Invitation to the Ball
Chapter 5 of 14
Grace has VictoryThe prince said he would go with her to take care of her, for he wanted to see where the beautiful maiden lived. But she escaped him and jumped up into the pigeon-house…. And the prince followed her, for he wanted to see to what house she belonged; but she broke away from him and ran into the garden at the back of the house. There stood a fine large tree, bearing splendid pears; she leapt as lightly as a squirrel among the branches, and the prince did not know what had become of her. (Grimm)
ReviewedCHAPTER FIVE
Invitation to the Ball
"Ella-Jane's in the nick again," giggled Cecilia. "Did you hear about it, Sally-Anne? Flavian says she's the black sheep of the family."
I tried to think of a polite way to end the conversation.
"Sally-Anne, did you hear what I said?" Cecilia stamped her foot impatiently. "It's very rude not to answer when I speak to you! I asked if you knew about Ella-Jane's latest detention."
"Of course." I hoped the one I knew about really was the latest; the news was three days old.
"She really is a meff, isn't she? She has no feminine grace at all." Cecilia made a preening gesture over her own plump curves and tossed back her dark curls. "Flavian boasted to Granny that Ursula and I are already queen bees among the boys. But he called Ella-Jane a tomboy and Molly-Rose a bluestocking. I don't imagine they'll ever get married, do you?"
"Cecilia, do you even know what the word 'bluestocking' means?"
"Are you calling me thick?" The ready tears glittered in her eyes again. "It means a girl who's too busy reading to bother doing her laundry. Molly-Rose's like that. If Mummy didn't tidy up after her, she'd be smelly. But even though you're mean to me, Sally-Anne, I'm going to say something nice to you. Flavian told Granny that you were a homebody. That means you aren't going to end up an old maid like your sisters, because some men like the homebody type."
She paused for me to say something, so I said, "I can't predict the future."
This time she flushed with anger. "That isn't magic, that's just common sense! You're a half-blood with no Galleons; you aren't pretty and you never tease boys; your sisters are an absolute embarrassment to you; you aren't even nice. So anyone would think you didn't have a hope with the wizards. But as long as you keep up your cooking and cleaning, some wizard will want you for his housewitch. And talking of you not being nice, I'm going to tell Flavian what a toe-rag you've been today!"
I wasn't too worried about that, because Cecilia usually forgot to write home. But I knew I would lose my temper in earnest if I didn't get rid of her quickly. I put my hand on the owlery door and said, "I'm going in. Are you coming?"
"That manky place! No fear!"
So when the owlery door closed, Cecilia and I were on different sides of it. I did in fact have letters to send.
Dear Mum and Raymond,Everything is fine. I know you're worried about Ella-Jane, but it really isn't a problem by Hogwarts standards. Professor Snape put Ella-Jane in detention because she threw a box of live lizards at Astoria Greengrass. We blame Astoria because she threw Billywig stingers at Ella-Jane first.
Yes, Ella-Jane had to spend all Saturday morning shelling snails, but this is a very normal kind of thing at Hogwarts. I know she's been complaining that Snape didn't punish Astoria, but unfair treatment between houses is quite normal here too...
I was exhausted with trying to explain away Ella-Jane's behaviour so that Mum wouldn't worry and Cressida wouldn't make excuses to give her extra punishments. As I tied the letter to a school owl, the boy in the next stall turned to look at me. It was Terry Boot from my Potions class.
"Was that your own owl?" he asked.
"No, just a school one. Oh, yours has purple eyes!" Terry's eyes were blue, and his face had a fresh, scrubbed look.
"He's a spotted wood-owl from Java. That is, the breed is Javan; Tychicus was hatched at Eeylops."
"He's beautiful. You're lucky if you have a place to keep an owl at home."
Terry laughed; he laughed a great deal. "I don't, really; I hate cages, so I have to be very careful to keep Tychicus clean. It's surprising that my parents tolerate him, actually, as they're Muggles."
"My stepfather is a Muggle, and he had real trouble understanding why my sister keeps her old Shooting Star indoors it drops twigs everywhere, and she can't fly it in the house. And when my stepbrother..."
But before I could enlarge on the complications of living with Muggles, Anthony Goldstein poked his head around the door. Terry hastily patted his owl, apologised to me and fled. I followed him out, to find that Cecilia was still lurking in the corner. I pretended not to see her, but her voice rang in my ears anyway.
"Sally-Anne! Did you hear what Molly-Rose did to Xavier on her last access weekend? Flavian says she must be still jealous of him!"
