Why On Earth Did You Do This?

So to my readers, thanks for sticking with the story I appreciate it more than you know. Author/reviewer QuidditchRef gave me an idea, well he asked a question about my background and I stole the idea. Anyway I thought I might give you some insight into why on earth I started this journey through Harry Potter fan fiction. And answer questions posed to me from reviews.

Why On Earth Did You Do This?

I'm not the typical Harry Potter fan, although I confess I don't know what a typical Harry Potter fan is. We had the movies on DVD and I thought the first few were pretty neat. My kids liked them so what the heck. I didn't see one in the theatres until Goblet of Fire came out. The wife (yes that means I'm a guy) and I wanted to see it before we let the kids see it since it was supposed to be scarier.

Last summer when DH came out and there was all the hoopla surrounding it, my wife and I thought it would be a great experience to take the kids to the midnight madness party at the local Wal-mart. The kids got costumes and off we went. We figured it was a great way to get the children interested in reading, and it was I think a bit of an historical event as well. Will there ever be another series that touches so many people in so many countries? That night my son won the Harry Potter look-alike contest and won a free game, we bought the book and the audio book so the kids could listen in the car while we drive places.

My wife dove into DH and I went about my pre-Harry Potter life. When she finished DH she said I had to read it. (yes I can read) I wanted to do the whole set, so I started with the first book and read the whole series straight through. When I finished DH, I went back and read them all a second time, and got to the 19 years later for the second time.

I didn't like the ending, I didn't. I wanted more closure than 'maybe I can have a sandwich'. I'm not overly criticizing here, and I know she left us knowing it all turned out okay, but there was still the Harry/Ginny relationship that I thought needed more of an ending. Anyway I was doing a web search looking for information about upcoming Potter movies and found and in there was a fan fiction section. But it wasn't organized well (IMO) and made it hard to read stories with multiple chapters. So I googled Harry Potter fan fiction and found this site, read a few stories and decided what the hell why not. That night I started my story and here it is…

Who/what am I?

I'm 42 years old, and a guy, I have a wife and three great kids daughter-9, son- 7, son-6 (yes the wife is great too)

Do I write for a living?

No. I currently work for one of the largest healthcare/pharmaceutical companies in the world. I guarantee you that every one of the folks reading this has at least one of our products in the medicine cabinet. I do tech support for our computer software and travel to offices to install said software.

I've reviewed technical bulletins and such, and written some technical manuals, but have never written an act of fiction before.

Did I go to college?

Yes, kind of. I went to a large university in the US located in Indiana as an engineering major. I learned a lot. I learned I hated calculus. I learned I hated physics even more, which is not good if you want to be an engineer. I switched majors and went into design technology which was more up my alley, less theory more mechanics. I also knew after two years I did not want to be in school, so I left and joined the real world. (yes I'm going back to finish school and at age 41 will be done this spring with my BS)

Place large soapbox here- to anyone reading this that has yet to start/finish college… FINISH! It cost me nearly $30,000 to finish on my own. More importantly it also took lots of time away from my kids while I worked on homework.

Where did I learn to write?

I didn't? I have no idea. I do love to read, mostly political action type stuff, but the off mystery is always a good read. Other than classes I was forced to take in school I've never written anything. Also, why is it easy for me to write and post this on the net for the world to see, but I feel weird when somebody I know reads it?

What do I do when I'm not writing fan fiction?

Well over the last 2 years, I built my family a new house (3200sq ft) and held down a full time job (not easy). I also built a new 1500 sq ft shop for my race car. Yes I build and drive stock cars when I can (not in the last 2 years since I was building a house) but it was, and is my passion above all others (except the wife as she has instructed me to say). I also love basketball at the high school and university level. And I enjoy ice hockey (Go Sabers), and football (Go Bills).

I coach the kids sports teams some too, soccer, baseball and basketball. I'm also going to night school to finish up my degree. I'm very busy most of the time. I wake up at 6am and usually hit the sheets about 1am. I figure nobody ever died thinking, 'gee I wish I watched more TV', so I don't. If I watch 2 hours a week I'd be surprised.

