2023, click here!

[saintsenara]

they is not knowing that we is knowing how to take the lives we is wanting from them. and that is why they is not thinking about how many weapons they is putting in kitchens.

tom riddle had nothing to do with the death of hepzibah smith. hokey had just had enough of being a slave.

sparkling cyanide hokey & hepzibah smith general | 1.4k words

this piece was written for week fourteen of @ladiesofhpfest, which focuses on the non-human ladies of the harry potter series (you can find the masterlist of the week’s fics here), which, here, means hokey, the house elf enslaved by hepzibah smith. or, as we shall call her from hereon out, eokhí, which is how her name is accurately transcribed from the elvish language (more on which below).

for a story which only has 1,400 words, there is a lot to say about this one. some author’s notes under the cut:

the title is the same as that of agatha christie’s 1945 novel sparkling cyanide - published in the united states as remembered death - for which there are some spoilers immediately to follow. it is not, let me be frank, agatha’s best (not least because it’s a rewrite of a poirot short story, ‘the yellow iris’) but there are several things about it which appealed to me when i was writing this: that it deals with a death initially presumed not to be murder; that it has multiple suspects, including a young man who appears to desire wealth; and that the murder weapon is a poisoned drink.

the poison - in christie’s case and in mine - is potassium cyanide. this is obviously a deviation from what we are told in half-blood prince - in which dumbledore describes the poison used to kill hepzibah as ‘rare’ - since cyanide is probably one of the better known methods of doing away with troublesome old ladies, but it has been my headcanon for quite a while: cyanide looks very similar to sugar; it's highly soluble; its bitter taste requires something sweet (like cocoa) to mask it; it kills its victim extremely quickly; and it wouldn’t be completely bizarre for it to be found in a wizarding house. cyanide was a standard component of silver polish until surprisingly recently, and i am choosing to believe that this is the same in the wizarding world. in her interview with the aurors, eokhí just happens to mention that hepzibah wanted a pair of silver candlesticks polished the day she died, and everyone considers the matter settled.

i’ve always been fascinated by the murder of hepzibah smith, not least because - as it’s described in canon - it’s a massive deviation from voldemort’s usual modus operandi. hepzibah is the only person we know to have been poisoned by him, and the only person we know to have been killed using - essentially - a muggle method (even if the poison in jkr’s head is magical, stirring it into a cup of cocoa isn’t). above all, i am obsessed about what it says about voldemort that the hyper-feminine (even if the text treats her attempts at femininity as ridiculous - something which eokhí agrees with) hepzibah is killed in such a feminine-coded way: poison is known in pop-culture as a ‘woman’s weapon’ - even if statistical evidence doesn’t confirm this - and a domestic one; and the image of hepzibah dying in her own home, over a cosy cup of cocoa, as punishment for insulting voldemort’s mother (whose death kept him from that experience) is really striking.

a part of the murder which is more usual for voldemort is that he frames someone else. however, unlike with his framing of morfin gaunt for the murder of the three riddles, which is made to look deliberate, he makes eokhí’s involvement in hepzibah’s death look accidental, and eokhí appears to receive no punishment from the ministry of magic. this undoubtedly has nothing to do with any compassion for her on voldemort’s part; he chooses it because it’s the most plausible cover he can give himself, and this must be because wizards know that elves cannot deliberately harm their masters.

or, at least, think they know that.

poison’s association with women and the domestic sphere obviously means it has a reputation for being the means by which servants bump off their masters - and, specifically, how female servants bump off their mistresses. i very much like the idea of witches laughing in a self-satisfied way, thinking that they never have to worry - like silly old muggles - about being done away with by their cooks, while the loophole which elves have noticed and have been exploiting for centuries stares them right in the face. because we see in canon that elves are perfectly capable of indirectly harming their masters - dobby spends the entirety of chamber of secrets doing it - and so, when eokhí decides she has had enough of her mistreatment at hepzibah’s hands, all she has to do is get the poison out of the cupboard, put it in a dish, and let hepzibah choke on her own arrogance.

eokhí is a type of elf we only see glimpses of in canon - one who does not want to be a slave. the house-elf plotline is the weakest in the series for many reasons, but one i always find particularly galling is that dobby’s revolutionary zeal in chamber of secrets, in which he talks of whisper networks of elves decrying their ill-treatment at the hands of wizards and celebrating voldemort’s death, vanishes in goblet of fire, when the standard elvish position seems to correspond with the wizarding one: that being a slave is great and wanting freedom is bizarre.