A week later, it seemed that Terry Boot was following me everywhere! I first noticed it over dinner, when he seemed to be hanging around the Hufflepuff table. But he didn't speak to anyone, and Michael Corner soon called him away. Then he chose a seat near me in the Quidditch stands. But Susan and Megan sat themselves down on each side of me, and with a startled look at all of us, Terry gave up the effort to speak. He even threw a paper dart at me during History of Magic, but it missed, and Draco Malfoy picked it up with a snigger. The note couldn't have been very interesting, since Malfoy seemed disappointed by the contents, but I knew it would be asking for trouble to claim it from the Slytherins. Terry would come and talk to me if it was important.
But he didn't. He walked right up to me in a Potions lesson, almost as if he wanted to share my cauldron, but Snape put a stop to that.
"Trying to chat up the girls in class-time, Boot? I assure you, no conversation with Miss Perks will raise your Potions marks. Sit here next to Smith at once!"
"Terry Boot seems very friendly all of a sudden," remarked Hannah, as soon as our practical work was underway.
"Do you think he does fancy Sally-Anne?" asked Megan.
I shook my head. "It doesn't look like that kind of thing."
"It doesn't look as if he wants to borrow your homework notes either," pointed out Susan.
"I know. I can't work out what he wants. But it isn't either of those."
"Does it annoy you?" asked Hannah.
It didn't; but I was surer than ever that I wasn't imagining it. I meant to ask him about it after Potions, but Snape set so much homework that we decided to go to the library instead.
Terry didn't finally catch me alone until the weekend, when a few of us volunteered to help Professor Sprout with some new supplies. Neville Longbottom was building a moist habitat for the jewelweed and angelica, a task that Sprout couldn't entrust to anyone else, and I was building a dry corner for the prickly pears. I had been at it for fifteen minutes when Terry Boot came over to my side of the greenhouse.
"Did you lose a quill?" he asked. He put down his trowel and held out a grubby goose-feather with split ends. "Did you drop this in the owlery the other day?"
I couldn't remember; my head had been full of my altercation with Cecilia. "I might have, but it's all right I have plenty of spares." We grinned: it was rather absurd that he had been chasing me around the school to return such a wilted specimen.
"So perhaps you don't want this either?" He held out a dog-eared parchment, printed with the unmistakable pattern of a shoe and signed with my signature.
This time it wasn't funny. It was my letter to Dad. "But how could I forget...? Anyone might have read it!"
"I don't think so; no one else went into the owlery while I was talking to Anthony, and I went straight back inside afterwards. I'm sorry I stepped on your things before I noticed them. I didn't like to owl your letter for you in case it was a draft or a stray essay."
"Thank you for rescuing it," I said, feeling foolish. "I'd rather you saw it than... some other people. Oh, what on earth did I write?"
"No idea. I only saw the signature."
I scanned it. I had indiscreetly written all about how Astoria Greengrass had started the fight with Ella-Jane, and how Xavier's version of what Molly-Rose had done to his wormery need not be either accurate or a lie, and how Mum had no spare money for a piano exam... Our personal business was all over it!
"Terry, I am so lucky that you are the only person who saw this. It's out of date now; it needs to be ripped up."
"Here, let me burn it. Incendio!"
The paper flared up for a second, and then a spark jumped onto the mini-desert.
"Oh, look out! Aguamenti!" Fortunately, I managed to make the correct wrist movement, and water gushed out of my wand, drenching the flames before the prickly pears were harmed.
"Trust me to forget how dry that sandy soil is," he said ruefully. "And under the greenhouse lamps, too. Judgment by fire! Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."
I winced. Terry dropped the preacher-pose and asked if I had pricked myself.
"No, it's just... Well, this judgment-by-fire is rather old-fashioned, isn't it? Even if you were only joking. At my church, the Rector says that God is love."
"And at mine." He didn't seem at all annoyed that I had criticised his beliefs. "But don't you think that love and judgment "
"Good work, students," interrupted Professor Sprout. "But I'm going to ask Longbottom to finish this task. Boot, I'd like you to clean up the Shrivelfigs some of the second-year Slytherins made rather a mess of pruning them yesterday. Miss Perks, can I send you to Greenhouse One to deal with the burst puffapods that the first-year Gryffindors dropped?"
So that was the end of that conversation with Terry.
* * * * * * *A week before term ended, Professor McGonagall announced that there was to be a Yule Ball. "It is a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament," she said. "It is your opportunity to do your part towards establishing international goodwill among wizards by socialising with our guests. Everybody in fourth year and above is invited to attend... Yes, Miss Perks?"
"Please, Professor..." I gulped. "Is it compulsory?"