Why did Ginny not say 'yes' at the first proposal?

I think in every person's life there comes a time when they stop doing what everyone expects them to do and start to do what they desire. This was that time for Ginny. I thought about having it happen after they were engaged, but that didn't feel right. I felt that once she accepted a ring it was a sealed deal, never to be taken back. So the only place to have her make the decision was when he proposed. I waffled about this part of the story for a long time. In the end I'm glad I did it. It gave me a chance to write some of the most emotional parts of the story (IMO).

Did that happen to me?

No, when I asked my wife (girlfriend at the time) she said yes without hesitating. (why wouldn't she? I'm terrific, and humble too.)

Where do I get the ideas?

I have a mind full of useless cr*p as my wife says. Sometimes it's an old memory that I can use, but mostly they hit me as I'm driving to or from work. I think of a funny moment or some moment I want to include somehow. Many of them are way out there. Then I try to find a way to build it into at least a full scene, from there I try to weave it into the story somehow.

What are my favorite parts of the story?

My top 10 in order

1- The hidden plot with the goblins out to get Harry

2- Ginny hexing Harry to the point of oblivion when he comes to the Burrow after the battle
3- The first proposal and its immediate after affects
4- Appartition lessons
5- The second proposal (this was one of the earliest scenes I wrote and it never changed)
6- Ginny at Harry's parents house/graves during Overdue Visits

7- Harry and Ginny's wedding

8- Kreacher vs Arnold

9- Bill's blood ward and the sheer nastiness of it

10- Ginny's detention paper and McGonagall's response to it so Harry can get his NEWTS

Do I live in Miami?

No, never been there in my life, I've just seen pictures and wanted to put it in the story.

Have I ever been to Kotlas, Varallo, Fakenham, Milan, Prague or any other places I mention in the story?

Also a 'no', I did enough research to find out a little about each place, yes they all exist, but I've never been to any of them, and took quite a bit of license with their descriptions.

Are the Mr. Weasley stories based on events from my life?

No, all the stories from Mr. Weasley are figments of my imagination. I've had lots of fun writing them.

Why do Viktor and Harry always end up in the emergency ward?

For years, almost any time my best friend and I played sports one of us ended up in the hospital. We were so competitive with each other and never gave an inch, yet stayed best friends. Broken arms, legs, fingers, concussions stitches, you name it we did it to each other in the name of sports. "Sacrifice the body for the game' was our motto. Lots of times we won against other teams just because we didn't hold back anything. So I borrowed that for Viktor and Harry.

Would the goblins really be so upset at the break in and out of Gringotts as to put a price on Harry's head?

I think so. If you see one ask 

Why isn't the quidditch based part of the story 100% Canon

Because I'm not a soccer(football) fan and didn't have a clue about how the World Cup works. So I did my story based loosely on a cross between soccer and American sports. By the time I found out that JKR did Quidditch Through the Ages, and there was more reference material for it, I already had the story 70% done and the way I had it was too ingrained into the storyline to change it. So it's a bit off, but that's life.

Wow that's an expensive wedding dress!

Not really, I went back to pre-Euro times and did the currency conversions for the wedding dress, so it's close. In the US it would put the dress about $8,000, between 4,000 and 4,500 pounds in England. The Lira conversion is correct, that's part of the reason the EU went to the euro. That's about right for that era and considering it was a custom dress it's completely reasonable for it to cost that much.

Will I go the whole 19 years?

I do not have enough in me to do 19 years. Once I'm done with the current story lines I'll probably do a set of one-shots at different times through the rest of the 19 years as I have time. I have started a sequel as well.

What else am I working on?

I have started the sequel to this story (3 chapters done for now). I also have an idea for another complete story, also H/G shipped (just ideas on paper for now, nothing finalized). I have another idea that is completely different than this story (nothing written for it yet)

If you have a particular question regarding the story, or want to know why I did something, or a question about me(as long as its not too personal) leave the question as a review to this chapter and I'll answer them when I can.

Thanks for reading...

Dave