eokhí said fuck that. this story is one of disrespect and rage and revenge, and of the triumphant pleasure of reclaiming the space which was once used to oppress you, as eokhí goes from waking up in a nest of blankets on the kitchen floor - because she’s not allowed a real bed, unlike hepzibah - to eating the cakes she has always been denied while hepzibah lies dead in the parlour.

it is also a story of language.

we hear several elves speak in canon, although only three in any great detail: dobby, winky, and kreacher. there are differences across their speech - dobby and kreacher tend to speak in the third-person, winky tends to speak in the first-person; kreacher uses the present continuous the least, winky uses it the most - but none speak in standard british (or american) english, and there are similarities - such as a tendency to use non-standard conjugations of verbs (‘i is not sure you did dobby a favour, sir’) - among all three.

in harry potter, characters who speak in non-standard english are generally coded in one of three ways: foreign (fleur, krum); simple-minded (hagrid); or shifty (mundungus fletcher, amycus carrow). which - if any - of these readings is intended for elves is up for debate, although my own view is that elves’ language is intended to make the reader agree with the standard wizarding opinion that they are less sophisticated or rational than humans and that their subordinate position in wizarding society is natural and justifiable. this is, obviously, something the text partially pulls the rug from under - the underestimation of both dobby and kreacher’s powers and agency is a significant contributor to harry’s victory - but it always feels, given the series’ failure to fully stick the landing on whether it thinks slavery is a bad thing, not as pointed or ironic as it may have been intended to be.

i prefer to think of elves as having their own language, used among themselves, to which wizards have no access. but i also think that it does them a disservice to think of the language they use to interact with wizards as simply non-standard - or, more dismissively, ‘broken’ - english. i think we should imagine that all adult elves are fluent speakers of two languages: the elvish language; and what we might call elvish creole, which - like all creole languages - is not a dialect, but a full language in its own right.

eokhí’s story is written in this language. some of its linguistic features are:

phonetics: in goblet of fire, dobby is shown to think that ron’s surname is pronounced ‘wheezy’. he thinks this because the elvish language of course has its own phonetics, which particularly affect the transcription of proper nouns which are not habitually used in elvish or elvish creole. two examples are important to this story: the elvish language doesn’t have an aspirated h- (as in, how a speaker of standard british english would pronounce ‘hokey’) and it doesn’t have a plosive p- (as in, how a speaker of standard british english would pronounce ‘hepzibah’). that hepzibah expects eokhí to pronounce her name properly and yet doesn’t extend this basic courtesy to her should not surprise us.

names: three elves we meet in canon - dobby, winky, and hokey - have names which end in an ‘ee’ sound. as eokhí explains, this is because elves are usually named after nouns, and the nominative singular of nouns in the elvish language end in -í. plural nouns end in -é. [kreacher’s name appears to be an adaptation of the word ‘creature’, which suggests that he was dehumanised to such an extent that his masters wouldn’t even make an attempt to pronounce his real name.]

elves do not speak the names of their dead. eokhí refers only to eokhí’s mother, rather than using the name she had when she was living. wizards do not realise they are being disrespected when elves use their names after they are gone.

pronouns: the elves we see in canon tend to use illeism. that is, they refer to themselves in the third-person singular - he, she - most of the time. although winky uses the first-person singular - i - regularly, dobby only uses it occasionally, and kreacher never does. they also tend to use their own names as pronouns - ‘kreacher is cleaning’ - particularly when needing to add emphasis or clarity to sentences. eokhí never uses the first-person singular, for reasons connected to elves’ traditions about the self. she would explain to us that when elves refer to themselves as ‘i’, they are choosing to speak standard english for the benefit of their wizarding audience, and she doesn’t feel hepzibah deserves that effort.

verbs: the elves we see in canon generally only use the third-person singular of verbs - 'i says' - regardless of pronoun choice. eokhí does the same, since both elvish and elvish creole have no plural verb forms and only one grammatical person, once again connected to elves’ traditions about the self.

the elves we meet in canon also tend to use the present continuous - ‘my master is telling winky some things’ - frequently, often in a context which would not feel intuitive for speakers of standard english. in eokhí’s speech, the present continuous is used to show actions which are repeated or habitual - ‘eokhí is waking up one morning in her nest on the kitchen floor’ - while the simple present refers both to general statements of fact - ‘eokhí is a slave’ - or to one-off actions ‘eokhí decides that is it’. in the past tense, similar principles apply: eokhí uses the past continuous - the smith family ‘was wanting to be looked after’ by eokhí’s mother - to describe repeated or habitual actions and the simple past for general or singular events. the future continuous is used both for actions which will be repeated or habitual and for actions which will take a indeterminate time to conclude - ‘eokhí is going to be fighting back’, her battle is not just done with hepzibah dead - rather than simple actions with a defined end-point - ‘she will eat’.

