This Was Idly Bouncing Around My Head After Finishing Your Armistice Series (love It, LOVE Your Women).

This was idly bouncing around my head after finishing your armistice series (love it, LOVE your women). A lot of the conflict revolves around Ginny's and the extent that other characters know about it. For clarity, I was curious about what Ginny knows of Harry, seeing as she interacted less with him in her Hogwarts years than in canon and you've alluded to some offscreen convos between the two (like Snape and the contents of the prophecy) and Harry's life has always been more public than others

If I am reading this right, you’re wondering how much Ginny knows about Harry’s experiences and conflicts during the war, since Harry’s lack of knowledge about Ginny’s often drove the conflict in the stories? His life has always been more public in some ways, yes, but he’s also been talking to Ginny about stuff pretty much since his fifth year (his fear of being possessed by Voldemort). And the conversations about the prophecy and Snape weren’t off-screen. (He tells her about the prophecy at the beginning of chapter 6 in The Changeling, and he tells her about Snape at the very end of chapter 10 of The Changeling.) Just in general he’s told her more about his experiences--she knows about him going into the forest, she knows about him being a horcrux, the prophecy, the role Snape played, Harry’s fears of having to be a killer, how horrid being on the run was, his fight with Ron and Ron leaving, etc, etc. I think the only big things Ginny doesn’t know about by the end of in my head we do everything right is the Deathly Hallows and his investigation into Rowle and the lantern.

Why was Antonia selected to join the Parler? Was she chosen by Theodora?

Antonia was chosen to be Mistress by Theodora, but Theodora wasn’t the one to select her for The Parlor. That was the previous Mistress before her. If that makes sense.

As for why Antonia was selected…she dabbles in many things that are, shall we say, not mainstream in wizarding society. She adheres much closer to the old ways–what some might call pagan–and while she has great respect for the past and comes from a very long family tradition of Parlor women, that doesn’t mean she never struggled against it. Even coming from a family of badass women doesn’t keep someone from struggling with finding their own path, with not always feeling understood. The Parlor gave her space to figure out what she wanted and what she was supposed to want. That even the expected path can still be one that is authentically her own.

We will see more of what Antonia is up to. You know, eventually. Though both of them do show up in the latest chapter.…that I just posted now.

So here’s the thing. There is no logical reason that Ginny Weasley, as a nearly 17-year-old at the end of Deathly Hallows, would be good at taking care of babies, that she would somehow be this amazing Teddy-caring-for figure. Like, she was (nearly) 17. Her family is big, but she’s the baby, the youngest child and there seems to be a conspicuous canonical absence of Prewett or Weasley cousins in the narrative that could have maybe exposed her to younger kids. She probably has zero baby experience in her entire life. So the concept of her becoming a primary care giver or even being the most competent caretaker of a months-old if not weeks-old infant in the face of Harry bumbling about is so weird to me. (And makes me wonder if this is some ‘women are inherently, biologically nurturing and great at caring at babies because that is what they are meant to do’ cult of true womanhood bullshit that is crazy toxic and makes first time mums feel like they are somehow deficient when they struggle to care for an infant because babies are HARD, yo. anyway, I digress)

Honestly, the Ginny and Harry care for baby Teddy shit would probably go more like this if you ask me:

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Hi love your story but magic is forbidden in islam could give some insight on how Muslim wizards and witches deal with that. I'm Muslim and I really enjoyed how you wrote nadra.

Thanks so much for this question! The first thing to be said it that I am not Muslim. Anything I say is obviously an outsider’s interpretation. So I apologize if I inadvertently say something that lands on anyone in a harmful way. (If you feel comfortable enough to tell me that something has landed on you with harm, I am honored to hear it and will listen and reflect to do better in the future.) I have studied Islam, though I am no where near an expert, let alone even someone who is properly knowledgeable. Okay. So all of that said, I think there are a couple ways I could go with this.

1. Magic is also technically forbidden in Christianity. (Behold all the people who banned the HP books and still forbid their children from reading it today.) And yet, Harry Potter clearly lives in a Christian world. (Easter, Christmas, etc). So there is precedent for something being forbidden, but still being practiced within the confines of that culture/religion. Is it even possible to make a (fictional) inference that perhaps the splitting of wizards from muggles lead to a demonization of magic in response? An interesting thought.

2. It is my (very limited) understanding that the Qur’an forbids the use of magic to impersonate a prophet. That no one may use magic or illusions to claim to be speaking for God. While this could be extrapolated to ban all use of magic, it could also be interpreted that the use to which the magic is put is the forbidden element. The hadith may have more specific things to say against magic, I am sure. Though, the prohibitions also seem to build from an understanding that magic comes from djinn and other beings considered demonic. Which does not deny that magics exist, only that they are evil.

In the context of all of this, if one were comfortable with the idea, it would be extremely interesting to explore what it means to be a Muslim and to be born magical. How would one deal with that? I tried to show that Shafiqs clearly chose to isolate themselves from Hogwarts and have their own approaches and understandings of magic. I think it would be really interesting to explore that. Obviously this is not my story to write, as I would be trying to speak to an experience that is not my own and undoubtedly failing and causing harm as I did. But I would LOVE to read it.

I reached out to my friend @ekjohnston, author extraordinaire and generally super supportive YA queen, and she sent me a list of Muslim YA authors who write in the fantasy/magic genre of books. So maybe you could check out their work!  Somaiya Daud, Sabaa Tahir, Karuna Riazi, London Shah, Nafiza Azad, Taherah Mafi, Hafsah Faizel, Hanna Alkaf, Melissa Bashardoust, and I am sure many others.

Personally, I chose to include the Shafiqs as characters, both because it is canon that the Shafiqs are part of the Noble 28, and it helped answer the question I had about what kind of wizards might chose not to go to Hogwarts but might get forced back due to the new laws that last year. I also wanted to make sure it was acknowledged openly in the text that there is far more diversity in the wizarding world than Harry or even Ginny’s POV might have led us to believe. And Ginny as a Christian-coded, white person making mistakes and miss-stepping and realizing some of the prejudices she carries around and not demanding others explain things to her or do the work for her, but learning herself, and realizing she will never know everything but that listening to people tell their own stories is the most important…that is my experience and story to tell.

Remus Lupin: Sirius you did what.

Inspired by this post and others by lotstradamus

Do you remember how you came up with the scene of Ginny being forced to get a tatto? Was that something you had in mind pretty early on? I think it had such a huge impact on a loooot of things after the years, in different ways

Well, at first it just seemed like kind of a vile, shitty thing someone like Draco Malfoy might do to someone he secretly hated, but was having fun stringing along. I knew from the start that Ginny’s dismay at being in Slytherin was not missed by her housemates. She hasn’t really endeared herself, acting like she’s morally superior or something, too good for Slytherin. And Draco is just being a petty shit, showing off for his friends. It was after I first thought of it though, that the long-term implications started to occur to me, and I realized what a long term reminder and symbol that could be, about surfaces and assumptions and control of one’s own destiny--about the ways it might make people assume things about her and how hard that would be, and how powerful it would be for her to turn that to her benefit. So it was an idea bouncing around from the beginning, but one that the symbolism and repercussions took a while to develop.