The ending of Beg Me For It I threw away.
May. 10th, 2005 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Beg Me For It reviewers frequently ask me to write a follow-up to Beg Me For It where Harry learns of Ron and Draco's relationship.
In fact, there are three things people ask me:
1 - when is the sequel to Primer to the Dark Arts coming?
2 - when is the next part of Reunion coming? and
3 - can we have a scene where Ron/Draco's relationship is exposed to Harry?
I usually listen to story ideas. Hell, SNAFU was written because of one of these requests. If I don't add them to the series, it'll spark a new story. But this scene I already wrote.
I threw it away. I explained it to a reviewer today:
Actually, in a couple of initial drafts of the end of the story, Ron and Harry did talk about Draco. But I decided not to go that route. The story really is about Ron and Draco, not Harry, and it would have distracted the narrative.
As I wrote those parts I discovered a sense of... oh I dunno... it was a cliche. Or too close to the cliche. (Okay, Ron/Draco in prison is a cliche now, but when I wrote Beg Me For It -- the first part -- in Feb. 2003, most of the Ron/Draco fics dealt with them in school, and there weren't any Ron/Draco "prison" fics that I knew of.) Most Ron/Draco stories at the time had the grand denouement where Harry "found out."
The advantage of Beg Me For It is that it's completely outside the usual HP world -- it's in Death Eater-land -- and the point is how they're changed. I realized that if I finished on such a "normal" note, it would undermine how alien Ron's experience had been to the outside world.
Harry's important to the story, but he's there to remind us that the prison isn't all that's going on. Harry's got his own battle scars. "Scarred" is really about all the old battle scars. That's why that party is so pathetic.
But if it helps, in the drafts I threw away:
Harry's reaction was a kind of lack of surprise. After the dance Ron went to live at Draco's house and dragged his feet over explaining anything to anyone, so Harry kind of figured it out (though Percy's evasions were pretty clear).
Harry had grown up a lot in the war. He'd seen so many people die that while Ron being with Draco was profoundly strange, it wasn't horrible. He didn't trust Draco at all of course, but knew he didn't 'get' what had happened to Ron. I think the way he gave Ron space about this had to do with his own childhood; there are some things you can't talk about or expect people to understand.
Hermione thought Ron was going just through a phase, but Harry knew it had to be bigger and something to do with that prison. Ron didn't talk about his experiences there, but Percy occasionally would mention things that had been ordinary there that would stop people cold -- a real conversation killer. Percy would glance up with surprise and worry, then change the subject.
When Ron finally got around to telling Harry, the two of them mostly looked at the floor and chuckled about Hermione's "theory" that Ron's relationship with Draco was due to his having some unpronounceable Muggle disorder. Harry warned Ron about Draco, but Ron added to the list of Draco's bad qualities, calling him an "arse" fondly.
"I suppose you know him better than I do."
"I'd better."
In fact, there are three things people ask me:
1 - when is the sequel to Primer to the Dark Arts coming?
2 - when is the next part of Reunion coming? and
3 - can we have a scene where Ron/Draco's relationship is exposed to Harry?
I usually listen to story ideas. Hell, SNAFU was written because of one of these requests. If I don't add them to the series, it'll spark a new story. But this scene I already wrote.
I threw it away. I explained it to a reviewer today:
Actually, in a couple of initial drafts of the end of the story, Ron and Harry did talk about Draco. But I decided not to go that route. The story really is about Ron and Draco, not Harry, and it would have distracted the narrative.
As I wrote those parts I discovered a sense of... oh I dunno... it was a cliche. Or too close to the cliche. (Okay, Ron/Draco in prison is a cliche now, but when I wrote Beg Me For It -- the first part -- in Feb. 2003, most of the Ron/Draco fics dealt with them in school, and there weren't any Ron/Draco "prison" fics that I knew of.) Most Ron/Draco stories at the time had the grand denouement where Harry "found out."
The advantage of Beg Me For It is that it's completely outside the usual HP world -- it's in Death Eater-land -- and the point is how they're changed. I realized that if I finished on such a "normal" note, it would undermine how alien Ron's experience had been to the outside world.
Harry's important to the story, but he's there to remind us that the prison isn't all that's going on. Harry's got his own battle scars. "Scarred" is really about all the old battle scars. That's why that party is so pathetic.
But if it helps, in the drafts I threw away:
Harry's reaction was a kind of lack of surprise. After the dance Ron went to live at Draco's house and dragged his feet over explaining anything to anyone, so Harry kind of figured it out (though Percy's evasions were pretty clear).
Harry had grown up a lot in the war. He'd seen so many people die that while Ron being with Draco was profoundly strange, it wasn't horrible. He didn't trust Draco at all of course, but knew he didn't 'get' what had happened to Ron. I think the way he gave Ron space about this had to do with his own childhood; there are some things you can't talk about or expect people to understand.
Hermione thought Ron was going just through a phase, but Harry knew it had to be bigger and something to do with that prison. Ron didn't talk about his experiences there, but Percy occasionally would mention things that had been ordinary there that would stop people cold -- a real conversation killer. Percy would glance up with surprise and worry, then change the subject.
When Ron finally got around to telling Harry, the two of them mostly looked at the floor and chuckled about Hermione's "theory" that Ron's relationship with Draco was due to his having some unpronounceable Muggle disorder. Harry warned Ron about Draco, but Ron added to the list of Draco's bad qualities, calling him an "arse" fondly.
"I suppose you know him better than I do."
"I'd better."
no subject
Date: 2005-05-10 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 02:22 am (UTC)Yeah, I'd like the answer on question #1, too.
Icarus
no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 12:01 am (UTC)Funny, I've never really thought about Beg Me For It in those terms. I've wondered what's happening at the same time with Harry...but never what he felt about Ron & Draco. I agree that it's really their story anyway. Well, and Percy too. In fact, it was during that line of stories that I thought you were beginning to be captivated by Percy's character and kept writing little bits here and there with him. It was also the first time I was actually interested in a story that focused on Percy.
Do you ever get asked about a sequel to Zen Taxi? Well then, consider yourself asked. :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 04:33 am (UTC)Sounds like a good number to me (although I think I'm too shy to ask more than twice a year).Perhaps I should take some assertiveness training, or something. And speaking of "more than" -- was "at least 4 times" instead of "at most 4 times" a Freudian slip, or intentional? :) ((laughs))
no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 02:23 am (UTC)Icarus
no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 12:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 02:24 am (UTC)Icarus
no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 02:40 am (UTC)I was about to write 'poor lonely Percy, having nobody to talk with,' but then I realized that *everybody* is in that boat, to one extent or other.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 02:27 am (UTC)He has to talk to someone. It's just that he got so used to the status quo in there, he was so much a part of the machine, that it takes him a minute to realize the real world is different.
Sure, somebody might polish it a bit more, but those sketches feel like a perfectly logical wrapup to the story.
Now you're tempting to write it.
Icarus
no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 03:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 02:29 am (UTC)Freaking out would make sense if he were still a teenager, but the war forced him to grow up a bit... maybe too soon.
Icarus