[nena-96]

@ladiesofhpfest

I’ve decided to make a little Moodboard for Lavender Brown, for the Ladies of HP Monthly Mini

Lavender Brown

[midnightstargazer]

I'm super excited for the @ladiesofhpfest, and I can't wait to share with what I've been working on with y'all! Here are some sneak peeks at what I've got planned for each theme:

Mothers and Daughters

There will hopefully be two fics, a (mostly) fluffy one about Astoria raising Scorpius and a very angsty one about Barty Crouch Jr.'s mother and her decision to take his place in Azkaban. The Mrs. Crouch one is still a WIP - I only got the idea a few days ago - but hopefully it will be ready in time.

Senior Sweethearts

Come join me in an AU where a few things go differently in DH and, as a result, Andromeda gets to grow old surrounded by her loved ones. Also featuring a very sweet friendship between Andromeda and Astoria.

Out and Proud

For last year's fest I broke Emmeline Vance's heart in a fic titled Midnight Rain. This year, she meets Hestia Jones and gets another chance at love and happiness.

Women of the House of Black

For this theme, I'm exploring one of my favorite headcanons: that Iola Black, who was disowned for marrying a Muggle several generations ago, was never forgotten by the women of the family, and her story was passed down as a cautionary tale.

Character Chic

A character sketch of Marietta Edgecombe. What sort of person is she? Why did she betray the D.A.? How does she move on with her life with broken trust, gaps in her memory, and a mistake she made at sixteen permanently scarred onto her face?

Marauders Era Misses

I've been promising an Emmeline-centric first war fic for a while, and it's finally on its way! Despite being a very background character in canon, she's someone I have a lot of headcanons about - and here, I'll be delving into aspects of her story that I've alluded to but didn't fully explore in other fics, especially Midnight Rain and To Have Loved and Lost.

Women of Color

An eighth year fic starring Padma Patil, who returns to Hogwarts after the battle to finish her education and figure out what comes next. How do you go back to your ordinary life after a year like the one she and her peers have just been through?

Rebels and Renegades

The fic version of this Tumblr post: Dorcas Meadowes and Marlene McKinnon as Riddle Era women who remember Voldemort from their school days and are among the first to join the Order of the Phoenix. This is still very much a WIP and will probably be the longest fic I write for the fest - but luckily, the theme isn't until August, so I've still got plenty of time!

Next Gen Girlies

This was actually the first one I wrote for this summer's fest, featuring Molly and Lucy Weasley. The two sisters are very different people, but they love and support each other nevertheless. It's also yet another excuse for me to delve into the topic of squibs, which apparently I just can't stay away from.

[transacelovegood]

HP Saffics Femslash February 2024 and The Ladies of HP Fest Monthly Mini (@hpsaffics and @ladiesofhpfest)

001. Ice Skating - Cho Chang/Fleur Delacour - https://archiveofourown.org/works/53448103

[dobnny]

@ladiesofhpfest

The Dobster made a Tumblr! (Only temporarily!)

🧟‍♂️

and Moodboard for Miss Ginerva day (yeah, Harry could never get away with calling Ginny by her name 😏

As you can see, Ginny has taken Dobs to court and succeeded in getting a restraining order from that little nutter. Alas, Dobs will admire from afar. Ginerva is all about Women Power! Talk about an amazing witch

@takearisk-ao3 and @corneliaavenue-ao3

[sophie-hatter-jenkins]

Enigma

Written for @ladiesofhpfest Monthly Mini - Hermione Granger, 1st March 2024.

Word Count - 2359

Summary - Hermione is different. She doesn't fit in, and she doesn't understand why. If only she could find the answer.

Rating - General

It's my first Monthly Mini, so please be gentle with me!

Hermione is four years old, but only just. Her fifth birthday is in exactly two weeks. Hermione is very excited today, because it is her first day at school. She walks there with both her parents, skipping along in between them, each of them holding one of her hands. Hermione knows all about school, because her parents have told her. At school, Hermione can learn lots of new things, and make lots of new friends. Hermione already knows all her letters, and all her numbers. She can write her name, and she can read most of the storybooks on her shelf in her bedroom at home. She is looking forward to telling the teacher all about it, and she is looking forward to meeting the other children.

