The Tragedy of the Ploughman and the Flower
A brief introduction to the story form the author:
This story is entirely AU and OOC. It was an exercise to fuel my own imagination and to try to get as close as I possibly could to the story in order to better understand it. I believe that there will be 13 chapters in total, and I expect that every chapter will be generally pretty short, but that has yet to be decided. I am keeping the rating as "M" for now - it's a seriously creepy story. I may change it to "T" later on.
It is directly based on an old Northumbrian legend that I have done extensive research on in the last 2 years. The legend itself I happened across entirely by coincidence when one night I had a dream that I needed to go pick flowers in Bedlington (I am not even kidding). It was one of the most vivid dreams I have ever had, and I ended up looking up "flowers" and "Bedlington" online. I then happened across legend itself and the rest, as they say, it history. It can be found under several different titles: "The Flower of Bedlington," "A Bedlington Legend," "Bedlington Tragedy," or "The Ploughman and the Flower."
I have spent the last two years learning all I possibly could about this legend, I even found the book in which the verse was published for the first time. The earliest traces I can find of the legend are in the form of a ballad, though I'm sure that the story itself existed way longer than that. I have yet to find the tune (if it even still exists) and while we have the entire story, the version still in verse is missing the entire end.
The young girl and her family are never named in any of the versions I have found thus far. The young ploughman, however does have a name. In some versions he does remain unnamed, but in others his name is James Robson. This got me really thinking about who in the Harry Potter cannon I wanted to have act these characters. Naturally, I always want my OTP, Snape and Hermione step in. However, the story itself gave me a different idea: The young man's name was James and the girl is referred to as "the flower;" James Potter and Lily Evans. Perfect, right?
And then I spent several days being conflicted about whether to use my OTP or to use the characters that would perfectly fit the descriptions. So, because of guidelines, I will only be posting the OTP version. I do have the duplicate version with Lily and James, and if you'd like to read that one, please let me know.
I sincerely hope you enjoy this story! (And if you've actually heard of the legend, or know a variation of it, please message me! I want to get all the information about it that I possibly can!)