THE HARRY POTTER CHARACTER LOVE FEST

[birdsofshore]

I hereby pronounce the Love Fest OPEN!     ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥




banner by capitu





BANNERS – We'd love you to promote the fest on your journal! Please pick up your banners HERE.

ALPHABETICAL MASTERLIST OF CHARACTERS

I've started you off with 40 or so of the requested characters, and I might add more as the urge takes me. If your character is not here, start your own comment thread and I'll link to it here!

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE'S thread
ALBUS SEVERUS' thread
ARTHUR'S thread
BELLATRIX'S thread
BILL'S thread
BLAISE'S thread
CEDRIC'S thread and more CEDRIC here
CHARLIE'S thread
CORMAC'S thread
CROOKSHANKS' thread
DOBBY'S thread
DRACO'S thread
DUDLEY'S thread
FRED'S thread
GEORGE'S thread
HARRY'S thread
HEDWIG'S thread
HERMIONE'S thread
GINNY'S thread
HORACE SLUGHORN'S thread
JAMES SIRIUS' thread
KINGSLEY'S thread
KREACHER'S thread
LUCIUS' thread
LUNA'S thread
MADAM POMFREY'S thread
MINERVA MCGONAGALL'S thread
MOLLY'S thread
NARCISSA'S thread
NEVILLE'S thread
PANSY'S thread
PROFESSOR SPROUT'S thread
PROFESSOR TRELAWNEY'S thread
REGULUS BLACK'S thread
REMUS LUPIN'S thread
RODOLPHUS AND / OR RABASTAN LESTRANGE'S thread
ROMILDA'S thread
RON'S thread
RUBEUS HAGRID'S thread
TEDDY LUPIN'S thread
SCORPIUS' thread
SEVERUS SNAPE'S thread
SIRIUS BLACK'S thread
TONKS' (NYMPHADORA TONKS) thread
VOLDEMORT'S thread

MASTERLIST OF FANWORKS Updated as regularly as I can!

FEST INFO:

When is the fest running?
We're here all week, from Feb 7th to Feb 14th. Please drop in regularly to leave love and see what else has been left.

How do I leave love for a character?
It's entirely up to you, but here are some examples, for your inspiration. So, for instance, if you're feeling a lot of love for Ron this week, go to his thread HERE and leave your contribution as a comment.

You could post explaining that you've always liked a man with a freckly arse. You could draw a sketch of Ron doing his bad-ass Auror thing. You could write a drabble featuring Ron just being Ron, a kinky PWP, or a 100k Gen rated kid!fic. You could cosplay as Ron and post a photo. Sculpt your interpretation of Ron's face in mashed potato. Or eat a bacon sandwich in his honour and then compose a haiku about how delicious it was. What about some Ron-centric recs? Ron icons, favourite quotes connected to Ron, a Ron fanmix, Ron's name written in fairy lights – if you can think of it, then DO IT.

Leave a description of your contribution in the subject line. Eg, RON: FANMIX, RON: HAIKU, or RON: DRABBLE or just RON: LOVE if it's just general love.

Commenting on other people's contributions, and general chit-chat, is firmly encouraged. Will this mean the threads get a little crazy? WHO KNOWS. :D

What is and isn't allowed?
You can write any pairing, or gen, any length, any genre, any rating. Please use warnings appropriately. Content does not have to be fluffy by any means, but character bashing would not be appropriate at this fest. If you have any doubts, just ask me or capitu.

I've written a 20k fic for the fest, is that OK?
:DDD OF COURSE. If there's anything that you want to host on your own journal, just leave the link in the comment thread.

I can't find a thread for Aunt Marge / Griphook / Trevor! Are only certain characters eligible for love?
Please check the masterlist first, HERE. I'll try to keep the masterlist updated as much as possible, but I do have to sleep and stuff, so please skim through the latest comment threads as well, to see if someone else has begun one for your character. If Aunt Marge or whoever has been cruelly neglected so far, please start your own thread, putting their name in the subject line.

