Dedicated to all who lost their lives, family members, or friends at Virginia Tech.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, please don't sue.
A.N. This started out as a challenge between my friend and me over what it would be like to be Mary-Sue's little sister. We each went home and started writing. Originally it was supposed to be a semi-parody with a lot of Mary-Sue bashing. Corrie had other plans. There will still be Mary-Sue secrets exposed and some Mary-Sue bashing but that is no longer the focal point of the story. Now it's about how a fifteen-year-old, thrust into the middle of a war, reacts and adjusts. Pairings include Mara Suzanna and every guy she can get, vague mentions of Remus and Tonks, and eventual Hermione-Ron and Harry-Ginny romance. However romance is the focal point of Mara Suzanna's life, not Corrie's. If you have any ideas to make Mara Suzanna seem more Mary-Sueish I'm all ears.
Explanation
on the names, according to behindthename dot com.
Mary Sue's name: "Felicity" Mara Suzanna Aaren Rainbow Catherine Haurvatat Corwin
AKA happiness/good luck, a variation of Mary, a variation/ unusual way to spell Sue, Masculine sounding female's name, unusual name, on that's not often chosen as a name, meaning Light, Name meaning Pure, unusual name meaning perfect. Included in there is my name/nickname/variation of my name, etc, and my friends name/nickname/variation of her name. She passes the Mary-Sue name test in basically every bracket.
Little Sister: Corrie Tacey Corwin
Means maiden, silent aka silent maiden.
Hey Diary,
…Incase you were wondering I've been staring at you for the past four minutes straight, wondering what to write. Let's see you were given to me by my therapist to write out my feelings so that I can gain a deeper understanding of blah blah blah, I kind of tuned her out. So sue me.
Okay, it's been another three minutes and you're still pretty blank. Um, I'm supposed to write about how I'm feeling that Mom died. Sad, I feel sad. I'm guessing most people feel sad when their mother dies but then again I could be wrong. I doubt it but then again I'm not the one with the degree in psychology as my therapist constantly reminds me.
What else? I have an older sister who's seventeen. An adult. Whoopee! (Note, please insert ample amounts of sarcasm in those last few sentences. Well, they're not so much sentences as fragments and oh, just never mind.)
I'm a literary nerd. When I grow up I'd like to edit a newspaper, or run my own.
My dad died ages ago. I don't really miss him much anymore.
My favorite punctuation mark is the interrobang. It's a combination question mark and exclamation mark. Hardly anyone knows what it is, which is one of the reasons I like it.
My sister's name is Mara Suzanna. Mine is Corrie. Well, our full names are Mara Suzanna Aaren Rainbow Catherine Huarvatat Corwin and Corrie Tacey Corwin, but ever since Mom died Mara Suzanna's been going by Felicity, so she can remember Mom and what not. BS, complete BS, but I'm the only one who sees that. Yay me! Felicity was Mom's name, not Mara Suzanna's.
Dad named MS. Mom refused to let him name any more of her kids after he gave MS that monstrosity of a name. She only had one more kid, me, incase you didn't pick that up. She named me Corrie after one of her friends. Corrie works better with Jones then Corwin. Add into that the fact that I had to go to a speech specialist until I was nine because I couldn't pronounce my r's or s's and you can bet I was teased mercilessly through school.
Not Mara Suzanna. She got this gorgeous syrupy southern accent that has men falling at her feet. I stutter. I don't talk much. Go figure.
Oh, yeah, before I forget I should probably mention that my sister and I are both witches at Salem Institute for Witches and Wizards. My best friend there is Riley Christi Moore. We're both 15. MS is 17. She's friends with everybody, top of her class, hottest girl at the school, etc, etc, etc. She's on first name terms with the abortion clinic staff and probably has a few STDs. I'm a virgin. In fact, I haven't ever kissed a guy, or dated one or anything, because I am not popular, or anywhere close to popular. I have Peppermint Pattie's hair, from Snoopy. Mousy-blah I believe it was. MS did too, but she bleaches her's to this gorgeous blonde color with honey glaze highlights or something. And she wears blue contacts because neither of our eye colors is anything special. Our genes are designed for intelligence, not beauty. This means nobody notices me except for homework help, but MS is perfect, due to about ten thousand different beauty charms.
My gosh, I sound obsessed with her.
Corrie
-
Hello Again,
So, my therapist is pleased that I'm making a real effort to get in touch with my feelings in an attempt to do something that I wasn't paying attention to. Whatever.