Professor McGonagall blinked. "Not compulsory, no. We cannot actually require students to be on school premises on Christmas Day. But we strongly recommend that you make the effort. After all, the whole point of the Triwizard Tournament is to make friends."
So it was official. Hufflepuffs were invited. But I could go home for Christmas if I preferred.
No, I couldn't. This year I was due to spend Christmas at Dad's house. Cressida might not particularly want me there, but she would certainly kick up a fuss if I tried to go to Mum's. So the choice was between Christmas with Cressida and Christmas at Hogwarts. Put that way, I was glad that Cressida was already in favour of sending us to the ball. Of course, I would need dress-robes. But even if I wore my school uniform and spent the evening serving drinks, it would be fun to watch my friends dancing.
"What are you wearing?" asked Susan.
"I... well, I hope it will be all right... Mum and I made the robe together," said Hannah. "What about you, Megan?"
"Mine's red," said Megan. "It has dragons woven into the silk, although you do have to look closely to see them. What about you, Sally-Anne?"
I could see that Sophie didn't like the clothes-talk any more than I did, so I changed the subject. "But the really important question is who is taking us to the ball? Are we just going together as a group, or are we pairing off with boys?"
Hannah flushed pinker than ever. "Well... I... goodness, I thought Professor McGonagall meant we were to look for partners! Ernie thought so too, because he asked me to be his partner on the way out of Transfiguration."
"Yes, I'm sure that's what McGonagall meant," agreed Susan. "But no one has asked me yet."
"Is it all right if we do ask the boys?" asked Megan. "It doesn't seem fair that we have to wait around until they do think of it, is it?"
"I expect we can give 'em a little 'elp in thinking of it," said Sophie. "But what if they still don't ask? Do wizard rules allow people to go to balls without any partner?"
"Oh, yes," I said. This was one point on which Great-Grandma Flourish's plain-bound book had been quite clear. "The original purpose of a ball was to help young wizards find suitable spouses. So it's quite all right to turn up alone and hope to find dance-partners after you arrive. And I can't really think who would invite me."
"I can't dance!" exclaimed Hannah. "Sophie, do you know anything about...?"
Talking about the ball did not seem to "help the boys think of it". We sat around discussing dance-steps, dress-robes and possible partners, but boys would walk straight past us, pointedly staring in the opposite direction and whistling. Occasionally one boy seemed to be daring another to speak to us, but his friend would always refuse the challenge.
"They aren't interested in the ball," said Megan.
"Or they're pretending not to be," said Susan.
We didn't realise that the boys were nervous about girls being in groups until Sunday afternoon. Susan was writing to her parents, and Hannah was taking a walk around the lake with Ernie and Justin. I was discussing with Megan and Sophie whether we wanted to brave the cold and watch the Quidditch practice when Wayne and Stephen sidled up, looking sheepish.
"Er... Sophie," said Stephen. "I mean Sally-Anne. I'm meaning, both of you." He drew a deep breath and began to speak very fast. "Have-you-a-copy-of-that-essay-question-that-McGonagall-set-for-homework-because-Longbottom's-toad-jumped-on-my-parchment-and..."
While Sophie and I tried to make sense of Stephen, Wayne furtively beckoned to Megan to follow him around a corner.
"It's this one," I said, pulling a parchment out of the Transfiguration section of my bag. "Here you are, Stephen."
"Oh..." He looked deflated and glanced at his watch. "Thanks. Well... yes, that's kind of you, Sally-Anne. And I..." He looked at his watch again. "Yes, I was also wanting to ask... if you know about that Potions test... Jabbering Jarveys, Wayne's taking a long time!"
"What did you think of Professor Sprout's cassia plants?" I asked. "Did you manage that Anti-frosting Charm?"
"It's bad about what happened to Terry Boot," Stephen spluttered.
"What?" I hadn't heard anything; instinctively, I took a step towards Stephen (who looked as if he was about to run away) while Sophie moved in the opposite direction. "Stephen, what happened to Terry?"
"Morag told me that Terry's cassia plant caught fire and he burned his hands. He he's going to be all right. But it was a bad accident. And he Where is Wayne?"
Sophie reached the courtyard door at the same time as a fifth-year Ravenclaw.
"Miss Roper, I believe," he said. "I saw you in the library on Friday you were asking about that new release on Quidditch. You can borrow my copy." He held out a brand-new book.
"Ta... I mean, thank yer. But won't yer want it...?"
"You can give it back to me at the Yule ball. You are going, aren't you? Good. Who's the lucky man?"
"No one yet."
"Then you can go with me. Excellent, I'll be wanting to hear all your thoughts on Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland."