As to who's eligible: EVERYONE. If they feature in the Harry Potter series, they qualify for the fest.

My fanwork deals with more than one character, where shall I put it?
GOOD QUESTION. Did you feel inspired with love for one of the characters more than the others, perhaps? If not... if it's a pairing fic, say Neville / Luna, you could post it on Neville's thread, and leave a link to it on Luna's thread. If it's, say a drawing of the Lestranges, start a thread titled “The Lestrange family” and put it on there. If you still don't know where to put it, just ask me or capitu, or just do something different entirely, if you like; we won't shout at you.

Am I only meant to leave love for my favourite character?
No! Leave love for as many people as you like! You have the whole week to shower as many HP characters as you wish with love. You could even challenge yourself and try to appreciate a character you haven't really given much thought to before.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

LET THE LOVE BEGIN! ♥

Comments

Re: NYMPHADORA TONKS' THREAD: Six Word Story

[dracogotgame.livejournal.com]

*beams*

Thank you so much, luv <3

Re: NYMPHADORA TONKS' THREAD: Six Word Story

[dracogotgame.livejournal.com]

XD

Re: NARCISSA'S THREAD: Six Word Story

[dracogotgame.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I adore Narcissa :)

Re: NARCISSA'S THREAD: Six Word Story

[dracogotgame.livejournal.com]

She's the original BAMF :D

Re: NARCISSA'S THREAD: Six Word Story

[dracogotgame.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much <33

Re: BILL WEASLEY'S THREAD: Six Word Story

[dracogotgame.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear!

Re: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE'S THREAD: Six Word Story

[dracogotgame.livejournal.com]

"You're finished, Dumbledore!"

"Sherbet lemon, Tom?"

PANSY: Ficlet

[ashindk.livejournal.com]

The first time he notices that she’s special is on the platform. He didn’t even expect her to come, but there she is next to Malfoy, with her head held high despite all the whispers and stares. Harry is sneaking glances at Malfoy -- as usual -- and he can’t really help rolling his eyes. When he looks over again, she’s smirking at him. She’s seen them too.

Over the next few weeks it becomes a habit to make eye contact whenever Harry or Malfoy is being extra transparent. Which means that he’s smiling, or smirking or rolling his eyes at Pansy Parkinson several times a day. And she always smirks back, or shakes her head minutely, or makes a vulgar gesture behind Malfoy’s back. He kind of admires her range of rude handsigns, actually. She may even know more than George.

When Harry and Malfoy finally stop dancing around each other and start shagging, he talks to her for the first time. She’s got a wicked sense of humour, and she’s quick! Not as smart as Hermione, of course -- no one is -- but she always has a clever comeback or sees a situation from a completely unexpected perspective.

When they start talking to each other he notices other things about her. The way she uses her hair as a curtain to shield her from the hostile looks she’s still getting. And the way her eyes look so weary and resigned in the privacy behind her shiny hair, when someone whispers and points. And he realises that she’s letting him see. That she’s granting him access to a side of her that’s only known to her closest friends. It makes him feel honored, in a way, that she chooses to let him see her.

The first time they kiss is after he loses his first game of chess in forever. It didn’t even take her very long to beat him, and he can’t honestly say that he minds. Her mouth is warm and her hair is just as soft as he imagined, as it slips through his hands. He breathes in the scent of light perfume mixed with something warmer and more human. Something that’s just her. She’s pressing him up against the wall in the Slytherin common room, and he lets himself go boneless against the cold stones and surrenders all control. She did win, after all.

Re: DRACO'S THREAD

[birdsofshore]

This is such a gorgeous piece of Draco love <3

DRACO: GRAPHIC

[birdsofshore]

This is a little early Valentine which I hope adequately expresses my feelings for a certain young Mr Malfoy.