MS is busy talking in French. She speaks it like a native. I can't even French kiss. Not that I've ever gotten the opportunity to test that, but still. Anyway, it's not my fault, after all we aren't French. We haven't a drop of French blood in us. We're half-Irish, half-English. I think that means we hate ourselves.
Yes, I'm joking; no I don't hate myself. Fortunately my therapist has promised not to read this. I made her put that in writing.
Anyway, not much else is going on around here. Well, that's a lie, a lot is going on, but as I have no say in practically all of it, it really doesn't matter that much to me, now does it? I mean, yes, it obviously does, but there's nothing I can do about it, so I don't know.
They're deciding where I'll live from now on. Riley offered her house but they're thinking of moving us, meaning MS and myself, to England. Dad's godfather's there. He runs a pub, which is such a good place to have kids. Note the sarcasm. Sorry, but I have absolutely no desire to live with Aberforth Dumbledore.
But seeing as how where I'll be living obviously doesn't concern me- Sometimes I just wish they'd let me live my own life.
Corrie
-
Hey Diary,
England sucks.
I hate my life.
MS now has a whole new country of boys drooling over her.
Corrie
-
The Twenty-Second Day of August, 1997
Dear Corrie,
You do know you're supposed to put in the Dates when you write a diary. And, honestly, I'm not that bad, I can't help it if you're jealous. You make me sound like a slut. Oh, and you have a therapist for a reason, listen to her. And, seriously, "England sucks." How terribly creative. Plus, my name is FELICITY now. MS makes me sound like a drug. And my hair is like this naturally. Yours is worse then Peppermint Patties.
Felicity Corwin
-
Dear Bitch,
"Dates" shouldn't be capitalized. There should be a semi-colon after "bad" and another after "reason". "How terribly clever" is a sentence fragment. Your hair is not like that naturally; you are that bad. Stop starting your sentences with "and." "Then" should be "than" and there should be an apostrophe between the "e" and the "s" in "Peppermint Pattie's" because it's possessive.
Corrie
-
Diary,
Aberforth is weird. He has a goat fetish, I swear he really does. Frankly, it's creepy. The Hog's Head is the filthiest thing you have ever seen and there are roaches living happily in my bed. Every Tuesday we walk up to the nearby school to lay flowers on the grave of Dumbledore's brother. Aberforth lays a bag of sweets there every other Thursday. They're a Muggle sweet called Lemon Drops. Actually, seeing as we're in England now, they're Sherbet Lemons.
There's a lady with bubblegum-pink hair talking at the bar. You get the oddest people here.
Before I forget, the school's name is Hogwarts and we'll be going there next year, provided it reopens. Apparently one of the teachers, Snake or something, murdered the headmaster last year. It really makes you feel safe to hear things like that.
I want to go home.
Corrie
-
From now on I'm not putting a heading between entries. You know who you are. For that matter I'm not going to sign my name at the end. I know who I am. Besides, you are an inanimate object; you don't care.
Riley owled. She says she misses me. I asked if she would shelter me if I were a fugitive from justice. She said yes, but I was to burn all letters between us so there would be no evidence if the courts ever came after her. That can be easily done, so we're concocting a plan where I kill MS, who I will not call "Felicity", then flee to America. Currently, Riley votes poison; I say I should stab her when she's asleep. Mess up her perfect looks, and all that.
We, meaning Aberforth, MS, and I, went out shopping for our Hogwarts supplies today. Apparently History of Magic isn't optional at Hogwarts and there isn't a school newspaper. Why did we leave Salem again?
The new headmistress is coming to talk to us tomorrow. I'll ask her if I can start a newspaper. School starts the day after tomorrow.
-
She said yes! Wow, that looks like I popped the question. But seriously, the headmistress, Mc-something or other, said I could start a school newspaper at Hogwarts. First copy of the Hogwarts Herald will be sent out September 2nd, at breakfast. The Headline is that Hogwarts has reopened, but there's also an article on the two new transfer students (guess who), a guide (from the teachers, for new students), an article on each new teacher, and a plea for newspaper staff members. MS is not helping with this. However, Riley is our foreign correspondent.
I'm so happy I could sing.
-
Pasted in for your convenience:
"Hogwarts Reopens!
"After much controversy over the safety and security of pupils attending Hogwarts, it was decided, in a seven to five vote among school governors, that Hogwarts would reopen for the '97-'98 school year. However extra levels of protection have been added, including two Auror teachers, a strict curfew, and rumours of never before seen defensive spells. (For more information on the new teachers see New Teachers, page 2. For more on the added defensive measures see For Your Protection, page 3.)