He walked off at the same moment as Wayne and Megan came marching around the corner, not looking at each other. Stephen charged off towards Wayne.
"Did he ask you to the ball?" I asked.
"Yes!" exclaimed both Megan and Sophie.
"I did say no," said Megan.
"He dinn't give me t' chance to reply," said Sophie. "I think that means I've accepted."
"But you don't know him," said Megan to Sophie.
"I do that. 'Is name's Eddie Carmichael."
"And you refused Wayne," I said to Megan.
"That's because I do know him. Come on, let's go and watch the Quidditch. That's where we'll meet boys."
But although we cheered enthusiastically at the boys on broomsticks and discussed the defence tactics loudly enough for the boys sitting on the stands to hear, no one invited Megan or me to the ball. One sixth-year Slytherin did try to show off his pet lizard to Sophie, but he lost interest when he realised that she already had a dance-partner. Then two brooms collided, Andrew Kirke fell spectacularly to the ground, and the lizard-boy guffawed raucously.
Why did some girls find it so easy to attract a partner? Hannah, who was a blonde, had taken about five minutes. Megan was so vivacious and enthusiastic that she could afford to refuse a good offer. Susan had a calm confidence, so she was certain to be invited soon. It wasn't so obvious why the boys were interested in Sophie, but clearly some of them were. Whereas I...
My thoughts lingered on Terry Boot's smile. It would be such fun to go to the ball with Terry! I pushed that idea to the back of my mind. There must be lots of girls who wanted to go with Terry, and he had probably chosen one already. So... would Stephen muster the courage to ask me? Would Wayne transfer his interest in Megan to me? Or should I try to enjoy myself as a wallflower?
One thing was quite certain. I would rather go alone I would rather not go at all than go as the partner of a guffawing Slytherin with a lizard.
* * * * * * *I met more guffawing Slytherins the next day on the way down to the library. Draco Malfoy and his cronies could be heard from the stairwell. But when I arrived at the library doors, Malfoy was pulling his gang inside. Only Blaise Zabini was standing outside, smiling as if he had been waiting for me.
"Amazing what some people find funny," he was murmuring to himself. "Sally-Anne! Could you by any chance lend me a quill?"
I handed him one.
"You are so well-organised!" His long-lashed lids dropped swiftly towards my bag, then up at me. "Everyone says so, of course, but I never realised... I expect you manage your time efficiently, too. You must have finished that Transfiguration essay by now."
His eyes were like liquid treacle and somehow large, so that I couldn't look away. He probably wants me to write his essay for him, I tried to remind myself. I drew a steadying breath and said, "Yes yes, I have. How did you find it?"
"And you must be completely organised for this Yule Ball too. I'm not so sure I'll bother to go all the nice girls are taken." His fingers stroked through the quill before he moved it into his bag, and he dropped his voice conspiratorially. "So tell the great secret who's taking you?"
"I er "
His face suddenly lit up like a sweepstakes-winner's, and the treacle-eyes seemed to sparkle. "You mean I'm not too late? Would you go with me?"
It had happened a boy had asked me! I nearly lost balance nearly tumbled into those deep, black wells of eyes. "I that would be..." I forced myself to breathe through my grin. "Thank you. I'd like that!"
"Good." His warm breath fluttered near my forehead for a second, not quite close enough to be called a kiss. "I'll see you then, beautiful one if not sooner!"
An instant later, the library door had swung closed on Zabini, and I was left standing outside, completely forgetting that I had homework to finish in there. What had I done? I had agreed to go to the Yule Ball with Zabini! Blaise Zabini, who swaggered and showed off all through the Herbology lesson and never spoke a word to us half-bloods! I had heard Cecilia giggling with Ursula about how she fancied him, and that was hardly a recommendation.
But Terry hadn't asked me to the ball, so I needed to forget about him and plan to enjoy myself with Zabini.
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Latest 25 Reviews for Hearthlinks
13 Reviews | 5.15/10 Average
This has been a really cute story. Thank you for the enjoyment.
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
You're welcome! Thank you for writing in. GhV
A different twist than I expected. I thought you might bring her and Terry back together, but apparently not. That rather spoils the ball and prince metaphor, but oh well. How did a fresh Hogwarts graduate manage to buy and set up her own shop? A little implausible. An enjoyable read in general, good work.