(p.s. it also amuses me to think of Draco's reaction to a message of love conveyed via such a plebeian medium, heh)

Re: PANSY: Ficlet

[thusspakekate.livejournal.com]

!!! Oooh, I love this! That SHE presses HIM against the wall when they kiss? Perfect.

And I love that Ron admires the fact that Pansy knows a variety of rude hand gestures, because he *totally would.*

This made me grin so hard.

Re: PANSY: Pansy Parkinson, 19 Years Later

[thusspakekate.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

And of course I had to show up for my girl! My heart overfloweth with love for good old Pug-faced Parkinson.

Re: PANSY: Pansy Parkinson, 19 Years Later

[thusspakekate.livejournal.com]

In a way, I'm glad that JKR chose not to have Pansy end up with Draco because she disliked Pansy so much. What was intended to be some sort of punishment or divine retribution actually left a wealth of possible endings for us to explore for her. Pansy's not the sort of girl to wait around for some benevolent god/author to give her her fairytale ending, she's going to go out there and take it for herself...by the balls if she has to!

Re: PANSY: Ficlet

[ashindk.livejournal.com]

Heh! He would, wouldn't he?!
And I think Pansy is the kind of girl who's confident enough to take what she wants. And Ron's the kind of guy who's confident enough to let her.

Re: GEORGE'S THREAD

[calrissian18.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I didn't really know what I was doing or if this was the proper 'love-y' thing to leave but George is kind of awesomesauce so... I had to do something, right?

Re: GEORGE'S THREAD

[calrissian18.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I just wanted some George headspace for a bit, I'm glad it could be enjoyed by all. *grins*

Why Snape?

[perverse-idyll.livejournal.com]

I get asked that a lot.

How can I resist sputtering on once again about my favorite character? I tried to keep this short, and I didn't touch on any of the fanfic I love, which almost feels like a crime because there are so many amazing variations on Snape to choose from.

(Warning: this is going to break comment boxes because links take up a lot of hidden characters!)

I see Snape a little differently than writcraft earlier in this thread – not the Byronic (anti)hero, but the fuck-up who paid the ultimate price for his mistakes, the boy who didn't belong anywhere and couldn't hide it (http://firefly-wp.deviantart.com/art/Bye-113783027). He's both horrible and heartbreaking, and he dies just at the point where he finally acquires the pieces that were missing in him as a child, empathy and a sense of moral imperative, the things he lacked and that disfigured him as a human being; the things that, had he lived, might have forced the wizarding world to respect him despite the terrible acts he had committed and the eternal shadow on his soul.

He was a half-Muggle who for reasons never explained in the text was willing to believe that purebloods were better; a working-class child from a loveless home (http://e-c-h.deviantart.com/art/Childhood-149746938), untended, unsupervised, dressed in hand-me-downs, isolated, funny-looking, small for his age (conditions he shared in some respects with Harry, although temperamentally they were very different (http://asylums.insanejournal.com/snarry_games/220290.html). He cared little for his appearance save for his clothes, and the second he was able to switch to wizarding robes, it appears he never wore anything else. His magic inclined toward darkness, and he seemed to believe that the Dark Arts would give him power. But then, magic was supposed to be his ticket out, his escape from poverty and hopelessness. It appears that no one in his childhood instilled in him a sense of right and wrong, nor did it come naturally; there are moments in canon when he seems genuinely confused by other people's (Lily's, Dumbledore's) reactions to his abhorrent behavior. He was all about survival, about climbing out of the gutter.