"Said Madam Malkin, 'Well, it's a blessing to us of course, seeing as half my business is for Hogwarts robes, but still… Well, you just hope the Ministry knows what it's doing. Mind you, I have no children going there myself, so it's easier for me to give my approval.'
"Similar opinions were echoed throughout Hogsmeade, along with many concerns that the Ministry was not doing enough to keep students 'Truly safe.' However, as Mr. Aberforth Dumbledore points out, 'We're at war, course they ain't (sic) safe. No where's safe.' He adds, 'Hogwarts is a good bit safer than elsewhere, though.'
"Indeed it is, especially with these new safety measures. Perhaps, then, the question now is how many parents will feel this way? How many students will return?
Corrie Corwin"
-
What do you think? It's not my best, I know, but nobody was willing to proofread it for me. I miss my journalism class; they don't offer things like that as electives here. Plus, I'm cramming nightly because I need to learn all of British Wizarding History in less than a year. MS doesn't have to take it because she's NEWT level, but it's required for me, seeing as I'm only OWL. Who cares about Weldin no wait, who was it again? Somebody the Weird. Wendelin the Weird. (I looked it up. MS got straight O's; I'm not going to let her beat me.)
The new teachers are Professor Tonks, for Transfiguration, and Professor Dawlish, for DADA. Professor Tonks is pretty cool; she gave me a nice long interview. Professor Dawlish is something of a stick in the mud, but he was willing to answer a few questions. He walked out when I asked him about the supposed curse. Professor Tonks was willing to morph a bit for me; she's a Metamorphamagus. I hope I spelled that correctly. Oh, Merlin, I'm going to fail my OWL's. Ah well, at least I'll fail with good grammar.
-
I am now writing to you from inside the Ravenclaw Common Room. Yep, I got into the house for brilliance and a thirst for knowledge. Best of all, MS is in Gryffindor. Abby Chambers, Sara Walters, Patricia Edgecombe, and Kate and Jo Turpin are rather nice, but slightly cliquish. I'm sure they don't mean to be; it's just they've known each other for four whole years already. Kate and Jo, short for Kathryn and Joanna, have an older sister named Lisa in our house. Abby's a chaser for the house team. Padma Patil, the new head girl, is also in our house. She's really nice and offered to help me study History of Magic.
It's getting kind of late but I want to tell you about this evening before I forget. MS spent an hour doing her hair and we almost missed the Hogwart's Express. After running through the barrier between platforms nine and ten we arrived at platform nine and three quarters. I stowed away in an empty compartment; MS went off in search of boy-toys. Sorry, I meant MS went off to make friends. I heard her talking to one guy, claiming to be the descendant of one of the Hogwarts founders. That story got a much bigger reaction here than it ever did in Salem. She claimed not to know which, but said she suspected it was Gryffindor.
Actually, we are related to Hufflepuff, but only illegitimately.
Then she said she was Dumbledore's granddaughter. Well, in a way, I guess, we are Dumbledore's god-grandchildren. Only, I think the boy thought she was referring to Albus Dumbledore, instead of Aberforth. I just chuckled into Hogwarts, A History.
At the train station all the returning students scrambled into thestral-drawn carriages, while the newbies got led by a half-giant over a lake, the scenic route to Hogwarts. MS and I had already seen it, of course, laying flowers on the white tomb and interviewing the teachers, but the sight of Hogwarts, standing proud and tall before us as we rounded a bend, was one I'll carry with me to the grave. That sentence is confusing; perhaps a few of those commas should be interrupters. …seen it, of course—laying…teachers—but…
Eh, I'm tired; my brain's a mess. Suffice to say we joined the first years to be sorted, everyone drooled over MS as if she were a veela in heat, and there's a girl with blue eyes and blonde hair staring at me. I'm creeped out now, good-night.
-
Notes on Hogwarts:
Creepy girl's name is Luna Lovegood and she was the first volunteer for my newspaper. She says her father runs the Quibbler and lent me a copy of it (the Quibbler) so I could get a sense of her writing style. (Her dad lets her run a column on new creatures.)
There's a guy, a seventh year, named Stephen Cornfoot, who is, I swear, a Greek god. MS is chatting him up, which isn't fair as he's in my house not hers. She has that Neville Longbottom bloke.
Abby's a Muggle-born, so is Sara. Their parents don't know what's going on. Kate and Jo were only allowed back because it's OWL year and their older sister, Lisa, is here to keep an eye on them. Actually Ravenclaw is currently the largest house; nothing will stand between us and our education.