Hermione doesn’t skip on the way home, because school wasn’t at all what she expected. When Hermione’s mummy asks her about her day, she tells her about the teacher, Mrs Woods. Mrs Woods is a nice lady, and Hermione likes her. She smiles a lot, and answers Hermione’s questions with patience and kindness. Mrs Woods has a hamster in a cage on her desk, and Hermione tells her mummy all about him too. She laughs as she explains that Speedy escaped from his cage, and Mrs Woods had to chase him around the classroom to catch him, exclaiming about how inconvenient it was that he lived up to his name. 

What Hermione doesn’t tell her mummy is how Speedy escaped from his cage in the first place, because Hermione really isn’t too sure herself. One moment, Hermione was standing in front of the cage, imagining how soft his brown and white fur would feel, and the next, there he was, in her hands. Hermione was so surprised, she shrieked and dropped him. No one saw it happen, and once her heart had stopped racing, Hermione was sure she must have imagined it. So no, she doesn’t tell her mummy.

She also doesn’t tell her mummy about the other children, because they were not nice to her. One of them, a boy called Trevor, kept snatching her book from her hands when Mrs Woods let them use the library corner. Others jostled her in the playground. A girl named Vanessa, who has long, straight, blond hair, laughed at her teeth and called her Bugs Bunny. It made Hermione feel sad, and a bit scared. She doesn’t understand why the other children were mean, and that upsets her too. Hermione hates it when she doesn’t understand.

When Hermione’s mummy asks if she is looking forward to going back tomorrow, Hermione smiles and says yes, because she knows that is the correct answer, and Hermione always gives the correct answer. But inside, Hermione really isn’t so sure about going back at all.

-------

Hermione is eleven years old, but not for much longer. It is mid-July, and her twelfth birthday is in two months. Yesterday was her last day at primary school, and Hermione isn’t quite sure how she feels about it.

There is a lot about primary school that Hermione loved. She loved the warm, sunny, comforting library corner. She loved all her teachers. She loved the satisfaction that comes from learning a new skill, or concept, or fact. She especially loved when she knows the answer to her teacher’s question. 

But, there is one thing that Hermione didn’t love at all, and that is the other children. Or, to be more precise, the way the other children made her feel. Trevor and Vanessa and the other children were not openly hostile towards her. Well, not very often anyway. Mostly, they just left her alone, which Hermione still tries to tell herself suits her fine. It doesn’t though - it just hurts. This is because Hermione is different. She isn’t like the other children, not at all, and she is painfully aware of this fact. She has tried so very hard to fit in, but never with any success. Her classmates remain as much a puzzle to her as she is to them. Hermione finds this frustrating - she hates not belonging, but not as much as she hates her own inability to understand why. 

It isn’t being alone that is the problem, because Hermione is used to this. She has spent much of her life alone. Mum and dad do their best, when they are not busy with the dental practice, and Hermione is not at school. There are many fun, family days, trips to the theatre, holidays to sandy beaches, visits to historic sites - castles, battlefields and ancient woodlands. Hermione loves spending time with them. But, with no siblings, and no school friends, she inevitably spends much of her time with no company but her own. 

She thinks it would bother her more if she didn’t have her books. With a book open in her lap, Hermione can lose herself entirely. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a fairytale, a detective story, an autobiography or an academic textbook, the words melt off the page and into her brain, wrapping themselves around her like the very warmest of hugs. When she reads, she almost doesn’t see the words themselves. Instead, she inhabits the worlds they create within her own mind. She sees the characters as clear as day, moving through landscapes deftly painted into her imagination with vivid prose and printer’s ink. When she reads, she is transported. 

Hermione wonders how very different this will all be in September, when she starts at Secondary school. Keen to stretch her, academically, her parents have found a place for her at a very well regarded private school. None of her former classmates will be there. Hermione hopes, desperately, that she will find kinship amongst them, but she is scared that she won’t - that the differentness of her will follow her to this new school, like a shadow.

In the early afternoon, there is a knock at the door. Hermione’s dad answers it. Hermione can’t really hear the conversation at the doorstep, just two voices, her father and a woman with a voice that she does not recognise. They talk for quite a long time, until eventually, her father leads the woman into the living room. She is tall and slender, wearing a tartan skirt suit in shades of muted green. Her black hair is pulled back into the neatest bun Hermione has ever seen, and Hermione is immediately envious of how pristine it is. 