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Dear HJS,I did warn you about that twist! I decided that Terry and Sally-Anne were fundamentally incompatible, so the "triumph of love" with which a Cinderella story must end was moral and not romantic.Sally-Anne didn't get her own shop until she was 21. Sorry if I didn't write that clearly. But she spent the two years after she left Hogwarts mixing potions part-time at home and networking with Muggle retailers. It took her the whole of that time to accumulate enough capital to set up her own shop, and then it was a very small one - she didn't employ an assistant until she had her first baby. But she always ran at a modest profit, and she did indeed "make people more comfortable at home".Thanks for reading and for writing in,GhV
Response from HermioneJeanSnape (Reviewer)
I didn't mean Sally-Anne's shop, I meant Megan's. Terry did seem a bit too stiff and self-righteous for her. He was quite obnoxious.
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Ah, Megan... Well, there wasn't room to tell her story here. She receives a little financial back-up from her brother Emrys, who is both a big earner and a big spender. She later marries a wizard a few years older than herself (a Welshman, of course) and he has savings. Her business in fact grows larger than Sally-Anne's because Megan's personality is better suited to tough business decisions.Yes, Terry is somewhat "stiff", because he has secrets to keep, i.e. the D.A., and Sally-Anne has no way of knowing that. An older man might manage to be more tactful about the whole business, but Terry isn't. (If he had been, there wouldn't have been any story!)In fact, I meant Sally-Anne to be the more self-righteous of the two, but of course the reader hears her point of view, while Terry's isn't stated. Before chapter 13, Sally-Anne has no concept of grace so she doesn't at all understand Terry's confidence, which isn't based in himself. Once she stops trying to justify her own actions (loses the self-righteous attitude), Terry is out of the story, so we still don't hear his point of view. That was a deliberate authorial decision, because I didn't want to use a work of light fiction as a vehicle of proselytisation.Some readers would have liked to see Terry and Sally-Anne reconciled romantically, but given their extreme youth, I thought they would both do better to find new partners. For the record, Terry marries a Muggle doctor.
What is Blaise up to? Is this his new bet? Or does he like Sally Anne? Neat story.
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Two interesting guesses - but, no, Blaise's sole motivation is to annoy Cecilia. He knew all along who owned the shoe, but he was hoarding it in case it came in useful to him. In terms of Cinderella parallels, Blaise is a kind of Anti-Prince.
This is an interesting perspective on the reaction of the wizarding public to the possible return of Voldemort.
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Thank you. I'm sure I wouldn't want to believe it...
A friend who is a divorce attorney always says you can't count on people to be reaonable when it comes to kids or money. I've enjoyed this.
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Thank you. You can't count on Cressida to be reasonable, full stop.
Cloaca Harington! you really have a gift for the names!
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Congratulations on understanding the joke.
wow, WHAT a cinderella story...beetles mixed with spiders...
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Perhaps easier than ashes mixed with cinders? But still a very spiteful move from the Wicked Stepmother.
Response from mock_turtle (Reviewer)
I never heard the ashes mixed with cinders bit! the version I know has lentils mixed with millet. cinders would HURT!
Syrinx Greengrass...what a name! clever :)god, I feel so bad for Sally-Anne. I can only hope that at some point she can stand up for herself!
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Sally-Anne is very much like her mother, who hasn't exactly excelled in assertiveness. You know how the plot of this story has to go: Cinderella waits around to be rescued. But I might just change the ending!I credited Daphne Greengrass with three sisters, all of them named after nymphs from Greek mythology. Of course, JKR knows best, and the third sister is actually "Astoria". But there isn't much to my "Syrinx" OC - she's just an older and bossier Daphne.
Response from mock_turtle (Reviewer)
I just like the name Syrinx. It reminds me of the flute piece by that name. I don't mind if Sally-Anne waits around to be rescued. But in the original Cinderella (or what I think of as the original) the stepfamily ends up a little bit maimed, and cinderella still invites them to the wedding but they refuse to go. I would kind of want Sally-Anne to draw the line somewhere. I mean, she kind of is being abused. can't she do something about that once she reaches her majority? and what about her father? I feel like there ought to be some sort of resolution with him, because Sally-Anne IS so loyal (what a hufflepuff!) but her dad doesn't respond in kind.
Hufflepuffs make lovely fairy godmothers.
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Thank you! There is no fairy godmother in the Grimms' version of the story, only birds who magically produce clothes. But the Hufflepuff girls are indeed behaving rather like Perrault's Fairy.
This is an interesting idea. Here they are in the same class as Harry Potter and all these things are happening but stuff is happening in their lives as well. Everyone has their own problems. There is a world outside of Gryffindor tower.