And he had a single friend who was as magical as he was, but who was clean and pretty and beloved and kind; in other words, everything he was not. She was his proof of another world, another way of life. She was perhaps the symbol of everything he longed for during his greedy, solitary, deprived youth. (http://irisclaymore.deviantart.com/art/The-Choices-We-Make-128009170)

Snape's experiences in school didn't improve him (http://www.deviantart.com/art/Snape-again-309619569) (yes, I know he's too attractive here – in fact, he looks remarkably like Loki. Do I care? No). I'd argue that what happened to him at Hogwarts propelled him straight into Voldemort's arms. Becoming a branded member of a terrorist group is horrific in itself. But in his eagerness to please his new master (http://deeply-horrible.livejournal.com/11879.html), he committed the sin that would destroy the friend who clearly meant more to him than all his dreams of success. By reporting the prophecy, Snape poisoned his soul, crashed his future into a dead-end street, and imprisoned himself for the rest of his life in a debt of grief, hatred, self-loathing, and bitter redemption. All by the time he was 21. Another student portrait that's too pretty, but hey, I can deal with it. (http://www.deviantart.com/art/Severus-Snape-149996364)

I sometimes wonder how he felt about Hogwarts. In a day-to-day sense, it was his home for longer than any other place he ever lived. But he must have hated it sometimes (http://ancatdubh.deviantart.com/art/What-the-hell-am-I-doing-here-160221589), just as he hated teaching, and himself, and Harry.

Re: Why Snape? - pt II

[perverse-idyll.livejournal.com]

As I read the books, my fascination with this spiteful, soft-voiced, strangely charismatic misfit grew. He's surprisingly intense (http://www.deviantart.com/art/Snape-Just-Snape-210125804), by far the most passionate character in the entire series, the most ambiguous (although by the end Dumbledore may have nicked that title), the most damaged. Sarcasm and scorn are his primary language. As the story unfolds, we see him write riddles in poetry, conduct a formal duel, counter unknown hexes during a Quidditch match in a desperate bid to save Harry's life. He's adept at potions, a tyrant in the classroom, a lurker in the corridors after curfew (http://zwerg-.deviantart.com/art/After-curfew-121664652). His eyes are piercing, yet dead and cold, which we eventually learn is due to the practice of Occlumency, although it doubles as a metaphor for the state of his soul. He's a Legilimens, the only one we know of apart from Dumbledore and Voldemort. He's infamous for his love of the Dark Arts, and Harry discovers that as a precocious teenager he used to entertain himself by creating new spells, the only character we ever see doing that. He has enough skill as a healer to keep Dumbledore alive after the headmaster puts Gaunt's ring on his finger (http://www.deviantart.com/art/Healing-Deathly-Hallows-63260444). And he can fly without a broom. He can fucking fly. (http://www.deviantart.com/art/And-now-ride-me-up-Testudina-Maxima-276942917)

Also, lest I forget, he loves books. (http://www.deviantart.com/art/Reading-by-candlelight-22200528) How am I supposed to resist a tormented loner who loves books? (http://www.deviantart.com/art/Winter-Reading-252206063)

Amidst these flashes of brilliance and cruelty – for Snape is an unreconstructed arsehole to most people, especially students – is evidence that the house divisions mean sod-all, because Snape is a hot mess of all four combined: he has the sharp mind of a Ravenclaw, the deathless loyalty of a Hufflepuff, and the ambition that got him sorted into Slytherin in the first place – not to mention that Dumbledore, the kindly old backstabber, casually remarks that perhaps he ought to have ended up in Gryffindor after all.

Then there's love. Snape doesn't know how to, yet love he does. He loves and grieves in a way that's obviously unhealthy and obsessive, deep and soul-sucking. He keeps himself going after Lily's death primarily by means of anger and servitude, the bitterness that eats at him, his desire to defeat Voldemort. He agrees to protect Harry only as a form of self-punishment that he suffers, shall we say, ungraciously. However twisted the altruism, Snape yearns to atone. Killing himself would in some ways have been easier, but living until Voldemort rises again affords him vengeance, even if it means that Dumbledore more or less becomes his second master.

Since Snape chooses to live, he gets the chance – belatedly, seeing that it takes him until almost the very end – the chance to grow up, to learn that other people matter; to learn that yes, he will do whatever he can to save them; that he will protect the children in his care, and will sacrifice his life, no matter how stupid the reason or how culpable Dumbledore is for not warning him about the Elder Wand; and he'll manage, even with his throat torn out, to convey the heart-rending message on which their victory depends. He'll ask Harry to look down at him with his mother's eyes, and even if he's looking for Lily, it will be Harry that Snape sees as he dies (http://www.deviantart.com/art/Deathly-Hallows-memories-60878353).