Once Hermione’s mother has served everyone a nice, civilised cup of tea, the woman introduces herself as Minerva McGonagall. She tells them, in what sounds like a well practised speech, that magic is real, and that she herself is a witch. Hermione and her parents are, naturally, extremely sceptical, but the woman seems prepared for this. To prove her point, she promptly turns herself into a cat. She then turns herself back into a woman and produces a slender wooden rod from her sleeve, which she uses to repair Mrs Granger’s broken teacup and clean up the spilled tea.

After this extremely effective demonstration Minerva McGonagall explains that she is the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and that she is there to offer a place to Hermione. Hermione, it seems, is also a witch.

Hermione’s parents are sceptical of this, too, even when Professor McGonagall asks them if they have ever noticed any times when things seemed to happen around Hermione, strange things, things they could not explain. Hermione’s parents seem sure they have not, so Professor McGonagall turns to Hermione and asks her instead.

“Hermione? Can you think of any times?”

Hermione thinks back. She remembers the time that Speedy the hamster escaped from his cage, on her first day at school. She remembers the sports day when her egg and spoon suddenly became welded together after everyone laughed at her for dropping them. She remembers the Halloween when Trevor tried to scare her with a spider made of pipe cleaners, but somehow when he picked it up it was a real one, and Mrs Woods had to hit it with a shoe to stop everyone screaming.

Hermione looks at Professor McGonagall, and nods, slowly.

After an extremely long discussion, it is agreed - Hermione’s parents will turn down the place at the very well regarded private school. Instead, on September the First, Hermione will board the Hogwarts Express, bound for the Scottish Highlands, and the whole new world that awaits her there. 

Conversation turns to the subject of trunks, wands, books (so many books!), cauldrons, and a hundred other details. Hermione is enthralled and excited, and tells both her parents and Professor McGonagall this. At length.

What Hermione doesn’t mention is the flicker of hope that she feels, curling up inside her, catching light in her chest. She is so, so excited. Yes, she is excited to be a witch, and yes, she is excited to begin on her journey, but these are not the only reasons. No, the other reason she is excited is because she knows. She finally has the answer. This is what makes her different, this is why she has never fitted in, this is the reason for all the mean comments and scathing glances. Well, no more. Finally, Hermione is going to belong.

Finally, Hermione understands.

-------

Hermione is twelve years old, and today she feels stupid. It isn’t a feeling that she is very familiar with, which is probably why she’s finding it so hard to deal with. Hence, she isn’t dealing with it very well. This, it seems, is the theme for the day, because Hermione has also had to accept that she was wrong, and this isn’t something that happens very often either. 

Hermione was wrong, because actually, she doesn’t fit in at Hogwarts after all. She’s been here two months now, and being here is so much like being back at primary school that it makes her want to scream. Just like primary school, she loves the teachers, and the library, and learning all the new and wonderful things. And also, just like primary school, none of the other children like her at all. She doesn’t belong here, any more than she belonged back home. So she was wrong; whatever it is about her that makes her different, it clearly isn’t being a witch. She feels stupid to have thought that it would ever make a difference in the first place. 

The girls, she supposes, are mostly alright. The others that share her dormitory are pleasant enough, in their own way. They aren’t openly mean to her, anyway. They just seem to have so much more in common with each other than with Hermione. She exists in their orbit without ever truly interacting with them. She is adrift, always at arm's length.

No, it’s the boys who are so much worse. Being a Gryffindor, she doesn’t have to spend too much time with Draco Malfoy and his Slytherin cronies, who, as far as she can tell, dislike her purely because her parents are dentists. But, she can’t honestly say that the boys in her own house are much better. In fact, one of them is the reason she’s spent the afternoon sitting on the loo, crying.

It was such a stupid thing, really. She was only trying to help. Hermione always wants to try her best, and she doesn’t understand why other people wouldn’t want to do the same. So, if she sees someone struggling, she’ll always try to help them improve. Today, that meant she tried to help Ron Weasley, and look what happened - he called her a nightmare, and mocked her for the very thing that haunts her the most: her lack of friends. It felt as though he had physically punched her. 