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Thanks for writing in,
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
. Interesting readers in the word outside Gryffindor Tower can be a challenge - so thank you for taking the time to read.
wow. I love your story--I often wonder about the characters like Sally-Anne who aren't really seen much in canon. and private family life isn't really discussed either. you navigate all the questions I have with such panache--like, how exactly do you do the laundry in a magical household, and stuff. the only thing is--I don't entirely understand why no one can afford to annoy Cressida. what am I missing? I recognized the name Runcorn, but what hold does Cressida have over the Perks family?
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Thanks for writing in, mock turtle (I love your user-name!). JKR does give us a few brilliant glimpses of Mrs Weasley cookiing & etc., but she leaevs us to imagine most of it. I just put in the laundry details as padding; I'm flattered that you found them interesting. Cressida is one of these people who always gets her own way by sheer force of personality. After Flavian had an affair with her, he thought (because he's lazy) it would be less trouble to marry her than to dump her. Cressida is somewhat insecure (you know what her first husband was like, and she received little real support from her parents) so she asserts herself by being spiteful to weaker people. Muggles like Raymond are helpless; Julia cannot appeal to the law because she has no money; and children have few real rights anywhere when their abusers are their own parents. So Cressida is supreme for now, but the tables could be turned as the children grow up.
I really liked your story; it was interesting and new in a lot of ways. I feel kind of let down by the last chapter, though. I know it's a "happily ever after" part, but chapter 13 has so much life, so much emotion! It's really hard to go from reading that to chapter 14, where you tell us just what happened, tie everything up neatly. There's no action, no dialogue, no scene really. I was actually kind of confused at the end of the last chapter as to why sally-anne was going to spend what would have been her 6th year at home with her mother. was it just to save money? why did 6th year become the breaking point? I feel like everything that happens in this final chapter ought to have been played out over the course of several chapters! It's just, the tone of this final chapter is very different than all the ones that came before it, and I don't understand why you chose to do it that way.
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Dear mock turtle,Thank you for your loyal reviewing throughout this story. Perhaps I should have labelled that final chapter as "epilogue"? I felt that all the real action finished at the end of chapter 13, when Sally-Anne faced reality. All the basic conflicts (family dysfunctions, political duty, moral and spiritual issues, romance) were played out in the Hogwarts chapel. And I'm so pleased that you appreciated the "life" of that chapter!Sally-Anne stayed at home in 1996-7 because it seemed the best way to fight Voldemort. (Remember, there's no D.A. in HPB - the only really important event is the relationship between Harry and Dumbledore.) You also need to understand British education laws - you CAN'T leave school before the end of fifth year, but sixth and seventh year are entirely optional, and around 70% of Muggles make the choice to leave at that point (with the O.W.L.s safely in hand). Wizards seem to be under more pressure to stay on for the full seven years, but leaving once they have their O.W.L.s in hand must still be an appealing option in some cases. In Sally-Anne's case, yes, her mother's financial situation was one reason, but not the most important one.I'm very flattered that you wanted more chapters, but Sally-Anne aged 16-22 would have made a rather dull story because the dramatic conflict for those years just wasn't in my head.
Response from mock_turtle (Reviewer)
Dear GhV,Thanks for your explanation of British education laws...you're right, I know next to nothing about them. I'm from California :) I guess I don't know how much wizarding school would parallel the muggle school code, but for the purpose of your story it's great. (I get really hung up on the details, like, how DO wizards learn math? especially ones who don't go to muggle school? so many wizards are so clueless about muggles that not many of them seem to go to muggle school. also, you put music lessons into your story, which made me happy). Really? 70% of people leave school when they're 15? I guess I don't know what the percentage is in America but the consensus here is that you will not amount to much if you don't go on to University so the statistics don't really get talked about much...if you drop out of high school it's kind of considered a failure. At least in my community. (I mean, I think a lot of people still do leave high school before they get their diploma, it's just that your options are very limited. Oftentimes you can't even really support yourself.)I think the particular things I wanted you to write more about after the end of ch 14 were Sally-Anne's final year at Hogwarts when she was forced to go back (had she finished coming to terms with terry ignoring her? what was it like to be a hufflepuff in the school during that year? it seemed like a lot of drama!) and Christopher and Jeremy, the stepbrothers, b/c Jeremy married a girl from hogwarts (I suppose that's a separate story but I want to know how their romance went. It's different, I think, than Seamus's parents' story b/c he knows she's a witch when he marries her).I think it's really interesting that there is a whole religious side to your story. I have often wondered (since there was such an outcry against harry potter from the religious fundamentalists in america) what it would be like to discover that you are a muggle-born witch or wizard in a highly religious family. what kind of personal struggle would that be? and were witches and wizards ever particularly christian, considering the historical witch burnings? your version in Hearthlinks is a fascinating one.
