AN: Hello and welcome to The Wasteland, my take on the first war with Voldything. This first chapter contains no story content per se, but does have a few notes that you might find helpful, and a list of summaries/ratings/et al for each chapter.
The thirteen or so parts I plan to write for this overarching work are going to be heavy on the angst, so if you're not prepared for that sort of thing, I'd advise you to click "back" and keep walking. When I say this work will be mostly canon-compliant, I mean that everyone who dies during this era in canon is still going to die, and everyone who gets together is still going to get together, but there may be a few minor deviations in terms of time frame. Most of this work is going to focus on Lily Potter nee Evans and the way she changes over the course of the war, although there will be times the narrative breaks off to focus on other characters.
Because each part is rather separate, I'm attaching pairings and ratings on a chapter-by-chapter basis, as opposed to the overall work. The rating on this thing will almost certainly go up to M later on, for y'know, reasons of sex in later chapters. Along with heterosexual sex, there will be slash of the man on man variety, as I'm writing three of the four Marauders as being varying degrees of bisexual. I'm leaving the rating at T until I upload content that require me to take it higher.
I'm going to update as often as I possibly can, which may be every two weeks, or every two months, depending on my workload as a full college student. I'm aiming for a maximum of ten weeks between chapters, since I do have a clear outline for where this story is going, and bits and pieces of later chapters already written. I hope you all enjoy this, as I'm putting a great deal of care and thought into each piece, basically every marauder era headcanon I have. If you like really like where this is going, I'd be much obliged if you left some sort of review. They not only make my day, but knowing that people read this thing and care enough to comment makes the process of kicking my muse's ass into gear a great deal easier.
In case anyone wants to know, or already suspects, I got the titles of the overall work and for each chapter from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. It's an excellent poem that you should definitely read whenever you have the time.
So, onto the chapter info.
Chapter Titles, Timeframes, Summaries, Pairings, Ratings & Upload Dates
1. what branches grow, may '76,
(rated t. james/lily & snape/lily, both unrequited.)
because that word as hurled from the lips of her best friend is the final straw.
upload date: 10/8/2013
2. neither living nor dead, jun '76,
(rated t. snape/lily, unrequited.)
yes, they're exploiting him for his talent. no, he doesn't particularly mind their ideology.
estimated upload date: 10/22/2013
3. touched by the sun's last rays, summer '76,
(rated t, no pairings. character death warning)
OWL grades were an expected piece of news over the summer of 1976, in direct contrast to certain unanticipated events.
4. your shadow at evening, fall '76 to spring '77
(rated t, no pairings.)
some take the Mark proudly, while others consider the idea of an organized resistance not necessarily drawn along house lines.
5. exploring hands encounter no defence, jan to jul '77
(rated hard m. james/sirius. explicit content.)
on certain cold nights, james figures it cannot count against him if nobody knows about it. sirius is content to get whatever he can, whenever he can get it.
6. inviolable voice, october '77 to jan '78,
(rated m. sirius/remus, james/lily-ish.)
as the death toll climbs, so does the resolve of some students to thwart the machinations of he-who-must-not-be-named. after a meeting in the hog's head, this fledgling resistance dubs itself the order of the phoenix.
7. cracks and reforms, feb to jun '78
(rated hard m. multiple pairings, explicit content.)
amid raucous parties and furious revision for NEWTs, the graduation date for the class of 1978 ceases to be a vague blur and takes on concrete definition. so do the demarcations between good, bad, and neutral.
8. white and gold, early '79
(rated t, james/lily, sirius/remus, unrequited sirius/james.)
sirius intellectually knew they would get married eventually. he just didn't believe it would ever happen.
9. then would be savagely still, mid '79
(rated m, warning for character deaths all over the place.)
it is difficult to come to terms with deaths, particularly with those of the invincible.
10. at the violet hour, jan '80
(rated t, usual marauder pairings)
a skirmish between the order and the death eaters turns into a showdown, and a race against time.
11. still the world pursues,mar '80 to nov '80
(rated m. usual marauder parings, barty crouch/regulus black.)
james and lily must contend with both parenthood and rebellion. remus and sirius argue continuously. despite this, all find reason to celebrate in the form of the new baby boy. meanwhile, regulus reconsiders his loyalties.
12. the hyacinth girl,jan '81 to aug '81
(rated t, usual marauder pairings)
the marauders hide out, to varying degrees of success and sanity. furtively, lily peruses ancient tomes on blood magic rituals when she has time to herself. severus approaches professor dumbledore with a deal in mind.
13. maternal lamentations, or the last temptation of lily potter, 30 oct '81
(rated m, usual marauder parings)
on the edge of the universe, visions of what could be and what has been flash before lily's eyes.
:]
- ClF3