She did think, for a while, perhaps he wasn’t so bad, Ron and his best friend Harry. They both seemed nice enough when she met them on the train, but then came that awful night when she tried to stop them getting into trouble for sneaking around the castle at night. She tried to explain that she was only trying to help, but it didn’t seem to matter to them, not at all. Afterwards, though, a funny thing happened, as she pelted back to the common room with the boys at her heels, running from Filch and his cat and a three-headed hell hound. Alongside her annoyance and her fear, she felt a thrill of exhilaration, a glimpse of what it was like to be one of the gang and she wondered if maybe, just maybe, this was what friendship might feel like. But, a glimpse was all it was. Now, with hindsight, that glimpse seems more cruel than any words could be, because Hermione finds herself alone, again. Worse, she’s now alone, and hundreds of miles away from her mum and dad, the only people who have ever seemed to actually like her. 

Hermione sighs, and leaves her cubicle, trudging over to the sinks. Somewhere in the distance, she can hear shouting, and a distant thumping noise, but she doesn’t pay it too much attention. Instead, she gazes at the face in the mirror, blotchy and puffy, evidence of the misery she’s spent the afternoon hiding from the rest of the world. She’s missed the Halloween feast, but she doesn’t care, no matter how much her stomach rumbles. 

Tomorrow, she knows, she’ll get up and start again, always trying her best, and never giving up, because it’s all she knows how to do. Right now, at this second, all she wants to do is go back to the dormitory and curl up behind the curtains of her bed, losing herself in a book; the ultimate comfort. 

As the rhythmic thumping sound becomes louder, Hermione takes a deep breath. She so desperately wants to feel like she belongs, that she fits in. She desperately wants to make some friends. It’s really all she’s ever wanted, but as she stands there, gazing at her reflection in the girl's bathroom, it feels further away than ever. She wonders if it will ever happen.

Behind her, the bathroom door opens. 

[digthewriter]

Young Minerva - Fashionista at the Hogwarts Ball | Making big, bold choices and real choices.

Week Three for @ladiesofhpfest HOGWARTS HOTTIES

[celestemagnoliathewriter]

@hprecfest day 10: a fest fic

She'll Survive (the great war) by @thecasualauthor18

Pairing: Hinny (Harry x Ginny)

Rating: T

Why I rec this: first, it was one of the fics written for my baby, the @ladiesofhpfest. Second, I LOVE BAMF Ginny Weasley. I love fighting, determined Ginny. You get her in this fic.

Here's a snippet from the very beginning that sets the tone for the whole thing. then go to ao3 to keep reading!

When Harry Potter locks eyes with her for the last time at her brother’s wedding and disapparates, leaving her alone, Ginny Weasley doesn’t fall apart. 

She makes a plan. 

She may miss him so much it hurts, and she may be absolutely furious with him for leaving her so cut up and in this mess that is her life, but she’ll be damned if she’s to do nothing while the world falls apart around her. 

No, Ginny Weasley doesn’t fall apart. 

She fights.

keep reading on ao3

[hoardlessdragon]

I wrote a little something (1k) for our beloved Fleur.

[abihastastybeans]

Back to the pavilion - Written for @ladiesofhpfest Monthly minis! 1st December 2023 - Minerva McGonagall

Word Count: 1227

Summary: A day in the life of Minerva McGonagall

“Now, I want all of you to try and turn your matches into needles,” Minerva joined her hands together. “Remember the incantation and,” she waved her wand and multiple matchboxes materialised in front of the students, “speak clearly.”

She walked through the rows observing the class as the First Years waved their wands slowly, eager to try their first Transfiguration spell. She corrected wand movements and helped the students who were struggling.

“I did it!” Jessica Breestone, the bright muggleborn exclaimed suddenly.

Continue reading on ao3!

[ladiesofhpfest]

Quick Start for the Ladies of HP Fest 2024

Welcome to the Ladies of HP Fest! This post is your quick start guide to the fest and how it works.

Themes: Every two weeks, from 28 April 2024 to 31 August 2024, there will be a new theme. You can check the themes and dates on the 2024 Schedule.

Writing/creating: Minimum fic word count for the main fest is 200*; no artwork 'time' amount, but use your best judgment to show something that took effort. The full rule list can be found here, and the FAQ list can be found here.

Posting: When you're done, post the work to the 2024 AO3 collection. It will be unrevealed until the mod reveals it. There is no set reveal schedule; it's a come as you are, come as you go sort of fest, and no set commitment to any week. You can post ahead of time, but the fic won't be revealed until the theme arrives. Please include the theme in your author notes.

If you have questions, ask. Happy creating!

*If you're participating in our monthly minis, the minimum word count is only 100.