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Dear MT,I hope the Petulant Poetess will overlook it if we use her forum board to continue this rather complex discussion. You do ask such good questions!Regarding the parallels between Hogwarts and the British Muggle system: They are so strong that they must be deliberate. JKR was openly and obviously describing and parodying the 1970s system under which she was educated. I was also born in 1965, so I recognised it instantly.Most people are 16 by the end of fifth year. (Harry, having a July birthday, is still 15, but 5/6 of his classmates are already 16 when they take their O.W.L.s.) Sixteen is the minimum school leaving age in Britain - anyone who tries to drop out before then is inviting the police and the social workers around to their home. The O.W.L.s (which Muggles called the Ordinary Levels back in the 1970s, but which are now called the G.C.S.E.s) are effectively the school leaving certificate. Students who leave school with the G.C.S.E. are able to take an apprenticeship, secretarial course, etc.Universities in Britain were traditionally only for the "academic" types. In the 1970s, the government paid your fees; as long as your Advanced Levels (N.E.W.T.s) were good enough, you could enter a university at age 18 and emerge with your Honours degree three years later. But now there is the push to give more and more students the tertiary opportunity - fully 30% - the government only loans the fees. There is talk that standards have lowered in order to accommodate students of lower ability, but I don't know whether that is true or whether students and lecturers have simply been forced to work harder.Regarding wizards learning maths, I think the short answer is - they don't. Obviously they have had seven years of primary education before they started Hogwarts, and I imagine wizards are supposed to bring their children to the same standard as the Muggle state schools. But I think most wizards can only do maths at the same level as a Muggle 11-year-old. Even Arithmancy doesn't seem to require a much higher standard than that - and the majority of wizards struggle with this subject.I think the 1997-8 year at Hogwarts would be a great story, and many fanfic writers have attempted it, but the whole theme just seemed too grandiose for me to begin. Sally-Anne had accepted by then that Terry was not the man for her, and her commitment was to defeating Voldemort without being sidetracked by boyfriends. (What Americans call "dating" doesn't really happen in Britain.)Jeremy's future wife, Mary Fenwick, features in my series The Moon-Cursers, especially the final volume, The Banebrewer. She probably would make a very interesting subject for a romance, but I'm afraid I haven't thought ahead to the details. I just think that a lot of Wizard/Muggle marriages involve the Muggle sibling of a Muggle-born, because meeting your sibling's friends is a natural way to find your spouse.One of these days, I will finish writing the story of Seamus's parents, but I encountered a creative block just when I reached the honeymoon - we were about 24 hours from the Great Reveal, and I completely blanked out!Regarding the "religious side"... Well, you couldn't find a more blatant, in-your-face-obvious Christ-figure than Harry Potter himself. As a matter of literary style, JKR couldn't write convincingly about her symbolic Christ-hero in a book where some of her characters also talked about Christianity as a separate force - either of historic interest or as a spiritual factor. So she just didn't tell us about the specific religious beliefs of individual characters. It's fairly clear, of course, that Harry himself, whose mind we read, has none. However, I infer from what little she has said that wizards have exactly the same religions and non-religions as Muggles.It's interesting that you raise the dilemma of the Muggle-born religious in this column, because that's exactly the situation of Terry Boot. Although his parents are ordinary English Agnostics, he was a childhood convert to Christianity. I have always assumed that the problem of magic would be bigger for angry, book-burning Fundamentalists (of whom we have hardly any in Britain) than it would be for the young wizard himself. Terry knows intuitively that his mysterious powers have nothing to do with nature-worship. They are more like an alternative technology - much as electricity would have looked like witchcraft in the Middle Ages. It's clear that the Hogwarts version of magic has nothing to do with religion, especially not with Pantheism; real neo-Pagans claim to have cringed at the way the Hogwarts staff so crudely break the Pagan ethical codes and ignore spirituality.There were no witch-burnings in Britain - we only hanged the filthy Quislings who appeared to have sold out to Satan! And only in periods of social chaos when a scapegoat was needed. The Catholic Church published a formal report to the effect that witches did not exist as early as the twelfth century. Despite this, until the year 1700, almost every society in the world periodically persecuted witches, including Animistic societies. While this doesn't excuse the Christians, it does highlight that the conflict was not a specifically Christian one. In JKR's world, no real witches were ever caught, so I think they would have stood on the sidelines, weeping (or laughing) at Muggle stupidity. Wizards knew that, while safe, they were the real targets, and they also knew that evil wizards really might have been responsible for some of the social disasters, so I think they would have understood the Muggle fear of the supernatural. I don't know whether they would have blamed their society's religious beliefs for the persecution, given that the wizards themselves probably shared whatever was the dominant belief. A great deal depends on the amount of diversity permitted by a given culture and on the level of education of the individual wizard.I've probably confused more than I've clarified, but that was the kind of thinking that underpinned Hearthlinks. Thanks for your support,GhV