History of Magic is first on Mondays. Professor Binns has the most monotone voice in the world. I think I'll learn more on my own, although I'd like to interview him on what it's like to teach after death. Is this his own, private hell? What does he do with his salary? Is he even aware he's dead?
The girl next to me in HoM is asleep. She's a Gryffindor and has the words Mrs. Romilda Potter all over her paper. It's a bit frightening.
Professor Tonks is the coolest teacher ever, but not the most structured. She tripped coming into class and a stack of paper went flying everywhere. I wonder if it's because she's a Metamorphamagus. Is she less familiar, due to constant morphing of the size of her limbs and such, with the limits of her own body? For example, teenagers have a tendency to be clumsier because our bodies are growing and changing faster than our minds can process.
Three rolls of parchment and one missed lunch later and I'm free to work on Trans. Homework this evening as my Giant Wars essay is (finally) finished.
OWL's are scary.
Hogwarts is big, enormous, and easy to get lost in. Do you know where Charms is?
Professor Flitwick is really understanding when you burst into Charms twenty minutes late.
MS and Stephen are currently making out in the corridor behind me. I feel like crying. Is today over yet?
Luna is contacting the owners of WWW to see if they'll fund our newspaper if they get ad space. I hope they will; I only got five galleons from Honeydukes to run a year's worth of paper on.
Astronomy is way too late at night and the stars are somewhat different. When will this day be over?
-
Newspaper staff: Corrie Corwin, Editor-in-chief and the majority of the articles
Su Li, Gossip columnist
Zacharias Smith, Sports
Luna Lovegood, Ads and Horoscopes
Riley Moore, Foreign Correspondent
Why don't they teach English at Hogwarts? We're doomed.
-
Corrie,
Just an idea but I think we should do some article on how the Hogsmeade businesses are reacting to the fact that now only fifth years can visit the village because my little sister wants to go.
What do you think,
Su.
-
I think there should be a question mark after "think" and that she could have divided that into three sentences. I owled back my approval and commended her on the idea.
-
Parvati Patil, Padma's sister, and Lavender Brown want to run an advice column. That makes our total staff seven members strong. Let's hope lucky number seven isn't just an expression.
-
Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom are starting something called the "DA." I think I may join, to hone in my defensive skills before the OWL's.
-
Excerpt from the Daily Prophet:
"87 Muggles Dead in Death Eater Attack on London!!!"
-
Voldemort is a lot scarier in Britain.People are dying left and right, and suddenly I'm really scared for MS. She's my sister, after all, and she's not one to sit back quietly and stay safe. I thrive in the shadows of semi-obscurity; she dies in them. She's going to go out there and get herself killed if she's not careful. She's a pain in the ass, but she's still my sister, and I love her.
-
I had a rather interesting conversation at lunch. A girl named Jenny or something was bashing my sister to Luna. She didn't realize that I could hear. Anyway, she went on and on about how MS is such a "Scarlet Woman, wrapping herself around anything and everything that moves," and then she saw me. She turned as red as her hair, which is extremely red, and started mumbling apologizes.
I just shrugged and said something like, "My sister's a bitch, details at eleven." She got all confused and I had to explain that it was a Muggle term used a lot in news casting and that back at Salem we were required to watch a plethora of ways to deliver news.
On a side note, they liked the phrase and are starting to adapt it.
-
It's been a long week, diary. Thank Merlin for the weekends.
-
Gryffindor had Quidditch try-outs for a keeper, chaser, seeker, and beater. MS is trying out for seeker or chaser. She can't seek; her eye-sight is terrible. Actually, neither of us has ever played Quidditch before; Salem had an intramural team but it wasn't that big. I'd like to watch but Padma agreed to tutor me this afternoon and I should probably finish my Defense homework.
-
Five signs to identify a werewolf, why do we need to know this? If I run into a rabid wolf on the full moon I'm going to run instead of checking to see if it has a tufted tail. Of course, this is just review. According to Sara their DADA teacher first year was a werewolf, and their DADA teacher third year taught them how to kill werewolves for two weeks straight. Well, Sara says she taught them how to do it in theory.
Riley wrote to say that everyone at Salem misses us and Mrs. C, who runs the newspaper, was wondering if I'd like to send a few copies of the Hogwarts Herald to Salem. I would!
PS, the first bit translates to everyone at Salem misses MS and the newspaper staff misses me. I'm not bothered; really I'm not. Actually, I'm thrilled to have the friends I do have because mine are loyal to me. Riley writes daily, practically. Andy Gates writes once a week. (Andy's my second best friend. He's dating Riley, and has been for the past two years.)