[saintsenara]

this piece was written for the second @ladiesofhpfest monthly minis, this time focusing on lily evans. you can read the first piece i did for this challenge - on andromeda tonks - here, and find the masterlist of all the pieces written for andromeda here.

today, even though we're looking at lily, the perspective is someone else's: her much maligned and often overlooked sister, petunia.

petunia's letter to dumbledore, written just before her sister starts at hogwarts, is one of those incidental details which are dropped into canon and then never addressed again and which now live rent-free in my mind. i've always wondered what she said. i've always wondered why she wanted to follow her sister - with whom, from what we see of snape's memories, she doesn't seem to be particularly closely aligned in terms of personality, sense of daring etc. - to a castle in the middle of nowhere. i've always wondered why she wanted to be magic.

this is what i think she said.

Dear Professor Dumbledore,

My name is Petunia Evans.

I am thirteen years old and I live in Cokeworth with my parents and my sister, Lily. We are ordinary people - Muggles, your deputy headmistress called us - with a normal house and normal clothes. My father has a normal job, my mother keeps a normal home, my sister and I squabble like normal girls.

I am writing because, in ten days time, you will be taking my sister away from me.

We were supposed to go to school together - to St Andrew’s High School, where everyone we know goes - which is the normal thing to happen. But now Lily is going to your school, and I won’t be there to show her what you do at lunchtime or how to take books out of the library or to tell her which teachers are creepy and which ones are nice. I did that when she started in the infants and it's something I should be doing again. It's my job as her big sister, and I believe in doing things properly.

But instead people like you are taking Lily somewhere where everyone says I can’t follow. And nobody’s explained to me what I should say when people at school ask me why my little sister isn’t in the first form this September. Because if I just say that she’s gone to a boarding school, then people will ask why I’m not there too. Things might be different in your world, but in ours sisters go to the same school, and it's not right if they don't.

Lily rolls her eyes when I say this. Since she found out that she was a witch, she has taken to pretending that we were never the best of friends. Having been best friends with your sister isn't special enough, I suppose.

But we were. Totally inseparable, mummy called us. Never saw one without the other.

So I know that, when she gets to your school, Lily will probably pretend that she’s not related to someone like me. How could she be? After all, people have always stopped mummy to say that she’s pretty and sweet, with her red hair and her big eyes. They never stop her to talk about me. I’m just plain old Petunia, with yellow hair. Lily thinks I cry all the time and when we’re fighting she says that I look like a horse.

And now you’ve made that even worse. Because she thinks how can I be related to someone like Petunia? After all, Lily’s a witch, Lily’s magical, Lily will want to stick with her own sort, to have magical friends.

And I’m just a Muggle.

But - the thing is - I showed her magic first. Maybe it’s not as impressive as the sort of magic your lot can do - I can’t fly or make flowers bloom - but I was the first person who showed her that things are not what they seem, that everything can be transformed if you just know how. I was the first person who showed her how you can change boring things into fun ones by making them a game. I showed her how you can change flour and eggs and butter and sugar into a cake. I showed her how you can turn the black-and-white lines of a colouring book into a real picture. I taught her that snow melts and the garden comes alive again. I taught her that grazed knees scab and then the scab falls off and they’re healed. 

I was going to show her all the magic which grown ups get to have. We were going to move to London - or Manchester, or Liverpool, or Birmingham, anywhere, really - and go to restaurants and the cinema every night. We were going to get good jobs and trade silly stories about our bosses. We were going to get married, and be each other’s maid-of-honour, and have children, and be the favourite aunt. We were going to live next door to each other and gossip over the garden wall, and our children were going to grow up and be the very best of friends.

Aren’t those things magic too?

I think so. But Lily has already stopped thinking of them that way. She already looks down at the magic we used to have, and I want to stop that and let everything be as it should be. With me as the big sister.

I know that I could learn magic too, because I’ve already done so much of it. Please offer me a place at your school. I enclose my latest reports, so you can see that I’m clever and well-behaved. I look forward to your letter.

Yours sincerely,

Petunia Evans

[nena-96]

Ladies of HP fest

@ladiesofhpfest

The final Monthly Mini (until next time), goes to the one and only…..Nymphadora—

“It’s TONKS!

…..

Erm, right……I meant to say, Tonks…..😳

Tonks is a Hufflepuff, but don’t you dare judge her because of the house she was sorted in. Besides, she’s a proud, “Puff” and not afraid to prove to the men who they are up against.

“Honestas ante Honores”

“Honesty before Glory” - that is the motto of the Hufflepuff house and it’s really a staple of who Tonks is as a person.