This was enjoyable and interesting, and a bit of a twist on the Cinderella story, adding witchcraft. You make stepmothers sound awful!!The story is good at exploring the interlinking between magical and muggle, and also at giving a wider view of the Hogwarts population than Harry does in the books.I think Sally-Anne was a bit harsh on herself (as was Terry) for feeling that she was selfish for putting her family first and not feeling up to fighting Voldemort. She is only 15,and she puts in an amazing amount of hard work to try and keep them together. Yes, she does it because she loves them and wants a happy family. But the reasons she gives as selfish motivations are basically the same as Harry has for fighting Voldemort. I liked your Christian twist, because though it doesn't fit into the books and isn't relevant to Harry, I personally know that my beliefs got me through my teenage years and its nice to see how it can be dealt with alongside magic (despite claims that HP is evil!) I didn't think Terry's attitude was very Christian however; he just began to ignore her and that was it, without even letting her understand why, but again, I suppose that can be attributed to age.I also enjoy that this follows the UK school system. I usually find myself getting irritated at an over-americanisation of Hogwarts, when in the books JKR is clearly basing the magical on the UK muggle!One query though, you mention S Capper as if we've met him already in the story but I can't find him - have I missed something?
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
Dear
Response from Grace has Victory (Author of Hearthlinks)
,I'm so flattered that anyone is still reading this story! There isn't much to be said for Cressida as stepmother, is there? I hope I showed Julia as a more reasonable one, and of course you shouldn't take Cecilia's perception of the second Mrs Runcorn as objective.I think Sally-Anne was by far a better person than her father or stepmother for trying so valiantly to hold her family together. But it really wasn't her job to fix her parents' mistakes, and her "family first" attitude had very quickly become "family only". The truth was, her family didn't need her time while the D.A. did. Everyone has some faults, and Sally-Anne needed to face up to hers before she could move on.What the reader knows - but Sally-Anne doesn't - is that Terry is bound by a magical contract never to mention the D.A. So he can't explain the reason he is breaking up with her, i.e. that it wasn't possible for him to be close to someone who had opted out of this dangerous secret. He botched it, of course; he ought to have given her some kind of better explanation for what he was doing, and maybe even offered her a second chance later. But he was only 15, and boys of that age aren't always tactful.Since Terry is a Muggle-born, there is more about him, his faith and his family in a forthcoming episode of Magic in my Tree.S. Capper appears only once in canon. He (or she?) is one of a number of Hogwarts students who checked out Quidditch through the Ages: you can read this name in the back of the book. I don't mention him any earlier in Hearthlinks because Sally-Anne didn't notice him during her Hogwarts years!I must confess to being irritated by fanfic Americanisations of Hogwarts as I've been a teacher as well as a student in the British system; but we mustn't be xenophobic. It's very difficult for American readers to grasp just how the British system is different because Americans haven't the first idea which questions to ask. Seven years at high school? Three terms a year? Summer holidays starting in July? No weekly percentage gradings? No graduation? Only three years to the Muggle undergraduate degree? Who would have guessed??
Response from Tilly (Reviewer)
I hadn't read any of your stories before MIMT, but I expect I'll make my way through most of them now!Yes, I agree that everyone has faults and must face up to them, however I still feel Sally was harsh on herself given her age and circumstance. Of course, as the author you have so much more backstory and this gives you a bit of a leg up on the perspective side! As a reader we can only see Sally-Anne and its easier to sympathise with her because of this. I also found her a sympathetic character because she is so quick to forgive and slow to judge. I found Terry to be quite judgemental in this story, based on his actions to Sally-Anne, so I look forward to seeing him from another perspective in MIMT. I am still inclined towards feeling that these students are children, and the level to which they are expected and encouraged to participate in war is inappropriate (at least in real life, in fiction it makes for an excellent story). I expect this also colours my judgement of Terry and Sally-Anne.As for the Americanisms, I hope its not xenophobic to be irritated! I have read many amazing fics by Americans and other nationalities which have had a good grasp of the UK education system, and fics by Brit authors which have a woeful one, so I think what really irritates me most is lack of accuracy. The American angle just jumps out however because we watch so much of their TV!Ps-thanks for the S Capper info too :)