-
History of Magic is interesting when Binns doesn't teach it. There are about fifty goblins wars, but once I get those straight, if I get those straight, I'll have Britain's history down. Yay, I feel accomplished. And exhausted, it's two in the morning. I'm sleeping late tomorrow.
-
"There" is for location purposes and such, as in "here, there, and everywhere, there are grammar mistakes." "Their" is the possessive for of they. "They're" is a contraction of they are. Actually it is the contraction of they are, there isn't any other. Oh, and while we're on the subject "its" is possessive; "it's" is the contraction of it is. It's not that hard.
Spent today working on the Hogwarts Herald and then on homework. HH is scheduled to go out tomorrow; there's a Gryffindor named Colin Creevy who's providing photographs and helping us print the stupid piece of junk. I barely remembered to send a few copies to Salem. It took a few hours to just proofread everything and remember that odor is now odour. Stupid British, why can't they speak English correctly?
Why did Webster have to standardize spelling? No, I take that back; I'm happy we have a standardized way to spell words. I just wish it were the same in every country.
On a random note, Professor Tonks wasn't there when I went to interview her about Metamorphamagi. There's a rumor she's dating the professor from what would have been my first year. Of course, there's also a rumor that Harry Potter actually is going to Hogwarts this year and that Dawlish is Harry Potter under polyjuice potion and that Hermione Granger, one of Harry Potter's friends, didn't come back to Hogwarts because Padma was named Head Girl. Padma says she only got the position because Hermione Granger hadn't come back. There's another rumor that Hermione Granger is pregnant with Harry Potter's child. A girl named Ginny Weasley, whose name isn't Jenny, is doing her best to stop this rumor. Luna says Ginny used to date Harry.
I sound like Su. No worse, I sound like Parvati and Lavender. You don't need to listen to the mind-numbing mass of misinformed mutterings from the mindless multitude and I'd best to be quick to bed because, when I'm bushed, I always alliterating automatically, and it's annoying. Ah, I'm already doing it, again; I apologize. Anyway, so ends the first weekend, I wish next week would be a bit better.
-
Pasted in is my editorial for the Hogwarts Herald:
"Speak up; speak out.
"I was reading the Daily Prophet Thursday at breakfast; I'm sure most of the school was as well. I'm sure the entire school noticed the headline, screaming out '87 Muggles Dead in Death Eater Attack on London.' The article went on to warn the wizarding world of how close the attack was to Diagon Alley, St. Mungo's, and The Ministry of Magic.
"Did it mention how close it was to a nursery school? No, well let me tell you. It was on the same street as 'Bright Horizons,' a quality childcare establishment for those between the ages of two and five. In fact, Bright Horizons was one of the buildings attacked, leading to the slaughter of 27 children under the age of six. Shall I tell you about Alanna Beth or her sister Anne-Marie, both found tortured to death in the playroom? There was a tea-set nearby, all laid out and ready for a tea party. How about Daniel, who, according to the Muggle news people at BBC, was found 'in front of his two-year old sister Brooke' in 'an almost defensive manner' with an expression 'that suggests fear or concern'? I'll spare you the details about the state his body was in, as it almost made me physically ill.
"These are not nameless people; they are someone's sisters and brothers, some poor mother's sons and daughters. Some parent kissed their child goodbye in the morning, and then later got a call that there had been a carbon-monoxide (a clear, odourless, and fatal gas) leak; their little princess was dead. One mother talked about how every morning she filled her children's cubbies up with kisses, so if they missed her during the day they could take one out. The bodies of her children, ages 2, 3, and 5, were found outside the cubby area. At least they had their mother's love nearby in their final moments.
"The problem with reporting is that it is so easy to simply say that 87 Muggles died. After all, there are a lot of Muggles. Yes, it's sad when they die, but they're only Muggles. We don't care about them; their deaths aren't real to us. And as long as we think that way we're as bad as Voldemort, unconsciously elevating ourselves above all non-magical folk to the point where, dead or alive, they don't matter. So from now on, whenever there's a tragedy the Herald will list the information on all involved, Muggle or magic. Because we're all human; we're all equal.
"Let's not forget those without a voice, simply because they aren't us. As Pastor Martin Niemöller wrote about the Nazi invasion in WWII, 'First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up/because I wasn't a Communist. /Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up/because I wasn't a Jew. /Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up/because I was a Protestant. /Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left /to speak up for me.' (Time magazine, August 28, 1989). Speak up; speak out, and for Merlin's sake, care.
Corrie Corwin"