That being said, I present to you a Moodboard for our favorite Metamorphmagus!

NYMPHADORA TONKS

(This user was stunned to oblivion if I don’t reply it’s because I can barely talk 💀 )

[artemisia-black]

It’s the last week of the @ladiesofhpfest. Everyone run and read the amazing fics written by so many talented authors.

A massive thank you and congratulations to the lovely @celestemagnoliathewriter for hosting such a successful fest ♥️♥️

[romaine2424]

Weekly Blog August 30, 2023

Let me say upfront that my personal world is quite small, but that doesn't stop random lightning strikes of 'Oh shit' hitting my household. Yikes. I think things have calmed down once again so I can get back to escapism. LOL

I have been writing and updating. The Azkaban Letters Chapter 12 was posted yesterday. I update every Tuesday. The response has been 'meh' kudos wise, but I have some lovely lovely commenters, which inspires me to push ahead. For anyone who's posted a chapter fic, you know what it means to have a few folks comment on each chapter.

What I've been reading:

I've been reading a lot! Mostly very long fics, but then I hit upon a fest I hadn't heard of before that just ended. @ladiesofhpfest! 16 weeks of themed fics! The theme range goes from Vilenous Vixens to Hedwig's Circle of Divas. Most of the fics are less than 5K. Here's the link to the Master List by Weeks/Themes. The final two weeks have to be added to the list. I know one of them is Week 15: Girly Girls.

I have two three recs from this fest, mind you, I've just started reading the stories.

The first is Sparkling Cyanide (1.4K) by @saintsenara.

Summary: Tom Riddle had nothing to do with the death of Hepzibah Smith. Hokey had just had enough of being a slave.

I have no idea how the author fits so much into 1.4k words. But we learn who Hokey is and how she and those who came before her were mistreated by Hepzibah Smith. That wizards and witches have no idea and don't care to know the rich history of house-elves. And they are oh so clever! Cheer Hokey on as she works around the law that house-elves cannot use their magic to hurt their masters.

The second is Look Like the Innocent Flowers (4.8K) by @midnightstargazer.

Summary: Daphne is silly and superficial, the sort who obsesses over makeup and fashion and knows all the latest gossip. Astoria is fragile and soft-spoken, a delicate flower of a girl. When the Carrows take over Hogwarts, the two sisters appear to be unaffected, indifferent to changes that have little impact on pure-blood Slytherins like themselves. But as the Sorting Hat said, "those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends" - including allowing themselves to be grossly underestimated.

This is a great canon missing moments fic for 7th year. Daphne is very much a Slytherin (as is Astoria). She's made a decision to protect her sister and those that the dark side wants to hurt. We're treated to the beginnings of Astoria/Draco, the subtle communication between Slytherin women, including Narcissa, and how such a beautiful witch can use her wiles and magical powers to help bring down the Dark Lord that most of her house admires.

Oh, and this author also wrote Lily's Cat (sniffle) for the fest. Really sweet.

One more rec, and it's Drarry, and it's a Series, and it's long. I'm guessing that many of you have read the Blood Magic (340K) series by Houseofhebrideanblacks(AO3) and Thestralsofspinnersend(AO3). The series is made up of 3 distinct fics in feel though definitely intertwined. The first fic, A Half-Life, A Cursed-Life (49K) is very tough to read. It takes place quite a few years after the war, and Auror Harry is so so broken. At the very end, though, there is a spark of hope as Healer Draco takes action.

The second fic, The Forest (88K), is my fav. Definitely the balm to ease the pain of the first one. And the third, Misunderstood Creatures (198K) is amazing in love, action, and lore. Truly a great Drarry series that should be on every Drarry fan's list to read.

One note of interest is that the Authors wrote for their character, and it's seamless.

Please remember to give love to these stories! Comments are always appreciated.

Resources:

Today's resource came from @maesterchill on the Main Drarry discord server. The Fic Writer's Guide to Formatting (An AO3 Repository) by @anisaanisa. I cannot tell you how excited I was to finally learn how to do coloured text in AO3 and so many other things! Geez just so happy for this resource.

UpComing Fests of Interest (okay to me):

H/D Kidfic Fest: Prompting is Sept 16th-29th.

H/D Owlpost 2023: Sign-ups Aug 18th - Sept 8th.

Harry Potter Rare Pair Fest IV (@hprarepairfest): Claiming now open!

Oh wow, I think I'm done! Have a great week and remember to have some fun in our lovely fandom!

Rom