There would be no brave new epilogue without that bastard Severus Snape (http://patilda.deviantart.com/art/Long-Cold-Winter-94819216), just as there would be no Boy Who Lived without Snape's heartless betrayal.

Re: Why Snape? - pt III

[perverse-idyll.livejournal.com]

Finally – and this isn't meant to imply that I've exhausted everything there is to say – Severus Snape, greedy (http://sarah-on-deviantart.deviantart.com/art/Spinner-s-End-111324048) child (http://vizen.deviantart.com/art/A-Little-Smile-84694366), ugly (http://expell-hun.deviantart.com/art/To-VIZEN-164158129) man (http://hapticmimesis.deviantart.com/art/Git-170249475), Slytherin swot (http://pikaf.deviantart.com/art/WIP-HogwartsLibrary-202145784), Death (http://whatistigerbalm.deviantart.com/art/Battlefield-194543474) Eater (http://expell-hun.deviantart.com/art/Kiriban-To-AnCatDubh-148555151), potions (http://www.deviantart.com/art/Lifelong-Burden-149745413) master (http://www.deviantart.com/art/snape-s-office-61326715), Half-Blood Prince (http://awkwardly-social.deviantart.com/art/school-days-halfblood-prince-127775528), bully (http://spinners--end.deviantart.com/art/Where-s-Snape-117674518), penitent (http://pojypojy.deviantart.com/art/DH-Love-Lily-62499573), spy (http://tomscribble.deviantart.com/art/The-Order-of-the-Phoenix-60208791), murderer (http://firefly-wp.deviantart.com/art/Flight-of-the-Prince-48896925), sacrificial (http://kykywka.deviantart.com/art/Death-of-Snape-original-150266080) pawn (http://tomscribble.deviantart.com/art/Look-At-Me-80691443) – is one of the loneliest of all lonely characters in the whole of children's literature and possibly beyond. And I keep coming back to him because of his flaws and his moral journey and his sarcastic ugliness and his seething complexity and his faithfulness unto death.

And when I do, I usually bring (http://twinners.org/lj/snarrygames08/1.html) Harry (http://www.thebejeweledgreenbottle.com/2008%20Summer%20Games/Dragon/littleblackbow.html) along (http://asylums.insanejournal.com/snarry_games/217108.html) with (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/sinick/1005639/133962/133962_original.png) me (http://umino-aka-morskaya.deviantart.com/art/Snape-and-Harry-64573821).

SO MUCH FOR KEEPING IT SHORT.

♥

Re: PANSY: Ficlet

[birdsofshore]

Oh, this was scrumptious. I loved all of it, really - Ron slowly noticing things, Pansy being Pansy, Harry and Malfoy fooling nobody, and the lovely lovely kiss. <3

Thank you so much for this!

Re: PANSY: Ficlet

[ashindk.livejournal.com]

Thank you :D
You see how Harry and Draco just *had* to sneak in there?

Re: Why Snape? - pt III

[birdsofshore]

♥ Oh! Thank you so much for sharing this with us. What a labour of love this was. I read with great interest, but have only begun to scratch the surface of the wonderful art links. This is a post to come back to again and again. A fabulous resource for everything Snapey!

Thank you again.

Re: Why Snape? - pt III

[vaysh]

This put tears in my eyes and made me realise (again) why I love HP canon even when it is fandom that made it worth (so much of) my time. Incredibly poignant and beautifully put. Thank you.

Re: PANSY: Ficlet

[birdsofshore]

You did a good job keeping them to one side, LOL! My "Al/Scorpius" piece turned 100% H/D and AS/S don't even feature in it, now. XD

Re: PANSY: Ficlet

[ashindk.livejournal.com]

LOL!