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){kind=small}
icarusBeg 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."